Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 4, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THINK TANK COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A9 SATURDAY MAY 4, 2024 Ideas, Issues, Insights Jets’ season fades to black — again “T HEY constantly toy with us, giving us tantalizing hints of what may be possible and then fail to deliver when it counts in the playoffs.” Bill Craig, letters to the editor, Free Press, May 1. There are two seasons in the National Hockey League, the regular season and the playoffs. In the end, only the latter matters. Regardless of how you feel about Mr. Craig’s letter to the editor of this newspaper, you have to agree with his key point. The Winnipeg Jets have a habit of giving fans the impression, during the regular season, that the team could go all the way. All the way in hock- ey has only one definition — the Stanley Cup. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about the first incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets or the current team that draws massively enthusiastic white-outs in this era. The truth is they have never won a Stanley Cup. You don’t need to be a statistician to know that we are not alone in the NHL. Several teams haven’t won Lord Stanley’s great gift to hockey culture. Beyond that, many NHL teams who have had their names etched in silver have been suffer- ing multi-generational droughts. The most famous member of that less-than-distinguished club is the Toronto Maple Leafs. They haven’t won a cup since Bobbie Gentry sang Ode to Billie Joe, Tom Jones wailed Green Green Grass of Home and Jimmy Hendrix howled Hey Joe! Even if you’re a boomer, 1967 is a long time ago. Saturday night, the Leafs will once again attempt to begin a climb out of their drought, playing game seven in their series with the Bruins. To ad- vance to the next round of the playoffs, the Leafs need to win on Boston’s home ice. I am not on thin ice when I tell you that most people reading these words have no memory of Toronto prevailing against the Bruins in a Stanley Cup playoff series. It hasn’t happened since John Diefenbaker was Canada’s prime minister and Dwight Eisenhower was the president of the Unit- ed States. The year was 1959. Most people on this first Winnipeg weekend in May are talking about the weather, speculating on what kind of summer we can look forward to. The month of May always holds out optimism for the most important season of the year, the one that reminds us that there is a reward in this part of the planet for enduring cold winters, along with springs that frequently feel like winter is an obnoxious house guest who never wants to leave. We are about to have some sunny days and temperatures approaching 20 degrees. They may help us forget the disappointment that Bill Craig and his fellow Jets fans are feeling. There was so much promise in the regular season, followed by the nasty, brutal reality of the last days of April. In the final weeks of the regular season, it seemed the team could do nothing wrong. We had win after win, an eight-game winning streak. We were the best in the league in keep- ing the puck out of our net. Connor Hellebuyck will likely be honoured with the Vezina trophy, given every year to the league’s most outstanding goaltender. How can you wrap up a season, winning eight games in a row, with the league’s best goalie and get routed in the first round of the playoffs, four games to one? How can you be the best in the league at keep- ing pucks out of the net during the regular season and then allow an average of five goals per game in the playoffs? The sad truth is Winnipeg got hit by the Avalanche. If this column wasn’t being written by a homer, I’d devote several hundred words to the team that plays bigger, faster and stronger than ours, a team that is much more at home in post-season play, one that hoisted the Stanley Cup only two years ago. The Colorado Avalanche deserve all the credit in the world for how they performed against the Jets. But fortunately I have only one brief paragraph left in me on this outing. And I will not be a role model of a good sport by devoting it to the team from Denver. Dear Winnipeg Jets, thank you for a fantastic regular season. Wishing you better luck in the playoffs next year. Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. charles@charlesadler.com Employee surveys and the health of Manitoba’s public service EMPLOYEE surveys are a fashionable manage- ment tool used in both the private and the public sector. Done properly, they can provide insights into both organizational problems and potential ways to improve them. The Government of Manitoba has conducted employee surveys for several decades, and done so annually since 2020, as one component of the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Employee Perspectives program. Given the public ser- vice’s important contribution to the well-being of Manitobans, the survey findings deserve more attention than they usually receive. Annual surveys allow governments to track employee sentiments on selected topics over time, but thoughtful consideration of their limits and risks is needed. A cardinal rule of surveys is to avoid questions on issues which management has neither the capacity nor the willingness to address. Annual surveys asking the same questions, without sufficient time to productively address problems that have been recently identified, can deepen disillusionment and yield cynical respons- es. Delays in survey reporting can lead to analysis of “yesterday’s” problems. In any case, survey findings are the starting point for questions and discussions and do not provide actual prescrip- tions for solving problems. Turning to the Manitoba public service, if it once operated in relatively calm waters, recently it has faced continuous white water of numerous disruptions and challenges. A list of political events would include: a failed cabinet revolt in 2014 to remove an NDP premier, the election of Progressive Conservative govern- ments in 2016 and 2019, the selection of a new premier in 2021, several cabinet shuffles, and the replacement of the PCs, in October 2023, by the NDP government of Premier Wab Kinew. That government includes only one minister with cab- inet experience and is committed to an extensive and expensive public policy agenda. On the administrative side, the PC governments boasted of their belief in the need for a strong public service, but their actions sent the opposite message. A 2018 discussion paper argued that because the public service, unlike private firms, lacked the disruptive pressures of competition, it had to be pushed hard to transform itself. For the PCs, that transformation was mainly about balancing the budget and squeezing more productivity out of the public service. Budgetary restraint across the public sector was pursued through the elimination and consolidation of orga- nizations, layoffs, hard line collective bargaining, wage restrictions and attrition, causing heavier workloads for remaining employees. All of this was happening during the unprece- dented challenges of the pandemic and a related economic downturn. New programs needed to be designed and delivered hastily. It also forced remote work by public servants and debates over when a return to in -person work should occur. In the midst of these difficult times, the em- ployee surveys recorded a significant decline