Sunday Shopping

Sun photo of Dave Angus advocating Sunday shopping.

The Sun is reporting that the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce is asking for a loosening of the Sunday shopping rules.

There was some controversy when shopping was first allowed but Manitobans have voted with their feet. Go to any shopping mall or grocery store and see the crowds.

The Chamber has asked for a modest change of perhaps two to three hours more.

The idea should be reviewed.

Those that do not wish to work on Sunday or shop on Sunday should not be forced to. However, those that do want to work or shop on that day should receive consideration too.

My view is that Sunday shopping should be allowed without restriction. Let the market decide what works well for them as they did when many stores decided to close 30 minutes earlier each night rather than stay open till 9:30.



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Howard Johnson Airport Shut Down

After a CBC investigation, the Howard Johnson hotel on Ellice was shut down after not meeting fire code rules.

The hotel reviews for this particular hotel have done Winnipeg no favours over the years. It appears social services have been using the hotel as a long term stay for people in need. It shows.

It is surprising that Howard Johnson allows their name to be associated with this ramshackle and now dangerous place.

All things considered, the hotels around the airport have improved over the years. The Sandman Hotel, Sheraton Four Points, Hilton Suites, Comfort Inn, Greenwood Inn and Victoria Inn have either just been built or have been renovated to improve their competitiveness.

The Howard Johnson has probably lured more than one unsuspecting airport patron. It is time the name was stripped from this substandard building.



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Exchange District Housing

Winnipeg Free Press photo of the Exchange redevelopment talked about for Market and James Avenue.

Second Free Press photo of Portage and Main parkade


Hot on the heels of the Union Bank Tower conversion to housing comes the news that Qualico is talking to Nygaard about the six buildings they own downtown. The proposal by Qualico would see housing put on the upper floors with retail on the main floors.

Once again, as with every development, the issue of parking comes up. The city may be on the hook for a 450 car parkade. I am wondering if the parkade financing might come from the sale of the city owned parkade at Portage and Main. The 978 car parkade is a money spinner for the city which has been used as a piggy bank over many years. The premise on which the city wishes to sell the facility is that they want to pay off the parking authorities debt and use the money for other city facilities. The problem is this: the debt was created by the city by taking money out of the parking authority in the first place.

There are a lot of questions to be asked in regards to selling the parkade but it just being rushed through.

More on the parking issue again soon as the story is still in flux.

In principle though, additional housing for downtown is great. However, many people got excited about Nygaard's investment back when it happened as well. A lot of times there are big dreams indicated but no follow through from public or private sectors.

Here's wishing that Qualico's intentions reach fruition.



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Union Bank Tower

Picture from the Free Press of the Union Tower

The Union Bank Tower's conversion probably owes a lot of its redevelopment money to the need for stimulus investment in today's economy. The funding of Red River College's culinary school in the abandoned Royal Bank building would have likely remained on the wish fulfillment list but timing is everything.

The $27 million retrofitting has been talked about for a while but in October, the Tory government was in town bearing gifts along with other levels of government. Paterson GlobalFoods, a local grain company and the Winnipeg Foundation have also committed a good chunk of change.

It should be noted that the Winnipeg Foundation has probably done more for urban renewal in Winnipeg than many others with money donated to the Centennial neighbourhood and to the Central Park district.

The Union Tower, situated beside City Hall, promises to be one of the more transformative redevelopments in Winnipeg. The 107 year old skyscraper is listed as western Canada's oldest tower. It has stood empty many years now since the Royal Bank left for the siren call of being near Portage and Main.

Red River College's plan in a nutshell was to move its culinary school from its Notre Dame campus to the tower which would be perfect as a showcase for street level restaurants. The food prepared and served by students would cover fine dining (Jane's Restaurant), casual dining (Hard Drive Cafe) and take out (Grab-and-Go).

The stimulus funding that is being showered all over Canada made it possible to go ahead with the work.

One of the more interesting aspects of the project is that it includes student housing. The upper floors of the tower will be converted to a 100 bed student residence.

In one stroke, this project will fill a historic tower with people that will be present 24 hours a day.

Some has said this project will not necessarily do anything for the downtown and cites the University of Winnipeg as an example. This was countered by a letter from the University of Winnipeg.

