Letters, April 24

Support Canadian business

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

Further to reading about our City of Winnipeg public golf courses, Kildonan and Windsor Park, choosing a U.S.-based food services provider Aramark Canada, a contract for food and beverage services, I decided to do a little digging.

Interestingly, Aramark also has other contracts to “provide diverse food and facility services in Winnipeg, serving sectors like education, healthcare and business dining.”

In fact, Aramark has been “Recently awarded a four-year contract for Winnipeg golf courses and a three-year contract for hospitals and jails, employing over 200 Manitobans.”

My research indicates that in 2025, they were awarded a $36-million contract!

That’s a significant amount of profit going into U.S. pockets.

It appears Aramark has also been awarded food and beverage contracts with Reh-Fit, Red River College Polytechnic and various health-care facilities.

In honour of our country, which has been recently treated so badly by our closest neighbours, like many other proud Canadians we too have chosen to cancel any travels to the U.S.

Like many other readers, we have also made conscious decisions on a daily basis to purchase only Canadian-based food and products.

Sadly for Salisbury House, a Winnipeg institution of 95 years that has been providing food services to these two public golf courses for 16 years, this is a very disappointing decision.

What is more concerning is that Aramark has many more contracts in our health and education facilities.

I understand that bids are submitted for these types of contracts and while a larger company may be able to offer their services for a better price, government public services should maintain their priorities in choosing local or Canadian-based companies first.

Karen Zurba

Winnipeg

Premier Wab Kinew and the rest of the NDP could benefit from a course called geography of Canada that I took at the University of Winnipeg 40 years ago. They would learn that companies like Aramark Canada are only Canadian in name but not in reality. It’s called branch-plant economy. They may well provide jobs for 200 Manitobans but the reality is all of profits from the company after paying their employees and rent, etc. go straight to head office in the U.S. Same for Costco, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and on and on.

The $11 million in savings that the government claims is really a drop in the bucket compared to the benefit of having a Canadian-based company handle this service. Those companies regularly reinvest their profits in Canada, and provide higher-end jobs like research and development. Branch plants like the ones I’ve mentioned above do all of their research and development in the U.S.

Brian Mcwhirter

Winnipeg

There is one way to show the golf courses and whoever decides on the new caterer that we are not happy, if the deal goes through: no one patronize the venue!

There are lots of Canadian restaurants close by. A little inconvenience for a while for a lot of Patriotism!

Yes, the city may lose money, but I’d hope that it would get the message across, and the company would be only to happy to get out of the contract with little or no cost to the city.

Ulyse Poirier

Winnipeg

I read with disappointment that the City of Winnipeg had tendered into a food services contract at the Kildonan and Windsor Park golf clubs to the Canadian subsidiary of a U.S. company. At a time when our country’s very existence is being threatened by the U.S.; at a time when Canadian businesses are having to lay off Canadian workers and reduce production due to U.S. tariffs, the city, all municipalities, provincial and federal governments should not be supporting any U.S. business! Even Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. businesses, unless absolutely no Canadian alternative exists.

When the Trump regime threatened both our sovereignty and economy, Canadians stood up to him with a massive “buy Canadian” program. And, it is having an effect; Bourbon, wine, fruit and produce sellers have seen a impact on their bottom line. This is resulting in some political pressure being put back onto the Trump regime to remove the tariffs. More importantly, Canadians came together to stand up to American threats to our sovereignty and economy; a solidarity that they exercise every day. Given the sacrifices of all Canadians in support of a strong, sovereign Canada, why is it that the city and province are thumbing their nose at this sacrifice by awarding contracts to U.S. firms?

A proposed solution to this contracting dilemma could be to never award a contract to U.S. firms or even Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. firms unless there is no Canadian bid; and, state as much in the request for proposal. Should the U.S. bidder be the low bid, it should still be awarded to the next-lowest Canadian bid if it is within five per cent of the low U.S. bid and be awarded through a cascading award profile that gives priority to Canadian firms, Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. companies then finally, if no alternative exists, a U.S. company.

Awarding this contract to Aramark would seem to me to be an insult to all Canadians who are doing their absolute best to push back against the threats to Canada’s sovereignty and economy by supporting Canadian businesses.

Darrell Marleau

Winnipeg

Enforcement key to safe roads

Our city council seems convinced that swapping metal signs for lower numbers—30 or 40 km/h—will magically solve our traffic safety crisis. I disagree. The problem in Winnipeg isn’t the posted limit; it’s a total breakdown in driving culture and a visible decline in traffic enforcement.

Laws are only as effective as their consequences. With an understaffed police force, we have seen the “death of the stop sign,” where rolling through intersections has become the norm. We are facing a dual epidemic of distraction: drivers staring at screens instead of crosswalks, and pedestrians unaware of their surroundings. In this environment, a “50 km/h” sign is already treated as a suggestion; changing it to 40 won’t stop the driver doing 80.

Furthermore, the current patchwork of 30, 40, and 50 km/h zones on residential streets is unnecessarily confusing. If the city wants to simplify things, they should set a consistent 40 km/h residential standard. However, without boots-on-the-ground enforcement to curb the “clowns” and distracted drivers, these new signs are just expensive ornaments.

We don’t need more bureaucracy or “revenue-generating” photo radar that catches people going 53 in a 50. We need a visible police presence that addresses the real killers: high-speed negligence and mobile device use. Until the city prioritizes accountability over signage, our streets will remain unnecessarily dangerous.

Frank Cullum

Winnipeg

Squirrels and their amusing antics

Re: What to do with inconvenient wildlife (Think Tank, April 21)

I would just like to thank Scott Forbes for his excellent article about ground squirrel control measures being considered by the City of Winnipeg.

Just because ground squirrels are “inconvenient” for Winnipeg residents does not justify bringing out lethal poisons to control them.

I really like Scott’s suggestion of filling any holes with sand before a soccer game, if necessary. I’m sure that’s a perfectly good solution.

For myself, I really enjoy watching the amusing antics of ground squirrels, especially the beautiful 13-lined ground squirrel that was chosen to illustrate the article.

Marjorie Hughes

Winnipeg