Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 28, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THINK TANK COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A7 THURSDAY MARCH 28, 2024 Ideas, Issues, Insights Lemay Forest saga continues I HAVE to say there are days when I read about the behaviour of Winnipeg’s land developers and wonder at their sheer audacity. First came the Parker Lands debacle where a development company, Gem Equities owned by Andrew Mar- quess, mowed down an entire forest in advance of city development approval then turned around and sued the city for unreasonable delays in the approval process. And won. Now, we have another developer, Tochal De- velopments, represented by former city planner, John Wintrup, demanding that the city either purchase their Lemay property — an intact 22 acre forest situated on land owned by Tochal — or approve the development project they’ve submit- ted to the city. Turns out they haven’t actually submitted a major development project to the city. In fact the only thing on the books is a request from the com- pany to demolish a perfectly serviceable residen- tial home, adjacent to their land, which has houses on either side of it. Despite that Mr. Wintrup was quoted in this newspaper saying that Tochal will take the city to court if they don’t buy the land or provide a permit for the house demolition. In that article, Wintrup also neglected to say that the city recently assessed the land’s value at $2.9 million, due to lack of services, and that in mid-March, Tochal received an offer of $3 million for the forested property via a financial collabo- ration between the federal government, Manitoba Heritage and Habitat Corp. and the Manitoba Métis Federation, in consultation with the city. An offer double the $1.5 million Tochal paid for the land a little over six years ago. Had that offer been accepted, the 22 acre hard- wood forest would then have been transferred to the city to be preserved as naturalized parkland. So did Tochal refuse the offer? And if so, why? Well, it may have something to do with the fact that six years ago, the company’s assessor placed the property value at $6 million. Which is more than a bit shocking, given that the land has no sewage or hydro services and no legal point of entry. Hence the proposed house demolition, presumably to provide access for future construc- tion. Not to mention the fact that the city sewer sys- tem in the surrounding area is already stretched to the max and the land is situated on a flood plain. So is an asking price four times the original selling price a reasonable expectation on Tochal’s part? I’ll let you answer that question. The other issue is this — Tochal could, in theo- ry, follow the lead of the Parker Lands developer and make a point to the city by mowing down every one of the estimated 9,000 to 14,000 mature trees on that site prior to any development sub- mission or approval and not pay a single dollar in penalties. This, at a time when the city is trying to ex- pand, not reduce, its tree canopy. So my question is this — when will council decide it will no longer be held hostage by chain- saw-wielding developers? At what point will councillors acknowledge they have a responsibility to act in the interests of all citizens by enacting bylaws that prevent the wholesale destruction of mature trees and the few remaining intact forests on private land. Especially when, thanks to climate change, we’ll be facing more heat waves and flooding which would be mitigated by those forests. If council doesn’t act, I’ll continue to get calls like the one I received a few weeks ago from a frantic homeowner who lives just across the river from the Lemay, in a home adjacent to another privately owned forest on the old Damon farm site. Apparently, a contractor was not only mowing down trees to build a dirt road through the forest but was also illegally dumping truckload after truckload of fill in an area that had once been, and is no longer, a monarch butterfly habitat. Land that’s also adjacent to an eagle nesting site. To make matters worse, homes in that neigh- bourhood rely on well water, with no access to city water, and if fill dumping had continued, their ground water wells may have been placed at risk. Ironically, the fill was coming from another development at the University of Manitoba where their property arm is currently building, and I quote, “a sustainable” housing project. Honestly folks, you can’t make this stuff up. So if you think we need reasonable bylaws gov- erning the protection of mature trees on private land, as outlined in the city’s own 20 year urban forestry strategy, then contact your councillor and tell them that. Because without those bylaws, we’ll continue to lose tens of thousands of trees to development and construction. Erna Buffie is a writer and filmmaker. To read more go to https:// www.ernabuffie.com/ The danger and hope of Good Friday WE are approaching Good Friday — a day that has been historically dangerous for Jewish peo- ple. Over the course of history, Christians have been inflamed by misguided sermons that blame Jews for the death of Jesus. On Good Fridays of the past, pogroms (orga- nized vigilante attacks on minorities, especially Jews) have broken out in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Galicia and Ruthenia. After attending Good Friday worship, some would leave the church enraged and proceed to vandalize synagogues and Jewish businesses. Others would drag Jews out of their homes to beat or kill them in the name of the crucified Christ. Jews feared for their lives when Good Friday drew near. Christian denominations have since apologized for their vitriolic antisemitism, including the Roman Catholics and Lutherans. But I still hear Christians saying that the Jews killed Jesus. Yes, there are scripture passages to blame, but they might be interpreted differently if we can remember the following: 1. Jesus and his disciples were Jewish. Much of Jesus’ teachings resembled the liberal, Jewish Hillel school of his day. 2. Jesus was particularly concerned about those marginalized by race, gender and class within the social hierarchy that was cruelly imposed by the Roman colonizers. Some of the Jewish leaders recognized the danger of Jesus’ protests that challenged Rome. They tried to stop him before the Romans killed all of the Jews. But in the end, it was the Romans, not the Jews, who crucified Jesus. 