The Re-Newed Expansion of 7-Eleven in Winnipeg

 

Southland Corporation in Dallas had been operating stores since 1927 but by 1946 had re-branded as 7-Eleven to reflect their general operating hours. It began to franchise in the 1960s to various countries such as Canada. The first store in Canada would be in Calgary with others that quickly followed. Unbeknownst to many, 7-Eleven has been Japanese owned since 1991.

The history of 7-Eleven in Winnipeg goes back to 1969. The first location in Charleswood was before the municipality even joined the city in 1972. The first 7-Eleven locations were built in Alberta and only a few months later Winnipeg's was built on Dale Avenue as part of the Westdale Shopping Mall. By 1979, there were over 40 stores across the city. Initially, they were operating from 7 am to 11 pm but a number of stores operated 24 hours a day except Christmas and a few other holidays over the years where they closed all day or were of reduced hours.

Robberies were awful at any store that operated 24 hours. This included Domo gas stations, Mac's and 7-Eleven. Some stores reduced hours because Winnipeg was near the worst in Canada for this. The police wanted the stores closed at night but conveniences stores pushed back. The company responded in 1976 with some of the security measures that everyone today is familiar with. The 6000 stores across North America now had limited amounts of cash at night. By 1980, the timed safes were in place. The first lottery tickets were sold in 1971 in stores, a first for Canada.

It may be hard for people to remember but Slurpees were behind the counter and poured by employees from 1969 to late 1980s. It was very limited in flavours in that Coke and Sprite were the only consistent drinks. Hoagies first appeared in the 1980s. And Slurpees in Canada were different than the U.S. in that they were more icy while in the U.S., they were more syrupy.

Sometimes it was 7-Eleven that led innovations and sometimes it was different regions and stores adapted to the areas. Microwaves introduced at stores in the very late 1970s and 1980s made it possible to have heat and eat items. Burgers, hotdogs and hoagies were popular in Canada. In Japan around the same time it was rice balls (o-nigiri) or simmered foods (o-den). In the U.S. it was hotdogs and burgers. I would think that chicken has really taken over at 7-Eleven over the last several years.

In 1991, the family that owned majority shares of 7-Eleven tried to take the company private and was overwhelmed with debt. Even selling some divisions was not enough to bail them out. In Canada, we probably didn't know they were even in trouble. The Japanese franchise was probably surprised how tenuous the parent company was in Dallas. Because of the strength of the Japanese yen, they were able to take majority ownership of the company and several years later made it a full subsidiary.

Most Canadians still don't know that the ownership change happened. Nor was there any sense of who directed how operations were to be run in Winnipeg or Canada, for that matter. There does seem to be a general manager in Winnipeg for the corporate stores although there is a distribution center on Bentall. This begs the question of who makes decisions for the stores on say, what newspapers should be carried or what local food needs to be on the shelves. One example, in 1979, after the Winnipeg Arena was expanded for the NHL's Winnipeg Jets, tickets were sold to games for a discount.  The Charleswood location became a prime spot to grab these tickets. In 2025/2026. 7-Eleven came on board as a Jets sponsor and a Slurpee machine now resides at the Canada Life Centre and store ads appear on the broadcasts. In the past, only the Dallas Stars got that ad support for a hockey team. Not surprising since that is where the company was founded and still operates the U.S. base.

In the most recent year, 7-Eleven Canada has tied to evolve a small restaurant style area that serve alcohol. In Winnipeg, it is only one location on Ness and that location isn't even open 24 hours. In Ontario, they have far more testing this out. And it is a test. It might not work. Sometimes 7/Eleven chases a trend as it did with renting videos back in the 1980s. It took some years but the convenience store retreated from sales when big players like Blockbuster, Jumbo and Rogers took over.

Convenience stores like 7-Eleven have always had coffee but even those use to be poured by store clerks at one time. Then small coffee stations were set up with coffees rotated by clerks. Now the machinery and choices for coffee are a lot more varied.  It is uncertain how many people get coffee at 7-Eleven in Winnipeg compared to competitors. To be sure Winnipeg is very much a Slurpee city unlike any other in the world. It isn't just corporate kiss-up when 7-Eleven says Winnipeg is the Slurpee capital of the world. It is a phenomenon unlike any other place on the planet. In some stores there are a dozen or more choices. In a Japanese 7-Eleven they are likely two machines and they aren't going to be Coke and Sprite.

