But this year I’m thinking something a little more all-encompassing; something that transcends one or two resolutions. Perhaps a word to describe how I should, nay intend to live my life this year.

That word is Productive.

As in being more productive in every sense of the word.

Financially – well, making more money is always more productive, but I am going to consider myself more financially productive if I make better choices with respect to money. Notice I didn’t say spend less, because it’s not about efficiencies (although that’s definitely a part of it), but more about spending wiser.

Physically – I’m probably one of the fittest people I know my age. However, I still think I skip too many lunch hour workouts and too many training sessions for my sport. I have an out of province tournament coming up at the end of March, so in order to be productive, I better be training as much as I can.

Professionally – This doesn’t mean working like a madman. It means setting realistic goals and walking out of work each day knowing that I’ve accomplished at least as much as I wanted to accomplish that day if not more.

Spiritually – Well, I guess any improvement there would be more productive than last year  ;)

Overall – spending time doing stuff that matters. If not now, then it will matter in the future. Of course I’m not going to forget to relax and take time. But the 4hr COD sessions? Don’t think we’ll be seeing any more of those for a while.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll update infrequently to report how productive I have been.

( Credit Winnipeg Downtown places for the Picture)

As I was walking to work this morning I noticed a sign on Peace Hills Trust indicating that they will be moving to Grant Park Festival. For those that don’t know, Grant park Festival is the mall located at Taylor and Nathanial ( Dollarama / Sobey’s / Boston Pizza). What makes this interesting is the notice on the empty space next door (240 Portage ave – the space with the DTZ sign on it). That notice is an application to turn the property into muti resident facility ( Condos?), I guess that might have something to do with the new coat of bright white interior paint in the hallways at the other end of the building.

Along with the Avenue Building condos, looks like a lot of residents will be springing up within a couple of blocks of Portage and Main if this goes through. Which brings up a topic that quite often rears its head. What does the downtown do for groceries ( and gasoline for that matter)? Now add the Fairmont into the mix. That’s a significant amount of permanent / transient residential. We had business contacts staying in the Fairmont for three weeks in the fall, and the question I couldn’t ask was where do you go at 9pm in the areas for munchies ( convenience store) or food (grocery store). So I think there going to be a lot more pressure int he near future for a small grocery / convenience store within walking distance of Portage and Main.

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A few random thoughts:

• The Winnipeg Sun is bitching about a $200 grant for carolers at the remand center.

Really? That’s just a very slow news day or Brodbeck has identified every other “innappropriate” of city dollars over $200

• To continue the bitching, they are also pissed about Ross Eadie donating $3000 of his travel budget for bus tickets. Now I’m not a big Ross Eadie fan, but a) it’s his budget, and b)it goes to transportation. Of note is the fact that Eadie takes the bus to City Hall (and I think he is the only one), not taxis like Harvey Smith or cars like the majority of councillors. Now, this does need to be approved by council – and I hope they approve it. If I was Eadie and they didn’t? I’d start taking cabs – that’s a lot more expensive than his bus passes and the donations ( and well within his perogative as to how to spend his budget) How do you like them apples, Colin Craig?

• I can think of few more appropriate responses to the above than the video below:

• Why are the lights at Pembina beside Pembina Chrysler operational? Those went in as part of Rapid Transit. That doesn’t go online till April, and in the meantime, it just causes much congestion

• With headlines like these, it’s no wonder people look at Winnipeg as Canada’s Detroit.  Shot in the eye, but that can of Minhas Creek, was just too appealing. Sheesh!

• Here’s a question for the ladies – when you go to the gym, do you spread your gym bag and stuff all over the benches so nobody can sit, or is this just a guy thing? On that I used to belong to a small downtown gym. Quite often there was nobody in it. One day, I’m the only one in the locker room, I’m using the sink, my locker is open and I have a chair in front of it. A guy comes in, and does he take one of the six stacked chairs beside the lockers? Nope – grabs the one in front of my locker. WTF?

• City of Winnipeg – fix the 62 and 37 bus routes. These are the only routes that go to south Winnipeg that don’t stop within a block of Portage and Main – why?