However, Galston's suggestion that the University of Winnipeg has not had a "good effect" on the local community is not only dead wrong; it completely ignores the facts. If Galston actually took the time to walk south of Ellice Avenue today, he would see community renewal in action: a vibrant, pedestrian mall on Spence Street and a front lawn teeming with students, faculty and local residents alike; a basketball court regularly used by children and youth from the local neighbourhood; a brand new building called McFeetors Hall, home not only to nearly 200 students, but dozens of families from the local community, and a new day care centre -- one of the largest in Manitoba -- serving children not only of students, but from the community as well. On the north side of Ellice, he would see the Helen Betty Osborne building, home to the Wii Chi Waakanak learning centre (a community computer lab) and the Global Welcome Centre for immigrants and refugees, many of whom live in the neighbourhood.

The truth is that both writers are right... and wrong.

It is true that the University of Winnipeg has made strides in the last several years. However, this community mindedness was hampered severely by cutbacks in the 1980s. It was back then that the last of the University of Winnipeg dorms were closed to make space for other uses for the university. Similarly, apartment blocks on Spence were taken over for a daycare and Menno Simons College. While the daycare and the college were both worthy additions, the university began to lose population after hours and weekends.

For a university to be vital at all times, it needs people there at all times. The loss of the dorms and students living nearby was painful. The opening of McFeetor's Hall Residence this past fall brings 175 residents downtown. Likewise, the university's four houses on Balmoral Street keep students close to campus where they make use the neighbourhood services.

The Red River College plan for housing at the Union Tower ensures that people will not just be present during business hours. That alone will be a change downtown.



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Selinger's Choices

So much for people rumoured to stepping down.

The new cabinet jumps from 18 to 19 people. Many stayed in their old job. As predicted Bill Blaikie and Jennifer Howard were named to cabinet.

Some predicted that Flor Marcelino would get a spot and she did.

As listed by the CBC, here is what they are responsible for:

* Jennifer Howard, minister of labour and immigration and minister responsible for persons with disabilities.
* Bill Blaikie, minister of conservation.
* Flor Marcelino, minister of culture, heritage and tourism.

Rosann Wowchuk becomes Finance Minister, the first woman to hold that position.
Steve Aston becomes Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation.

Some other cabinet changes included:

* Andrew Swan, minister of justice and attorney general.
* Stan Struthers, minister of agriculture, food and rural initiatives.
* Kerri Ivin-Ross, minister of housing and community development.
* Eric Robinson, minister of aboriginal and northern affairs.
* Jim Rondeau, minister of healthy living, citizenship and youth
* Peter Bjornson, minister of entrepreneurship, training and trade.
* Dave Chomiak, minister of innovation, energy and mines.
* Nancy Allen, minister of education.
* Ron Lemieux, minister of local government.

There were no changes to:

Teresa Oswald (health), Gord Mackintosh (family services), Diane McGifford (advanced education) and Christine Melnick (water stewardship) remain in charge of their respective portfolios.

It still feels like Gary Doer's government but some of the charm that Doer had is just not going to be there. It is probably going to take a little while for people to get to know Selinger.

The mere absence of Doer makes some ridings competitive for the Progressive Conservatives.

Given the large cabinet, the PCs can probably find some weak performers to critique and put into question the performance of the government. It is a while to the election and some major issues of the economy could give the NDP its first real test in years.



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CBC News

I waited a bit to CBC News on both radio and television. Aside from a new a music intro for the radio news, it hasn't changed much. CBC's The National and CBC Newsworld had had significant changes though, not the least of which is renaming it to CBC News Network.

Much of the media has made light of the lack of chairs for all of the CBC News programs. They have a point. Some may recall when Peter Kent used to stand by a podium. It was an experiment that didn't last.

I think the thing many people have noticed is the busy background of swirling graphics.

In terms of content, the National is still presenting the news as they have but it seems more geared to who is delivering the news. In other words, Peter Mansbridge is interacting more with the correspondents, sometimes in the studio.

As the days passed, they have stopped Peter from roaming around the National studio floor as much as he did in the first day.

I'll wait a few more weeks to assess again but CBC's National News now ranks third in the country for national newscasts.

I hold off on commentary on the new Politics show and the new business show with Lang and O'Leary.

As for CBC's News at 6, I find it repetitive. Given 90 minutes, I'd expect a little difference in each half hour. It would be nice to see a local politics panel once a week or a review of entertainment rather than a constant refrain of the the same stuff.

It is good to see a late night local CBC News again but it is a pale comparison to what they used to have for late night.