Magazines are no longer in stores in Canada. They used to be positioned in their own row and newspapers were right beside the store. Some 7-Elevens in Winnipeg used to have Toronto Stars, USA Today and every national paper along side the local Free Press and Sun in abundance. Newspapers are now exiled to the corner.

Pay phones were once inside, then moved outside and now gone altogether. Banks vie for space for ATMs inside 7-Eleven. Lottery stations are now right beside the door. The formerly clerk supplied food is now self serve and deliveries have exploded in every 7-Eleven.

Canada's Circle K attempted to take over 7-Eleven worldwide last year and failed in part to the difficulty it is for international companies to take over Japanese ones. Some were saying Japan might be invoke national security reasons since convenience stores are so depended on in Japan. Oddly enough, 7-Eleven continues to acquire stores in the U.S. but that same courtesy does not extend the other way.

Regardless, it appears both companies are cutting marginal stores and ones subject to safety issues. Winnipeg has seen around 10 stores cut in recent years and management has said some of it is because of crime. In fact, they put a number on how much product was being removed from stores and it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is unsustainable and while corporate critics might not have had any sympathy, this level of theft was also taking down mom and stores and leaving the area barren of any grocery or convenience stores. 

According to Mayor Gillingham in his State of the City address, 7-Eleven has spoke to him about an expansion of the company in Winnipeg. After the closure of the aforementioned locations, it is curious what the company has in mind. We can take our clues from some information released back in February as well as world reports on 7-Eleven. In terms of the former, 7-Eleven has indicated they are open to franchising opportunities. This is interesting because they are very much a corporate store company. In Australia, the company took over the entire Australian franchise as part of corporate takeover. In Canada, they appear to to looking at side by side operations.

So what does that mean? It means that we could more of a saturation of stores in certain parts of the city. For example, Portage Avenue has two stores along the entire run from Portage and Main to Headingley. In Tokyo, that would be unheard of. The company would try and place stores along major transit hubs and shopping areas. Suffice to say that places like Charleswood and St. James with only four stores seem a little light in terms of presence. 

There is no getting around the shoplifting issue in Winnipeg and around North America, for that matter. 7-Eleven is at the forefront if security for convenience stores in the world so expect even more efforts to reduce theft and identify those who are responsible. It will be positioning any new stores to have the best chance of success but also security. Given how many university students are off Pembina Highway, it is a missed opportunity that 7-Eleven has no stores aside from the one. This seems a perfect opportunity for franchises. And let's not even talk about how underserved the east side of the Red River is. 

An opportunity for franchisors to do really do well with a company that is iconic in Winnipeg is good. In some cases, some areas are crying out for any kind of convenience store. There are literally none and certainly not 24 hours. There could be opportunities as well for stores inside malls, airport and sports facilities. 

This doesn't have to be all bad for existing convenience stores. There have been several that have opened up and they are finding niches that 7-Eleven can't fill such as being on the ground floor of apartments, offices and the like where they would rely on foot traffic more than car traffic. These stores also cater to niche areas such as ethnic foods to sell or to serve. 7-Eleven may be a lot of things but not a seller of ethnic foods or big on foot traffic. Even St. James has seen at least three convenience stores that fit the ethnic label open in the last 12 months.

From the government side things, the province has to keep pushing on secret property agreements that protect companies such as Safeway/Sobeys having any competitors set up near them. This sounds like it might apply to just big stores but any agreements of exclusivity need to be known and hoarding properties is anti-competitive and should be dealt with federally by the Competition Bureau and by the provinces to make sure these secret agreements see the light and are handled by the municipal board. As far as the city goes, they need to ensure security for 24 hour stores and that may entail more police visits, safety audits and sharing of information. A lot of trouble is sometimes organized or the same people.

Some might not find an expansion of 7-Eleven exciting but if the attempt is to make the stores as essential as they are in Japan, that mean offering food and service at prices that are compelling. For example, the egg salad sandwich in Japan sells for 200-300 yen. That is about $2.50 Canadian. The egg sandwich in Winnipeg is $5.00. We need to keep competition up in Winnipeg because those type of prices for 7-Eleven are typical for a number of products in Japan.

