Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 25, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B3 winnipegfreepress. com CITY WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 B 3 100- 100 Princess St. 204- 925- 4162 interiorillusions. ca ON SALE NOW See store for details Thank you to our major sponsors Cocktails & passed hors d'oeuvres at 6 p. m. Dinner at 7 p. m. @ the Delta Hotel Live entertainment by The Danny Kramer Band Live and silent auctions to follow Fabulous prizes include: A trip for two to the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles A wine tasting for two to the famous Napa Valley Dinner for 8 with wine service Churchill trip with excursions and more Tickets - $ 180 each For purchase at www. shiverball. ca or 204.945.9474 ........ .... ...... ...... ........ .................. T HROUGH THE G LITTERING F OREST A GALA FUNDRAISING EVENT Friday, February 28, 2014 PLEASE GIVE NOW. heartandstroke. ca YOUR DONATIONS CREATE SURVIVORS LIKE KRISTEN. 2013 CLEAR OUT. 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FIRST TIME BUYER PROGRAM | We have programs designed to give first time buyers the great rates and guaranteed approval they deserve! BI- WEEKLY* $ 192 FINANCE FROM: SAVE $ 4,000 $ 15,900 STARTING FROM: AUTOMATIC, AIR CONDITIONING, BLUETOOTH AND POWER GROUP SAVE $ 6,000 $ 35,900 STARTING FROM: SL MODEL LOADED WITH LEATHER INTERIOR SAVE $ 4,500 $ 16,900 STARTING FROM: SEMI- MONTHLY* $ 138 LEASE FROM G IVEN its placement at the soggy bottom of a former glacial lake, Winnipeg will forever face the intermittent threat of floods and the irregular nuisance of mosquitos. How to manage an abundance of water is one of the most important tasks on the wettest patch of the Canadian Prairies. So it stands to reason we care about the people granted jobs that might seem mundane in cities where deluges and insects are not so prominent. In the past two weeks, Winnipeggers have been introduced to a new chief city mosquito fighter, Ken Nawolsky, and a new provincial flood forecaster, Fisaha Unduche. Nawolsky fills the position vacated last summer by Taz Stuart, one of the most popular civil servants in the City of Winnipeg's recent history, thanks in part to his willingness to engage the public through the media. Unduche takes on a job briefly held by Phillip Mutulu, who had the misfortune of taking over from longtime flood forecaster Alf Warkentin shortly before the record Assiniboine River flood of 2011. The pressure on both officials is immense, partly because of the celebucrat nature of their jobs: The bug boss and the flood forecaster are two of the only civil servants ordinary people are able to name. Some would argue this is a product of a mainstream- media obsession with floods and mosquitoes in this province. Others may argue governments make celebrities out of bureaucrats by forcing them in front of microphones and cameras. Either way, the city and the province had no choice but to hold news conferences to introduce Nawolsky and Unduche because citizens have got used to knowing who these people are. If politicians had their way, no one would ever know the name of a public servant of any sort, whether it is the head of a department, a skilled professional or a manager at any level of the city, province or federal government. It's not that elected officials have an insatiable desire to take credit for anything and everything a government does. It's that people in power like to be able execute that power. When a bureaucrat has a public profile, elected officials are forced to cede some of the control they crave. A public servant with a name represents a potential political liability, if not an outright threat, especially if they engage in the unfortunate habit of stating facts that contradict political aims. At the federal level, it was at first dismaying and eventually depressing to see the Conservatives muzzle environmental scientists by tightly controlling media access to researchers and academics. The feds may be the worst offender, but they're hardly alone in the practice. The province maintains a tight control over flood- forecasting messaging in the fear ordinary people may misunderstand a probabilistic forecast - a long- term outlook where a range of outcomes is possible under different weather circumstances. While the U. S. National Weather Service publishes all of its floodforecasting data, Manitoba crafts a very specific message in an effort to ensure nothing comes back to haunt politicians in the event weather pushes actual flood outcomes to edges of the bell curve. Similarly, the city has tried to keep a tight lid on any news about mosquitocontrol activities, mainly by refusing any media access to its former entomologist outside of a weekly news conference. This reached the height of comedy in 2010, a mosquito- heavy election year, when both Mayor Sam Katz and former St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves pledged to reduce the size of malathion- free buffer zones. What became apparent through provincial documents was there was no way to reduce the buffer zones more than 10 metres - something Taz Stuart knew very well and presumably tried to tell the politicians. When politicians say they rely on the advice of the experts in the public service, what they all too often mean is they like to blame those experts when something goes wrong. And when something goes right, politicians attempt to take credit. Perhaps it would be better if voters knew the name of every public servant, as opposed to just the bug boss and the flood forecaster. Accountability would certainly improve - and credit would be given where credit is due. bartley. kives@ freepress. mb. ca BARTLEY KIVES WINNIPEG police continued to investigate a death in Elmwood on the weekend. At about 5: 45 p. m. Sunday, police responded to a report regarding an injured man in the 600 block of Harbison Avenue East. The man, 43, was found in the back of a home, injured and unresponsive. He was later confirmed dead. Police said their investigation revealed the man had been drinking with several people at a nearby home early Sunday morning, when he became verbally aggressive. He was asked to leave following a fight and was forced out of the residence. Police said he wearing minimal clothing unsuitable for the cold. Temperatures early Sunday hovered around - 19C. Police say it appears the man collapsed soon after leaving the party. It does not appear he knew the owners of the home near where he collapsed. He did not live in the neighbourhood. Cause of death has not been confirmed. No charges have been laid. Politicians hate it when bureaucrats get credit Man forced out of residence before dying KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Fisaha Unduche takes over as chief provincial flood forecaster. B_ 03_ Feb- 25- 14_ FP_ 01. indd B3 2/ 24/ 14 9: 58: 12 PM ;