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
..............................................................................................
It's very Canadian
Re PM's Visit With Aga Khan Under Scrutiny (Jan. 17): The Aga Khan is probably a noble gentleman. He is worth more than a billion dollars, owns horses, jets, luxury hotels, a yacht, many properties, and as we now know, an island and helicopter.
And the Canadian taxpayer gave him $300-million for his foundation. I think we all deserve a holiday on his island. I have my snorkel ready!
Leon Munoz, Burlington, Ont.
................................................
I find it funny and very Canadian that the opposition parties and the media are up in arms over our Prime Minister's visit to one of the least controversial and most benevolent international figures, the Aga Khan.
Even if the Aga Khan is currying favour, heaven forbid, it's for a good cause. We should be thanking our lucky stars that we're not worrying about Justin Trudeau's friendship with Vladimir Putin.
Hope Smith, Calgary
................................................
A blond meteorite is scheduled to strike the Earth around noon on Friday and some of us are apoplectic because the PM may have taken an unauthorized trip in a private helicopter. Seriously?
David Shanoff, Toronto
................................................
Most Liberal apologists will loudly claim that it is not a big deal for the PM and his family to take a private vacation. And I would agree. But the rub is the attempt to keep this island hopping hushed up. Justin Trudeau would do well to learn from this latest misstep and realize real leadership is more than just words.
James R. McCarney, Oakville, Ont.
................................................
Need to disclose
Re Canada Falling Behind in Global Sustainability Rankings (Report on Business, Jan. 17): A December report released by Stakeholder Research Associates and sponsored by Export Development Canada, "Advancing Sustainability Reporting in Canada," found that only 65 per cent of companies listed on the TSX Composite Index provide any public disclosure of sustainability initiatives, compared with 92 per cent of those in the global top 250 (G250) and 81 per cent of those in the S&P 500.
Evidence in the report demonstrates that corporate sustainability disclosure in Canada has not advanced since 2005. Based on these findings, Janet McFarland's article rightly points to the need for our governments to take action to develop requirements for corporate-sustainability disclosure as Canadian corporations face increased and ever-more-complex sustainability issues.
Kathrin Bohr, Stakeholder Research Associates, Toronto
................................................
Crude on the move
Re B.C. Pipeline Fee Sets A Terrible Precedent (editorial, Jan. 17): You say the B.C. pipeline fee is "essentially a tax." I would argue that it is, in fact, a toll. The pipeline is a vehicle for moving oil to market, no different than a truck carrying oil on the toll highway north of Toronto. The fee is for the convenience of using that right-of-way – in this case, the land of British Columbia.
John Kulczycki, London, Ont.
................................................
There is a word for this: extortion.
John Crabb, Stratford, Ont.
................................................
The Globe and Mail is upset that B.C.'s Premier negotiated up to $1-billion from Kinder Morgan in exchange for permission to expand the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The pipeline fee is tantamount to a tax on goods moving to market through a territory, argues your editorial, which says the role of companies is to create wealth and jobs.
Isn't the role of government to protect citizens from harm? What price tag, then, should a government place on potential damage from spills of diluted bitumen?
Perhaps Christy Clark is setting a bad precedent after all. Perhaps her pipeline fee is too low.
Cheryl McNamara, Toronto
................................................
Pension alarm
As a retired institutional investment portfolio manager, I read the interview with Mark Machin, head of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) with some alarm (Appetite For Risk – Report on Business, Jan. 14). With his declared intent to raise investment risk, I would suggest he may have plenty of risk already with an asset mix only 20-per-cent fixed income and 20-per-cent Canadian. CPP pension benefits are paid in Canadian dollars: Whatever happened to the principle of matching assets with liabilities?
Only 5.4 per cent of assets in Canadian equities? Is this part of "the grass is greener elsewhere" syndrome many large Canadian pension funds are afflicted with?
CPPIB appears to have mostly missed a great year in Canadian stocks in 2016 and may also have missed rewarding opportunities to take large positions in prominent but beleaguered companies in Canada's resource sectors.
I understand the challenge of a giant pension fund acting in a smaller global market (Canada), but convince me CPPIB has made the most of what's in its backyard.
The current fashionable wave of pension funds chasing large private equity deals is concerning in that such keen demand competes away returns. I am sympathetic to Moody's analyst Jason Mercer's view that performance results from such investments are fraught with assumptions (not subject to a public market test).
The absence of a dedicated risk officer and personnel turnover at high levels may also be cause for concern.
Don Moren, Winnipeg
................................................
Sheer joy on ice
Tobi Asmoucha's beautiful photo essay evoked a multitude of fond memories from my youth (Community On Ice – Jan. 14).
The all-age shinny games were a highlight, with sticks piled at centre ice and divided into two teams with a toss, one way or the other. If one team was too stacked, a few skaters would change sides to even things out.
The games were self-regulated, no referees required. It was a great way to hone your skills while making new friends along with the occasional "enemy."
After moving to Toronto for school, I discovered several outdoor rinks. Saturday shinny games were a great way to survive the winter blues. Many years later, I was planning to hit Eglinton Park for a game of shinny when my future father-in law decided to "dust off the Tacks" and join me. He was about 60 then and it had been a decade or two since he had skated. He had some natural talent, to be sure, but it was his look of sheer, childlike joy that stayed with me. After he potted yet another goal, I'll never forget one of the youngest players skating right up to him and saying, "Hey mister, no raisers allowed!!!"
We laughed all the way home that day. Like Ms. Asmoucha, we had both been "transported" back to our youth and "witnessed kindness and connection on the ice" while experiencing "a bit of what it means to be Canadian."
Jeffrey Peckitt, Oakville, Ont.
................................................
e-Definitions
Re What Trump Must Now Prove (Folio, Jan. 16): Twiting: the act of impulsive, indiscriminate, foolish tweeting. Twit: one who twits.
Pierre Nadon, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.