Letters and comments, Sept. 1

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2017 (2943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wrong about Hydro

Re: Rogue Hydro needs to learn who’s boss (Aug. 31)

The op-ed by Peter Kulchyski demands an immediate response. To suggest, as Mr. Kulchyski does, that Manitoba Hydro is building a large generating station in the province’s north outside any regulatory approval is just plain wrong.

We can tell Manitobans unequivocally no work whatsoever is taking place on the Conawapa project. Our activity to develop Conawapa began to wind down in accordance with the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba’s direction following the Board’s 2014 Needs For and Alternatives report.

All active planning and engineering for the project was suspended following release of the report. Indigenous Traditional Knowledge studies and environmental studies of long-term enduring benefit to local First Nations communities and Manitobans were completed as of Dec. 31, 2016. No further activity is occurring to develop Conawapa.

We believe Mr. Kulchyski was actually standing outside the camp for the Keewantinohk Converter Station project, which is an integral part of our Bipole III Reliability Project currently under construction. Bipole III is being built to ensure Manitoba Hydro continues to meet its mandate to be a secure source of energy to meet the needs of Manitobans.

In addition, Mr. Kulchyski’s claims that Manitoba Hydro created a flood on the Churchill River this spring are patently false.

We appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight on these matters for Free Press readers.

Scott Powell

Director — Corporate Communications

Manitoba Hydro

 

The MRIs have it

Re: Private MRIs are moving us in a dangerous direction (Aug. 30)

As a union president, of course Michelle Gawronsky wants to perpetuate the unionized Medicare monopoly and, therefore, opposes the proposed Niverville “user-pay MRI clinic.” What she fails to mention is that Tommy Douglas, the revered father of Medicare, believed in user fees.

Also, Canada’s government-run, health-care monopoly ranks ninth of 11 countries — including No. 9 in equity and No. 10 in access. Significantly, all countries ahead of us have a private sector for hospitals and physicians.

And finally, compared to other OECD countries, such as in Europe, Canada ranks 18th out of 26 in the availability of MRI units.

Medicare is a fiscal Pac-Man, consuming a bigger and bigger share of government budgets. The result is less money for other health-related priorities such as low-income support, social housing, seniors’ programs, education, roads and bridges and the environment.

The Medicare monopoly, designed in the 1960s, no longer provides the timely access to quality care that Manitobans and all Canadians need and deserve in the 21st century.

It’s time to end the public monopoly and to empower patients with choice so that they can decide where and from whom to obtain their health and medical care.

Ronald Kustra

Association of Canadians for Sustainable Medicare

St. Albert, Alta.

 

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Re: Niverville MRI project shows a ‘third way’ for health care (Aug. 30)

Finally! It’s about time someone in Manitoba is working on a way to provide timely, affordable health care that doesn’t involve another study by the government. As described in the article, this is a community-based, “public-private-partnership arrangement” and will allow those Manitobans who otherwise would “travel to North Dakota for an MRI” to remain in the province for timely diagnostic services.

The sluggish deliverance of health care is criminal and causes people to wait too long for diagnoses and treatment for diseases. We have had several friends who died in this province, waiting for treatment for their diseases. And, not everyone can afford to pay the cost of travel to the U.S., or other countries to get timely treatment.

The old argument that it will diminish the quality of health care in the province and only those who can afford it will benefit can be put to rest by examining the facts. Gordon Daman states that the fees charged at this diagnostic centre will be based on income, and “MRIs will be discounted by 25 per cent for families whose income falls within Manitoba’s lowest income-tax bracket.” Furthermore, Daman points out this is not a step toward United States-style health care.

For those who still protest the cost of this kind of alternative to our crippling, lagging health care in Manitoba, check your income tax records. We pay higher taxes than most in the U.S., which is supposed to help fund our health-care system. And yet the access to timely health care is dramatically worse than in the U.S. We have friends and families in the U.S. and no one there waits as long as we all do in this province.

This “third way” is an approach that we should support.

Katherine Teller

Winnipeg

 

Churchill’s plight

The New York Times reported on the shutdown of rail traffic from Winnipeg to Churchill due to washout of the tracks this spring. Churchill’s residents now have to rely on air shipments of food and supplies. Churchill is denied the opportunity as an economical shipping port of grain to Europe.

Tourists now have to spend the exorbitant amount of $2,250 for flights from Winnipeg to Churchill; Churchill can no longer maintain a profitable tourist industry, which allows visitors to observe the plight of polar bears due to global warming.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should nationalize the Canadian holdings of the Denver rail owner, Omnitrax, which has refused to repair the tracks.

Arthur Higinbotham

St. Paul, Minn.

 

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Re: Railroad to nowhere (Letters, Aug. 26)

I was pleased to read the letter from Tom Hardern and find myself agreeing with all his points. Canada should have continued to develop its railroads and extended them into new regions which would perhaps encourage more settlement. The country is bottom-heavy with population. And roads are overused, with huge trailers hauling stuff that should be sent by rail.

It’s ridiculous that one can spend more time in airports than in travel time for short hauls. We live longer, work shorter hours, have longer holidays, yet want to get to places faster, even when the journey is uncomfortable. How true it is that train travel is much more pleasant than air travel. And I might add that bus travel also is more pleasant, or used to be.

Hilda Wagstaffe

Winnipeg

 

Money matters

Re: Ottawa’s proposed tax changes ‘an attack on small business’ (Aug. 30)

We all hear the stats, 70 per cent of all new restaurants fail in the first year. Most small-business people work very hard and earn less than most civil servants. They have fewer benefits and certainly do not have a million-dollar pension, mostly paid for by the government — that is, you and I.

Now let’s take the small businessman or woman who mortgages their house, borrows from relatives, cobbles together a business plan and rents a shop to start a business. Without these fragile startups there would be no buoyancy in our economy and no future entrepreneurs to help fund our charities, build hospital wings, fund the Reh-Fit, improve Assiniboine Park, donate millions to our universities — you get the picture.

So Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have now taken aim at small business to close the so-called loopholes. My goodness, if they don’t do it, some of these small business entrepreneurs might actually be as well-off as civil servants in their golden years.

Maybe the gold-plated pensions can be toned down a bit and then government can allow small businesses to do what they do best: employ people and make some money!

Peter Kaufmann

Winnipeg