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Dan Lett
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A cordial but shallow meeting of the minds
CONSIDERING the panel was composed of old political warriors, they were pretty well-behaved. The Business Council of Manitoba convened a conference Thursday to celebrate its 15th anniversary. Included in the sessions on the past 15 years, and the future of the province, was a unique gathering of first ministers.View Full Column | 05/10/2013 7:49 AM | 0
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Facebook pokes Manitoba
They really liked us but in the end, Facebook and Manitoba were never destined to friend. Now that the deal is officially dead, details are starting to leak out about just how close Manitoba was to landing an enormous Facebook "data farm" on land in Headingley west of Winnipeg. The social-media giant spent months on in-depth site evaluation, only to withdraw from the project at the last moment because of concerns about Canadian privacy laws, sources confirmed.View Full Column | 05/6/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Manitoba reality check
Where have we been, where are we now? But most importantly, where are we going? On Thursday, the Business Council of Manitoba gathers to celebrate its 15th anniversary with a day-long summit featuring some of Manitoba's best and brightest minds as well as notable special guests from outside the province.View Full Column | 05/4/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Selinger's ability to sell case weak link in tax-hike plan
Two weeks into its post-budget strategy, and things are unfolding more or less according to plan for Manitoba's NDP government. As everyone knows by now, Premier Greg Selinger introduced a budget that increases the PST to eight per cent from seven per cent to pay for infrastructure. The NDP strategy for selling the hike is relatively simple: hold fast and ride out the initial wave of anger; make as many "good-news" announcements as possible to show the new revenue at work; and hope the public eventually, even grudgingly, sees it as a necessary evil to get better infrastructure.View Full Column | 05/3/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Fraud case plays out as duelling storylines
Which of these two stories should we believe? In one story, Astra Credit Union (now Assiniboine Credit Union) was defrauded of more than $6 million by its biggest corporate client, Protos International, and a longtime employee. In another version, heard last week in a Winnipeg courtroom, there was no fraud because executives at Astra knew of and approved the loans.View Full Column | 04/30/2013 9:33 AM | 0
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Still stiff obstacles to be overcome for ELA -- largely Ottawa
Blink. On Wednesday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Ontario would put cash on the table to save the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a span of 58 lakes in northwestern Ontario that has been the site of most of the world's best research on environmental threats to fresh water. The announcement is a stay of execution for the ELA, which is in the process of being shut after Ottawa withdrew its funding.View Full Column | 04/25/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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NDP messaging misses mark
TALK about losing control of your message. Last week, Manitoba’s NDP government struggled mightily to explain its budget plan for 2013-14. A plan that includes a one-percentage- point hike to the provincial sales tax (PST) to fund infrastructure. Any time a government raises a tax, it risks provoking the electorate and motivating opposition parties. Fiscally, it’s risky because Premier Greg Selinger has pledged to spend all of the new PST money on infrastructure, rather than reducing the deficit, which remains stuck at $500 million.View Full Column | 04/22/2013 7:48 AM | 0
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NDP messaging misses mark
Talk about losing control of your message. Last week, Manitoba's NDP government struggled mightily to explain its budget plan for 2013-14. A plan that includes a one-percentage-point hike to the provincial sales tax (PST) to fund infrastructure.View Full Column | 04/22/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Playing this right could lead PCs to government
The saliva is running pretty fast and furiously these days on the opposition benches of the Manitoba legislature. In the wake of this week's provincial budget, Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister finds himself suddenly possessing some pretty juicy ammunition to use against the NDP. So juicy, in fact, the Tories are attacking in question period with a relish and enthusiasm not seen in that caucus for years.View Full Column | 04/19/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Selinger makes a calculated PST gamble
There was no definitive moment, no epiphany or thunderous realization that led Premier Greg Selinger to do the thing he had steadfastly refused to do. However, at some point over the past few months, Selinger and his cabinet team realized raising the provincial sales tax (PST) was going to be necessary to pull off a nearly impossible fiscal manoeuvre: fight a budget deficit and increase funding for infrastructure.View Full Column | 04/17/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Attack-ad retaliation coming
That didn't take long. Within hours of Justin Trudeau's victory as new Liberal leader, Tory attack ads were released. They featured prominently a video of Trudeau performing a mock striptease at a fundraising event. His semi-provocative performance earned $1,800 for the charity and provided the Tories with a few minutes of character-assassination gold.View Full Column | 04/16/2013 8:23 AM | 0
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Reject bid to rewrite Criminal Code
Deveryn Ross is not only fighting for his own innocence, he is now carrying the fight for all the wrongly convicted who hope one day to prove they were denied justice. This morning in a federal courtroom in Toronto, Deveryn Ross gets his last and perhaps best chance to prove he is a victim of a miscarriage of justice. But before he can do that, he must convince the court federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is trying to profoundly, and perhaps permanently, pervert a section of the Criminal Code of Canada that helped free David Milgaard, Stephen Truscott, Romeo Phillion, James Driskell and countless other wrongly convicted men and women.View Full Column | 04/15/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Politics could use a little compassion
