Letters, Jan. 23

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/01/2024 (625 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Why the long wait?

Re: Rally inside hotel turns chaotic (Jan. 22)

The January 22 article “Rally inside hotel turns chaotic” shows failures at every level to take care of people. One of these is implicit in the article, but deserves scrutiny: the initial Dec. 25 police call at 10:30 a.m., and eventual response at 1:30 p.m.

WPS is headquartered 300 meters from the Marlborough — a five-minute walk per Google.

For perspective, an officer could’ve left HQ after the initial call and driven to the perimeter, circumnavigated the city twice at traffic speeds, and returned to the hotel faster than the actual response. Alternatively, they could have walked from headquarters to Polo Park, had a 30-minute lunch at the food court, and walked back to the Marlborough with time to spare. Instead, hotel staff, guests, and the woman in question were all left in an escalating dangerous situation for three hours.

The WPS cost Winnipeggers $326 million in 2023, one-quarter of the entire city budget. With service like this, it’s hard to imagine we’re getting our money’s worth.

Ben Dearing

Winnipeg

Reprieve for all

Re: Young Israeli skaters get a reprieve from the horrors back home (Jan. 21)

So glad that these young people from Israel could have a reprieve from the horrors of war.

I look forward to when the young people from Gaza are afforded the same reprieve from the horrors of loss of shelter, food, health care, education, fun, the list can go on.

Darlene Heinrichs

Winnipeg

Newcomers needed

Re: “Incentivize inoculation” (Letters, Jan. 22)

In his letter to the editor, Ron Robert asserts that Canada needs to curtail immigrants to Canada “until we can train and hire more doctors, nurses and other health professionals, because clearly we do not have enough of these professionals currently to handle the amount of people that are already in Canada.”

This is an ironic justification to curtail immigrants. Anyone who has had any interaction with the health system — hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home care — over the last 25 years will have noted the large number of new Canadians working in those facilities and programs. Indeed, in some settings the number of trained immigrants working there exceeds the number of non-immigrants working there.

While we all know there continues to be a shortage of health-care workers in Canada, we must continue to have targeted immigration policies that encourage new immigrants who can fulfil that need.

Irwin Corobow

Winnipeg

Deal with reality

Re: Federal Conservative leader visits city, slams Trudeau (Jan. 13)

You could title it “Pierre and the Magic Beans, a Fairy Tale.” A quick read. Conservative leader Polievre criss-crosses the country repeating his “Axe the tax” mantra. It’s a great tagline to get elected but it won’t prove to be a magic bullet for Canadians.

In the fall of 2023 the Bank of Canada came up with a number of 0.15 per cent for the direct inflation impact of carbon tax on the prices of gasoline, natural gas and other fossil fuels. That’s 15/100 of a per cent folks, not 15 per cent. A University of Calgary economist produced an analysis that included both direct and indirect costs. In Ontario, the total impact was 0.207 per cent a year and in Alberta 0.1875 per cent. Still only a fraction of one per cent.

Not only that, these figures were calculated without accounting for the rebate cheques Canadians have been receiving.

We have had painful inflation but per 2022 World Bank statistics, among others Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands all had higher inflation than Canada. Our major trading partner, the United States rate was higher than Canada.

We won’t talk about outliers (Ukraine 20.2 per cent). You can’t blame everything on some guy in Ottawa. The truth is the global village has global problems. We’re all familiar with the guilty parties. The chaos of Covid. The war in Ukraine. And now war in the Middle East is disrupting the global supply chain again — a shipping detour around the entire continent of Africa almost deserves a larger word.

In this country we have to engage in serious discussions: about housing and the pace of immigration, about the startling number of foreign students (approaching one million) used as a cash cow by universities, about public housing, about support for lower income people. We have to deal with reality, otherwise reality will ultimately bite us where it hurts.

Greg Petzold

Winnipeg

Grades are good

Re: The benefits of getting rid of grading (Think Tank, Jan. 13)

Eliminating grades is nuts.

I’m a product of an education system that had tests, exams, and grades. Did I fail tests and exams, yes I did. Did it affect me? Yes. But did I blame my teachers? No. I blamed myself, for not achieving.

I was embarrassed, but I saw that I was responsible and accountable for my failings. I did not graduate from high school, but I eventually got my grade 12, and entered university where accountability and responsibility was mine alone. Grades meant everything. I became a teacher, with three degrees including a Masters. The fear of failing was adamant in my mind. I knew that I was responsible and accountable for my success, and “feeling good” about myself was directly related to my grades.

In my 40 years as an educator, I emphasized to my students that they must listen, learn, ask, question, and be accountable for their success. Their grades were important to them, because it gave them a sense of what they were doing, or not doing, and the need to either keep doing what they’re doing or improve. My students, I believe, saw it as a challenge. They wanted to be better. They, I believe, realized that it was their responsibility, to be accountable for themselves.

Grades are an indicator for students. Grades, much like on a scoreboard, tells them where they are, and where they need to get to. Grades provide a challenge, and without challenge there is no growth. Challenge builds character. It builds inner strength. Grades initiate that challenge and character.

I don’t care what the “data” say. Grades are good. Grading is much more than a number, or a letter. It builds strength in these students. It makes them accountable and responsible to themselves.

No tests? No exams? No grades? How is that building a stronger, more resilient society? “Feeling good” about yourself is not about eliminating challenges. It’s about putting challenges in front of these students, and having a metric; grades to show them where they are at and need to go to achieve.

Eliminating grades, tests, and exams is nuts.

Brad McKay

Winnipeg