They key to vitality in many cities is the diversity of options for those who live in it. Think of the bodegas of New York or the bakery shops on Paris. Price competition competition comes from a multitude of suppliers. If we ever want to have $2.50 egg sandwiches, a Japanese-style surge of stores will help.

The Winnipeg Sun Re-Design

The Winnipeg Sun under the Klein Group has tried to distinguish itself from Postmedia Sun and National Post papers since the purchase in 2024. The first obvious step was the paper format with a switch from tabloid or broadsheet. It's actually a hybrid with sports tabloid inside a broadsheet. The font and the marquee also were also new. In fact, some said it looked like Free Press. I credited the Sun for local ownership which the Sun had lost way back in the 1980s.

It is expensive running a newspaper. However, it is possible to generate income if the product gets subscribers, advertisers, sponsors and finds their audience. Print newspaper remains where best profit is but newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Minnesota Star Tribune make money in a variety of ways digitally and with specialized products like Wordle in the case of the Times.

The Sun digital web page leaned too heavily on the Sun look. Now it looks cleaner and more focused on news with sports and opinion following. Video media was left to the bottom of the page. The Toronto Sun and their group has the videos prominently on the side. It always looks cluttered,

The Conservative opinion in The Sun is not a problem unless it can't make money. If the Klein Group doesn't look at increasing its sports and entertainment as well as news reporting, it risks not growing its audience. It really needs to have a reporter who travels to away Jets games. How that is funded, I'm not sure. I think it has to be a presence on something like YouTube that pays for the news content.

Make no mistake, I want the two main local papers to be successful. And to be successful, it means covering a range of subjects from news to sports, appealing to men and women, having stuff that kids will like, offer entertainment and advice as well as opinion. It isn't an easy task. I approve the new look of the print paper and the digital format looks much better than what they had previously.

In 2026, there is likely going to be a new Manitoba journalism initiative. While the PCs and NDP disagree on parts of it, it is likely the broad strokes of a plan will be to spend 25% of the provincial advertising budget locally and to have tax credits and other initiatives to support newspapers, radio stations and even newsletters. A number of federal programs are in place and others about to start although big online companies want to kill them. It is interesting to note that even in the U.S. antitrust and national security is raising some concern ala TikTok and Middle Eastern investors making a bid for Warner Bros. and CNN.

The Winnipeg Sun and other news companies across Manitoba might benefit from greatly from a province that is not spending their considerable amount money on American-owned media. The Manitoba government won't even say how much they pay for Facebook. Politics aside, The Sun can be a lot more and will be if it keeps looking to increase readability from print to digital. Keep working on it and for goodness sake, start sending a reporter on the road for Jets and find a way to monetize it.

So, good job to the Sun. Winnipeg has to local papers whereas it doesn't exist elsewhere in the west. Let's keep building on that. Build your audience, push for better anti-trust protections and find ways to monetize the product. That comes from the best look and feel of content produced here at home.

McNally Jackson on Recent Law & Order

McNally Robinson Books started in Winnipeg in 1981 when bookstores were often found in malls such as Coles and WH Smith. Department stores still had large book stores. Many retailers such as Eaton's and The Bay had very active book sections even the 1980s. Some of the independent retailers for books often worked at a place like Eaton's book department before they struck out on their own. 

Mary Scorer was one such person who worked at Eaton's until when in 1959 she started her independent store under own name. Her location in Osborne Village helped kick off an era of independent retail and restaurants in that neighbourhood. She went to be a book publisher and her store went through a variety of hands locally after. The 1980s would kick off a new era of bookstores after Eaton's cut their book department.

Ron Robinson, the Robinson of MacNally Robinson, came via the Eaton's route. He had been a book buyer at Eaton's till they cut their large 25 member staff in 1980. He, and and Holly McNally would start McNally Robinson in the very recently built Kenaston Village strip mall in 1981. Initially, the McNallys scouted the traffic there, thinking about starting a business in a community that was still new to them.  Holly McNally had left her career in 1980 as a social worker to move to Winnipeg where her husband Paul had taken a position as a professor of English at University of Manitoba. The huge hole left by Eaton's cutting the book staff was the impetus for McNally and Robinson to consider going down the same route as Mary Scorer decades earlier: to build an independent bookstore. But where?

