Discussions

"you have to have been living under a rock if you think Healthcare was better 20 years ago"  
 
Actually, it was. Many will tell you so.

Cee Jay 55 said "    Hayfield said "The civil service has become top heavy with too many managers and not enough workers. The Ndp has populated the civil service with Ndp yes men over the last 17 years and it time for more workers and less management. When a govt is in for this long people get complacent and don't do their jobs. Time for a total look at the civil service and the Ndp just won't do that. In private businesses the poor workers are weeded out,but in Union and govt work seniority rules. " It's what they do and I am glad to see them falling in the polls. It is high time we voted in a party that will cut the BLOATED government payroll and rein in the reckless spending rather than INCREASE TAXES to line their faithful's pockets.     Look at some of the other provinces that "booted" the SpeNDP..... did they falter or prosper afterwards? As my mother used to say, "The proof is in the pudding."     Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-03-28 11:37:18"

So in your opinion the civil service is top heavy. Do you have any intelligent basis for your opinion or is it just more PC rambling on about nothing. Comments such as yours make me feel like you only wish you could have been a civil servant LOL.  
 
CeeJay why don't you tell us what some of the other provinces are doing that you say booted the NDP.  
 
Tell us how well Alberta is doing after 20 years of PC government. Hopefully the NDP can turn things around in Alberta and come back from their 10 billion dollar deficit that they shouldn't have if the PC's had of maybe put some money away in their so-called rainy day fund.  
 
Article in the Brandon Sun today says Saskatchewan is running a 470 million dollar deficit after they booted the NDP who left them with a 2 billion dollar surplus.

Reggie 2 said "    Cee Jay 55 said "    Hayfield said "The civil service has become top heavy with too many managers and not enough workers. The Ndp has populated the civil service with Ndp yes men over the last 17 years and it time for more workers and less management. When a govt is in for this long people get complacent and don't do their jobs. Time for a total look at the civil service and the Ndp just won't do that. In private businesses the poor workers are weeded out,but in Union and govt work seniority rules. " It's what they do and I am glad to see them falling in the polls. It is high time we voted in a party that will cut the BLOATED government payroll and rein in the reckless spending rather than INCREASE TAXES to line their faithful's pockets.     Look at some of the other provinces that "booted" the SpeNDP..... did they falter or prosper afterwards? As my mother used to say, "The proof is in the pudding."     Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-03-28 11:37:18" So in your opinion the civil service is top heavy. Do you have any intelligent basis for your opinion or is it just more PC rambling on about nothing. Comments such as yours make me feel like you only wish you could have been a civil servant LOL.     CeeJay why don't you tell us what some of the other provinces are doing that you say booted the NDP.     Tell us how well Alberta is doing after 20 years of PC government. Hopefully the NDP can turn things around in Alberta and come back from their 10 billion dollar deficit that they shouldn't have if the PC's had of maybe put some money away in their so-called rainy day fund.     Article in the Brandon Sun today says Saskatchewan is running a 470 million dollar deficit after they booted the NDP who left them with a 2 billion dollar surplus. "

You must have one of the many redundant jobs the SpeNDP created. Your defense of them leads me to believe that.  
 
Oh, boo hoo, MTS was privatized and they slashed jobs - mostly unnecessary and redunadant SpeNDP reward ones. MTS is run much more efficiently now, phone prices are about the same now as they were when the SpeNDP ran it and in line with other providers. Also,now they don't increase your taxes if they lose money.  
 
And I am not for the PC either..... try again.  
 
I am for whoever has the the best options - which IN MY OPINION (that you will not change, lol) is definitely not the SpeNDP.  
 
PS - I am done with this thread - it seems to have been created in an attempt to convince the 72% who do not want the SpeNDP back to change their minds..... guess it didn't work on me.  
 
 
 
Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-03-28 20:00:26

Well so far you have said you are not for the PC's, Lib's or NDP....not much left.  
 
