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Right back to business: Selinger tackles flooding

Will talk with PM on issue at Jets opener

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 10/6/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Newly elected Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger is all smiles at a press conference in his office Wednesday. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

More votes, not seats

WHILE the New Democrats patted themselves on the back Wednesday for capturing 37 seats in the 57-seat legislature in Tuesday's vote, a few NDP candidates were still breathing sighs of relief. Why?

While failing to win more seats, the Progressive Conservatives saw more people in Winnipeg vote for them Tuesday night than in the 2007 election. In other words they closed the gap, just not enough to make any dent in their seat count.

Examples? Longtime Kildonan NDP MLA Dave Chomiak's margin of victory over his PC opponents narrowed to 1,511 votes Tuesday from 2,652 in 2007. More telling is what happened in south Winnipeg:

Southdale: 1,279 in 2007; 670 Tuesday

Seine River: 2,511 in '07; 710 Tuesday

Riel: 2,274 in 2007; 1,351 Tuesday

St. Norbert: 2,086 in '07; 152 Tuesday

St. Vital: 2,857 in '07; 1,857 Tuesday

-- -- --

THE result of Tuesday's provincial election in the west Winnipeg constituency of Kirkfield Park may not be settled for a couple of weeks.

On election night, NDP incumbent Sharon Blady won 4,900 votes to Conservative challenger Kelly de Groot's 4,871, a margin of only 29 votes.

Institutional and prison votes will be counted on Friday. If the margin of victory is still under 50, Elections Manitoba will apply to the courts for a recount in the riding, said spokeswoman Mary Skanderbeg. She said Kirkfield Park is likely the only constituency in which there will be a recount.

Premier Greg Selinger's first day back at the office was spent tackling a file that opened almost a year ago and one that will stay open for the foreseeable future -- the 2011 flood.

"We're still continuing to stabilize people's lives and put them into decent housing," Selinger said Wednesday morning, just hours after his government won a solid fourth term in office.

He said the province is continuing to work with the flooded-out Lake St. Martin First Nation to find a new location for the community, tentatively on higher ground to the south in the RM of Grahamdale. More than 700 people from Lake St. Martin are currently living in hotels.

Selinger also said he'll use Sunday's season opener for the Winnipeg Jets to press Prime Minister Stephen Harper on federal money for the spring and summer flood fight.

Harper will meet with Selinger at the MTS Centre when the Jets play the Montreal Canadiens, the first regular-season NHL game in town in more than 15 years.

"I'll be meeting with the prime minister as early as this Sunday just to talk about federal-provincial issues, the global economy and an update on the flood," Selinger said.

"There will be a discussion on how things should be addressed in terms of the (federal) disaster financial assistance formula and moving things along in that regard."

The province predicts the cost of flood-fighting and compensation programs has climbed to $632 million, but Manitoba expects to recover $478 million of it from Ottawa through disaster financial assistance. Talks between the two governments were put on hold during the provincial election.

"We'd like the system to work," Selinger said. "We're out there doing things and expending resources to address the issues that people reasonably should expect to be addressed, and I'll give him an update and let him know where we're at."

Selinger also said Manitobans should expect to see their next government in a swearing-in ceremony within three weeks. There will also be a throne speech and short fall legislative session in November.

The premier has to fill two vacant cabinet positions, finance and conservation, before the next sitting. A new Speaker also has to be chosen.

Selinger said he will meet with his caucus over the next few days to sort out who will fill the two cabinet portfolios. A large cabinet shuffle is not expected, but a few people will have to be moved around to fill the open posts.

"There's lots of thinking that's required. I'm not pretending to have it all thought through today. We want to give it time for the dust to settle."

Selinger said government business didn't slow down despite being on the campaign trail for almost five weeks.

"I processed most of the stuff as it was going along," he said. "All of the important files were moved along during the election. If I needed to sign documents and stuff they showed up on the campaign trail. The red files showed up as I moved along."

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 6, 2011 A4

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