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Austerity holding students and province back

UMFA strike a symptom of austerity

LETTERS

Jesse Hajer

On Nov. 2, professors, instructors and librarians represented by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) went on legal strike, bringing many classes and other university activities to a halt. The main issue faculty are fighting against is deteriorating institutional quality due to uncompetitive salaries.

The U of M has the lowest paid English-language university faculty amongst its peers and has seen its inflation-adjusted salaries fall by 1.7 per cent over the last six years, while faculty at other research-intensive universities in Canada saw a 2.6 per cent gain. Low compensation is stifling recruitment of new talent, with unfilled positions leading to a deterioration in ability to prepare the next generation of Manitoba for the workforce. Required courses are being left unstaffed and not offered, delaying students in meeting degree requirements, who are looking to out-of-province universities for courses. Leading faculty are heading to other provinces, taking their large research grants and jobs for students with them. University administration acknowledges these negative impacts of uncompetitive pay and has the money to resolve the issue but appears caught up in the broader ideological dictates of the Manitoba government.

Since being elected in 2016, the PC government has been on a mission to shrink the size of the government. Over-achieving on even their own ambitious targets, the Pallister government cut the provincial civil service by 18 per cent — or over 2,600 positions — from 2016 to 2021. In doing so, the provincial government more than doubled the target initially announced. Those who remained faced years of real wage reductions in alignment with the wage freeze mandate of the government. These cuts were supposedly to address the budget deficit, but in reality have ended up paying for large tax cuts that disproportionally benefit the wealthy and continue to divert funds from essential health, education and other government services.

After five years of this austerity approach, the consequences have been broadly felt. The most visible have been in health care with the closure of emergency rooms and clinics, rock-bottom staff morale and mental health and staffing shortages. When the pandemic hit this weakened system, Manitoba was distinct for being the only province at the time to send intensive care patients outof-province due to lack of capacity. Recruitment and retention issues persisy. Ironically, the government recently asked the U of M to train more nurses, with faculty unable to respond to the province’s “rush job” due to staffing shortages linked to provincial austerity. Problems with recruitment, retention and quality of public service is not only apparent in health and education. The Manitoba government is facing large vacancies in the conservation sector, unable to retain officers to protect our province’s natural resources and recreation areas central to tourism across the province. Infrastructure workers are reporting deep cuts and low wages are compromising the quality of our highways, bridges and other assets, threatening public safety and our large transportation industry. Staff shortages at Manitoba’s Vital Statistics Branch are resulting in Manitobans waiting months for death, marriage and birth certificates, leading to painful and costly delays. Public health inspectors are facing large backlogs due to staffing shortages and low wages, a problem magnified by the COVID-19 crisis.

Vacancy rates are not generally made public, but indications are that rates are extremely high: freedom of information requests have found them well in excess of 20 per cent in the departments of family services, justice and in the occupations of health-care aides and home-care workers. At a time when a strong public sector is needed to support the province’s social and economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the public sector appears to be suffering a severe capability crisis due to understaffing.

Despite old-school perspectives that pit government versus the private sector, the reality is that a modern advanced economy needs a stable, functioning and well-staffed government to help co-ordinate economic development and provide essential health, education and other social services. Without strong public services, Manitoba will lose ground to other jurisdictions with respect to developing, attracting and keeping skilled workers and businesses in the province.

The strike currently taking place at the U of M is only the most recent symptom of the government’s austerity agenda and is making matters worse. If labour market tightness is the problem — as Manitoba’s new premier asserted during her leadership campaign — we should be investing more in our post-secondary institutions and doing more to support students to move through their programs and get in the job market. Instead, due to the real wage reduction mandate from the government, the strike has students nervously waiting to see if they will be able to complete their classes

volunteer Alexander Decebal-Cuza / photo /

this term and grappling with the impact this will have on graduation timelines, including in high-demand occupations such as nursing.

A new premier — along with the associated changes in senior staffing at the provincial government level — is an opportunity for a reset, a chance to reverse the cuts, end the hostility toward workers and reinvest in the public services that underpin our economic success and quality of life. A good first step would be to clearly state that the university is free to negotiate wage increases with its workers based on the needs of the institution and its stakeholders, instead of anti-public sector bias.

Jesse Hajer is an assistant professor in economics and labour studies at the University of Manitoba and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba. He worked as a policy advisor and manager with the Manitoba government from 2009 to 2016.

letters@themanitoban.com

A sophomore foray into fantasy

In conversation with Alex Passey about his newest novel

ARTS & CULTURE

Zoë LeBrun, staff Winnipeg-based writer and former Manitoban contributor Alex Passey has just released Shadow of the Desert Sun. Published in September, this “sword and sorcery fantasy” is Passey’s second novel to date.

Passey began writing seriously in high school after picking up Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and it was around this time that he became interested in the fantasy genre.

“I love fantasy on two levels,” he said.

“First is the escapism, which is great, but in that escapism, you’re also allowed a disconnect that allows you to examine a world different from your own, and perhaps glean some insights about our world that are tough to see when you’re immersed in it. It’s a neat little paradox, in that distancing yourself from our world can also in a way bring you closer to it.”

