Letters, Aug 25

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2023 (1005 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Timely detail

Thank you, Tim Sale, for your Aug 23 op-ed (Provincial government ignores electricty advice), telling readers about the Dunsky report, “An Electricity Roadmap for Manitoba”. Dunsky are leaders in advising utilities and governments on current and future clean energy trends.

As Sale writes, Dunsky’s recommendations are a complete opposite to the premier’s announcement that all of Hydro’s future power generation will be from gas turbines.

Even without the Dunsky report, I thought the premier’s announcement a dumb idea, as utilities around the world are shuttering their gas peaker plants to more affordable wind and solar systems coupled with backup battery storage.

The 90 per cent drop in the cost of lithium batteries in the last decade has allowed large scale battery storage systems to be built, making wind and solar viable “firm” power for utilities.

While I agree with most of Sale’s comments, I take issue with his suggestion that Hydro use water storage to provide backup to wind power.

Manitoba Hydro operates their big Nelson River power plants to provide hourly, daily, weekly and seasonal (summer to winter) storage and their system is designed to provide power through the worst drought of record.

While there is excess generation in average flow years to provide backup to wind, no excess flow exists in the critical drought sequence, which relegates wind back to the “intermittent” power category.

Dunsky clearly state in their report that more study would be required to evaluate Hydro’s storage and ability to add more generators to existing plants; I suggest that if they do this, they will find it a non-cost effective solution.

Grant Mohr, Winnipeg

Cause and effect

During Charles Adler’s days as a radio talk show host, I intensely disliked his abrasive style and apparent affinity for the lowest common denominator among his listeners.

However, since his return to Winnipeg and current tenure as a Free Press columnist, I have come to appreciate his thoughtful, insightful and seemingly non-partisan views (either he has matured or I have changed).

But, when he comments on the recent destructive and tragic weather events with the question, “What difference does it make whether climate change is part of the problem, much of it, or all of it?” (The voice from the radio, Aug. 24), I am appalled and perplexed.

Charles, are you serious?

Do you not think that determining the cause of these tragic events, and working to mitigate that cause, is relevant?

Ron Menec, Winnipeg

Tax and spend

Letter writer Alfred Sansregret (Breaking the bank, Aug 24) wonders how the NDP plan to pay for all the promises they are making prior to the Oct. 3 election.

No mystery here.

Count on the provincial sales tax going up a point or more. There is no other way, other than the NDP having no intention of fulfilling their promises in the first place.

Al Yakimchuk, Winnipeg

Second chances

Re: Overcoming the past (Letters, Aug. 23)

I commend Wab Kinew for pre-empting the up-to-now subtle PC messaging about him by revealing to the public his troubled past.

Peter Zahradka makes a good analogy with another well-known figure, Tom Jackson. Many religions will not condemn people for their past sins as long as a person owns up to them and strives to make himself or herself a better person.

Wab Kinew has done that. How many of us would not say that most people deserve a second chance?

I’m sure if there was a news article about a wonderful recovery of someone rehabilitating themselves at the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, there would be many accolades despite what his/her troubled past involved. Kinew deserves that too.

I have not been a fan of Charles Adler in the past as I found his right wing views too strident. However, like Peter Warren before him, his experiences from his family’s history but particularly in Winnipeg with all strata of people, seem to have softened his personal views. Although I also wonder about the motives behind his Aug 19 column (A huge political dice-roll), it was in response to Kinew’s public announcement, so fair game.

If he had produced his column without that public announcement, his partisanship could be strongly questioned.

Finally, I commend the Free Press for your policy of hiring columnists allowing a diversity of views that reflects the society we live in.

Not all people will agree with me but, as difficult as it is and despite grinding our teeth on some of those columnist’s views, we need to acknowledge that not everyone has the same views as ourself.

While truthfulness plays a part (witness the outright lies and deceptions of some U.S. personalities political and otherwise), we need to realize that “absolute truth” is not always out there but rather one’s perception, informed or not.

Our newspaper provides us with the views out there, and at the same time does a reliable job of vetting the sources. We have the chance in a public forum — Letters to the Editor  — to question what we don’t agree with.

Gary McGimpsey, Winnipeg

Resting place

Sincere thanks to Tom Brodbeck for his excellent writing about Premier John Norquay. (From humble Red River roots to pre-eminent Manitoba premier, Aug. 18)

Nowhere in the series of related articles is it mentioned, however, that Premier Norquay lies at rest in Winnipeg, in historic St. John’s Cathedral cemetery, the oldest settler cemetery in western Canada.

His monument is the largest and most impressive in the 210-year-old cemetery and was financed at the time of his untimely death at age 48 through public donations.

It remains a poignant reminder of the esteem in which our first Indigenous premier was held by so many Manitobans.

John D. Perrin, Member, Friends of Historic St. John’s Cathedral and Cemetery, Winnipeg

(Editor’s note: The grave is pictured and its location referenced in the online version of Tom Brodbeck’s story)

Good hosts

We have all just heard that Ottawa has considered limiting the number of international students as a way to alleviate the housing shortage now plaguing this country. (Liberals look to tackle international student rackets as part of housing crisis, Aug. 28)

There is one problem that my own mother put to me: namely, the revenue that the government gets from these very same students.

Well, I had postulated a solution that could just be an answer: in return for claiming all legitimate and provable expenses as a tax deduction, one could host international students the same way that foreign exchange students are hosted. (I have seen stories and ads for this service in the community papers).

Once a person of suitable bona fides and provable student credentials presents themselves, they are hosted by a family (or person, let us not discriminate against single persons in this matter).

This should allow for international students to come and be given shelter during the time of their being engaged in studies.

Then, the government need only provide compensation through the medium of tax deductions for those persons offering bed and board to these persons desirous of acquiring knowledge in Canadian universities, the hosts — besides undertaking an act of hospitality — gain the experience of a foreign culture from the student(s) they take in, and the students can be assured a taste of that good natured spirit Canada is known for.

David Martineau, Winnipeg