Hacks & Wonks

Might be smart to follow this Twitter: http://twitter.com/motherabigail

 

Unless you are more inclined this way: http://twitter.com/VegasWalkinDude 

I missed this myself last week, but Dan Lett writes that McPhillips Street Station is finally getting an ATM.

Good. 'Bout time.

Dan (and Tory leader Hugh McFadyen) suggests that it's another step towards taking advantage of problem gamblers, but honestly, this is more about convenience for the majority of patrons. Dan points out that every other casino in Canada has ATMs (hell, I remember sitting at a blackjack table in Halifax no more than fifteen feet from the nearest one there) and people who visit from outside of the province are often aghast at the notion that they have to cross to a beer vendor outside in January in order to access their money.

People don't carry cash like they used to and often people won't even have $40 in their pocket. They walk in, hand over their coats to the check staff, then ask where the ATM is so that they can reload.

Only to then ask for their coats back.

It's ridiculous. The point of a regulation like this is to achieve some purpose. After all, when it comes to the ATM ban, there is a price being paid by all to help some. So the question is, does it help anyone? Does the problem gambler who uses stepping outside as an excuse to leave really exist?

I would wager they must likely don't. Certainly not in sufficient numbers to justify the ban.

The prohibition on ATMs was as ridiculous as the one placed on serving and imbibing alcohol at the gaming tables. A casino is supposed to be about fun and gaming, but preventing people from having a beer while they play takes a lot of the fun out of an evening at the casino and basically guarantees that the only people spending any real time there are those that are serious gamblers only.

One Friday night a few summers ago, I was sitting at Club Regent playing blackjack and these four guys from South Africa joined me at the table. It was the night before their Winnipeg buddy's wedding and while the groom shut down around midnight, they still wanted to go out and have some fun.

They were shocked - literally shocked - when told by the waitress that they couldn't even bring their drinks over from the bar, least of all order one or worst of all, get comped a drink despite the pile of black chips in front of them.

"Well, that's a first in two dozen countries," noted one to the group shortly before they got up and left for someplace else where they could celebrate.

Doesn't that just sum it up best? When you put restrictions on casinos that take away from their ability to actually act like a casino, you pretty much ensure that the only people who regularly use the casino are the most hard core of gamblers who don't care about the social aspect of gaming. Isn't that kind of opposite of what we're going for with the regulations in the first place?

Look, I understand the desire to weed out problem gamblers and get them help if at all possible. I've known a couple of addicts myself. People who came thisclose to losing family and their homes. If I could figure out a way to deal with the inevitable closure of the small beverage rooms & bars that would result, I would be firmly in the camp to ban VLTs outside the casinos as their effect on people really scares me at times.

And if we want to have a debate about whether we should even have casinos, that's fine too. I'd be in the pro-casino camp, but at least we'd have the discussion.

But this half-assed approach to casino management is exactly why government shouldn't always be in control of operations. If you are going to run a casino, run it how a casino should be run. Make it an enjoyable place to be for those that enjoy casinos elsewhere. Both governments (Filmon PC/Doer NDP) have bungled their way along on the file. From the whole ATM & booze issue all to way back to the very beginning, when the locations picked for them were completely wrong in the first place. (How they both didn't end up downtown, close by to each other to create a "district", I'll never know.)

But lest you think I'm completely, "Get out of their way and damn the folks who can't help themselves," one aspect of Dan's story does register with me:

That's one area I would certainly support the government getting involved in. There should be no reason that staff cannot step in from time to time if they suspect a problem gamer and ask them to have a quick discussion. I'm sure there's a checklist of signs that would suggest trouble and asking the gamer to leave or to go speak with a councillor on-site wouldn't be too restrictive. Of course it would lead to the occasional confrontation and "How dare they!" accusations, but if I was the Minister in charge, I would back my staff in that situation.

Such an intervention wouldn't eliminate Manitoba's gaming problem, but it would certainly help far more people than banning alcohol and ATMs ever did.