In these days of austerity, many commodities are in short supply. Take empathy, for example. In the world of politics, this would be the ability of one politician or level of government to fully appreciate and respect the stresses on other politicians at other levels of government. It's not an exaggeration to say there is a desperate shortage of political empathy right now at all levels of government.View Full Column | 04/13/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Post-secondary funding to feel financial pinch
It appears Manitoba's universities will be among those groups feeling the pinch when the province tables its budget April 16. Sources have confirmed the NDP government will cut in half the increase in total funding to universities that was expected this year.View Full Column | 04/8/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Critical budget faces bumps
The budget is one of the most important things the province does each year. And yet, one wonders how many people are paying attention. Voter turnout is down. Cynicism and apathy are way up. It may be easier for many people to tune out all talk of politics and governing than to keep track of the most recent developments.View Full Column | 04/8/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Weather sets the course for Manitoba's budget
When the province tables the 2013-14 budget April 16, you can expect Finance Minister Stan Struthers to have one eye on the text of his budget speech and the other on the weather. During the next month, the daily high-temperature and precipitation forecasts will have just as much of an effect on his budget plan for the upcoming year as economic growth and interest rates. Perhaps more.View Full Column | 03/27/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Forecasting the unpredictable
In his fascinating book, The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver of the New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog explores the fallibility of predictions, including ones on the economy. Silver reveals economists have failed to accurately predict any of the seismic economic events of modern history, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession of the late 2000s. Why we're so bad at predictions is better left to the book. However, after reading Silver's analysis, it makes you wonder why we put so much emphasis on predictions. Especially things like the fortunes of a national economy.View Full Column | 03/22/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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A bigger, bolder approach to downtown planning
The Zellers grocery in the basement of the Bay at Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard is no more. In most instances, when a prominent business closes its doors downtown, it's typically interpreted as a sign the area can no longer support the business. Another nail in the core's coffin.View Full Column | 03/20/2013 10:35 AM | 0
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Anti-bullying bill a fight fraught with danger
Welcome to Bill 18, the Rubik's Cube of Manitoba politics. In any normal political debate, proponents and opponents wage battle knowing there are a limited number of possible outcomes. You weigh the risks and rewards and off you go. In the case of Bill 18, the NDP government's controversial anti-bullying bill, there are so many potential outcomes, it is impossible to predict how this debate ends.View Full Column | 03/18/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Wilma Derksen has a vision for helping crime victims' families
Swimming against the current is hard work. Just ask Wilma Derksen. In 1984, Derksen's 13-year-old daughter, Candace, was abducted as she walked home from school and later murdered. Her killer, Mark Grant, was not charged and convicted until 2007. In the 23 years between losing her daughter and finding the man who killed her, Derksen learned to navigate, and then overcome, the currents of emotion.View Full Column | 03/13/2013 12:22 PM | 0
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Two sides to this happy story
You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negativeView Full Column | 03/9/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Provincial Tories' immigration rant a bit off the mark
Politics is not an easy gig. Events this week have surely proven that. On Wednesday, the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives were all over the NDP government for cutting funding to immigrants.View Full Column | 03/7/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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It will be nice with more ice to share
It was a day full of good news. Two weeks ago, the city announced it was partnering with the province and the East End Community Club on a $9-million upgrade to an existing two-sheet arena, adding a third sheet of ice together with improvements to the dressing rooms. The same day, the city and province announced a deal with Garden City Community Centre for a new, $17-million two-sheet arena and recreation complex.View Full Column | 03/4/2013 3:19 AM | 0
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Allan right to shut down opponents of anti-bully bill
Education Minister Nancy Allan has held firm. So far. This week, Allan dismissed demands to change Bill 18, a new anti-bullying law now before the legislature. Critics claim the law violates religious freedom and is too broad to be of any practical value.View Full Column | 02/27/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Architects dream up ways to breathe life into downtown spaces
The Re-imagining Winnipeg project, a collaboration between StorefrontMB and the Winnipeg Free Press, has certainly created food for thought about what this city is and what it could be. We've envisioned lush green parks at Portage and Main, rail lines relocated to create a dynamic new public space and even new ways of planning parking to move traffic and attract more people downtown. In short, it has done just what it was designed to do: get us talking about what could be.View Full Column | 02/25/2013 3:18 AM | 0
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