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The Selinger Era

Greg Selinger pretty much had the advantage in terms of winning the NDP leaderdship from the beginning. After Andrew Swan bowed out, the momentum tilted towards Selinger even more. What Steve Ashton did was campaign hard, gain membership and keep some excitement in what many believed was a forgone conclusion. Organized labour used its slate to ensure it was a foregone conclusion by using their reserved slate of delegates to massively support Selinger. Perhaps they feared Ashton was too much of a gamble compared to the more drab and centrist Selinger.

So now we have the Greg Selinger era.

Aside from the chaos of the H1N1, Selinger has a number of changes to make in his cabinet, Hydro board and in his personal staff. He will probably keep much of the Doer team in place but he has to find a strong person to replace him in Finance and a replacement for Oscar Lathlin.

That is only a small amount of spaces for change unless some of the cabinet is leaving politics and first stepping down from cabinet.

Rumour is that there are two cabinet people who may be stepping down.

They are:

Dianne McGifford

That leaves an opening in Advanced Education.

Dave Chomiak

That leaves an opening in Justice.

I have heard no confirmation of either.

My guess is that we will see Bill Blaikie added to cabinet but beyond that, it gets fuzzy. Jennifer Howard comes to mind.

There may be a few people left on the sidelines after this wondering if they will ever get a chance in cabinet. I imagine that there might be one or two that might be a bit upset.

This is one of the main issues about a long serving government. The beginning of the end for the NDP in the 1980s was not keeping everyone happy in their caucus.



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Google brings Street View to Canada

Google Street View of Canada is available today.

Winnipeg is not available yet.



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Kenaston Boulevard Part 1

Manitoba Minister of Transportation Ron Lemieux (right) along with Winnipeg Deputy Mayor Justin Swandel talk to the media about Kenaston Boulevard plans.

Free Press photo

Surprised we don't have Bruinooge with a prop cheque too.

The Conservative Party cheque giveaway continues and Winnipeg is the recipient of the money to spent... in a Conservative riding. Amazing how that happens, right?

Rod Bruinooge, the Winnipeg South MP for the Tories is ponying up $18 million while the province is on the hook for $15 million and the city will pay $22 million.

With all spending, the cheque is not in the mail. Bruinooge says that the money is contingent on the Tories getting elected. Nice.

Later, Bruinooge said the federal cash is contingent on the Harper government winning the looming election or surviving long enough to write the cheque.

Ostensibly, this money is to extend Kenaston to the Perimeter Highway where it turns into Bishop Grandin. It is also to link Waverley to the Kenaston through Waverley Heights. The plan seems a little sketchy on whether an overpass is in the works at Bishop Grandin or an interchange at the Perimeter.

There are so many questions about this project. If it is supposed to be a stimulus project, one figures it would be starting by at least next year. An actual detailed plan is critical as well as a debate about the pros and cons of things such as underpass or interchange.



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CKX Part 4

The message left on CKX's website.

In a shocker, CKX collapsed after Bluepoint walked away from keeping the station afloat. Here is the video of their final broadcast.

The impact on the community will be substantial.



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H & M Coming to Winnipeg

This report just in:

H & M is coming to Winnipeg.



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Swan Fall and Down to Two

Free Press photo of Swan and his supporters and withdrawal from the race

Now that Andrew Swan has stepped aside and supported Greg Selinger, it has turned into a dog fight between the Selinger and Steve Ashton.

The Free Press has tracked delegate support and says Selinger has the most as well as momentum. Still, Ashton continues to close the gap with some of the large ridings selecting his people.

Some seem to think that no matter what happens, the NDP will depart from the direction that Doer took. It seems that the fear in some quarters of the NDP is that Ashton will be the biggest change the party can make.

The leadership will be decided October 17. The results of the Probe Research poll said the NDP remain at 45% in support but this might not last. The poll was speculative as was the musing about a snap election. I don't know that we will get a full grasp of the NDP's selection of leader for a while. If they do go for a snap election, it may backfire on them as it would be a rejection of their fixed election date legislation.

The NDP will have some serious thinking to do about what their strategy should be following the leadership race.



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Kapyong Barracks Part 2

Kapyong Barracks



Google Map of the Kapyong Barracks site alone Kenaston

The court case for the Kapyong Barracks continues.

Federal lawyers have argued that First Nations were offered a crack at bidding for the land but didn't and now want the land given to them. The First Nations say they tried to communicate with the Feds and they didn't respond. Perhaps the truth lies in between.

