Premier Wab Kinew stood at a podium recently and proudly announced his government’s first major construction initiative: four new schools. But instead of celebrating good news for families and for the men and women who will build them. Manitobans should be alarmed.

Buried in the fanfare was a deal that hands monopoly control of these projects to a select group of building trades unions. This is not about better schools or stronger communities — it’s about rewarding political friends with a sweetheart deal that shuts out most of Manitoba’s construction industry.

Premier Kinew has given union leaders exactly what they wanted: guaranteed work and a stranglehold over projects funded by taxpayers. He is favouring 8,000 traditional building trades union workers and shutting out more than 80 per cent of the workers who work for open shop companies and progressive union workers.

The unfair and discriminatory treatment of the vast majority of construction workers in Manitoba who will be denied opportunities to work on government funded infrastructure is shocking. And Manitobans will bear the cost of this backroom deal. When governments restrict competition, taxpayers always pay more and get less.

Manitoba homeowners and renters will be the first to benefit from a new federal program to reduce — and for some, eliminate — the cost of energy retrofits.

Federal environment and natural resources ministers Julie Dabrusin and Tim Hodgson joined provincial officials in Winnipeg’s Chalmers neighbourhood Friday to announce $29 million for Efficiency Manitoba under the greener homes affordability program.

“The way we heat, cool and power our homes impacts our environment, our wallets and the comfort of our daily lives,” Hodgson said, adding that 7,000 modest-income households in Manitoba would have access to no-cost energy retrofits.

“That will make their energy bills hundreds of dollars cheaper, their homes more comfortable and their carbon footprint smaller,” he said.