Monthly Archives: February 2012

Online tool helps renters see if buying is affordable

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Many renters dream of taking the money they spend on rent and using it for mortgage payments.

But there’s a lot more to buying and owning a home than just paying the mortgage.

There are real estate and legal fees, home inspection and moving costs, property taxes, utilities and interest rates.

One of the best ways to determine if you can realistically afford to buy a home is to sit down and crunch the numbers.

Instead of using a hand-held calculator or a pencil and paper, you can check out the new online Rent or Buy calculator at www.ic.gc.ca/oca/rentorbuy.

It’s free and it gives you an instant snapshot of your potential as a home buyer.

Developed by Industry Canada, the calculator simply asks you to enter your current financial information (such as any savings you might have, the cost of your rent and utilities, the interest rate you might get on a mortgage) and the calculator does the rest for you.

It shows you the maximum house price you can afford, the down payment needed, your closing costs, and how much money you’ll need to cover all your monthly expenses, including mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities.

The web page also has links to other Government of Canada tips and resources on buying or renting a home and mortgages.

http://www.altonaecho.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3463768

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Canada’s Housing Bubble Is Stretched to the Limit

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You have to empathize with people in Canada who want to buy a house. In boom cities like Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto house prices have inflated virtually non-stop for more than a decade.

Income growth though—what income growth?

Consequently, it is virtually impossible for the typical person to purchase a home without bankrupting himself in the process. For many families, even with two incomes, buying a house is stretching beyond the breaking point.

In Regina, house prices have almost tripled over the past 10 years. Little 900-square-foot houses on small lots, built in the 1930s, and located in crummy neighborhoods, list for $200,000 or more.

This is Regina—middle of the bald prairie, nothing to stop the wind, more land than you could ever know what to do with, minus-40 degrees Celsius with only eight hours of daylight in the middle of winter—Regina!

If you want to avoid a coronary, don’t even think about buying a house in Vancouver.

In 1999, before the massive run-up in house prices, the price of a home was 3.2 times the average person’s salary. It averaged that for decades. By 2010, the average house in Canada cost 5.9 times the average yearly salary, according to the Globe and Mail.

Do the math: If you earned a salary of $50,000 per year, and bought an average house, it would cost almost $300,000. In Canada, this salary puts you in the 20 percent tax bracket. That means you really only bring home $40,000 per year, or $3,300 per month.

Now look at your mortgage costs. A 4.5 percent, fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage has a monthly payment of $1,520 per month. Almost half your total income goes to paying just the mortgage. That’s why the mortgage industry started providing zero-down 40-year loans, before the federal government banned them for being too risky for consumers.

If you are like many people, and don’t have a 20 percent down payment, you will need to buy mortgage insurance. Estimate another $250 per month if you have close to 20 percent. If you only put down 5 percent, you will need to cough up closer to $700 per month.

Then there are property taxes: Add at least another $500 per month. Property insurance: Another 250 per month.

You haven’t even begun to consider upkeep costs, or home owner’s association fees, and you are already paying $2,520 per month. If you only put 5 percent down, you would be paying $2,970 per month. That would leave you a miniscule $330 per month, all of which would probably be needed to pay utilities.

Talk about being a slave to your house. The average Canadian is forced to spend almost 100 percent of their income just on “ownership” costs! How do people feed themselves?

Of course that is why single-income families rarely buy houses in Canada anymore. To buy a house, both spouses need to work. One full salary goes toward paying for the house. The other salary goes toward feeding the family, paying for vehicles, paying other debt, and life.

But how dangerous is that? In the past, if the family breadwinner lost his job, the wife could temporarily get a job to keep the house from being repossessed. Today, if just one person loses their job, the family loses the house.

And Canadians rarely seem to consider the fact that their biggest investment might (read: will probably) go down in value.

Falling house prices is an idea that many Canadians laugh at. Americans laughed too before America’s bubble burst. Now, many Americans are locked into paying mortgages on houses that are becoming worth less and less each year.

