It was all in good fun. And for a good cause. But some of the shots slung at Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest at a recent fundraising roast must have stung just a bit. Creatively themed Breakfast for Dinner, the evening featured walkabout magicians Holden Lumbard and Brett Chrest. The roasters were former mayor/MLA/MP Rick Borotsik, city manager Scott Hildebrand, Coun. Jeff Fawcett (Assiniboine) and former deputy fire chief Gary Bell. The city’s first lady, Karen Chrest, was emcee. The event drew 160 to the Victoria Inn was the brainchild of Coun. John LoRegio (Meadows-Waverly), presented by NetSet Communications, with proceeds going to the Canadian Diabetes Association. The menu consisted of a breakfast buffet, which ended with a huge tray filled with bacon and sausages. And at the head table, there was plenty of hamming it up from the roasters.  

It came four hours late, but I did have a phone interview with Cliff Cullen, once a comparatively low-key Progressive Conservative Opposition MLA, now minister of growth, enterprise and trade (and labour) in the new Brian Pallister government. The Spruce Woods rep, who lives in Glenboro, is also now the de facto voice at the cabinet table for Brandon, as our two Tory MLAs were passed over for a seat in the pared-down 12-member inner circle. The Spruce Woods constituency encircles the Wheat City, so we’re kinda like the hole in the doughnut. However, Cullen has been spotted frequently in Brandon, is completely up to speed on the issues facing us that fall under the province’s purview and says he will work closely with Brandon East MLA-elect Len Isleifson and Brandon West MLA-elect Reg Helwer. “We have two really good representatives in Brandon,” Cullen said Wednesday, the day after he was sworn in. “I know the premier will have additional roles for those two fellas once they are sworn in (May 11). They will be an important part of our team. “And that’s really the way that we look at it. We’re all part of the same team trying to accomplish some good things for Manitoba. However, neither Isleifson or Helwer were on the list of six legislative assistants appointed last week to assist ministers. Cullen’s LA is Kelly Bindle, MLA-elect for Thompson. The position of legislative assistant, says a government release, is filled by MLAs in caucus in order to support cabinet ministers and also provide the assigned MLAs with experience associated to cabinet. The list also included many of the demographic and geographic voids in the cabinet. As far as lists go, Cullen wasn’t any pundit’s pick that I saw as being a potential cabinet minister. Helwer was considered the natural choice. I asked Cullen how he felt when he got the call from the premier on Monday. “I was somewhat surprised, but I’ve been around here a long time and had a lot of different roles and built a lot of relationships over time,” he said. As for pressing issues in Spruce Woods, they are primarily crumbling roads and health care — or “the lack thereof” — for the latter. In Brandon, infrastructure issues also dominate. Including the Daly Overpass rebuild. Cullen gets an extra $50,930 on top of the regular MLA’s pay of $93,025. He also gets extra staff. And a really nice office in the Manitoba Legislature. Cullen also has a new deputy minister, Jamie Wilson, the former, Treaty Relations Commissioner of Manitoba. He was one of four deputy ministers that Pallister moved in quickly to replace existing NDP hires. *** Brandonites will also have direct access to government via the Westman Regional Cabinet Office. What’s that you ask? It’s located in the provincial building on Ninth Street and has traditionally been a low-key operation. But there’s no reason it couldn’t be made more prominent and accessible to constituents. The office, which traditionally employs two people, was first opened in 1989 by former premier Gary Filmon. The first director of that office was veteran newscaster Ron Arnst, who has served as a press secretary to cabinet since he left CKLQ 880 earlier that year. At the time, Arnst was charged with acting as a local liaison for groups and individuals dealing with government and was to be available to assist organizers of community projects in gaining access to appropriate government services. I’m not too sure how that office was used under the NDP regime. I know the staff did organize media appearances of ministers and the premier, but the new Tory government is free to structure it as it pleases. And that could go a long way to soothe the feeling of Tory voters who feel that Brandon has been left on the outside looking in again of the cabinet room. (The photos here include one I took of Pallister greeting Cullen at a pre-election rally at Len Isleifson’s campaign office.The other is a screen grab from CBC of Cullen being sworn in by Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon.)