• A post in a winnipeg based forum that hit’s the nail on the head with respect to the Winnipeg Free Press:

“My journalist friend put it perfectly: The Winnipeg Sun is not a real newspaper but unlike the Winnipeg Free Press it does not pretend to be a real newspaper.

The sad part is that it is getting worse.”

• That’s it for now.

Except we don’t.

For years they had the hyper partisan columnists writing op-ed pieces, columnists like Frances Russell and Gordon Sinclair Jr. But now we no longer know the boundary between reporter/columnist/blogger. Dan Lett and Bartley Kives are apparently reporters and yet the post blogs and columns that show under the opinion header. What they have accomplished by this is made it clear that you can be one or the other, but never both. If you post ( especially on political issues) as a blogger or a columnist and those posts reflect your opinions and political leanings, it is impossible for you to be objective when you report the news or more accurately CHOSE what to report or DECIDE what spin to put on the news. Case in point is this recent ‘opinion’  blog by Dan Lett in which he intends to lay any responsibility for the cost overruns at the CMHR not at the feet of Gail Asper, the bord of the CMHR, the friends of the CMHR, but at the prime minister:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/no-one-could-see-this-coming-136218833.html

Nice try Dan, but most can see through this. If you want to throw mud at politicians involved in this, how about the city forgiving the tax arrears and penalties of the CMHR? Or how about the province, who decided that instead of funding the CMHR from the taxes of Manitobans would direct MPI, Hydro and MLCC to fund it?

And speaking of throwing mud at politicians, I remember at least 3 columns from you and Bartley chiding the Mayor for not appearing at the Remembrance Day ceremony this year. Strange, I have yet to hear a peep from you regarding the fact the our premier left our ‘acting’ finance minister to answer questions regarding the health care funding announcement from Ottawa, and to answer questions regarding additional flood expenses that will raise the deficit to almost $1 Billion. Is it because Sam Katz is a ‘Conservative’ and not NDP. If you are going to (laughably) call yourself reporters, at least try to act like one.

I was under the impression that part of the mandate of the media was to hold the government to account. The Freep loves this role when it’s a conservative government that is being held to account, but to nobody’s surprise they are dead silent when it comes to questioning the lies the provincial NDP feed out on items like BiPole, and their election attack ads.Perhaps Bob Silver should change the Free Press color from blue to orange. At least there would be no confusion that way.

But it’s not just newspapers, look at the TV reporting as well. Ideally, you should see the identical top 5 stories on CBC, CTV and Global. But how often does that really happen? CBC no longer describes the appearance of individuals involved in crime reports since they were using the term aboriginal too much. And they skip important information in favour of fluff pieces or pieces that are little more than a 30sec infomercial for the person featured in the story.

One would hope that in this age of faster and more immediate information, it would be easy to find fact unbiased information. Just the facts. But it seems like the opposite, it still takes the same amount of time to get correct information as it did 20 yrs ago, but now we have to weed through multiple sources in order to develop a picture that may be semi accurate. We have to dig into sources that some consider overly partisan or fringe just to find FACTS that aren’t being reported in the mainstream media.

I’d love to have a single information source that I can go to for unbiased FACTS in this city. However it looks like that won’t show up anytime soon.

Still cheaper than driving downtown. Last I figured it, it cost me $15 just in gas and parking to drive, vs current price of $4.20 for the bus.

I don’t really mind this, as long as this goes towards rapid transit vs the “black hole of general revenue”

Swandel has a point – shit or get off the pot. And it puts pressure on the Province to put up or shut up, since they have been conveniently been pointing fingers at the city for not completing the route. Of course the province’s response was that it was premature to increase the rates.

Councillor Gerbasi went on record decrying the lack of consultation and not consulting with  transit. News flash, this is to build a reserve for capital improvements, they don’t have to consult with transit, it’s not to cover operational expenses.

