City


Spectacular Lights of the North coming to Winnipeg August 31 to mid-October


The Year of Canada-China Tourism and the 30th Anniversary of its twinning with the city of Chengdu will be celebrated by the Lights of the North, Chinese Lantern Light Festival to Winnipeg this September-October


Dorothy Dobbie T


o celebrate Te Year of Canada China Tourism and the 30th Anniversary of the twinning of Winnipeg and Cheng-


du, a group of local investors is bringing a spectacular Chinese light show to Winnipeg this September and October. Lights of the North, the Chinese Lantern Light Festival will be an outstanding event covering 10 acres at Red River Exhibition Park and of- fering the largest spectacle of its kind ever mounted in Canada. It will be more than a static display, en-


compassing Chinese artisans, acrobats, cui- sine and opportunities for kids and adults to be engaged in activity. Tere will be “living” dinosaurs, augmented reality experiences, carnival rides, and interactive art displays (a giant “Lite Brite” screen will let you create your own dinosaur image), fantasy world displays and incredible replicas of Winnipeg landmarks and icons. Construction of the displays will begin


in July with the show opening in early Sep- tember and running until mid-October. From 75 to 100 artisans will be in town to do the construction and to set up the intricate lanterns and other feature displays. One such display is a giant dragon made of thou- sands of china plates, cups and saucers. Te “lanterns”, steel construction covered with fabric, contain millions of LED lights. Other displays will have skins of unusual materials such as thousands of tiny medicine bottles, requiring great skill in the set up. Te Lights of the North Festival will be a


chance to allow Winnipeggers and visitors to get a glimpse of the culture of China, while allowing Chengdu to pay its respects to its Canadian “little sister”. While the organizers are thrilled to


present this entertainment opportunity to Manitoba, they are also acutely aware of the exciting possibilities such an exchange can present to business here. In the first instance, the show is expected to attract thousands of visitors to our city, but the longer term implication for reciprocal busi- ness is at the heart of the planning. Manitoba is now open for business as


demonstrated in the many recent very posi- tive announcements of new investments such as the Simplot expansion and the pea processing initiative, together worth over $1 billion, not to mention the burgeoning downtown Winnipeg construction. Reconnecting with China’s fifth largest


city and a centre of enterprise can only spell opportunity to Manitoba business.


Covering 10 acres at Red River Exhibition Park this will be the largest spectacle of its kind ever mounted in Canada.


Winnipeg hosts first panda visit to Canada


1,200. The plight of the pandas continued to be very big news in the 1980s – when two giant pandas were loaned to the San Diego Zoo in 1987, two million people came to see them. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was


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created in 1987, just the year before the Winnipeg twinning with Chengdu and this became very much a focal point of the trade mission. When the bears were brought to Winnipeg a year after the


twinning, their visit drew international attention. Cheng Cheng and Rong Rong, the two pandas, were quickly adopted by Winnipeg. Their visit helped save the Assiniboine Park zoo which was under great distress at the time. Thirty years later, the panda numbers have rebounded, thanks to


the worldwide efforts led by Beijing to protect their habitat. Today, there are said to be about 1,864 adult wild pandas. After the panda visit, Winnipeg reciprocated by sending a pair of polar bears to Chengdu.


n 1978, the World Wildlife Federation had signed a break- through agreement with China to co-operate in saving the giant pandas whose numbers at that time had dwindled to around


C


Sister cities have much in common


hengdu is situated on two major rivers which meet in the centre as do the Red and Assiniboine do in Winnipeg. It is the primary railway hub for its part of China.


• A quick scan of Chengdu primary industries brings Winnipeg to


mind. Chengdu does business on a much larger scale but they too rely on such industry as: • agriculture (grains and edible oil seeds and vegetables) • investment and financial • logistics and transportation • electronics and IT • pharmaceuticals • while we build buses and farm machinery, they make automobiles. • they even have a small aerospace industry and already rely on


Winnipeg’s StandardAero to repair their aircraft engines. • Sichuan is the site of ancient hydro power dams built in 256 BC


and still providing irrigation to agriculture. Sichuan is also home to many modern hydro electric power dams. Chengdu is China’s fifth largest city with a population of over 10


million in a trading area of 16 million. The GDP of Chengdu is $163.7 billion USD. Winnipeg’s GDP is about $29 billion USD.


How the upcoming tuition hikes affect you T


here’s a group of people between the ages of 18-37, who feel as though they’ve been getting the raw end of


the deal when it comes to what they’re be- ing left for their educational future here in Manitoba. Te group, which has been dubbed “mil-


lennials” (although the majority of the peo- ple in this age group hate this term), have been left to deal with high government debt, lower chances of securing high-salary jobs, and an uncertain future due the generation before them who have passed many of these problems down. Trying to keep the dream alive


Tere is still a dream for many millenni-


als. Te dream of going to school, getting a degree, and ultimately finding a job with great pay, great benefits, and an opportu- nity to save for retirement. For many, those dreams have never been more difficult to reach, and those dreams just took another hit, with the Government announcing they will be cutting support for post-secondary institutions. As part of Manitoba’s $17.4 billion budget


for the 2018/19 fiscal year, which was an- nounce this past March, support for post-


June 2018


secondary institutions will be cut by 0.9 per cent, or $6.3 million – an equivalent of about $8 per month per student. In addition to the cuts, the Progressive


Conservative government introduced Bill 31, which eliminated a cap on tuition in- creases at the rate of inflation. Tis permits university tuition fees to increase up to five per cent, plus the rate of inflation, on an annual basis, which could see tuition rates potentially double in the next decade. According to the University of Manitoba,


an example of what a 6.6 per cent tuition in- crease translates to for an average domestic Faculty of Science undergraduate student taking a full course load (30 credit hours), the student will see tuition increase by $257 per year, from $3,897 to $4,154. It works out to about $26 more per 3-credit-hour course. The projected increase in tuition for an international student in the Faculty of Sci- ence, for example, is approximately $992 per year, an increase from $15,036 to $16,028. Even with this increase, international stu- dents will continue to pay less to study in Manitoba, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, than they do in almost any other province in the country, and domestic


students will continue to pay some of the lowest tuition rates in Canada. Education Minister Ian Wishart said


in 2017 release that despite the increase, Manitoba will still have the lowest tuition in Western Canada. At the University of Winnipeg, combined


with fee adjustments, the increase for stu- dents is 6.1 per cent. Tat works out to an in- crease of around $265 annually for a student taking a full five-course load. On average, a full-course load costs a University of Win- nipeg student approximately $4,560 per year. For standard undergraduate students in


Manitoba with a 30 credit course load, the University of Manitoba charges students $4,100, while the average cost for students in Canada is just under $6,000, International Students affected


International students were also affected


with the provincial government eliminating health insurance coverage for international students, effective September 2018. Uni- versity of Winnipeg will cover this cost to students until April 2019, at an estimated cost of $450,000, allowing the international students some time to transition to private insurance plans.


www.manitobapost.com


University of Winnipeg QUICK FACTS


• Overall enrolment stable with approx. 9,400 students


• Domestic student enrolment expected to decline by 1% due to changing demographics (decline in 18 to 24 year olds)


• International undergraduates represent 7.5% of student body (700 students), ex- pected to rise


• Indigenous enrolment is strong with 13% of new undergraduate students self-identifying; Self-identified Indigenous students (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) represent 9.5% of our overall student body, one of the strongest in Canada


• Approximately 25% of students self- identify as from a visible minority (racialized) community. (news-centre.uwinnipeg.ca)


Manitoba Post 5


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