Letters, Feb. 21

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/02/2025 (225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Weak support

Re: Rural MLAs get 17 per cent boost for temporary housing (Feb. 20)

So, $1,650 for rent and $1,056 for living expenses are the monthly amounts that have been deemed necessary for rural MLAs living part-time in Winnipeg. According to the Manitoba government’s website, $638 for rent and $274 for living expenses are the monthly amounts deemed appropriate for individuals in Manitoba on social assistance (EIA); folks who have no other income. What does this say about us as a society? These social assistance rates are shameful.

If we want to be a society that takes care of our most vulnerable neighbours, and if we want to work at our homelessness crisis, we need to make some drastic changes to provide a basic livable income (or an income closer to a livable income) for all of our relatives in need.

Jeremy Zehr

Winnipeg

A legacy of wonderful wisdom

Re: ‘I had a wonderful life despite all the hard stuff’ (Feb. 18)

The death of Shawna (Shoshana) Forester Smith has deeply saddened me. I read every article she published in the Free Press. While her body was weakened by various ailments that saw her permanently hospitalized, her voice was strong. She used that voice to tell her own story, but her message was much bigger than that. She was a powerful advocate, pushing the powers that be to make health care better, kinder, and fairer for everyone.

I wrote her on occasion, letting her know that I was a fanboy; and telling her that her column was important; that she mattered, and her words mattered. Her final column — Shawna’s Compass for Living — is a must read for anyone with a pulse. Its message has never been more important. She implores us to choose love, choose kindness, value people, help others, embrace creativity; avoid being judgmental, forgive and seek forgiveness, and “find your person.”

She left us with wonderful wisdom. She left us with a cause that will carry on. She left us too soon.

Harvey Max Chochinov

Winnipeg

(Editor’s note: Shawna Forester Smith’s final column is currently available online, but will appear in print on Saturday in her regularly scheduled spot.)

Cool it with the windchill

Is it just me or are we being weather-bombed by broadcast media constantly emphasizing the hazards of being outdoors this winter?

As a lifetime resident of this city for 60-plus years, I can’t recall hearing so much warning and whining with respect to our supposed “cold” weather. Personally, my impression has been we are enduring a very reasonable winter to date. To support that, David Phillips, Canada’s senior climatologist, was recently interviewed on local radio and revealed that we are in fact enjoying above average temperatures and slightly less than average snowfall. According to Phillips, stats for this time of winter have Winnipeg averaging nine days/nights where we experience -30 C or lower temps. This winter we’ve had two!

What then accounts for this perception of excessive cold? I’m convinced blame is connected to the current fixation on windchill.

We now see or hear of it with almost every winter weather report, and these adjusted “it feels like” values are typically 10-20 degrees lower than the measured air temperature. Add to that Environment and Climate Change Canada’s watered-down criteria for weather advisories, and it appears to have most people convinced these are the real temperatures. Windchill is simply a value, expressed as a temperature, that equates how fast a warmer surface will cool down (to the measured air temperature) when exposed to wind. The temperature of the exposed surface (our skin for example) will never drop below the measured air temperature, but it will lose heat faster than if there was no wind.

Winterpeg is a nickname I believe Winnipeggers have endorsed with a degree of pride, as we are a legitimate winter city. Given the avalanche of cold-griping that has underpinned this winter season, I’m seriously questioning our collective winter resolve.

Winter wind can be nasty — no question it can hurt, but life has gone on here for many generations and we’ve lived to talk about it without windchill values. Dress appropriately and there’s an excellent probability for enjoyment of the many outdoor winter activities and events we are lucky to have here on the Canadian prairies.

And finally, is it too much to ask of weather reporters/forecasters to tone down the negative narratives and present winter weather with a little more “sunshine”? A good starting point would be to ditch the windchill numbers for all but extreme conditions. I believe we all learn the windchill factor, quickly and effectively, on the occasion of our very first unprepared encounter with the steely bite of our winter’s north wind!

Gord Bone

Winnipeg

Reframing our health-care problems

Re: Recruitment and retention: a health-care challenge (Think Tank, Feb. 19)

Thanks to Niall Harney for another valuable perspective on improving health care. People are central in the way we care for each other.

I’d like to pose a further idea. There’s apparently no end in sight to the use of the words “fix” and “fixing” in describing health care in Manitoba, terms used prior to the NDP being elected and now present in almost every excellent piece written about the current state of health care, either it’s challenges or strategies for its betterment.

I’d like to suggest that the word “fix” be dropped, that terms like “fix” or “fixing” transition to realistic concepts like “improve” or “transform” when we refer to what needs to happen in health care.

There is no “fix.” This term implies mechanical approaches and answers, perhaps more appropriately used when referencing bike repair. In health care, we’re dealing with humans and communities of people, organizations working together to help either prevent or treat injuries and disease. Fix is delusional, and implies something that gets done, and is then finished. There’s plenty that needs improving, even transforming: there always will be.

There is no fix because there’ll always be a mix of major challenges and incredible strengths in the way medical staff work with people who need help in our communities. In fact, I’d argue that good health is about far more than hospital and clinical treatment. It’s a circle of care that includes family, community and knowledge keepers/skills from western, Indigenous and many other cultures. It is a paradigm shift to always consider this circle as we speak about and work together to improve health care.

Peter Krahn

Winnipeg

Support from the states

I wholeheartedly support the position of recent letter writers who urge Canada to boycott U.S. products and keep their money in Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump is plainly trashing our once-proud country, to the point of incurring deserved, international scorn.

I have been delighted to visit Manitoba and Ontario in the past and am sad that I probably won’t be as warmly welcomed in the future, but it’s only fitting. To the extent one individual neighbour to the south has anything to offer, I apologize to you and all of Canada for the actions of our government’s leaders.

Stand together, be kind to one another and maybe we’ll live to see a day when we can repair what is now broken.

Bob Worrall

Roseville, Minn.