The court has asked the First Nations to argue why they have a claim to this land in particular. Under the Treaty Land Entitlement, First Nations can make a bid or ask to be given federal Surplus Lands. So far, it looks like the First Nations do not wish to bid on the land with money they have already received to do this but would rather be given this land free.

The court is likely to reject that outright as the TLE clearly states that a bid might be part of the process. There is no way that a court is going to unilaterally pick one option over the other without negotiation.

The federal government has said they have the want to designate Kapyong as Strategic Land. This would have automatically transferred the land to agency Canada Lands where companies could bid to develop it. Even at this time, First Nations have the opportunity to bid on the land to turn it into a reserve.

As long as the First Nations believe the land should simply be turned over to them with no offer on it, there will be a dispute. At some point, if the court decides that enough consultation has taken place, Kapyong will transfer to Canada Lands. However, this could very well be a very long time in court figuring it all out.

The land has fallen in value but remains an area many are interested in given that Ikea is going up just down the block.



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NDP Leadership Race

The Manitoba NDP leadership race is on. The date for the convention is October 17.

The deadline for signing new members is September 17. The new legislative session starts September 14.

So far there are three viable candidates who have announced. They are Andrew Swan, Steve Ashton and Greg Selinger.

Of all the candidates, Selinger has probably the greatest advantage as one of the most senior ministers. After that, Swan with the generational change has strength. Ashton can say he is the most experienced of the candidates.

At the moment, it looks like Selinger has lined up the most supporters followed by Swan.

One sad note is the fact that no women have joined the race. I wonder why this is so.

So far we have not heard too much of the vision and policies the leadership candidates espouse. We'll see if anyone breaks away from the risk adverse policies of Gary Doer.



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Doer Gone

In a slow news summer there is now some news that seems to have caught many by surprise.

I recently wrote here that Doer's popularity was never higher and he could easily win re-election based on his performance. I questioned if the the NDP would ever find someone that matched him in appeal.

For some time now, I have been speculating in one of the larger political forums in the country about Doer's future. Doer appeared a little worn out this spring after the latest session than he had been in a long while. The Tories were more effective in opposition albeit the polls still show the NDP ahead.

This fall looked to have more challenges for any governing party. It was with this in mind that I started thinking if Doer might not be receiving some job offers. There has been the occasional talk of a few things such as a university job, candidate for a political party federally (either Liberal or NDP), an international position and even a few business or non-governmental positions.

I have written numerous times about the good relationship Doer seemed to have with Harper. While, I thought it was unlikely that a Senate job was in the offing, I wondered if Michael Wilson was staying longer in Washington. Given a new U.S. ambassador appointed by Obama and Wilson's very long public service, it made sense to consider that a replacement might be needed in Washington.

Doer is a perfect fit for the job. He has the relationships in the U.S. through years of work with people in Washington and various states. He is on a first name basis with quite a few governors.

He has left the NDP in a strong position save for the fact that much of the strength comes from his leadership and personality. My guess is that over the course of the days before the caucus meeting, many NDPers will be contemplating a leadership run for themselves. Others will be looking at retiring from politics themselves.

Change is coming. For the first time in a long while, politics in Manitoba will be broken wide open.



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Polo Park Part 6 Fifty Years Old

The old Eaton's building (now The Bay) on the north end of Polo Park in the 1970s
Exhibit area of Polo Park in the 1970s
Fountain at Polo Park 1970s
Exhibit area of Polo Park in the 1970s
Interior shot of Polo Park in the 1970s
Interior shot of Polo Park in the 1970s
Interior of Polo Park in the 1970s
Another angle of the sculpture looking out on to Portage Avenue
Sculpture at the east entrance
The Polo Park Cinema
Sculpture outside the north entrance.
The old yellow and black Polo Park sign. Photo and all others from the U of M archives.

Winnipeg Building Index at the U of M Library - Digital Collections https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2631259

Polo Park celebrates its 50th birthday this year. I have written extensively on the mall as it is the oldest and largest shopping centre in the city. In 1963, it became the first covered mall in Manitoba and possibly the second in Canada since the first was in B.C. in 1962.

The former racetrack was converted to its present retail format in 1959. At that time Simpsons Sears department store began construction and was completed in May. The rest of the open air mall was completed in August of the same year.