Does this sound like the basis for a healthy economy? Indentured servitude for three decades just to see every dollar, dime and penny earned go toward paying for a depreciating asset! If you buy a house today, or if you bought a house over the past five to ten years, that is what you are risking.

And oh, if Canadians do default on their mortgages, banks can not only take the house, but have full recourse to go after all their other assets and income.

Yet Canadians seem more than willing to take the risk. Why? The same reason Americans did. When house prices are going up, it makes everyone rich! A 5 percent yearly gain on $300,000 is a cool $15,000—money that can be tapped through equity lines of credit.

And piling into real estate Canadians are. Offering interest rates yielding only fractions of a percent, the Bank of Canada is practically driving people into real estate.

In Vancouver, so many people are buying houses, second houses and investment houses, that the ratio of home prices to incomes is the highest in the English-speaking world, according to consultancy firm Demographia. The survey labeled it the second-least affordable city in the world! An average house there costs over 10.6 times the average pre-tax income. For further bubble evidence, check out this $1.2 million dump.

In Toronto, the real-estate bubble is so out of hand that the city has 173 skyscrapers under construction. New York, which boasts a population almost four times larger, is only building 96.

Since America’s housing bubble popped in 2007, Canada’s house prices have risen an astounding 22 percent. That has to be the definition of insanity—piling into the very investment that made your neighbor and most important economic partner virtually collapse.

But perhaps the biggest sign of a Canadian housing bubble is debt! Rising debt is the gas that fuels all bubbles. The average debt burden of Canadian families stands at a remarkable 153 percent of disposable income—and growing. It was only 150 percent three months ago. Canadians are now one of the most indebted people in the developed world, and just about as indebted as Americans before their bubble burst.

Based on this measure, the Economist figures the Canadian market is overvalued by over 70 percent. Even U.S. bubble epicenter Los Vegas has only seen house prices fall by 60 percent.

Last month, Merrill Lynch called Canada’s housing market overvalued, oversupplied and driven by speculation.

And in a report released last week, cibc argued that the people least likely to be able to afford new mortgages are the ones taking on new debt. One third of debtors hold about 75 percent of all personal debt. And who is this one third? According to cibc, it is boomers nearing retirement and those already burdened by high debt.

Canada’s bubble is getting close to bursting, and when it does, expect a massive economic implosion. Unemployment will soar, banks will fail or ask for bailouts, and the dollar will plunge in value. Millions of Canadians will be left paying a fixed mortgage on a rapidly depreciating asset that will destroy their financial lives.

Five years following the popping of America’s housing bubble, Canadians may be about to wish they had learned a lesson. Get your ear plugs ready.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/9087.7872.0.0/economy/canadas-housing-bubble-is-stretched-to-the-limit

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Cops could cut overtime, mayor says

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Winnipeg’s mayor says all budgets are up for review – including the police – as the city looks to trim costs in advance of a budget that could see council impose the first property tax increase in more than a decade.

But the union representing front-line officers is warning public safety could be put at risk if cops have to make cuts.

Mayor Sam Katz suggested Monday that the Winnipeg Police Service could find places to reduce spending – especially its overtime budget. He noted that the dozens more officers have been hired and a helicopter put into service, so there should be room for police to avoid working extra hours.

“It’s a matter of taking a look and seeing what you can accomplish in the end, (the police service) will make the call but you always have to monitor and remind,” Katz told Global News.

The head of the Winnipeg Police Association quickly shot down the idea of eliminating overtime as unsafe.

“(Overtime) is the lifeblood that allows us to respond even in terms of response times that we provide now and without (overtime) public safety is in serious jeopardy,” WPA president Mike Sutherland told Global News.

The union also questioned the timing of the mayor’s musings on budget cuts – just as the city and police union concluded arbitration hearings aimed at settling a contract dispute over pay increases for more than 1500 police officers and other employees.

http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/cops+could+cut+overtime+mayor+says/6442575091/story.html

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Selinger, Allan share the pain among property owners facing school-tax hikes

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Premier Greg Selinger and Education Minister Nancy Allan face school-tax hikes on their personal property tax bills this year after Louis Riel School Division received zero increase in provincial operating grants.

