Thailand’s king, queen test positive for COVID-19

Canada’s ambassador to the United States met Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and local business leaders during a visit to Winnipeg this week.

Mark Wiseman and Kinew spoke about trade uncertainty with the United States and opportunities for Manitoba businesses, a government news release says.

The provincial U.S. Trade Council, the Business Council of Manitoba and part of the Premier’s Business and Jobs Council spoke to Wiseman about the impacts of trade uncertainty.

Province down 4,400 jobs

The powers that be in Winnipeg have pushed for cheap property taxes for decades. As a result, the city doesn’t have enough money to balance the books, let alone maintain infrastructure, deliver services and respond to challenges like homelessness and the toxic drug crisis.

Winnipeg’s fiscal problem stems from decades of keeping property-tax increases below inflation and relying on inadequate revenues to fund a growing city. The result? Today, Winnipeg spends less money per person on city services than it did in 2001.

A look at the books at city hall is stark. Winnipeg has run a deficit almost every year since the COVID-19 pandemic because of climate-change-driven heavy ice and snowstorms, higher fuel costs and increased policing overtime. During this time, city council tried to cut and freeze public service spending where it could; as a result, community services have been cut to the bone.

Departments responsible for what makes a city a good place to live have been squeezed. Since 1999, community services — responsible for libraries, recreation, swimming lessons and aspects of Winnipeg’s poverty-reduction work — has 149 fewer staff positions, an 18 per cent reduction, even as the city’s population has grown 35 per cent, or by 220,000 people.