The design of the mall was Simpsons Sears at the south end and two retail strip malls facing one another running north from the department store. There were 40 stores in the first incarnation of the mall, only seven of which remain with the mall in 2009.

Those stores are:

Simpsons Sears
Broadway Florists
Fashionette Hair Stylists
Mario's Beauty Salon
Perth's
Tip Top Tailors
Zellers

The Polo Park Bowling Centre was also an original tenant.

The present owner of the mall Cadillac Fairview is celebrating the anniversary of the mall's opening on August 20 by honouring longtime employees and the original stores.

Today the mall, after five renovations and three expansions, is home to over 200 stores, a 500 seat food court and 6000 parking spaces. The last major expansion in 2008 saw Sport Chek move from its basement location to a large store fronting the south entrance. This made way for McNally Robinson to take over the location. The old food court on the second floor was expanded atop Sport Chek below.

As I have detailed here before, the mall still lacks a theme and is poorly organized. The food court is off to one side of the mall and lacks the great hall feeling that St. Vital Centre has. Women's fashion has no discernible groupings.

Still, after 50 years, Polo Park has survived and prospered. It will be interesting to see if it will be here 50 years from now.

Winnipeg South

One of the federal ridings to watch for the next election will be Winnipeg South. Rod Bruinooge won it handily in 2008 over John Loewen. The election in 2006 was a squeaker with Bruinooge taking it from Reg Alcock.

Talk about the future of Winnipeg South have come to the fore following Dan Lett's column in the Free Press about Terry Duguid vying for the Liberal nomination.

Duguid was a city councillor from 1989 to 1995. He has vied unsuccessfully for the mayor's chair, the legislature and the Commons. I'm sure there will be a lot made of these past attempts. Bruinooge took two turns to win. Doer took four to become premier.

Still, it is going to be a challenge for Duguid to appear fresh and innovative for people in the riding. He will have to get up to speed on the quickly changing Winnipeg South. New homes go up all the time and new people take up residence all the time.

Anyone who says they know who their constituents are or what they believe in is probably wrong. Some believe that the suburb is more conservative and that might be true but there is no evidence that is overly conservative.

Bruinooge has staked out an even greater position on social conservative issues, especially abortion. It could hurt him with some women voters.

Duguid doesn't have Dion around weighing down his campaign. He came very close in 2006 with Martin to taking a federal seat. If Ignatieff continues at his present strength, it isn't a stretch to say that Winnipeg South will be in play. A strong performance by Duguid coupled with a better national leader and policies will help the Liberal vote in the riding.

At the moment, the factor of incumbency favours Bruinooge. He will have to be careful in regards to his own personal stance on issues being out of tune with the riding. One factor he won't be able to control is how popular Harper is. This could be the anchor around Bruinooge's ankles.



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Parker Avenue

A Google map close-up of the Parker Avenue lands

In July, a land swap took place between Gem Equities and the city's transit department. The area has been undeveloped all these years and has acted a shortcut for many between Waverley Street and Pembina Highway. Gem promptly indicated they were going build townhouses on the site.

As one can see from the picture, there is a combination of woods and scrub land in the selected area. It has never been designated as park land for the city although many people use it for walking trails.

There was some controversy a few years ago when the Winnipeg Humane Society located to Hurst alongside the 22 acres around Parker. Now, some workers there are complaining about further development. It is hard to hear people advocate for closing the door once they themselves are in place.

The Not in my Backyard (NIMBY) protests are sounding all over the city for almost any type of change.

The lands around Parker Avenue could have easily gone industrial rather than residential. That probably would have drawn even more criticism. The plain truth is that the area was never designated as park land and there has never been plan to make it a park.

The city has recently completed the Sterling Lyon Parkway from Route 90/Kenaston to Waverley Street. It makes sense to connect Waverley to Pembina Highway via an extension of that road.

Some have complained the lands should remain as is, a forest or scrub land but this doesn't help the neighbourhood if traffic continues to rise along Parker as the city grows. To simply make it local access only bottlenecks traffic even for those who wish to preserve their little sanctuary.

I don't know the full environmental impact in the Parker Avenue woods. A study should be done to see what it will entail. I do know that we if protect every space within the city that we will continue to sprawl, we won't have transportation corridors for rapid transit or traffic and it will cost everyone in the city.

Ideally, an extension of Sterling Lyon would have bikepaths, sidewalks and greenery. It would connect Pembina and Waverley and put off the need immediately for an underpass for Waverley. It would allow for easy and controlled access north and south of the road.

