Making Manitoba a "Have Province"

[Shodan]

Prosperity plan launched
Manitoba Chambers of Commerce aims to shake have-not status

By ROSS ROMANIUK, STAFF REPORTER

January 16, 2007 - The Winnipeg Sun

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce is embarking on an ambitious project to gauge attitudes among people in all walks of life. It wants to know what the province needs to grow and thrive -- and set a course to make that happen.

The goal is to help Manitoba gain the status of a so-called "have" province rather than a "have-not."

The business group is using a website and other tools for what its president Graham Starmer calls a "full-court press" toward prosperity.

"Manitoba needs a vision for the future, some sort of measurement or marker to find out where we were -- to see whether we can move ahead," Starmer said yesterday.

"We live here and want to see it grow, in not only size but strength. If we can unleash this potential by moving the agenda forward, it will improve tremendously."

The multi-pronged project begins in earnest today. It includes an attitude survey, an event called Partnership for Prosperity and 14 individual "champions" who will fan out province-wide to hear opinions, attitudes, wants and needs.

It's the "grand discussion" stage of what's expected to become a learning and goal-setting process running up to two years.

"We see the writing on the wall. We have an aging population. As a province, we are going to have to compete for people to stay," said Jean McClellan, chairwoman of the Chambers and one of the "champions" of the project from the business community.

"Is health care one of those things that will make people stay here and make Manitoba a have province? Is it arts and culture? Is it low tax rates? We're hoping we'll get some sense of what the public feels are the important issues to focus on."

The effort is aimed as much at pinpointing Manitoba's strengths and advantages as zeroing in on its weaknesses and problems.

While the project is inclusive and non-partisan, the Manitoba government's policies and plans will come under scrutiny.

- On the web: www.haveprovince.com
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Hey all you 'Tobans! Take the survey!
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Beating Manitoba's drum
Chambers website asking people how to grow province's potential

Tue Jan 16 2007 - Winnipeg Free Press

By Martin Cash

MANITOBANS are being asked to break out of their shell, tell everyone why the province is a great place and suggest ways to make it even better.

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce is leading the initiative, called Making Manitoba a Have Province, with the launch of a newly created website on Tuesday at www.haveprovince.com, where Manitobans will be encouraged to share their ideas about the province in an online town hall forum.

Results of the survey will be shared publicly this spring.

Chambers officials say the grassroots project is a non-partisan attempt to ask the tough questions and figure out a vision for Manitoba's future that includes measurable actions. They say it's not an attempt to exert any kind of political pressure.

It is the chambers' most ambitious project in its 75-year history.

Speakers will start fanning out across the province to stimulate dialogue among business and community groups. The chambers' newly formed think-tank, Manitoba Research Institute, will do its own survey of Manitobans' attitudes later this year and the chambers will hold public events starting Jan. 30. The first will focus on how the community at large can create a fair deal for low-income Canadians.

Chambers president Graham Starmer said the purpose of the exercise is to concentrate on what's good about the province and how it can be made better.

"We all believe that Manitoba has all sorts of untapped potential that is not being fully unleashed," he said. "We wanted to come with a process to engage the general public, not just the business community."

Although the intention is not to focus on the negatives, the fact is the Manitoba economy has lagged behind Ontario and the western provinces in many areas.

Manitoba regularly posts net out-migration population losses and the province has been a regional laggard in job creation, personal income tax cuts and economic growth. The increase in Manitoba's gross domestic product will be above the national average this year for the first time in many years.

Chambers officials say they hope their initiative will provide clarity to ongoing challenges such as the perception that many educated young people are leaving the province for better jobs elsewhere.

The idea for the campaign was hatched at a chambers board meeting in November 2005, when the board tossed out a status-quo, three-year strategic plan in favour of the current initiative.

Like the chamber movement itself, it will be run by volunteers. It is partly an effort to inspire more people to get involved in their communities through volunteerism to make the province a better place.

But it is about much more than that.

"People have been talking for a long time about the lack of initiative in trying to figure out how to make Manitoba even better than it is," said the chambers chairwoman Jean McClellan. "We decided that we would take the first step."

She sees the process possibly leading to initiatives that would try to make businesses more successful and more environmentally friendly, figuring out ways to become better employers, creating a broader discussion about ways to make the health-care system more effective and to enhance the arts and cultural life of the province.

"At the end of the day, we want to get everyone engaged," McClellan said. "This is about finding the common ground we all share."

Although it may sound like a discussion more properly undertaken by government, chambers officials say they believe the community should not expect government to do everything. They say that it could provide a different perspective if taken out of the finger-pointing, partisan environment.

Chambers officials have briefed governments and organizations across the province and will make any findings available to anyone interested.

Jim Carr, CEO of the Manitoba Business Council, said his organization and others support the chambers move.

"We think it's a great idea to talk about ways to improve the status of Manitoba vis-à-vis the other provinces," he said. "I think it's a noble goal to work at changing our self-image and to see ourselves as a progressive province."

