And how do you suggest we take care of the poor then , that we haven't tried.

Pavolo wrote:And how do you suggest we take care of the poor then , that we haven't tried .

Start with electing politicians who are ready to admit that they don't have all of the answers and are prepared to listen to the people.

Open daycares and hire welfare moms to work in them. This alone should make hundreds of stay at home parents eligible to enter the workforce.

Eliminate all business taxes for Manitoba businesses, including the payroll tax. Taxes paid by businesses are passed onto the consumer, anyway, so they may as well be eliminated. Make Manitoba the most business-friendly province in Canada.

Help immigrants with qualifications that are not recognized here, to go back to school and become recognized. Make Manitoba the province of choice for educated immigrants.

Let Manitoba Hydro charge rates based on the market, rather than subsidize rates for Manitobans. Used the increased revenues to help build and maintain the infrastructure to facilitate the exporting of electricity for profit and to implement new green means of energy production, like Germany is doing. You could say that hydro is already a green way of producing energy. Make Manitoba the green energy (per capita) production capital of Canada.

Have all tax-payer funded organizations investigate the viability of incorporating open source software or outright switching to open source, as this is also a trend happening in other parts of the world. In the long run, utilizing open source software will create another high-tech growth industry with plenty of high-paying jobs. Make Manitoba the first province to embrace open source software in a big way and, we will become the open source software consulting capital of Canada, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue flowing here from the rest of North America as Canada, the US and Mexico begin to increasingly adopt open source software.

These are just a few of my ideas. If government paid attention to us, others would come forward with their ideas and we may have a chance to actually rebuild this province from the ground up, rather than simply apply window dressing as many politicians are apt to do so they can gloat about what was accomplished under "their watch."

Help immigrants with qualifications that are not recognized here, to go back to school and become recognized. Make Manitoba the province of choice for educated immigrants

This is what my ex Brother In Law doe's and the province is not the problem in most cases it is the professional societies

Eliminate all business taxes for Manitoba businesses, including the payroll tax. Taxes paid by businesses are passed onto the consumer, anyway, so they may as well be eliminated. Make Manitoba the most business-friendly province in Canada.

Well the Idea is sound this province could never afford the poor then as this is to much coin for them to just give up. What they would lose here would have to come from some where else and yours and my pockets is probably where . Well I appreciate your thoughts and don't out right disagree just don't see us doing it to soon as this is the province of the poor and the NDP so we can expect more Taxes to support it .

We in this country or at least some of us seem to think that we owe every one not to be poor . It is always being banted about in the news and on the papers. I don't agree we have lots of programs now and we don't need more what we need is the reason to use them .
This could be accomplished by putting limits on time to collect welfare and make the pursuit of employment more aggressive part of the hand out . If you don't live up to the conditions of the hand out you don't get it . After all how many of the poor are poor cause they want to be , none just cause they dropped out of school and have a few vices well gee I have to look after them for life WRONG . I have to go to work to make more money so that more can sit at home and the goverment bureaucracy can survive. Will get back to this later

You're right of course Pavolo. We do have a society of entitlement here in Manitoba. The notion Manitoba is a province of the poor is absurd. It is the province of the chronically lazy. Our unemployment rate has been amoungst the lowest in Canada for a few years now. We are SCREAMING for tradesmen yet we have Indian Chiefs crying unemployment amoung their people is epidemic.

We have some of the lowest secondary education fees in North America. Ton's of jobs. A relatively stable economy. Why aren't people working?

You argue eliminating our business taxes can't be done because we have too many poor. Stop funding these entitled people. The lowered business taxes (plus a business freindly government) will lead to more business leading to more jobs.

Jesus H. Christ we've got 10k+ immigrants entering Manitoba annually and they all seem to be productive taxpaying citizens immediately. Our own people must get up off their asses and get to work.

Triniman wrote:

Pavolo wrote:And how do you suggest we take care of the poor then , that we haven't tried .

Start with electing politicians who are ready to admit that they don't have all of the answers and are prepared to listen to the people.

Open daycares and hire welfare moms to work in them. This alone should make hundreds of stay at home parents eligible to enter the workforce.

Eliminate all business taxes for Manitoba businesses, including the payroll tax. Taxes paid by businesses are passed onto the consumer, anyway, so they may as well be eliminated. Make Manitoba the most business-friendly province in Canada.

Help immigrants with qualifications that are not recognized here, to go back to school and become recognized. Make Manitoba the province of choice for educated immigrants.

