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 …

Budget 2016: the waiting game

By Lynne Fernandez It will take more than one budget – hastily prepared – to fully appreciate the Conservatives’ master plan, but the Throne Speech, a fiscal update and Ministerial mandate letters tell us what we should be …

Business Wins Big: Throne Speech 2016

By Lynne Fernandez Throne speeches typically are run-of-the-mill exercises that say very little while evoking lofty ideals such as prosperity, innovation and “establishing an open principled government that reflects the values and priorities of Manitobans . . .”.  …

Manitoba Ranks Highest for Indigenous Child Poverty

By Cora Morgan Children need to feel and see they are important members of their communities and treated as such. A new study out Tuesday finds that Manitoba has the highest number of on-reserve First Nations children in …

Assessing Manitoba’s economic performance

By Fletcher Barager The Manitoba Employers Council (MEC) recently released a report that delivers a damning indictment of the Manitoban economy. Fortunately for the province it is the report, not the economy, that deserves the failing grade. Deploying …

Federal Budget provides opportunities for Social Housing in Manitoba

By Josh Brandon Budget 2016 provides some welcome news for nearly 600,000 Canadian families who depend on social housing. The budget allocates $2.3 billion dollars over two years for housing initiatives. While this announcement falls short of the …

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 …

Critics Wrong- Economy Strong

By Lynne Fernandez Although the 137 page fiscal update is much shorter on detail than a full budget would be, there are enough broad strokes to give us a bit of an economic picture. And that picture generated …

Accessible and in the Public Interest? Manitoba’s University System

By Mark Hudson Manitobans recognize that universities play a variety of important social roles, well beyond preparing people for successful careers. University research plays a foundational role in advancing our understanding of the world, helps develop solutions to …

Manitoba’s Pension Record

By Paul Moist Pensions and the retirement security concerns of Canadians have been in the news in a big way in recent years. With two-thirds of Canadian workers not covered by a workplace pension plan and a majority …