The Beginning of the End of Manitoba Hydro?

By Lynne Fernandez An October 18th provincial news release advises that former BC Premier Gordon Campbell will be heading an economic review into the Keeyask Generation Project and Bipole III Transmission and Converter Stations Project. Tax payers may …

Municipalities must prepare for climate change

By Lynne Fernandez First published in the Winnipeg Sun September 8, 2018 In response to Jonathan Alward’s piece on municipal overspending, small business owners are not the only ones paying attention to municipal election platforms this fall. Those …

Everyone benefits, everyone pays

By Lynne Fernandez It’s becoming difficult to keep up with the alarming developments unfolding in the US. But one in particular should be of great concern to Canadian workers According to the Economic Policy Institute, the recent Supreme …

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, …

A Made-in-Manitoba Tragedy of the Commons

By Lynne Fernandez In February, a provincial news release about changes to agricultural crown lands advised that “The Manitoba government has launched a consultation focused on agricultural Crown lands, to ensure upcoming policy changes reflect the views of …

Budget 2018: The Most Disappointing Budget Ever

By Lynne Fernandez Premier Pallister’s Trump-esque statement that budget 2018 was going to be the “best budget ever” has fallen a bit flat.

Pensions In Manitoba

By Lynne Fernandez In a new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives MB report on Manitoba’s public-sector pensions Pensions in Manitoba: What’s Working, What’s Not, author Hugh Mackenzie dispels many myths about public and private sector pensions. He anchors …

The $100 Million Question

First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Friday July 14, 2017 By Lynne Fernandez and Ian Hudson In March of 2017, the Premier claimed that for every one per cent the province lowered (or didn’t raise) wages for …

Giving Manitoba’s Working Families a Fair Shake: The 2016/17 Living Wage Update

By Lynne Fernandez Notwithstanding stable economic growth and consistently low unemployment, poverty remains a problem in Manitoba. In 2014, 11 per cent of Manitobans lived in low income. That’s down from 11.8 per cent in 2011, however child …

P3’s must give ‘value for money’

By Lynne Fernandez First published in the Winnipeg Free Press May 6, 2017 On May 2, 2017 the Province’s news release announced it would be putting out a request for proposals (RFP) for Public Private Partnerships (P3s) to …