Crime and Safety in Winnipeg 2022 Part 4

 

So what will work in short term, medium term and long term to make Winnipeg safer and have less crime? In the past, short term solutions have been to look at patterns of crime and for the police to pour resources into them. In the 1990s when things were very bad, the police and fire departments set up an arson task force. It was slow to set up, took a while to get going but eventually offenders were caught and arsons went down. Likewise, a car theft task force was set and repeat car thieves were caught and it went down as those who would not stop took on longer and longer sentences.

These things don't happen in a vacuum though. Before manufactured ignition locks people in Winnipeg used steering wheel locks, got alarms and along with the police task force, car thefts went down. From a police perspective good intelligence is needed to stay vigilant. The issues of stolen goods and pawn shops in the 1970s and 1980s saw various rules and laws put in place to root out the worst fronts for organized crime. Various studies have shown that a lot of the decline in property crime from the 1990s on was the result of it being harder to steal to cars or break into buildings.

Today, valuable car parts and printable guns could use an assist from provincial and federal levels by marking them for ID or making them illegal. Inspections of metal yards to determine providence. Record keeping and the ability to track down sales and customers. And consequences for stolen goods such as forfeiture of business. If someone has catalytic converters and there is no providence of how the parts came to be at a the shop, arrests and forfeiture of business should result. Likewise, bike parts, copper and car parts at a metal shop should al be traceable. The province of Manitoba has a private members bill to put serial numbers on converters only for the government to vote it down and re-introduce it. It is an intolerable waste of time and shows a lack of urgency.

A renewed effort is needed to make it harder to steal cars, break into cars and carjack cars. Serial numbers on parts, engine immobilizers, GPS emergency tracking, automatic door locks and alarms should be standard features. Metal recyclers need video record keeping and paperwork to prove providence of material and regular police or inspector visits. This would help with copper and bike thefts as well for metal sales. The above would certainly help police. For example, a carjacked car might be able to be shut down safely and police could apprehend suspects. Or a metal shop with a whole bunch of unaccounted for catalytic converters gets shut down and breaks the chain for people who steal them not having a market to sell them.

It should not be assumed that punishment is more effective than prevention. Punishment is not needed if the crime was prevented from happening in the first place! Federal and provincial governments can certainly assist in some of the above mention measures. Better border, port and postal inspections would help. It seems our federal Public Safety Ministers have been tied up with RCMP issues for years whether it is treatment of women, poor training, and a host of other things. Of particular concern is that that the RCMP has a job vacancy rate of over 4% and Manitoba has one of the worst job placements in Canada. It can be frustrating going from one crisis to another underpowered.

Steven Fletcher Dropped from Cabinet

Steven Fletcher, MP for Charleswood-St.James-Assiniboia

He was first elected in 2004 stealing back an open Liberal riding in a battle with Glen Murray, the popular city mayor who chose the wrong riding and the wrong time to run as a Liberal.

Fletcher was a long time conservative party worker and endorsed Stephen Harper early on.

In 1996, as an engineering student at University of Manitoba, his vehicle struck a moose and he became a paraplegic as a result. Prior to the injury, he had been quite an outdoor athlete.

By 1997, he had struggled back to re-entering university for a MBA with the assistance of 24 hour attendant care. By 1999, he was running for president of UMSU at the University of Manitoba.

Ever the partisan, he went after those he said were left wing and was a controversial figure despite leaving the student union with a surplus. In 2000, he endorsed anti union and anti tenure policy positions. At the same time, he sought the provincial nomination for the Progressive Conservatives in Tuxedo.

While serving as student president, he conducted searches of offices looking for campaign material stored in contravention of UMSU election rules. In 2001, he became president of the Progressive Conservatives of Manitoba.

The fractious times he had at university was extended to his time as party president. He was a constant thorn in the side of the Stuart Murray, party leader.

It was around this time that Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation decided that they would no longer pay for an assistant to help attend to him during party business. It was a bitter fight and he eventually sued an NDP member and tried to push it twice to the Supreme Court.

In 2003, he turned his focus to federal politics and not once but twice secured the nomination In Charleswood. In 2004, he became the new MP for the area and four years later became a junior cabinet minister. Vic Toews was the senior minister.

In his time in Parliament, Fletcher has been most successful in getting the federal government to recognize disability and under Liberal and Conservative governments, they ensured he had an attendant present on the floor him. Some important health issues were pushed through Parliament by him even if some questioned his commitment to the Canada Health Act.

As a junior minister in various portfolios, he was the flag carrier and loyal foot soldier for funding announcements all over the place. He remained ever the partisan but it was from the Prime Minister's Office handbook. Moreover, the big decisions were always made by the inner cabinet and he was assigned the nuts and bolts of making it work. In some cases such as democratic reform, it appeared he was powerless on anything to do with his mandate, specifically the Senate

As 2013 moves past the halfway point, Harper looked to dump some ministers. In some cases, a few retired such as Toews, some left for health reasons, others indicated they would not run in 2015.