Overall, I have no problems with this as long as the money goes where it is supposed to. I mean you could argue that everyone should pay for RT (property taxes), since it indirectly benefits everyone. But I’d also like to see it done before I’m in a nursing home.

http://www.cafb-acba.ca/getmedia/34ebd534-14db-4bed-96d2-4fcadd5d9a33/HungerCount-2011-web-print-friendly.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf

On top of that, David Northcott of Winnipeg Harvest was on CJOB yesterday morning. I caught just a little bit of his interview, but the numbers are certainly nothing to be proud of. The report linked above provides easy to read statistics, but I’ll focus on Manitoba.

• Manitoba has the highest % of children using food banks than anywhere else in the country.
• Manitoba’s per capita % usage of food banks is second highest in the country only to Newfoundland and Labrador, and almost double the rate in the next highest province
• The % increase from 2008-2011 is the third highest in country only following Alberta and the Territories
• The Per Capita % increase in Manitoba from 2001-2011 is the highest in the country.

And yet we have had an NDP government during that entire time. An NDP government that positions itself as the champion of the working class

Now from the bits and pieces I caught from David Northcott’s interview, some interesting information, specifically the following points:

• The % of people using food banks in Manitoba on Social Assistance is relatively the same as the rest of the country.
• Northcott said ‘the growth has come from the working poor’

The working poor using the food banks? NOT MINIMUM WAGE EARNERS

The working poor. Those that earn marginally more than minimum wage. Those, that when the NDP says “look at us we’re helping by raising minimum wage”, see no benefit and see a decrease in purchasing power if business owners have to raise prices to compensate for minimum wage increases.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that Manitoba takes the most provincial income tax from low income earners in the country and also has the second highest rate of food bank usage in the country.

Raise minimum wage. But also reduce the tax burden on the working poor, and unlike refundable tax credits you’ll put more money in people’s pocket in each payday, and I’m sure you’ll see a decrease in food bank usage. But then again neither of those result in increased government revenue.

And neither result in reduced dependency on our provincial government.

Wanna get rid of food banks and make a difference? A real tangible difference? Increase the basic personal exemption to $20,000. Heck, increase the high end tax bracket by 1% to compensate if you have to.

Do that, and I’m sure you’ll see food bank usage drop.

I decided to see if the facts bore this out. My methodology? I looked at the bios and of the candidates that the NDP and Conservatives fielded in the last election. I’m looking only at candidates as opposed to elected MLAs as this is probably more representative, since MLA professions will be skewed by geographical representation ( Conservatives = rural, NDP = urban).

So is it true? Is the NDP a party of teachers and social workers? In a manner of speaking, yes.

• The highest % of any profession listed is that of teacher at 19%, followed by Bureaucrat (public service employee/ career elected representative/non-profit exec director, employee of crown corp or provincial gov’t.) at 14% and business owner/business person at 12%
• When broken down by party, the top three NDP professions are Teacher (30%), Bureaucrat (12%), Lawyer (9%). Social Worker is tied for fourth  with 7%. The top three Conservative professions are Business Person (19%), Bureaucrat (16%), Farmer (11%)
• The Conservatives have a larger breadth of candidates than the NDP (19 distinct professions vs 15)
• There are 5 professions listed by the NDP that do not appear in the list of conservative candidates (Political party worker, Union executive, Engineer, Welder, Economist)
• There are 9 professions listed by the Conservatives that do not appear in the list of NDP candidates ( Priest, Athlete, Doctor, Accountant, Pharmacist, Real Estate, Financial Advisor, Promoter, CEO)
• While the numbers in each category are similar if they both have candidates in that category, there are marked differences in a few. 17 NDP teachers vs 5 Conservative. 11 Conservative business people vs 3 NDP, every other category is within 3.
• There are labourers in both NDP and Conservative candidates.
• The Conservatives had more candidates employed in health care (4 to 2)

Besides that, you’re pants are too long and your shoes need a shine. If you can’t wear a tie properly, don’t wear them!

