Right in the centre- Realistic options
- Details
- Published on Thursday, February 23, 2017
By Ken Waddell
The Neepawa Banner
It’s time to call a spade a spade. We need to shift our thinking in how we fund and administer government services across Manitoba. The bottom line is that towns, villages and RMs have to find their sweet spot and work with that. Not every town is going to have every service, that has become painfully obvious in the past 50 years. Rural Manitoba towns have suffered horrendous declines in population and services in that time frame.
My perspective -Inequity needs a solution
- Details
- Published on Thursday, February 16, 2017
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner
Look down any Main Street in rural Manitoba and you’re guaranteed to see one thing— lots of small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy, but no where is this more evident than in rural communities. In Manitoba, Statistics Canada reported that in 2015, 97.6 per cent of the province’s businesses were small.
Right in the centre - Union leaders’ single-minded ways must go
- Details
- Published on Thursday, February 16, 2017
By Ken Waddell
The Neepawa Banner
Manitoba’s unions are in a bit of a state of shock these days. One must understand the NDP organizational mechanism allows for, no insists, the party has a strange double dipping approach to their party. Like all other political parties, there are members and the members elect delegates to the policy and leadership conventions. But, the NDP also have a large percentage of delegates over and above the constituency delegates that attend the conventions who are appointed by the unions. And it has been the union delegates that have a had a huge sway on the convention outcomes. The most recent occasion was the last leadership convention, where it was the union leaders that not only rounded up their members and herded them to support the eventual winner, they also heavily influenced the delegates at large as well.
Read more: Right in the centre - Union leaders’ single-minded ways must go
Homebodies - The me you seldom see…
- Details
- Published on Saturday, February 11, 2017
By Rita Friesen
The Neepawa Banner
What to have for supper? I gave the topic deep and earnest consideration. Nutritional food in the freezer and in the pantry, but after due deliberation, I made a chocolate cake, from scratch, and as soon as it was cool enough, proceeded to eat half of it. No icing, no ice cream. Just deep chocolate cake. It tasted good to the very last bite. To be fair, it was only an eight by eight pan. Wasn’t a touch hungry at bed time. “Let them eat cake,” attributed to Marie Antoinette. Words of ancient history.
My perspective - Strength in numbers
- Details
- Published on Friday, February 10, 2017
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner
Last week, the Neepawa business community got a reminder of the good that can come from working together. Chuck Davidson, president of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, was in town to visit local businesses and speak at the Neepawa Chamber’s annual general meeting. It marked a good opportunity to step back and look at the big picture.
