RE: Tackling the On-Reserve Housing Crisis — December 17, 2011

Shameful that after 125 years our government has not resolved the problems involving our aboriginals in countless areas after setting them up on reserves including housing problems that have plagued them all these years and will continue doing so.  Employment, amongst the housing problems that exist will continue for ever and a day.

The magic wand for the housing problem and other problems is there to be resolved, but our governances in the House of Commons just would not bite the bullet and resolve them.  Just think of the countless immigrants that came to our country to find a better place to rear their children.  Many first started out by taking advantage of occupying a quarter section of land in the wilderness,  but before too many decades thereafter, many of their children became doctors, lawyers, engineers and yes even public service workers.  Their parents moved into cities and towns, took advantage of employment opportunities, that are rare in many of the reserves, and there – few problems arising In comparison to those constantly taking place is so many reserves during the past 125 years.

When our government spends countless of hundreds of millions of dollars, and who knows maybe billions of dollars annually as the child births are greater in the reserves than in other parts of our Country – why not provide each family with their own home in the cities and towns, provide training for those employables and enough social assistance, as provided in many instances to immigrants, and our aboriginals and their children would truly enjoy Canadianism as have the countless Immigrants to this day.

The magic wand worked for immigrants and still does today and can do so for our aboriginals likewise with the example cited here in. Email from Stephen Marlowe, Edmonton

(parents immigrants dating back to the early 1920s with very little help from our government)

RE: New Voluntary Wheat Board May Struggle — December 12, 2011

Notwithstanding one's political views about the wheat board, given that is very likely the federal govenrment will succeed in its efforts, the Board could consider converting itself into a mutual.  As  a back up strategy they probably should have been signing up all wheat board farmer members to something like this if they wanted to preserve their organizational status in light of the pending loss of its monopoly.   E-mail from Winnipeg

RE: Standardized Testing is a Good Thing — November 29, 2011

Vindication for all your negative comments about education. Did you know that although schools were closed for Remembrance Day, many also closed on the Monday, supposedly to let parents have a long week end for shopping in the U.S.? The teachers were in, though. Then, of course, they had that day off for time for the “We” Day celebration at the MTS Centre with Al Gore and Mia Farrow. Far too many days off compared with countries that score the highest in the world tables. Mind you, Finland is often at the top but has fewer school hours than most countries.

Just as an aside, the NDP has long been known to have negative feelings about testing but the Conservative party and particularly Mr.McFadyen were, at one time, very much enthused about introducing more testing - until the last election, when they rarely mentioned it, Mr. McFadyen having had "meetings with teachers" ! E-mail from Winnipeg

RE: Polar Bear as Poster Animal — April 16, 2007
We view the actions of the petitioners (Greenpeace, the Centre for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council) as being for purely political and fundraising purposes. We have pointed out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife services that the petitioners in no way speak on behalf of the rights and interests of Inuit. - Letter to the Editor - National Post, Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

RE: Ruth Richardson in Wonderland — May 20, 2004
I think that she has some really great ideas for the future of government. Especially during a time when demand for government services is way up and funds for those services are very hard to come by and often times of late seems to end in scandal or just to disappear. - Email from Winnipeg

RE: Transit Disneyland . . . — May 29, 2005
One of the biggest ironies in Winnipeg municipal issues recently has been the rapid transit controversy. Here's a city that probably has the most poorly-maintained roads of any urban area of its size in North America; yet it persists in talking about another transportation mode that it likely won't be able to sustain. More . . .

- Email from Winnipeg

RE: New Government in Ottawa Means Hope for First Nations — February 1, 2006
Mr. Sandberg, Just wanted to offer my support and agreement in regard to recent articles you have written for the Free Press pertaining to aboriginal policy.

