Jacquie

No disrespect KBF but how can people constantly complain about the size of the Civil Service and call for layoffs, etc when they have no idea how many Civil Service members there are or what they do. In one breath people (generally speaking - not specific people) complain about a lack of services and in the next they want fewer people providing those services.

The Manitoba Civil Service consists of people employeed directly by the Province as well as those employed by crown corporations, universities and colleges, health care facilities, social service agencies, and arts and cultural organizations. I'm curious as to how many employees you all think are needed province-wide to run an efficient civil service. And no smartass answers like fewer. I am wondering how realistic you all are on the number of people there are in the MCS. Note: I'm talking full time, part time and seasonal employees combined.

It wasn't that long ago. His plane made an emergency landing on April 15 in Illinois and he was taken in the hospital. According to TMZ, hospital sources say he left the hospital too soon because he wasn't doing well.

Even worse than the length each were in power was how much of it was spent with virtually no opposition. When I lived in Calgary back in the 1980s there was a candidate who died a little before the campaign started and he still won. After one election the PCs had to appoint members of their own caucus to act as the opposition. It was beyond stupid.

And there were kids who graduated high school knowing nothing for most of their lives but an PC government in leadership when Filmon was in. Out of curiosity, did you vote against the PCs after their third term with Filmon?

Of course he has the right. Would you question it if it had been a player who signed elsewhere in the off-season, rather than a coach?

http://www.cknw.com/2014/05/22/36460/ The article is from 2014 but the chronology is fine. The courts restored the teachers' bargaining rights in 2011. I believe that didn't change after the other court decisions.

I got the numbers from the BCTF website. The contract was negotiated when the NDP were in office. From the CKNW website: January 2002: Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government, with Christy Clark as Minister of Education, tears up teachers’ collective agreements. **This move cuts $336 million annually from public education. PLUS Bills 27 and 28 are enacted and do the following: eliminate protections on class size and composition cut support for kids with special needs strip teachers of bargaining rights.

From what I've read the class sizes negotiated in the 2001 CBA were a maximum 20 students per kindergarten class, 22 for grades 1-3 while grades 4-12 were capped at 30. You think that's outrageous.

There's incompetence everywhere.

It's more understaffed than incompetence. Too many cases, not enough case workers. Ted Hughes recommended a ratio of 20 files per social worker. The average about a year ago was 28. With about 90% of the children in care being native, First Nations CFS needs to do a better job managing the situation.

According to BC government documents, the average class size (K-12) is 20-26 students. Unless you learned your math in Saskatchewan that isn't 3 students per teacher.

And that's about 9 days more than what Notley got in Alberta.

How exactly are the PCs going to address all that and still tighten the belt? Some of those things are a bit misleading as well. The wait times info the PCs referenced is specifically about ER wait times, not all medical wait times. They were also using information from a survey of about 160 hospitals - some provinces/territories weren't included. Also, as has already been discussed, if people would stop going to ERs for non-emergencies the wait times would be a lot lower. That is too many kids in care. The problem is the numbers don't tell us whether the kids are better off in care or with their parent(s). It really is a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing when it comes to kids in care (that's true regardless of what political party is in power). Child poverty is not just a provincial responsibility. The feds have a lot to do with it too (ie the rampant poverty on too many reserves). All levels of government (regardless of political ideology) need to do more. Having guaranteed income levels would do a lot to reduce the numbers since the children of working poor families make up a big percentage of kids living in poverty. Standardized testing is a political tool and not a true indication of what is going on in schools. I think you will find that the lack of care home beds is pretty much a Canada-wide issue. I seem to recall our Alberta posters commenting on the PCs there totally ignoring the need. What type of medical services are you referring to? That is such a broad statement.

You think Bluto is out there now checking out the choice spots and staking a claim.

Don't be obtuse. We were talking specifically about Chungh and Goossen.

To any of you MB PC voters/supporters, any ideas on how the PCs will tighten the belt? Pallister didn't ruled out privatizing parts of healthcare. He's only committed to reducing the PST before the end of his term so people might have to wait until 2020 before that's done. What budgets and programs will be slashed?

You've totally misread that. The BC College of Teachers certifies individuals as being qualified to teach in BC so they can apply for teaching jobs. They do not hire teachers. The fact is there are a lot more people graduating with teaching degrees than there are teaching jobs. From a 2014 article it said there were 3,300 teachers who were certified but only 900 teaching jobs in BC. And the situation in BC is not unique. Ontario completely overhauled the program at the Ontario College of Teachers a couple of years ago because there is a glut of teachers there (9,000 teachers but only 6,000 teaching jobs). P.S. About a comment you made in an earlier post about being a sympathizer, what I'm is an ABC strategic voter.

Chungh started all of last season and Goossen started at the end of the season - the future is now.

I should have been clearer - I found the actual quote and he said Ryan had won 2 Super Bowls with the Jets.

My point was, and you seem to agree, that things weren't peachy keen when the PCs left office.

From the Washington Post: He also called Rex Ryan a championship winning coach.

Where did I say anything about that.

He was talking about Alberta.

I am actually surprised that there are places that still use coal to generate electricity. I thought that had gone the way of the dodo.