If Gem does decide to build townhouses, it should be done with the same principle of sidewalks, bikepaths and greenery.

The NIMBY principle of rejecting any type of change in a neighbourhood is becoming exasperating.

I think that the project should be watched closely but it could be a very good thing for the city as a whole.



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CBC Changes

The CBC announced the changes to their schedule for the fall. Once again they are tinkering with their presentation of the news. In some cases, they have been successful doing this as when they moved The National news broadcast to 10 pm back in 1982. It was part somewhat of a golden age for the CBC which saw the broadcast teamed with The Journal and regularly win its timeslot.

CBC's daily local news broadcast 24Hours started in 1970. Priot to that, Winnipeg's local news came once a week on a program called Eye-to-Eye. Garth Dawley was the original newsreader.

The local CBC news occupied its present 6 to 7 pm slot in 1977. It proved to be a very successful model for the local CBC and for decades, 24 Hours won its timeslot over local rivals.

From 1985 to 1990, 24Hours LateNight ran on the CBC. It was a more robust platform than the local late night news round up that had existed in the years before. Alas, it was abandoned due to continued changes when 24Hours Talkback expanded the supper news to 90 minutes from 1990-1992.

Local latenight news returned from 1994 to 2000 but it never has the same robustness of the 1980s.

In 2000, cutbacks at the CBC resulted in a national news program taking the 6 pm slot in Winnipeg. The program was renamed Canada Now and hosted by Ian Hanomansing. Local news was relegated to 6:30 pm. The change proved to be deadly for ratings and the national news experiment ended in 2007.

Since 2007, the CBC has returned to a one hour news format called CBC News: Winnipeg at Six. now hosted by former CTV News corespondents Janet Stewart and John Sauder. It has slowly restored ratings for the one time champion of local news but CTV News (CKY News) has been number 1 for many years now. In the last ratings period in spring in 2009, CBC local news vaulted back into second place.

From the Free Press:

CBC-TV was the biggest winner in this spring's version of the local-news ratings race, according to figures released this week by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement.

CTV maintained its dominant position among local newscasts, despite a dip in ratings, while CBC leapfrogged Global to take over second spot among Winnipeg's supper-hour news programs.

CTV News drew an average audience of 126,700 during the spring BBM ratings period, compared to 165,800 in the same period last year. CBC News at Six increased its viewership dramatically, attracting an audience of 43,600 compared to 31,200 last spring.

It would be terrible if the CBC experiment that failed in the 1990s hurt the CBC's present climb back to better ratings. In part it looks like the news is being bookended with products picked up last year and this year.

The new schedule starting August 31 looks like this:

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Ghost Whisperer
5:00 PM to 6:30 PM CBC News
6:30 PM to 7:00 PM Coronation Street
7:00 PM to 7:30 PM Wheel of Fortune
7:30 PM to 8:00 PM Jeopardy

There has been some criticism from some anonymous CBC sources.

The gist of the argument is that it is very hard to produce a 60 minute broadcast and doing 90 minutes is going to extremely difficult. It is also argued that the move to an earlier hour is to get bigger ratings for its British and American imports.

Time Program National Toronto Calgary

4:00 p.m. Fashion File 22,000 3,000 No rating

4:30 p.m. Rick Mercer 34,000 No rating No rating

5:00 p.m. The Simpsons 169,000 13,000 9,000

5:30 p.m. Wheel of Fortune 370,000 18,000 3,000

6:00 p.m. Local News 294,000 44,000 6,000

7:00 p.m. Coronation Street 557,000 173,000 11,000

7:30 p.m. Jeopardy! 683,000 161,000 9,000

It remains to be seen whether this move will hurt the CBC even more or whether this will turn local ratings around.



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New Water Utility

Winnipeg Free Press picture of the council meeting to decide the fate of Winnipeg's water utility

So it has been decided. Winnipeg will have a P3 partnership for the water utility. Officially, Council voted 10-6 Wednesday to create municipal corporate entity that will manage water and sewer services. This entity will also oversee garbage and recycling.

The council meeting lasted 12 hours and covered several things including the transfer of land at Parker (which I will discuss in another post).

I can honestly say I have no idea if this new utility will be better than what we have now.

Will it cost less? Will it be more accountable? Will it be more efficient?

Who can say? At most this is an experiment.



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