Bold Ideas
design, clever engineering, artistry and real talent. Yes, the lights are amazing and illuminate the night sky in a brilliant way that has West Jet pilot, Kirstin Long, rhapsodizing over how they look from above, but there is so much more. First, there is the skill with
Te Chinese market is on offer – why would we refuse? L
ights of the North, the Chinese Lantern Light Festival, is in Winnipeg right now. Te largest show of its kind ever mounted in Canada, it is a glory of imaginative
Bold Ideas Dorothy Dobbie
which the exhibits have been hand crafted by 50 artisans who flew here from China and worked on the ground in Winnipeg through- out a blazing second half of July and all through an equally hot August. This included carefully assembling 100,000 plates, sau- cers, cups and even spoons into a 200-foot-long dragon, and cover- ing the steel structure of a giant polar bear with a translucent, silky material, gluing it in place, then carefully fastening 30,000
ping pong balls to the form to makes up the polar bear skin. Ten there is the bison, which burns a bright, chestnut
red thanks to the 100,000 medicine vials, filled by hand, one-by-one, with coloured water here on the Red River Ex grounds. Tey were painstakingly mounted into place on a steel structure to create a glowing replica of Manitoba’s most symbolic animal. Much love and care have gone into creating these icons of
our province and city – you have to see them to appreciate this. We haven’t even mentioned the three-storey replica of the Human Rights Museum or the symbolic depiction of the Legislative building with a waterfall behind it. Mayor Bowman was thrilled to see the big “Winner-peg”
display that speaks of the devotion the organizers have for this city. Second, and no less stunning, is the performance part of
the festival. More than 50 artists and artisans are here in the city for six weeks, the performers bringing their thrill- ing skills to the big stage. Tese people could command hundreds of dollars anywhere to see their show. Tey are world class performers – better by far than even the very skilled performers at the pricey Cavalia. Te beautiful spin- ning plate dancers, the incredible strength and artistry of the strongmen, the antics of the acrobats on the rotating Wheel of Death (no net to catch a slip-up) have audiences gasping and cheering. Te performers are so good and they have come so far. We are very privileged to have them with us in our city and among us in our community, never mind that they entertain Festival-goers for 45 minutes three times a night, every night. And in between they are performing in schools and at local events such as ManyFest! Tink of this! Inside the food tent, artisans perform different acts of skill,
some of them culinary, some of them hand craft work, but these are crafts such as you have never seen here. Tink of someone snipping paper quickly and skillfully then unfold- ing their work to discover an intricately cut out pavilion. Or the thrill of having your profile cut out in seconds to reveal an exact replica of you as viewed from the side. Another art- ist molds your head from a piece of dough then adds your features in coloured sugar… Te skills are incredible. One artist will write your name on a grain of rice! You need
a powerful magnifying glass to see it, but there it is! Bold idea Yet all of this is just icing on the cake, because the real rea-
son for the show is the wonderful opportunities for building relationships with folks from our sister city of Chengdu. We signed the deal 30 years ago and then let it lie. Now we have the chance to revive a warm and long lasting friendship that
The Face Changer, one of the many amazing performers bringing their skills to the main stage at the Lights of the North. Photo courtesy of Peggy Photography.
So much in common
• Chengdu is the fifth largest city in China. Chengdu has a population of just over 10 million in a metro area of over 16 million with a GDP of $163.7 billion USD. It is the capital of Sichuan province in Western China. (Winnipeg’s population is just under a mil- lion with a GDP of about $29 billion USD).
• Chengdu is home to the Giant Pandas of which there are estimated to be only about 1,500 living in the world. 80 per cent of them live in Sichuan Province.
• Chengdu is home to 250 Fortune 500 companies.
• While not as cold as Winnipeg, Chengdu has four distinct seasons. In winter, the thermometer frequently drops to -3C at night. In summer, in July, temperatures soar to 30 C. It is humid but has moderate rainfall.
• Chengdu hosts the world’s largest building, the New Century Global Centre, offering 18 million square feet of floor space.
• Like Winnipeg, Chengdu is crossed by two main river systems and many bridges.
• Chengdu has 25 sister cities. Winnipeg is the only one in Canada, although there are three in the United States including Phoenix, Honolulu and Knoxville, Tennessee.
• Chengdu is a primary railway hub for its part of China. Te airport is the 30th busiest in the world. Chengdu is expanding its airport and hoping to increase direct air access to the city. For our part, Winnipeg’s freight movement through the airport here is the largest in North America.
gives our entrepreneurs, investors and investment seekers an opening into the burgeoning market that is offered to few. Tat is the bold idea behind Lights of the North – the
Festival is designed to introduce our city and province to a community where we have built a warm relationship and by doing so provide a foothold in a marketplace that is hungry for our goods and services, that wants to trade and needs the products we sell and that is interested in investing here.
