Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba OUR VIEW YOUR SAY COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A6 MONDAY JULY 29, 2024 Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis It’s time Re: “Wrong Choice” (Letters, July 26). J.D. Marion thinks that Pete Buttigieg is the wrong choice for Kamala Harris’s running mate in the U.S presidential election. They conclude: “I just don’t think that the U.S. is ready for the ‘most progressive’ duo that has ever run for the White House.” A quarter of a century ago we were watching Will and Grace on television. It’s time for some Will and Grace in the White House. RICH NORTH Winnipeg Better ways Re: “Proud of students,” July 26. My advice to Dr. Jonathan Donald Jenner and Dr. Mark Libin is to get out of your academic world and into the real world. I also suggest you do some credible research. Call it what you want but the encampment was nothing but hate, ignorant misinformation and intimidation. There are better ways to initiate discussion. Anyone who supports the encampment and what it stands for has no business working at a university. Your antisemitism is showing. ROCHELLE LITVACK Winnipeg Burning question “Alberta premier fights tears over Canada wildfires…” Poor Danielle Smith and her followers are all upset about Alberta burning down for a second year in a row. Good thing her government continues to fight against federal policies to combat global warm- ing and continue to encourage Albertans to burn more gas. What’s that saying? You reap what you sow. STEWART JACQUES Winnipeg Customer disservice These past few weeks WestJet is failing misera- bly in customer service once again. Why in heaven’s name people continue to travel with them is beyond me. The story about the Vegas to Winnipeg flight (“Miserable passengers gambled, lost on WestJet flight,” July 26) was atrocious, and what passengers had to endure is unacceptable, sitting on a tarmac for 4+ hours. It’s the same story every time. You wait on the tarmac and then return to the hangar to refuel. What needs to happen on that certain flight is that all the passengers need to acknowledge a class-action lawsuit against WestJet, and we’ll see how quickly things change. You need one representative to lead the way. WILLY MARTENS Winnipeg Fix up or tear down Re: “Derelict buildings in city’s sights,” July 25. When will the city take concrete steps to tackle the problem of vacant and boarded up properties? There are currently 700 such properties in Winnipeg, according to the Free Press. These properties not only devalue and make neighbourhoods look bad and unsafe, they are a huge cost to the city and the rest of the taxpayers with their constant need for intervention by fire department, paramedics and police personnel. The solution can be a simple takeover by the city. Owners of these properties should be allowed six months to start remedial steps (and complete the job soon after) to bring these properties to livable conditions, or lose ownership status. Where owners do nothing after six months, the properties would be taken over by the city. The properties can then be repurposed and/or sold as is, to individuals or institutions with a legitimate, approved plan. Alternatively, the vacant buildings can be demolished and the lot cleaned up and prepared for future sale. An empty lot is always better than a boarded up building or pile of rubble. The cost of doing this can be recouped by sales proceeds, and even if there are no proceeds, it would still cost less than doing nothing. Maintain- ing status quo is definitely not a good option. Mayor Scott Gillingham, Premier Wab Kinew, show us we have not wasted our vote. Amend the laws if necessary, but do it and do it now! GIOVANNI VERSACE Winnipeg Strong column Re: “Trudeau cabinet showing lack of disci- pline,” July 19. Another bang-on piece from Prof. Royce Koop! Certainly federal cabinet ministers are fearful of going “against the grain” and speaking out. However, this is not just for reasons of cabinet solidarity (or even fear of losing their jobs) — though that is part of it. A bigger reason that they don’t speak out is more simple — most of them around the table lack the capacity to even understand the eco- nomics of the important issues of government (beyond their departmental fiefdom). This is absolutely the worst cabinet in Canadian history. If only a few more of them had taken In- tro Economics (or Intro Accounting) in universi- ty, our country would be in so much better shape! DEREK ROLSTONE Winnipeg Well done The tentative collective bargaining agreement concluded between Manitoba public school teach- ers and the province of Manitoba as reported in the Free Press (“Teachers in 37 divisions reach first provincewide contract,” July 20) is an out- standing example of how our civil systems can and should work. No doubt bargaining was arduous, complex and tenacious over these past many months, and no doubt each side needed to yield on their interests to come to this historic first province-wide teach- er agreement in Manitoba. Most importantly, in my mind, there is no doubt the interests of students, schools and public education in Manitoba have been served by prag- matic, rational and committed “brokers” who em- braced a “win-win” approach to problem solving where each side shares an interest in finding the middle ground and avoiding unnecessary conflict around the provision of the vital service of public education. Good work, Manitoba Teachers’ Society and Manitoba School Boards Association in acting and living up to the preamble wording of our Manitoba Labour