Every penny of increased costs will come from division residents, Louis Riel school board chairman Gary Gervais said Thursday.

Those residents include Selinger and Allan.

“We’re at zero — what we got last year, we get this year. We’re going to be getting it all from the ratepayers this year,” said Gervais, who was uncertain just how big a tax increase the division would seek.

“I don’t think we’re going to be in double digits (tax increase) — I hope not,” Gervais said.

Allan announced a 2.2 per cent increase in operating grants totalling $25.5 million on Monday, but she also discontinued the tax incentive grants, a pot of money the province had used for the past four years to entice school trustees to freeze their taxes.

River East Transcona secretary-treasurer Vince Mariani said his division is in the same boat as Louis Riel, receiving not a cent more than the $25.5 million it got last year.

“I would like to see where it’s going. It’s not coming to us,” Mariani said.

Winnipeg S.D. is also at a zero increase in funding and projecting an 8.5 per cent increase in taxes, while Pembina Trails and St. James-Assiniboia have not yet made their draft budgets public.

Seven Oaks S.D. is looking at a seven per cent increase in taxes, despite a 5.6 per cent increase in grants.

At least, Mariani said, the province has guaranteed no division would receive less this year than it did last year under the provincial funding formula.

“It is rather convoluted. It is flawed to the extent that a number of school divisions, whether they’re in growth or reduction (in enrolment), they’re getting zero,” Mariani said.

Mariani said River East Transcona hopes to keep tax increases to 2.9 per cent by dipping into dwindling reserve funds, and to having steadily reduced the number of teachers on the payroll the past four years as enrolment declined.

Gervais said LRSD’s reserve funds are down to 1.5 per cent and aren’t likely to help cut taxes. Allan has told divisions to cap reserves at four per cent.

“They’re saying, ‘Here you go, make it work,’ ” Gervais said.

LRSD is plagued by largely empty schools in older neighbourhoods and schools bulging with kids in the suburbs, yet the province persists with its moratorium on closing schools, denying trustees a chance to save money, Gervais said.

“(At) Dr. D.W. Penner School, we’re down to 100 students” this coming September, he said.

Seine River S.D. superintendent Mike Borgfiord said his urban-rural division received a 2.7 per cent increase in provincial funding, but without a tax increase still faces significant cuts.

“Where we got helped out a lot was our equalization went up,” Borgford said. “It’s still not enough.”

What will alleviate some of Seine River’s tax pressure is new housing that has added about four per cent assessment growth — new taxpayers sharing the tax burden for the first time.

Allan also announced an extra $4 million to begin phasing in the capping of kindergarten to Grade 3 classes at 20 students, but Mariani said no division has any of that money yet. “That’s money the government set aside,” he said.

Manitoba School Boards Association executive director Carolyn Duhamel said she’s hearing from divisions across Manitoba who have not received any funding increase.

Duhamel said what’s been overlooked this week is that last year Allan guaranteed no division would receive less than a 2.2 per cent increase in funding.

That guarantee of some funding increase “has been there a number of years, and it’s not there this year,” Duhamel said.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/selinger-allan-share-the-pain-138629419.html

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School board warns of cuts, tax hikes

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The province’s largest school board says it is “disappointed” with the province’s plans for public school funding for this year, warning that the shortfall may lead to cuts in programs or a hike in property taxes.

The NDP government announced Monday it will increase public school funding 2.2%, or about $25.5 million province-wide this year. It’s a smaller funding increase than last year, with the province’s education minister citing “tough” economic times.

The province on Monday also said it would cancel the Tax Incentive Grant program, which dangled extra funding at school boards to encourage them not to raise property taxes.

In a news release Tuesday, the Winnipeg School Division says the funding plans don’t come close to what it needs.

“We are facing a 2.5 per cent increase in enrolment in a year when provincial funding is inadequate to meet existing needs,” said Kristine Barr, chair of the Division’s Finance Committee. “There are only two ways to deal with this equation – cut costs or increase school property taxes. Clearly, we have some very tough decisions to make.”