P.S.No I don't have one of those jobs.

alberta has the lowest debt. per capita in the country, it's the most prosperous prov. in the country, alberta has had to pay 100's of billions of dollars in transfer payments over the decades. Alberta has a deficit of under 5 billion provincially, the alberta ndp are going to add another 10 billion to that in a single year. Sask. is the second most prosperous prov. in the country, they've had a conservative gov. for the last 8 years, (sask. has the second lowest prov. debt. in the country ( by far )The way the alberta ndp are spending money soon ask. will be the most prosperous prov. in the country. ask. also pays billions in transfer payments every year to other provinces. ( that money comes out of their bottom line. Mb's prov. debt.? 36 billion. Time for a change.

How did you determine that MTS is run much more efficiently now than before it was privatized?

there has been much back and forth between the ndp and the conservative side in this debate.  
 
but there are a couple of things to think about. 1 being the reason the conservatives have not had a sniff of power here in 18 years or so, the other being that the conservative policies are better for the economy.  
 
the answers to both are really very easy to see.  
 
on the out of power question. it seems Manitoba voters were so fed up with the Filmon lies and manipulation, that the have been in the hinterland since. only after almost 2 decades have enough voters forgotten what they did to Manitoba and will only now consider them an option.  
 
that is something I hope a lot of people mull over before casting a vote.  
 
the other is the economy.  
 
I am not sure what happened to MR Filmon, but the destruction of the Manitoba civil service was high on his agenda.  
 
as a basic example, he fired all the governments building service workers. these people in no way were top tier wage earners. they did make a liveable wage in the $15 an hour range for providing light maintenance, houskeeping and janitorial serices.  
 
those employees were replaced by contractors paying their employees minimum wage.  
 
with all the government bldgs., we are talking more than a thousand staff  
 
explain to me how a $5 an hour net loss in pay is good for any community in our province.  
 
the company owners are swallowing the difference and now we have people working the same jobs for poverty level wages.  
 
great for our local economies.  
 
and now more cuts?  
 
think very hard my fellow citizens. if you like the services that governments are here to provide, you will strongly consider which direction you want this province and it's economy to take.  
 

Whiskers said "    Sorbet said "will not be privatized. Claiming Pallister will privatize hydro is nothing more than an NDP talking point meant to persuade low info voters. Hydro is a monopoly and privatizing it would make no sense. But it does make me wonder why Manitoba Hydro pays for rink boards in many arenas in Manitoba. Why are they paying for advertising? If you don't choose Manitoba Hydro, to whom will you go for power needs?     MTS, on the other hand, is not a monopoly, and because there is much competition, MTS rates have been low. " http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/no-plans-to-privatize-then-and-now-130688038.html "

cant really think of anything good that the NDP have done,um, add PST to the insurance policies for homes, raise the PST after saying they wouldn't, increase Manitoba Hydro rates till I we feel sick, but when questioned they insist its correct ,not much good here, the reflection here is NDP reflection in the rear view wayyy back. Harper needed 1 more term to get things headed in the right direction. Seems we are now Doomed.

Many people disagree that the civil service is top heavy. I run a business and if times are tough I work harder and cut back,but the current govts only answer is to raise taxes. The school I went to has 50% more employees than when I went to school . Regulations and red tape are killing productivity,example is out of a highway crew of ten now 4 are flagging and only six are left to work. I will vote for any govt that will control expenses and make some needed cuts ,anyone who says there isn't uncontrolled waste in govt isn't looking very hard. By borrowing more money to maintain the status quo we are saddling the future generation with a cheque they can't write.

Reggie 2 said "    Cee Jay 55 said "    Hayfield said "The civil service has become top heavy with too many managers and not enough workers. The Ndp has populated the civil service with Ndp yes men over the last 17 years and it time for more workers and less management. When a govt is in for this long people get complacent and don't do their jobs. Time for a total look at the civil service and the Ndp just won't do that. In private businesses the poor workers are weeded out,but in Union and govt work seniority rules. " It's what they do and I am glad to see them falling in the polls. It is high time we voted in a party that will cut the BLOATED government payroll and rein in the reckless spending rather than INCREASE TAXES to line their faithful's pockets.     Look at some of the other provinces that "booted" the SpeNDP..... did they falter or prosper afterwards? As my mother used to say, "The proof is in the pudding."     Edited by Cee Jay 55, 2016-03-28 11:37:18" So in your opinion the civil service is top heavy. Do you have any intelligent basis for your opinion or is it just more PC rambling on about nothing. Comments such as yours make me feel like you only wish you could have been a civil servant LOL.     CeeJay why don't you tell us what some of the other provinces are doing that you say booted the NDP.     Tell us how well Alberta is doing after 20 years of PC government. Hopefully the NDP can turn things around in Alberta and come back from their 10 billion dollar deficit that they shouldn't have if the PC's had of maybe put some money away in their so-called rainy day fund.     Article in the Brandon Sun today says Saskatchewan is running a 470 million dollar deficit after they booted the NDP who left them with a 2 billion dollar surplus. "