The chambers' Manitoba action plan

Here is what the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce is doing to generate ideas and new initiatives in its campaign called Making Manitoba a Have Province:

* The chamber is asking everyone to share their ideas in an on-line town hall forum about what makes Manitoba great and what people can do to make it even better. On Tuesday, a newly created website, www.haveprovince.com, will go live for comments.

* A group of 15 volunteers, including representatives of regional chambers of commerce across the province, will meet as many people as possible over the next several weeks and months to get the message out.

* The non-partisan approach will present ideas for all governments and organizations across the province to use at their discretion. Although it may seem there might be some crossover with the kind of upbeat attitude projected by the Spirited Energy campaign, that campaign is about what's happening now. The chambers' initiative is about identifying future potential and figuring out how to realize it.

* Late last year, the chambers formed the Manitoba Research Institute to study economic and business dynamics in the province. Although it has no operating budget, it plans to raise money for each new project. It is hoped the first one will be a statistically valid survey of attitudes about the province's economic potential as a follow-up to the online town hall survey. It is hoped it will be complete before the summer.

* The chambers has also drafted something it calls "The Great Jobs Agenda" as a way to focus discussion on the importance of developing opportunities in Manitoba that keep the province competitive in the larger context of global competition for people as well as products and services.

Big transfer payments, higher taxes

The campaign to make Manitoba a "have" province does not specifically relate to federal government transfer payments, with which the phrase is generally associated. But the trend of consistently increasing federal transfers to Manitoba is an indication of this province's poor economic performance relative to the other provinces.

This year (2006-07), only Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia received higher per-capita transfer payments from Ottawa than Manitoba did.

Since 1993-94, transfer payments from Ottawa to Manitoba have almost doubled (from $901 million to $1.7 billion this year), an increase of 89 per cent, the largest percentage increase of all the provinces except British Columbia. (B.C. started receiving transfer payments only in 1999, and this year got $459 million.)

Not only is Manitoba increasingly reliant on federal handouts, it is taking place in an environment where Manitobans are paying among the highest tax rates in the region. Manitoba's highest tax bracket starts lower ($65,001) and is at a higher rate (17.4 per cent) than Ontario and all the other western provinces.

A recent report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, using Statistics Canada data, pegs Manitoba dead last among the provinces in per-capita private capital expenditures.

Transfer Payments Per Capita 2006-07

P.E.I. $2,102

New Brunswick $1,927

Nova Scotia $1,475

Manitoba $1,445

Nfld. and Lab. $1,334

Quebec $725

British Columbia $107

Saskatchewan $13

Ontario --

Alberta --

Source : Federal Department of Finance

Questions on the province

There has been plenty of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands about how to make things better in Manitoba. The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce is looking to identify areas where the province can improve and at the same time make those improvement measurable.

It is soliciting feedback from the general public on its website www.haveprovince.com. While it doesn't know what sorts of suggestions will be made, there are several areas that are likely to be mentioned, according to business people interviewed yesterday. Here are a few:

* Tax rates -- Why is it that Manitobans making more than $65,000 have to pay 17.4 per cent and people in Saskatchewan only reach the top rate at $107,368, and even then only have to pay 15 per cent?

* Education -- Manitoba's workforce has the lowest levels of educational achievement in the region, but also has among the lowest tuition rates at post-secondary institutions. There are all sorts of challenges in better delivering education services. How can the province enhance education levels?

* Health care -- Although Manitoba spends among the most per capita on health care, waiting lists are long and there is plenty of concern about the general excellence in the service.

* Poverty -- Is the province doing the best it can in treating the less fortunate? For instance, why is there such a shortage of adequate low-cost housing?

* Business climate -- Manitoba lags the country in per capita private investment and has struggled with attracting capital for a long time. What can be done to break that log jam?

What volunteers will focus on

The Manitoba Chambers of Commerce's campaign is grassroots-oriented in every respect, including the fact it is relying on a troop of volunteer "champions" to fan out across the province to get the message out.

Here's the list of those volunteers and the areas they will focus on:

Garth Manness, Credit Union Central -- CEOs and business leaders

Larry McIntosh, Peak of the Market -- CEOs and business leaders

Gord Peters, Candu Contracting -- CEOs and business leaders

Daniel Paul Bork, Clarence Cook & Assoc. -- Aboriginal businesses

David Northcott, Winnipeg Harvest -- Social services community

Jeff Zabudsky, Red River College -- Communications

Lee Jebb, Candu Contracting -- Business community

Jean McClellan, PricewaterhouseCoopers -- Media and communications

Jack Wilson, Manitoba Hydro -- Associations and capital region

Regional Manitoba Chambers of Commerce representatives

Dale Wallis -- Mid-West region

Don Forbes -- Western region

David Wilkinson -- Pembina Valley region

Ron Clement -- Parkland region

Dennis Brownlee -- Central region

Brad Ritchie -- Northern region

© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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