The Winnipeg School Division estimates “the gap between expenses and funding for 2012-13 could add $80 to the tax bill for a typical property in the Division if further cost savings can’t be found.”

Winnipeg School Division says it will seek input on its budget at a consultation meeting on February 27, 2012.

http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/school+board+warns+of+cuts+tax+hikes/6442571062/story.html

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Beware massive property tax hike coming

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By Tom Brodbeck, Winnipeg Sun

Hang on to your wallets, Winnipeg property owners. I get the sneaking feeling we may be in for a double dose of property-tax hikes this year.

City councillors have been hinting for months that they’re poised to end the city’s so-called property tax freeze. And we now find out the Selinger government is ending its tax-incentive grants to school boards, which means school divisions will almost certainly jack up their property taxes this year.

We could be in for one massive tax hike.

And that would be on top of the property tax increase Mayor Sam Katz and city council hit us with last year. They increased the frontage levy portion of our tax bill by 47% in 2011.

Also, city hall is charging us a new garbage tax this year — $50 a year spread out over four sewer and water bills.

They say they need the money to hire more waste management bureaucrats and to roll out the new garbage collection program.

And don’t expect the province to provide us with any property tax relief this year, either. I suspect the days of upping our property-tax credits are over. The Selinger government has an $841-million deficit to contend with — self-inflicted, by the way — and I doubt tax relief will be part of their budget talking points over the next couple of months.

Education Minister Nancy Allan essentially told reporters Monday the province could no longer afford the tax-incentive grant. The grant was given out to school divisions in the past if they held the line on property taxes. That’s now gone.

And while it’s heartening to hear Allan plead with school divisions not to jack up taxes this year, I fear her cautionary words will fall on deaf ears around the school board meeting rooms.

Time to get the chequebook out, folks.

Meanwhile, city councillors have been setting the stage for months to raise property taxes when they bring down their operating budget in the coming weeks.

They keep insisting they have nowhere left to cut (what have they cut?) and need more money to fix streets and bridges. They’re going to remind us that the property tax freeze couldn’t last forever and that it’s now time to charge us more money.

And they’ll conveniently ignore the fact that they’ve already been jacking up our taxes through the frontage levy and through a number of increases to our sewer and water bills — some of which goes back to general city coffers.

School trustees will simply blame the province when they increase their property taxes this year. They’ll tell us the 2.2% funding increase the province announced is nowhere near enough to maintain existing services. And instead of cutting their bloated bureaucracies, they will simply increase our mill rates.

It now costs taxpayers $11,160 per student to run public schools and their bureaucracies, according to the province’s FRAME report.

That’s up a staggering 25% over the past five years when the cost was $8,898 per student in 2006. At some point, school divisions are going to have to explain to taxpayers why their costs are going up 4.5% a year on average.

For taxpayers, another round of property tax hikes is going to be a tough pill to swallow. We already pay the highest income taxes in Canada west of Quebec for middle and upper-income earners.

But apparently our elected officials don’t take that into account. They don’t seem to care that we already pay among the highest overall taxes in this city and province to the various levels of government.

They just want more. And it looks like their getting ready to take it.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/01/31/beware-massive-property-tax-hike-coming

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No taxes, land deals and a pipeline of money: There’s no incentive for first nations to go it alone

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In 20 years, only three first nations groups have signed agreements paving their way to independence. There are some other deals in the pipeline, we’re told, but otherwise, the talks have been a bust.

The head of the B.C. Treaty Commission, Sophie Pierre, made headlines last fall when she said the process should be shut down unless more progress is made soon. This, of course, runs counter to what we heard out of the Crown/first nations discussions, where many native leaders lamented the continued tyranny of the Indian Act.

There are many reasons why B.C.’s aboriginal groups have been reluctant to cut the apron strings with Ottawa. Some don’t like the terms of the deals they’re being offered. Some are not yet ready to set sail on their own. Some feel that recent moves by the federal government have profoundly changed the self-government game.

In fact, two pieces of federal legislation passed in the last six years have altered the aboriginal landscape in Canada more than anyone knows.

