Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an announcement on the Canada Strong Fund in Ottawa on April 27.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Don’t worry
Re “Ottawa to pull plug on Arctic naval facility” (May 7): The Arctic is difficult even for our own military to operate in, yet we are afraid Russia or China will just waltz in? I do not believe either country is going to invade our Arctic islands.
So we do not need 12 new submarines. We should still spend more on the military and increase our ability to operate in the North, but much of this concern for Arctic sovereignty seems like paranoia.
Russia and China have better, more attractive targets closer to their own shores and do not seem so desperate for our natural resources to start a war.
Brian Graff Toronto
Financial drain
Re “Off the rails: A guided tour of the Liberals’ fiscal fecklessness” (The Sunday Editorial, May 3): A compelling indictment of the Liberals for their reckless spending, particularly because they violated their own standard of balanced budgets. The unconscionable waste did not end with the Trudeau government.
In the recent financial update, Mark Carney’s Finance Minister announced a lower-than-projected deficit due to $11-billion in increased revenues. But they still plan to operate with cumulative deficits of $309-billion through 2029-2030.
Our net debt will balloon from about $1.4-trillion to $1.8-trillion. Debt servicing costs will rise from $54-billion to more than $80-billion.
Meanwhile, Canadian wage growth is low and per capita GDP is declining. The cost of living is rising.
A sovereign wealth fund based on borrowed money, augmented by loonies from citizens’ piggy banks and invested in singularly Canadian enterprise will not put groceries on the table nor gas in the tank.
Larry Sylvester Halton Hills, Ont.
Origin story
Re “Louise Arbour ticks every box for the job of governor-general” (May 7): If nothing else, the appointment of Louise Arbour as the next Governor-General might cause a few more Albertans to sign petitions in favour of secession.
Ms. Arbour’s accomplishments in Canada and on the world stage are inarguable. However, the nexus of her bilingual academic and professional career is in the cultural and geographic confines of Quebec and Ontario.
One must ask: Were there no Franco-Manitobans, Franco-Saskatchewanians or Franco-Albertans who could have taken on vice-regal responsibilities? I think the Prime Minister missed an opportunity to say to the West, “We see you. We hear you. You matter.”
Martin Birt Uxbridge, Ont.
Word for word
Re “Here’s the real scandal at the heart of the Alberta data breach” (May 6): I recommend more essential reading for all Canadians about what’s going on here in Alberta.
The upcoming referendum includes nine questions. Each one is a single sentence (the longest has 58 words) with many having conditional clauses and emotive phrases such as “assuming that” and “intrude on provincial jurisdiction.”
Five of the questions are essentially about controlling provincial immigration and reducing immigrant access to essential services.
I find the questions hard to read, let alone understand, and this feels like a deliberate choice. The UCP seems to be hoping that most voters, believing their government is working in their best interests, will simply vote yes.
I believe this “campaign” is a scandal, though I would echo contributor Andrew Coyne’s conclusion: “I don’t think scandal is even the word.”
Nigel Brachi Edmonton
If you build it…
Re “Canada should back away from carbon capture and storage and focus on infrastructure like pipelines” (Opinion, May 2): I agree that energy markets have changed dramatically and Canada should capitalize on this moment by increasing our energy exports, but the Pathways carbon capture, use and storage project is a significant opportunity to develop a new industry and reduce our emissions.
Alberta would be able to export its carbon technology and expertise to global markets and attract new hard-to-abate industries to the province, clustering around world-leading carbon sequestration infrastructure. Similar to how Canada continues to leverage its early leadership in nuclear, the Pathways CCUS project would create a new, innovative supply chain across the country.
The energy shock would further grow the Alberta energy sector’s record production (and record profit). Now is the time to invest these windfalls in CCUS at scale, position the province as a global leader in industrial decarbonization and secure future prosperity.
John Richardson London, England
Carbon capture and storage has historically been a boondoggle due to immense costs. It is unproven in the long term and at any significant scale, as well as delays Canada’s inevitable transition away from legacy fossil fuels to full electrification.
But I find the suggestion that building pipelines is somehow economic diversification has it backward. Diversification should not be doubling down on oil and gas, but developing our homegrown technologies in solar and wind energy, green hydrogen, etc.
The analogy that Canada is a house with a leaky roof in need of new revenue misses that climate is changing fast. Models show a high chance for a super El Niño this summer, and the next five years will likely be the hottest ever measured.
A leaky roof is one thing, having the whole house burn down is another.
Jillian Buriak North Saanich, B.C.
MAID for mental illness?
Re “Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access” (May 5): To psychiatrists who oppose medical assistance in dying, because there might be treatment beyond what many people with longstanding depression have already received: I’ve known patients who’ve received every medication available, multiple courses of electroconvulsive therapy and multiple hospitalizations. They are not poor or vulnerable; they are just suffering.
Do we tell patients with metastatic cancer that there may be another chemotherapy when three rounds of the newest one have failed and caused terrible side effects? I find this position discriminatory against those whose suffering is beyond medical remediation.
Michael Gordon MD, FRCPC; Toronto
I have had Bipolar 1 disorder for 33 years. I am permanently on disability payments because it has been deemed I will never be able to work again.
Know what I can’t get? A document that says sane Bob, balanced Bob, won’t let depressed Bob kill himself. There is no way for my psychiatrist to exclude me from medical assistance in dying.
I am neutral right now. My mood is neither up nor down, and to call it good is a stretch. But neutral is good enough. I want to live.
Why can’t I be sure that I won’t be allowed to use my chronic back pain and poverty to get someone to kill me? Suicidal ideation is a part of my life. I need legal protection from that, right now. Otherwise I am being abandoned.
Want to expand MAID to me? Make damn sure I can never get it.
Bob Preece Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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