Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A10 Money, votes and the issues I grow tired of politicians accusing other politicians of " buying votes." Every policy arguably " buys" votes. Argue the merits. @ MattHopkinsLaw The way @ pmharper is running up Canada's debt, it won't be long before we're known as the Greece of North America. # cdnpoli # recession @ mickar1 Canada will be in recession soon, and the PBO has projected a $ 1.5 billion deficit. Ladies and gentlemen, the Harper economic record. @ KevinHemmat So Harper gave out cheques. Mulclair offers $ 15- a- day daycare. Well, JT? Show me the money. @ John7Istheman Let's get into the issues and not be distracted by " shiny objects." @ raqlionchaser The election is three months away, and I'm already sick of the political pollsters, TV attack ads, etc. Summer's short; leave us alone. @ sweetkeet OUR VIEW �o YOUR SAY WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 Freedom of Trade Liberty of Religion Equality of Civil Rights A 10 PERSPECTIVES AND POLITICS EDITOR: Shannon Sampert 204- 697- 7269 shannon. sampert@ freepress. mb. ca winnipegfreepress. com EDITORIAL LETTERS FP COMMENTS TWITTER VOL 143 NO 250 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2015 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204- 697- 7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor Operations and Engagements / SARAH LILLEYMAN Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Night Editor / STACEY THIDRICKSON Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS W What's your take? The Free Press wants to hear from you. Email: letters@ freepress. mb. ca Post: Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, R2X 3B6 Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Follow us on Twitter @ WFPEditorials For a how- to video on writing letters, visit winnipegfreepress. com Equating BRT, floodway misguided Curtis Brown's The majority doesn't always win ( July 18) is off- kilter is in its elitism. Democracy isn't just about the will of the majority; it's also about the majority respecting the rights of the minority. I remember the floodway " controversy," and it wasn't very controversial. In fact, what grumbling there was against it ended during the 1966 flood, while it was still under construction. Once the radio ominously announced the flood could be as bad as that of 1950, that was all people could talk about. A few years later, the anti- floodway Liberal Party ceased to be a political force in Manitoba. One can't draw a comparison between a well- discussed, well- engineered structure such as the floodway and the rhetorical berating used to promote specious bus rapidtransit and bicycle plans. The floodway has carefully designed water flows, while the BRT plan appears to be missing a proper engineering passenger- traffic analysis, and the bike plan has several obvious safety flaws. A healthy, democratic discussion does not rely on dichotomies. Being against slipshod plans is not the same as being pro- car. There are those of us who see other possibilities apart from these two failed extremes, and would like to discuss them in an atmosphere of sobriety. Perhaps we could start with the real elephant in the transportation room - suburban real estate development - and how it forces us to make other poor choices. Until then, neighbourhoods designed around cars and express roads designed to exclude people and transit ( Bishop Grandin, Chief Peguis Trail, Kenaston Boulevard, etc.) will continue to thwart BRT and bicycle boondoggles, no matter how expensive or well- intentioned. ED INNES Winnipeg Transportation talk taxing Re: Wheel talk on transportation , Letters, July 21). Letter- writer Paul Nadja feels he is somehow mistreated by restrictions on a very few roads that favour cyclists one day a week: " Thank you, Mayor Bowman, for not allowing me to drive down my own street for which I pay taxes." There is a fascinating notion cyclists somehow don't pay taxes. Do they live under a rock, or in some fashion that escapes civic levies? As a car- driving and bicycling enthusiast, I can assure Nadja my property taxes are north of $ 3,000 and my frontage levies, which are regularly conscripted for services such as road repairs, are out of sight. I get that most levies will go to support motorized vehicles, but I also support active- transportation strategies that will keep people out of health- care queues and keep cars off the roads. I have a choice as to how I get to work, and if I'm not threatened by cars squeezing me off the road - a depressingly common occurrence - I would prefer to bike. I hope city council will to look to the future and get the infrastructure mix right. TIM SOPUCK Winnipeg �� �� �� Paul Najda's comments regarding the barriers on Lyndale Drive are both misinformed and rather short- sighted. While people who ride bikes do not pay licensing fees, those licensing fees are not where the " hundreds of millions of dollars" come from. That money comes from taxes, and we all pay taxes - in fact, most people that ride bikes also drive cars, so they pay those taxes, too. Najda seems to see the street closure solely as a benefit to cyclists. Not so - the street closures benefit everyone that wants to get out, get active and enjoy their city. I suspect the majority of the people on Lyndale Drive on a Sunday are people from the community - maybe Najda's neighbours. All we ask for is one day a week where people can enjoy using the street without " Sunday drivers." DAVE ELMORE Winnipeg Mobilize for all missing women Re: Case remains a struggle ( July 21). I feel terribly for the family of Thelma Krull, but am I the only one wondering at the attention, coverage and community involvement her disappearance has attracted compared with the disappearance of indigenous women? We should mobilize any time someone goes missing. CYNTHIA LAZAR Winnipeg Trudeau reaping UCCB's rewards The headline Trudeau won't pocket the cash ( July 22) is hilarious. Instead, Justin Trudeau will offset the tax he will pay on the added income with a tax credit for a charitable donation. Families who need help pay little or no income tax. Those who are better off are taxed proportionately on their higher income, including the universal child- care benefit. JOHN FELDSTED Winnipeg IGF problems