Pat's Posts

Natalie Stechyson, Postmedia News

Making cents made no sense, but getting rid of the penny is only the beginning, says NDP MP Pat Martin.

As the Royal CanadianMint stops distributing pennies Monday, Martin's eye is turning to the nickel and, eventually, the quarter.

The MP for Winnipeg Centre plans to launch a private member's motion by the end of the week to eliminate the five-cent coin and re-jig the rest of Canada's currency. His "master plan" is to have a coin currency in multiples of 10 - 10, 20 and 50-cent coins, and $1, $2 and $5 coins.

Source: The Canadian Free Press

The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that taxpayers have spent nearly $15 million over the last eight years maintaining the vacant Kapyong Barracks site.

A few years ago, the Department of Defence reported the annual cost to maintain the former military base, including the 41 buildings, was $1.95 million.

The Free Press says a source in the Department of Defence recently said that dropped to $1.5 million in 2011 when the six buildings that were still being used were emptied.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press, Mia Rabson

Source: The Winnipeg Free Press, Mia Rabson

Manitoba MP Pat Martin said there may be a silver lining for Winnipeg in the major changes coming to Canadian Pacific Railway. CP CEO Hunter Harrison on Tuesday unveiled a slew of changes to the company in coming years, including the reduction of 4,500 jobs by 2016.

Martin said if CP is looking at major changes, maybe it will finally be interested in talking about moving the CP rail yards in Winnipeg's North End.

"The upside is, a massive reorganization may finally be the opportunity to relocate the yards," said Martin.

Source: The Toronto Star, Les Whittington

One of the nastiest fights in years in the House of Commons is coming to a head as MPs prepare for a vote on the Conservatives' bid to force labour unions to publicly disclose extensive internal information.

The legislation, which opponents see as an attempt to use the Canada Revenue Agency for an attack on 4.3 million union members and the government's political foes, has been brought forward as a private member's bill by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert.