Letters, May 28

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This article was published 28/05/2025 (307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Can’t delay on cardiac care

Re: Bold action required on cardiac care crisis (Editorial, May 27)

The recent editorial on Manitoba’s cardiac care crisis struck a painful chord — not just because of its facts, but because I, too, have lived through the consequences of our broken health care system. On a winter night earlier this year, I walked into an emergency room with chest pain. I waited 11 excruciating hours before receiving attention. I was not alone. The waiting room was filled with others, silent and suffering.

The NDP government, led by Premier Wab Kinew, came to power on a promise: to fix health care. But since taking office, we have seen no meaningful improvement. In fact, by all accounts, the situation has worsened. Fragmented care, endless wait lists, and burned-out professionals are not just statistics—they are everyday realities for Manitobans. And now, as the editorial rightfully points out, we’re facing a moral failure as much as a medical one.

How many more people like Bill Worthington must be bounced from clinic to clinic while their condition deteriorates? How many more families must lose loved ones while waiting for procedures that should have been scheduled months earlier?

This government must stop hiding behind task forces and vague platitudes. We need real, bold action—now. Centralized cardiac care, equitable access to diagnostics, and real reductions in surgical wait times must be treated as priorities, not political talking points.

To delay is to let more people suffer. To ignore this crisis is to fail the people who trusted you with their vote. Manitobans don’t need more promises—we need care. Urgently.

Yog Rahi Gupta

Winnipeg

Who’s in charge?

Re: Patient pleads for centralized cardiac care (May 26)

My heart goes out to Bill Worthington. Besides information regarding Mr. Worthington’s ordeal, what struck me most in the article is the question of who is in charge of cardiac care?

It was very telling that “Both Shared Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority referred questions about the cardiac program to the health minister.” When I checked the Shared Health Website, it states they are responsible for planning and implementing health services, and that delivery of clinical services is at the heart of Shared Health’s mandate.

I can see where the health minister should oversee to ensure policies are in place and budget dollars are available for Shared Health’s operations, but a politician should not be the point person in designing a patient care program.

If Shared Health and/or the WHRA are not responsible, then what are the administrators of these services doing?

Peter Zahradka

Winnipeg

Modernization problems

Re: MPI hits pause on part of tech overhaul (May 26)

MPI has decided to pause its “modernizing” of our Crown corporation. After spending $162 million to bring the Crown corporation into the 21st century, management has decided to go back to the 20th century where people did the work and it actually worked.

If this were the only example of massive spending to “modernize” government operations one could excuse this one, but there are more . The federal government Phoenix pay system comes to mind.

The city is now going to use AI to assist city employees in the billing department, go high tech for parking, chatbot for access to information and who knows what other high-tech programs we will pay for that may or may not work. What we now know for sure is that none of these tech services is free and there is no guarantee that they will even work.

Even if they don’t end up working, as shown from experience, the taxpayer still has to pay.

Gilles Nicolas

Winnipeg

Credit where it’s due

Re: Sio Silica caught in ‘stink’ of Tory ethics scandal: Kinew (May 24)

The “stink” of the scandal surrounding the previous PC government’s attempts to push through Sio Silica in the RM of Springfield confirms what many of the constituents of this area have suspected for a long time.

Our legitimate concerns about Sio Silica’s intentions to mine for silica sand in Vivian — and the possible damage that could result to our aquifer and water supply, have been shunted aside, and dissenters to this project have been treated with contempt and disrespect.

To think that the defeated PCs would still try to push through this project, knowing full well the dissent surrounding it, is disgusting. Much credit must be given to Kevin Klein and Rochelle Squires who refused to license this project and showed more integrity than Heather Stefanson or Jeff Wharton.

Kudos must also be given to Premier Wab Kinew for his stance in pursuing the truth surrounding this fiasco, and for listening to the desperate concerns of Manitobans who need to have a safe water supply. Kinew has “inherited” a complete mess from the previous PC government, and it’s going to take longer than the one year he has been in power to correct things. He’s listening to us — let’s give him the support he needs!

Donna Penner

Dugald

The science of reading

Re: Review finds dissatisfaction with reading instruction (May 22)

Maggie Macintosh’s report did a good job of summarizing the Manitoba Human Rights Commission “Right to Read” 2023 survey results where 60 per cent of both educators and parents alike indicate that the current reading system is not working. These results mirror what I found 25 years ago when our child’s kindergarten, grades 1 and 2 and the division’s remedial reading program were failing to teach him to read.

Committed to finding a solution, I read Diane McGuinness’ scholarly 1993 book Why our Children Can’t Read. I have acquired a library of books on reading over the years, but I consider this book the bible on reading. McGuinness lays out the science of reading, the importance of phonemic awareness and code knowledge. She lays out the issues of traditional phonics and the whole language approach. She then goes on to lay out the elements of a good reading program and evaluates all the reading program against this standard. This book should be mandatory reading for all K-2, resource and remedial reading teachers.

After reading McGuinness’s book, I started our son on a reading program called “phonographix” that checked all the boxes. When I started I found it was like a “light bulb going off” he began to understand that our words are sound-symbols (a.k.a. letters) blended together, something that four months of the school’s remedial reading program hadn’t taught him. I taught our son to read, when five of his teachers couldn’t do this in their whole language approach.

The scientific theory of reading has been around for 30 years, therefore there should be no excuse on why teachers and administrators can’t by teaching reading correctly to their young pupils.

Grant Mohr

Winnipeg