Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 30, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba <s> ■e-C MHK PAGE A1 jCCambnan CREDIT UNIOT SPECIAL RATE 2.00 % 5-Year Mortgage Rate subject to change. Terms and conditions apply. For better or worse Winnipeg Words program makes poetry a public art project / Cl 0 • U.S. PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE MORRY GASH / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Presidential candidates Donald Trump (top) and Joe Biden discussed COVID-19, the Supreme Court and protests during the first debate. Petty insults, constant interruption: Trump, Biden duke it out at debate JONATHAN LEMIRE, DARLENE SUPERVILLE, WILL WEISSERT AND MICHELLE L. PRICE CLEVELAND — Marked by angry interruptions and bitter accusations, the first debate between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden erupted in contentious exchanges Tuesday night over the coronavirus pandemic, city violence, job losses and how the Supreme Court will shape the future of the nation’s health care. In what was the most chaotic presidential debate in recent years, somehow fitting for what has been an extraordinarily ugly campaign, the two men frequently talked over each other with Trump interrupting, nearly shouting, so often that Biden eventually snapped at him, “Will you shut up, man?” “The fact is that everything he’s said so far is simply a lie,” Biden said. “I’m not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he’s a liar.” Trump and Biden arrived in Cleveland hoping the debate would energize their bases of support, even as they competed for the slim slice of undecided voters who could decide the election. It has been generations since two men asked to lead a nation facing such tumult, with Americans both fearful and impatient about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 of their fellow citizens and cost millions of jobs. Over and over, Trump tried to control the conversation, interrupting Biden and repeatedly talking over the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. The president tried to deflect tough lines of questioning — whether on his taxes or the pandemic — to deliver broadsides against Biden. The president drew a lecture from Wallace, who pleaded with both men to stop interrupting. Biden tried to push back against Trump, sometimes looking right at the camera to directly address viewers rather than the president and snapping, “It’s hard to get a word in with this clown.” But despite his efforts to dominate the discussion, Trump was frequently put on the defensive and tried to sidestep when he was asked if he was willing to condemn white supremacists and paramilitary groups. “What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name,” Trump said, before Wallace mentioned the far right, violent group known as the Proud Boys. Trump then pointedly did not condemn the group, instead saying, “Proud Boys, stand back, stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.” The vitriol exploded into the open when Biden attacked Trump’s handling of the pandemic, saying that the president “waited and waited” to act when the virus reached America’s shores and “still doesn’t have a plan.” • DEBATE, CONTINUED ON A2 Tories make good on promise, but expect pandemic-fuelled $3-B deficit this year Balanced budget celebrated as downturn looms LARRY KUSCH JUST as COVID-19 was hitting Manitoba last March, the province was poised to close the books on a balanced budget. Now, with the virus firmly entrenched, the government is facing a gargantuan shortfall that’s approaching $3 billion. On Tuesday, the Progressive Conservative government released the audited financial statements for 2019-20. They show a modest $5-million surplus for the year ended March 31 — a big improvement on the $360-million deficit the government predicted in its 2019 budget. During last year’s provincial election campaign, Premier Brian Pal-lister promised to put the province’s books into the black by 2022. He got the job done ahead of that target by holding the line on departmental expenses and underspending budgeted amounts on infrastructure. “Today’s announcement is a celebration of keeping our commitments. It’s a celebration of facing the challenges,” the premier said. However, the government’s fiscal performance is about to take a sharp turn for the worse, according to the Finance Department’s estimates. The latest deficit estimate for the current fiscal year is $2.938 billion — compared with the estimated $220 million shortfall forecast in March. Government revenues this year are expected to be $1.56 billion lower than budgeted as a result of the economic shutdown caused by COVID-19. Expenses are projected to exceed budgeted amounts by $1.158 billion due to the cost of fighting the virus and supporting Manitobans in its wake. The government projects the province’s economic growth to fall by 5.2 per cent this year before rebounding by 4.8 per cent in 2021. It expects to take in $318 million less from individual income tax this year, $155 mil- lion less from corporate income tax, $62 million less in retail sales tax and $422 million less from other taxes. “It’s not frustrating; it’s rewarding,” Pallister said about the fiscal turnabout after slaying the deficit, explaining the government worked hard to place Manitoba on a strong financial footing so it would be able to withstand an emergency such as the pandemic. So far this year, it has spent $363 million on personal protective equipment alone, including $178 million on face shields and masks, $104 million on gowns and coveralls and $22 million on gloves and hand sanitizer. According to the province’s latest projections, Health Department spending this year will climb to $7.27 billion from a budgeted $6.8 billion, an increase of $445 million. As it has in the past, the office of the province’s auditor general disputed some of the Pallister government’s accounting practices. Rather than a $5-million surplus for 2019-20, as the government states, the true surplus is $43 million, according to a statement issued by newly appointed auditor general Tyson Shtykalo. The province and the AG have long disagreed whether the financial results of the Workers Compensation Board and the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. should be included in the province’s summary budget accounting. The auditor general says they should be included, the government says they should not. It’s not the first time the AG has given a “qualified opinion” on the PC government’s books. A year ago, then-auditor general Norm Ricard, citing similar disagreements, said if the government had properly employed public-sector accounting standards, it would have shown a $9-million surplus in 2018-19, rather than a $163-million deficit. • BUDGET, CONTINUED ON A2 Two lawyers get COVID-19; lack of notification decried DEAN PRITCHARD TWO Winnipeg criminal defence lawyers have tested positive for corona-virus, prompting talks to introduce more measures for sharing health information within the court system. Criminal Defence Lawyer Association of Manitoba president Gerri Wiebe said she was notified of the first case Sunday night in an email from Manitoba Prosecution Services. On Tuesday, a second lawyer contacted Wiebe, confirming their positive diagnosis. While Wiebe knows the identity of the second lawyer, the first remains unknown. “The greatest hurdle right now is the lack of information,” Wiebe said. “It’s hard to know whether we should be concerned or not because I don’t know if this person got it from being in court, or from some outside source. I don’t know what courtrooms they may have visited or not, I don’t know if this is a person who regularly attends court or someone who is there less frequently.” The second lawyer, whose identity the Free Press has independently confirmed but is not naming, said they were tested for the virus last week after a close personal contact outside the court system tested positive. The lawyer, who remains asymptomatic and in self-quarantine, learned they had tested positive for the virus Tuesday. The lawyer, Wiebe said, contacted her immediately after learning about the potential exposure and upon their diagnosis authorized her to inform anyone who may have been affected. • LAWYERS, CONTINUED ON A2 0 INSIDE COVID BURNOUT Short-staffing worsens as health workers cover for colleagues who get virus / A4 A MOTHER'S ANGUISH 'QUESTION OF CULTURE' STICK TAP Family grapples with grief in wake of crash that killed woman, injured baby boy / B1 Quebec nurse fired after dying Indigenous woman insulted on video / A8 Mike McIntyre salutes the NHL for defying the odds in awarding Cup; ponders what's next / D1 -e- -e- A_01_Sep-30-20_FP_01.indd A1 0 2020-09-29 10:59 PM ;