Letters, May 6

Other places to build

Professor Gregory Mason in his Think Tank piece (The tough positions an economist takes, April 25) states that loss of assisted-living units because of the province stopping the destruction of the Lemay Forest is not the most economical decision.

I must have missed the memo that said the last piece of developable land in Winnipeg was the Lemay Forest.

Will it cost taxpayers to stop the clearcutting and keep a much needed green space? It certainly will.

Is the construction of assisted living units beneficial to our community? It definitely is.

But both can exist in this city. Forcing the developer to find another piece of land to build on doesn’t mean that’s the end of assisted living developments. Assisted living developments will still be built but original forests in urban areas will never happen again.

Maybe this goes against the logic of an economist but sometimes the best decision is not always the most economical decision.

Ken McLean

Starbuck

Homes and food production

Many parties have proposed the need for more housing, but few have commented on the land needed to hold these houses.

I understand that Ontario may have to donate hundreds of acres of food-producing land to enable the construction of houses soon.

Food production versus houses ought to be balanced in a meaningful election platform.

Perhaps higher buildings may be better for real estate in cities. Leave the land for food production.

Politicians often bend to immediate requests for a home in order to encourage a higher vote count. But wisdom ought to pre-empt such constituent concern.

I fear that in the long term, the need for food will exceed that for shelter.

Help us to see this dichotomy between food and shelter before the food producing areas are covered with housing developments. We have a choice now that may evaporate when the land is covered with cement and buildings.

Save us from an improper decision about the future.

Politicians focus on plans for the immediate future. Citizens need to plan for a longer range. Grandchildren and others likely have the longer view, but some may not have a vote.

Barry Hammond

Winnipeg

It’s not just age

In response to Alex Kohanik’s letter to the editor (“Speed limit not the problem,” April 23), a recent accident on Wellington Crescent was caused by a young driver and sadly, the cyclist was killed.

A lower speed limit was posted and if it had been followed, then maybe the cyclist would have survived.

Lowering the speed limit won’t save lives unless drivers obey it.

Maybe the reason it appears that there are more people over 60 “fixing their cars out of pocket” is because they have real fears about the social perception that being an older driver means being a poor driver. It’s called ageism.

Most older drivers that I see drive the speed limit and obey the rules of the road. I learned as a young driver that excessively changing lanes, zipping in and out of traffic, will gain little as you end up waiting at the same lights as the drivers you passed.

I am in favour of poor drivers having their licences suspended or withdrawn; I support mandatory remedial education for drivers who have a high frequency of accidents. These consequences are already in place.

But let’s not blame people for poor driving based on their age. There are poor drivers in every age group.

I suggest that Mr. Kohanik no longer accepts “out of pocket repairs” from his customers who want to hide their driving records from MPI. Let’s all be responsible for our driving and road safety.

Reduced speed limits do save lives. One cyclist’s, one driver’s, one pedestrian’s death is too many.

Eugene Brokopiw

Winnipeg

Finding peace

On May 1, Israeli Jews and Jews in the diaspora celebrated Independence Day to mark the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. On May 15, 2025 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and Palestinians in the diaspora will mourn the Nakba, the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine that coincided with the founding of Israel.

For 77 years the people of Israel-Palestine have been living under the spectre of unending insecurity, fear, and bloodshed. Since Oct. 7th, 2023, the violence has spiralled to unfathomable proportions.

In North America, including Winnipeg, a proxy war is being waged. Threats to safety, job loss, student deportations and ever rising levels of Islamophobia and antisemitism are the sign-posts of this conflict.

It is so very easy to lose sight of the hunger of many, if not most, Israelis and Palestinians to see an end to the bloodshed; to live in a reconstructed society in which the health, safety and well-being of two traumatized peoples are nurtured and protected.

The least we can do here in Winnipeg is to mark such commemorations as May 1st and May 15 by calling for an end to our proxy war — by journeying beyond the divide.

We can do this by creating spaces in which Jews and Palestinians can gather together; where allies, whether Muslim or Christian, whether people who pray to Manitou or to Krishna, can join together in a circle of support for those who grieve and hope; a bilateral space in which we dare to name the suffering wrought by Hamas on Oct. 7 while we name the enormous death toll and suffering in Gaza and the West Bank; a space where we demand accountability from the purveyors of death and from the governments (including Canada) that provide the machinery of death; a space where we can use words and song and dance to help us keep faith in our shared humanity, and where we can claim and reclaim our hope for the future of a sacred land so far away and yet so close.

Frances Ravinsky

Winnipeg

Government delay

I read with interest about the time it takes to receive a plastic card from Manitoba Health.

This seems to be the norm in dealing with government agencies. For example, on Sept. 23, 2024. I wrote a letter to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in regard to a T3 return asking for an adjustment on one previously filed.

On April 7, 2025 a notice of reassessment was issued as a result.

In that same letter, I asked for a loss to be carried back to a previous year and in talking with an agent from CRA was told that that would likely take 17 weeks to process.

In another instance, I wrote a letter to CRA on a corporate matter asking them to reassess a company’s return for an error a tax assessor made. To date, the company has not yet received an adjustment nor a response to the letter.

Compare that kind of service with a claim I made with Citizens Insurance of Florida for loss assessment from Hurricane Milton. This was done over the internet on April 14, 2025 and I received a cheque via regular mail from Florida on May 1. Surely, in this age of technology and computers, we should expect speedier service from government agencies.

Allan Webster

Winnipeg