Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 26, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A12 Stay vigilant against COVID-19 More and more these days, we hear that with the arrival of vaccines there is "light at the end of the tunnel." I worry that this will cause us to lose focus on prevention during the six-plus months it will take to get most Manitobans vaccinated. If we become less vigilant, that light at the end of the tunnel, just like in the Warner Bros. "Roadrunner" car- toons, may be on the front of a locomotive. IAN DAVIES Winnipeg Thanks to all postal workers I would like to say thank you to all Canada Post employees. Canada Post employees continued to deliver throughout the pandemic. There have been unprecedented volumes. The number of parcels and packets ordered is truly staggering. It has been since the start of the pan- demic and has exploded this Christmas season. They are working day and night and weekends to get these items delivered. Thank you for your service. ANDREA SANDERSON Winnipeg Re: Waiting for the mail (Letters, Dec. 23) I have nothing but admiration and respect for the hard-working Canada Post workers who have amazed me with their efficiency in delivering my Christmas packages and letters during these difficult times. From the helpful and patient staff at my local postal outlet to the unseen staff at the main depot, and finally to the parcel delivery and mail carri- ers whom I have seen working long hours on my street, seven days a week, I thank you for your dedication. In contrast, Amazon lost one of my gifts and another gift I ordered Nov. 14 has yet to show up. BARBARA SCAIFE Winnipeg Hold plebiscite on compost Re: City probes cost of composting facility (Dec. 21) Coun. Brian Mayes may choose to believe in growing support for an organic waste composting facility; however, an increase from 20 per cent of residents to 22 per cent does not make it a major- ity, nor does believing in Santa Claus make him any more real. Before Coun. Mayes votes to raise everyone's taxes and spend public money on a project of this magnitude, a plebiscite should be held to see whether Winnipeggers agree this project is value-based and warrants an increase in prop- erty taxes and waste collection fees, or if we should first focus on economic recovery. And try to recall when the last major project came in on schedule and budget. RANDY CLINCH Winnipeg Be careful with our land Re: More growth for CentrePort (Dec. 21) The picture accompanying this article, of two developers standing in a field that has grown a crop, raises the climate question of: what is land for? A reality of today's economy is that industrial- ization and over-consumption by some is leading to global warming and climate disruption. Is eco- nomic growth the only path society can take? If so, then planetary devastation is the only route to pursue. Surely living in high-rises and diminish- ing the paved-over land are other ways of living more congruent with saving the planet from our need for at least two more Earths. Survival would appear more important than commercial progress. Leave the cropland and diminish industrial development if a good future life is sought. Surely it is obvious that the trade- off between growth and sustainability is the need for food and living space, not commercial enter- prise. The Indigenous people of old knew that the land was for living and growing food on. Have we lost this spiritual aspect of land? We appear slow to believe that humane living is more important than corporate and industrial develop- ment. BARRY HAMMOND Winnipeg Broadway, not Ottawa, stymies EV adoption Re: A realistic plan for reducing emissions (Dec. 23) When it comes to support for electric vehicles, it is the provincial Progressive Conservative gov- ernment, not the federal Liberal government, that displays a lack of real action. Manitoba fared poorly in the 2020 Canadian Provincial Energy Efficiency Scorecard released last month by Efficiency Canada. Manitoba lags behind B.C., Quebec, Alberta, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which provide direct-to-consum- er incentives for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and/ or incentives for fleet electrification. Equally disappointing is Manitoba's last-place score for transportation electrification infrastructure, in- cluding a lack of polices to support public charg- ing stations, availability of public charging and support for BEVs and PHEVs in building codes. In contrast to Manitoba, the federal govern- ment provides purchase incentives of up to $5,000 for BEVs and long-range PHEVs, and $2,500 for short-range PHEVs. This program has been so popular that 75 per cent of the $300-million, three-year budget was spent in the first eight months. In addition, Natural Resources Canada has launched a national Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program. An extra $150 million over three years was allocated in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects in public places, on-street, in multi-unit residential buildings, at workplaces or for light-duty vehicle fleets. It is also useful to compare Manitoba's lack of policies and incentives for electric vehicles with our major export customer for electricity - as of November 2020, 45 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia provide incentives for BEVs and/or PHEVs either through state legislation or electric utilities operating in the state. KEN KLASSEN Winnipeg Reliable electricity essential In 1995, after a two-week power outage, my cousin's home in Ottawa had a temperature of 5 C. I told him an outage that long would be difficult, if not impossible, to survive in Manitoba. Kudos