Pizzaria Gusto has become one of my favorite places to eat in the city and adding a patio would only make it more accessible to folks during the busy summer period AND heighten the Winnipeg dining experience for visitors. 

Don't let the NIMBYs get you down!

[link]

The Canadian housing market appears to be stabilizing, with sales activity up in March for the second consecutive month, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday.

Actual year-over-year transactions were down 13.7 per cent. This was the smallest year-over-year decline in six months, the association said.

"Housing markets are starting to show signs of buyer interest because of lower prices and interest rates," Regina realtor Dale Ripplinger, CREA president, said in releasing the March results.

 

Noticed while registering into CBC Sports in order to play their playoff pool:

Are you interested in becoming a source for CBC news? This means a CBC journalist might invite you to participate in stories that are relevant to you. We won't quote or identify you without your permission.

[link]

 

Work on Winnipeg's inland port will begin early next year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this afternoon at a news conference at Winnipeg's airport.

Harper and Premier Gary Doer announced more than $212 million to build CentrePort Canada Way, a four-lane divided expressway linking the inland port to the Perimeter Highway.

The high-speed corridor will connect Inkster Boulevard (PR 221), the James A. Richardson International Airport and the CP Weston rail intermodal facility to the Perimeter Highway near Saskatchewan Avenue.

"This will create jobs and opportunities when these jobs are most needed," Harper said, adding the investment is part of his government's Economic Action Plan.

The corridor is vital to developing the envisioned 20,000 acre inland port northwest of the airport, said Doer.

The CentrePort plan calls for a massive trucking and rail depot linked to runways and aircraft coming and going from all over the globe. A new road and cloverleaf linking the airport to the west Perimeter Highway is seen as the logical first step.

The new road would run between Oak Point Highway to the north and Saskatchewan Avenue to the south.

CentrePort Canada is a private sector-led corporation, created by provincial legislation last fall, to develop and promote the inland port and build on Manitoba's infrastructure network of air, rail, trucking and sea routes.

The $212.5-million expressway is being funded jointly by the provincial and federal governments, with the federal share coming from the Provincial Territorial Base Funding Agreement ($68.35 million) and the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative ($33.25 million). Manitoba will match the federal funds and contribute an additional $9.2 million to acquire the land.

 

My industry is in imports and I cannot tell you how important this initiative is to long-term economic health of Winnipeg and Manitoba.  Insane amount of potential benefits awaiting if it is done right.  (Think a resurgent manufacturing sector and oodles of logistics-type careers.)

 

Reading the posts at the end of this Toronto Star website posted CP article on CAW getting anrgy at Ontario for not fully backstopping the GM pension, I can't help but marvel how little public sympathy there is out there for GM and Chrysler workers and the companies as a whole. 

 

Canadians do not want to see them given billions.  They just do not.  There's almost a glee in the "This is what you get!"-kinda feel of some of them.

That's unfortunate.  But that said, let the company (or -ies) go.  Secure the pension as much as legal required, but don't break the government bank to do it either.

There's a lesson in all this to Canadian unions.  Your PR isn't where you expect it to be.  Tread carefully in some sectors.

If I wasn't headed to Brandon tonight to check out Round Two action of the WHL playoffs, I would be headed to the open house for the Devonshire Development. (Chief Peguis School Theatre, 1400 Rothesay Street, Wednesday, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)

 

After getting their legs kicked out from under them last fall, the Vancouver developer wants to go back to the residents of the area to see if an agreement can be hammered out to allow their apartment complex to go ahead.  I was choked when they were forced to pull their first proposal and I would hope that a few more folks than just the typical NIMBYs come out tonight to show support.  The city badly needs apartments, especially along major transit corridors.  This is private investment coming into Manitoba from out of province, which is also badly needed.

I get the sense my buddy Jeff is looking at this with more of an open mind after voting against the first one.  (I gave him hell for it at the time, despite his reasons.)  The people (and voters) he was surely nervous of offending are entitled to their opinions, and even their disappointment that their neighbourhood is changing, but they should not and can not be able to prevent development that is as needed as this project intends to be. 

