Letters, June 12

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This article was published 12/06/2024 (671 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Church should pay own tab

Re: Bishop offers mercy to the crumbling church (May 28)

What’s happened to the Holy Trinity Anglican Church is a real shame. It’s not a sudden catastrophe, they’ve known that there are real problems with the building for many years. The current costs of the repairs is expected to be around $7 million dollars. When things go bad, the only recourse for the parishioners is a public appeal for help from individuals to all levels of government.

What they don’t ever seem to get is help from their own diocese. “The congregation of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, which is designated as both a National Historic Site of Canada and as a protected historical building in Winnipeg, has asked the Bishop of Rupert’s Land for permission to put the property up for sale,” and he has granted that permission. The Bishop of Rupert’s Land, Geoff Woodcroft has, however, stipulated a large number of conditions for the sale that amount to fixing the church and keeping everything exactly the way it is. Or so it seems to me.

One of the things the bishop is not saying is that there will be any help from the church to cover the costs of restoring this building. Now, I know that churches throughout the world and throughout time have maintained that individual parishes are on their own financially. It seems, at least to a layman, that the the church is a one-way money stream the flows to the top. Congregations are responsible for everything with the church, while the organization gets to tell them what they must do.

I, for one, am tired of the public appeals for money from organizations that have a lot more money than me. Why the diocese/bishop/organization feels they should not have to contribute is what has me questioning this situation. It seems the bishop/organization feels comfortable directing traffic, so to speak, but is quite willing to let this church crumble even further into oblivion if the public doesn’t step up completely to cover the bill.

For those that say “what about The Bay development?”, that development is going to provide more than a place to worship a god for under 100 members, it will have housing, food, services, recreation, etc, etc. There’s no comparision. Make no mistake, the church does not and will not have the space for much beyond church services if restored, because, as stated, that little building does not have a basement foundation.

So, while it may be an unpopular position for some, I believe we should contribute to the restoration of Holy Trinity Anglican Church if and when the church steps up as a fourth partner in this enterprise, along with the municipal, provincial and federal governments. Then we will see some equity, and non-religious people like me, of whom there are very many, will see that it’s not just public money funding this, and that the beneficiaries of all the largesse also have skin in the game.

I know it is a beautiful historical building. As I said, it’s a shame what has happened to it. But as with derelict housing in Winnipeg, the owner has not put in the required money to maintain the property and has left it to crumble over the years. It’s time to see the bishop and diocese step up to the plate, istead of waiting for others to pick up the tab.

Lori O’Brennan

Winnipeg

Sidewalk option

Re: Cyclist killed in early hit and run (June 7)

It is tragic that cyclists have to fear being hit and even killed due to vehicular traffic when there are not enough designated bike paths all over the city! The issue is that cyclists are not safe, and the onus on the city to create more cycling lanes or paths is neverending.

Can the city really afford to spend more money on more cycling lanes with all the other expenses for infrastructure upkeep (like the numerous potholes all over the city)？

What I do not understand is that, since our sidewalks do not have heavy pedestrian traffic, why not, for example on parts of Portage Avenue, make the sidewalk on one side of the road for pedestrian traffic and one side for cycling traffic? Or, if a sidewalk is wide enough, divide the sidewalk with markings with one side for pedestrians and one side for cyclists. But, of course, cyclists would need to use common courtesy with sidewalk use as bike lanes, as a pedestrian may have to cross the bike lane to get to a building and the cyclist would need to give the pedestrian the right of way.

Kirsti Kuuskivi

Winnipeg

Local priorities

There are so many things to fix in this city; Portage and Main, potholes, sewage overflows, and the list goes on. I therefore do not understand why one of the priorities at city hall seems to be renaming streets and roads. It seems that every week there is a new name proposed for some road or street.

How much time and money are being spent on this unnecessary endeavour? Those at city hall who have decided this is so important seem to have no sense of what is important to the majority of Winnipeggers.

David Peter

Winnipeg

Cause of disillusionment

Re: Stakes low in byelections (Think Tank, June 7)

I find many byelections, especially those like the current one in Tuxedo, to be very frustratingly unnecessary. There certainly are instances where a byelection is needed, such as the death of an MLA or health reasons that may interfere with someone’s ability to complete a term of office, but none of that is in play in Tuxedo.

Ms. Stefanson ran mere months ago, committing to the electors of Tuxedo to spend a full four years as their constituency representative. In running, she made that time commitment to that job, and to those people. She was not running to be the premier of Manitoba; she was running to be an MLA. Sure, she wanted that bigger prize too, but the one she ran for and committed to, and won the privilege to embrace, was simply to be an MLA.

I am extremely displeased and disappointed that she threw in the towel and quit almost immediately after accepting that commitment, thus forcing the taxpayers of Manitoba to foot the bill for a pricey and unnecessary byelection. She didn’t get the big toy she wanted, so she just turned her back on everything and everyone, and ran out of the house leaving the rest of us to clean up after her.

There seem to be no consequences for anyone quitting as an MLA and forcing the citizenry to pay a significant cost to replace you.

It’s just another broken promise by another politician, but perhaps one the Tuxedo electors should consider in choosing a successor. Situations like this make me think that it is no wonder we are all getting disillusioned with the system.

Bob Martin

Winnipeg

Germain to the conversation

Re: Pride of place (June 7)

I was saddened and dismayed when I read the article about changing the name of St. Michael Road to “Honourary Big Sky Country Way” to honour Métis country singer Ray St. Germain.

Ray St. Germain is a Manitoba icon who deserves to have his name on this street sign. The excuse that there is a street, a school, a park and a community near St. Norbert that are named St. Germain, is another example of bureaucracy overruling common sense. Ray, and his family’s, contribution to country music in Canada is remarkable. Ray’s incredible voice and charismatic sense of humour have made him a wonderful ambassador for Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.

There is a way for the politicians and bureaucrats to remedy this oversight and truly honour a man who deserves it.

There is a space in the middle of the sign where the name “Ray St. Germain” would fit perfectly. “Honourary Ray St. Germain Big Sky Country Way,” kind of says it all, for a man who gave it all.

Wally Barton

Winnipeg