persist Re: Architect denies responsibility for IGF design flaws ( July 21). If Drew Willy and the Bombers could pass the ball as well as these various architects, construction firms, politicians, etc., can pass on the responsibilities for these problems, they'd not only win the Grey Cup but the Super Bowl to boot. - section22 �� This entire project and its outcome is the result of many inept businesses. Every single business and person involved is responsible for this debauchery, and not another cent of public money should be spent on anything associated with this stadium. We are broke as it is; if these rich guys wanna play the blame game, then they should do it on their own dime. I'm sick of this. I don't care who's to blame ( because to me they all are) - just fix it, and fix it on your own dollar, not mine. - Buddy1966 �� " Investors Group Field was designed as a warm- weather football stadium that wouldn't house outdoor concerts, its architect claims." So the architect has never been to Winnipeg? - Woofers �� It's like an onion; layers and layers of intrigue. I imagine this will drag through the courts for years - OBSERVER6 �� The only one that is going to be ultimately responsible will be the taxpayer, who will have to pay the bill. - Stop the Madness The Notley effect Re: ' Notley effect' changes politics ( July 22). Dynamic leaders attract attention. Notley has impressed a few in her short turn at the helm. Be cautious, though - the NDP has a poor history of good leadership. Despite record revenues, Manitoba is struggling to provide quality leadership in health care, education and social care. Our provinces' debt has more than doubled under this government in 16 years, with no respite in sight. Look one province further east; Bob Rae's NDP government turned Ontario into a have- not province. History shows the NDP are poor stewards of taxpayer money. - groot �� Yes, there are reasons why she won the election, and I would like to think she sounded reasonable enough to entice some of the vote to go her way. Albertans will soon find out what it is like to live under the NDP. Many will look back on these years and shake their heads that they ever thought the NDP could deliver prosperity. With oil prices as depressed as they are and an arrogant PC government that needed to clean house, this will be the one of the longest four- year (?) periods in Albertans' lives. - 1096009 A NOTHER year, another decline in most crimes. Not just in Winnipeg, but across Canada. It's an 11- year national trend, which raises the usual questions: How low can crime go? And how low does it have to go before police boards and municipal councils get serious about reducing police costs? Of course, that assumes there is no connection between crime rates and police numbers, that crime is falling for reasons that have nothing to do with the number of cops on patrol. Winnipeg's falling crime rate corresponds with an increase in police complements, but, as they say, there is a difference between correlation and causation. In Toronto, for example, the serious crime rate has fallen 27 per cent since 2005, even though the number of officers has remained roughly the same. In fact, there were just two more officers in 2014 than in 2005. Like Winnipeg, however, Toronto's police budget is soaring out of control, rising some 37 per cent in the last 10 years, mainly because of rising salaries. Across the country, municipal councils are alarmed the current situation is unsustainable and, if left unchecked, will sap the ability of cities to offer other core services, or lead to steadily rising tax rates. At a news conference Wednesday to release the city's 2014 police statistics, Supt. Danny Smyth avoided giving credit to police for the falling crime rate. He said he really didn't know for sure why crime was falling, and he also declined to speculate on whether Winnipeg is over- policed. Those are questions for the Winnipeg Police Board and city council. It's fair to say, however, that specialized police operations, such as the attack on gangs and guns, have had an effect on crime, as has the increased sophistication of police intelligence operations. Anti- theft programs have reduced car theft, while campaigns against drunk driving have probably had an impact on that problem. New legislation has also made it easier to close crack houses and centres of crime. Police also aren't enforcing minor marijuana offences the way they did in the past, which saddled many thousands of young Canadians with criminal records. Another factor frequently cited is the aging of the baby boomers, who 40 years ago were the largest cohort on the street, drinking, carousing and experimenting with drugs. It's also possible more crimes are going unreported than in the past, but there is no real hard evidence to show how this might be affecting declining crime rates. The overall crime rate, in fact, has been falling since 1991 - and earlier, in some categories of crime. The trend obviously is unconnected to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's tough on crime agenda, or his introduction of mandatory minimum sentences. The problem with statistics, particularly crime data, is they don't tell a complete or clear story. Ross Eadie, councillor for the inner- city ward of Mynarski and a member of the police board, says he disagrees the crime stats prove Winnipeg is over- policed, even though the city has the highest number of officers per capita of any major city in Canada. " The statistics don't tell you what's happening on the street," Eadie says. He said calls to 911 are frequently backed up as officers race from crisis to crisis. The bottom line is there are many reasons why crime is declining, but very little evidence the trend will reverse if police services are cut. Some criminologists don't believe police prevent crime; they merely respond to it. Cities across Canada are looking for ways to cut police costs. One option is salary freezes, another is staff reductions. Unless another level of government wants to take over responsibility for public safety, police unions will have to do a better job justifying their wages and their numbers. Supt. Danny Smyth The paradox of crime statistics A_ 10_ Jul- 23- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A10 7/ 22/ 15 7: 40: 08 PM ;