Aug. 13: More data please – letters to the ROB editor

More data please

Re Graduates not prepared for the work force, executives say (Aug. 8): A report that 823 business leaders in Canada give “a weak rating to Canada’s universities” is distressing news. Unfortunately, the survey did not ask these leaders the reasons for their dissatisfaction or the grounds upon which they made their assessment. The rest of the article lists a series of hunches but provides no data to help universities improve.

I would like to know, for instance, how many entry-level positions their company advertised last year and how many could not be filled; how many new graduates were interviewed and how many were hired; what skills were demanded and what skills the new graduates lacked.

My own hunch? Graduates of Canada’s universities are smart, hard-working and skilled; what they really lack is the opportunity to prove this in the labour market.

– Kate Lawson, chair, department of English, University of Waterloo

Fuelling the debate

Re Zero emissions bio-fuel myth ignores environmental costs of production (July 31): Gwyn Morgan says biofuels aren’t greener than fossil fuels and affect food supplies and prices. Really?

Mr. Morgan ignores the multitude of university, government and international studies that prove biofuel production and use emits less carbon than fossil fuels – especially considering deep water and oil sands extraction methods. Canada’s ethanol and biodiesel mandates remove the carbon equivalent of one million cars every year. Increasing the mandates could double these GHG reductions.

The World Bank’s 2013 “Long-Term Drivers of Food Prices” determined oil prices cause almost two-thirds of food price increases. Record ethanol production is happening while corn supply is high and prices are low. Ethanol also uses starch from field corn not used to feed humans. The remains are used for animal feed and industrial products.

It’s great when high-profile business people offer insights on energy policy and fossil fuel alternatives, but not if they’re thinly veiled excuses to hinder progress toward a low carbon future.

– Andrea Kent, president, Renewable Industries Canada, Ottawa

Save the savers

Re Finance Minister should reconsider inflation targeting (Aug. 8): Jim Stanford’s assertion that inflation erodes the value of debts is correct, but ignores the other side of the ledger: Inflation punishes savers, upon whom this country depends to finance the deficits that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promises are the path to prosperity.

Savers in Canada and abroad will abandon our currency and our bonds en masse if such radical policy initiatives were enacted. Perhaps the Bank of Canada should return to its proper purpose of providing for sound money and a stable banking system to provide a groundwork for real economic progress.

– Bruce Langstaff, Toronto

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