The Kenaston Village Mall was built by the Lakeview Group in 1978 on what had been scrub forest land across from the Kapyong Barracks in south River Heights. The Red Baron, built in 1979 and an original IGA grocery store brought in a lot of people. However, it was the Grapes and Peppers restaurants that really took off. Tuxedo and River Heights folks sadly lacked many restaurants in their immediate are so this appealed to many who wanted somewhere to shop as well as eat.

To the McNallys, this looked like the perfect place to start a bookstore and with Robinson in 1981. McNally Robinson Booksellers was born. 

Robinson left after a year later in 1982 and went on to a decades long career in national and local CBC Radio.  He made the initial purchase of books, got everything organized for inventory and established the contacts needed to be make the store sustainable.  The store remained McNally Robinson because it was too expensive to change the name when he left. However, it was successful enough to expand to Osborne Village in 1986 and Portage Place in 1987. Two major renovations took place at Kenaston and staff was built up accordingly.  Holly McNally ran the stores but would eventually be joined by husband Paul and her children. They all had a hand in managing over the years.

By 1988, McNally Robinson's was a must stop for authors to give readings and to visit on tour. It was only natural that the bookstore along with Manitoba Writers Guild would help fund a literary award that was the richest in western Canada. It was heady days for McNally as writers both local and national along with some international would pass through the doors every day.

In 1995, the a children's bookstore on Henderson Highway opened. This was just the beginning of the heyday of bookstores in Canada. In 1994, Cole and W.H. Smith Books were merged and superstore Chapters books began to be built. The move in Canada was to prevent U.S.-based Borders books from crossing into Canada. 

By 1996, McNally could see the writing on the wall seeing the large format stores of just over 20,000 square feet popping up on both sides of the the border. They would consolidate their Kenaston and Osborne locations at a 21,000 square foot location in the Grant Park shopping mall. It would include a restaurant called Cafe au Livre (later Prairie Ink) and a large children's section on the second floor. Enough space was given for book signings and readings. While the other stores closed the Portage Place location continued operations for several years.

The Grant Park location would be a runaway success and McNally would go onto open McNally Saskatoon in 1998. This store instantly caught on with the same format that worked so well at Grant Park. The McPhillips stores closed in favour of a wholesale division for school libraries called Skylight Books. By 2002, McNally opened a store in Calgary in a building they owned and in 2004, they opened a location in the Shops at Don Mills Toronto.

However, it would be a McNally opening outside of Canada that would surprise the most. The daughter of Holly and Paul McNally, Sarah, after schooling at McGill would find work in the New York publishing world. With an inheritance from family and knowledge of bookselling that she was born to, she opened a McNally Robinson in New York City in the Soho district in 2004. She called it McNally Robinson and it was listed as on the main site in Winnipeg as one of their stores.

In 2008, the stock market crash led to a recession throughout North America. McNally's expansion in Toronto turned into a money pit of losses. The Calgary store property was at first sold and rented but then eventually closed in 2008. By 2009/2010, Toronto and Polo Park also closed. The recession's damage dragged everything down and even auto manufacturers had to be bailed out.

After the dust settled, the only two stores to survive were Saskatoon and Winnipeg. However, the location of McNally Robinson in New York also survived. In 2008, Sarah McNally renamed the store McNally Jackson in honour of her son and and now ex-husband. She remained sole owner of the store. It was probably necessary to create some distance between the two companies because while both shared a McNally as owner, they were two different companies.

It was a tough time for the book industry as e-reader were all the rage. Book stores tried to get in the sales of these but paper and print remain the draw in stores. Huge retailers like Indigo-Chapters and Barnes and Noble struggled to stay relevant. In many cases, they resorted to selling things besides books to help with their margins. However, for both McNally Robinson and McNally Jackson, they continued to curate books, in some cases print books with their own printers. They did have other merchandise but the concentrated 

There is no doubt that Prairie Ink restaurants help McNally Robinson attract customers in the days, evenings and weekends. For McNally Jackson, it is the book clubs. Jackson also, spun off Goods for the Study which New Yorkers have taken to create worker spaces and presumably areas to read as well. Robinson created a community classroom to teach those who signed up to study in a variety of interests. Jackson publishes Jackson Editions, a select group of books for discerning readers. Robinson has been a main supporter of the publishing industry and events. Authors depend on McNally for sales and for awards.