The First Nations Commercial and Industrial Development Act (2005) and the First Nations Certainty of Land Title Act (2010) have helped unlock enormous economic potential for aboriginal groups – especially those in urban areas.

Together, the legislation allows native groups to develop their land in ways previously not possible. Among other things, the bills give real-estate projects on reserves the same legal protections as those off reserve. The Certainty of Land act allows bands to transfer property rights to non-aboriginals – which makes developments on their reserves more attractive to investors.

In other words, the bills free first nations groups from some of the most stifling provisions of the Indian Act and gives them control over their future in a way they didn’t have before. But the legislation has also had an unintended consequence: There is less incentive now for aboriginal groups to sign treaties.

While there is much about the Indian Act that native groups abhor, it does assure them of two things that they don’t mind at all: tax-free status and a pipeline of money from Ottawa. After a native group signs a treaty, those benefits get phased out. The whole point of native self-government, after all, is to give aboriginal communities the clout and ability to stand on their own, free of an act that native leaders have described as oppressive and paternalistic.

But many bands have come to depend on their tax-free status and regular federal funding. With recent legislation opening up fresh economic opportunities, many first nations groups can now earn heaps of money and keep their federal benefits too.

This is certainly not a knock against aboriginal leaders who are thinking along these lines. They have politics and elections and the will of the majority to consider. Many of their members don’t want to lose the sure thing they have now. And if they can have their cake and eat it too, why wouldn’t they?

Of course, not all of Canada’s Indian bands will be able to take advantage of the legislation passed by Ottawa – especially those in remote areas. And so long as such groups remain under the Indian Act, they lack property rights. So current arrangements are far from perfect.

To that extent, aboriginal politics in Canada remain as complex as ever. And the pathway to a brighter future is equally elusive.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gary_mason/no-taxes-land-deals-and-a-pipeline-of-money-why-would-first-nations-to-go-it-alone/article2315067/

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Manitobans back infrastructure tax

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Many Manitobans have strong opinions about public infrastructure, with good reason: they start their days using municipal streets, roads, and sidewalks to get to work or school, and end them by visiting community centres to access recreation and leisure opportunities. Much of this infrastructure is in poor condition.

Yet according to The Economist, Canadian municipalities “lack both money and powers” to address growing infrastructure needs. This leading international publication highlighted the fact that municipalities in Canada “get only eight cents out of every tax dollar” with the majority of municipal revenue coming from property taxes. With municipal budgets being squeezed tighter each year, some municipalities, like the City of Brandon, are looking at implementing significant tax increases.

The Association of Manitoba Municipalities conducted a poll recently to find out what Manitobans think the priorities of the new provincial government should be over the next four years. When asked which of five areas should benefit if the provincial government were to dedicate additional revenues from the provincial sales tax to a specific purpose, 44 per cent of respondents indicated they would dedicate these funds to community infrastructure improvement — well ahead of the numbers for health care (27 per cent) and education (11 per cent).

Respondents were further asked if they would support a one-cent “municipal sales tax” on the condition that these funds would be used only for infrastructure renewal projects. A significant majority of 64 per cent of Manitobans supported this idea — an increase of 10 per cent from 2008, when the same question was asked in a similar poll.

What these numbers really illustrate is that people understand the connection between infrastructure funding and a healthy, prosperous community. They also show that citizens understand the increasing demands they are putting on their local governments. Today, Manitobans naturally and rightfully demand not only essential services like snow clearing and garbage collection, but infrastructure like multi-use recreation facilities. These amenities are important for health, quality of life and sense of community.

Often, facilities that contribute to our health and wellness — and thus reduce health care costs — must take a back seat to the infrastructure we don’t see, like crumbling water and sewer lines. A recent Forbes article refers to infrastructure as “every system under and above ground that allows us to enjoy this thing we call modern civilization. Without well-functioning infrastructure, we’d have nothing even approaching a first world existence.”

New infrastructure, however, is impossible to achieve when the existing infrastructure is anything but well-functioning. In fact, it is breaking down as fast as it can be repaired.

