City of Winnipeg Politics | Municipal
 

So it seems Katz may be out of the job if he loses a court battle to Joe Chan. I disagree with the spending of public money on a Christmas Party, but to do it in a restaurant you own, that is just plain ballsy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...-winnipeg.html

aww really?

I can understand he issue with using his restsurant but those that complain about tax money going to perks like this I don't quite follow their logic.

I work in the private sector and got a company paid for holiday party. The government competes against the private sector to hire people. Similar perks that are available in the private sector should be available to government employees if they want to attract similar level of talent. Should all government employees make minimum wage as to not waste taxpayer money? Of course not. Not sure how giving the employees a Christmas lunch is any different. It's simply a form of compensation available to similar employees in the private sector.

what hes complaining about is a confilic of interest and as a result katz is breaking the law he can be forced to vacate his position and or be forced to pay it back if found guilty

If government employees were all minimum wage workers, we'd be in a truly sorry state. If you think the government wastes money now, just stick a bunch of people who skills are worth $10.25/hour in charge and see how much worse things get.

Hey, I'm a public employee and didn't get a Christmas party! Where mine?

That said, regardless of the discount or savings, it's a conflict of interest. Fine to take staff there, but it shouldn't have cost the public purse one dime.

I would argue that in a lot of cases for those middle of the road jobs, the public sector competes against the government to hire people more so than the other way around.

Christmas parties are great, but I would gladly give that up in favour of the extra holidays, sick days, pensions, job security, etc. etc. that government workers get.

theoretically if Katz would be forced to vacate his position what process would occur to fill the position? Not really familiar with that process, would there be another municipal election or would Wasylycia-Leis take the position as she finished second in the last election?

Define "breaking the law". What law or line in the City Charter is there that states that the mayor's office cannot pay for a Christmas party out of the office budget? Even if said restaurant is owned (in part) by the mayor himself.

At the end of the day there were probably 100+ people at the party and the total bill came in under $3000. That is a pretty cheap party when you really break it down.

What percentage of Hu's does Katz own?

If anything I suspect that the party was done at-cost and the owners made nothing at all. Even if there was a profit to be had Katz' portion would be laughably minimal.

Sure the optics are terrible, but people are really raising a stink about next to nothing and most of those upset vocal people will do anything to smear Katz at any tiny infraction.

I think you're missing the point of the outcry. It's not that the party was taxpayer funded, but that it was held at a restaurant owned by the mayor. Probably 100+ people? Not sure how you can guess the amount that were there (and I'm not even sure that place would hold that many).

Katz said other places were packed, and that he could get a good deal - what process is in place to make sure that's the case?

More importantly, the fact that Katz doesn't see the conflict in this makes people worry about what other business practices he considers ethical. Maybe it's ok to give a long term library lease to a buddy's property, because they can get the best deal? Maybe it's ok to hire a buddy's consulting firm (without shopping around), because other firms were too busy? For someone always railing against taxpayer waste, I'm surprised you can defend this...

He was quoted somewhere in the paper about specifically choosing to hold the party at his restaurant because he could provide all the food and service at cost thus saving money. I agree it looks way worse then it looks. If the bill was around 3000$ I think its ridiculous how much attention this issue has got. Smear campaign for sure, and if your going to attack that then you mine as well start investigating every single expense account by every political figure in the city and whatnot. I would assume there would be bigger issues there.

You can't extrapolate something like that.

What about your neighbour kids who smoke weed? Are they also gang leaders pimping teenage girls while trafficking illegal weapons and heroin?

How many people are getting bus passes from Ross Eadie?

How many of those people are friends of his?

Is he actually extrapolating? Those other cases he mentioned actually happened, no?

Even if it is true, this is nothing unique to City Hall and Sam Katz and is small potatoes compared to what happens at a provincial level.

Extrapolate? Not sure what you mean. The point here is that the mayor cannot see how this scenario could be perceived as a conflict of interest. In fact, he called it a "win-win". To me, and many others obviously, this says something about the mayor's character and ethics. If using public office for private gain in this instance doesn't smell of conflict of interest to you, then we'll agree to disagree.

Ah yes - the old "well, Charlie's even MORE corrupt than me, so it's ok"...

