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MAY 2007, Volume
23 Issue 5
What's
Happening in Manitoba
Elite students rally to
build Habitat house
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Students at St. John's-Ravenscourt school start
on Habitat for Humanity house
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Students at a Winnipeg private school are preparing to trade in their textbooks, pens and paper for hammers, drills and skill saws.
St. John's-Ravenscourt school (SJR) is the first school in Canada to be the primary sponsor of a Habitat for Humanity house. Its students have already raised more than two-thirds of the $75,000 pledge to cover the costs of building materials for an 800-square-foot bungalow in the city's tough North End neighbourhood.
Students, joined by their parents, teachers and alumni, will also provide much of the sweat equity in the construction, which will begin in early May and wind up in the fall. A ground-breaking ceremony was held in March.
Michelle Nyhof, manager of communications and marketing for Habitat in Winnipeg, said other schools have made partial sponsorships in the past - one school last year purchased all of the nails used in building another house - but SJR has raised the bar to a whole new level altogether.
"We've never had anything of this magnitude from a school," she said.
The Habitat house is being built for Marjorie White, a single mother who's juggling part-time work, full-time studies and caring for her four children. They currently live in a nearby townhouse that Nyhof said is in "disrepair."
Haley Menkis, a 16-year-old Grade 12 student at SJR, said she and her fellow classmates realize how lucky they are to come home every day to loving homes in safe neighbourhoods.
"We have the opportunity to help somebody who's not as privileged as we are but more deserving than any of us are. When you're able to see the improvement you're making in somebody's life, you have to do everything you can," she said.
Razing a block
to save it
CentreVenture Development Corp. has put forward the most ambitious revitalization plan in a century for one of the most dilapidated parts of Winnipeg. The agency has purchased all of the buildings along North Main, most of them boarded-up and rat-infested, to begin the cornerstone of its revival plan.
The downtown development agency announced at its first-ever annual general meeting a pledge to spend up to $43 million over the next two years to rebuild a rundown and the desolate three-block stretch.
"This is the biggest project in the last 100 years. What we have here is a chance to turn around one of the most blighted areas in the city. Many projects have tried in the past but I think this one will succeed," said Ross McGowan, CentreVenture's CEO.
The focal point will be the new home for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA), a $30 million, four-storey, 80,000-square-foot building to be built on the corner of Main Street and Logan Avenue.
McGowan said the idea isn't to try to recapture Main Street's glory days from the beginning of the 20th century, when it was the focal point of the city's commerce and home to a bustling train station. Instead, he wants to use this project as a catalyst for future investment.
The income stream will come from the city designating the area a "tax increment finance zone," which guarantees that all tax revenue generated by this and other projects will be reinvested in the area for at least a decade.
McGowan said the annual tax revenue from the WHRA building alone will be $1 million, and more investment is just around the corner, including commercial and housing projects.
He said negotiations are underway to attract the potential lynchpin of the area - a financial institution - the kind of enterprise that hasn't been seen in the neighbourhood for years.
"This investment is not a one-shot deal," he said.
Pay raise irks
employers
Workers in the hospitality, retail and other industries got a raise at the beginning of April in Manitoba and their bosses aren't happy about it.
The minimum wage in the province went up by 50 cents to $8.50 per hour, the third hike in the last two years.
Dave Angus, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said he was disappointed the Gary Doer government didn't consult with business prior to finalizing the increase.
He said many employers face huge cost pressures because of the ongoing shortage of labour, which means they're already paying more than minimum wage anyway.
Scott Jocelyn, executive director of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said he expects the increased costs will force a significant number of its members to close their doors for good.
He said one of its biggest competitors wasn't even on the market five years ago - home meal replacements.
"People can grab something at Sobeys for tonight. You have to be conscious that they're using that as an option. If you're going to pass the [wage hike] on to consumers, you may be pricing yourself out of the market," he said.
Beer price
hike urged
Manitoba should join the majority of Canadian provinces and implement a minimum price on alcohol to discourage binge drinking, charge critics of the province's discount beer sector.
Greg D'Avignon, president of Canada's National Brewers Western Region, said only Manitoba and Alberta don't have what he calls a "social reference price" at liquor stores and beer vendors.
He said prices that are $3 per six-pack lower than they were three years ago encourage over consumption and misuse of alcohol . "We don't have some of those same problems in other provinces because of the social reference price," he said.
Minhas Creek Brewing Co. essentially created the discount beer category in Manitoba in late 2004 when it entered the market and significantly undercut its larger competitors. Labatt and Molson retaliated by matching prices on Labatt Lucky and Molson Dry.
Diana Soroka, spokeswoman for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, said it has no plans to implement a minimum pricing policy, a decision at least partially based on its experience with cheap sherry in the 1980s. Back then, it responded to criticism by raising prices, but that caused many of the sherry drinkers to switch to lower-priced alcohol sources, such as nail polish remover, mouthwash and solvents.
"We've been down this road before. We believe raising the prices will cause more problems in the future," she said.
– Compiled by Geoff Kirbyson
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