RE: Immigration a key to maintaining Saskatchewan's Boom — November 7, 2011

We have the manpower in our country to fill the labour shortages and to replace aging Baby Boomers.  Our Aboriginal reserves in most instances have well over 80% unemployed simply because in most of the reserve areas there are few, if any other employers. Our government has failed to bite the bullet and should have long before this indicated that each family would be provided a reasonable sized home in the city or larger towns nearest to the reserves. Social assistance and training of employable family members would fill the shortages to replace aging Baby Boomers as referred to in this email from the Frontier Centre.  The family members in return would have to give up their current rights to live on the reserves.

The unemployment problems existing on most of the reserves would then be resolved and the aboriginals could integrate into our society for the benefit of all involved – as have our past immigrants to our country have done and continue to do when they come to Canada.

Stephen Marlowe
Edmonton, Alberta

RE: The Road to Ruin — December 30, 2010

Their system is even worse than Canada’s in terms of presenting a poverty trap because housing and transportation is means tested in addition to our packages of health and day care services.  When she was in that situation, she earned less than $1 per hour incremental money from working at a minimum wage position than she did doing nothing.  Any logical person in that situation searched out opportunities to work occasionally for cash in very vulnerable employer-employee relationships that were open to multiple forms of abusive practices... (more) -- E-mail from Manitoba

RE: Five Single Rate Tax Thoughts — October 11, 2009

David Seymour, director of the Frontier Center for Public Policy (Saskatchewan office), has written an important paper that should help frame the debate on tax policy for all of Canada’s provinces. "Five Single Rate Tax Thoughts," presents a compelling case that Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and the other provinces would benefit from enacting a low flat tax that has given Alberta the best investment and work climate in Canada. - Alvin Rabushka, David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California

 

RE: New Funding for Native Entrepreneurs Positive Move — January 14, 2008
Excellent article on a subject most Canadian have no knowledge. You might follow this up with one documenting the number of successful actions against organizations that do not follow proper procedure re terminating employees who have 'offended' someone of importance. E-mail from Manitoba

RE: Does PM Want to End Native Poverty? — August 25, 2005

Dear Mr. Sandberg: I have to say, kudos to you for being so honest regarding the new ideas by the Liberals to pour money down the drain.

I used to work as a probation officer and I saw first hand how money is abused. Your right, the money gets to the reserves and the leaders spend it on themselves, their family and friends and everyone else suffers. It made me sick to my stomach and I was so glad when Robert Nault was trying to change things... then it all collapsed and my hope for accountability was gone because I agree with you 100%, the leaders are the reason their communities are poor.

It just made me ill.... and if someone was doing their job i.e. keeping in budget and had money in their account, the leaders help themselves to it without asking.

I am currently at another reserve and its very similar, the Chief is always gone (in the cities, hanging at the fancy restraints, casinos, bars) while the community is left to deal with whatever misfortunate is going on i.e. sexual assaults, spousal assaults (all deemed as every day regular occurrences and don't warrant the chiefs presence) he may show up for a suicide if its a friend or relative.

I have worked in the correctional system, the court system and its all the same, its everybody else's fault, never those that are actually accountable "the leaders of their communities", we cannot heal other peoples back yards, they have to do it themselves and your right, money is not the answer, unless it is used for its intent over a long period of time.

Anyway, I am always angry when I hear so much about how the white man does this and that and its their fault because what I have seen, is this: The white man isn't around to abuse anymore, natives are harming each other, they are full of hate, jealousy and negativity because their leaders aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing, taking care of their issues and their people.

