Mark H.

How is locking a thread always some peoples' default position? Sometimes it's best not to block opinions and just let people learn from each other.

The land bridge is still a theory. A good theory, but a theory nevertheless.

It's more the oil than the potash. Sask has been mining potash for half a century.

No I'm not over simplifying. This is how the problem gets solved. I know full well what the treaties that were signed were and what the intent was. The problem is that they are legal documents that are guaranteed by the constitution of this country, and that's a huge problem and the #1 reason why most of these problems exist. When they were signed it was seen as the easy solution, put the natives out of the way and throw them a few trinkets every now and then and let them live their traditional lifestyle. Problem is that in todays society it is a terrible solution and completely unworkable. The best solution IS to stop treating them differently and make them all Canadian and treat everyone equally. When you have such a skewed number of impoverished people on reserves it is safe to say that the system is broken, but where's the push to change a broken system? You even bring it up and you're labelled a racist. Too much blame gets thrown at the feet of the government of Canada and they're expected to fix it, but they can't fix it unilaterally, self determination and all that, so basically it's just "give us more money because residential schools! abuse! ugly history! white guilt!" It's those treaties that are holding things back. The best solution is for white people to stop believing that they have a clue how to fix the problem. That's how we got into this mess in the first place Largest untapped work force in the country, 2 million first nation grads by 2020, assimilation has happened. The days of hunting & fishing for a living are over. The reserves will dry up because the young won't stay. People have had that theory about quite a number of unique cultures. The belief that economic reality will some how erase cultural identity is flawed. Old John A. Macdonald had a similar theory about our First Nations - history has proven him wrong.

Okay, I found some info I was looking at a few weeks ago. Check out some of the budget records, going all the way back to 1997. http://www.gov.mb.ca/finance/provincialbudgets.html Go into Financial Review and Statistics and compare our Own Source Revenve vs. Government of Canada revenue. Example: the budgets in the late 90's drew almost 40% of their revenue from the Government of Canada.

I don't know what time frame you are comparing to, but is the change in percentage due to reduction in transfer payments, or increase in other taxes? I know that on a per capita basis, we draw way more money in federal transfer payments than all other provinces west of the maritimes. We draw almost double of what everyone west of Quebec gets. We draw more than Quebec. I find it all quite embarrassing. We need to be self sufficient. What offends me even more, is the cost of subsidy that we provide to the territories. Manitoba (per capita) $ 2,626 (2014-2015) Quebec $ 2,390 Yukon $24,901 NWT $29,412 Nunavut $40,352. I don't mind helping others get through tough patches and offering short term assistance, but we need to let unviable communities close and move rather than subsidizing the HE** out of them year after year after year. http://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp#Manitoba No one is self-sufficient, not even Alberta. Given the differences in resource base, I'm not surprised our transfers are about double what Alberta's and Saskatchewan's are.

Apology accepted. Difference is that "revenue neutral" seems to always equate to "poor people get screwed". The end result is the government gets the same amount of money, but more of it comes out of the pockets of people who can't afford it. And as I write this I am amazing myself as believe me, I am not a socialist. In fact, I believe that socialism hurts the poor more than it helps them, in a lot of the policies they enact. The Carbon Tax is one of those policies. Even though I'm in the teacher's union and happy with what they provide, lately I've been wrestling with the idea of government and unions. Unions don't really represent the working poor any more. They mostly represent public employees and middle class trades people. I find that the idea of socialist governments supporting the working poor has become largely a myth. And it fits right in with the comment you made about Tommy Douglas in the other thread.

I'm sorry, I was trying to be funny with the wine and cheese joke - I like wine and cheese and sometimes I like whining too. I actually appreciate the way Iso acknowledges that there can be issues with any government, regardless of political stripe. Seriously: what's the difference between a 'transfer' and 'revenue neutral?' If people are still paying the same amount of tax overall, then that would seem to be revenue neutral, would it not?

Speak for yourself! Our carbon tax is the dumbest tax I've ever seen - just soooo stupid. A Gordon Campbell Special. Don't see Christie Clark getting rid of it. The sky high gasoline taxes on the Lower Mainland is pretty stupid. Why do voters allow the politicians to rape them everytime they fill up their vehicles??? It's a trade-off. "As for the economy, B.C.’s GDP has slightly outperformed the rest of Canada’s since the carbon tax began. BC simply raised taxes on pollution and lowered them on income. Since 2008, the province has cut income taxes by almost $1 billion more than it has taken in carbon revenues –so taxpayers are ahead overall. B.C.’s personal and corporate income tax rates are now among the lowest in Canada, making it an attractive place to do business." - The Financial Post Jan 2015 "The result is that taxpayers are coming out ahead. B.C. now has the lowest personal income tax rate in Canada (with additional cuts benefiting low-income and rural residents) and one of the lowest corporate rates in North America. You shouldn’t need an economist and a mining entrepreneur to tell you that’s good for business and jobs." - The Globe and Mail July 2014 Because the tax must, by law in BC, be revenue-neutral, the province has cut income and corporate taxes to offset the revenue it gets from taxing carbon. BC now has the lowest personal income tax rate in Canada and one of the lowest corporate rates in North America, too. The Economist July 2014 How dare you bring facts to a whine and cheese party?

