Complete: Coun. Jan Chaboyer (Green Acres) is calling on the city’s senior administration to conduct a "thorough review" of the management and governance of the Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Festival.

"We play such a big role, we provide a lot of resources to the festival. I think it would be fitting that council take a look at how it’s structured, on the governance and how they vote," Chaboyer said.

Chaboyer said she has received several calls from concerned citizens following the news that the American pavilion will be excluded from the 10th annual multicultural festival, which runs Jan. 31- Feb. 2.

"I am disappointed that U.S.A. will not be present," she said. "I’m hoping that in the future we can work through some of those issues."

The American pavilion, run by the Brandon Folk, Music and Art Society, was a popular venue at the 2012 festival. It celebrated blues, bluegrass and country music, and offered cuisine from the Mississippi River region. Close to 5,000 visitors attended.

The American pavilion’s application was declined in the fall after a vote by the festival committee of the whole. Pavilions that have been running in the festival for three or more consecutive years each get two voting rights on which pavilions will be included. One of the main themes that came up was the fact that the other groups run independent pavilions and each have separate societies. It has been suggested that an American society should be established.

"I really think that all of us should be looking closer," Chaboyer said. "I’m interested in having an inclusive community, not being exclusive."

Chaboyer said it seems the BFMAS has been "blackballed."

"They are fully incorporated, fiscally responsible, have to report all the time, and for an organization that’s been around for 25-plus years, hosting cultural events, it just deeply saddens me that they are excluded," she said. "They have incredible volunteers, incredibly committed to cultural arts, music and they’re not part of the process … what happened?"

City manager Scott Hildebrand made it clear that the City of Brandon does not operate the Winter Festival or handle decision-making for the pavilions.

The festival’s committee of the whole manages the operations.

"The criteria for the pavilions is pretty simple and straight-forward and has been in place for many years," he said.

"It’s also my understanding that the executive committee and the committee of the whole have updated policies and procedures over the years."

Mayor Shari Decter Hirst said, "it would be inappropriate for us to tell the Winter Festival how to run their business."

The city provides startup grants ranging from $1,000 to $2,000.

Groups are required to submit accounting of how the subsidy was spent by March 15 of each year.

Financial statements are not required by the city for funds raised at the pavilions.

Decter Hirst suggested Chaboyer meet with the community development department "to get a sense of the process, and the strengths and weaknesses of the current governance structure, get a comfort about our accountability for our financial support that we give the festival as a first step."

As the popular festival approaches its 10th anniversary, Decter Hirst says there may be an opportunity to conduct a review, and how to incorporate some of the concerns of the community.

"There will absolutely be a role for the city to be part of that process, however again the organizational structure is such that this is an autonomous group that we fund," she said.

"So let’s get 2013 successfully under our belt and then sit down and look at the one thing we know we all have in common … how do we make the festival better? And I believe that working with the executive of the Winter Festival as well as getting feedback from the community, I’m absolutely confident we can do that."

http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/chaboyer-wants-review-of-winter-festival-186004772.html

WFP Columnist, Bartley Kives: In a slow-growing city finally feeling optimistic, "100 per cent private-sector-driven" is a badge of honour. Until recently, it was unusual to see a major development get by without a massive infusion of public funds.

Unfortunately, "100 per cent private-sector-driven" is just a label. Much like "100 per cent pure" strawberry jam that contains high-fructose corn syrup or "all-natural" bacon that still has some nitrates, claims about the absence of taxpayer help for major Winnipeg developments often fall short.

For example, there's no question Longboat Development Corp., assumed a tremendous risk in bankrolling the Centrepoint development, the $75-million-plus hotel, office and residential complex on the northwest corner of Portage Avenue and Donald Street. But claims of 100 per cent private-sector investment are inaccurate when $660,000 of city funds went into preserving the Mitchell-Copp Building's facade, a parkade is rising with the help of a low-interest, $5-million city loan and a city-provincial property-tax mechanism allows for area improvements.

WFP Guest Columnist, Paul Turenne: Although certain debates sometimes degrade into questions of race, rarely is the conversation forced into such a position by the law.

But such is the case with aboriginal harvest rights, where Canadian law has created two sets of rules, separating citizens into two camps based on blood.