No I dont envy civil servants getting overpaid. I also dont like my tax dollars dollars being wasted so a certain segment can consume a large porportion of our tax dollars. Asking for some sort of accoutability in the spending of our tax dollars cant be asking to much.

Yes I tend to agree with you and doubt the number of students have increased by 50%. When I went to school there were always 28-30 students in a class. However for some reason todays teachers apparently can’t handle those class sizes. If we got back to those class sizes we would require fewer teachers and less classrooms.  
 
The problem with the education system is the individual school boards. A school board in south east Manitoba will give it’s teachers a 4% raise so then Brandon SD feels they have to match it. Also raises pegged at the rate of inflation make no sense when a 2% raise gives the $100K teacher a $2000 raise and the $50k teacher gets $1000, so the wage gap increases yet the $100k teachers costs haven’t increased anymore unless he has to impress by living in a mansion in Brookwood.  
 
Only way to get education costs controlled is to dissolve school boards and make the high paid Superintendents and Asst. Superintendents report to a central government agency their needs which would end up being funded no more or less than other areas.  
 
Further education costs should not be funded by property taxes. The system is unsustainable by having 3 families with 10 kids living in one house and paying one property tax. All day kindergarten to provide all day daycare is unsustainable and has not proven it’s worth.  
 
Regarding highway crews if they have 4 flaggers these are not civil servants. These are private contractors who have bid on a job. The government is at the whim of these contractors as many private contractors left the province when the PC’s were in power and stopped or cut back on highway construction. However new companies are starting up as it is obvious that our infrastructure has to be rebuilt, hopefully more competition will result in more competitive bids.  
 
 
 
 
Edited by Reggie 2, 2016-03-29 13:42:06

Reggie 2 said "Yes I tend to agree with you and doubt the number of students have increased by 50%. When I went to school there were always 28-30 students in a class. However for some reason todays teachers apparently can’t handle those class sizes. If we got back to those class sizes we would require fewer teachers and less classrooms.     The problem with the education system is the individual school boards. A school board in south east Manitoba will give it’s teachers a 4% raise so then Brandon SD feels they have to match it. Also raises pegged at the rate of inflation make no sense when a 2% raise gives the $100K teacher a $2000 raise and the $50k teacher gets $1000, so the wage gap increases yet the $100k teachers costs haven’t increased anymore unless he has to impress by living in a mansion in Brookwood.     Only way to get education costs controlled is to dissolve school boards and make the high paid Superintendents and Asst. Superintendents report to a central government agency their needs which would end up being funded no more or less than other areas.     Further education costs should not be funded by property taxes. The system is unsustainable by having 3 families with 10 kids living in one house and paying one property tax. All day kindergarten to provide all day daycare is unsustainable and has not proven it’s worth.     Regarding highway crews if they have 4 flaggers these are not civil servants. These are private contractors who have bid on a job. The government is at the whim of these contractors as many private contractors left the province when the PC’s were in power and stopped or cut back on highway construction. However new companies are starting up as it is obvious that our infrastructure has to be rebuilt, hopefully more competition will result in more competitive bids.           Edited by Reggie 2, 2016-03-29 13:42:06"

With your thoughts on school issues. Your idea of taxing from property is spot on - that is what has happened in Brandon and it has driven our school division into the ground. I use the example of my neighbours house all the time. There are 6 school aged children in that house. All are EAL kids, which cost approx $1200 MORE per year than a regular school kid does. That means that house alone costs an extra $7200 per year to supply schooling to. Yet, the school portion of taxes on that house is $1700. Not to mention there is only one working adult in that household, so his income taxes will not possibly cover all the extra services that house hold uses. The NDP government put the horse far behind the cart years ago when they decided to bring in thousands of Immigrants and their families, but did not first budget for the extra expenditures that these people would bring with them. Yes, one day they will be working and contributing in theory, but the hole we are in now with deficits will be a very steep one to dig out of until they do.  
 
