Letters, Jan. 3

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This article was published 03/01/2025 (448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The point of machete law

Re: Machete sales restrictions now in effect (Jan. 2).

The only reason I can think of for owning a machete is to hack one’s way through a jungle. How is this half-baked legislation supposed to keep machetes off our streets?

Since there are no jungles anywhere in Canada, it would make more sense just to ban the importation/sale of machetes outright, and keep the new legislation to control the illicit use of long-bladed knives and similar implements. Or is that just taking common sense too far?

Rene Jamieson

Winnipeg

Turn down the lights

The new year is a time when many of us resolve to make small changes in hopes of making the world — even if only in a small way — a better, healthier, safer place.

With that in mind, I have a suggestion for, by my estimation, about 20 per cent of Winnipeg drivers: quit driving in traffic with your high beams on.

Bob Armstrong

Winnipeg

The role of public services

Re: Promises aren’t enough to balance the budget (Think Tank, Dec. 31); Manitoba has squandered equalization windfall (Jan. 2)

What a contrast. The first piece (from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation) is all about how the provincial deficit is the fault of overspending: “The government needs to get spending under control and balance the budget.” Thus, it would seem, there is no revenue problem caused by excessive tax cutting over the last few years. Nor is there any commentary about how cutting expenditures to pay for this might impact the provision of public goods and services, especially with regard to the less fortunate among us.

The second piece (by Tom Brodbeck) argues that the deficit is to a significant extent due to tax cuts which have disproportionately benefited the better-off among us. Furthermore, the writer asks us to imagine if the increases in equalization payments over the last few years (nearly $1.8 billion since 2022) “had been used to lower the deficit and hire more nurses, doctors and other front-line workers, and to increase funding in critical areas such as addictions and mental-health treatment, as well as a badly needed boost to municipal funding,” instead of largely funding tax cuts (about $1.6 billion).

The first piece strikes me as being unaware of, or even indifferent to, the role of public goods and services in ensuring our collective well-being. The second as being much more thoughtful in this regard.

Gerald Farthing

Winnipeg

Time for tough calls

Re: Manitoba has squandered equalization windfall (Jan. 2)

In his column, Tom Brodbeck dwells on the cuts to income taxes brought in by Manitoba governments in the past number of years. He is absolutely right in asserting that governments of all stripes and at both federal and provincial levels have been guilty of putting what they hope to be vote-buying tax cuts ahead of real leadership.

We as a province and as a nation are long overdue for government leaders who will tell the voters two truths:

1. Government services cost money which must come from taxes. If you want less taxes, then be prepared for less services. For too long our leaders have been increasing services and reducing taxes, thereby shifting payment onto the backs of future generations.

2. Our tax system needs major reform. A thorough review of the tax system has not been conducted since the 1960s. It is full of inequalities and loopholes. These include the myriad boutique tax deductions and credits, the increasing share of taxes paid by individuals instead of corporations, the ability of corporations and wealthy individuals to shift income offshore and avoid paying their fair share, and the strangulation of city governments without adequate sources of revenue.

I’m afraid that I don’t see any political leaders on the horizon with the guts to make tough calls and am pessimistic that things will get better.

Joe Leven

Winnipeg

A plan for pedestrians

Re: “Building bridges” (Letters, Dec. 31)

To address Wolseley resident Carol Friesen and her position that cyclists should be excluded from any replacement of the Omand’s Creek Park bridge: have at it. Though I may not share her and other neighbours’ views, if a pedestrian-only bridge will make them feel safer, then build it, to replace the increasingly non-functional current span.

And to her point, the designated cycling path along the north edge of the park — once it is made to be a bikes-only path — will be an acceptable compromise.

Pedestrians can cross north on the Empress Street overpass to walk on the north side of Portage Avenue and cross back south at Valour, or walk south from Portage along the west edge of the park to the new pedestrian bridge.

Sounds fair to me: if not to you, reader, ask yourself why only cyclists should be banned from certain places, but not pedestrians.

Dan Bielak

Winnipeg

Grateful for the paper

Re: Raising a glass to Free Press readers amid polarizing times (Dec. 30)

In response to Paul Samyn’s expression of thanks to readers of the Free Press, I would like to express my gratitude to the Free Press team for its good work in this polarizing world.

It’s hard for me to imagine my day without having had the Free Press in my hands at some point. This may simply be part of my DNA. Like Mr. Samyn, I too am a former paperboy, delivering the Hamilton Spectator in the city’s east end right after school. And when I finished my route I eagerly opened the sports section to read Gary Lautens. It was through his writing that I had my eyes opened to the wider world.

A daily newspaper, like the Free Press, is not simply a source of information. It helps to build a world. I refuse to let that world be shaped by algorithms. I need different voices, different perspectives. In her latest book, At a Loss for Words, Carol Off writes about the importance of “conversation in an age of rage.” The Free Press helps to create needed conversations. Its writers don’t all share the same perspective, and this is good. For such reasons I would like to express thanks to the Free Press team, from its individual journalists to its editors, from its production team to the one who delivers our paper in the early hours of the morning. Thanks for your faithful work.

Ray Harris

Winnipeg

A precarious situation

Re: Sand rebrand (Dec. 27)

The sword of Damocles is hanging over us. The phrase is now commonly used to describe a looming danger or precarious situation.

If a serious situation hangs by a thread, it means that even a change can decide what will happen and that a bad result such as death, failure, etc., is likely.

Has the stench of political scandal surrounding Sio Silica’s controversial quartz silica mine and processing plant doomed the project? Remarkably, it still remains a live issue; even though it was rejected by the Kinew government in February last year.

Even at the risk of contaminating the water aquifers for hundreds of thousand of people and creating massive sinkholes, it is apparent that some officials are more interested and motivated by the 8,000 ghost jobs that may be created in this catastrophic undertaking.

When will clearer minds prevail to prevent this from taking place? This is not an act of preserving and sustaining our water for the people of Manitoba.

Preserving our water sources is one of the most significant challenges facing the people of Manitoba, Canada and the world.

John Fefchak

Virden