It's bad optics. If I was to venture a guess, yes, Sam Katz probably did save the taxpayers a few dollars, but the optics are terrible, and as a professional he should know that optics matter.

katz is a saint now??
aww

he privitized our sand pits wa 60 millin dallor asset he sould for 10illion to a freind... like come on...

we can also bring up the parking lot he got himself free rent on beside his park no? theres endless list of scrupious buisnes deals hes made.........


if u guys even knew half the shit i've heard about him. the media knows and yet says very little

Do you mean scrupulous? If so, probably not the word you're looking for:

scru·pu·lous/ˈskro͞opyələs/
Adjective:

(of a person or process) Diligent, thorough, and extremely attentive to details.
Very concerned to avoid doing wrong.

Nikki Ashton kind of looks like Tony Clement.

shes federal

So is he... ? :shrug:

Oh I know what you're saying now. Yeah, I just posted it here because there was no where else to put it but I had to say it somewhere. The similarity creeped me out.

I still don't see anything wrong with any of this. :shrug:

Sam Katz did it. Therefore, it's wrong.

The Katz Xmas party is sooo not worth losing sleep over.

There are a good number of very real problems that we should be talking about instead, like the lack of private capital available for investment in this city since Crocus left, the zero level of vision on a long term transit strategy for this city, runaway crime, etc. etc.

Does anyone know of anyone who would make a competent mayor? Everyone talks about how amazing they would be in office, but I am surprised at the lack of quality people that run for office. The fact that a majority of the voters went with "Well I have to vote Katz or Judy will become mayor" is a sad statement. As all of us are potential mayors here ;) what would be some major implementations here. Lets be formal about this. I would like to here some solid political ideas coming forth from this. I am good friends with Greg's kid, Pascal Toupin Selinger. He has told me he would love to be mayor, and I personally believe one day, after some maturing, he would do a good job.

I would.

However I wouldn't want to take on the longer work hours, personal scrutiny, stress and huge pay cut. Being a mayor is a thankless job.

I suspect most smart successful people feel the same way.

Wow, and from all the talk here I would have thought there were no well-paying private sector jobs in Winnipeg. And yet, making $123,000 (1/3 tax free, so actually much higher than that) is a HUGE pay cut for you. Not to mention the huge expense account, and mayors office budget... Not bad Hotwired, not bad ;)

I would also love to hear some of your proposals. Where could we cut spending? How would we pay for major infrastructure projects? Etc...

i voted for Rav Gill. I have him on twitter. Funny guy.

Katz isn't there for anyone but himself.

Sam Katz-West St. Paul-Brent Olynyk connect the dots.

http://www.jus.gov.mb.ca/

Type in Andrew Marquess.
He is the developer who Katz allowed to head the Fort Rouge infill project.

He has had 28 suites against him.

That's almost enough to build one of the buildings. ;)

Not surprising.

Ever hear of the saying "Birds of a feather flock together?"

Al Golden would like you to thank him less, can you vote for him next time he runs?

You ever wonder why Katz doesn't mention Golden's name anymore? They've been separated ever since Katz did a number on Golden at the ballpark on the concession business. Katz gave it to someone who could do him more good and put coin in his pocket.

Katz is the only guy I know that can shake your hand and pick your pocket at the same time. Yeah, its a thankless job, but its lucrative.

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

‘O Brad Wall, Brad Wall, wherefore art thou?'

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 02/29/2012 12:36 PM | Comments: 8 (including replies)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...140900783.html

I see great potential in this new party.

I see great potential to split the right of centre vote.

Not in this case.

There are many who vote NDP because there really is no other option and nothing new being brought to the table.

The Manitoba Party will distance themselves from "right-wing" or "conservative" ideals and focus more on issues that impact Manitoba and the bottom line of budgets for the province as well as individuals.

If they are smart they will focus on the following:

- Making Manitoba more competitive on a business side
- Changes to encourage more oil and mining development in Manitoba
- Lowering provincial income taxes (or raising the brackets) to something closer to Sask
- Addressing the provincial portion of property tax bills
- Removing the MPI monopoly on auto insurance
- Removing PST on used cars
- Privatizing liquor sales and opening the market to more small breweries and wineries
- Forcing Manitoba Hydro to be more fiscally responsible and addressing how to handle crown profits.
- Elimination of Sunday shopping laws
- Elimination of the Peak Of The Market monopoly (will go over well for the farmers market crowd)

Yikes, I can see this thread getting pretty busy this week...

How would your proposed platform not split the right-vote? If this party is created, but isn't "all in" (i.e. can't run candidates province wide, doesn't see many defections from the PC's, etc), it's going to guarantee an NDP majority in 2015. All they'd need to do is win a few Tory ridings. While I tend to support the provincial NDP, even I don't want to see an opposition in total dissaray.

The only hope this party has is if it completely replaces the PC party - otherwise, they're just a different version of the provincial liberals...

