Letters, May 16

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/05/2022 (1480 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Downtown denizens

Re: Lukes pushes to cap civic staff remote workdays (May 11)

Coun. Janice Lukes thinks the city administration needs an 18-month pilot project (two days a week) to see how to effectively implement a work-from-home policy for city staff … because the previous 26 months of full-time working from home wasn’t enough of a test?

This is clearly pandering to business owners, some of whom feel that the city owes them some level of success with their pre-COVID business plans. While I sympathize with the business owners, this is just a way for councillors to distract from the fact that they have no realistic plan to persuade more citizens to live downtown in any significant numbers.

Kevin McGregor

Winnipeg

Pothole solutions

Re: Province rolls millions to rid roadways of potholes (May 10)

The condition of Winnipeg streets is atrocious. The city has obviously lost the pothole war, and it now appears that it simply gave up for lack of funding. The ultimate cost is being borne by the driving public in the untold millions of dollars in damage to vehicles — a cost that continues to mount each day.

Winnipeg has over 7,500 lane-kilometres of streets and lanes. Each year, the city labels a few street-kilometres for total reconstruction and subterranean repairs — costly projects that take months to complete. Those projects, along with spot repairs and patching efforts, seem to consume most of the annual street repair budget.

The rub is that roadways continue to deteriorate everywhere, with the myriad of patches becoming breeding grounds for future potholes — a worsening nightmare for motorists.

This perennial problem could be moderated by a change in approach. To me, a step in the right direction would involve allocating a meaningful portion of the annual street repair budget to straight asphalt resurfacing. Develop a plan to annually resurface some of the crumbling roadways not scheduled for rebuilding, give us some decent surfaces to travel on and help mitigate future pothole problems.

Jack Goodman

Winnipeg

Re: Pothole season scrapes, bounces, drags on (May 12)

With Winnipeg roads coming to the end of their lifespans, lots of people seem very upset about driving conditions. But this could actually be an amazing opportunity to completely rethink our car-focused city design.

This is the time to think about how public and active transportation not only reduce traffic, improve air quality, cause fewer accidents and use less fossil fuels, but also put far less wear on road infrastructure, costing taxpayers significantly less. Not to mention that with gas prices as they are, it’s also a lot cheaper directly in transportation costs.

At this time when we look to rebuilding our roads, why not imagine safe sidewalks, a robust public transportation system, and bike lanes on every road? If the potholes inspire these actions, then I welcome them!

Claire Heidenreich

Winnipeg

All-party strategy needed

Re: China proves folly of ‘zero-COVID-19’ (May 10)

The perspective on COVID-19 transmission by Drs. Franklin and Weinstein has important implications for public health policy. The current high rate of asymptomatic transmission suggests a dual focus: encouragement of high quality masking in enclosed public spaces, and maximizing opportunities for vaccination.

It seems to me that a “marketing” strategy should be considered by the provincial government, similar to that of an election campaign (without the typical rancour). Perhaps an “all-party” campaign is in order?

Edwin Buettner

Winnipeg

Academic underperformance

Re: Frozen funding rates for young scientists ‘robbing Canada of best and brightest’ (May 12)

Manitoba has a much greater problem with graduate scholarships than inflation, given the province fails to win an appropriate share of awards. Over the past five years, Manitoba received only 1.63 per cent of the $774.5 million distributed for training by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, far below our 3.6 per cent share of the population. The smaller province of Nova Scotia received almost twice as much.

One reason for this under-performance is a lack of graduate students in the province. About two per cent of doctorate degrees across the country are granted in Manitoba, again well below our share of the population and even our 3.1 per cent share of undergraduate degrees.

Given the critical role of graduate students in faculty research, it is no surprise that the province also received only 2.35 per cent of the $3.6 billion in NSERC research grants over the past five years.

These results are unlikely to change without improved provincial funding for universities and support for students. An even greater loss than the direct financial shortfall is the lost economic and societal benefits of graduate students and research on our aesthetic, social and natural worlds. Think of the contribution of theatre, school success and canola to the economy.

Jim Clark

Professor of Psychology

University of Winnipeg

Setting the record straight

Re: Tories on defensive over rebates to wealthy (May 13)

I’ve noticed that the current premier and her predecessor predictably refer to “record” amounts being allocated to various budget lines when questioned by the opposition and by media. It’s usually proclaimed in response to a query that infers an inadequate amount of money dedicated to schools, health care, infrastructure, etc.

The term leads the public to envision significant increases of an astounding amount compared to previous allocations to a given budget line.

When setting a record, though, it’s an achievement that relies on surpassing previous measures. A hockey player who scores one more goal than the previous record holder nets the athlete their own record. Raising a budget line by a penny qualifies as a record.

So, when Premier Heather Stefanson boasts of spending “record” amounts on education, health and social services during question period, it may very well be a record of sorts, depending on how the record is measured. More importantly, does the increase actually do more than simply try to keep up with inflation? Is the budget line to be intentionally underspent?

Records can be complicated in politics. Perhaps the premier will be surprised when she doesn’t win any medals for all the records she claims to have set.

Donald Teel

Winnipeg

Uphill battle?

“Garbage Hill,” a.k.a. Westview Park, is one of the few places in Winnipeg, perhaps the only place, where runners can get in some hill training, either to maintain general fitness or to prepare for the varied terrain encountered in a half or full marathon.

Currently, runners share the hill with pet owners and their off-leash dogs. Unfortunately many of the friendly dogs like to sniff out and otherwise get in the way of the runners, creating quite a tripping hazard. Most concerning is when several playful dogs get into an excited cluster on or beside the path. The potential for a runner to get bitten by an over-excited dog is high in those circumstances. Runners have been bitten and will be again, no doubt.

There is a way for dogs and runners to more safely co-exist at Garbage Hill. My suggestion is for the City of Winnipeg to erect a chain-link fence to separate the grassed area where the dogs and dog owners can congregate and play away from the gravel path where runners run.

Dawn Elaine Hanson

Winnipeg