to Manitoba Hydro after our six-hour outage. Premier Brian Pallister - and future premiers! - be very careful with your cost-cutting to this extremely essential service. TOM THOMPSON Winnipeg AI a tool against COVID-19 As most of the world has gone into lockdown during the pandemic, the scientific research com- munity has gone into overdrive trying to under- stand the nature of the COVID-19 virus. Com- monly overlooked, however, was the role artificial intelligence (AI) played with understanding and addressing the pandemic. Notably, a Canadian-based start-up, BlueDot, was among the first to detect the worrisome outbreak using its machine learning algorithms. It was also AI that played pivotal roles nationally with contact tracing, determining vulnerable pop- ulations, predicting hotspots and aiding policy- makers with slowing the spread of COVID-19. With the pandemic reaching its peak and vac- cine distributions currently underway, it is impor- tant to reflect on the role AI has played with this process. Without a doubt, it is inevitable that ar- tificial intelligence will continue to progress our societal and scientific frontiers, hence our focus should be on more effectively using AI to prevent or better thwart health risks moving forward. ABDULLAH EL-SAYES Toronto LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WHAT'S YOUR TAKE? THE FREE PRESS WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU. The Free Press is committed to publishing a diverse selection of letters from a broad cross-section of our audience. The Free Press will also consider longer submissions for inclusion on our Think Tank page, which is a platform man- dated to present a wide range of perspectives on issues of current interest. We welcome our readers' feedback on articles and letters on these pages and in other sections of the Free Press ? Email: Letters: letters@freepress.mb.ca Think Tank submissions: opinion@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 OUR VIEW YOUR SAY PERSPECTIVES EDITOR: BRAD OSWALD 204-697-7269 ? BRAD.OSWALD@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A12 SATURDAY DECEMBER 26, 2020 Too soon to celebrate declining case numbers H EALTH Minister Cameron Friesen said this week the recent decline in COVID-19 cases in Manitoba offers hope as we enter the New Year. He described it as a "turning point" in the pandemic. That may have been overly optimistic. There is no doubt the downward trend in positive cases is good news, after weeks of record high numbers and consecutive days of double-digit deaths. But with a full winter ahead and the widespread distribution of a vaccine still months away (not to mention the uncertainty around a recently- discovered variant of COVID-19 in Britain that scientists believe may be more infectious), it's im- possible to predict how SARS-CoV-2 will impact Manitoba in the coming months. The potential for a third, more deadly wave must be considered. Manitobans will play a significant role in the direction the pandemic takes as we enter the New Year. The temptation to spend time with friends and family outside of households over the holi- days will be harder to resist than it has been in recent weeks. It is an emotional time of year. The discipline shown by many to date will be tested unlike any time during the pandemic. If Manitoba is at a turning point, as Mr.Friesen suggests, it is one that will be shaped by the col- lective behaviour of Manitobans. The potential for accelerated transmission over the holidays is high; the effects of which would be felt well into 2021. We saw what happened after the Thanksgiving weekend, when people ignored public-health ad- vice and gathered with friends and family: daily case counts soared two weeks later and hospital- ization numbers began to climb. Manitoba never fully recovered. Community transmission took a foothold and the province moved into code-red restrictions a month later. Manitoba can't afford to repeat that mistake. Christmas Day has passed, but the urge to gather for festive reasons will remain until Jan. 1. It is a desire Manitobans must resist with all their might. Public-health orders may be difficult to follow, but they are simple: Manitobans should not social- ize with anyone outside their households, with very few exceptions. If they do get together with others outdoors, it should not be in groups of more than five (while always maintaining a distance of two meters). For the most part, people should stay home. They should make only essential trips to stores for things such as food and items they really need, even on Boxing Day. New Year's Eve can't be celebrated like normal. The risks are too high. The temptation will exist to cut corners, to rationalize that it's safe to get together with others "just this once." It isn't. It only takes one encounter to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to multiple people. Public-health officials have shared examples of how one event can result in hundreds of infections. Manitobans have the opportunity to make this holiday season the kind of turning point Mr. Fri- esen described. With strict adherence to public- health orders, the current trend of declining case numbers could continue. If it does, downward trending hospitalizations and deaths would likely follow. Failure to follow the orders, however, could spell disaster. It will almost certainly trigger a spike in cases and result in large numbers of avoidable deaths. Now more than ever, people need to do the right thing and stay home this holiday season. The lives of Manitobans are depending on it. EDITORIAL MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the M�tis A_12_Dec-26-20_FP_01.indd A12 2020-12-25 4:52 PM ;