It is an imperfect situation at best and a racial firestorm at worst, but it is the reality faced by all Manitoba hunters and anglers, including those whose rights are granted by provincial licence and those whose rights are granted by treaty.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/two-laws-but-one-resource-to-hunt-185859802.html

Complete: After a roller-coaster couple of years in the agricultural sector across the Prairies, organizers expect a renewed sense of optimism at the 2013 Manitoba Ag Days, coming off one of the best years in recent memory.

The three-day event, which will run 9 a.m to 5 p.m. from Jan.15-17 at the Keystone Centre, marks the beginning of the ag year for many producers.

"Ag Days is the largest indoor agricultural show in North America," said Kristen Phillips, an Ag Days board member and a Brandon-based regional agronomist. "Our tag line is this is ‘Where the ag year begins.’ We have everything that is agriculture and related to agriculture under one roof."

More than 35,000 visitors are expected to attend the free event which will feature 12-acres of ag swag from more than 500 exhibitors, ranging from farm machinery to crop insurance.

This year the show boasts almost 50 speakers from all walks of life, highlighted by CBC’s newest "Dragon" David Chilton, who will be the keynote speaker. Chilton, who is on the hit television show "Dragon’s Den," will speak Jan. 15 at 11 a.m. on a variety of topics including current events, building a business and his book "The Wealthy Barber Returns."

Other speakers include David Drodz, Frayne Olson and JP Gervais, who will all speak about market opportunities. University of Winnipeg Prof. Danny Blair will speak to producers about climate change, CanFax’s Brian Perillat will talk about the beef market and several other speakers will cover topics ranging from crop diagnostics to soybeans, and precision planting to extending the grazing season.

Celebrating its 36th year, Ag Days has grown considerably since its inception as The Weed Fair in 1978, when producers came together to discuss possible solutions to weed problems. The show will also feature a new set of hands at the helm, as last year was the 13th and final year Owen and Pat Beevers managed the show, making way for Dufrense’s Jonathan and Christine Roskos to take over this year.

"They are doing a fantastic job with the show this year," Phillips said, adding that Jonathan Roskos has been co-chair of the event for close to a decade.

The show, which also features 15 new agricultural inventions, is a major boon for the city.

"The show really draws so much for the city," Phillips said. "The hotels are full and obviously all of those people are going out and eating in Brandon, buying gas and other things, so we know we have a huge economic impact in the city."

Organizers work with Brandon Tourism to ensure the 1,399 hotel rooms in Brandon are used as efficiently and effectively as possible, but like previous years some visitors to the show will have to stay in neighbouring communities as all the rooms in Brandon are already booked up.

"It’s always busy for Ag Days and we could always do with a few more rooms during this time of year," said Lois MacDonald, manager of the Riverbank Development and Tourism Services.

About 280 people have been accommodated through the centralized waiting list through Brandon Tourism, but another 50 people still remain on the list, according to MacDonald.

"It is a very big show and it’s so important to Brandon," MacDonald said. "We continue to work at it and even during the show we’ll communicate with the show office and put up if a hotel does happen to have some rooms open up."

Ag Days begins with a kick-off breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 15 at the Roadhouse.

http://www.brandonsun.com/local/organizers-have-high-hopes-for-2013-ag-days-186004562.html?thx=y

The biggest movie screen in town is going dark for good.

The Portage Place IMAX theatre will close as of March 31, says Clare McKay, the vice-president of Forks North Portage, the non-profit partnership that runs the cinema.

McKay says the theatre has "sustained losses over the past few years," due largely to the theatre’s inability to show most Hollywood movies in IMAX 3D on the day and date of their openings. Another nail in the venue’s coffin was "another IMAX opened down the street," McKay said, referring to the IMAX theatre in Silver City Polo Park .

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/movies/Portage-Place-IMAX-185938942.html

The fate of the St. Charles Hotel in Winnipeg's Exchange District could be decided by a council committee this morning.

The city's downtown development and heritage committee is set to hear an appeal on Tuesday morning from Ken Zaifman, who has owned the hotel building since 2007.

Zaifman has said he would turn the historic building into a boutique hotel, but it remains vacant to this day.

