Letters, Sept. 10

Ditch Dynacare now

Re: Labour board ruling halts Dynacare strike (Sept. 9)

It is upsetting — no, infuriating — that Manitoba and other provinces (e.g., Ontario) are using Dynacare for their medical laboratory services. Dynacare is owned by a huge American corporation, Labcorp, located in North Carolina.

Doing a deep dive (via Google) into Labcorp and Dynacare’s finances is revealing. Labcorp does not separately report its Dynacare profits. But you can be sure that hundreds of millions of dollars are draining south. An important question to ask is how much of Canada’s publicly funded health-care money is ending up as profit for a U.S. owned corporation? And why is this not being investigated and reported? This is unacceptable.

Given our present goal of diversification, Canada should be moving to disentangle itself from American ownership and developing our own medical laboratory services. This is entirely possible and desirable. Right now, the workers at Dynacare are paying the price because of this untenable situation. The Manitoba government should be leading the charge towards a truly Canadian owned and operated medical laboratory services system.

Now is the time.

Robert Milan

Victoria, B.C.

They came from away

On Sept. 11, 2001 the United States of America experienced the most cowardly act of terrorism in its history.

This Friday will mark 25 years since this unspeakable act happened. As the names are read out and the bell tolls for each, let us not forget the Canadians among those names.

And let the Americans remember what their northern neighbours did for them that dreadful day. The people of Gander, N.L., not only opened their hearts but homes to stranded airline passengers. The U.S. had restricted all airspace into the country. Some 38 flights were redirected to Gander Airport.

The people of Gander and surrounding communities opened their homes, schools, churches, halls and rec centres to the passengers. Many thousand Americans among the stranded. These warm-hearted Canadians provided shelter, food, medicine and clothing. They asked for nothing in return.

This not only happened in Gander but other provinces, as well. So, this Friday, I hope our neighbours to the south will look north and remember.

Patrick Bend

Winnipeg

A calming solution

Re: No more playing around, make 30 km/h school zones permanent (Sept. 3)

I commend Tom Brodbeck for his timely piece. As a parent, few worries concern me more regularly than the speed of drivers on our neighbourhood streets and the long summer without a safety zone around our local schools has made our many playground visits more nerve-racking.

This problem is exacerbated by streets that are engineered to be comfortable to drive on at the higher default speed, because it is allowed periodically.

Permanent safe speeds in school zones would allow city engineers to design for that safer speed and deploy more road treatments that prioritize our kids’ safety.

I’d love to see permanent school zones paired with action to revive Coun. Allard’s proposal in years past to redirect school-zone ticket revenues toward traffic calming in the areas in which they are collected — a reform which both directs funds toward addressing the problem of excess speeds and which would make tickets less likely for drivers, whose speeds would be moderated by infrastructure rather than fines alone.

Andrew Kohan

Winnipeg

Beware umbrella pricing

Sundry “buy Canadian” movements seem to have been remarkably (and desirably) effective at conscripting and/or co-opting similar-minded fellow-citizens. That said, I wonder how successful such movements have been, or can ever hope to be, similarly effective at conscripting and/or co-opting Canadian firms whose products compete, head-to-head, with arguably fungible American products.

Thus, I must wonder how many of those Canadian competitors will begin umbrella pricing.

What’s “umbrella pricing”? It’s certainly not new. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when I was a young prat in the justly revered Gordon Blake’s economics classes at United College in Winnipeg, umbrella pricing preoccupied several of his rigorous lectures.

Put simply, umbrella pricing is the “permission” that occurs when any product’s market leader raises prices and/or undergoes events (such as tariffs) that cause price increases. Tariffs on American products would, surely, qualify as an example of a “caused” price increase.

In practical terms, let’s suppose that, pre-tariffs, the price of an American product was always only 10 per cent higher than a competing (and fully fungible) Canadian product. A tariff on the American product increases that difference to 25 per cent higher than the Canadian product. Will the Canadian provider be high-minded and leave the product’s price as it was when the differential was only 10 per cent? Alternatively, will the Canadian provider take advantage of the price umbrella by increasing the product’s price by 15 percentage points — so the price difference persists at only (wait for it) 10 per cent?

“Buy Canadian” loyalists need to be aware of this possibility and they need seek alternative fungible products from providers who have abstained from exploiting umbrella pricing. By what other means can they send a loud, clear message to Canadian providers that would otherwise take full advantage of umbrella pricing?

Edward Keith Bricknell

Toronto

Closing time

Re: “Open and shut case” (Letters, Sept. 9)

I concur with everything your empathetic correspondent Heather Emberley wrote.

Including her somewhat rhetorical “who trains city workers.”

They were able to take the time to write — and attach — a note explaining why they couldn’t empty her cart. They likely affixed the same note to all the carts along their route.

Would it not have taken less time to, I don’t know, just shut the offending lid?

Joan Stephens

Winnipeg

Snow surprise at all

Re: No reason to panic about city’s projected $29-M shortfall: finance chair (Sept. 9)

So, Coun. Browaty, do tell, when should we start to panic? What is your magic number? Is there one?

Taxpayer pockets are only so deep and we need to know what the city will be doing to manage, not only its budget, but its resources and processes.

Oh, and, as for snow — surprise! Did you know we are a winter city and the snow comes every year?

Debbie Ristimaki

Winnipeg

No free rides

Transit keeps losing money and cannot afford upgrades such as driver shields, air conditioning on all buses, better service, etc.

So why are we giving free passes to students when many students come from households that can afford to pay for passes?

If the goal is to make transit affordable for all, why not have one fare for everyone? It would save the administration costs of implementing multiple fee structures.

I never understood why an adult pays more than a senior or why children under a certain age ride free, etc.

If you take up a seat or spot on the bus, you should pay.

Stewart Jacques

Winnipeg