Browaty's got a good point:

 

North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty, who voted against the last version of the expansion, said he's keeping an open mind this time because his ward desperately needs more apartments.

 

"There are so many people in North Kildonan who are getting older. They want to leave their single-family, detached homes, but they want to stay in the neighbourhood, see their friends and shop in the same stores," Browaty said.

Absolutely.   Bart Kives also had a good opinion piece on the issue as well.  This is a project that needs to go forward.

Get it right this time buddy.

[link]  (BEWARE: Major Spoiler from last night's House)

WASHINGTON - The White House has hired actor Kal Penn as a liaison between President Barack Obama's administration and Asian constituents.

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Tuesday that the actor,...would join the staff as an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison.

 

[link]

 

Her main argument? That 1,606 ducks, in the grand scheme of things, just isn't that big a deal. Syncrude has actually OVERREACTED, according to Ms. Wente, because of how minor the problem really is:

"Each year, tens of thousands of birds are caught in wind turbines. Collisions with Toronto's high-rise buildings kill millions of birds every year."

Let me start with the millions of birds who die in Toronto building collisions annually.

I work in downtown Toronto. I walk by Toronto's "high-rise buildings" every day.

Let me be generous to Wente and say that by "millions of birds" she only means two million birds are killed every year in Toronto tower accidents. Two million divided by 365 days means just under 5,500 birds die tragic deaths and fall to the ground in Toronto every day. That's 228 bird collisions an hour. In the five minutes it takes you to read this blog post, 19 birds have fallen hundreds of feet to their demise.

 

 

Silver's right on the numbers being used to defend Syncrude.  That said, I'm finding myself less than worked up about the 1,606 waterfowl accidentally killed when the anti-fowl measures were temporarily disabled.  Probably because a thousand times that many geese could be killed and we'd still have a problem with excess ducks and geese.

Course, drowning them in industrial waste is probably not the preferred method of extermination, but you get the point Mags Wente and I are going for..

"A new stadium that will make the varsity athletes at Manitoba's largest university proud.   A facility that will be used for more than 10 days a year.  No need to create or build new roads or bus routes.  This my two cents on the issue."

 

 

 - Email from a buddy posted June 24th, 2008

when Point Douglas continued to be

the primary location for the new stadium

Warren on last night's Liberal fundraising dinner in Toronto:

"A million bucks......that's what the Liberal Party raised, tonight, at the dinner at the Royal York: more than a million bucks."

Don Martin on last night's Liberal fundraising dinner in Toronto:

 

"The dinner was billed by organizers as a 1,050-person sellout backed by a waiting list, although the event website seemed willing to take my credit card to purchase either the $500 dinner ticket or pay another $600 for an Iggy handshake at a private reception beforehand." 

Ignoring the fact that the Liberals appear to be headed once again towards leaning on the big-dollar donors for their fundraising efforts*, my math doesn't get up to the seven-figure range.

1,050 tickets @ $500 = $525,000

Now, if you are paying $500 for dinner, you likely can spring for the reception if you have the time, so let's be extremely generous and say one in four attendees did exactly that:  263 @ $600 = $157,8000

That still leaves us a gap of $317,200 to make up just to get to the million dollar level and that's is well before expences, which aren't always pocket change on an event of this magnitude.  $317,200 is one heck of a silent auction, no?

I'm not saying the Liberals didn't have fun last night.  These dinners are always good fun.  But Kinsella's got to be spinning everyone or there's another income stream we're not being told about. 

And  if this is your linchpin fundraiser event for the year (the annual leader's dinner), you still have a tremendously long way to go before you can match the Conservative fundraising machine.  The money raised last night wouldn't pay for a single week of the campaign some Liberals are itchin' for.

 

Christina Blizzard's lament on the salary inequality between Ontario private and public sector got me wondering:

What percentage of Manitoba earners over $85,000/year are public employees?

When the top ten Winnipeg employers is dominated by the government, RHA, universities and such, I would imagine that the percentage is a little shocking when first looked upon.