In Gimli, for example, the sewer and water systems were built in 1957, and are now costing taxpayers $100,000 a year just to be patched up. Mayor Lynn Greenberg is quick to note that Gimli has been fortunate to receive federal and provincial funding for both new and aging infrastructure in the past, but there remains a considerable laundry list of needs in the area.

“Waterline replacement will be a $10-million job, sewer line renewal is an $833,000 job, a regional water system will total $34 million, and we still owe almost $8 million on our sewage treatment facility that will mature in 2032,” Greenberg stated. “Where are we going to get the money for all this?”

Other municipalities have pressing issues as well.

“Our RM is 640 square miles and we have many citizens without access to rural water,” says Reeve Kam Blight of the RM of Portage la Prairie. “Without access to safe drinking water, quality of life goes downhill.”

I heard these examples and dozens more last summer while on a tour of Manitoba communities as part of the AMM’s Putting Communities First campaign. They illustrate why the AMM has been calling for a greater portion of revenue from the government to be dedicated solely to municipal infrastructure. This money would generate millions of dollars per year to be shared directly with Manitoba’s 197 municipalities. There is no doubt revenue over and above existing levels would be a positive step forward in addressing Manitoba’s estimated $11-billion infrastructure deficit, as councils would be able to address the specific infrastructure needs of their communities.

Premier Greg Selinger, whose party pledged millions of dollars to health care during last fall’s provincial election campaign, told delegates at the AMM annual convention in November that he would not consider a municipal sales tax.

Yet as Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz asked just days before the election, “What’s the point of investing more money into health care if ambulances can’t navigate our roads?”

More and more Manitobans show that they are in favour of dedicated funding to solve infrastructure priorities. Greater funding in this area would generate much-needed economic spin-offs, as well. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities says for every $1 invested in local infrastructure, federal, provincial and territorial governments receive a combined 35 cents, mainly through new income and sales tax.

In other words, infrastructure spending is not a drain — it is an investment that will help communities. And according to the AMM’s poll, nine out of 10 Manitobans agree that our communities need help.

Doug Dobrowolski is president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/manitobans-back-infrastructure-tax-138251669.html

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Housing refugees’ top challenge

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Hundreds of refugees arrive in Manitoba each year, each one trying to carve out a home in a city where there are too few homes to go around.

And while social-service agencies push to find their clients safe places to stay, the housing gap leaves many refugees from Africa and elsewhere stuck in a catch-22 that can put their new life on pause for months.

According to a study by University of Winnipeg Prof. Tom Carter, 91 per cent of refugees lived below the poverty line in their first year in Winnipeg. By their third year, that figure dropped to 53 per cent. If that figure speaks to the hard work of new arrivals, it also tells a tale of housing need: For most refugees, transitional and social housing are the only options within reach.

But there’s a waiting list for Manitoba Housing, and affordable apartments get snapped up quickly in a city with a vacancy rate that hovers near a paltry one per cent.

“The only thing which really frustrates me is the housing,” says Mubambe Didier, 44, who landed in Winnipeg with his wife and three children on Nov. 15. “It’s the only thing (missing). If housing would be upgraded to the reality on the ground, it would be much better. But the gap is too big.”

Even though the cold snap in the wind and the snow on the ground are foreign, the Didier family “felt at home right away,” Didier says, hands neatly folded on a table inside refugee agency Welcome Place’s brightly coloured boardroom.

The counsellors from Welcome Place who met them at the airport were “very gentle and kind,” he says; they helped the family learn everything from where to find a doctor to how to take the bus in Winnipeg. And yet, two months later, the family is still living in one of the 31 temporary apartments above Welcome Place’s Bannatyne Avenue offices. Counsellors at Welcome Place and other agencies work to find families like the Didiers a place to stay, but for new refugees on a razor-thin budget, including a social-housing allowance that can hover around $480 a month, there are few options.

That’s the catch-22, said Welcome Place settlement counsellor Aurelio Madut Danto: Until refugees find a permanent address, they cannot apply for a social insurance number, cannot start to work, cannot start to do all the things it takes to get established in a new land.

