From the Depths of Downtown Winnipeg

There is something weird to be seen in every visit to downtown Winnipeg.

Take today, for example.

While washing my hands in the washroom at Cityplace, a man comes up to the sink beside me after using the urinal. He wets the tips of his fingers and sticks them up his nose.

I didn’t bother to ask what he was trying to find as he ferociously gouged out the inner sanctums of his nose through both nostrils.

Next, comes this sign at the front entrance of the Millennium Library:

The library apparently now has a social worker.

I’m still trying to figure out why.

When you think “library”, you think books. Magazines. Encyclopaedias. Reading. Writing. Research.

The Oxford Canadian dictionary definition of “library” reads as follows:

“A collection of books, periodicals, recordings, electronic reference materials, etc. for use by the public of by members of a group.”

Not so in the capital of the Socialist People’s Republic of Manitoba.

Now, it’s a resource center to help you, as the sign says, to find housing, welfare, or the more politically-correct euphemism “social assistance”, employment and counselling. The list goes on ad nauseum.

These services, if they are needed at all, shouldn’t fall within the scope of any municipal government, let alone a public library.

While the councillors and the mayor keep patting themselves on the back on how efficiently they run the city, they authorize frivolous, redundant and no doubt expensive services like this.

Next time you wonder why your taxes are so high, add this to the multitude of reasons.