VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

A Feb. 24 front-page story quotes Canadian defence analyst David Perry as saying he wouldn’t be at all surprised if the price tag for 15 planned replacements for Canada’s Halifax-class frigates turned out to be at least $80 billion by the time they’re all built and in service.

The program is already significantly delayed, and the cost since they were first envisioned has since ballooned from $14 billion to $70 billion, with not so much as anything other than a fancy artist’s rendition being completed as of yet.

And I would imagine the $80-billion figure will be considered nothing more than a number that was at one time scrawled in the dust by the time all 15 of these new-generation war machines have finally been delivered and are sat at their respective piers in Halifax and Nanaimo, gathering even more dust while the powers that be try to figure out just what to do with them now they’ve got them.

It really does make you wonder just what sort of a world we’ve created when half the people in it don’t even have clean water to drink, and their kids don’t have access to decent food, and sadly likely never will, and yet we, as a supposedly caring, sophisticated peace-loving country, can even entertain the idea of spending this kind of “silly money” on a few ships that can fling Tomahawk missiles at a country that we might happen to be having a dispute with. It sounds to me idiotic on a scale that, sadly, I didn’t ever think this country was capable of.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that the sophisticated golf cart-like Rover machine currently driving around on Mars does find that the planet can actually support life; I’d just as soon make a fresh start up there rather than put up with much more of the sheer lunacy that seems to go on down here. Sign me up.

Dave Careless, Halifax

ECES DESERVE BETTER

I am an early childhood educator (ECE) who graduated from the Nova Scotia Teachers College in Truro. This marks my 31st year of working for a great child care centre in HRM.

One would think that after 31 years of service working for the same employer, I’d be retired or planning my retirement. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as my employer cannot afford a pension plan for staff — who, by the way, deserve a great pension plan! So I will have to keep working until I am 65 years old and maybe older in a job that is physically and mentally demanding.

I have advocated all my career for ECES to be recognized as the professionals we are. Unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve this goal yet. We are underpaid, have no pension and no benefits — or if we do have benefits, the premiums that we pay are too expensive for the money we make.

It is appalling and degrading that in 2021, we are still viewed as babysitters and not as educators caring and developing young minds. As for me, it is too late for a pension plan to be beneficial, but I will continue to fight for all ECES to get the recognition, benefits and pensions that we all deserve.

To all my fellow ECES: we need to unite and fight for our right to fair wages, affordable benefits and a pension plan that would allow us to retire above the poverty line!