Three ministers were dropped unceremoniously. Peter Kent, Gordon O'Connor and Steven Fletcher. Kent seems to have known in advance and may have even volunteered to be an MP. He has said he is running again but you never know.

Steven Fletcher handled the announcement that he was out with humour. It could not have been fun. There are no open Senate seats, no Lieutenant-Governor position open for now so no place to jettison a dropped minister in the province.  There are no judicial appointments for a non lawyer. Even the lawyers such a Vic Toews didn't land such an appoinment.

By the way, it is my opinion although I have no proof whatsoever that Vic Toews will become the new president of the University of Winnipeg next year when Lloyd Axworthy retires.

However, back to Fletcher...what does a man do when dropped from cabinet? In Fletcher's case maybe run again and expect that a new Tory leader could be only three years away and represent a chance back in.

At the moment though, Charleswood looks vulnerable to a challenge. And I don't means just a challenge from Liberals. At the very least a few people might be wondering if now is not the time to challenge Fletcher for the nomination.

What happens next is anyone's guess. However, there are winners and losers in this shuffle and Fletcher is now a man on the outside looking in.

Manitoba Election 4

The NDP can't seem to help themselves. They love playing with the Crown corporations. Not content to let the Crowns operate at arm's length with specific goals and parameters, they seek to interfere and expand their control over them.

Witness the overruling on Manitoba Hydro and where the hydro lines will run.

The election promise to keep Hydro and Autopac the cheapest in the country seems like interference of the worst kind.

The Public Utilities Board is the oversight for these organizations for ensuring cost control, safety and the like.

We regulate the rates charged by Manitoba Hydro (electrical utility), Manitoba Public Insurance (auto insurance), some gas or propane utilities (Centra Gas, Stittco, Swan Valley Gas Corp.) and all water and sewer utilities outside Winnipeg.

We license owners and agents under The Cemeteries Act and funeral directors under The Prearranged Funeral Services Act.

We supervise the construction and operation of natural gas and propane pipelines, and make sure that gas and propane are safely distributed to Manitoba consumers.

We register brokers of natural gas under the Public Utilities Board Act.

So, let me clear here so all that fearmongering among the NDP stalwarts doesn't get out of control. I support our Crown corporation save for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission which I think could stand to have a review. And I say that about the MLCC not much because I believe they are doing a bad job with their stores but because I don't know what case we can make for the stores being run by the government now.

If there is a case, then I can wholeheartedly support it.

It seems we are too afraid to really have the debate on such issues such as Sunday shopping or liquor stores.

Suffice to say though that Greg Selinger's promise to:

...preserve our affordability advantage.

might in fact, undermine the Public Utilities Board.

It also might discourage better energy use and safer driving. How might that happen? Well, the Manitoba government is the owner of the land at Waverley West. It was supposed to be a completely geo-thermal sub-division. That is suddenly off the table.

And why not? If hydro keeps their rates below market value, what incentive is there to actually switch over to other forms of energy?

Ditto, cars. Why switch to transit if the government keeps it below costs?

No matter how you look at it, it amounts to interference and that doesn't make for sound management practices or good leadership.

The NDP knows better but they are trying to lowbrow the election with promises that don't promote better government. It is disappointing.

The election has only had a few promises that actually have sounded good without being cynical.

After 12 years, the NDP fearmongering is getting quite tiresome. It is no substitute for fresh ideas.

Sadly, the Tories have not run a smooth or innovative campaign. Where is the promise of full time Kindergarten? Where is the promise to let retailers set Sunday and holiday shopping hours? Where is the promise to loosen liquor retailing?

Hope things change soon because it is a bit depressing thinking that our province continues to wait for others to do things. How provinces will have full time Kindergarten before us?

MPI's Purchase of cityplace

Photo of cityplace (formerly Eaton Place) by buflyer200. North of Cityplace is the MTS Centre.

There has been a lot of noise in regards to the purchase of Cityplace by Manitoba Public Insurance (Autopac).

The building where MPI has leased space for 28 years was owned by another Winnipeg company Huntington which a Arni Thorsteinson entity. As noted from the picture above, the building is nine stories tall and connected to the MTS Centre to the north. There is also an indoor parkade with 1250 spaces.

Conservatives are up in arms about the purchase. The problem is that MPI is mandated to invest money to help keep premiums down. It is allowed to own property under that mandate. Up to this point, it hasn't owned any property and even after this purchase, it will only account for 2.5% of its portfolio.

As some bloggers have pointed out, it is not unusual for pension funds or Crowns to hold investments.

There are a certain amount of risks involved in real estate but that certainly has to be mitigated by the fact the MPI rents 80% of the space already.



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