3. Upon Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethse- mane, Jesus admonished Peter, who brandished his sword. There was to be no violent response. Jesus went willingly to the cross and asked God to forgive all who were responsible for his death. Even as he hung on the cross, he embraced the suffering of others, including his mother and one of the men crucified with him. As Christians approach Good Friday this year, I pray that we will, once and for all, banish the inflammatory notion that Jews killed Jesus. Good Friday is a story of forgiveness and suf- fering love, not revenge and retribution. I also pray that we will learn how to embrace the suffering of all. Sages and mystics of various faiths teach us to be as concerned about the dis- tress of others as we are about our own. May we hold the suffering of all victims of wars and terrorism — Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrai- nians, Russians, Afghans, Sudanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians and Haitians. Sadly, this list is not complete. The ability to hold the suffering of all — es- pecially that of our “enemies” — is the key to compassion and a way through enmity to lasting peace and security for everyone. Violence begets violence and only serves to deepen the cycle of hostility. We must open our hearts to the terrified Gazan child, whose parents have just been killed in an airstrike, and to the Israeli hostage who is barely hanging on while enduring sexual abuse. We must embrace the Ukrainians grieving family and towns obliterated by Russian bombs and the Russians grieving those massacred in a recent terrorist attack at a concert. The Buddhist teaching of tonglan breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out loving kindness. The Jewish teaching of tikkun olam elevates the mending of our wounded world. The Muslim teaching of compassion breaks through ethnic boundaries. The Christian teaching of agapic love returns violence with a refusal to hate. If people of faith can return to the heart of each of our faith traditions, the healing way of suffer- ing love will emerge. Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd is a retired United Church minister and recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Advancement of Interreligious Understanding. Balance Manitoba’s books IN Manitoba, 22 cents of every dollar sent to the government by taxpayers is used to pay interest charges on provincial debt. In total, interest charges will cost taxpay- ers $2.2 billion this year. That’s $2.2 billion that can’t be used for targeted government spending priorities or tax relief. Plus, the currently projected $1.6-billion deficit will only add fuel to the interest charge fire if the government doesn’t get spending under control. That’s a big problem for a government that has made a lot of new commitments on spending. The NDP platform during the last election highlighted more than $500 million in new spending for each of the next four years. That doesn’t even count the additional $710 million in spending recently announced for the rest of this year. To deal with the deficit, the government needs to take a hard look at the expenditure column. Last year, the government spent more than $9.2 billion paying government employees. That’s equivalent to about 87 per cent of what the government collects in taxes. On average, government employees make about 5.5 per cent more per year than everyone else. Reducing government com- pensation costs by 5.5 per cent would save taxpayers about $507 million. The government also spends about $482 million per year on corporate welfare, despite economic research finding no significant evidence of subsidies helping to increase economic growth. Ending this use- less practice would free up that $482 million to push down the deficit. Then there’s the spending spree. Since 2018, government revenues have increased 27 per cent, but spending has increased 35 per cent. That’s unsustainable. If the government had only increased spending by combined population and infla- tion growth since then, it would be spending $1.4 billion less this year. With these reductions, the government will find itself about $2.4 billion in savings and be able to dig itself out of this deficit hole and keep the gas tax cut around for good. Future budget surpluses can then be used to pay down the government debt and stop wasting $2.2 billion per year on nothing. Some argue the government should cancel the gas tax cut because of the looming deficit and its $342 million annual price tag. That’s the wrong call, and a very unpopular one. According to a poll conducted by Leger, 77 per cent of Manitobans want the govern- ment to extend the 14 cents per litre gas tax cut it implemented on Jan. 1. Plus, raising taxes isn’t the guaranteed solution it seems to be. In fact, it could likely make the whole situation worse. It’s foolhar- dy to expect Manitobans to just sit down and accept even higher taxes when they could just pack up the mini-van and move to Regi- na or Calgary. The average Manitoba family making $75,000 a year pays more in provincial taxes than similar families in Western Canada. They pay $4,322 more than the same family in Alberta and $2,802 more than in Saskatch- ewan. Tax hikes cannot be on the table. The Manitoba government will soon unveil its 2024 budget. It’s the first budget for Premier Wab Kinew and Finance Minister Adrien Sala. In the budget they will be forced to put in black and white how they plan to tax and spend throughout the next year. Budget day will still have its fair share of com- ms-shopped statements, but the numbers on the pages of the budget documents will show the true story. The government has spent a lot of time blaming the previous Tory government for current budget woes, but to be frank — that doesn’t matter. It’s completely up to Kinew and his team to present a budget that helps taxpayers and doesn’t drive the $33-billion provincial debt up even higher. This new government has spoken a lot about its commitment to fiscal responsibil- ity. The April 2 budget is the time for it to put its money where its mouth is and give Manitobans a balanced budget. Gage Haubrich is Prairies director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. LORAINE MACKENZIE SHEPHERD MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Debate rages about the future of the 22-acre forest near Lemay Avenue, which is nestled against the Red River in St. Norbert. ERNA BUFFIE GAGE HAUBRICH Some argue the government should cancel the gas tax cut because of the looming deficit and its $342 million annual price tag. That’s the wrong call, and a very unpopular one. ;