Letters, Dec. 24

Recipes and relatives

I very much enjoyed Patricia Dawn Robertson‘s Think Tank story about her family’s never fail pie crust recipe (Pastry recipe never fails, Dec. 20).

My father loved to bake and he was good at it. His pastries were inevitably flaky and delicious. A pie Dad made was always a treat.

Several years after leaving home, I called one day and asked him for his pie crust recipe. It was an unusual moment between father and son in those days, however, he dutifully gave me the recipe over the phone.

I used it almost immediately to make a pumpkin pie and was rewarded with the hoped for requests for second pieces.

Sometime after he died, I had pulled his recipe and set it on the counter to begin making my Dad’s famous pie crust recipe. As I was opening a pound of Tenderflake lard, I happened to glance at the pie crust recipe on the box. To my surprise it was, word for word, the Tenderflake lard recipe. A recipe which has been on the box since the 1950s.

I’d always thought that my Dad’s recipe was some secret family recipe that no one else was using. So even if the recipe that your family is using, like the Robertson family, which is almost certainly the Tenderflake lard pie crust recipe, never mind — it always tastes good, it never fails, and reminds us of family and family gatherings.

Jerry Storie

Winnipeg

Stop the interference

Tom Brodbeck’s opinion article on Dec. 19th, Consumers, groups outraged over proposed Hydro rate increases miss the point, raises some good points.

I find it concerning that under investment in maintaining our Hydro infrastructure will cause reliability issues in critical delivery of electricity to Manitoba customers. A 3.5 per cent increase in hydro rates over the next three years is minuscule to secure our supply of electricity.

For comparison, I have a cottage in Ontario where power rates are more than double that which I pay in Manitoba. Despite the fact our provincial government charges Manitoba Hydro some $300 million annually, which is effectively a tax, our rates remain incredibly low. This situation is simply not sustainable, and our province’s scary deficit position will not allow them to relinquish their revenue stream from Hydro.

The crux of Hydro’s rate problem is continual government interference for political agendas.

Ideally, we would take the politics out of this valuable Crown corporation to secure reliable power into our future.

Bill Speers

Winnipeg

Charging your map

Re: Paddlers and others bemoan impending loss of Manitoba government map store, Dec. 20.

The main reason given was that these maps are now widely available in digital formats. I have just one question for when I’m out in the wilderness: what is the usual battery life of a paper map?

Cheers,

Jim Busby

Winnipeg

Some consideration, please

Winter has once again arrived in Winnipeg making it difficult for everyone using a mobility device (cane, walker, scooter, wheelchair) to get around.

Monday I had an appointment at Dynacare and was faced with a number of issues because I use a walker.

As I came to the end of the city sidewalk where there was a road into a parking lot, I faced a huge pile of snow (at least a foot and a half high and a foot wide). It had been left there by a snowclearing machine that was working in the parking lot of an apartment complex.

I had a choice of either turning around and not getting the labwork completed or trying to get over the snowbank. I was not able to get onto the street and even if I had, that was not a good option. Parked cars were lined up on one side so there was only room for vehicles on the other side.

If a bus or vehicle had come when I was walking, there was absolutely no place I would be able to go to get out of their way. As I was trying to get through the snowbank I was worried that I would either get stuck or would fall and not be able to get up.

I was fortunate because another individual came along and helped me get through the snow. There was also a huge collection of snow on the other side where the sidewalk continued. The machines had left by the time I made the return walk home and both sides still had the piles of snow they had made.

I am not certain if it is because of lack of education or lack of respect on the part of the snow clearing operators (both private and city) that they do not keep access to city sidewalks clear of snow piles they create.

I would also like to encourage drivers to show some courtesy and kindness when we have to use the streets to get where we are going. Honking your horn, coming so close to us as you go around that we have marks from your vehicle on our coats, yelling or giving us the finger is not going to make it better for anyone.

Some understanding and consideration for others would be appreciated and make it easier for all people to navigate during this winter season.

Vicky Gustafson

Winnipeg

Financial failure

Tom Brodbeck’s assessment of the recent catastrophic budget projection by the Manitoba NDP as being “greeted with a familiar shrug, excuses and the usual political rhetoric from the Kinew government” is accurate but greatly understated (No evidence of deficit management in province’s second-quarter fiscal report, Dec. 16).

The NDP’s current budget projections (Manitoba deficit projections double to $1.6 billion, Dec. 15) underline the government’s gaslighting of Manitobans in the 2023 election, and the fact that Manitoba is now facing a massive, untenable debt. The next generation of Manitobans will pay dearly for this incompetence and cavalier governmental attitude towards Manitoba’s finances.

During the 2023 campaign, Manitobans were told that the provincial budget would be balanced by 2027. Now, the NDP are whinging about unforeseen expenses due to summer wildfires, and loss in Manitoba hydro projected revenues due to climate change. Welcome to the vicissitudes of 2025, which are not the least unexpected.

And, since Manitoba’s economy is less than strong, tax revenues are less than expected. Figures from the federal finance ministry show that Manitoba is set to receive a little more than $5 billion in equalization — up from $4.68 billion this year. Manitoba, a “have-not province”, is the only Western province to receive equalization payments.

While one can often expect campaign “promises” to be a pie-in-the-sky wish-list, likely to remain unrealized, it is the tenacity with which the NDP government asserts that the central plank of their 2023 campaign — a balanced budget — will be realized.

Despite these facts, the Manitoba NDP government still clings, desperately and unconvincingly, to “we will erase the deficit by 2027”.

And, to Premier Wab Kinew’s mantra, “the economic horse pulls the social cart,” one can say “an injured horse cannot pull a cart.”

And, to the province’s minister of finance, Adrien Sala, one can say, “Stop gaslighting Manitobans and resign.”

Gaslighting, incompetence, and disrespect to Manitobans are now the order of the day for Manitoba’s NDP government.

Kenneth Meadwell

Winnipeg