Without words, dance piece speaks volumes

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Halloween has always been my favourite time of year. I do my house up with lots of spooky lighting and characters on the lawn with eerie sounds booming out.

But last year I got seriously hassled by some people in the neighbourhood who thought it was too creepy. How do I get them on board this year? I don’t want to fight with them again.

— Want to Be Good Neighbour, River Heights

Dear Good Neighbour: Go to your close neighbours and explain what you want to do with your yard for Halloween this year, and also provide them with a firm time by which the celebrating will wrap up and things can quiet down.

The powers that be in Winnipeg have pushed for cheap property taxes for decades. As a result, the city doesn’t have enough money to balance the books, let alone maintain infrastructure, deliver services and respond to challenges like homelessness and the toxic drug crisis.

Winnipeg’s fiscal problem stems from decades of keeping property-tax increases below inflation and relying on inadequate revenues to fund a growing city. The result? Today, Winnipeg spends less money per person on city services than it did in 2001.

A look at the books at city hall is stark. Winnipeg has run a deficit almost every year since the COVID-19 pandemic because of climate-change-driven heavy ice and snowstorms, higher fuel costs and increased policing overtime. During this time, city council tried to cut and freeze public service spending where it could; as a result, community services have been cut to the bone.

Departments responsible for what makes a city a good place to live have been squeezed. Since 1999, community services — responsible for libraries, recreation, swimming lessons and aspects of Winnipeg’s poverty-reduction work — has 149 fewer staff positions, an 18 per cent reduction, even as the city’s population has grown 35 per cent, or by 220,000 people.

At least three police cars were present at the under-construction Fairmont Winnipeg Thursday evening.

The nature of the response was unclear, but officers were guiding traffic outside of the construction zone at 2 Lombard Place while the response was underway. At 6:50 p.m., traffic was flowing normally.

Security on site provided no information on the response, but an individual working behind site fencing told the Free Press there’d be no comment from anyone on site as to why police were on scene at this time.

An SUV with a Government of Manitoba logo on its side was also present alongside personnel from Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health. However, it’s unknown if it’s connected to the police response.