Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 02, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A9 THINK TANK PERSPECTIVES EDITOR: BRAD OSWALD 204-697-7269 ? BRAD.OSWALD@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A9 SATURDAY MAY 2, 2020 Ideas, Issues, Insights WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Investment in infrastructure projects by cities and provinces is a proven antidote to an economic downturn. Now's the time to invest in infrastructure I N the public discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic about essential workers, it's likely few Canadians gave much thought to the men and women who work on our roads and repair our sewer and water lines. Nevertheless, heavy- construction labourers were out there. Noting this fact is in no way intended to dimin- ish the spotlight on our front-line emergency and health-services workforces across Canada, who have risked their health to help those who fell ill. Rather, I raise it to encourage discussion on an equally important recovery: COVID-19 has our economy on its knees. The provincial government is forced to add $5 billion to its debt load, due to lost revenue and ad- ditional expense in fighting the pandemic; the city's conservative estimate is $12 million per month in lost revenue. We don't yet know the financial hit on the federal government, but weeks ago, some were estimating a cost of $250 billion. The pummelling of public treasuries is just one front in this economic maelstrom. The business shutdown has thrown millions across Canada out of work and shuttered storefronts. Some 7.2 mil- lion people have received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. The economic forecasts all see negative growth nationally, provincially and municipally. A palpable crisis in confidence has gripped business owners (those who still hope to see their doors reopen) and the private-sector investment community. We need to stop wondering when we'll hit bottom, and start looking to turn the corner. We need an economic revival. Where does hope lie? Governments at all levels defended their capi- tal-investment budgets and the tender schedules during the pandemic shutdown. Infrastructure works are critical services, and infrastructure investment acts as an economic stabilizer. Good, reliable infrastructure keeps people working and supplies moving, and it gets people to jobs and products to stores. It puts money in pockets and circulates wealth quickly. Moreover, capital investment in infrastructure is verified as an economic force. All estimates, which vary depending on what kind of infrastruc- ture is in the mix, show infrastructure invest- ment holds among the largest returns to the GDP, immediately and multi-year. Now is the time to ramp up infrastructure investment. The Manitoba Heavy Construction Association has joined five other business groups, representing the broad engineering and construc- tion industry, in calling on all levels of govern- ment to seize the perfect conditions before us now to glean some benefit from the economic crisis. Extraordinarily low interest rates combined with a very competitive market - producing tight, low bids on tenders - have delivered to public-project owners the perfect storm, blowing in their favour. More projects can be rolled out for the value of the program budget. But to get optimum benefit, especially given the low interest rates, governments should over- commit their budgets. We have urged them to double their infrastructure investment programs, as Alberta did, to stimulate economic activity and put people back to work, earning and spending money, supporting local businesses. Building during a time of low interest rates allows governments to manage the cost of bor- rowing with sustainable debt servicing, while getting the knock-on returns of the assets built or improved. Transportation infrastructure boosts trade productivity and profile. Consider for a moment what completing the Chief Peguis Trail could do for Winnipeg, the capital region and the province. This $600-million project: ? connects to CentrePort Canada, the country's largest inland trade port ? opens development in the city's northwest and the capital region, where 70 per cent of Mani- toba's GDP is derived ? bolsters the importance of the Headingley and St. Norbert bypasses, and the widening of Route 90. As a trade enabler, it would be hard to find an- other capital project to match its economic punch. And right now, Ottawa's stimulus planning is set to call for shovel-ready and major capital proj- ects, across Canada, to kick-start the economy. Our provincial, municipal and federal govern- ments need to step up, draw up a list of projects and fully take up Manitoba's allocation of the In- vesting in Canada Infrastructure Program. Que- bec and Ontario have their lists ready. We know of no economic recovery strategy that supports status-quo capital investment measures in times of depressed economies. We need our govern- ments to