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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Dr. Six (Million)

Re The $6.6-Million Doctor Distorts Pay Battle (April 26): The revelation by Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins that a certain doctor billed $6.6-million is mind-boggling.

Wow.

If this is true, it means this doctor has pulled down as much as … a hockey player.

Bob Parkins, Bolton, Ont.

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While I have no problem with ophthalmologists earning up to $4-million or $5-million – there really aren't that many of them across Canada – I do strenuously object to general practitioners, who have not invested years in specialist training, earning over a million.

R.B. Fleming, Argyle, Ont.

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Things that we will never know about Dr. Six:

How many people does Dr. Six employ? Presumably they all pay taxes to help keep the economy afloat.

How much in taxes does Dr. Six pay?

How much money does Dr. Six contribute to charity?

Is Dr. Six a super-speedy, super-competent surgeon, delivering each and every service billed to OHIP (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan) with excellent professional skill, compassion for patients, and courtesy?

Does Dr. Six operate outside a hospital setting, thereby bearing all overhead costs for (expensive) ophthalmologic surgical procedures?

Is Dr. Six beloved by his/her patients and staff, because he/she is such a fabulous doctor and human being?

Just a few things to consider, other than the number. We greatly admire people who are successful at their careers – except for Ontario doctors, I guess.

K.M. Peckan, MD, Waterloo, Ont.

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As a general rule of thumb, a doctor's overhead costs are roughly one third of gross billings. This would provide a pretax income of $4.4-million. However, the income would almost certainly be closer to $5-million, as overhead costs as a percentage decrease as billings increase. Assuming that this doctor is in the highest tax bracket, the after-tax income would be more than $2.5-million.

And by the way, this doctor could be a woman. In medicine, we have equally generous pay for equal work.

Ashok Sajnani, MD, Toronto

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Moral eco-imperatives

When it comes to climate change, so often we get bogged down in the economic case for a specific project or piece of legislation (Signed And Sealed. Now, It's Time To Deliver – April 26). As this article by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives reminds us, it is important to remember the moral case: To many people, the threat is not economic but existential.

Perhaps we need to adopt a policy-formation rule that anyone who says no to a particular action against global warming must provide not only an argument against it, but an alternative to it. Because we need to take serious action, and we need to take it now.

Jack Morton, Toronto

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Infrastructure, only

Re Infrastructure Program Now Includes Recreational Works (April 26): For years – nay, decades – infrastructure has been sidelined or underfunded to such an extent that there is a frighteningly huge backlog of repairs and upgrades needed simply to sustain the quality of living in our cities and towns. The federal government has belatedly promised $13-billion as a contribution to this massive mess of problems, which has been piling up faster than our national debt.

There is only one problem: Fixing a water main, repainting a bridge, modernizing rail switches and safety facilities – none of these provides the photo ops that politicians crave. Hockey rinks and community centres do.

With little fanfare, the federal government now plans to diminish the funds allocated to infrastructure issues and spend the money instead on recreation. If flash bulbs still were in use, you could hear them popping. This misapplication of needed funds is an example of how we got into this sorry mess in the first place. It is wrong and needs to stop.

Recreational facilities are prime targets for lottery money, fund raising and other community projects. It is unconscionable to dilute the funds allocated to critical infrastructure needs so that more hockey and basketball can be played.

Ottawa needs to grow up. Let the photo op go. Do what's right and needed for Canada – maintain and invest in our infrastructure, for all our sakes.

David Kister, Toronto

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Proud in Edmonton

Re Mayor Seeks To Make Edmonton Global Player In Health (April 26): We're already there. Mayor Don Iveson need look no farther than across the North Saskatchewan River (a five-minute LRT ride) to the University of Alberta's Faculty of Nursing to take pride in its recent independent global ranking of fourth-best baccalaureate Faculty of Nursing in the world, in addition to being ranked No. 2 in Canada.

This record of achievement since the inception of its baccalaureate nursing degree in 1923, while not showing up in profit-and-loss records specifically as innovations in private and public endeavours, nevertheless contributes to successes in many other domains in the form of health intervention, health promotion and disease prevention in practice, research and teaching.

And for the record, the U of A Master's program in nursing was initiated in 1975, and the first PhD program in nursing in Canada began in 1991.

M. Ruth Elliott, professor emerita, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton

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Bombardier …

Re Bombardier Once Again Fails To Deliver On TTC Streetcars (April 26): Bombardier's track record (pardon the pun) in other places is also pretty poor.

Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway, sued the company in 2013 for more than $700-million for alleged "defects" in Bombardier trains in Berlin and Munich.

In December, 2013, Transport for London cancelled its contract with Bombardier for signal and control system upgrades, taking a $156-million loss rather than endure what it called Bombardier's "shameful" performance and serious delays. It concluded that Bombardier was simply incapable of doing the job. The final report on the London debacle was released in March, 2016, and it accuses Bombardier of more than mere incompetence.

May I recommend that the TTC talk to London and German officials, with an eye toward considering a serious lawsuit over Toronto's "shameful" treatment by Bombardier.

Bert Hall, Toronto

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New raccoon-proof green bins for compostable waste are being rolled out to Torontonians this week.

Perhaps Bombardier might be a suitable manufacturer for any that haven't been produced yet. The company doesn't seem to be having much success with aircraft or streetcars. Maybe garbage bins?

Helen Godfrey, Toronto

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