Letters, Dec. 26

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This article was published 26/12/2023 (992 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reduce the strain

Re: Staff reassigned as flu cases overwhelm Children’s Hospital ICU (Dec. 21)

Reading the headline about the overwhelmed children’s ICU makes me thankful that my young granddaughters have been vaccinated against the flu and COVID. They are less likely to become very ill and also helping to protect vulnerable family members. Let’s help to reduce the strain on our beleaguered health system by getting vaccinated.

Leanne Hanuschuk

Winnipeg

Offer new vax benefits

On Oct. 18, 2023, Manitoba Health instituted a mandatory mask-wear policy for hospital and long-term care staff when working with patients. This rule should be extended to hospital and long-term care facility visitors to protect patients and staff.

With regard to tax rates, Manitoba needs to be competitive with other provinces such as Saskatchewan to attract workers and businesses. However, in order to get better COVID/flu vaccine public uptake, tax reductions should be offered to individuals who are vaccinated, thereby decreasing viral transmission and the heavy, preventable burden on our health-care system.

Wayne Manishen, MD

Winnipeg

Harsher sentence won’t deter

Re: Repulsed by appeal (Letters, Dec. 22)

I sympathize with the frustration of Shannon Anderson in regard to the Jordyn Reimer case.

Increasing the penalty for Tyler Goodman’s crime, however, will not reduce the rate of such offences. Deterrence requires that the individual think logically about the legal consequences of his action. Someone highly intoxicated or “stoned” is not capable of logical thought.

The U.S. state with the highest murder rate per capita is Louisiana, and that state has the death penalty. Other states that do not resort to the ultimate sanction, death, have a lesser rate. This indicates that individuals rarely consider the price they might pay for their crimes even when totally sober, let alone when under the influence of liquor or drugs.

Unfortunately cases like that of Jordyn Reimer will continue to occur as long as motor vehicles and liquor/ drugs are available.

Kurt Clyde

Winnipeg

Watching province closely

Re: NDP must do better on environment (Think Tank, Dec. 16)

Scott Forbes’ op-ed raises an important point. While the NDP government plans to protect more from development and provide rebates for electric vehicles, there are other ways to address causes of pollution.

For example, the government is responsible for monitoring pollution that is produced by industrialized hog barns. There are at least 556 hog barns in the province of Manitoba, each housing about 5,000 pigs. Despite assurances that existing waste management processes work, there is not enough land to absorb waste from eight million pigs every year, so the slurry ends up in rivers and streams and eventually makes it way into Lake Winnipeg, where it appears as a shiny smear of blue algae.

One way to address the pollution problem from hog barns is through regulations. The government is responsible for setting regulations for industrialized hog barns. It is also responsible for enforcing them. Not only are stronger regulations needed to ensure wastewater is processed and spread properly, but there must be oversight by an outside agency to ensure regulations are being enforced. Better monitoring of the barn practices such as how pigs are treated and housed is also required.

As opposition leader, Wab Kinew indicated the protection of Lake Winnipeg would be a priority for his government, and he would continue to work on that important issue. While the industrialized hog industry got its foothold in Manitoba under the PC government, the industry continued to expand at alarming rates under the NDP.

In the lead-up to the election, Kinew said he wants to improve Lake Winnipeg’s health and protect it for future generations. Advocates for humane treatment of animals and those who just want to resume recreational activities in Lake Winnipeg, without wading through algae blooms, will be watching to see if the premier keeps his word.

Donna Minkus

Winnipeg

Meeting electrical needs

Re: Many questions on auto policy (Letters, Dec. 21)

In the Thursday letter to the editor section, Gilles Nicholas asked the question where the electricity would come from for the large number of chargers needed to power our transportation future with electric cars, among other things.

An average daily trip in Manitoba is around 40 kilometres. An electric car with Level 1 charging (the slowest) can pick that up in five hours using the same amount of electricity as a gas car block heater plugged in for the same amount of time. (In Manitoba that means the 40-km trip costs less than $1, but I digress.)

Another way to balance your electricity consumption would be to replace your electric water heater (a larger electricity user than an average electric car) with a heat pump water heater. Your overall electricity consumption would remain about the same. The water heater would literally pay for itself in energy savings over the life of the unit. No additional generation capacity would be needed.

Along with green generation such as wind and solar capacity improvements, each electric car plugged into the grid will soon have the ability to send power back to the grid to even out demand when renewable output is lower. It’s large-scale storage, but it’s parked in every driveway. Germany already has a rebate program in place for people who agree to support the grid in this way. B.C. has a pilot program in place to study it.

There will be a lot of change in a relatively short number of years for us, but I see electric cars as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Ryan Carr

Winnipeg

Good experience with EVs

Our family’s experience with an EV vehicle over the last 4.5 years, 75,000 kilometres, has been ideal. It has been a pleasure to drive and has served its purpose to us very well. We recommend that everyone who can, make the move to an EV. You won’t regret it.

To dispel some of the fears expressed by EV critics: we have never been stranded on the road with a dead battery; there are millions of charging locations available across Canada (any 15 amp outlet will do, that is our main source of charge); we have always been able to manage the battery charge for the trips we plan; it was more expensive to purchase than a fossil fuel burner (ffb), but at this point, after 4.5 years of no maintenance and greatly reduced fuel costs, the cost of owning our EV is comparable to a ffb (the longer we own the EV, the lower the overall cost); and there is no indication that the batteries are losing any of their ability to hold the same charge it did four and a half years ago.

We drive our EV with pride and pleasure and each time we do, we do just a little for our community by not spewing harmful chemicals into our environment. We hope to see many more EVs on the road in the years to come.

J. Giesbrecht

Winnipeg