Letters, March 16

Your choice…

After reading your piece on March 10 (Two-thirds of Manitobans using AI, but a lot aren’t happy about it, survey reveals), I am a little confused.

Are people aware that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI to replace search engines is not (yet) mandatory?

In other words, if you are aware of how untrustworthy this technology is, how much damage it does to the environment, how it is sucking up all our resources and making RAM unaffordable, how it harms working people in the Global South and vulnerable people everywhere, and how it is being used by authoritarians to create a public that does not know how to think critically … you know, you can just stop using it.

Really.

Emèt Eviatar

Winnipeg

Setting standards

The letter to the editor published March 12 (“Competition wins,” by Dr. Henry Krahn) raises a frustration most Manitobans share, and the instinct to look at what works elsewhere is sound.

In fact, the pharmacare model has already expanded successfully beyond dispensing. Vaccines, antibiotic treatment of urinary tract infections in females: pharmacists are doing clinical work once firmly outside their role.

It works because responsibility was clearly delegated before the expanded scope was granted. The framework came first. The competition followed.

That same principle, delegate clearly and delegate explicitly, could unlock capacity that already exists across the system. That capacity already exists in nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and paramedics, under deployed across the system not for lack of competence but for lack of a clear framework delegating responsibility for what they do. That change is moving far too slowly toward patients who need it now.

The system closest to what the writer describes at hospital scale already exists in Germany: privately owned insurers and providers, competing within a framework where responsibility is legislated and enforced at every level. Competition operates inside that structure. It does not replace it.

A pharmacy dispenses a standardized product. A hospital delivers judgment, diagnosis, risk assessment, and performance.

Manitoba does not lack the will to reform. What it lacks is clarity about who is responsible for which patients, for what outcomes, and what follows when those outcomes are not met.

Answer that first. Then competition has something real to work with.

Alan H. Menkis, MD

Winnipeg

IDs needed

Regarding the store owners who want to ID shoppers before coming into their stores (Desperate times, desperate measures, March 13) I fully agree and would feel much safer shopping in an environment where other patrons are there legitimately.

In the last two weeks I have personally seen two groups of three people just walk out with arms full of merchandise. My jaw dropped, I felt scared, I asked the store owner what they are going to do and they both just shrugged their shoulders. One said it happens dozens of times a day!

The Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation did it, and it makes for a more enjoyable experience.

I’m sure with rising costs, the honest shoppers would appreciate not paying for the dishonest ones.

Sharon Evans

Winnipeg

Rules and roads

I would like to offer my thoughts on bike lanes and speed limits in Winnipeg.

I often drive on Dakota Street in St. Vital. In summer I see cyclists on the road delaying traffic, when less than 10 meters away there is a bike lane built at great expense. Maybe we need a law that forces riders onto the bike lane where one is available.

Bike lanes are valuable on major thoroughfares; especially when they connect amenities for children, but they need to be used by all.

With regard to speed limits; I rarely see anyone traveling at an unsafe speed in my residential neighbourhood.

When it does happen, a lowered speed limit won’t change that behaviour.

Randy Rasmussen

Winnipeg

Fiscal responsibility

I was a little puzzled yesterday to see that the provincial Tories pledged to double the basic income tax exemption for Manitoba.

Are the PCs not the party that have spent years and years attempting to brand themselves as the party of financial responsibility and balancing the budget?

Well, in order to make an even budget line, you can do one of two things: increase revenues, and/or cut expenses.

When they were last in power, they certainly cut public services, but now they want to further slash the ability of the government to fund itself.

The announcement makes me wonder why the Tories want to get into government at all if their goals are to ultimately hollow out provincial coffers and operations. Isn’t the role of government to… y’know… run the province?

That can’t be done without income, which is already in short supply.

Roger Ward

Winnipeg

More to the problem

The recent report on the 15-week police crackdown on Winnipeg’s transit system raises important questions about how the city plans to address safety on buses in the long term.

While officials point to decreases in violent crime and property crime during the pilot project, the results should be interpreted carefully.

A short-term surge in police presence will almost always produce temporary improvements. When officers spend additional hours riding buses, patrolling stops, and focusing on enforcement, it is not surprising that reported incidents decline. The real question is whether these results can be sustained once those additional resources are removed.

Even police officials themselves acknowledge that resources are already stretched. Creating a dedicated transit police unit would mean diverting officers from other areas of the city. This raises a broader policy issue: should transit safety rely primarily on policing, or should the city invest in preventive solutions that reduce the causes of disorder on public transit?

Several comments in the report suggest that many conflicts arise from fare evasion, intoxication, or disputes between passengers. These issues are not purely criminal problems; they are also social and operational challenges. Investing in better transit staffing, clearer fare enforcement systems, and support services for vulnerable riders could address many of these problems before they escalate.

Transit riders deserve to feel safe, but safety cannot depend solely on temporary enforcement campaigns. If Winnipeg is serious about improving its transit system, city leaders must focus on sustainable solutions rather than short-term crackdowns that may look effective in statistics but fail to address the deeper issues affecting public transit.

Yog Rahi Gupta

Winnipeg

Sweet dreams

With the war in Iran and the closing of the straits of Hormuz to tanker traffic has there ever been a clearer reason for directing more efforts and capital towards electrifying our transportation?

It takes one problem like this to hold most of the world at ransom and to cost everyone except the oil companies huge increases in our cost of living.

If the focus of governments and industries could zero in electrification, it would happen quickly and the world would be free of reliance on fossil fuels, the pollution they cause and the gun being held to our heads by oil companies and their lobbyists.

People tell me I’m dreaming to think this could ever happen, but there are many advancements for humankind that wouldn’t have happened without dreamers.

Ken McLean

Starbuck