This entire province is far too top heavy, and yes, there are many redundant (and overpaid) civil servants too. Yes, there are some very hard working city and provincial workers, but there are ridiculous redundancies all over the place too. I had one situation I was dealing with the local Provincial "rep" on an issue. This person was always out of the office, quite clearly not working a full 40 hours (though funny, they were always taking sanctioned holidays too). When a conflict arose my file was transferred to the Winnipeg office, and the service went up tenfold. I was dealt with more efficiently and it was a better experience. So if it is that easy to transfer a file to Winnipeg and deal with it in a more professional and cost efficient manner, how many other departments here in Brandon are over paid and fully redundant??  
 
Small businesses need to belt tighten in times of downturn, but governments refuse to see this and do the same.  
 
I am fully disgusted by the daily "promises" the SpeNDP keeps throwing out there. I hope people are not that stupid when it comes time to vote.

How things have changed over the years. Unions were formed to protect workers and they did a good job. Unfortunately their power has grown to the point where the taxpayer needs protection from Union demand. Asking for more money every year is the norm and never turned down. The average tax payer doesn't get a pay increase so he is asked to dig deeper every year. Time for the taxpayers to say no to constant pay increases to already large salaries.

It was disturbing to me to find that Manitoba ranks only above the tiny province of PEI in terms of Venture Capital Investment. These stats are from 2012-2014.  
 
What an embarrassing statistic. Check out our Province. We are rated a -D in terms of any Capital investment.  
 
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/innovation/venture-capital.aspx  
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-election-entrepreneurs-investment-1.3510649  
 
Edited by Kellye, 2016-03-30 10:04:55

Not much has been said about the decline of rural health care. Almost every rural hospital has lost it emergency services in the last few years. The current govt has done nothing to solve this problem. Hope somebody holds them accountable since they are the champions of healthcare ,as long as you don't live outside the cities.

Have you folks already forgotten Mulroney? Filmon? Harper? Aitkinson? Burgess? etc. etc. Conservatives are ruinous!

it's to bad we can't pick the good ones from parties to form a whole new govt party  
In Brandon Caldwell & Hamilton really aren't the ones to lead us - one isn't sure what "she" wants to do and can't commit, the other doesn't return calls or care  
In the bigger pic - liberal thumbs down ( partially due to all the ill informed people that voted in Justin. ) pallister is no messiah and he won't be able to do 1/100th of what he says - sadly our spNDP likely has the experience and relationship with Ottawa to do what's best.  
The 1% pst was not a bad thing - so get over it  

oscarette said "Have you folks already forgotten Mulroney? Filmon? Harper? Aitkinson? Burgess? etc. etc. Conservatives are ruinous! "

Does he have a spotless record? Have you forgotten the five ministers that called for his resignation?  
 
I kind of glossed over Atkinson when he was mayor but I respected him as he didn't hurt the city in anyway. I liked Burgess, he was a top notch mayor!

The current govt is in conflict of interest when negoiating with unions and giving severence pay. Selinger gave more than generous severance payment to people who quit. These payments were well above normal severence payments.Selinger negotiating with unions is like letting the fox watch over the chicken,the results arent good for the taxpayer. All wage talks should be looked at by a board with a mix of private and govt individuals. Having only govt people look at wage rates isnt fair to the tax payer. If I worked for the govt I would always give a pay raise, so I could ask for the same amount when I ask for one. As a private owner I have to earn a pay raise I just cant tax others to get it. Time for the taxpayers to have a say in govt spending.