City officials say the structure is unsafe because there is no proper sprinkler system installed, so they have indicated to Zaifman that they intend to take over the title of the building.

Cindy Tugwell of Heritage Winnipeg says she has seen the St. Charles Hotel's future remain in limbo for so many years, and enough is enough.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/01/07/mb-stcharles-hotel-exchange-winnipeg.html

The one-year-old terminal building at Richardson International Airport has been recognized as much more than a just people mover.

The $585-million project has been recognized by The Telegraph, a U.K.-based newspaper, as one of the world’s "most stylish" airports.

It’s keeping some pretty heady company, too, including the Worldport terminal at New York’s JFK, the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea and the Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Winnipeg-airport-among-worlds-most-stylish-report-185961672.html

His thick black eyeliner smudged and long dirty-blond hair in a ponytail, Karim holds a yellow umbrella high in the air as he walks through an unlit park in downtown Prague. He points to a group of men, barely visible in the dark. Heroin addicts about to shoot up, he explains to the group of tourists following him. After turning their attention to a few prostitutes on a corner, Karim opens up about his experience of living on and off the streets for more than 20 years.

Since August, the homeless transsexual and former prostitute has been leading one of the hottest tours of Prague. Similar tours, led by homeless or once-homeless guides, have popped up in London, Amsterdam and San Francisco. Billed as alternative views of the cities, they have been praised for converting tourist dollars into employment for homeless people and criticized for turning homelessness into a tourist attraction.

The past decade saw an explosion of poverty tourism in developing nations, with visitors traipsing through the slums of Mumbai or the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Now it seems that poorism, as critics call it, has found a market in industrialized nations.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/01/07/poorism-the-new-tourism/

RALEIGH, N.C. - About four hours after the fishing charter boat Citation left dock on the Outer Banks to compete in one of the country's richest deep-sea fishing tournaments, crewmembers were in the fight of their lives. Something huge was hooked, but it was invisible to human sight as it dove for the ocean bottom about 27 miles off the North Carolina coast.

Five hours later they hauled up a monster, an 883-pound blue marlin. They knew the silvery-blue torpedo of muscle bigger than a bear would mean a huge payday in the June 2010 Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament when they recorded their catch in coastal Morehead City.

"When we finally saw it we couldn't believe it," the Citation's captain, Eric Holmes of Buxton, said at the time. "To catch a fish this big ... it's something. It really is. We got lucky and it's good to be lucky."

But their luck soured. The boat's owners landed in a fight for the $910,000 in prize money that continues Tuesday with arguments to North Carolina's Supreme Court.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/nc-high-court-to-hear-fish-tale-for-lack-of-a-30-fishing-license-a-910000-prize-got-away-185980352.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Jan.  '54)

An earlier government decision not to declare an open season on elk in Manitoba this season will be reconsidered if elk start leaving the Riding Mountain National park area to forage. However, game and fish officials Brook said Friday there is no indication, so far that the elk would come out. Hunting is never permitted within the confines of any national park. Hon. C. E. Greenlay, minister of nines and resources, said Friday" that it would be improper for the government to declare an elk season when it was known the elk would not leave the sanctuary of the park. He suggested that that sanctuary "would be seriously endangered" if an open season was declared and there were no animals outside the park available for hunting. The season last year in the Riding Mountain area (outside the park) was from Dec. 15 to Jan. 31 and later extended to the end of February. Licences to hunt elk in the last three seasons totalled 7,960 and the estimated kill was 3,673. Elk population figures in the Riding Mountain park for the last 40 years have fluctuated between a low of 500 in 1914 to a high of 12,000 in 1946. The population was estimated at 3,000 in 1953. The elk leave the park in winter to seek food when either natural food supplies are low or the herd increases to such a size that natural food supplies are insufficient. The large elk population of the mid-40s seriously injured the potential food supply in the park so that large winter die-offs reduced the herd by more than 40 per cent. A seriously damaged range is slow to recover and the animals continued to come out and make deprecations on farm crops. The mines and resources department opened the elk season in an attempt to reduce the elk population to a level where they would no longer leave the park for food supplies. It is believed that elk numbers have now reached that level. However, if conditions change arid the animals do come out this winter the government may declare an elk season.