The thousands of Manitobans struggling to pay their rent and put food on the table are looking for relief in Manitoba’s upcoming spring budget. The wealthy are benefiting from the status quo; political leadership is needed to stop rising poverty and act on the gap between the rich and the rest of us. The Manitoba government must rise to the occasion and deliver strong policy responses to provide help and relief. Inaction will only let the income gap widen further.

Closing the gap between the rich and the rest of us is not only a moral and ethical imperative; it is also key to improving overall health, reducing crime, supporting labour force participation, and community well-being. Wealth concentration undermines democracy by enabling those with means to influence government in ways that benefit themselves to the disadvantage of the majority.

Recent Canadian data show income inequality at record levels, with the wealthiest households benefiting most. According to Statistics Canada, over the past year, those living in the lowest quarter have 0.5 per cent less disposable income. Those with the highest have 4.3 per cent more.

In the last budget, the Manitoba government took a promising step by clawing back the basic personal amount tax credit for those earning more than $200,000 a year. This is an important first step and should include more upper-class Manitobans.

Recently, I ran across a social media post with 100,000 followers which stated that “the media is the communist arm of the government.”

At first blush, it is easy to write off an outlandish comment like this as a function of a neurodegenerative illness or a psychological disorder.

Certainly, as a middle-of-the-road regular contributor to articles on the Think Tank page, I have never thought of myself as a communist. Truth be told, the Free Press neither offers me direction about what I write, nor do they pay me for my op-ed pieces. A post like this also does a grave disservice to the many dedicated journalists who ply their trade according to strict ethical guidelines.

At the same time, however, I realize that there are people who don’t read the Free Press because they believe that the mainstream media (MSM) have been co-opted and corrupted by government subsidies.

Manitoba was built through hard work, collaboration, and community. Every hospital, school, road, and bridge reflects the dedication of our construction industry. Today, the sector employs more than 57,000 Manitobans, contributes $4.2 billion annually to the provincial economy, and supports businesses in every region. We are proud of the role we play in building Manitoba’s future.

We are speaking out about the Manitoba Jobs Agreement (MJA) not to oppose the government’s goals, but to ensure public policy delivers real value, respects worker choice, and protects taxpayers. The practical consequences of the MJA are clear: fewer bidders, reduced competition, increased administrative burden, and higher project costs. When competition narrows, prices rise. When compliance complexity grows, risk premiums follow. All of this lands on a provincial budget already facing structural deficits.

The MJA imposes a specific labour relations structure on provincially funded projects exceeding $50 million. Successful bidders must hire union card-holding workers first if their own workforce is insufficient. Union membership becomes the deciding factor — not skill, experience, or performance. If the goal is to ensure Manitobans work on these projects, there is a simple solution: require contractors to certify that their workforce consists of Manitoba residents. A union card should not determine who is entitled to work on taxpayer-funded infrastructure. The agreement also introduces entirely new costs. All employers must pay 85 cents per hour worked to the Manitoba Building Trades Council; an unprecedented charge in Manitoba construction. On a typical school project, this payment alone can exceed $250,000, with no measurable benefit to taxpayers.

Open-shop contractors face additional costs, including compulsory union dues, numerous union fund contributions, and payments to third parties. Taken together, these requirements will add millions of dollars to publicly funded projects. It’s money that could otherwise be invested directly in classrooms, hospitals, and infrastructure.

Festival du Voyageur, which wrapped up its 57th annual run this past weekend, is hard to pin down.

It is Western Canada’s largest winter festival and francophone event. It celebrates Indigenous history and culture. It used to hold staged gunfights or “skirmishes” and a casino.

It can be easy to forget that Festival du Voyageur is at its core a celebration of Canada’s fur trade history. Without the fur trade, there would be no Canada as we know it. Among other things, it was the engine of French settlement in North America and gave birth to the Metis Nation. At the same time, the fur trade had profound and lasting negative impacts on Indigenous communities and devastated local populations of beavers and other animals. Any event that commemorates a history as deeply contentious as that of the fur trade — especially one that draws tens of thousands of people each year — must do so responsibly.

Festival du Voyageur agrees.