Taxing high earners wouldn’t have filled provincial coffers, writes Kevin Milligan

The Atikokan Progress reports that Youth 4 Lakes is a group of about a dozen Treaty 3 Indigenous youth ages 13 to 36 from Manitoba and Kenora who embarked on March 28 on a 2,100 kilometre walk from Winnipeg to Parliament Hill. They have been ave…

In the 1970s two locations around Winnipeg were chosen for a social assistance experiment. Everyone was provided with a living income regardless of who they were for a period of four years. Evelyn Forget has studied the results. Forget is a professor o…

New post. Mommy Moment is owned by Jody Arsenault, from Manitoba, Canada.

It’s not just me, so many people (especially in Manitoba) are ready to say goodbye to winter. Dear Summer, please come for a visit. I miss the sunshine. I need the sunshine. Anyone else want to welcome Summer to come for a visit? (A LONG visit)

The post Dear Summer… appeared first on Mommy Moment.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

For the group, Youth for Lakes, this was the beginning of a 2000 kilometre trek to Parliament Hill in Ottawa that will take them an…

read more

Canada’s third largest freshwater lake in serious trouble by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 4, 2013: A report by a Germany-based international environmental foundation is reminding Canadians of the consequences of neglecting the …

The CBC News is reporting that Gavin van der Linde, the mayor of Morris, a southern Manitoba town, is “furious over what he calls racist comments about aboriginal people in the latest edition of the community newspaper”. The editorial of th…

Mulcair needs seats in Saskatchewan and Manitoba if he wants to win an election. Here’s the plan to do it

A poverty “shoe-down” at the Manitoba Legislature Jan. 4, 2013: Demonstrators calling for an increase in rental rates for income assistance recipients, left dozens of pairs of shoes on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature. Photo: Paul S. G…

From The Canadian Press: “WINNIPEG — The fur is set to fly in Manitoba over whether landlords should be forced to accept tenants with pets.

“Since the end of January, more than 2,500 people have signed up on a Facebook page to support Gerrard’s bill, which was tabled at the end of the legislature’s fall sitting. Groups such as the Winnipeg Humane Society have joined the battle and are calling on the NDP government to pass the bill.”

For me, this is great news. I live with a cat, and I can tell you that Ontario has had a ban on “no pets” policies for many years, and it hasn’t pushed landlords out of business. I lived in Ontario for several years, and I can tell you the system isn’t collapsing due to a ban on no-pets policies.

I would expect the governing NDP, a nominally social democratic party, to be on the side of the property-less over the property owners in a case like this. Here’s a chance for social democrats to show their superior capacity for compassion, right?

Sadly, no.

“‘It is hoped that the damage deposit provision … will encourage more landlords to welcome tenants with pets,’ Rachel Morgan, press secretary to Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh, wrote in an email.”

Oh, yes. That idea. Pet damage deposits. An idea lifted from British Columbia’s right-wing government, without any evidence that it has succeeded in producing more pet-friendly accommodations for renters.

Brilliant play, that.

“Gerrard is hopeful, however, that the government may change its mind, especially in the face of public pressure.”

Good luck with that. The current premier is the guy who pushed the damage-deposit policy through (when he was finance minister) despite the extra burden it will mean to pet owners, and despite the utter lack of evidence that it’s an effective policy in any way. He considered the landlords’ viewpoints, paid no attention to any arguments against the policy, and gave the landlords a gift like any good friend of the powerful would.

It’s not too late for the NDP to show that it cares, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.