A quick scan of Chengdu primary industries brings Win-
nipeg to mind. Chengdu does business on a much larger scale but they too rely on such industries as: • agriculture (grains and edible oil seeds and vegetables) • investment and financial • logistics and transportation • electronics and IT • pharmaceuticals • tourism • While we build buses and farm machinery, they make
automobiles. • Chengdu has a small aerospace industry which already
relies on Winnipeg’s Standard Aero to repair their aircraft engines. • Sichuan is the site of ancient Dujianyan dam, built in
256 BC about 60 miles north of Chengdu and still provid- ing irrigation to agriculture. Sichuan is also home to many modern hydro electric power dams. Tis is just a small list of the natural possibilities. Over the
past year, Chengdu’s gross domestic product has grown by 8.2 per cent, exceeding China’s national average by 1.4 per cent. It’s an economic powerhouse and we have an inside link. Daniel Costello* says, “Te opportunity for Canadian
exporters and tourism marketers (in Chengdu) is that global multinationals have not taken up all of the competitive space here yet.” Te writer goes on to say, “Building a product and tourism
market presence to Chengdu will require a relationship- building approach for exporters. Chinese importers and distributors respond best to human and face-to-face con- tacts prior to order commitment, pricing and discussion of shipping costs.” He adds, “Several Canadian businesses already conduct
trade in Sichuan. Tey operate, however, primarily in the natural resources sector. What this market demands is pa- tient and trustworthy Canadian export trade and tourism partnerships. Chengdu can absorb more Canadian imports.” Who is better at responding to those varied needs than the
diversified business community in Manitoba? So Lights of the North will thrill you, astound you and
capture your imagination. Now, the trick is to turn all this into long term possibility and wealth and for both our cities. *Original article:
http://www.tradeready.ca/2014/trade-
takeaways/chengdu-perfect-gateway-canadian-exporters- canadas-tourism-industry/
Additional Road renewal is within our reach S
ince 2014, Council has made record levels of investment in repairing our city’s regional and local roads. The condition of our roads
continues to be a number one priority for many Winnipeg- gers, and I certainly share that priority. This year, we are investing
$116 million into more than 150 road construction projects across Winnipeg. But more needs to be done. Within the City of Winnipeg,
there are over 10 million vehicle kilometres driven daily, and ap- proximately 80% of this travel is on regional roads like Pembina Highway, Portage Avenue, Main Street, and Regent Avenue. Te City of Winnipeg’s Asset Man- agement Plan identifies more than 7,300 lane kilometres within the city’s road network. It represents the city’s largest asset class, comprising almost half (42%) of
October 2018
the city’s total asset replacement value. Tis month, Executive Policy Committee
(EPC) and Council will be considering a proposal to accelerate regional road improvement across our city that if approved would result in an additional $100 million in federal funding be- ing invested into regional road repairs over the next five years. This accelerated program
State of the City Brian Bowman
would significantly enhance the City of Winnipeg’s ability to fix Winnipeg’s regional road network by accessing $100 million through the federal government’s New Building Canada Fund (NBCF). This would require no additional funding from the city or pro- vincial governments beyond existing forecasted levels. If
adopted by EPC and Council, combined funding from all three levels of government for Winnipeg’s overall regional and local
street renewal program would exceed $976 million over the six year period between 2019-2024. Te NBCF was created to encourage in-
vestments in infrastructure projects that contribute to economic growth, job creation, and productivity. Regional street renew- als with traffic volumes in excess of 1,000 vehicles per day are an eligible project cat- egory under the NBCF. In April 2017, it was identified that $527.5 million allocated for Manitoba under the NBCF of a total $667.9 million remained unallocated, and if not accessed, could have lapsed. Now, we’ve got an opportunity to invest
a significant portion of it into regional road improvements across Winnipeg. It represents an unparalleled opportunity
to correct decades of neglect shown toward our road infrastructure by previous Coun- cils. This investment would significantly improve the overall condition our roads, investments that previous Councils should have been making all along. Investment in Winnipeg’s infrastructure,
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particularly roads, generates a significant positive rate of return, is money well in- vested, and provides a significant economic benefit because it helps keep our city and province moving efficiently. Benefits are shared by businesses of all shapes and sizes and as Winnipeg’s population grows to one million people, investments like these will help support a growing city into the future. An established asset management process
is used to identify regional street renewal projects that would be eligible for funding. Tese projects include sections of Portage Avenue, Pembina Hwy, Roblin Blvd, Broad- way, and Keewatin, all important parts of our city’s road network. Big cities across Canada, including Winni-
peg, cannot address massive infrastructure deficits on their own. We need strong federal and provincial partners. Additional road renewal is within our reach, and by working together with other levels of government we can further address the number one prior- ity Winnipeggers have identified for many years – fix the roads!
Manitoba Post 5
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