In 2012, Holly and Paul McNally indicated they would be selling McNally Robinson in a phased sale that would be final in 2015. Other family members in the McNally family in Canada went on to other projects. Longtime employees Chris Hall and Lori Baker took over the company. The company expanded once more in 2018 with a 1000 foot store at The Forks.

Meanwhile, McNally Jackson under Sarah McNally also was going through changes. No other linked on the website to McNally Robinson, it spun off Goods for the Study, a style shop for personal spaces in 2013. By 2018, it opened a second location at Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 2019, the third location in the South Street Seaport opened in lower Manhattan. Post Covid, they opened fourth location in Downtown Brooklyn in 2022. And finally, in 2023, they opened the largest location in 1 Rockefeller Plaza. That location was 7000 square feet and included a Goods for the Study shop. Along the way, the employees became unionized.

McNally is the third largest buyer of books in the NYC and has become part of the fabric of the city. And this brings us to McNally Jackson appearing in a caption card of NBC's flagship show Law & Order. Most of the time. the show studiously avoids naming businesses and the like. Even universities like Columbia and NYC nary a mention.  Fordham University always gets mentioned because it is not as posh as the other and require donors and money from filming. 

Now it is McNally Jackson that gets a mention. It is right across the street street from 30 Rockefeller Plaza and the Today show streets set. Every NBC reporter, performer and employee knows the store and has likely been in it. The store has become so beloved that it finally got a mention. However, it may only be people in Winnipeg who recognize the link all the way back to Winnipeg. 

So hurah for independent bookstores. May the ones named McNally live forever.

Sportsnet to End Stanley Cup Coverage If Leafs Lose

It is rumoured that Stanley Cup coverage on the main networks in Ontario is contingent on the Toronto Maple Leafs advancing in the play-offs. Network execs at the highest level met late night in a hotel following the Leafs loss to the Winnipeg Jets March 31st. The game's ratings tumbled as the Leaf's struggled alarming the network's advertisers.

Hockey Night in Canada's main coverage is dependent on the Toronto Maple Leafs doing well. The hosts and game coverage are geared to create the feeling that they are Canada's team even as they play other Canadian teams.

"You can't fault them," said an insider in the network said. "They paid a lot of money to make sure the Toronto Maple Leafs coverage gets the big ratings." At what point in the game senior executives from the network were on the phone arguing with Leaf's management about trying to get penalties and suspension for Winnipeg Jet's star Mark Schiefele over a collision with the Leaf's netminder.

The NHL is also worried about Maple Leaf's performance but have their own set of problems in that a perfect ratings scenario is Las Angeles Kings versus New York Rangers for the NBC network. However, NBC would settle for a Las Vegas Golden Knights western victor as it is a narrative they can sell. Toronto sports teams are always a major drag on American ratings as no one in the U.S. cares about Canadian teams.

The battle between Sportnet and NBC over which teams advance spells bad news for other markets. The NHL has done its resolute best to satisfy Sportsnet where the the bulk of the ratings are and NBC where the future is. NBC coverage also pushes up expansion fees which for Seattle are now $21 million per team.

If the Maple Leafs fail to advance, Stanley Cup broadcasts will drop in Ontario in favour of Toronto Blue Jays baseball which just had their home opener. Sportsnet executives says it is the only thing to do to stop a backlash against the network if Leafs are out. "There is no way we can show Winnipeg Jets games in Ontario," said an insider. "They are many in the network who feel the city should never have gotten a team in the first place. We have covering them. They are a downer for all our staff and fans, The Maple Leafs are Canada's teams. The only reason we cover the Vancouver Canucks is extend the broadcast late Saturday and talk about the Leaks more."

The situation for NBC is more dire. The loss of a few major market teams for the Stanley Cup play-offs means the network will switch to April's coverage of the Waiter and Bartender Games coming in April in Los Angeles. The games hosted by Kim Kardasian are expected to be a big ratings winner but the network is stymied on more coverage as they are obligated on hockey contracts. The only loophole is major market teams failing to qualify.

A final featuring the Winnipeg Jets would likely be pushed to a steaming service on NBC's lower tier or sold off to regional sports networks such as Buffalo and Hartford. In Canada, Sportsnet would a Jets final to Sportsnet 360 which has the lowest cable coverage in the country. "We simply have to have the Toronto Maple Leaf's in the final for the good of the country," said a network official speaking confidentially.

Should Sam Katz Resign?