The Windows 10 free upgrade offer will be ending soon. Up until now, most of our clients have been running Windows 7 Pro because it is a good operating system and there was no compelling reason to switch to Windows 8. Most people did not want to learn the completely different interface that Windows 8 came with. However, users of Windows 7 will find that Windows 10 is a much more familiar interface, and there may be reasons to look at switching. Performance With Windows 10, the operating system has been optimized to boot more quickly and run most applications a little faster. Some of these performance improvements were included with Windows 8 and now it's even better in Windows 10. Longevity Microsoft has stated that they will stop supporting Windows 7 in 2020. At that point it will no longer be safe to run Windows 7 in a business environment. This is similar to how Windows XP is no longer supported. In contrast, Microsoft has stated that Windows 10 will be their last Windows operating system. The plan is that they will continue to update Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. If that is the case, then at some point we will all move from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10. In addition to the performance increases and longer lifespan, Windows 10 also includes many security improvements and administrative features which make these systems easier to manage in a business environment. At this point, any Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer is eligible to receive a free upgrade to Windows 10. This offer is available until July 29, 2016. After that date, it will cost about $250 per computer for the upgrade license. We are recommending the following plan for businesses upgrading to Windows 10: 1) Identify about 10% of your computers to install the Windows 10 update on. This will be a trial to ensure Windows 10 works well in your environment and that your programs work as expected. If there are any issues, your IT support team should work with your software vendors to ensure things are working properly. 2) After 2-4 weeks of testing, install Windows 10 on the remainder of the computers.

News Release For Immediate Release - Results from the 2016 Point-in-Time (PiT) Homelessness Count in Brandon, which took place on April 13, revealed that the number of homeless in our city has increased from the original count held in January 2015. Surveys showed that 146 people in Brandon were found to be homeless; 28 of whom were unsheltered and 118 sheltered. In 2015, the number of people determined to be homeless was 117. The Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (BNRC) organized the count, along with a number of local organizations. Project Coordinator, Mark Anderson said that while the number has increased, part of the reason for this could be because of an improved process and other factors. “With having the first count under our belt, we had the experience to improve our methodology. As well, there was increased community awareness prior to the event and there were additional partners involved, so in short we had more organizations involved and more volunteers out on the streets conducting surveys,” said Anderson. “However, it is important to note that all homeless counts are inherently undercounts. I’ve used the analogy before, but it is much like an iceberg. We only observe what’s visible. Like in many other communities across Canada, what we know to be true here in Brandon is that many homeless people are hidden so the number could even be higher.” In addition to the 146 surveyed adults, 35 children and dependants were present and another 25 adults declined to be surveyed, but were identified as being homeless (80 per cent of whom were known to service providers). Thirty-eight per cent of the surveyed respondents were under the age of 30, which means that Brandon is nearly twice the national average for youth. Nearly half of all respondents have been homeless for more than a year, however the vast majority indicated that they would prefer permanent housing. The PiT Count, funded by the Government of Canada’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy, provides various agencies with data to help understand the magnitude and complexity of homelessness in our community, with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of homelessness.  "In Brandon's Five Year Community Plan, researching and utilizing accurate data to drive program delivery was identified as a priority. The Point-in-Time Count collects vital local data that will allow the BNRC and our community partners to deliver meaningful and targeted programs and services. Continued data collection is not only important for understanding what homelessness looks like in our community, but also for evaluating the programs and services being made available,” said BNRC General Manager, Carly Gasparini.  For more on the PiT Count, visit: www.imatter-bdn.ca Contact: Mark Anderson, Project Coordinator Email: info@iMatter-bdn.ca Call: 204.720.2846 Twitter: @iMatterbdn Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrandonPiTCount Brandon PIT Count Summary 2016

I was on my way to Carberry when I found this magnificent sight. I took a "not actually a road" road, and I could tell on account of the grass growing in the middle of the "not a road's" tracks. And 1 skunk. The skunk ran out of the ditch I was in shortly after I did. I felt so lucky right then and there. A beautiful old barn with a stormy sky, and NOT getting sprayed by a skunk.