Letters, Nov. 22

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2024 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City boondoggles

Each day I read the news and it seems more often than not there is a story on how the City of Winnipeg mismanaged a project.

City sued over sewage plant deal, Nov. 20; Winnipeg in deep water over sewer plant, Nov. 18; City needs province’s OK to crack down on unpaid tickets, Nov. 12; Police launch probe into towing deals, Nov. 8; and on it goes.

Is there anyone at City Hall who is capable of doing their job?

It would appear not.

Stewart Jacques

Winnipeg

Willing to pay more

I strongly support the provincial government’s throne speech commitments to fix health care, eradicate homelessness and address the housing crisis, and do what it can to help those struggling with the cost of living.

But I have two questions.

First, with regard to the cost of living, why are the measures being proposed not more targeted to those most in need?

Second, and related, how can anything near what needs to be done, be done, unless those of us who can afford to, agree to pay more taxes?

Of course, I don’t like paying taxes if I think the money is being used inefficiently and ineffectively — in other words, if it is being wasted.

But I want to live in a more caring, safer and better-functioning community and I cannot see how that can be possible without those of us who can, paying more for the public goods and services needed (unless one believes in unsustainable deficit financing).

And, for reasons I think we can all agree on, let’s continue to insist on there being ever more transparent indicators of efficiency and effectiveness with regard to the use of our tax dollars.

Gerald Farthing

Winnipeg

Using the right number

Re: Cost puts cams out of frame for cops, Nov. 21

It irks me every time I see the Police Commission quote a price of $7 million for 1,300 cameras for the Winnipeg Police Service.

If they believe that it is important that WPS members wear cameras, they should be knowledgeable enough of the service’s operation to know that the priority would be for the members of General Patrol and the Emergency Response Unit to utilize them.

Cameras would be passed on at the end of shift just as the portable radios are. Now they would be looking at 130 cameras instead of 1,300 at a cost of $700,000 instead of $7,000,000.

Stan Tataryn

Winnipeg

Idling away

Re: City doesn’t have adequate collision, injury data to justify photo-radar expansion, Nov. 15

I am in full agreement with Tom Brodbeck regarding the lack of justification for more photo radar options.

However, one thing is never mentioned in this debate: the environmental impact of the photo radar vehicles.

I live on Grant Avenue and not a day goes by that I do not see a photo enforcement vehicle sitting near our building for hours at a time. These vehicles all have combustion engines.

Presumably for safety reasons, the windows are always closed and the vehicles are idling for air conditioning or heating. Multiply that by the number of these vehicles around the city every day and that is a lot of greenhouse gasses going into the environment.

Expanding that would increase the pollution, for — as Mr. Brodbeck points out — no empirically validated reason.

Is a cash grab really worth the assault on the environment?

Rudy Ambtman

Winnipeg

One-sided approach

Regarding the op-ed Why I didn’t attend the Giller Prize gala this year, Nov. 19, it should be noted that a pacifist is defined by Oxford Languages as “a person who believes that war and violence are unjustifiable.”

The author, David Bergen, states that he was brought up in this environment and that “non-violent resistance is one of the remaining vestiges of my education.”

While I respect his stance of non-violence, I find it incredulous that he lays blame on the Israeli military, yet makes no mention of Hamas — a terrorist group that infiltrated a music festival and murdered, raped and captured innocent civilians who have been held captive for over 400 days.

A terrorist group that has called for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.

A terrorist group that has done nothing for the Palestinian people of Gaza.

I trust that Mr. Bergen has returned his 2005 Giller Prize and any related financial rewards.

Brian E. Lecker

Winnipeg

Re: Why I won’t be attending the Giller Prize Gala this year, Nov. 18

Giller-Prize winning novelist David Bergen explains his decision to boycott the Giller Foundation and to cease participation in the Giller Book Club as rooted in the pacificism that is a core foundational principle of the Mennonite faith in which he was raised.

Situated as he is in the relative comfort and safety of Canada, it is understandable how such a stand might appear to Mr. Bergen as laudable and high-minded.

To Israelis who are fighting a seven-front war against enemies whose explicit aim is their eradication, such moral highhandedness is dangerous and irresponsible in the extreme.

The citizens of Israel have every right to demand that their government and military take the necessary actions to preserve and protect their lives and well-being. This is no different from what the citizens of any country ought to expect from their government and military in the face of an enemy bent on their annihilation. Just ask the citizens of Ukraine.

Jewish history is replete with cautionary tales of what happens when Jews are either unable or unwilling to fight back against those who wish to harm them. Is it any wonder then that for Israelis “never again” is now?

Jeffrey Hershfield

Wichita, Kansas

Leave peat where it is

I was horrified to discover that Manitoba is even considering peat mining in this day and age of climate change.

Only three per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered with peat. Thirty-one per cent of the earth is covered with forests. That three per cent of peat-covered Earth stores twice as much carbon as the 31 per cent covered with forests.

Manitoba should be restoring and protecting its peatlands — not destroying them. Several European countries have stopped mining their peatlands and using the peat for horticulture.

Canada is lagging behind its European neighbours in protecting its peatlands.

Just recently, the CFUW University Women’s Club of Canada passed a resolution to restore and preserve Canada’s peatlands. This resolution was supported by all 94 clubs across Canada.

The Peatlands Protection Society commissioned the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria to produce a document outlining Legal and Policy Options to Ban or Limit the Use of Horticultural Peat Moss in British Columbia.

Many of the recommendations, if not all, can be adapted to the province of Manitoba.

Peat is nutrient poor. It has to have other additives to make it useful for horticulture. There are alternatives to using peat.

Eighty-seven per cent of the peat that is mined goes to the U.S. It’s time that stopped.

Peatlands are needed for a wide range of wildlife. Some of these are rare and endangered.

Destroying peatlands destroys First Nations culture and ways of life as well.

I urge every reader of the Free Press to take the time to do some research about our disappearing peatlands.

Then, I hope you will urge your government to stop this madness of destroying the future of your province, your children and the planets.

Eliza Olson

President/Executive director, Peatlands Protection Society

Delta, B.C.