What you are failing to realize is that the provincial NDP isn't that far left. They are far more centrist and only really win elections because the PCs can't seem to find a leader with and charisma or a platform that engages the people.

If anything I can see the Manitoba Party running right up the middle of the pack taking votes from both sides. I know a lot of people who begrudgingly vote for the NDP or PCs only because they can't stand the other respective party.

Take the last election? What new ideas did the PCs have? Exactly. None.

All they talked about was "its time for a change" and "the NDP has done nothing". No new platform ideas (at least worth caring about) and just hoping to win because they would be "new".

That said, it wasn't like the NDP won on some left wing platform either.

I'm not the one who fails to realize that the provincial NDP isn't far left - it's not me you see on these boards calling them socialists. My point was that based on the policies you mentioned (and the fact that there is talk about a new centre-right party at all) is that they are obviously trying to appeal to disillusioned tories. Obviously they will take more votes from the PC's than the NDP. But, let's just say that somehow, they actually appealled equally to PC and NDP voters, siphoning off the exact same amount of voters from each party - the NDP would still win in a landslide!

Either way, if this is going to happen, now's the time. The PC leadership race is in total disarray, with few qualified candidates stepping forward (you know you're in trouble when Paula Havixbeck is considered a top 3 contender). Pizza boy dropped out the other day, so I guess it's between Goertzen and Pallister, unless someone steps up (hopefully they can recruit someone like Dave Angus). We don't have even close to the same circumstances here that led to the Sask Party, so I doubt this is going to happen. Instead, why don't the PC's just run on the platform you suggested Hotwired?

Sounds good to me. With the proposal of addressing the provincial portion of property tax bills are referring to removing the school division tax on the property tax bill?

I think it's funny that people don't really understand the definition of socialism and capitalism and what it means to be a conservative. What does that all mean?

We put labels on groups and call them conservative. We label society as capitalist or socialist. Actually in it's current forms it does not really equate to the definitions.

We in North america have never ever been a capitalist society in it's purest form. We pay taxes and when we pay, it's suppose to benefit the majority of society. (even if it doesn't) Canada is a Parliamentary Socialistic Democracy.

Unfortunately in it present form our political system (some) is controlled and covertly influenced by corporations that are self serving.

Money buys influence = Power

So from what we have been told and what really is we're no more free than those poor pheasants during the feudal systems of the past.

I believe the type of society history will say about 21st Century Canada or the western world is that it's oligarchy.

Power is truly with the few with deep pockets.

I'm sorry but many of your statements simply do not make sense. First of all, capitalism is a vague term and it does indeed describe many of the world's economic systems, INCLUDING Canada's. Canada is not a "socialistic" democracy. We are a capitalistic country with a large welfare safety net. Welfare is "socialistic", but it doesn't mean we're not capitalistic. Capitalism means a system of private ownership of production. You cannot tell me that that does not exist here in Canada. Communism and pure socialism is not capitalism because either the state or the collective own the means of production (capital), but this is not the case in Canada.

As for being "no no more free than those poor pheasants during the feudal systems of the past", I have to disagree. Do you even know the upward social mobility that is in your hands right now just because you are a Canadian citizen? You cannot even begin to compare yourself to a 13th century peasant in western Europe tied to his lord's manor. In Canada you have the freedom to switch jobs if you have the qualifications. If you don't have the qualifications, you can go to school. Don't have money for school? Take out a governmental loan which usually include high levels of subsidies (government grants, interest free periods, University grants, etc) and get that qualifications.

Not to mention that you are free to move around this country and find a different place to live, chose your job, utilize the public health care system, unemployment, etc. Oh and don't even get me started on the wide range of consumer goods that are available to you, non durable and durable. Cheap cars, expensive cars, cheap clothes, expensive clothes, fresh fruit in Winnipeg when it's -40 from the other side of the world, fresh bread every time you walk into the store, fast food that will make you unhealthy or healthy food that will make you gag, delicacies from other cultures, imported tools, oil, chemicals, plastics, you name it! So don't you dare tell me that we are "no more free" than peasants when we have live in an era and country when you have more upward social mobility, luxuries, social safety nets, and comforts than at any other time in history.

The middle class lives better than kings did hundreds of years ago.

The term most widely accepted by people who study such things is "mixed-market liberal democracy". Both Canada and the United States are "mixed-market liberal democracies".

In this term, the word "liberal" means "ample freedom", not "left wing ideology".

Winnipegger

Your right. My emotional rant on people's need affiliate with a certain political ideologies without really understanding what they are. :shrug:

Appreciate the correction.