Letters, Jan. 4

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2024 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Questions of confidentiality

Re: Ex-minister cites cabinet confidentiality on sand-mine controversy (Jan. 3)

So Jeff Wharton is claiming his former cabinet colleagues breached cabinet confidentiality by saying he contacted them to approve a licence for Sio Silica before the NDP took office. What I’m struggling with is if he didn’t pressure his colleagues, then what confidentiality has been broken?

And if he did make those calls, then he should do the right thing and admit he tried to circumvent the accepted “caretaker” government rules. And if he did make those calls, maybe he should resign because his constituents have the right to expect their representative to be open and honest.

Politicians have to adhere to higher standards, although many of them don’t.

Ken McLean

Starbuck

Straighten out priorities

Happy New Year! Gas taxes have gone down, and bus fares have gone up. It’s a perfect example of how we treat transit in this city.

The gas tax brings in $340 million a year and I couldn’t help but keep that figure in mind as I read the figures in today’s article. $355 million to completely redo the rapid transit system? Why don’t we just do that?

We’d notice a new rapid transit system more than we’d notice 14 cents per litre. We have to get our priorities right and start thinking longer term.

Chris Harvey

Winnipeg

No more free parking

Re: ‘Community of commuters’ (Jan. 3)

This is a very timely series of articles and I thank the reporters responsible for them.

Now’s the time to remove all of the entitlement of ‘free’ assigned parking at city hall for the mayor, city councillors and ‘bosses.’ That way City Hall decision makers will see just how our problem-plagued Transit is for those that have to rely on it daily.

Now I can hear the howls of complaint from the affected individuals, ‘How do I get to a meeting on the other side of town?’ and so on. Well, get in the queue at the bus stop and see how the other half lives, or sign the list to use one of the city’s fleet of pool vehicles, (you might have to plan your day differently).

That is really the only way that they will appreciate the big problem.

Bob Sales

Winnipeg

Bus schedules should return

It’s been great to read in-depth coverage about the state of Winnipeg Transit, thank you. The removal of printed schedules was a sad and puzzling choice made during 2020’s four-year austerity budget to save a mere $22,000 a year. This is much less than the salary of a single bus operator, so bringing back schedules would be an affordable and welcome improvement.

Another informational tool cut in 2020 was BUStxt, which cost $45,000 a year to run. It was accessible to people with phones but no data and much quicker than the app in many circumstances even if you have data. I and many others still miss it today. Restore posted schedules and BUStxt, Winnipeg Transit!

Buck Doyle

Winnipeg

Requirements for newcomers absurd

I recently met a woman who had been a practising doctor in Iran for several years and while alone, bravely immigrated to Winnipeg some six years ago in the hopes of starting a new life.

Understandably, she was required to retake medical examinations to become certified in Canada. She worked in lower paid jobs related to the medical profession (sometimes as many as three jobs at once) to support herself while studying for the necessary exams. She recently passed her final exams, scoring in the top 10 percentile.

Loving our province, she is willing to practise in rural or northern Manitoba. Because she has not practised as a doctor for five years, her options are to complete another five years of internship and residency, or return to Iran to practice for a year and then try to emigrate back to Canada. This requirement seems absurd given our shortage of doctors.

Surely there should be room for some discretion in the certification of foreign doctors to expedite the process.

Bill Speers

Winnipeg

Weighing rapid transit options

Re: Betting on bus rapid transit (Jan. 2)

Brent Bellamy comments on the fact that Winnipeg has chosen to focus on developing a bus rapid transit system instead of a light rapid transit (LRT) system, due the lower cost associated with the former.

He notes that Winnipeg would be the only major city in Canada without a LRT system and he questions whether a rapid bus system would be attractive enough to encourage people to leave their cars behind (at home or in a park-and-ride lot).

I want to reflect on a few observations I have on this. I spent the spring/summer/fall of 2023 cycling on the bike route that heads south from Waverly and follows the Rapid Bus Route down to the University of Manitoba. There are several park and ride lots/stations along that route and, invariably, the parking lots were for the most part empty. The stations themselves were also fairly empty, so I question if the bus system is getting drivers to abandon their cars.

By way of contrast, I spent a week in Calgary over the summer and used its LRT system to get downtown. The park-and-ride lots attached to that system were for the most part full. I was even able to take a bike on to the train and have it accompany me to downtown Calgary, so I could begin biking down there.

I am presently in Phoenix which has a very limited park and ride LRT system and also has a park and ride bus system. The park-and-ride parking lot next to the bus terminal near where we live has a space for hundreds of cars and the lot is always empty. Clearly the bus alternative is not working in Phoenix.

While I understand that cost has to be factored into these infrastructure decisions, it is also a question of setting priorities. Our governments appear ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrading the St. James Bridge and widening Kenaston Boulevard going south. These investments will further incentivize personal vehicle use but have little or no impact on encouraging use of rapid transit.

Irwin Corobow

Winnipeg

Learn from youth

Re: Meeting a new generation of leaders (Think Tank, Jan. 2)

I was pleased but not especially surprised to read that Rochelle Squires was impressed with this year’s Youth Parliament Manitoba.

In particular, I noted and wished that our elected legislative members would emulate these young people who “gave rapt attention to the speakers asking questions, and then careful attention to the answers provided”. I have always felt that respectful listening, even if one does not entirely agree with the speaker, does far more to accomplish a satisfactory outcome than name calling, hectoring and shouting while another speaks.

That kind of behaviour would never be accepted by youth in any setting, so I wonder why we continue to accept it in our legislature by our adult elected representatives?

The individual elected and opposition members in Manitoba would do well to take this example to heart.

Sincerely,

Margaret Mills

Headingley