View From the Legislature

Last month I distributed a survey regarding the decision of the NDP government to build a new hydro transmission line down the west side of Lake Winnipeg even though a route on the east side of the Lake would be shorter, safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Each of us, whether in business or in our personal lives, need to set priorities and go about managing our finances in the best way possible.

Manitobans who are concerned about the provincial NDP government’s decision to tear up the balanced budget law and run deficits for the next four years may be looking to our neighbors in Saskatchewan with a degree of envy.

On Tuesday provincial NDP Premier Greg Selinger was faced with choices.

This coming Tuesday the NDP government will unveil the 2010/2011 provincial budget and it promises to be a budget like no other under the NDP.

Winnipeg New Democrat Member of Parliament, Pat Martin, put himself in the middle of a debate recently about whether government should be supporting a new downtown youth centre to be run by Youth for Christ (YFC) that will provide much needed recreation and education opportunities for at-risk youth.

Wow! There isn’t many other ways to describe the Winter Olympics which were hosted by Canada at Vancouver and Whistler and which concluded in storybook fashion last Sunday with Canada winning a gold medal in hockey against the Americans in overtime.

The proposed 50,000 square foot Centre for Youth Excellence to be located in Winnipeg’s inner-city and to be run by Youth for Christ (YFC) should be the ultimate win-win situation.

Earlier this week the NDP government announced that it would be asking provincial civil servants to take a wage freeze for the next two years as a way to help reduce the NDP government’s record deficit of $600 million.

It seems the NDP just can’t keep their hands out of the pockets of any of the Manitoba’s Crown Corporations.