Manitoba's reliance on transfer payments has been mentioned several times. Transfer payments as a percentage of total government revenue are sitting at about 25%. They used to be 40%.

You're either exaggerating or uninformed. Did you know teachers in big bad union-unfriendly Alberta can take five personal leave day per year?

Looking for change. Not very satisfied living in Saskatoon. The only thing I will miss in Saskatchewan is my house and going to Rider games. Other than that, it's pretty boring and ugly out here. My personality is better suited in the east where I can get out of the house and do more. Plus, CFL games are national, so I can still enjoy Rider games on TV . TV over Mosaic? Easy choice

Huff saw a value in Shomari. Some people here dont. At least Shomari has played & started. For 3 seasons Pall was putting his feet up drinking a few beers at practice for the Stamps, Als & Bombers, getting paid & planning his next adventure with CFL Vacation Tours. They have beer and vacation tours? Dude, I shoulda been a footballer

He still has couple of prime years left - generally 27 - 32 for most athletes.

I'm extremely pro-Manitoba, but I'm just gonna point out that I'm not in any way related to the oil and gas industry, but my starting salary here was an increase of about 1.5x and has gone up regularly since. Housing costs in MB are comparable to here, yet pay hasnt gone up with it. Spin off good sir. My salary could go over a 100 K in Alberta. Here you don't even make that with a masters.

what a ridiculous statement to make. Alberta has seen it's population grow by something close to 1 million people in the last decade, you think it's cheap to build infrastructure to support that many new people? Especially without raising taxes? Give me the government who keeps taxes low rather than the one that raises taxes at the drop of a hat. Oil will bounce back and Alberta will be rolling in the money again within a few years, Manitoba is still going to be stuck with their ridiculously high tax rate in a few years though. My my, touchy on such an innocent statement. Manitoba has worse infrastructure problems than Alta. has, and way less money to have spent on it. Alta., with any kind of competent governing, should have quite the nest egg, even with a minimal Prov. tax, but they don't. Even though my statement was tongue in cheek…it still stands. So the question is, who's statement really is that ridiculous? As an Albertan who has lived in calgary & been through the Klein cuts... Alberta by far. We've squandered tens of billions just since 2007. Our Conservative politicians out here are douchebags. Manitoba's problem has always been the NDP with its pro labour, high taxes & anti business government. There's plenty of mismanagement in Manitoba but not on the scale of Alberta. Just to be clear, when you say "squandered tens of billions", you mean that the people of Alberta got to actually keep their own money? Because here in Manitoba when we talk about a government squandering billions it's when they take it from us through taxes and waste it on a hydro line that costs far, far more than it needs to be, for no good reason. I don't understand why the Cons aren't going hard after the bipole 3 issue. In the last election they barely mentioned it.

Germany is better, but countries like Britain and France have enormous socio - economic challenges.

Two things: 1. Alberta teachers have received wage increases of 5% per year in recently settled contracts (the past 3 - 5 years). In MB, we've never gotten more than 2 - 3 percent increases. Nurses in MB. took a wage freeze a few years ago. I realize I'm only looking at a couple of sectors, but I think the idea that MB. is union friendly while Alberta is not is somewhat misplaced. 2. Most people go to Alberta because the oil fields are the only place in Canada where you can earn good money without having a degree. Of course they could find employment at home, but nothing can compete with that oil field pay cheque. Seriously, if some one running a manufacturing business paid their employees oil field wages, they wouldn't be in business very long.

You would think they'd have atomic clocks.

Political popularity depends almost entirely on circumstances.

I do not envy the party who wins the 2016 election. With the state of things in Alberta, transfer payments are bound to shrink even further. They used to be over 40% of total revenue for Manitoba; they are currently 23% of total revenue.

Your life is about to change for the better - except for getting lobster juice all over your Riders jersey

If you're going to whine about this - have some wine and cheese instead.

I'd be very surprised if they changed the concession prices. At least not until they know what kind of crowds they can draw.

They contributed quite a bit to IGF. No they didn't. They gave money for the UoM fitness centre. None of the fed money went directly into the stadium. As the old saying goes "there's more than one way to skin a cat."