Letters, May 23

A cheque for some, a tax for others

Re: Manitoba renters to start getting quarterly cheques from the government (May 8)

I can’t help wondering who they hoped to benefit when someone came up with this ridiculous idea. Many of us look forward to our tax refund as a “mini lottery.”

We have a cheque to use for replacing an appliance or a piece of furniture. Or it may be used to buy the kids new bikes. A monthly cheque is too easily absorbed in buying overly expensive daily necessities. It’s rare that we could set aside that amount for a special purchase. If we don’t have it we can’t spend it.

Canadians are smart and have always found a way to manage. Granted, there are some unfortunate circumstances but I doubt that the cheque will improve their quality of life.

On the other hand, if these cheques are sent out quarterly, who is paying for labour, stationery and postage? The taxpayers!

This idea wasn’t to help renters, but rather to make someone look good in the eyes of his cohorts. A well-camouflaged tax increase.

It’s past time this group look for ways to decrease the money we spend on necessities as well as taxes we have no control over. That would meet the approval of all Canadians.

Gwen Litke

Steinbach

Blaming the group before

I have been a routine reader of the legislative Hansard for a while now (for work, not for fun!) and regularly notice a theme in the conversations in the legislature — when an issue is brought to light and the government is asked for comment, the immediate reaction is to blame the previous PC government.

Just last week an MLA was grilling Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara about the dramatic spike in diagnostic imaging wait times over the last year and all the minister could do was repeatedly bring up the previous government. Your government has been in power over 2.5 years now. Enough is enough with the blame game.

You need to take responsibility for the areas you are now failing in. It is extremely tiresome and immature to constantly refer back to the PCs. We know things happened, and we know not everything is a simple fix. But at almost three quarters of the way through your term, you are responsible for anything that gets worse.

Grow up, take ownership, and fix it.

Candace Weselowski

Winnipeg

Drawbacks to time change

Re: Time for change? Province launches survey to review clock changes (May 20)

Wondering why it suddenly became a priority for Manitoba to discuss the time change. A few months ago our premier went on record saying that the issue was not on his radar, and that there were bigger issues that the government had to focus on. Now all of the sudden he is conducting a survey to get our opinion on the issue.

The survey is written in such a way that it appears to lead us to select changing from the seasonal time change. It leads us by advising of the health issues and safety issues, and prioritizing the negative effects that result from going ahead one hour in spring and falling back in fall.

If we were doing this for purely health and safety reasons, we would adopt permanent standard time. This is contrary to what a lot of people seem to favour, which is permanent daylight time. (Later sunrises and sunsets in the winter.)

The affect this has on our bodies twice a year is similar to flying to another city in a different time zone. People travel many times a year and endure the jet lag that results. Are business people and vacationers who fly frequently, more susceptible to heart attacks and strokes? Do they have more car accidents?

Also if Manitoba goes their own way we will be out of sync with the rest of the people in the central time zone for six months of the year. This will affect everything from businesses who deal with customers in other time zones, to people trying to figure out when their TV show is on.

Ryan Poetker

Winnipeg

Problem with Copyright Act

Re: “Licensing issue” (Letters, May 21)

Edward Keith Bricknell’s statement that, “Access Copyright … already allows teachers to photocopy print materials from sundry publications and distribute those materials to their students” is not accurate.

Prior to 2012, the education sector would negotiate agreements with Access Copyright to allow schools to copy and distribute copyrighted materials to their students. Thus authors and publishers received compensation for the use of their work.

In 2012, the Harper government “updated” the Copyright Act, and through its poorly worded legislation created a mindset in the education world that licensing and paying for copying was no longer necessary. Since then, authors’ works have been copied without compensation; in other words, stolen.

Despite recommendations from the Supreme Court and two cross-country Parliamentary committees that the Copyright Act be amended to right this wrong, no government since 2012 has acted on this. Access Copyright does not allow photocopying without compensation. A badly written Copyright Act does.

Armin Wiebe

Winnipeg

Government’s responsibility

Re: “How we got here” (Letters, May 14); “On personal accountability” (Letters, May 19)

Two letters caught my attention. Steve Teller (“On personal accountability”) has articulated the issue very well. The lack of personal accountability in today’s society is the root cause of our societal decay and decline. Before we run around pointing fingers at others to lay blame for our own shortcomings, we should stop and take a good look in the mirror and ask the question: “What have I done to help myself and to make better decisions when faced with challenges?”

There are no externalities or societal influences using the other writer’s words other than the choices an individual makes. Our society preaches that the challenges people face are not theirs to solve nor should they take responsibility for themselves. If they don’t want to, who will? We don’t have infinite resources to babysit everyone. If society continues on the current path of self-destruction, we will be living in chaos.

Change has to start at the top with our federal politicians, and move down through provincial politicians, municipal politicians, various public boards and committees and corporate leadership.

We need the profit-seekers to generate the jobs and wealth to support our social programs. It is the government’s responsibility to manage the two to ensure we can afford and sustain these programs.

Under communist governments, in theory everyone was equal. How many billionaires are there in China? How did they make their fortunes? How readily available were essentials to sustain the public in these countries? Think about that as some governments try to enter the grocery business.

What can we do to hold our government accountable to the voters and not their parties?

That is our challenge.

John Frostiak

Balmertown, Ont.