Letters, Sept. 2

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This article was published 02/09/2022 (1360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PC payouts unfair

Re: Province announces ‘affordability’ funds (Sept. 1)

It’s ludicrous that Premier Heather Stefanson thinks a family with one child and with a combined income of $175,000 is struggling so desperately they’re in need of a $250 benefit cheque from the government, while she feels a senior couple with a combined income of $40,000 has enough surplus income to not warrant any government assistance whatsoever.

How can she believe three people cannot scrape by on $175,000 but two people can easily get by on $40,000? Do not both families buy groceries? Need gas for their vehicle? Have similar medical needs? In fact, the senior couple likely has greater medical needs and should therefore receive a larger benefit.

I don’t know how she was able to make her announcement and keep a straight face. It’s unfortunate that she chose to pander to her followers instead of helping those who really need it.

Randy Clinch

Winnipeg

Our hockey-mom premier is buying votes by sending cheques to “needy” citizens. Those with incomes less than $175,000 will get $250 for their first child and $200 for every other child, but only $50 is going to people on assistance who need wheelchairs. Seems this premier has quite a different concept of “needy families.”

She has cheques for selective voters, but not enough help for a failing health-care system, under which all Manitobans will suffer.

Shane Nestruck

Winnipeg

The Manitoba government is handing out cheques to those with kids to help with inflation, and the feds keep upping the child-tax credits. Having kids has become a way of getting more money from the government.

If you choose not to work, you get welfare, subsidized daycare and a federal tax credit that is as follows: under six years of age, it’s $583 per month; from 6 to 17 years of age, it’s $491. This is per child. It adds up to a nice sum when you have several children.

Quit having kids if you cannot afford them, or only have the number of children you can afford without expecting taxpayers to foot the bill.

Stewart Jacques

Winnipeg

When rage banishes respect

Re: Strategic seeding of rage (Letters, Aug. 31)

It seems a segment of our population has totally lost the ability to apply any amount of reason in dealing with appropriate truths in this era of a prevalence of misinformation. Letter writer Richard Wendell describes a profanity-laden rant by a large white male against an unsuspecting female politician as the actions of a “concerned Albertan.”

He equates this with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the words “racist” and “anarchist” to describe the actions of “freedom convoy” protesters, when in fact they were specifically directed to the extremists who infiltrated the convoy to further their racist and anarchistic ideology. It is unfortunate their actions overshadowed the grievances that most of the truckers had.

He then goes on to criticize Trudeau for suggesting unfortunate events will sadly occur as a result of the traumas inflicted on First Nation people, which hopefully will be resolved by truth and reconciliation and not by bullying and ranting by concerned citizens.

When did we lose the ability to resolve issues with the use of respectful dialogue?

Howard B. Dyck

Winnipeg

Liberal bias showing

Re: Broken political discourse on public display (Editorial, Aug. 30)

In your Aug. 31 letters section, four letters were published in reaction to this editorial, however, only one letter made reference to the leading example of “rage farming”: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Once again, by pointing a finger at the conservative element in society and giving a pass to the liberal element, the Free Press bias is showing.

Gary Summerfield

Winnipeg

Pain forces Mexico surgery

Re: Taxpayers shouldn’t cover cost for surgery queue-jumpers (Opinion, Aug. 26)

Columnist Tom Brodbeck thinks the government shouldn’t reimburse Manitobans who couldn’t wait for surgeries and went elsewhere long before the government announced that, going forward, such patients would be reimbursed for out-of-province surgeries.

Some of these people spent their savings because they were in extreme pain and couldn’t even walk to get their mail. I waited more than three years for knee surgery with a Manitoba surgeon, but the appointments were changed several times.

I finally had my knee totally give out while in Mexico and I couldn’t walk anywhere. I found a surgeon there and had it done seven months ago. I was certainly not jumping the queue, as there was no date for surgery in Manitoba.

No one wants to spend their money on surgeries that should have been covered by our health-care system, but when you go into retirement and are in constant pain, you lose your ability to enjoy the life you worked hard for. You make a decision that life is more important than money.

When Brodbeck is totally laid up and in daily pain, he might understand this.

Don Porter

Winnipeg

My spouse recently contemplated an out-of-province surgery to access a total hip replacement and avoid an exceedingly long surgical delay in Manitoba.

Considered otherwise very healthy at 70 years of age, he works full time and has willingly contributed significantly through personal taxes during his lifetime to a universal health-care system we both value deeply. Good lifestyle choices have also resulted in very little need for medical support, until now.

To be denied access to treatment in a timely manner, when it is desperately needed, feels like a betrayal of a social contract between us as “the taxpayers” and the universal health-care system.

Grateful that we could financially contemplate an out-of-province private surgery at a cost of $28,000 plus expenses, we nonetheless experienced angst at the thought of jumping ahead of others experiencing the same condition. We reconciled those considerations by concluding that accessing the care through a private clinic would free the public space for someone who didn’t have the financial means, or physical ability, to co-ordinate such a trip.

Ultimately, the private clinic was not required. Given the absence of underlying medical conditions and with good heart health and appropriate body weight, he was an excellent candidate for day surgery, which reduced the load on the orthopedic surgery team, resulting in an accelerated surgery date.

I disagree with columnist Tom Brodbeck’s assessment that those who don’t have “permission” for out-of-province surgeries should not be reimbursed: hip-replacement surgeries are not pleasant and are not without risk to the patient, so it is unlikely that they would be undertaken frivolously.

Delayed surgeries result in poorer outcomes and overall health decline, at a greater cost to the system over time. What is needed is a concerted short-term investment to completely clear the backlogs for a long-term gain.

Brigitte Forsey

Winnipeg

Streveler style lives on

Re: Streveler’s amazing saga far from over despite Jets cutting QB (Aug. 31)

You’d be hard pressed to find any football fan these days who isn’t rooting for the success of Chris Streveler. And as long as people keep dressing up like him to go to Blue Bomber games, he’ll never really be gone.

Patricia Vineberg

Winnipeg