But, this post is about Premier Selinger’s ‘Acting’ Finance Minister and Conservation Minister. Selinger appointed Stan Struthers as Acting Finance Minster to add to his title of Agriculture Minister, and Chomiak as Acting Conservation Minister as well as Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro to go with his Minister of Innovation, Energy and Mines portfolio.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Struthers-Chomiak-take-on-more-cabinet-duties-132154753.html

I have a few issues with these appointments:

Struthers:

First, I believe that both Agriculture and Finance are important enough portfolios to warrant a full minister as opposed to having one person deal with both them.

Second, I’m not sure how a career as a teacher qualifies him to be either Agriculture or Finance minister, but I guess when you only have teachers or social workers to choose from…

Chomiak:

Let’s just ignore the fact the guy can’t dress himself for a moment.

Wasn’t he relieved of more senior cabinet positions because he was burnt out? Rumor had it he may have been suffering from some mental illness issues. So why increase his cabinet load?

I can kind of understand mating Hydro with Energy, Innovation and Mines.

But Conservation?

Look at the Ministerial list. There is another minister whose portfolio screams to take on conservation.

WATER STEWARDSHIP!!!!

Why wasn’t Christine Melnick named Acting Conservation Minister? Her portfolio dovetails perfectly with Conservation. In fact an argument could be made that Hydro could mate with Water Stewardship as well.

So why Chomiak? That decision doesn’t make any sense to me when it seems crystal clear that it should be Christine Melnick

Or lets say Selinger doesn’t like Melnick. How about Altemeyer, he’s got a Masters in Natural Resource Management.

But Chomiak?

Any answers?

We all know that Winnipeg drivers are crap.

I’ve noticed a couple of creatures lately that make me laugh though.

The twitchy slow guy

The guy that comes up to stop line and ya swear he is going to blow it. Instead he slams on his brakes and creeps into the intersection so that by the time the light turns green, he is halfway into the intersection.  As soon as the light goes green, he hammers it to go ………30 km/hr below the speed limit.

Leapfrogger

You’ve all seen this one. Especially prevalent in places like Northbound Pembina near Jubilee (Where one lane exits). These aren’t the guys that blast down the lane that goes out and then cut back into traffic. Nope, these are the guys that are right behind you in bumper to bumper traffic and then pull out into the lane that exits. But instead of blowing past a whole row of cars, they only pass you. And then sometimes they do it to the next car too. Dude, If you’re in a hurry, pass everyone. If not, then really, what’s passing two cars going to accomplish?

Ross Eadie:

Remember after the civic election, I chided residents of Mynarski for electing this clown?

http://bgilchrist.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/winnipeg-election-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/

Yeah, well your embarrassment is at it again:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/hike-trash-fees-for-rich-eadie-132035443.html

This is why people in the rest of the city point and laugh. There is NO correlation between assessed property value and the amount of garbage produced. In fact, if you examine the amount of garbage produced per capita, I think you’d find pretty quickly that the amount of garbage produced is inversely proportional to the assessed value of a person’s dwelling. Low income earners are less likely to compost or recycle because a) the facilities aren’t there b) they don’t have the time c) They don’t have the ability or financial means to make trips to Brady Road for large items.

This is a joke. Nothing more than Eadie wanting to tax the ‘rich’. Yet you also can’t correlate property values directly with earnings. My house has an assessed value higher than most on my street. Yet we compost and recycle and my family of four produces much less garbage than most houses on my street.

Ross Eadie, you’re an embarrassment. And residents of Mynarski should be embarrassed to have you as their councilor.

So I looked at the NDP’s website and a few ( very few ) names came up

Matt Wiebe has an Economics degree. I guess that could be considered qualified. But then again Selinger has an economics degree and he has no clue about accounting or proper financial reporting.

Flor Marcelino? She’s a business owner

Bidhu Jha? He’s owned a business

But that’s as close as you get. Accountants? Nope. CEOs? Nope.

But he’s got lots and lots to choose from for education minister. About half the MLAs are teachers.

It’s probably not just a NDP thing, but why wouldn’t you get credible candidates that have some experience in each of the cabinet areas? I’m thinking Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher, Accountant,Social Worker, police officer, etc.

But with all the teachers, union leaders, social workers in the ranks of NDP MLAs did they think about that? Or is being nominated for political office just payback for union involvement?