Two weeks ago I walked out of my job at INAC in the MB region, in large part for many of the reasons you have so eloquently stated in your articles. I could not stomach this system any longer. This was precipitated by a meeting I had with my manager the day before where I was delivered an edict to "reign myself in and check my philosophical differences at the door". In other words fall into line, keep your mouth shut and we don't want to hear any more of your ideas or potential solutions. I found this disgusting enough to make the following day my last as an INAC employee and probably the end of my 8-year career with the federal government--all in aboriginal-related positions.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to visit a First Nation that I have not been to in 15 or 16 years and was not surprised to see that things were basically running as inefficiently as when I was last there and very little in the way of positive change had occurred especially in regard to socio-economic conditions. I blame the "system" for this lack of change. Given my experience working for regional and national aboriginal organizations, as well as three federal departments (in Winnipeg and Ottawa) in aboriginal portfolios and have come to the conclusion that your opinions are right on the mark. Keep up the good work and continue to fight the good fight!--E-mail from Winnipeg

RE: The Poison Elixir of Equalization — October 25, 2004
Excellent piece on the Frontier website re federal transfer payments. - Email from Winnipeg

RE: A Reserve in Turmoil — June 26, 2007
I'm from St. Theresa Point but have been living in Winnipeg for the past 20 years. Over the years, I have been hearing about the same things that Don Sandberg mentioned in the Free Press. My family has been asking me to move back but as I have five kids, and with the gang problem up there, I don't want to. It is as bad as Sandberg mentioned. The councillors have no idea how to handle things now that the kids are out of hand. I would like to thank Sandberg for letting people know how bad it can get on the reserve. But I'll always feel a little badly because I will no longer be going home. - Email from Winnipeg

Why PowerSmart Pricing Makes Sense in Manitoba
Why PowerSmart Pricing Makes Sense in Manitoba

What Would Happen If We Lifted Rent Controls?
The Manhattan Institute, an independent New York-based think tank, has released a study that measures the effects of lifting price controls on rental units. Its conclusion, that this single policy reform would increase investment in multiple housing – both the construction of new units and the renovation and repair of existing ones – on the order of 20%, has important implications for Winnipeg.

How to Improve First Nation Economies
The good news is the federal government recently inked a deal whereby more funding would be injected into the program allowing more bands to participate. The FNLMA regime was closed recently due to lack of funding. Manitoba bands should jump at this opportunity to enter the FNLMA regime. The Frontier Centre for Public Policy releases an annual Aboriginal Governance Index that looks at band performance across the Prairies and declining Manitoba numbers have been noticed. Perhaps this benchmarking report can provide clues.

What Moore’s Law Has Meant for Egypt and Will Mean for Western Liberty
Back when banks were stuffy paperwork factories and music had to be carried home physically from an actual store, publicly funded, bureaucratically-rationed, one-size-fits-all government services may not have seemed that bad. To someone in my generation (Y), encounters with government are a form of time travel. Policies such as medical savings accounts and school vouchers will be much more palatable to generations who are not only used to choice but feel cheated when they do not get it.

How the Baby Boomers Blew it on Healthcare
Medical savings accounts won’t solve all of Medicare’s ills but they make sense in contrast to global health care budgets which are understandably directed to respond to immediate needs as opposed to future needs. But that’s why such accounts are needed.

Media Release - 23rd out of 32 countries
Canadians suffer from a healthcare system officially based on equal access – but in reality is a sub-standard one that denies Canadian health care consumers many of the services taken for granted in Europe

Irish lessons
More cash might help them, but even more to the point would be reform that shifted control to consumers from producers, movement towards performance based compensation and a flexible replacement for tenure. The public school monopoly, with its decidedly mediocre results, has no place in a skills-intensive future. It's time to replace the dinosaur with competitive vouchers or a bulk funding system, both of which would restore choice to parents.

Artificial Sprawl
It observed how the city was planned around the subway track that runs north and south along Yonge Street to the downtown area along Lake Ontario. People have ignored the plan. Job opportunities in the traditional city are declining, while employment in automobile suburbia expands around the 401 expressway that loops east and west. "Transit is becoming irrelevant," says a city Transit official. "We do a good job of moving people downtown, but most aren't going downtown." The bad news for the transit lobby? Public transport is not an efficient way to service low-density areas With delays and transfer headaches, it's simply too complicated and inconvenient compared to the car.

Fixing the Indian Act
To quote The Economist, "secure title makes assets fungible. In a country with good property laws, almost anyone can use a house or a piece of land as collateral to raise a loan." It also allows for collective effort; ownership of enterprises can be shared by hundreds, each of whom can cash out his or her share without jeopardizing the business. Without a decentralized system of ownership, with legal protection of transactions, economies remain trapped in inefficient, localized webs of interaction.