Jets' COO addresses Rotary and Chamber

The Rotary Club and the Portage la Prairie Chamber of Commerce teamed up once again for a combined luncheon meeting at the Canad Inns on May 19.

First up was Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen, who highlighted business-friendly measures from the federal budget released in April.

“Obviously the chamber of commerce here in Portage, together with the Rotary, provide strong leadership in much of the community, so I wanted to be able to speak to the members who are creating jobs here in the Portage la Prairie area,” Bergen said.

“I wanted to highlight some of the top points, especially the way that we're cutting taxes, obviously for families, for individuals, for seniors, but for businesses, because businesses create jobs and it's frustrating for businesses, small businesses, when their taxes are going up and they're trying to hire people and reinvest in the business and look at new ways to do what they do.”

She said the federal government is committed to cutting taxes, and she hopes the province will keep taxes low as well so they're not raising them at the other end.

She also spoke about flood compensation and mitigation programs the federal government has, which are issues the chamber has been looking at since July 2014 and recently brought to the Manitoba Chambers.

“(The chamber is) also driving some really important issues like making sure that flood mitigation is happening and making sure it's top of mind for the province,” Bergen said.

There are four main components where the federal government helps with help flooding under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements.

“We have to date paid the province $335 million for the 2011 flood. The province has to initiate receiving that money though, they pay out the costs, they send the federal government the receipts under DFAA and we pay up to 90 cents on every dollar.”

There are three other main programs, two under the Building Canada Fund and a stand alone flood mitigation program.

“Again, whereby the province and/or municipalities can apply for funding for things like types of infrastructure for flood mitigation, mapping, and a couple of other categories to help mitigate flooding which we know can happen in Manitoba and has happened,” Bergen said. ”We have these programs that are I think tangible, the province does need to apply and I'm sure they're looking at all of them right now and hopefully are getting those in.”

The main speaker of the lunch was John Olfert, COO of the Winnipeg Jets, who spoke about the efforts of bringing the Jets' brand back to Winnipeg. It was important for Olfert to speak in Portage as the area is a part of their community.

“The MTS Centre was built as a community facility, it's not a Winnipeg facility only, we value all our customers coming from across Manitoba and hence you'll see a lot of marketing material we make reference on a regular basis to community-based and Manitoba wide participation,” Olfert said.

The presentation Olfert gave was initially intended to communicate the elements of change, but he later realized it's a relationship based presentation.

“Whether it was relationships with lenders or with the league or with sponsors, it's a relationship based business and again I give a lot of credit to our full and part time staff who invest their lives into this building and into the operation,” Olfert said. “Its unique hours in the fact that when people go home and they come and have fun, that's when we start working again, so I give a lot of credit to our full and part time staff.”

There was no single element that helped bring the NHL back to Manitoba.

“There's certainly the elements or the transition that's happened over the course of the economics of the NHL and the collective bargaining agreement, but I would argue that the building of the MTS Centre, the embracing of the brand by our community, at all levels, from ticket buyers to sponsors, to lenders, to owners, its been a community-wide ownership of the team, and as a result there's been a fair amount of success and we're grateful for that.”