A housing development is seen on the edge of the Ontario Green Belt in the Greater Toronto Area of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ont. on May 25.COLE BURSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Lost in translation
Re “Niger coup casts doubt on Canada’s African strategy of spending millions on military training, development” (Aug. 1): We call this foreign meddling when countries attempt to influence who or which political party is elected in Canada.
When Canada, along with other Western countries, provide cash and military services to countries such as Niger and Mali in support of chosen leaders, it is called doing good and a necessity. Or maybe protecting a pile of critical minerals?
Bill Bousada Carleton Place, Ont.
On strike
Re “From actors to dockworkers: This summer of strikes is actually good for the economy” (Report on Business, July 18): When Metro grocery employees strike, they exercise economic leverage within the scope of their capability.
Store management settles, or loses revenue and possible customer loyalty. Strikers also put their jobs at risk. There is grocery competition.
The Vancouver port strike has been different. Workers closing the port have influenced businesses and citizens across the country, with no recourse to alternative sources. That is why ports in Canada are within federal jurisdiction.
I do not blame port workers. I believe the government gives them licence to hold our economy ransom.
The Canada Marine Act of 1998 was intended to make “the system of Canadian ports competitive, efficient and commercially oriented.” The Trudeau government should do its job and end labour disruptions at our ports, today and forever.
Larry Sylvester Halton Hills, Ont.
As bargaining goes, labour disputes involve a degree of give and take.
Typically, the labour side presents specific demands regarding wages, pensions and working conditions, etc. On the other side, company representatives respond to labour’s demands.
What is often missing are the potential gains and losses for the owners or shareholders. How proposals and decisions affect workers are clearly laid out. Shouldn’t the impact on profit margin, for example, also be submitted?
How can fair and just resolutions be determined unless both parties equally provide what they stand to gain or lose? Perhaps straightforward comparisons should be presented at the bargaining table.
Michelle Matich Langley, B.C.
I would say that strikes in the workplace are a necessary evil to ensure that workers are able to participate in economic growth and improve their standard of living. But to say that redistributing wealth through strikes “will drive economic activity and job creation” would be off the mark.
Strikes often cause hardship to the strikers, their families, businesses and economic growth in general. The effects often last long after a strike is over.
Michael Gilman Toronto
Look into it?
Re “When it comes to a COVID inquiry, we shouldn’t succumb to cynicism” (July 31): I agree wholeheartedly on the need for an inquiry. However, I think there are two factors that will prevent one from happening.
First, general public apathy. When we told a friend that our son and his family recently contracted COVID-19, she responded: “Aren’t we done with COVID?”
Second, the strong likelihood that an inquiry will devolve into finger-pointing between the federal government and its provincial counterparts.
Richard Holland Alnwick/Haldimand, Ont.
A national inquiry would be unnecessary.
We know what to do; we knew what to do after SARS. We just did not do it. No effective efforts, at any level, were made to implement the changes needed to face a new public-health crisis.
The contributors clearly outline what must be done. An inquiry would inevitably arrive at the same conclusion after many, many months and many, many millions of dollars.
Let’s get going now and ready our complex systems for the next one. It will likely arrive sooner than we hope.
John Carsley MD, FRCPC; clinical associate professor, University of British Columbia
Supply and demand
Re “What Taylor Swift has in common with your family doctor” (Report on Business, Aug. 1): Family doctors, for the most part, are in private business and not “hired” by Canadian governments. Governments do control the number of positions in medical schools and they should increase that number.
Columnist Tony Keller is a believer in universal health insurance. Tell that to the one million B.C. citizens who do not have a family doctor and cannot access health care. Insurance companies are obligated to fulfil the terms of their policies – not so for governments that charge citizens taxes for health care and then do not provide it in a timely and accessible fashion.
Derryck Smith MD Vancouver
How? Where?
Re “Cities promise housing – and then make new rules that prevent it” (Editorial, July 31): It seems that increasing density and adding to housing supply is turning into a policy bandwagon‚ with little regard for safety and impacts on neighbours.
Planning regulations have come to be looked upon as obstacles. They can be cumbersome, sometimes inappropriate, but most are necessary.
Height restrictions, angular requirements, street access lot drainage and windows and door placements, for example, ensure safety and neighbours’ access to air, sunlight and prevention of fire and water hazards. Much of what makes a livable house lies in these controls.
We would wake up in a decade to blame policy makers who may, in their present hurry to increase housing supply, ignore these qualities of a house and neighbourhood.
Mohammad Qadeer Professor emeritus, urban planning Toronto
Re “With office vacancies still high in Toronto, tenants privately negotiating best deals in years” (Report on Business, July 31): I heard that malls are being retrofitted to provide housing. I am wondering if the same might be considered for these old and new office spaces that are standing empty everywhere.
This could help with the housing crisis and if affordable – that too.
Val Endicott Toronto
Her terms
Re “Sinead O’Connor’s road to Islam serves as an inspiration” (Aug. 1): It had never occurred to me to hear Nothing Compares 2 U as a religious song.
Now, reading the lyrics in the context of Sinead O’Connor’s life, the song’s refusal of false consolation and frank admission of the painful difficulty of love both romantic and ecclesial (”I know that living with you baby was sometimes hard”) rings out to me as a cry of spiritual isolation in an age of passing comforts.
Her return to religion was the most punk thing she could do.
Paul Dyck Professor of English, Canadian Mennonite University Winnipeg
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