For the next issue of our class newspaper, Ink, I am part of the editorial team. Because of this, I took a break from my business beat to come up with other content for the paper. I made a fun little Christmas crossword puzzle, and thought I'd try out some multimedia work as well. As a musician and lover of all things musical, I ventured out across campus to find out what people were listening to. I took pictures to add my findings to the print edition of Ink, but also got the video camera out so that I could post what people said to the web. I jumped over another technology induced hurdle when it came to editing my video. It turns out that iMovie HD, which is installed on my MacBook Pro, does not play audio when "muxed" files are imported into the program. Essentially, the audio and video were on the same track, and iMovie HD doesn't like that for some reason. Luckily, I searched around on the Internet and found a program that would convert my muxed mpeg files into dv files, which iMovie is happy to recognize and work with. It took awhile to get to this point, but once everything was working, the process was relatively painless. Every time I have a computer problem I will spend hours working on it until the issue is resolved. It's impossible for me to allow the computer to win -- it needs to do what I want it do to.
Anyway, before I start ranting about computers and the stupidity of some programs, here is the video I made:
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The influence of business on city council
When I covered Regina's civic election last week, I decided to take a look at the influence of business, or business lobbies, on city council's policies and decisions. I found a few different views on the matter, and while I'm not ready to say business-friendly decisions are of the highest importance at council, it seems there is at least some truth behind the perception that business plays a key role in city policy.
I spoke to Ward 3 candidate for city council, John Conway, who was quick to declare that issues concerning citizens come second to business interests in municipal politics. He said the business lobby in Regina continually presents its ideas to city council and that evidence of its impact on council is evident through the policies council makes. He referenced the fact that there is a lack of affordable housing, rental prices are too high, and that people have been driven from their apartments due to condominium conversions in the city. He also said that Mayor Pat Fiacco is under the view that if the city is doing well economically, the benefits will trickle down to all facets of society, adding that this way of running a city does not work.
On the other hand, Councillor Michael Fougere said that it is too simplistic for people to take this view towards council. He said business groups have no more say in council's decisions than regular citizens or unions, and that the city has embarked on many initiatives to address issues concerning citizen concerns. Basically, what it comes down to, he said, is trying to find the appropriate balance between the concerns of all groups.
With two very opposing views, I looked to a few of the groups that lobby city council to see how they felt about their influence on city council. I spoke to Tom Graham, president of CUPE in Saskatchewan, and he said he felt as though the union had some influence over city council, but not any more than other groups or citizens in the city. However, he mentioned that he feels city council listens more to business groups than unions. Because the union represents so many public workers in the city, Graham said CUPE makes sure to inform its members on which councillors stand for which issues.
I then spoke to Marilyn Braun-Pollon from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), who said the group has been fairly successful in lobbying for, and bringing about change, from city council. However, she said that while progress has been made, there's a lot more work that council can do to help out small businesses, which CFIB represents. She mentioned that average mill rate increases have not been as high as other jurisdictions, and that Regina now ranks 8th out of 10 when it comes to the most business-friendly cities in Canada.
With three out of the four people I spoke to saying that city council at least helps out businesses in Regina, it appears that there would have to be at least a little bit of business influence over council. On the other hand, both CUPE and the CFIB indicated that "more work needs to be done" by city council. So even if council is influenced by business, the business sector isn't completely satisfied. This supports Fougere's view that it really comes down to a balancing act -- even if the current situation may not be the most optimal balance for everybody.
While it can be argued that a business-friendly city can help everyone in the community -- through the creation of jobs at all skill levels -- it is also true that in order to get any of these jobs and be successful at them, people have to have access to the basic needs of life. If people must continually worry about how to afford their homes, or not have access to activities that build life skills, walking into a business and getting a job isn't an easy task. Before people can prosper and contribute to the economy, basic needs must be satisfied. The balancing act at city council needs to reflect this idea.
I spoke to Ward 3 candidate for city council, John Conway, who was quick to declare that issues concerning citizens come second to business interests in municipal politics. He said the business lobby in Regina continually presents its ideas to city council and that evidence of its impact on council is evident through the policies council makes. He referenced the fact that there is a lack of affordable housing, rental prices are too high, and that people have been driven from their apartments due to condominium conversions in the city. He also said that Mayor Pat Fiacco is under the view that if the city is doing well economically, the benefits will trickle down to all facets of society, adding that this way of running a city does not work.
On the other hand, Councillor Michael Fougere said that it is too simplistic for people to take this view towards council. He said business groups have no more say in council's decisions than regular citizens or unions, and that the city has embarked on many initiatives to address issues concerning citizen concerns. Basically, what it comes down to, he said, is trying to find the appropriate balance between the concerns of all groups.
With two very opposing views, I looked to a few of the groups that lobby city council to see how they felt about their influence on city council. I spoke to Tom Graham, president of CUPE in Saskatchewan, and he said he felt as though the union had some influence over city council, but not any more than other groups or citizens in the city. However, he mentioned that he feels city council listens more to business groups than unions. Because the union represents so many public workers in the city, Graham said CUPE makes sure to inform its members on which councillors stand for which issues.
I then spoke to Marilyn Braun-Pollon from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), who said the group has been fairly successful in lobbying for, and bringing about change, from city council. However, she said that while progress has been made, there's a lot more work that council can do to help out small businesses, which CFIB represents. She mentioned that average mill rate increases have not been as high as other jurisdictions, and that Regina now ranks 8th out of 10 when it comes to the most business-friendly cities in Canada.
With three out of the four people I spoke to saying that city council at least helps out businesses in Regina, it appears that there would have to be at least a little bit of business influence over council. On the other hand, both CUPE and the CFIB indicated that "more work needs to be done" by city council. So even if council is influenced by business, the business sector isn't completely satisfied. This supports Fougere's view that it really comes down to a balancing act -- even if the current situation may not be the most optimal balance for everybody.
While it can be argued that a business-friendly city can help everyone in the community -- through the creation of jobs at all skill levels -- it is also true that in order to get any of these jobs and be successful at them, people have to have access to the basic needs of life. If people must continually worry about how to afford their homes, or not have access to activities that build life skills, walking into a business and getting a job isn't an easy task. Before people can prosper and contribute to the economy, basic needs must be satisfied. The balancing act at city council needs to reflect this idea.
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