“The bottom line is affordable housing for newcomers,” Danto says. “The second is finding a job… but housing is the biggest issue for our clients.”

As the pressure mounts, it could become one of the biggest problems for government, too.

At a conference in Edmonton in November, Carter, the Canada research chair for Urban Change and Adaptation at the U of W, called on government to expand its mandate to help boost immigrant and refugee housing. Among the solutions he cited were property-tax forgiveness, reducing land costs and reducing fees to encourage the development of affordable housing.

But the challenges facing newcomers don’t stop there.

Manitoba MP and Liberal citizenship and immigration critic Kevin Lamoureux said the two biggest priorities for settlement services should be language training and help for young immigrants to ensure they don’t drop out of school and get sucked up by gangs.

Lamoureux has spent much of his political career helping immigrants and their families navigate the system and he said while Manitoba does relatively well overall with settlement services, the biggest gaps are for refugees and immigrants who arrive without built-in support systems of family, friends and co-workers.

While most of Manitoba’s immigrants are provincial nominees and often have friends and family on the ground, or jobs on arrival, refugees don’t usually have any of that and have the highest needs.

“Many refugees, including many from Africa, are a lot more reliant on umbrella organizations to provide support because they don’t have family and friends here,” he said. “If you don’t provide adequate supports it can be challenging.”

Ottawa is spending $32 million on settlement services in Manitoba this fiscal year and plans to increase that to $36.5 million next year. Nationally, settlement funding has tripled since 2006. The new formula for calculating settlement-service funding allocations includes a recognition that refugees require higher levels of services, and therefore provinces are allocated money in part on their share of refugees.

For refugees currently languishing over long-term periods in transitional housing, change — however it comes — can’t come fast enough.

Didier acknowledges in some ways, he arrived in Canada in a good situation: He is bilingual and educated; he worked as a logistics officer for humanitarian agencies in his native Congo until war and corruption forced him and his family to flee to Uganda and, finally, to Canada.

But this doesn’t make it easier or less anxious for Didier when his children worry about when they might be able to start school. When it comes to housing the waiting is, indeed, the hardest part.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/housing-refugees-top-challenge-137551398.html

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Don’t need our money? Lower taxes!

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You won’t find their work in any art gallery, but these politicians are among the most talented artists around.

Some city councillors have turned wasting tax dollars into an art form of late. A tour de force was on display Wednesday when the executive policy committee voted to give $10,000 to help install a large artwork at the University of Manitoba.

The 15-panel work was removed from a wall at the old Winnipeg airport terminal and will be erected on the exterior of the Max Bell Centre.

Plenty of air travellers familiar with Eli Bornstein’s work think it’s pretty ugly, but that’s irrelevant. This move has nothing to do with the City of Winnipeg. The city’s own administrators recommended denying the U of M’s request, but that didn’t stop a majority of EPC members from voting to blow your hard-earned tax dollars on the project.

We can only hope the grant application will be turned down when city council as a whole votes on it.

Earlier this month two members of the city centre community committee voted to give $100 each from their ward budgets to help cover the costs of a group that had gathered outside the Winnipeg Remand Centre to sing Christmas carols for inmates. The grant application listed bus tickets among the costs of the event.

Two hundred dollars might not be a lot, but using city funds to cover the transportation costs of people who serenaded inmates is particularly galling considering a bus fare hike took effect that same week.

What a masterpiece of mindless spending.

Still on the subject of bus fares, city hall’s governance committee voted unanimously Thursday to approve Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie’s idea to give $3,000 from his ward allowance to a women’s shelter to pay for bus fare.

While this is no doubt a worthy cause, the fact is it’s not up to city councillors to throw public funds at whatever they feel like.

The next time councillors want to spend money on something the city has no business in, they should reach for their own wallets. City funds should be spent on core services like road repair and public safety. If councillors have money to spare, then clearly our taxes should be reduced.

These funds belong to the public and councillors shouldn’t spend it on whatever issues tickle their fancy.

It’s really not that complicated. We shouldn’t have to paint them a picture.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/01/14/ed-dont-need-our-money-lower-taxes

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