Letters, May 9

Hard work takes a toll

Re: Paramedics ponder quitting: union (May 8)

My dad was a steelworker and until the system was automated in the ’60s, his job was to stand in front of a furnace with a ladle holding a steel ingot. He held the ingot in the furnace flames until it was properly heated.

Recognizing the toll that this took on the body, the company had two men rotating on the ladle each working a half hour on and a half hour off. I relate this to the paramedics, in that 70 years ago, my dad’s employer recognized that they couldn’t work their employee until they dropped and nor should the city.

In a class that I took on job stress, the instructor compared it to you being asked to catch a brick being thrown at you. The first one is no problem but at some point the bricks just weigh you down and you can’t take any more. The city should be a caring employer and look to remedy this situation.

Stan Tataryn

Winnipeg

Rallying for health care

Lately in Manitoba, there’s been a lot of frustration around health care — and rightly so. But I’m noticing something troubling: people are rushing to grade the current NDP government after just a year and a half in office, as if they created the crisis we’re in.

Let’s be honest: our health care system didn’t fall apart in the last 18 months. It’s been unraveling for years. Wait times have grown longer, frontline staff are stretched thin, and hospitals have struggled through one crisis after another. That’s not the result of one party or government — it’s a deep-rooted system failure that’s been building for decades.

What surprises me is how quick we are to criticize and how rarely we ask: “What can I do to help?”

We rally behind the Winnipeg Jets with everything we’ve got — “Go Jets, go!” we chant with pride. But when it comes to our elected officials, we’re quicker to heckle than to help. What if we turned that around? What if we said, “Go government, go! What do you need from us to fix this?”

Fixing public health care will take more than blame — it will take collaboration. Yes, we must hold leaders accountable. But we also need to support them when they take on the impossible. Instead of shouting from the sidelines, let’s work like we’re on the team.

So I say: Go government, go. We want public health care to work — and we’re with you.

Len Wheeler

Winnipeg

Removing our blinders on pollution

Re: Manitoba, Ottawa deny blame in Lake Winnipeg suit (May 7)

As an advocate for the health of Lake Winnipeg for almost two decades now, I share in the frustration and anger of the First Nations about the lack of progress on decreasing the pollution of Lake Winnipeg. The phosphorus and nitrogen (nutrients) that are getting into our streams, rivers and ultimately Lake Winnipeg, feed the blue-green algae blooms that are fouling the waters at times.

Those algae blooms sometimes contain very dangerous toxins that affect humans, animals and much aquatic life.

The City of Winnipeg is the largest point source of those nutrients, but runoff from the land, including urban landscapes and agricultural fields, are significant non-point sources, which account for much more of the phosphorus and nitrogen that are causing the problem. According to the city’s website, its contribution to the problem from sewage, has decreased by over 25 per cent since upgrades to the south end, west end and partial upgrade to the north end plant have been completed in the last few years. There is much more work to be done to by the city but why are we not talking about and demanding accountability from possibly the largest contributor of nutrients from Manitoba’s agricultural landscape, the factory style hog industry?

The hog industry in Manitoba is producing almost eight million pigs a year and has the dubious distinction of being the most intensive of anywhere in Canada with about 6,000 pigs per site. That means a huge amount of manure which has to be applied to the land every year in relatively close proximity to the animal barns. The manure is effective fertilizer when applied in the right amount at the right time, but in Manitoba it is legal to apply as much as five times the amount of manure that any crop can use in one year, as long as it is not applied there for another five years. But what happens to the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that is not taken up by the crop that year? It is available to run off during the spring snow melt or big rainstorms or floods.

For several years, Hog Watch Manitoba has been asking for data collection to determine how much phosphorus and nitrogen are in ditches alongside manure spread fields but neither the province nor the industry have responded positively to this request.

If we are really serious about restoring the health of Lake Winnipeg, we will have to remove the blinders and focus some of the attention on the hog industry, both measuring its contribution to the problem and then altering practices to decrease its impact on the lake.

Vicki Burns

Winnipeg

Plenty to go around

Re: “World needs more food” (Letters, May 7)

I am writing in response to your recent letter from Todd De Ryck, asserting that the world is facing a food shortage due to an overall lack of supply.

While I agree that food insecurity is a critical global issue, the claim that we do not produce enough food is misleading. The true crisis lies not in production, but in distribution. Globally, we already produce more than enough calories to feed everyone on the planet. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world generates enough food to nourish over 10 billion people. Yet millions still go hungry — not because the food doesn’t exist, but because it doesn’t reach those in need.

Food access inequalities stem from a combination of poverty, political instability, infrastructure challenges, and food waste. Massive amounts of edible food are lost yearly due to spoilage, inefficient storage, and market practices prioritizing profit over people.

Meanwhile, overconsumption in some regions stands in stark contrast to scarcity in others. If we are to make meaningful progress against hunger, we must shift the conversation from increasing production to improving food distribution systems and reducing waste. Only then can we address the root causes of food insecurity.

Harold Penner

St. Malo

Byelection burden

Re: Pierre Poilievre and the million-dollar byelection (Editorial, May 7)

Is it just me or is anyone else extremely disgusted that the Canadian taxpayers have to pay for Pierre Poilievre to run in a byelection in Battle-River Crowfoot in Alberta, because when he ran in his chosen riding in Ontario he was defeated?

The Canadian people have spoken. Why then do the taxpayers have to pay for another byelection? And what if he loses again in this byelection (a very unlikely outcome, but it could happen!) This is ridiculous.

This man is a burden on the already overburdened Canadian taxpayers.

Sharon Enns

Winnipeg