commit to bold stimulus capital programs, procuring jobs and building legacy assets. We strongly urge all levels of government to significantly enhance infrastructure investment, which has proven itself repeatedly as an antidote to economic collapse. Canada cannot nervously await a rescue plan, but rather must grab the potential residing within crisis. Canada must invest in itself, its infrastruc- ture and our future. Chris Lorenc is president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Associa- tion and the Western Canada Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association. Bad week for corporate profit-seeking THIS was not a bad week for journalism - as some would have you believe. The decision by Postmedia to close its Manitoba weeklies, from Selkirk to Stonewall to Steinbach, was predictable if you were watching - or read- ing. I've been following the demise of the Postme- dia weeklies from Selkirk, where I've had the good fortune to live in a two-newspaper town, for years. Every Thursday I get Postmedia's Selkirk Journal and the independently owned Selkirk Record delivered to my door. I've had a chance to watch their evolution for years as I spread them out on my kitchen table and flip through them page by page over a cup of tea. With every passing issue it was becoming more apparent that Postmedia, a Canadian conglomer- ate that owns more than 140 media brands across Canada and some of our nation's biggest newspa- pers, had the mistaken idea that rural newspapers are cash cows. Postmedia would fill my Selkirk Journal with national ads - contracts it had secured because it could effortlessly promise its national advertis- ers that it could place ads in dozens and dozens of newspapers, all at once, for a deep discount. What Postmedia seemed to have forgotten is that functioning and healthy newspapers are a delicate balance between advertising and locally generated editorial content. In small communi- ties, local news rules. Instead, Postmedia continued to fire reporters, editors and photographers and slowly, ever so slowly, the content in its Manitoba weekly papers was indistinguishable from the content in its On- tario weekly papers - as it filled the pages with poor-quality syndicated columns that had nothing to do with life in Selkirk, Stonewall or Steinbach. So when it closed its Manitoba papers this week, it actually let go of about 30 people - very few of whom were journalists. However, there are entire generations of journalists today working in major newsrooms in Canada who owe their careers to a start in weekly newspapers that, as recently as 10 years ago, were hiring journalists and were profitable. So what happened? Convergence happened. In the 1990s, owners of TV stations thought it would be a grand idea to also own newspapers. Newspaper owners thought it would be smart to own TV stations. And in a short time Hollinger, Southam, Sun Media, Quebecor, TorStar, CanWest, BellMedia and others were buying and selling, slicing and dicing their media properties until media outlets in Canada today are owned by a select few media giants - Postmedia being one of them. All of this was aided by toothless federal anti- competition and foreign ownership laws. In 1990, when this transformation started, about 17 per cent of Canadian newspapers were independently owned. By 2017, only six per cent were inde- pendently owned, including the Winnipeg Free Press. (In practical terms, what that means is this column could not run in the Ottawa Citizen, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Sun, Winnipeg Sun or dozens of other papers in Canada, because they are Postmedia-controlled.) The 1990s media convergence was not only go- ing to take advantage of technology convergence, but economic efficiency. The promise was that bigger was better, at least for the owners who were going to make more money. But ask Post- media - which dances around bankruptcy every year - how convergence worked out. What some may not realize is that the news business is more of a social enterprise than a for-profit business. Owning and operating a newspaper to make large profits is like opening a daycare, a nursing home or a women's shelter to cash in. It ain't happening. The smart newspaper owners are part social entrepreneurs. They recognize that good journal- ism - whether it's about a small-town sports team or big-city corporate fraud - is about keeping us connected and accountable. When they're done right, good newspapers keep us on the right track. Postmedia would have you believe that closing its Manitoba papers this week is Google's fault or COVID-19's fault, but really it's a failure to under- stand that local content and good journalism con- tinue to be the foundation of newspapers, big and small. When you own a media outlet, you're not making widgets - you're making a difference. So journalism didn't suffer a blow this week; rather, a misplaced faith that bigger is better caught up with a media conglomerate. It's actually a