Letters, Aug 24

The forgotten specialists

The Manitoba government’s recent announcement of 4,724 net new health care workers left out a profession that is critical to the health of Manitobans — clinical psychologists.

Clinical psychologists and clinical health psychology residents play an essential role in our health-care system, working alongside our physicians and allied health colleagues to provide psychological services in both mental health and behavioural health medicine to Manitobans across their lifespan.

Clinical psychologists specialize in the assessment, treatment and diagnosis of complex mental health disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions and physical health conditions. They can be found within hospitals, outpatient clinics and primary care settings throughout the province.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara acknowledged clinical psychologists’ valuable contributions this past February, as did Minister Smith the year before, when they proclaimed Psychology Month at the legislature. While we congratulate the government on its progress towards building a more sustainable health care system, the Manitoba Psychological Society is obliged to highlight that clinical psychologists have also been added to the public health-care system over the past number of years; this includes many who were recruited from the U.S.

This is not the only time clinical psychologists have been forgotten by the government. While we have seen evidence of improved recruitment, we also see evidence of longstanding problems with retention in the public-health system which continues to this day. We see the government working with other public-health professionals to improve remuneration and address other retention issues, while not giving the same attention to clinical psychologists. Our waitlists remain long and workload high as clinical psychologists do their best to meet the increasing health needs of Manitobans.

In addition, MPS is not being consulted on the profession’s inclusion in the Regulated Health Professions Act, a monumental event in the profession’s evolution in the province.

MPS calls on the government to recognize the contributions of Manitoba’s psychologists, meaningfully engage with MPS on important issues regarding the profession, and invest in the public system through crucial recruitment and retention efforts, so that Manitobans can get the care they need.

Dr. Colleen Murphy

President, MPS

Winnipeg

Who’s the villain here?

Re: Renovations and repairs, rent and reality (Aug. 20)

The story by Malak Abas tells a sad story that should make those of us fortunate enough to afford housing truly thankful for what we have.

An apartment block in dire need of repair is being purchased and renovated by a local businessman, Adam Tougas. This will result in an increase in good housing stock in Winnipeg, avoid the potential demolition of the building and improve Winnipeg’s tax base. These are all good outcomes. However, the costs of the renovation need to be recovered, taxes need to be paid and Mr. Tougas is entitled to a return on investment.

The consequence of this is that several people in the block can no longer afford their rent, will need to relocate and potentially become unhoused.

Who is the villain here? Is there a villain? It certainly isn’t the folks impacted by the rent increases, who are by all accounts leading marginalized lives. Although one could argue it is Mr. Tougas, I disagree. He is restoring a distressed property, which is an endeavour that can be full of unpleasant surprises and he deserves compensation for his risk and investment within the parameters the provincial government has established. If the parameters are wrong, the government should adjust them.

I would suggest that the villains are the Manitoba and federal governments and private insurers, who in concert offer support to disadvantaged people that can only be described as miserly; barely allowing an existence.

When did it become OK to punish people who are disabled by sentencing them to a life of poverty? What kind of society condones that? Premier Kinew, what kind of government causes that to happen?

Tom Pearson

Victoria.

Nightmare on elm-lined streets

Re: Wolseley residents put down roots to save elms (Aug. 21)

The article says the Wolseley Residents Association has fundraised about $20,000 to inoculate publicly owned trees in Wolseley against Dutch elm disease. Ian Dyck is a member of the association’s tree committee, and he says that the Wolseley Residents Association hopes that others will follow their lead. This project will pay for 150 American elms to be protected against the disease for about three years.

Ian Dyck says: “The trees are really what makes this community so special. It’s a big reason why people live in Wolseley. I think the surge in Dutch elm disease here in the last couple of years is really eye-opening and frightening for people. People are just very attached to these trees … They love the tree that sits on the boulevard outside their house and it’s devastating once they see the orange dot go up (that marks an infected tree for removal).”

My life partner, Chris Vogel, and I live on Evanson Street in the heart of Wolseley. We have Prairie Sky books at the end of our block on Westminster Avenue and Nellie McClung park a stone’s throw away on Wolseley Avenue. American elms are the perfect boulevard trees, and when we bought our house in 1978, we had two magnificent elms in front of our house. Our streetscape was the classic cathedral of trees.

Chris and I spent $5,000 dollars to inoculate our beloved boulevard trees. Nonetheless, an orange dot appeared on one of them last summer. That tree is now gone. Dutch elm disease in Wolseley is moving north from the Assiniboine River and the tree that we lost was on the south side of our lot. There are almost no mature boulevard trees south of us on our block now. North of us, Evanson Street remains pretty much the cathedral of trees we fell in love with when we bought our house in 1978.

Rich North

Winnipeg

Manitoba sports fans amazing

A big shoutout to the Manitoba sports fans who supported our professional sports teams on the weekend of Aug. 14 to 16.

Add the attendances of the Bomber game, the Sea Bears final and three Goldeyes games and 53,000 fans showed up!

Leading up to the weekend, the Goldeyes played four games totalling around 11,000. The Sunday Goldeyes game had a season high of 6,000-plus.

Not bad, eh? We don’t have to take a backseat to anyone in Canada with that kind of support.

Dennis Fuerst

East Selkirk

A chilling thought

Re: Time for a stronger all-Canadian grid (Editorial, Aug. 21)

I completely agree with your editorial. We need to develop an east-west grid resilient and independent of that of our southern neighbours.

I was surprised though, there was no mention of the potential and severity of cyber attacks on our power infrastructure. I highly recommend Andy Greenberg’s eye-opener Operation Sandworm, from a few years ago. As I was then, I’m sure readers today will be horrified by the extent of Russia’s cyber-attacks on power grids, shipping systems and other vital infrastructure.

No doubt grid planners are completely on top of this!?

Dennis Bayomi

President, Green Party of Manitoba

Winnipeg