Letters, Sept. 28

Other options are closer

Every Winnipeg driver learns this lesson eventually: keep your eyes on the horizon too long and the pothole gets you. Manitoba’s energy debate has the same problem. We keep looking far down the road for the next big project and missing what’s close at hand.

Scott Forbes (Time for 21st-century leadership at MB Hydro, Think Tank, Sept. 24) makes a strong case for more wind and storage. But much of this debate is still measured in thousands of megawatts, generated far from where the power is used.

The more immediate opportunity is close to home.

Hybrid wind, solar and battery systems designed for individual schools, farms, businesses and First Nations can be installed in a single season.

They generate power where it’s consumed and, with storage, can reduce demand during the winter peaks Hydro says will require new gas generation. In northern communities still relying on diesel, they can displace fuel that has to be flown or trucked in. They could also help power the highway charging stations Manitoba still lacks.

Large wind farms still matter. But local generation gets too little attention and Manitobans could start building it now. The utility is well placed to make it easier for communities and businesses to generate and store their own power.

Hydro’s next leader should keep one eye on the horizon and another on the road.

Chris Maxfield

Winnipeg

Too big to fail

Barry Prentice (Railways, costs and benefits — the long view, Think Tank, Sept. 22) is right that cost-benefit analysis is imperfect. But when governments are looking at projects costing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, disciplined analysis is far better than relying on enthusiasm and optimistic assumptions.

The real value of cost-benefit analysis is comparison. A railway bypass should not be looked at in isolation. Its long-term costs and benefits should be weighed against road improvements, rapid transit and other infrastructure competing for the same limited public dollars.

Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, the world’s most cited scholar on megaprojects, has documented a persistent pattern of underestimated costs, overstated benefits and what he calls “escalation of commitment.” Once political and community leaders have publicly backed a major project, walking away becomes much harder, even when the numbers no longer support it.

That is why serious cost-benefit analysis matters before positions become entrenched.

A Winnipeg railway bypass might turn out to be a sound investment. However, the same public dollars might produce much greater benefits elsewhere. We will only know by comparing the alternatives on the same basis using realistic costs, benefits and risks.

Showing that a project has some merit is not enough. Governments should be able to show that it offers better value than the alternatives.

Ken Klassen

Winnipeg

Trying something new

Many recent letters to the editor and op-ed articles characterize the civic election as uninspiring.

I agree.

Winnipeg has many opportunities for improvement but the two main contenders for mayor, like old army generals, are fighting the battle for the future with the tactics of the past.

There are proposals for more policing, more transit safety, cutting red tape for faster building, new roads and improved community club infrastructure. All well and good (well, maybe not the new roads).

But we are already doing these things. The promise seems to be, “if we do them more, problem solved.”

We need a new paradigm to inject some energy into the election — some proposals for people to rally around.

Winnipeg’s major opportunities lie with its people. City leadership needs to focus more creatively on the social infrastructure of Winnipeg. For example, the fact that a recent survey revealed that only three per cent of women in Winnipeg feel safe walking in the downtown area at night should galvanize action to address the social determinants of safety.

There are many things the city could do to improve safety beyond adding more police officers or surveillance systems. While there is a case for that, it is essentially “whack a mole” stuff.

How about investing in programs for youth, not just by gussying up community centres but by increasing operating support to the non-profits who run programs at these centres?

How about an environmental works program employing folks trying to get their lives on a better track?

These are community infrastructure initiatives that set people up for long term success. Or, looked at another way, “an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.” The City of Winnipeg’s operating budget for 2026 is set at $1.49 billion.

How about a big, hairy, audacious goal of consistently setting aside a new two per cent ($30 million) of that to fund community programs to capture our biggest opportunities?

Ian Gillies

Winnipeg

AI’s opportunity

These days, we hear that artificial intelligence may soon cause an apocalypse that destroys the human race.

However, one should also listen to another view, which maintains that intelligent systems could possibly save the human race from itself.

Take the case of Demis Hassabis, a former child chess prodigy who went to work in the videogame industry as a teenager before taking time off to earn a degree in computer science and then a doctorate in neuroscience.

He founded a team that used computer-based learning to play complex games better than humans. Then his team tackled the hard problem of protein folding.

After about a decade of improvements, the program AlphaFold was able to predict protein structures at 95 per cent accuracy. The team released the structure for 200 million proteins and a few years later, Hassabis shared the Nobel prize in chemistry.

The problem of climate change is a hard problem that many politicians have not been willing to tackle. One always seeks a reason for hope and knowing that people as bright as Demis Hassabis think that artificial general intelligence could assist humanity in tackling its most difficult problem, gives me a little more hope for the future.

James Hargrove

Winnipeg

Inspiring art

On my way home from work yesterday, I drove down Main St. from Higgins to Portage Ave.

My feelings went from utter despair driving through the first section to immense hope as I sat in my car at Portage and Main and gazed at the world-class art installation by Jennine Krauchi on the Manitoba Métis Federation building.

It is a strikingly beautiful example of the amazing potential of our downtown and our people to inspire and to succeed.

I invite all Winnipeggers to visit the site, wonder at the beauty and take action to support this type of progress. What is in store for us with the renewal of the Hudson’s Bay building?

Great things, I expect!

Robyn Lowe

Winnipeg

Leave your mark

Regarding not voting due to poor candidates: if you do not actually vote then your disapproval is not realized or noticed.

If you are truly depressed or unimpressed about our candidates for the upcoming city election, then get a ballot, mark it ‘none of the above,’ then at least your voice is heard as disapproval and not just apathy.

Please vote, it’s important.

Gary Billson

Winnipeg