Go out as a dynamic duo, not a trite tandem

Schuler issues mea culpa on untendered contracts

Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler says it's his fault two untendered contracts worth millions of dollars were awarded last year for roadwork without proper government oversight.

The Free Press has learned two road-repair contracts totalling $11.2 million were awarded to two Indigenous entities, with private partners, without approval of Treasury Board, a cabinet committee that reviews government expenditures.

A March 15, 2018, "advisory note" prepared by Manitoba Infrastructure for Premier Brian Pallister said the department acknowledged its error and "has put in place measures to ensure future compliance" of proper protocols.

"Those responsible have been advised of the error and received remedial training," says the note by a senior departmental official, which was obtained by the Free Press.

Thomas Ponder

Throne speech offers glimpse of PCs’ priorities

Throne speeches are more than just pomp and circumstance and the opportunity for selfies between political rivals on the beautiful marble floors of the Manitoba legislature building on Broadway. They set the agenda for the legislative session and set the tone for the government as it moves into its new session. Looked at carefully, they also reveal the priorities of the government by what is said, and also what is not said.

But they are also highly symbolic. They are delivered by the lieutenant-governor of the province, who acts as the symbol of the head of state, the Queen, but they are written by speechwriters for the government of the day.

Political scientists have studied the throne speeches delivered at the federal level to understand the thematic commonalities and what they say about nationalism over the past 30 years. Janine Brodie of the University of Alberta, for example, determined that Canadian throne speeches delivered before the 2000s embraced a more neo-liberal tone that was tied to the global economy.

After 2000, an analysis by Tim Nieguth (Laurentian University) and Tracey Raney (Ryerson University) found that Conservative throne speeches tended to focus on neo-conservative themes — emphasizing the family, the military and threats to security — while Liberals’ speeches talked about health care and Indigenous issues.

Walking past history — and understated renewal

Several times each week I walk, cycle, or drive along Taché Avenue in St. Boniface.

It is one of Winnipeg’s most remarkable streets. Within a few hundred metres stand St. Boniface Cathedral, the cemetery where Louis Riel is buried, the archbishop’s residence, St. Boniface Hospital, La Vérendrye Park, and the Musée de Saint-Boniface. Few places in Canada bring together so many layers of history within such a compact landscape. This is where Manitoba’s story began. More than 175 years later, it remains one of the country’s most important historic precincts.

Yet it is always the museum that captures my attention.

It may be because I have spent much of my professional life working in museums and heritage institutions. More likely, it is because the old Grey Nuns’ convent has always struck me as one of those rare buildings that is far more than architecture. It has witnessed nearly two centuries of Manitoba’s history.

Public health orders require simplicity, logic

It was splitting hairs. Or, more precisely, splitting droplets.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, took time out of his daily COVID-19 briefing on Monday to once again remind Manitobans that larger viral droplets, and not smaller aerosolized emissions, pose the greatest risk of transmission.

Roussin's clarification appears to have been prompted by new research published late last month in The Lancet, and a decision by the World Health Organization last week to tweak its guidelines based on the growing body of evidence showing airborne transmission of COVID-19 is a much larger threat than previously thought.

The re-think has been building for months now, ever since it became clear the sheer numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections could not be explained solely by close-contact inhalation of larger viral droplets. Much smaller, aerosolized emissions — which travel farther from an infected person and hang in the air much longer than droplets — had to be playing a role.