Right in the centre - Random thoughts

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Published on Thursday, March 23, 2017

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner

Premier Brian Pallister said this week that the unions no longer run this province. It’s about time that was stated, as the unions have been running Manitoba for far too long. And running the province into the ground I might add.

I would be the first to defend the unions when they advocate for worker safety, when they defend the rights of workers. But the role of the unions has to also take a realistic approach to wage demands versus the ability of Manitoba to pay. 

Unrealistic wage demands may be increases that are beyond the economic scope of  the province or it may be a unrealistic approach to employee numbers. I am thankful, and I suspect many teachers are relieved that the class size limit restriction has been taken away. The intent was fine, to provide better educations for grades K-4. The results just weren't there and the province has canned the rule. Educational outcomes don’t conclusively correlate to class size. In fact, smaller class sizes may cause some relationship dynamics that are harder to manage than with larger classes.

The other very real problem with a cap of 20 is what does a school do when they have 22 students in a grade? Do they have to have two classes of 11 each? That’s ridiculous, but that’s what you get when you have arbitrary, ill founded rules. Of course the Manitoba Teachers Society was officially outraged but I suspect many members were muttering under their breath for the MTS to give it a rest already.

Manitoba has to figure out how to defeat the deficit. No one in their right mind can argue that point. To continue to build our debt annually is simply not feasible. There are only two ways to cut a deficit, either cut expenses or increase income. That’s it, cut and dried.

So nobody wants to see a lower level of front line services. We all want good health care and good education. There can be some cuts there, but are there other areas we can look at. How about the Public Utilities Board? Why do we need that whole organization? Let me explain. Neepawa applied in 2011 for new water rates. For variety of reasons, it took six years to get approval. Six years! That is ridiculous. But the bigger question is why does the PUB have any say over water rates? If Neepawa wants to, or needs to, charge more or less than Minnedosa, or Stonewall, or wherever, what does the province care? In fact, what business is it of the province anyway? The towns have a lot of time and money tied up at their town offices struggling with making sure every rate and sub-rate will pass PUB inspection and it’s really none of the province’s business.

Water rates for every town go through PUB, except I am told the City of Winnipeg. Now that makes sense doesn’t it? I bet the water rates in First Nations Communities don’t go through PUB either. In many FN communities and many smaller communities, actually getting clean water is an issue, at any price. PUB oversees hydro rates, gas rates  and Autopac rates. I say we don’t need the PUB. If we don’t like our rates, elect a different government.

Why do we have an Assessment Branch? We employ a small army of well intentioned people to go around figuring out what properties are worth. They assign a value to supposedly “reflect” market value, then it is apportioned or scaled down and then a mill rate is applied. How dumb is that? Why not use the current assessment and add a small amount each year for inflation and then apply a reasonable percentage tax? Then, when a property sells, apply the new value.

Maybe we should sell Hydro. Maybe we should sell Autopac and open up auto insurance for competition. Maybe there are a number of elective medical procedures that should not be funded. Why does a person have to have collision insurance on their own vehicle if they don’t want to have it? Third party liability is a must and insurance on the other person’s vehicle is a must, but if someone doesn’t want to insure their own vehicle against damage, why should they have to do so? 

The Manitoba government is standing back for a minute to examine the cost of doing business. Let’s just hope they look far enough so that we don’t slide into bankruptcy.