Letters, June 5

Revenue and expenses

Recent reports on the issues at Canada Post indicate mounting financial problems in its operation. It is certainly obvious that this Crown corporation is not able to operate under the basic business principle of at least a balance between revenue and expenses, as its losses are approaching several billion dollars a year.

The only way Canada Post has been able to keep operating is the federal government pumping in billions of our tax money to cover the increasing expense side, as opposed to raising its revenue. I think it is high time more attention is paid to increasing revenues.

I think that all Canadians agree that postal service is an essential service which we need to maintain. Just recently, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers voted to accept a deal which calls for a 10 per cent increase in wages in its first 24 months to keep up with inflation. This is a fair and necessary settlement, as we are all faced with inflation in our rising cost of living.

Most adults can remember paying 25 cents for a cup of coffee, whereas now a good cup of coffee costs well in excess of $3. Yet we can still send a letter to any point in Canada for only $1.10. The current cost of postal service is still a bargain compared to everything else. I wrote to the postmaster general sometime ago to say our mail service needs to be updated to keep up with inflation, but it seems this argument is being ignored.

I have noted that the United Kingdom has been making adjustments to the cost of its Royal Mail service in order to keep it afloat, even though it has privatized this service to some degree.

Currently the cost of a local stamp for a letter within the U.K. is now 1.80 pounds, which is $3.50 Canadian. This is more than triple the $1.24 cost of a basic Canadian stamp.

Likewise, I just received a card from a friend in Britain and found that their basic international stamp is 3.60 pounds or $6.62, which is almost double the cost of our international stamp going in the other direction. I would urge our government and our post office to re-examine and adjust these bargain rates that we have relatively speaking.

Canada Post is here is considering reducing the expense side of postal service by reducing frequency of deliveries to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and switching from door-to-door to community mailboxes in the cities and rural areas. The cost of postal services provided to corporations and others for distributing their literature or flyers also needs adjustment.

The above changes in service, along with raising stamp revenue should eliminate the current subsidy that we are paying as taxpayers.

William Hanuschak

Winnipeg

Public, private or a mix

Re: Judge health care by results, not whether it’s for profit (Opinion, June 3)

I totally agree that — whether it’s a public-sector entity or a private-sector company or a mix thereof (which is the case in many European countries providing publicly-funded universally-accessible health care) — it is not the provider that matters most but whether governments “ensure transparency, protect public funding and enforce rigorous standards” when delivering health-care services.

I would, nonetheless, like to add a couple of thoughts.

First, it should be emphasized that, regardless of who the provider is, if the service is covered by medicare (which definitely must be protected and preserved), then there must be no out-of-pocket payments required from the patient. This is essential to avoid ending up on the slippery slope to excessive privatization, leading to private insurance and, eventually, a tiered American-style health-care system.

Second, for the above to work, governments must be self-confident and properly assertive when required (and, of course, effective and efficient) — for which they need the support and trust of taxpaying and voting citizens. So, let’s resurrect aspects of the deal we once had — namely, that governments will do much better at ensuring transparency, protecting public funding and enforcing rigorous standards, and we as taxpayers and citizens will complain much less about paying taxes and who does what.

If we can do this, I think we will all be better off.

Gerald Farthing

Winnipeg

Just. Slow. Down.

Re: School zones and speed: a bad mix (Editorial, June 4)

For argument’s sake, let’s say the average school zone is 500 metres. It takes about six seconds longer to travel that distance at 30 km/h than it does at 50 km/h.

Certainly our children’s safety is worth six seconds of a drivers time. Why is this a thing? Exactly.

Alfred Sansregret

Winnipeg

Time to address illegal drugs issue

Re: Seize control of drug supply, rather than seizing drugs (Think Tank, June 4).

Thank you to Jerry Storie and the Free Press for the insightful and factual article regarding the recent drug busts in Winnipeg

I would applaud the police as well for the very difficult and unrewarding job they do every day but, as Mr. Storie articulates so well, these huge busts are all about the massive supply of illicit drugs flowing through our city and have nothing to do with how well our police service is managing them.

As a taxpayer, I am fed up with the massive costs we incur every day implementing the same old stale policing techniques that have proven over decades to be completely impotent. Even if you put aside the immense investment we make in police services, the additional costs we pay for doctors, nurses, hospital emergency rooms, paramedics, firefighters, and the associated thefts, assaults, murders, apprehensions, legal processing and incarcerations are outrageous.

Our complete and utter failure to address this issue effectively is killing our economy, even as it kills the victims of addiction, many of whom are our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, friends and neighbours.

We need to make this a voting priority, so the politicians that mutter and yawn and spew their double-speak about this issue can know we are sick of messing around. This is a medical and social-support issue, so let’s spend our dollars wisely, providing support services and housing where we can actually make a dent in this very serious problem.

Steve Oetting

Winnipeg

Kudos to Manitoba Hydro, city firefighters

Thank you to the Manitoba Hydro team who restored power to several houses on Brandon Avenue on June 3.

A hydro pole caught fire and it took over seven hours to repair, as two poles needed to be replaced. Workers were professional and friendly and worked through the downpour to restore our power. I would be remiss not to mention the firefighters who extinguished the fire and thank them for the work they do.

Christine Jacques

Winnipeg