So, what can we do about it? E-mail from Manitoba

RE: Poverty Policies Tend to Impoverish — September 15, 2007
Perhaps letter writer Andrew Bonner should have taken more than just a quick glance around the world when discussing the successes and failures of laissez-faire economics. Ironically, the letter writer lives in London, England, which is proving to be one of the great success stories of laissez-faire economics in the past quarter century. Through reduced regulation and an increased focus on attracting foreign investment, this centre has reversed its general decline and is now, arguably, the most important financial centre in the world and certainly in Europe. Yet another success story is a short plane trip away in Ireland, where economic growth rates have been among the highest in Europe for years, due in large part to low taxation and low government spending policies. Meanwhile, on the continent, in the so-called high-tax countries of France, Italy and Germany, economic growth has been stagnant, resulting in high unemployment and social discourse. Even Sweden, which is often cited by proponents of social welfare policies, has felt the rising pressures on its fiscal policies. In light of this, the people of Sweden recently elected a more fiscally conservative government, as did the French and Germans. It is incorrect to blindly state that the best way to alleviate poverty is the inefficient and wasteful social welfare systems currently in place in Canada and Manitoba. - Letter to editor, Winnipeg Free Press, Craig White, Winnipeg

RE: Devil in the Donuts — February 24, 2005

"Mr. Penner called us the "doughnut-fighting duo." But we are not after doughnuts. Rather, we fight a growing health epidemic and the costs it poses to our health-care system.

Our motion calling on government, in consultation with all stakeholders, to eliminate manufactured trans fats from foods will ensure that Canadians win this fight."

STEVEN FLETCHER, Member of Parliament Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia

PAT MARTIN, Member of Parliament Winnipeg Centre

Read more and Rolf Penner's response

RE: Poverty Policies Tend to Impoverish — September 13, 2007
If Holle prefers to live in a society in which the people's elected representatives can't intervene in the economy for the common good, he need not push it on us all. He could just move to Guatemala. - Letter to editor, Winnipeg Free Press, Andrew Bonner, London England

RE: Unravelling Child Poverty — December 1, 2003

Well said! Short, to the point and factual – but facts that are black and white not grey. Too often it seems that groups and politicians twist facts around for their own agenda. The fact that your article points out that governments have spent gobs of cash on the poor yet the levels of poverty have not changed proves that the methods don’t work. - Email from Winnipeg, December 10, 2003

Kudos for taking on the poverty industry on this issue. Keep up the good work. - Email from Winnipeg, December 4, 2003

Our Skyrocketing Living Standards
There has been an explosion in living standards in the United States and Canada, in most of Europe, in Japan, and in other places around the world that has brought the richest one billion people to what our counterparts 50 years ago would have considered the life of the rich.

Minimum Wage Hikes Miss The Target and Cause Collateral Damage
Politicians love to raise the minimum wage because it makes it look like they’re helping the poor without incurring a direct expense to the treasury. But minimum wage hikes have real costs, even if they are sometimes hidden.

New Funding for Native Entrepreneurs Positive Move
Who in their right minds would want to invest 20 or 30 thousand dollars in a small business in a place where a slip-of-the-tongue or, God forbid, mentioning the need for an audit of the band books or supporting a new group for band council would place your entire venture at risk of closure?

Taming Two Dragons
Welfare pays people not to work, and we should not be surprised that it creates more of what it pays for. Whereas a rational social policy would encourage economic engagement, welfare has encouraged chronic unemployment and economic marginalization. The welfare model is a failure of vision. It has, over the last half-century, consigned hundreds of thousands of Canadians to a life of diminished well-being, low achievement and diminished happiness.

Deconstructing the Aboriginal Problem
In 1875, "five dollars was enough to buy five acres of land in southern Manitoba. . . . That land now sells for $1,000 an acre." In other words, if the treaty money had increased in value by the same proportion, it would be worth $5,000 a year per person. That translates into about $400 a month for each individual, and that's where Allard would direct it. Not into the pockets of tribal leaders, but to those who now live by their not-so-tender mercies.

Happy Birthday, Sir Roger
One of the reasons there is so little faith or interest in politics is that there are so few politicians like Sir Roger. Most modern politicians appear to deal with their own political survival first and long-term solutions second. They also have a tendency to favour ideological expectations and the vested interests in existing solutions rather than pragmatically confronting root problems. If nothing else, a few more politicians like New Zealand’s Sir Roger would make politics a lot more interesting.