Let Manitoba Hydro charge rates based on the market, rather than subsidize rates for Manitobans. Used the increased revenues to help build and maintain the infrastructure to facilitate the exporting of electricity for profit and to implement new green means of energy production, like Germany is doing. You could say that hydro is already a green way of producing energy. Make Manitoba the green energy (per capita) production capital of Canada.

Have all tax-payer funded organizations investigate the viability of incorporating open source software or outright switching to open source, as this is also a trend happening in other parts of the world. In the long run, utilizing open source software will create another high-tech growth industry with plenty of high-paying jobs. Make Manitoba the first province to embrace open source software in a big way and, we will become the open source software consulting capital of Canada, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue flowing here from the rest of North America as Canada, the US and Mexico begin to increasingly adopt open source software.

These are just a few of my ideas. If government paid attention to us, others would come forward with their ideas and we may have a chance to actually rebuild this province from the ground up, rather than simply apply window dressing as many politicians are apt to do so they can gloat about what was accomplished under "their watch."

For the record Triniman I agree with your entire post.

Thank you, Grumpy.

I'd like to see more ideas from the members here as well as what can be done to eventually take the best vetted ideas (vetted by us) to the next level.

I see Manitoba as having the potential to be among the most desirable places to live in the world. The whole notion of mosquitoes and cold doesn't hold water with me or the people who choose to stay here. I like living here and don't have any desire to move elsewhere.

"Help immigrants with qualifications that are not recognized here, to go back to school and become recognized. Make Manitoba the province of choice for educated immigrants"
This is the big issue for me. I've unloaded freightcars and trailers with doctors, dentists, accountants,etc. All immigrants whose degrees were not recognized here, it made me sad when they told me the process involved to make a go of it in their chosen field here in MB. There must be some resolution for this issue so that things can get streamlined for these well educated people. We have such a severe shortage of doctors and nurses right now,lets utilize the people we have here instead of trying to snare other provinces doctors and nurses.
Excellent post Triniman!

Triniman wrote:Thank you, Grumpy.

I'd like to see more ideas from the members here as well as what can be done to eventually take the best vetted ideas (vetted by us) to the next level.

I see Manitoba as having the potential to be among the most desirable places to live in the world. The whole notion of mosquitoes and cold doesn't hold water with me or the people who choose to stay here. I like living here and don't have any desire to move elsewhere.

Triniman, I too agree with what you have to say. Maybe you should run for Premier, I would vote for you.

I also like some of what Pavolo has to say about time limits of welfare.

Maybe we should all get together come up with a plan and start a Manitoba Party. Give the NDP and PC's some serious competition. Some of your views Trini combined with some from other members and we can turn Manitoba and Winnipeg in to one great Have Province.

Yes one of the big ideas being floated is we pay what our hydro is worth and then we could be in the have group . Don't take me wrong but the time has come to sort out the lazy from the real poor .
Some of those being our senior citizens who scrape by on the most basic pension going , as at the time they started their payment . The final amount wasn't bad but along came inflation and cost of living increases , there is not much left . These people desearve better then some lazy drop out , who can't seem to do anything before 11 in the morning .
We need to make this province the place to be for Green things be it research or development . Offer tax breaks and grants for their factories or think tanks to be here . This Province has been missing the boat because of our poor attitude it is time for change , been saying it for 20 years .
As you suggest Grumpy we need to clean out the lazy from the entitled , mentally physically unable to work yes there is a net for you . Lazy and content to sit no there is not , And the natives want to sit in the bush make it pay or come to town and get a job.
We need to stay away from whining to Ottawa for more, tax and spend better. Alberta we might never be for wealth but we can be far better then we are . As Triniman said hydro is the genie in the bottle again if we act now not 10 yrs from now .

Well I agree with much of the injustice given to natives in this country , and this is really a federal matter. They also have to shoulder the blame for the mess , well the treaty is about sharing it is not about being a freeloader .

I don't believe Manitoba has the most Aboriginals. I believe it has the highest percentage of Aboriginals per capita. But Winnipeg apparently has the highest urban population of Aboriginals.

Moot point as they are getting impatient for change and that is all that matters . The young want to have the same dreams and expectations as white kids , just not the ease of getting them .
This has to change for the province to change for all have to be included , not just some . The federal goverment has to do this though, for aboriginals. Another thing which we need to do is keep the NDP out of office as they are seen badly in the business community . Sad to say they are the first choice for most of the poor , the party they trust to protect there rights.