Letters, Sept. 12

Opinion

Correction

The Think Tank article Abandoned buildings and abandoned people (Sept. 9) inaccurately cited a duplex in Glenwood as an example of housing being funded under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). The unit was not HAF funded. The HAF program only supports rental apartments in multi-family buildings.

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Free ride

Re: Why Winnipeg needs low-fare transit (Think Tank, Sept. 11)

I read the op-ed with great interest. I have long thought that free public transportation in Winnipeg made so much sense that it should have been a major topic of conversation for many years.

The benefits of such a system are numerous. The article lists less pollution, less wear on thoroughfares meaning less spent on maintenance, and greater equity in the availability of transportation for all. I would include greater security on buses as ridership increases. Busy buses would discourage inappropriate behaviour.

Apparently the recent changes to the bus system have not been met with much approval. Why not try a six-month free-fare pilot program? Fares could be collected on a donation basis. The results of the pilot could then be studied to determine the financial and social benefits of such a program. I for one would be willing to pay a little extra in taxes for the social and ecological benefits of such a policy.

Brent Corrigan

Winnipeg

I would like to thank Adam Johnston for his thoughtful article about the rising costs of Winnipeg Transit, making bus transport unaffordable for many who depend on it. He mentions seniors, who are on a fixed income, as well as many in the inner city. Instead of finding ways to enforce fare payment, city councillors would do well to find ways to make busing more user-friendly. Fortunately for them, we can help them out with some good ideas.

While I don’t describe myself as disabled, I have walking and balancing problems as a result of a hip surgery which left one leg shorter. In my experience of taking the bus from the Wolseley neighbourhood to University of Winnipeg, the sidewalks are hazardous in winter. Last winter I walked to Sherburn on Portage to catch the bus. Now with the new bus routes, I have to walk two blocks further (west) to catch a bus on Portage Avenue (going east!), and, of course, two blocks further walking back. This is good exercise in summer or fall weather, but absolutely treacherous in winter. I have cut back the number of days I attend courses at University of Winnipeg due to the busing/sidewalks issue.

If you want to increase bus ridership, please consider increasing and improving sidewalk clearing in winter as well as reduced bus fares or free, as Mr. Johnston advocates, for those who need that support. (Sadly, I have accepted that the demise of the No. 10 route is non-negotiable.)

Gloria Enns

Winnipeg

Signs of decline

Two recent stories, the bear spray assault on a security guard at City Hall and the ongoing security crisis at Health Sciences Centre, tell the same story: safety in Winnipeg’s most important public spaces has been left to deteriorate right under our noses.

The reality is this: Downtown has been falling apart literally right under your noses. Open drug use, harassment and random violence are now part of the daily backdrop outside your own front doors. This isn’t shocking, it’s predictable. Everyone who works there, visits there or even passes through already knows it. And it’s not just downtown anymore. The same problems are spilling over into areas like Osborne and St. Boniface. What happens at City Hall and HSC is simply the most visible symptom of a broader decline.

Frontline staff and the public deserve more than reassurances and incremental measures. They need leadership willing to stop pretending and start acting with comprehensive, visible plans that don’t just sound good on paper but actually change conditions on the ground. Until that happens, violence, fear and frustration will remain the defining features of our city’s core and beyond.

That’s the free review. No consultants required. The city and the province both need to stop managing safety by reaction and start leading with action.

Marc Robichaud

Winnipeg

Embracing Modern Monetary Theory

Re: “Other ways to serve” (Letters, Sept. 8)

Kudos to Winnipeg Coun. Brian Mayes for bringing to our attention a local homegrown version of a proposed national youth service program, namely a summer inner-city work/study program run by the University of Winnipeg with financial support from the city.

Readers may not know that employment programs for youth, or indeed for any adults wanting to work, can readily be financed by the federal government without taking on additional debt, raising taxes or cutting other program funding. This concept, called Modern Monetary Theory or MMT by economists, has been gaining traction both in Europe and in countries around the world (eg. South Africa, India, Argentina) whose national governments have the legal right to print money and that are using this fiscal capability to address high rates of unemployment, often targeting particularly vulnerable sectors such as women, youth or rural populations.

Unlike the mandatory national youth service program suggested by Free Press columnist David McLaughlin (The benefits of national service, Think Tank, Aug. 23) that prompted Coun. Mayes’ letter, proponents of MMT recommend that federally funded employment programs be voluntary, that they be used to meet needs in local communities and that communities be tasked with determining what kinds of jobs they would like to get funded. Community centres, social enterprises or planting trees are examples that come immediately to mind … readers will readily come up with their own lists.

Arguably the most urgent need for “no-cost” employment programs in Manitoba is in our First Nations communities. Under MMT such programs would be voluntary, available to any adults who want to work and paid for by the federal government but administered by participating First Nations within a framework of self-determination. Funding would include provision for engaging community members in determining the work that is most needed in their community.

The federal government’s treaty relationships and fiduciary responsibility towards First Nations, and recent calls by Manitoba’s Indigenous leaders for “economic reconciliation,” suggest that this may be the time for a new approach to supporting Indigenous livelihoods.

Rob Miller

Winnipeg

Where to direct our attention

Re: ‘A tragic day for our nation’ (Sept. 11)

How should we eulogize a man who taught a generation of young men that empathy is harmful at worst and weakness at best? Or a man who wanted children to watch public executions? Should those of us who count ourselves as his ideological opponents stoop to his rhetoric and treat him as he treated others, should we elevate our rhetoric, or perhaps we decide our attention is better spent on people with a record of good works behind them?

Kelsey Enns

Winnipeg