Relations Act, which states in part, “It is in the public interest of the province of Manitoba to further harmonious relations be- tween employers and employees by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargain- ing between employers and unions … .” Hopefully the ratification vote by teachers in early August will confirm that this process has found a fair and positive outcome to this very important matter. ROLAND STANKEVICIUS Winnipeg Becoming desensitized Is it normal for one to feel a slightly greater desensitization and even resignation with each news report of the daily civilian death toll from a foreign war’s frequent bombardment? I’ve noticed this disturbing effect, at least in me, with almost every major prolonged conflict or war internationally since I began regularly consuming news products in 1987. It’s as though the practical value of those civil- ians’ lives while caught in the military vicious- ness can eventually be subconsciously perceived as reduced by external news-consuming observ- ers, notably we in the relatively democratic and civilized nations. In other words, the lives’ worth is inversely proportional to the abundance of protracted conditions under which they suffer, a “quality of life” measure of sorts, which might even start re- ceiving comparably little coverage in the Western world’s general daily news. The unfortunate effect may be exacerbated by any racial contrast between the news consumer and subject. If accurate, what does it say about me/us when it has become normalized? FRANK STERLE JR. White Rock, B.C. 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 inclu- sion on our Think Tank page, which is a platform mandated 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@winnipegfreepress.com Think Tank submissions: opinion@winnipegfreepress.com ● 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 The not-so-unexpected return of Sio Silica I T’S right there, in black and white. Well, ac- tually in full colour, and in video, too. If you’re looking for an explanation for why Sio Silica is making another attempt to curry favour for a major silica mining project in this province, the information is all right there on the company’s website. “Sio is the largest high purity sand resource in Canada, and arguably the world, on its 100 per cent controlled mineral rights. Our deposit is one of the highest purity silica dioxide (SiO2) quartz sands that consistently tests well below the maximum allowed impurities such as iron and aluminum. Our end product after processing will be of 99.9 per cent SiO2 purity,” Sio’s website says. “The company has secured a total of 459 mining claims, which covers over 100,000 hect- ares of land.” The fact is that the sand project is the compa- ny’s only project — there’s no other set of mineral claims, no other place for the venture to focus on. The company had expected to be much further ahead than it is now, having planned to start pre- construction planning for its production facility in the last quarter of 2023. It had also found a corporate partner and was expecting to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Premier Wab Kinew’s government changed all that, obviously, by not approving what the company calls its patent-pending unique system to mine the silica sand. A big selling point in the company’s promotional material was how envi- ronmentally friendly Sio claimed its extraction process would be — no large mine, no trucking of silica, instead, pumping a water/silica slurry out from underground. Environmental concerns, however, were raised about the effects of the pumping on underground aquifers. The company said the decision was made for political reasons, but chose not to appeal it. Now, Sio Silica is making another try to devel- op its leases — the president and chief executive officer of the Calgary-based firm, Feisal Somji, confirmed the effort was underway after the Free Press asked about a presentation the compa- ny had made to members of the Brokenhead First Nation on July 21. No one should be surprised that Sio Silica is pitching a new form of the project. How could they not? There’s just too much at stake for the company. The Manitoba Prospectors and Developers Association has argued that there is four times more silica sand in this province than there is potash in Saskatchewan, and that silica sand sells for more than twice as much per tonne than potash. You could say the case is being made that silica projects are too big to fail — or at least too big for a cash-starved provincial government to ignore. And Sio Silica has a huge portion of that re- source as effectively its sole asset. Truth is, Sio Silica is welcome to make a new case for the project whose approval is central to its very existence. Meanwhile, the same questions have to be asked about the project that were asked the last time it was presented. At what price does development go ahead? What does it take for the venture to be acceptable, both economically and environmentally? Is there full, meaningful and detailed consultation with Indigenous groups? Is the province satisfied that the mining method, whatever it may be next, is demonstrably safe for the province’s people, wildlife and aquifers? That’s the very beginning. There may, in fact, be some middle ground that eventually makes the project acceptable. But we haven’t seen it yet, and there’s a long and careful road ahead before we even get close to that point. EDITORIAL GREG VANDERMEULEN / THE CARILLON Premier Wab Kinew pauses as the crowd applauds the Feb. 16 announcement to deny Sio Silica an environ- mental licence. ;