good day for journalism, and for some bright, amazing journalism graduates from Red River College's creative communications pro- gram to move into the void and find a way to deliver meaningful, powerful community stories in Manitoba, to make a fair living wage doing it, and to keep us all accountable. Shirley Muir is a former print and broadcast journalist and current president of The PRHouse. Campground cops could help bring summer back MOST springs, Canadians are overjoyed just to hear the words "sun" and "temperatures in the pluses." But this year, they've been supplanted by one simple phrase: "We're fl at- tening the curve." We feel cautious optimism that the worst of the COVID-19 threat has passed, and that our country is beginning to gain some ground on this wildfire of a pandemic. That said, most of us also know there is a long road ahead before we can start to resume some of the activities that we used to take for granted before this once-in-a-lifetime disaster swept over us. Some of us, however, are starting to wonder whether it is time to resume a few simple ac- tivities that would be good both for our minds and our bodies. I thought of this as I enjoyed a bicycle ride in the wide-open spaces of southern Alberta with a handful of friends a few days ago. To be sure, it was a different experience than years before; there were no handshakes or high-fives as we conquered a grinding hill. We all brought our own snacks, didn't share a thing, and did our best to follow the two-metre distance rule. Technically, we were not following the best- practice advice of Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who last week told citizens that they shouldn't even leave their neighbourhoods. But I have to think that what we did was smarter than staying holed up in our homes. There has been a lot of talk about our physi- cal health during this pandemic, and for obvi- ous reasons. There has been less talk about our mental health. Endless days of solitary confinement in our homes - or worse, tiny high-rise condos - is not good for anyone. We need to get outdoors, and do a few simple, joyful things. Some people may think British Columbia is being reckless by allowing golf courses to reopen, and it's true that if they operated the way they did pre-pandemic, it could trigger a new wave of infections. Instead, however, clubhouses and pro shops remain closed, golf carts are banned in favour of walk-only, sani- tation is constant, and golfers are reminded to maintain safe distances from their partners. If golfers follow these few sensible rules, then the risk of infection is very low indeed. There are other things we could also re- sume if people are willing to act responsibly. Consider camping, for example. Canada's national parks and most provincial parks have their campgrounds closed indefinitely (Manitoba's will reopen on May 4). Yet, they are not inherently dangerous: campsites are located a safe distance apart, and facilities could be regularly sanitized or adapted to ensure transactions and basic activities are contactless. City parks and even beaches could also be opened to the public - if people would only use their heads and maintain safe distances. And there's the rub. When Florida and California recently opened their beaches, reckless citizens flouted the rules and cosied up together as if nothing unusual in the world was going on. Sadly, such alarming behaviour only proves that we can't count on everyone to use com- mon sense. So, there's the challenge: what do authori- ties need to do to ensure the resumption of some outdoor activity doesn't lead to a second wave of infection? There's been no short- age of public education on both the risks of contracting COVID-19 and on how we can cut those risks to a minimum. And yet, as last weekend's lineup of unmasked shoppers at my local Canadian Tire testifies, a lot of people are blithely maintaining a shocking level of ignorance. It appears the only solution is aggressive enforcement. If we were to open up Canada's campgrounds, for example, it would almost certainly require a new contingent of camp- ground cops who would constantly monitor sites to ensure citizens stick to the rules. Stu- dents who have seen summer jobs evaporate would be ideal for this role. Who would pay for this? I'd happily add a $10/day premium on to my camping fees, if doing so would mean my family could get back out there without the fear that doing so would put anyone in peril. It's time to find responsible ways to do some of the simple things that bring some pleasure to our day-to-day lives. Yet we have to recognize that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. For the sake of our mental and physical health, we should find creative ways to enjoy some respite from our domestic prisons. Veteran political commentator Doug Firby is president of Troy Media Digital Solutions and publisher of Troy Media. - Troy Media CHRIS LORENC SHIRLEY MUIR DOUG FIRBY A_09_May-02-20_FP_01.indd A9 2020-05-01 9:04 PM ;