Time to call province on its inaction

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2011 (5411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I try to stay out of provincial matters as much as possible, but I have to say I’m very concerned about this strike and the inability of the participants to recognize the long-term economic damage that this can do to a small centre like Brandon.”

— Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews

We’d like to welcome the approximately 1,000 delegates, guests and exhibitors to the 13th annual Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention.

While infrastructure will be front and centre on the minds of delegates, we also consider this to be an appropriate opportunity for those concerned with the well-being of municipalities — especially those in Westman — to turn up the heat on the Selinger government for refusing to put an end to the disastrous strike at Brandon University.

The protracted work stoppage — the longest in the province’s history — is placing the very future of the university in question and is having a very real economic impact on Brandon and the entire region.

Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews — in town to speak at the convention yesterday — said he was very concerned about the strike as it has economic repercussions throughout the region.

“I think that the provincial government should move in, should take some kind of an active step beyond what is happening now because this has a long-term significant impact,” the former provincial Tory labour minister, who’s now Manitoba’s regional minister in the Harper cabinet, told the Sun’s editorial board yesterday.

“I would be surprised if they wouldn’t lose a significant number of students as a result of this.”

Toews said he “hasn’t yet” spoken with Premier Greg Selinger about the strike, but noted the federal government has provided significant funding to BU in recent years for infrastructure upgrades during tough economic times.

“I see this strike as really counterproductive as to what we’re doing.”

So as delegates mull over more than 60 resolutions up for debate this year — nearly double last year’s total — we urge them to also take some time and ponder what the refusal of Manitoba’s NDP government to step in and end it really means to them.

And for those folks who are truly concerned about the NDP’s inaction — or the structure of our labour friendly legislation as a whole — there will be opportunities to share your ideas with members of the governing party.

Perhaps the best being Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Ministerial Forum, when municipal officials get to ask questions of members of the provincial cabinet.

Short of walking the picket line with the striking faculty, the NDP could not be sending a worse message to employers, students and anyone considering investing in Manitoba by allowing this stalemate to continue at BU as it smugly cloaks itself with the Labour Relations Act.

We note The Amazing Kreskin is scheduled as the entertainment at the AMM dinner tomorrow night. Perhaps the NDP needs his powers to help it clearly understand the outcome of the strike and what the fallout will be for Westman.