Imagine a Winnipeg…2018 Alternative Municipal Budget

By Lynne Fernandez, Winnipeg cannot control broader macro pressures such as climate change or a stagnant global economy, but it can prepare for the changes that are coming. It can meet climate change with policy to mitigate damage, …

Portage la Prairie P3 decision fails the public interest test

By Paul Moist Pursuant to new provincial and federal effluent guidelines, the City of Portage la Prairie is required to upgrade its wastewater facilities, known as the Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF). The new Public-Private Partnership (P3) project …

Growth Charges: All Winnipeggers have a stake

First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Aug. 23, 2016 By Christina Maes Nino The issue of development fees has made headlines again as the consultant hired to take on another study of growth financing in Winnipeg, Hemson …

BLOG summary: “Energy East: Taking Manitoba in the Wrong Direction”

TransCanada Pipeline’s Energy East pipeline (EE), if approved, will run from Hardisty Alberta to St. John, New Brunswick and will carry bitumen from Alberta’s Tar Sands to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick. A new Canadian Centre for …

Who’s Doing What about Poverty Reduction?

By Shauna MacKinnon For Manitoban’s concerned about poverty, there will be much to consider when sorting through political party platforms and promises in search of a meaningful poverty reduction plan. Poverty alleviation is a long-term proposition. No provincial …

Uber not the answer to Winnipeg’s transport woes

By Scott Price Ride-sharing service Uber wants into the Winnipeg taxi market. Looking past the marketing facade, Uber isn’t innovative or inevitable. Uber is in fact de-regulation of the taxi industry, modernized using smart phone applications and an …

The High Cost of Low Taxes and Urban Sprawl

By Lynne Fernandez Much of Winnipeg’s infrastructure is in desperate need of repair or replacement. The City’s 2009 administrative report found that just to maintain our existing infrastructure in its current state required $2.1 billion be spent over …

Municipal Budgets: You Get What You Pay For

Winnipeg’s mayoral race is now officially underway. Any serious contenders are going to have to convince a very skeptical public that they can turn around what really has been a winter of discontent with City services. Unfortunately, problems …

Decolonizing the Inner City: a look at Youth For Christ

By Molly McCracken, director, CCPA-MB Youth For Christ is an evangelical Christian organization whose “Centre for Youth Excellence” received public funding based on a business plan that promised to meet the needs of local Aboriginal youth. The public …

Warning: Social housing crisis ahead

Last week, the Winnipeg Free Press ran an important feature on a federal program that funds social housing across Canada, called the operating grants program (Rent hikes loom for thousands, August 16). The program covers part of the …