Shadow of the Desert Sun represents a departure from Passey’s first novel, 2020’s Mirror’s Edge.

Comparing the two, Passey said, “Mirror’s Edge is a lot more of a serious foray into philosophy and the human condition, whereas I wrote this book to be more of an accessible and fun adventure story that doesn’t take on quite as heady of subject matter.”

Inspired by books such as the aforementioned Wheel of Time and R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt, Shadow of the Desert Sun takes place in the desert nation of Arannus, a land with magic, danger and treachery abound. The story follows two youths named Ayden and Cyan, who have yet to experience the world outside their small village, as they are swept up in a world of political intrigue and fall under the protection of Blademaster Raynor, who must guide and protect them from a clan of assassins, a magi-swordmaster gone mad and the Archmage who lords over Arannus on their journey through the desert.

Passey also said in addition to this action-packed, politically driven plot, readers are introduced to “magics that allow access to a mosaic of Spirit Realms, where extradimensional entities seem to have hierarchies and designs of their own that dwarf the politics of humans.”

Although there are elements of each character’s journeys that speak to broader themes, such as loyalty, responsibility and life after loss, Passey said these were ideas that rose organically out of the story rather than messages he chose to deliberately investigate.

“The root goal of the writing was largely adventure for adventure’s sake,” he said.

Passey has big goals for the world Shadow of the Desert Sun takes place in — not only is the novel set to be the beginning of a series with more books on the way, but it has also been featured in his other writing projects.

“My story ‘The Devil’s Iris’ that was published in Strange Sorcery a few years ago is also part of this storyline,” Passey said.

“I plan to make this world as sprawling as I possibly can.”

Regarding his writing process, Passey said, “A lot of the time the act of writing is just a process of organizing ideas for me. Most of the actual creative ideas spring up at times of the day when I’m not near my laptop.”

“My phone is absolutely crammed full of text messages to myself of things that spring into my head through the day, like plot twists or lines of dialogue. Then first thing every morning I sit down at the laptop and try to Frankenstein them all together into a coherent story.”

In contrast to this, Passey discussed the marathon of publishing and editing in a different light.

“The process of trying to get published is very monotonous and trying,” he said.

“The editing process is kind of like that too. I love the first couple edits, when you’re going back over the thing you wrote and fine-tuning it to be coherent and pretty as possible. But then by the last couple edits when you’re just ferreting out a couple typos and you’ve read the thing a dozen times, you’re kind of sick of it.”

“But that’s just the nature of the

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process,” Passey said, “and it all melts away when you’ve finally got the final bound product in your hand, with the cool cover art and your author photo on there. Then you’re ready to crack it open and read it again as if you’ve never seen the text before.”

You can find Shadow of the Desert Sun at major retailers, including the University of Manitoba Bookstore.

arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban turntable

Astrocolor — ‘Paradise’

ARTS & CULTURE

Alex Braun, staff

3.5/5 stars

Astrocolor has their mind set on one thing in their new album, Paradise: a relaxing beachside vacation. Though hailing from the not-exactly-tropical city of Victoria, B.C., they nevertheless channel all the island life energy they can muster. Press photos show the appropriately middle-aged band in pastel buttondowns, slim-fit khakis, tasteful RayBans and boat shoes with no socks, enjoying the sunlight and laughing with drinks in their hands.

Taking cues from ’60s lounge and exotica music, the album is largely instrumental, with featured vocals on the second track, “Paradise,” courtesy of Cayley Thomas. The beats occasionally threaten to veer into the territory of anonymous fast fashion background music or “lo-fi beats to study/relax to,” but Astrocolor adds just enough unique flourishes to keep the aesthetic tasteful rather than bland.

Opening track “Mile High” sets the mood quite nicely. A lively modern electronic beat is juxtaposed with dusty guitars and jazzy electric piano. There is a sort of jet-setting retrofuturism to the band’s style, with spacey effects and synths taking their place among sounds lifted from the mid-century. The track closes with an announcement from a flight attendant, welcoming you to paradise.

The good vibes continue through the first side of the record, staying at a comfortable mid-tempo. The third track “Tropical” gets slightly spacy, with gliding slide guitars and sine-wave synths lending a woozy slipperiness, starting a quick dip into real catatonic relaxation on “Go to the Beach” and “Catamaran.” It’s like that point in the beach day where the sun starts getting to your head.

Night falls on side two, starting with “Aperitif,” named after the digestive cocktail: a little samba tune with shuffling drums and jazz flute, setting the mood for a promiscuous night in paradise. “Dusk,” a sax-driven slow jam, and the driving, synthy “Nightswim” continue lurking in the darkness.

The penultimate track, “Another Lover,” is initially pretty but too repetitive for its own good, and the stuttering closer, “After Paradise,” doesn’t offer much closure. But maybe that’s the point. At Astrocolor’s tropical resort, you never have to leave; the vibes can keep flowing forever.

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Take Aim Media / image / great heights or evokes any particularly strong emotions, it does quite well at capturing its intended mood. Paradise is charmingly unambitious, playful and spirited mood music, in search of nothing more than a few minutes of escape from the rat race. So take a deep breath, pour yourself a mai tai and make believe that you’re on a white sand beach — Astrocolor might be able to take you there.