Bassoon worth every penny

Scrutinize the TPP, indeed

Re The honk that’s worth $40,000, Nov. 19 The tenor of this article is misleading. It implies that the Department of Defence is spending too much or is wasting money on a new Bell bassoon. It plays to the lowest common denominator in your readers that the government always wastes tax money or spends too much of it when there is a better deal out there.

I am sure that there are better deals in some areas of military procurement, but $40,000 for a bassoon is paying a fair market price for a handmade instrument. Some string instruments sell for millions of dollars. There are a number of instruments in the Toronto Symphony in the $500,000 to $1 million range.

Benson Bell is one of the world’s first finest bassoon makers — the other is Heckel in Wiesbaden, Germany — and Mr. Bell lives near Peterborough, Ont. His instruments are worth every penny.

Bell bassoons are found in great orchestras all over the world. It is a well researched procurement by DND and this instrument will play as brilliantly today as it will 100 years from now. David Bourque, ex-clarinet, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Grafton, Ont.

How much would I pay for a bassoon, Oliver Sachgau writes? Well, mine is worth $30,000 — a very normal price for a professional instrument. Bassoons hold their value extremely well, and when Halifax’s Stadacona Band eventually sells it, they will very likely recover the entire initial cost, and not a cent of taxpayer money will be wasted by the military.

Now, if only one could say the same of these F-35 fighter jets. Anna Norris, Toronto

Re Liberals vow to scrutinize trade deal, Nov. 19 While Liberal ministers scrutinize the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, I ask that they take a good hard look at the “investor state dispute settlement” mechanisms baked into the deal.

These mechanisms allow corporations to sue state governments if they take measures deemed to interfere with their profits. Did Canada negotiate an exemption?

If the entire federal cabinet is responsible for climate change, as Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has said, they will agree that any agreement that hamstrings Canada in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment is bad for our country — and the world. Cheryl McNamara, Toronto

Is it not the height of arrogance for the Obama administration to be pressing Canada for a “speedy OK of the TPP” when it took his administration seven years to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline? John Bauman, Markham