Right in the centre - Deafening silence

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Published on Friday, March 20, 2015

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner

By the time this column hits the streets, things may have changed dramatically but right now, the silence is deafening. There’s so little real news coming out of the provincial government and the municipal offices that one has to wonder when something, anything will break loose. I know it’s budget season, but there has been almost no projects or programs pre-announced anywhere. 

The Town of Neepawa is no exception, nothing seems to be happening. The town crews are busy with street clearing and maintenance and while the east road to the industrial park is being upgraded a bit, there’s little else happening. Tinkering with swimming pool fees and burial fees hardy qualify as earth shattering news. 

One must hope that there are a lot of plans being laid out, that projects such as the new fire hall, the Hwy. 16 plan, the new hospital planning and a number of other projects are being carefully studied for later announcement. It’s been well over a year since the CN land in Neepawa was set out with a plan. No movement there, the old fertilizer sheds stand firmly in place, providing a home for hundreds of pigeons. We can’t even seem to get the old derelict buildings burned down. 

Maybe soon.

On the provincial scene, there is a mild excuse for inaction. The NDP leadership upheaval (one can hardly call it a race) has throttled all activity at the provincial level. They are all scared of their shadow, including our premier Greg Selinger. It’s now 10 days since he eked out a 33 vote victory over Theresa Oswald and there’s been nothing happen since. No movement to oust Oswald, no move to bring her back into the caucus meetings either. Same for six other MLAs, they are still part of caucus but can’t attend the meetings. The Manitoba government is bringing new meaning to the word disfunction. 

One would have thought that if a 33 vote win was enough to cling to power that Selinger would have been ready  to show some power and resolve 10 days ago with plans for a future cabinet, new staffing and announcements, or at least re-announcements, of programs and projects. Seeing as the provincial government is out of money, it’s not surprising that they aren’t making announcements. After 15 years of digging a $32 billion dollar debt hole, maybe they have stopped digging. It would be nice, but don’t hold your breath.

For 15 years the debt has doubled under Greg Selinger. He’s a dithering social worker and I don’t believe the recent hype about him ruling with an iron fist. I think he rules by saying yes and maybe to everybody and then hopes the growth in taxes and federal transfer payments will magically cover off all the promises. If he really did have an iron fist, he would tell Manitobans that we can’t keep on putting a higher percentage of the budget into health. He would tell the same to all departments but he hasn’t.

It would be nice, after municipal elections last fall and a leadership race for premier this spring to actually see some action. Maybe next week.