Letters, Nov. 23

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/11/2023 (706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Power problems to come

In the coming years, Manitoba Hydro will need to drastically increase the power grid’s ability to handle a huge jump in demand, especially peak demand.

This should be a matter of much more concern than it seems to be at this point.

This increase isn’t due to the normal expansion of electrical services as the population grows. It’s clear the ecologically sound conversion to electric vehicles will have the greatest impact.

A search on the internet indicates an average (Level 2) vehicle charger consumption of roughly 400 kWh per month; many homes would require two or more. These would normally run in the only feasible time — the evening and overnight hours.

And don’t forget the weak cold-weather performance of automotive lithium-ion batteries — recharging times must jump during our long cold winters.

There’s also the cost to install vehicle chargers and the related grid upgrades.

How would shopping malls or huge high-rise apartment complexes finance the change?

Additional pressure on the grid would come from switching to electric hot water, and the proliferation of air conditioning as global warming continues.

And there’s the question of infill housing. Fourplexes and small apartment blocks on single family lots would need more chargers than before, aside from the other increased electrical demands. People just don’t want to lose the independence and utility of a private vehicle.

These challenges will be repeated throughout Manitoba… and addressed only if power production and delivery upgrades can be accelerated. If not, desperate measures such as, for example, imposing a charger installation moratorium in unlucky selected areas would buy back some of the time we’re losing now.

Of course, this would be wildly unpopular and economically damaging. So that appears to be politically impossible.

Allan Robertson

Winnipeg

Do better on bridges

Re: City closes deteriorating 111-year-old Arlington Bridge indefinitely (Nov. 22)

It’s been 50-plus years since I worked at McGregor and Dufferin. Talk then was to build a McGregor bridge or relocate the rail yards. Since this is a poor area of the city, it did not happen.

Many projects have been built in the burbs. Now it’s an emergency. Come on, Winnipeg, we can do better.

Lin Rosenbaum

Winnipeg

No way to live

Re: Why Israel matters to Jews (Think Tank, Nov. 21)

I want to thank Ben Carr for writing such an insightful and caring article. As a Jew I find the protests and hate to be so disturbing. I am so thankful to have Israel as one place in the world that Jews could live safely until Oct. 7.

I have a Star of David in my car, and I wonder if that is a target. When I go to synagogue I worry that I will be attacked. That is no way to live in Canada!

Seema Schachter

Winnipeg

Dangerous words

Re: Why Israel matters to Jews (Think Tank, Nov. 21)

As bombs continue to fall on civilians in Gaza, the Liberal MP for Winnipeg South Centre published an op-ed piece here in which he condemns opposition to Israel, and its “demonization” as antisemitic, and a threat to all Jews worldwide. He highlights its importance as a “democracy” and part of an “unbreakable bond between Jews around the world, and the State of Israel.”

The latter is a dangerous statement, which verges on equating the Jewish people with the State of Israel. The former is a blatant lie. Israel is no democracy, it is apartheid. Just ask any humanitarian organization in the world, including B’Tselem, a Jewish-Israeli run organization headquartered in Jerusalem. Ask any of the Jewish people around the world, including in Winnipeg, who are calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

There is no threat being made to Jews when we call for an end to Israel’s crimes against humanity, and for a free Palestine.

If Mr. Carr is truly committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate, his first act must be to call for a ceasefire in the House of Commons and end support for Israeli apartheid.

Steven Osborne

Winnipeg

What’s more important?

The big question: is sand more important than water? Water is the lifeblood of all living things.

The province has agreed to work with a German company that wants to build a $3-billion solar panel manufacturing operation in Manitoba, but the access to the key ingredient for the project — pure quartz — is still in question.

When in government, Manitoba’s environment and climate minister came under fire for the way the Progressive Conservative government has shepherded a proposal to drill thousands of wells for ultra-pure silica sand. Sio Silica, drilling in the very heart of Manitoba’s water sources, affecting an area larger than the City of Winnipeg.

If there ever was a time when plain, common sense was needed, it is now.

Water is not a game to be utilized, like Russian Roulette. Water is for life, and our future generations.

This is the result of governments’ wishy-washy policies and the illogical practice that agricultural and commerce operators have a right to run the show. Whatever happened to the public good as the guiding principle?

Approximately 750,000 residents of Winnipeg rely on drinking water from Shoal Lake, Ont. The two aquifers in the proposed area of Sio drilling feeds Winnipeg’s water source. Yet, barely a murmur do I hear or see from Winnipeggers. I often wonder, why?

Let us work and look to the future, for the sake of our children and future generations, a future that isn’t filled with disaster and water hardships. We must confront corporate greed. We must stop the pollution and plunder. Governments must be brought to task, for they squander what we all need to survive on this Earth. They glorify and elevate economics above the very things that keep us alive.

They blindly march in lock-step to the demands of industry under the guise of sustainable development. It is the corporations that call the shots in today’s world, not government.

Something to think about.

Is sand more important than water?

John Fefchak

Virden

Mind the heat

Re: City eyes future garbage collection schedule shift (Nov. 20)

I’m happy to see that council is looking at options to incorporate composting into the garbage cycle.

What they aren’t taking into account is the effect that heat will have on the composted bin material if it’s only collected every two weeks. The heat of the summer will rapidly begin to affect the contents of the closed bin and what the homeowner will end up with over the course of two weeks is an unwanted stew of materials and accompanying smell.

For those who store their bins in an enclosed area, the increased heat will only exacerbate the decomposition process. Weekly composting pickup during the spring/summer/fall months is a must! Pivoting to collecting composting and garbage every two weeks in the cold winter months would make sense, as everything would be frozen.

With a weekly recycling and composting schedule, it would then make sense that garbage only needs to be picked up every other week. Council only needs to look as far as Calgary to see an efficient and effective system for garbage, recycling and composting.

No need to reinvent the wheel.

Someone has already done the hard work for you.

Rosemarie Wood

Winnipeg