in morale within the public service. For exam- ple, fewer respondents said they were proud to identify as public servants (49 per cent in 2021, down from 60 per cent several years earlier), recovering slightly to 56 per cent in 2023. Only 60 per cent indicated they were “inspired to give my best at work”, down from 71 per cent earlier, and satisfaction with work dropped from 74 per cent to 66 per cent. There were areas of continuing high satisfac- tion scores such as a good fit between employee skills and job requirements, positive relationships with coworkers and access to respectful work- place resources, all of which stayed in the 80 -90 per cent range. There were slight improvements in understand- ing how one’s work contributed to departmental goals and in the belief there were ongoing career opportunities within the public service. Confi- dence in the senior leadership of departments and satisfaction with the flow of information from the top remained in the low 50 per cent range. As observed in similar surveys within other ju- risdictions, newer employees expressed more pos- itive feelings than “veterans,” who had survived many upheavals over many years of service. Newcomers were more positive about working in the public service, more satisfied with their jobs, and had more confidence in senior leadership. Those respondents saying they would prefer to stay in the public service dropped slightly from 57 per cent to 53 per cent. Given the substantial number of both regular employees (33 per cent) and managers (47 per cent) eligible to retire in the next five years, this drop takes on more signifi- cance and creates challenges in terms of recruit- ment, retention and succession planning. To the credit of public service leaders, the most recent annual report from the PSC lists a number of initiatives which have grown out of the surveys, such a Learning Fund, an Ideas fund to support innovations, programming to support new entrants and an exit survey to assist with reten- tion efforts. Public servants are meant to be impartial and professional in executing the decisions of their elected political masters. Given the past seven tough years, however, the change to an NDP government last October was probably welcomed by many of them. At this early stage in its mandate, the NDP appears more open than the former government to listening to the policy advice of the public service and trusting it more fully to implement decisions effectively. We will have to wait and see if the Winter 2023 - -2024 employee survey records a more positive climate in the crucial institution of the public service. Paul G. Thomas is professor emeritus of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. Down on Main Street SHE was large and imposing, with hands like a football offensive lineman, yet she had a kindly disposition. Her eyes lit up when we were introduced to her as “the new guys,” and she reached down to give us a good-natured “inspection.” Fortunately self-preservation was faster than curiosity and we managed to elude her reach. Protective vests were not yet issued and re- gardless, they didn’t protect below your belt. We had just been introduced to the “bounc- er” (doorman) at the Bell Hotel on Main Street. And in the spring of 1985, walking the beat — a.k.a. “The Drag” — on Main Street was one of the assignments for most rookie police officers sent downtown after the police academy. From the old Public Safety Building on Prin- cess to the CPR underpass, there were almost a dozen such establishments and like the Bell Hotel of that era, all were rather gritty. They were all by then primarily low rentals, but each still had an equally “gritty” bar. Visiting one wasn’t exactly wise for most people. To hold order there required a certain “touch,” and you had to be tough, because they were very rough crowds. That bouncer was tough and respected too. “Tough” wasn’t because a person drove an obnoxious vehicle, or because they favoured a particular sports team, or because they had multiple associates to gang up on someone who they took a childish dislike to, or lost a fair fight to, or because they hung out at the then-popular Gold’s Gym. “Tough” could encompass such elements as fairness, under- standing and tremendous resolve. Policing the area could be demanding. The packed, smoke-filled bars and the huge crowd that emptied onto Main at closing made for interesting times. When I returned to that beat in 2014 it was different, yet it was similar. By 2014, only the bars at the Manwin and Mount Royal hotels retained any vestiges of 1985. There were “characters” of course, but many decent people were still living there, working there, drinking there. Unfortunately there was more actual crime and more criminals, both in the area and in the downtown in general. In 1985, people were mostly held account- able for their actions, both within the commu- nity (often “an eye for an eye”) and within the scope of law and order, as it existed then. This was to some degree still true in 2014. The same laws that exist today locked crim- inals up back then and didn’t so soon return them to the community, “as mandated by the criminal code.” By 2014, there were huge problems with addictions and mental health issues, but there were also behavioural changes not necessarily related to either. People had regressed and “tough” in that area primarily meant an ability to survive the prevailing adversities. There were still many good people within the community however, but who had, by dint of circumstances, ended up in the area. Many of them were better people than those who then — and now — hide behind the “cloak of respectability” afforded by fancy address- es, fancy positions and/or fancy titles. Anyone who actually spent any real boots- on-the-ground time there could see that. And there were people there who I realized I could trust to have my back, usually over those “fancy” types, and even over some police officers (particularly those of higher rank, or aspiring to it). There are stories behind the faces you see lingering along Main that you don’t read about in the paper. There were also many great people working the front line of social services who truly grasped the essence of that community; for example, “Ian DM” (the Steelers fan). Unfortunately many of them were often marginalized by management who didn’t understand and who refused to understand the issues. Imagine. Far too often too many in management believed position and/or education made up for their lack of real knowledge and experi- ence and they feared those minions who were genuinely better than them. This scenario unfortunately thrived and still thrives, in part because it’s insulated from the consequences of its actions and agendas. The people in need ultimately lose out, and the problems fester. Regrettably this could be said of manage- ment in too many organizations, with policing being no exception. Now only the Manwin and McLaren Hotels still remain, and are but shadows of their former selves from 2014, when they were shadows of themselves of another bygone era. But they aren’t the only shadows. Many still walk “down on Main Street.” Kevin Birkett retired from the Winnipeg Police Service in 2020. CHARLES ADLER PAUL G. THOMAS FRED GREENSLADE / THE CANADIAN PRESS There was plenty of playoff disappointment to go around for Winnipeg’s white-clad fans. And not for the first time. KEVIN BIRKETT ;