It has been a tough number of weeks for Mayor Sam Katz.

He has always had his supporters as well as detractors. However, he has always been able to shrug his shoulders, smile and dismiss concerns about his tenure as mayor when criticism arose. Many people liked the fact that he was owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes and a businessman and figured he would know how to run a city.

Although the tax freeze started under Glen Murray, Sam Katz continued them until just very recently. To keep this property tax freeze, the city used every penny from parking fees, fines, service and utility charges and any other area where they could divert money. The result from the freeze was a decay in infrastructure and a massive contracting out.

The anger about the decay but resistance to tax increases has resulted in the use of public private partnerships. They have built city bridges and other projects all over the city. They have become so common place that the provincial government wants to analyse them and maybe regulate them more.

This would not be the first jurisdiction to do so. P3s can be extremely complicated and not always be the best use of taxpayer money. The accusation is that they are corporate driven. This has to be taken into consideration when looking at infrastructure replacement. Whose needs are we serving has to be asked? And how much savings or removal from risk is involved in letting the private sector take the lead?

In some cases, P3s have run into financial ruin and cost the taxpayer lots, sometimes for long term. And sadly, the city officials who put these deals are often out of office or retired.

We had an investigation into politics and development only twelve years ago during the early tenure of Glen Murray conducted by former auditor Shannon Hunt. The issues then were political interference and favouritism which the 18 month investigation said cost the city millions. The mayor, the council and bureaucracy were named as being complicit and all promised to do better.

The conclusion from the report was the city had to restore confidence as a good place to do business. In other words, consistent, transparent, clear rules, set objectives, good tendering processes, regular audits and the like to help maintain and develop the city at the same time.

So after 12 years, where are we? It would appear to be that we are in a bigger quagmire than we were with the last administration.

So where did it start? It started with no clear rules and enforcement for city officials about disclosure, conflict of interest or where private business begins and ends. One of the first promises Sam Katz made when running for office was that he would put his business in a blind trust. After winning office, he re-evaluated this, found out that there was no legal restraints on him and this became the first promise he broke as mayor.

The public certainly didn't find it concerning enough and the mayor was re-elected twice after. However, we only have gotten a glimpse of the business the mayor does outside his civic duties due to the fact that some of it is never disclosed or it requires freedom of information requests.

And so it is with the lawsuit that one restaurateur has undertaken against the mayor over his hospitality spending. It is only now, years later, that we see how much spending has taken place in businesses the mayor owns or his family owns. This will be for the court to decide in terms of whether it violates the provincial Municipal Council Conflict of Interest Act.

In the end, it isn't meals out that will cost taxpayers a pretty penny but real estate and infrastructure deals that the city is doing. And to this end, the mayor's business relations are now starting to bare examination. He has continued to run the Goldeyes operation and for many years was president of Riverside Management which managed a city owned parking lot near Shaw Park. It was there that  the mayor has had and continues to have issues related to conflict of interest.

The city owned land near the baseball stadium will be the last component filled in the area surrounding The Forks. However, since the disposition of the site could have an economic impact on the Goldeyes, the mayor cannot be part of the decision making process regarding it. It is a fact that often has to re-stated over and over.

As owners of the Goldeyes, Katz has a relationship with the Sandy and Robert Shindleman who are directors and co-owners of the team. Katz has downplayed the relationship and said he knows them well enough to say hi at the stadium. This seems unlikely for co-owners of a team. It is like saying the Chipmans and Thomsons of the Winnipeg Jets are not on a first name basis.

The house that Katz bought a house in Arizona from sister of Shindico executive Diane Shindlman, is an indication that the mayor has more than a passing relationship with the family.

Real estate assets outside Manitoba are not included in the disclosure rules. The problem is that we have a mayor who lives in Scottsdale a good deal of the year to be close to family. He regularly is down there and regularly does business. This was the impetus for buying a shell company from his chief administrator Phil Sheegl. The shell company, which costs thousands of dollars to set up was sold for a buck to the mayor so he can conduct real estate deals down in the U.S.

The fact that Katz did not reveal the deal until the CBC found out about it speaks to the gap in the conflict of interest coverage. The mayor should have known better as the legislation indicates the elected official should reveal any potential area of concern.

