A doctor working in the emergency services of Quebec's Rivière Rouge hospital.ROGER LEMOYNE
That time again
Re “With their long-awaited budget, Liberals must answer the question: What do we want Canada to be about?” (Nov. 1): These quotes are taken from “Budget in Brief” (April 27, 1989) and feel as relevant today as they were more than 35 years ago when presented by then-finance minister Michael Wilson.
“This budget is about building for the future, not borrowing from it. That is why this budget deals firmly with the major obstacle to the future – the problem of our growing debt. This budget is designed to overcome that obstacle. The measures in it are tough because they match the challenge that we are facing.
“These measures pale by comparison with the price we would all pay if we fail, and the far greater price our children would pay if we allow our problem to become their crisis.
“Our future success will depend on the will of the government to continue making tough choices, and on the understanding and commitment of Canadians to join in building is stronger Canada.”
Bob Whitelaw Ottawa
Down to business
Re “Doubling non-U.S. exports is hard. Does Carney really have the courage for it?” (Report on Business, Oct. 24): In our newish zeal to diversify markets, we need to rely on our exporters. For too long, they have relied on an easy market south of the border.
In more than 30 years as a federal trade commissioner, I, along with colleagues, sought out market opportunities overseas for our exporters. Our business people would come, but for reasons such as cost of entry, foreign languages, distance from home and ease of the U.S. market, many were deterred from pursuing new business.
Trade agreements can grease the skids only so much. We need our business community to aggressively pursue new opportunities abroad. Their survival, and the country’s, depends on it.
David Collins Victoria
Re “Pension fund CEOs renew calls for Ottawa to sell key infrastructure assets” (Oct. 31): As an investment banker, I spent five years working on the privatization and subsequent financings of Petro-Canada. I had bit roles in the IPO of Telus and I had front-row seats to the privatizations of Cameco, PotashCorp, Air Canada and Nova Scotia Power.
All of these companies have vastly exceeded as private companies what they would have been as Crown-owned corporations. Several are world-class, with reach and income far from what is available in Canada alone.
Not only do pension funds need these kinds of investments, Canada needs these kind of public companies.
John Budreski Whistler, B.C.
Out of control
Re “Quebec cracks down on doctors – but will imposing a contract improve patient care?" (Oct. 28): This draconian approach by the Legault government will likely not improve wait times or outcomes.
The performance metrics imposed by the government can’t be met because the demand for medical services exceeds the capacity to deliver it. If Quebec believes it can achieve better outcomes simply by mandating them without providing the systems, infrastructure and personnel to achieve them, why not legislate away all medical problems in the country?
I don’t like wait times anymore than anyone else, but shifting the blame to doctors, who can do little to make it better, should not be the answer.
Joel Cohen Hamilton
What better way to add financial pressures to the extant moral distress of working in today’s emergency departments than to threaten financial penalties for doctors when patients languish for hours awaiting a ward bed.
That many hospitals are at overcapacity is outside the control of doctors and nurses in the ED. There is nothing they would like more than a smooth flow of patients out of their department into the hospital, releasing space for those waiting (impatiently) in the halls.
Demanding they solve a problem for which they have no tools, then penalizing them for failure, would be madness. These doctors should come work in Ontario: Our EDs are similarly crowded for the same reasons, but they won’t be fined.
David Walker MD, FRCPC; professor emeritus, emergency medicine and dean emeritus, health sciences, Queen’s University; Kingston, Ont.
Teachable moment
Re “Unions in a bind as governments increasingly use arcane pieces of the law to quash strikes” (Oct. 29): Public support is at the centre of public-sector labour disputes. But how can a union “rally public support” while trying at the same time to discomfort the public?
Unions hope that dissatisfaction will be directed at government for its intransigence. Government knows that dissatisfaction will likely only be aimed its way if it doesn’t take action to restore services, and do so quickly.
Allowing service disruptions to continue and fester? No democratic government can be expected to deliberately put itself in such a position. In effect, the government has only two options: Concede or force a return to work.
The right to strike in the public sector exists in principle, but in reality I see it is a mirage. Binding arbitration would be a better approach, for all sides.
Peter Conroy Ottawa
Re “Alberta students stage walkouts to protest province’s back-to-work order to teachers” (Oct. 31): My children attend public school in Calgary. The recent legislation mandating teachers return to class may restore attendance, but it overlooks the real classroom crisis: swollen classes and overloaded teachers.
Alberta once set targets for class size which are no longer met. Public tracking of class sizes was discontinued in 2019, removing transparency. Teachers now report many classes with 30-plus students and a rising complexity of needs.
While the province is promising thousands of new hires and a teacher pay rise, this alone doesn’t guarantee smaller classes unless targets, timelines and reporting are backed with accountability. As a parent, I ask: Publish the largest class per school, set binding caps by grade, require boards to report quarterly and ensure the number and role of educational assistants is transparent.
Let’s not just get kids back in class, let’s fix the learning conditions so teachers can teach and kids can learn.
Cassidy Silbernagel Calgary
Sweat it out
Re “For cancer, exercise could be the key to recovery” (Oct. 28): The only thing I would add to this paean to exercise is to emphasize the undoubted boost it gives to energy and creativity in all situations.
It is great that data supports exercise as a tremendous treatment for recovery from illness, but limiting it to a preventative strategy to maintain good health downplays the massive benefits it provides by improving focus and memory, reducing stress and enhancing mood in everybody.
In a sedentary age under an onslaught of mental health suffering, it’s good to know we can sweat our way out of it.
Nigel Smith Toronto
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