Opinion

Better traffic planning needed

I heard on the radio that the city wants to make downtown more people friendly not car friendly.

Now I’m no engineer but even I grasp the basics that a city with no subway, no light rail and only a poor, understaffed transit system needs to be car friendly. And it needs to make getting around this city by car faster and easier.

People speed because there is no fast way of getting anywhere, in a city this size it should not take an hour or longer to get to the other side. The city made some attempts on Lagimodiere, the Perimeter, Bishop Grandin and Kenaston, but then, instead of overpasses, they littered these routes with stop lights.

Rush-hour traffic is crazy slow no matter where you go.

I drove during the time when Portage and Main was open to pedestrian traffic, back in the day when we didn’t have nearly the people we have now, and it was crazy slow back then. I can’t imagine rush hour traffic now with that intersection open, it will slow traffic by a minimum of an extra hour.

I think this city needs to get better traffic planners!

Karen Smith

Winnipeg

Waiting’s a pain

On March 23, Audrey Gordon announced an expansion of the pain care program in Manitoba. In her announcement she said that more spaces would be added at Health Sciences Centre.

I have been a longtime participant in this program and receive so much relief from the injections I receive. I had to wait a year to be seen at the clinic several years ago and couldn’t imagine what the wait is now. My last injection was in the beginning of December and I’m presently six weeks past my next scheduled appointment.

When I called today wondering why I had not received an appointment yet, the very sweet receptionist said they are way behind in appointments and she would put me on a cancellation list. I’ve been going every three months for five-plus years and after this expansion announcement, I’m on a cancellation list with no scheduled appointment.

Adding more spaces for treatment at the expense of people receiving treatment is not an improvement in patient care. This government is giving inaccurate information on their fixes for our present health-care crisis.

Don’t lie to us!

Judith Perras

Winnipeg

Add, don’t subtract

Re: Tradition trumps inclusivity at East St. Paul school (May 16)

Instead of taking away the word mother and father from these two observances, it would be a better idea to add words like grandparent or friend.

In today’s day and age it is becoming too easy to take things away from people in the name of inclusiveness, but it can be just as easy to add something in the name of inclusiveness.

Ron Robert

Winnipeg

Greener way to raise hogs

Re: Growth of Manitoba pork industry not a source of pride (Think Tank, May 11)

It’s so refreshing to read an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that asks probing questions about the hog industry in Manitoba.

Rather than accept the propaganda fed to Manitobans about the economic benefits of the industry, [Jessica] Scott-Reid asks if these benefits outweigh the environmental and animal health issues created by raising hogs in barns with concrete slotted floors and sewage lagoons.

It’s a crying shame that we allow the hog industry in Manitoba to continue expanding their hog factories in their current state.

The frustrating part of this is that Manitoba hog producers do not need to use liquid manure slurry systems, which cause essentially all the issues with hog production.

Europeans don’t want their air polluted, lakes suffering algae blooms and animals suffering, so new economical, compost bedding systems are making hog production truly green.

Until things change, the hog industry in Manitoba is most definitely not a source of pride. We can and must do better!

Brent Bjorklund

Hadashville

Slow it down

Here we go again, Sunday night racing on Portage Avenue, particularly the West End.

It seems to be a competition to see who can rev their engines the loudest and, by dusk, it’s all-out racing and revving. The noise level is unbearable.

Where are the police? We keep being promised things will improve but not a thing has happened and we can only imagine it getting far worse as the weather warms up.

Darlene Smith

Winnipeg

Rebates offend common sense

Re: Envy is a cancer — feeding it is wrong (Think Tank, May 13)

Dear Mr. Adler, I have lived in Manitoba for 75 years, not for the 40 years that you have and I haven’t missed a vote, either. I am the daughter of working-class immigrant grandparents and working-class parents who ensured their three children got university degrees.

We were never raised to envy, resent or loathe people who were wealthier than we were. But enough about the past — though from your columns you do seem to be stuck there.

It is wonderful that small businesses are getting tax rebates. However, for a multimillion-dollar company to accept the Manitoba education property tax rebate ($300,000) does offend the “Canadian common sense” that you refer to. This has nothing to do with family, hard work or opportunity or envy. More puzzling to me is how you connect Mr. Kinew’s comments about this rebate as resentment and envy.

How about accepting that his criticism is just Canadian common sense?

Annette Lowe

Winnipeg

Don’t lose park over Route 90 changes

These are my comments regarding the recently published and circulated plans on the Route 90 improvements study.

I understand the need for renewal and improved traffic flows along Route 90.

However, what I don’t understand is why the proposed plan also includes the need to create a two-lane roadway within the green space of Joe Malone Park on Boulton Bay.

Residents of the Mathers neighbourhood will lose walking paths and many mature trees, as well as potentially the loss of the soccer pitch.

Joe Malone Park is the only City of Winnipeg park in the Mathers neighbourhood.

There are plans for new traffic lights at Boulton Bay and Kenaston for residents to exit the area. Why the do the planners feel there is a need to diminish a well-used and beloved park and turn the existing park space into a concrete roadway?

G. Dean Parsons

Winnipeg

Chance to turn things around on addictions

Re: Transforming tragedy into hope (May 13)

I just finished reading Transforming tragedy into hope about the three mothers who lost their children to drugs and just wanted to have the opportunity to talk about them. Kudos to the Free Press for allowing them this outlet.

These are the real faces of drug addiction. They’re the ones who could have benefited from more long-term recovery centres, safe injection sites, and affordable sober housing.

We have the opportunity to turn things around so more children don’t have to die. The PC government doesn’t get it and they never will. Let’s remember this when we go to the voting booths this fall.

Robbi Goltsman-Ferris

Winnipeg