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How to come back better than ever


A


t the time of writing this we are already on our way back to an open economy. Let’s make it truly open. While Ottawa is miring in self doubt and fear about the future, in Manitoba let’s face the future head-on and see where bold action can take us. Begin with open-eyed planning for the possibility that there could be a resur- gence of the virus in late fall and be prepared this time to respond swiftly and with all the needed resources at hand. Then we must act power- fully to move our economy forward.


Start by taking stock of Dorothy Dobbie


where our products are most in demand and where we have friends and contacts. I think China would very much wel- come overtures of friendship


from the Province of Manitoba. Indeed, Henan Province in China has sent us an indica-


tion of their interest by reaching out to us to offer a dona- tion of PPE, which we should be very thrilled to accept, given that the private auxiliary health community cannot get its hands on mandated PPE. The contact came to us from Richard Walker, former Agent General in Hong Kong for the Province of Manitoba, and opens the door to a relationship with a market of 94 million people. Henan needs service industry support – we have plenty of exper- tise in the sector. Our special sister city relationship with Chengdu in the Province of Sichuan should also be en- couraged. What will it take to get China to accept canola from Richardson’s again. Can friends of both help recreate broken relationships?


What about India? Canada has lost momentum at the national level there, but that doesn’t stop Manitoba from stepping into the gap. India will still need our pulses, but more, our metals, paper and paperboard, aircraft, machin- ery and so on. Why not use our local community to help Manitoba make up with India? We have several firms and many individuals with excellent connections there. We are told that this could be a cooler than normal sum-


mer around the world. How will that impact the desirabil- ity and saleability of our crops? Canola is a cool weather crop – what could be more ideal for Manitoba? Saskatch- ewan is already trying to horn in our Japanese trade for canola. Let’s get back in there and compete! I just came back from Vietnam, a country of 95.5 mil-


lion people. Like Henan, China, it has an undeveloped service sector. In the case of Vietnam, there is a gigantic market for educational services and the insurance business is growing by 300 percent a year! What an opportunity for two services that are so well developed in Manitoba. Yes, there are still residues of the former NDP govern- ment policies affecting this government’s attempts to re- open resource markets. So far, the status quo has not only maintained but accelerated the pace of slowdown in the mining industry, forestry, fishing, and northern tourism, with some small but notable exceptions. The Wildlife


Forward planning to deal with the “what if”


Remember, the theory of “flattening the curve” was to avoid overloading the health system. The summer should give us time to create contingency plans to deal with the possibility of a resurgence.


1. Use the summer months to procure personal protective equipment and secure a source of continuous supply of these products. Why wouldn’t our resourceful local industrial sector tool up parts of their shops to make gowns, masks, helmets and all the other things that might be needed?


2. Create a contingency hospital bed plan. Surplus govern- ment buildings exist throughout the province and could be refitted for such a purpose.


3. Continue to caution people about good hygiene as in “Wash your hands!” And “Stay home!” if you feel at all ill.


4. Be meticulous about cleaning public spaces. If the first two cautions are followed, distancing is redundant.


5. On an ongoing basis, inspect and protect nursing homes and other institutions that house vulnerable citizens.


6. In the short term continue testing staff and residents who go in and out of thee residences.


7. Caution those with vulnerabilities to limit their contacts. How the virus is spread


COVID-19 is a contact virus. The WHO says, “Based on the available evidence, the COVID-19 virus is transmitted between people through close contact and droplets, not by airborne transmission.”


Wash your hands and get outside. Then wash your hands again.


Management Area on Hudson Bay around Churchill has finally been forced to add an additional permit or two to allow some fair competition there. But fishing has all but stopped even though one of the first things Premier Pallis- ter did was to mandate that the free market system prevail. Nevertheless, since that time, officials have been actively discouraging fishers from their work and buying up fish- ing permits. The mining sector is still under assault. What had appeared to be good news in Thompson has been re- versed with the firing of the Vale president who had been forging ahead with such optimism. Mining permits are still being withheld on technicalities and are still of short dura- tion. The industry continues to stagnate and even slow. Even so, I remain optimistic that our government can seize the day and not just slowly reopen our economy but use this opportunity to take a giant leap forward. We are going to need all our enterprise and energy to pay for CO- VID-19. We must all heartily endorse efforts to do what- ever it takes.


Have a Safe and Happy


Mother’s Day


Heather STEFANSON MLA for Tuxedo tuxconst@mymts.net


May 2020 whatsupwinnipeg.ca 3


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