Letters, April 23

Incensed by snub

Re: Food deal has Sals’ Nips in a knot (April 22)

In the face of outrageous rhetoric and punitive tariffs that impact the well-being of all Canadians we have done our part to support Canada. We have sold our U.S. property, we don’t buy U.S. products, and we don’t travel to the U.S.

With that background, I was more than a little incensed when I read Food deal has Sals’ Nips in a knot on the front page Wednesday. Here’s a news flash to the brain trust at city hall: your golf course revenues may take a dip for the next few years. I won’t be purchasing anything from your new vendor and I suspect that others may not as well.

Maybe I’ll just grab a Sals nip on the way to the course.

And Mayor Scott Gillingham? You just lost my vote.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

In a time when many individual Canadians are forgoing U.S. travel, buying Canadian and local, and tearing their hair out daily over Trump’s misogyny and threats toward Canada and other nations, the city of Winnipeg should be leading by example by supporting Canadian businesses. Instead, a contract for food services to Winnipeg golf courses is awarded to an American firm by our city council.

Hundreds of thousand of dollars in profits going to an American company during this time is ludicrous. Referencing the rationale being a fair and transparent bidding process, might I suggest a change to that process stating local and/or Canadian businesses be given priority.

To myself and many other Winnipeggers, this would be a no brainer. Apparently not to our city council.

This decision should be revisited.

Debby Jablonski

Winnipeg

A disservice to many

The announcement of Canada Post stopping mail delivery to homes is disappointing — delivery two or three days a week would be sufficient and keep some employees, instaead of adding to the ranks of the unemployed.

As a senior (92) I feel ending daily mail delivery to households would be a serious disservice to the many seniors and small-town residents. It would be difficult or impossible for many seniors to get to the more distant metal boxes to pick up mail — mail which may be the only connection to distant friends and/or family.

It is important to consider these seniors and rural residents.

Helen Bannerman

Winnipeg

Addressing absenteeism

Re: Summit to explore solutions to chronic truancy (April 21)

It is encouraging that school absenteeism is being discussed and I agree that there are many contributing factors.

First, it’s important that existing recommendations from recent reports are not forgotten. The Manitoba Human Rights Commission Right to Read report recently noted that learning disabilities which are not identified and accommodated lead to absenteeism. This finding is consistent with research from other education systems.

I regularly hear from parents whose children’s psycho-educational assessment and student specific plan is essentially ignored and school refusal has already set in. Second, parents are important partners in education. Unfortunately, in many school divisions parents are not offered even one opportunity in an entire school year to be invited to speak with their child’s teacher without the child present. Parents must request it.

So, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that parents from Winnipeg School Division are not listed as being invited to the student absenteeism summit. It’s a missed opportunity and an attitude that likely contributes to absenteeism.

Natalie Riediger

Winnipeg

Canadians apathetic on emissions

Re: Canada loses credibility on emission reductions (Editorial, April 21)

The April 21 editorial about Canada’s loss of credibility on emissions reductions could have mentioned that most of the rest of the planet is experiencing this same loss. Since fossil fuels are the evident culprits in this problem, that certainly hasn’t impeded their use; in fact, their consumption has increased eight fold globally since 1950, while carbon emissions are six times greater.

The reality is that Canadians don’t particularly care about reaching these reduction targets since few intend to make major lifestyle changes, accept new taxes, restrictions and mandates and overall higher living costs to combat what is generally perceived as a mythical climate crisis.

Meanwhile, governments will do what’s politically expedient on the matter. Note how quickly both the Liberals and Conservatives were ready to drop the carbon tax in last year’s election, and the Trump administration was just as fast in cancelling buyer incentives for new EVs.

The reality is that emissions reductions and climate action remains low on the list of citizens’ priorities, not just in Canada, but also worldwide as international polls consistently show. If emissions levels remain high, people are prepared to live with the fact until some monumental energy and technological breakthrough can supplant fossil fuels.

Edward Katz

Winnipeg

On the Jets’ fall

Where does one start with the fall from grace the Winnipeg Jets experienced this year? Kevin Cheveldayoff, the general manager, has to take a long, hard look in the mirror at one of his most egregious failures: scouting.

Teams have a look and over the last few years any hockey fan could see the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadians and Anaheim Ducks were getting younger and faster. Conversely, the Jets got older and slower.

Winnipeg fans have been eager to see the emergence of a player like Ivan Demidov from Montreal or Matthew Knies from Toronto who picked up their team and looked ready to step into the NHL from their first game. Do we have any player like that in the pipeline? Bradon Yager, Nikita Chibrikov, and Brad Lambert might eventually make that contribution, but each looks years away.

It is understood that Winnipeg is not a destination for most NHLers available via trade but a scouting team has no such restrictions placed on them. Their jobs are made even more integral to the success of the Jets as improvement comes from within through development.

This could be a prime opportunity for Cheveldayoff to evaluate his own performance and the players he brought in this year along with the scouts he’s hired to supply the team with fresh blood. It might be time for the whole system to be turned over to a new general manager who brings a new set of NHL contacts and whose scouting team is able to fill the void by finding a player or two ready to make an immediate impact on the Jets.

Rodger Spelmer

Winnipeg

It begins

Twice during a 30-minute walk a young person zoomed by me at full speed on an electric scooter on a narrow sidewalk. Luckily they were coming towards me, so I saw them coming, but if they were coming from my back and I happened to move over a foot as the scooter is silent there would have been a bad accident.

What will it take for the city to outlaw these scooters on sidewalks? I hope it does not take a little kid running onto a sidewalk just when one of these scooters is zipping by and gets badly hurt or worse. Unfortunately it is too much to ask for the city to be proactive on this matter and they will be reactive after a bad accident I fear.

Come on Mayor Scott Gillingham, wake up before it is too late.

Ron Robert

Winnipeg