Letters, April 13

Many problems with statue’s relocation

Re: Final resting place set in stone (April 10)

While the city and Manitoba Metis Federation celebrate their victory in having the famous statue of Captain Wynn Bagnall moved from the corner of Portage and Main to Brookside Cemetery, what has been lost for the public? First an educational opportunity to daily remind the people of Winnipeg, what war has cost us in the past.

Moved from the most visible location in the city to a location where few people will ever see it defeats the original intention for this monument. The statue was made for the living, not the dead!

Second, the loss of a local famous historical monument, when they could not find another highly visible downtown location. Finally, a lost opportunity to engage and build the public trust/confidence in our leadership.

You would have thought a famous monument that had stood there for 103 years and endeared by its citizens, would have been given a say in their final decision. No, just another example of the public being left out of the loop by another closed door decision.

Ed Hume

Winnipeg

Do grocery tax cuts help?

The proposal to remove provincial taxes from grocery store purchases is, at first glance, an appealing one. For families facing rising costs, any measure that promises relief feels like a step in the right direction.

But it’s worth asking a simple question: how much difference will this actually make?

In reality, most essential grocery items are already tax-exempt. The taxes currently paid tend to apply to prepared or convenience foods — items like a rotisserie chicken, a packaged salad, or ready-to-go drinks. While removing PST on these purchases may offer some savings, it is unlikely to significantly lower the overall cost of a typical grocery bill.

At the same time, such tax cuts come with trade-offs. Reduced tax revenue can limit the government’s ability to fund vital public services — services that Manitobans depend on every day, including healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

There are also indications of a potential gas tax reduction. Again, this may sound helpful, but its real impact is uncertain. Fuel prices are largely driven by global markets, and even a modest tax cut could quickly be offset by price fluctuations. The result may be minimal or short-lived relief for consumers.

This raises a broader and more important question:

Are these policies delivering meaningful affordability, or are they short-term measures that sound more impactful than they truly are?

Addressing affordability in a meaningful way requires more than incremental tax adjustments. It calls for long-term, structural solutions — tackling issues like housing costs, wage growth, and inflation.

Because what Manitobans need is not just temporary relief, but sustainable, lasting change.

Yog Rahi Gupta

Winnipeg

On child abuse and awareness

As a moral rule, being caring, competent, loving parents — and, not to mention, knowledgeable about factual child-development science — should matter most when deciding to procreate. Afterall, a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right, especially when considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter — particularly one in which the parents too often stop loving each other, frequently fight and eventually divorce.

Yet, many people still hold a misplaced yet strong sense of entitlement when it comes to misperceiving and treating children largely as obedient property to use or abuse.

Early-life abuse and/or chronic neglect left unhindered typically causes the brain to improperly develop. It can readily be the starting point of a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals, even in otherwise non-stressful daily routines.

It amounts to non-physical-impact brain damage in the form of CPTSD. Among other dysfunctions, it has been described as an emotionally tumultuous daily existence, indeed a continuous discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’. And it can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated.

Therefore, the well-being of all children needs to be of genuine importance to everyone — and not just concern over what other parents’ children might or will cost us as future criminals or costly cases of government care, et cetera — regardless of how well our own developing children are doing.

Mindlessly “minding our own business” often proves humanly devastating. Largely owing to the “Only If It’s In My Own Back Yard” mindset, however, the prevailing collective attitude (implicit or subconscious) basically follows: “Why should I care — my kids are alright?” or (the even more lamely self-serving) “What’s in it for me as a taxpayer?”

Frank Sterle Jr.

White Rock, B.C.

Cost difference

Re: Food is food regardless of where it comes from (Think Tank, April 8)

I read the column written by Kelly Higginson, the president and CEO of Restaurants Canada, making the case that the removal of the provincial sales tax for prepared meals should also apply to restaurants.

While I agree that this would reduce the cost of prepared meals at restaurants by the amount of the provincial sales tax, this organization fails to mention another important point. When picking up that prepared meal at a restaurant one is faced with the expectation to leave a gratuity of a minimum of 15 per cent. There is no such expectation when purchasing a prepared meal at a supermarket.

So even if the government would eliminate the tax on that rotisserie chicken picked up at a restaurant, it will still be cheaper at my local supermarket.

Brian Huzel

Winnipeg

Quality of life takes a back seat

Re: “Thirty days or free” (Letters, April 10)

Robert Pruden in his letter expresses a shockingly novel idea, namely that governments can and should be accountable for the services they provide! The federal government could certainly consider extending their passport guarantees to the CRA. It seems like there is absolutely no accountability with regard to that service.

Will the provincial government take up his recommendation re creating service standards for high demand medical procedures? Grave doubts!

It seems that governments follow the path of least resistance and implement decisions which are politically popular. A gas tax reduction which benefits many will be more popular than creating a medical service standard which benefits a few people.

It is just too bad that quality-of-life considerations take a back seat to popularity.

Mac Horsburgh

Winnipeg