Cupid can’t help the stupid, so clue in quickly

Ignoring the facts makes for a better budget story

In Premier Brian Pallister's world, the public accounts for the 2019-2020 fiscal year serve as the ultimate good news story.

The final accounting of government revenues and expenditures, the public accounts show a small surplus of $5 million. According to Pallister, this was accomplished without much pain for Manitobans, who can now share in the knowledge that finally, mercifully, the books are balanced.

Of course, in accentuating the positive, Pallister had to ignore a few things.

Such as tens of thousands of government workers who have gone without a pay increase for three years. And a health-care system that, despite an influx of funds last year, continues to suffer from three years of crippling underfunding. And infrastructure spending that has been cut back by hundreds of millions of dollars. And an education system in chaos from the dual pressures of austerity and pandemic upheaval.

Uninformed health minister’s empty promises no help to Manitobans

Wait times for elective heart surgery in Manitoba have ballooned. They are now quadruple what they were when hospitals began cancelling surgeries last year during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s unclear when that backlog will be reduced. Cardiac surgery has not been identified as a priority by the province’s diagnostic and surgical wait-time task force. When asked several times over the past week when targets would be established to reduce wait times for all surgeries — many of which have grown dramatically during the pandemic to free up staff and space for COVID-19 patients — no one from government, including Health Minister Audrey Gordon, has provided a straight answer.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for any Manitoban on a surgical or diagnostic waiting list. It’s particularly horrific for anyone with a serious heart condition.

Cardiac surgeries are categorized into three levels of urgency. Level 1: critically ill patients who require surgery within one to 14 days. Level 2: patients with a significant heart problem who need surgery within 15-42 days. And Level 3: stable cardiac patients who need bypass surgery within 43-180 days.

North End plant a cautionary tale

Members of the Winnipeg City Council — especially returning members — are probably breathing a sigh of relief for something that happened mere days into their new mandate.

And if there is any fairness in the world of fees and levies, there will be the same relief for taxpayers as well.

On Oct. 30, the federal government announced it would be putting in $500 million to help cover the soaring costs of the North End sewage treatment plant. On the same day, newly re-elected Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham announced that sewer rates for 2027 would be frozen, something that was promised during the election campaign.

The federal spending, along with $500 million in matching funds from the province that was announced earlier this year, is welcome news: both the federal and provincial clearly have a role to play in funding important infrastructure projects that Winnipeg can’t handle on its own.

Taylor Allen

Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of...

Interesting choice of words

‘We’ve finished our spongee game. Let’s grab a fat boy before we hit the parkade.”

Or how about: “Put your garbage mitts on to clean the eavestroughs before the wedding social.”

These are phrases that could only be uttered by a Manitoban. But, while the fat boy and wedding social’s hometown origin stories are as solidified as honey dill, other Manitobanisms which have been identified by Google may come as a surprise.

“I’ve never used ‘parkade’ in my life before, so that’s why it’s so funny,” says Simon Langlois, a Montreal-based search trends expert at Google.