There is no doubt the mayor has been concerned that it might be a liability if it was well known that he was down in Arizona many weekends and was homeowner there. He has bought and sold many properties in the south, some with with his chief administrator.

Brian Kelcey, a former advisor in the mayor's office, has said that because the mayor thinks that it is no one's business if he buys a house from someone in another country linked to one of Winnipeg's most prominent real estate businesses, he should resign. The Canadian Taxpayer's Federation says more should be revealed about Katz's Arizona business dealings.

And round, round it goes. The mayor shrugs but it is increasingly looking like Katz is growing uncomfortable answering questions about his business.

In the end, there was no ignoring the siren call for an audit about real estate and development deals that was voted on last week.

The Shindleman's primary business is real estate through Shindico. They are good at what they do and as a result are at city hall regularly for business.

They're also aggressively involved with city infrastructure whether it is buying, selling or developing properties. The latest is the Westport Festival development beside Assiniboia Downs.

The mayor usually votes where Shindico is involved despite his business relationship citing no conflict with their present developments.

We've had mayors who were business owners in the past. Susan Thompson owned Birt Saddlery for three years into her term as mayor. However, it is safe to say that we have not had a mayor with as many disparate business interests since the city was young.

Sam Katz has bought and sold many properties, continues to work as a promoter with such events as the Wedding Show and Baby Show.  He still does concert promotion via travelling musicals, owns the Goldeyes and has owned restaurants.

By Katz's own admission he has been fortunate. He also made a decision not to put his business in a blind trust. By contrast, the 10th richest man in the U.S. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City placed his business in a blind trust. This was done to protect him and the company from running into conflict of interest accusations or the hint of favourtism. For the most it has worked and Bloomberg has been a fairly successful mayor as a result.

The increase in private participation in city business such as bridges, police stations and fire halls has plainly demonstrated just how much need there is of consistency, fairness, transparency and proper financial analysis. No matter how you look at it, the construction of a fire hall on land the city doesn't own is bad. It is worse that the deal seemed to include a land transfer that council was unaware of until the new fire hall was built.

The Number 12 fire hall might have been the trigger for the audit but ultimately an outside investigation may result in a terrible fall out if it appears that bad deals have been made, favourtism granted or interference been involved.

Should Sam Katz resign? No.

But if he wishes to remain mayor, he should put his business in a blind trust and disclose everything he owns even if it is outside the province. He should set an example beyond what the legislation outlines now. This is no longer just an issue of personal privacy but a question of where Sam Katz's business crosses into city business.

Will the mayor do this? It remains to be seen. It may be that his hand might be forced by changes to provincial legislation.

Assiniboine Park Zoo

It is time for the Winnipeg Zoo to go.

The city of Winnipeg shouldn't be in the zoo business. It should either shut it down or the city should sell it but there is no way it should continue funding it. By some accounts, the city pumps in $2 million a year into the facility. Anyone who has visited the zoo or Assiniboine Park for that matter has probably noticed the decay.

The last polar bear Debbie is in a compound that will not see another bear set foot in it. The compound is now too small to allow the zoo to take possession of another bear according to new guidelines.

And so goes.

The zoo needs $125 million in improvements. This is according to the city and the Zoological Society. I have no idea where that money is supposed to come from. The city doesn't have it. In fact, the rest of Assiniboine Park is as needy as the zoo is for refurbishment.

There has been an attempt to turn over the whole park to a non-profit organization but there has been little explanation of how this would work. It may be an attempt to do something like what New York did with Central Park. In the case of New York, 85% of the budget for the park comes from non-profit organization. Similarly, the Central Park Zoo is run by a group separate from the city of New York.

I don't know that the zoo in Winnipeg can be run that way but the opportunity should be presented to non-profit and profit groups alike to take over the zoo and remove it from the city payroll. If there are no takers, the city has to honestly look at closing the zoo.

There is no doubt that there are amazing workers taking care of the animals at the zoo but the deterioration of the facility is a reflection of a lack of resources in city coffers. Some might say that zoos should be retired in principle. I won't go that far but I do think that they should not be run by city governments. Certainly, Winnipeg doesn't want to be the focus of public attention like another city zoo in Canada has been. The Calgary Zoo has had a number of deaths in its gorilla population.

The big complaint of many people who flee to rural areas outside of Winnipeg is that taxes are too high. The $2 million going to the zoo would be a good start on trimming the budget.




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