Ambulances sit at the emergency room entrance at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto on April 29, 2021.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Long game
Re “Calm down, the sky isn’t going to fall with the capital gains tax hike” (Report on Business, April 23): Surely we can all agree that sudden calamity is not the concern.
The real concern should be when businesses have a choice between investing in Canada and another country, and they choose to structure affairs to minimize Canadian capital gains by investing elsewhere. Why wouldn’t they?
It probably doesn’t mean fewer startups, rather that established businesses will have greater incentives to grow outside of Canada. What does that do to Canadian job growth, wages and capital availability? Nothing good.
Certainly not a sudden calamity, but not a bright future either. Let’s see where we are in five or six years and if, in hindsight, we think the sky in fact did fall.
Douglas Nix CPA; chairman, Stillwater Capital; Oakville, Ont.
Recommended reading for the Liberal-NDP government: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Mike McCrodan Parksville, B.C.
Wishful thinking
Re “Canada risks going too far in overhauling competition law” (Report on Business, April 19): I see a serious disconnect between calls for more foreign competition in Canada and the reality of the global economy.
It is less competitive by the day. Think of the Airbus-Boeing duopoly, which summarily blocked Bombardier’s quixotic attempt to break in.
Then there is China, which eliminates competition in countless industries with ruthless efficiency, often while paying no attention to competition laws, intellectual property rights or any other rules of good economic behaviour. The country is now cornering the global electric-vehicle business, as laid-off Tesla employees can testify.
It is in this environment that we are trying to introduce more competition among Canadian companies which, by world standards, are quite small. The strangest notion of all is that we can improve competition by replacing local oligopolies with bigger foreign ones.
We should focus on developing large Canadian companies that can compete and survive in a brutal global economic environment.
Jim Paulin Ottawa
Whose rules?
Re “As deadline nears, global pandemic treaty talks hobbled by delays and quarrels” (April 22): To think that a global approach to health is a good idea is absurd to me.
I believe it is dangerous to allow an unelected body, no matter how honourable its intentions, to set protocols and dictates that would overrule local authorities regarding the health of their own people.
No wonder governments are squabbling over almost every line in the 110-page draft of the proposed agreement.
Leslie Martel Mississauga
Health scare
Re “The failure of Canada’s health care system is a disgrace – and a deadly one” (April 19): I sadly report that a two-tiered system works.
I needed a dermatologist appointment and was told it would be about a one-year wait. So on holiday in the United States, I called a nearby dermatology office.
I got an appointment in two days: an exam head to toe by a nurse practitioner specialist, and my suspicious mole biopsied. I got results in 48 hours. Total bill: $306.
We need many more physician assistants and nurse practitioners. And maybe a two-tiered system.
No longer can we afford to lose people through neglect.
Peggy Richardson Meaford, Ont.
My spouse and I are fortunate to have family doctors and access to specialists and surgical procedures when they are needed.
We have lived in Toronto for a long time, and have been going to the same clinic since the 1980s. By contrast, friends who moved from Toronto to Kingston can have their names put on a two- to three-year waiting list, but only if they give up their doctors in Toronto.
There are solutions. More money is required, but it should be spent wisely. We should sort out this federal-provincial tug-of-war and have health care be federal, period. Provinces can act as stewards of the system and solve problems as they arise.
There are numerous systems around the world that work well, and Canada should remodel its system based on these best practices. Let us hope that Canadians have the collective wisdom to do something right with health care.
Ted Parkinson Toronto
I’m a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen living in Calgary.
I’ve spent decades dealing with the health care systems in both countries and, until recently, I’ve lauded Canada’s system. But no more.
I now find it a disgrace, and people should demand better. Emergency rooms are usually nightmares. Surgeries often come with multiyear wait times. Many people can’t find family doctors.
These three things are at the top of what makes or breaks a health care system. No politician should be elected without having first defined their plan to make it better.
At least make it better.
Mike Gilchrist Calgary
Own terms
Re “Canada’s broken social safety net pushes people toward assisted dying” (April 22): I am a strong and vocal supporter of dying with dignity and appreciate the choice it offers me in my end-of-life plan. That said, I’m an even stronger proponent of living with dignity.
Those of us who are less vulnerable should continue to advocate for better governmental and societal supports for those in need, so that medical assistance in dying is not their “best” or only option.
Diane Labelle-Davey Ottawa
I notice that most stories about medical assistance in dying focus on the margins: the medical, legal and ethical edges of this relatively new way of dying.
I fail to see how stripping Canadians with incurable illnesses of their right to MAID will improve the lives of people in poverty or with disabilities. To me, these are separate issues that should not be conflated.
My father died with MAID in 2022. He relied on the subjective, clinical opinions of health care providers for approval.
I don’t know about the other 13,000-plus Canadians who accessed MAID that year, but I do know my father’s health care providers acted with the utmost diligence, professionalism and compassion.
For their care, I am extremely grateful, as I am to live in a country where a dignified man can experience a dignified death on his own terms, surrounded by the people who loved him most.
Kelley Korbin West Vancouver
With distinction
Re “If I’m ‘old,’ when do I become ‘elderly’?” (First Person, April 22): I enjoyed this essay on the bewildering and maybe dreaded transition from “old” to “elderly.”
It reminded me of my Scottish uncle Ernest Edwards, a Sapper with the Royal Engineers who was killed at 21 while fighting rearguard action at Dunkirk. My Glaswegian war bride mother spoke of him always in the most reverential terms: her “eldest” brother, not “oldest.”
I treasure to this day that respectful distinction.
J. Phillip Nicholson Ottawa
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