Happy to see the SpeNDP still not favoured by 77% of the people.  
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mainstreet-poll-election-manitoba-1.3513997

How many promises can Selinger make.Does anyone believe he can keep any of them. I f he does he will make Trudeau look like a miser. Time for someone to add up the cost of all the promises, we know he won't keep any of them, but the lies have to stop.

stonepicker said "alberta has the lowest debt. per capita in the country, it's the most prosperous prov. in the country, alberta has had to pay 100's of billions of dollars in transfer payments over the decades. Alberta has a deficit of under 5 billion provincially, the alberta ndp are going to add another 10 billion to that in a single year. Sask. is the second most prosperous prov. in the country, they've had a conservative gov. for the last 8 years, (sask. has the second lowest prov. debt. in the country ( by far )The way the alberta ndp are spending money soon ask. will be the most prosperous prov. in the country. ask. also pays billions in transfer payments every year to other provinces. ( that money comes out of their bottom line. Mb's prov. debt.? 36 billion. Time for a change. "

Do you think Alta did a good job managing their oil revenues?  
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/11/oil-fund-norway-millionaires_n_4576887.html

For weeks now I have been listening to Brian Pallister promising to raise the basic personal exemption for income tax by $4,000 as well as rolling the PST back by 1%.  
Sounds great to me, but has he ever said how he's going to make up the lost revenue?  
Just asking......

as a new party candidate I am finding that the people I am talking to while campaigning in Arthur Virden are telling me that they are not going to vote about 7 of 10 people I'm seeing are saying this - looks like people on this thread are feeling the same way - If you live in the Arthur Virden or Spruce woods ridings you have our party The Manitoba Party to vote for if only for a protest vote to make things interesting for the establishment. We do have a good platform but know we cannot make government and will take some time to properly grow the party - but you have to give us an A for effort and wanting to do something better in our province even if there is only 16 of us

CatMan said "For weeks now I have been listening to Brian Pallister promising to raise the basic personal exemption for income tax by $4,000 as well as rolling the PST back by 1%.   Sounds great to me, but has he ever said how he's going to make up the lost revenue?   Just asking...... "

there is lots of tax cash coming in. The trick is to spend it well not throw out more spending promises like the NDP and the Liberals have been doing. Let's not kid ourselves, the gov't is sitting on lots of money.  
 
I've heard Pallister speaking and he sounds intelligent. The other leaders are full of bluster but Pal stays cool. Good, I want someone in control!

Promises you don't plan to keep aren't worth a thing. The Ndp can promise the world but we get the bill.  
 

Finance Minister Eric Stephanson and  
Premier Gary Filmon nipped here and tucked  
there to shave $176 million from the province’s  
$5.5-billion budget without touching major  
taxes. Some highlights were: property tax  
credits chopped for welfare recipients, restricted  
for farmers, nursing home residents and  
married couples; about 350 government jobs  
cut; health department cut $37 million; family  
services department cut $10 million; agriculture  
cut $12 million; and routine eye exams no  
longer paid for by province.  
 

Who should we elect to spend our money ? Where do they get these goofy ideas to spend our money ?

Alberta has done well, best roads in the country, up to date infrastructure, a huge increase in population over the last 20 years, they've invested in the future, and most people forget about the huge transfer payments that alta. has had to pay, i believe it's well over 100 billion over the last 20 years. That's a huge amount of money for any province to have to give away! If you want to look at mis-managed look at quebec or ontario who have great industrial base ( especially ontario ) ontario is broke, they have more debt. than most countries! Look at mb.'s debt, over 36 billion! that's huge for our prov. yet the ndp want to spend more. The ndp should never have been able to repeal the balanced budget legislation that was in place before they took power almost 20 years ago.

increasing a sales tax or implementing user fees to increase government revenue is something I believe none of us like.  
 
However, future governments can always lower the tax or repeal the user fee at a future date.  
 
when you cut off a revenue stream permanently (MTS), future governments cannot bring it back.  
 
This is something I do not trust about a conservative government. they will tell voters that a crown corporation is not for sale, up until the moment the writ drops in our legislature.  
 
If not an election issue, crown corporations should not be sold without a provincial referendum, or we should be prepared to take a class action suit to force a referendum.  
 
I would suggest, that the $4000 more we pay in taxes relative, to what Saskatchewan residents pay, would at least partially, or perhaps totally covered by the revenue MTS could of still been supplying.  
 
think hard about what direction you want our province taking.