My Top Story for 2025 may surprise you, or it may not.

Every December, newsrooms do what they always do. We debate the biggest story of the year. The arguments come fast. The Grey Cup was a success. The Manitoba PC leadership race produced a winner who actually had fewer votes than the other guy. City hall approved historic property tax increases. Protest permits kept flowing no matter how extreme the cause. An NDP MLA mocked a controversial speaker assignment instead of engaging it.

All of those mattered. None of them stood above the rest.

After a Teams call with our editorial group went nowhere, I reached out to people in the business community. Executives. Employers. People who manage payroll, risk, and long-term planning in the real economy. I asked the same question: what was the biggest Winnipeg or Manitoba story of 2025?

The answer was consistent.

Nothing.

Not because nothing happened, but because nothing improved.

That absence of progress is not neutral. It is costly. And when the bill finally comes due, 2025 may be remembered as the year governments chose inaction at the highest possible price.

That is the real story of 2025. The defining headline is not controversy or celebration. It is stagnation. Governments at all three levels consumed more, spent more, promised more, and delivered almost nothing measurable in return.

Government is not a side cost in our lives. It is our single biggest expense.

Statistics Canada shows total government spending in Canada now exceeds 40 percent of GDP. The Fraser Institute has consistently shown that the average family pays more in total taxes than it spends on food, shelter, and clothing combined. In Manitoba, that cost shows up everywhere: personal income taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, sales taxes, and an expanding list of user fees.

When your biggest expense fails to perform, the damage compounds.

Healthcare is the clearest example. It consumes more than 40 percent of Manitoba’s budget. The NDP promised shorter wait times, improved staffing, and restored confidence. In 2025, emergency rooms remain overcrowded, hallway medicine persists, and Manitobans still leave the province for diagnostic imaging. Auditor General reports continue to flag inefficiencies. Spending increased. Outcomes did not. Each year of delay makes recovery harder and more expensive.

Affordability did not improve. Property taxes in Winnipeg rose again, with Mayor Scott Gillingham overseeing some of the largest increases in the city’s history. New water fees arrived. New waste collection fees followed. Utility costs climbed. Grocery prices remained high. Inflation slowed nationally, but households did not feel relief locally. Families adjusted by cutting back, delaying purchases, and dipping into savings. That erosion does not reset with a new calendar year.

Violent crime remains entrenched. Winnipeg continues to rank among Canada’s most violent cities on a per-capita basis using police-reported crime data from Statistics Canada. Auto theft remains persistent despite announcements and pilot projects. Repeat offenders cycle through a justice system that emphasizes procedure over public safety. Each year of inaction carries real human and economic cost, from lost productivity to higher insurance premiums to businesses choosing not to invest.

Business growth stalled. Winnipeg continues to lag comparable cities in private-sector investment and population growth. CentrePort remains underused relative to its promise. Office vacancies remain high. Employers face rising taxes, higher fees, and expanding regulatory burdens with no improvement in infrastructure or workforce readiness. Capital moves quickly. Once it leaves, it rarely comes back.

At city hall, there was no serious attempt to control spending. Winnipeg’s operating budget continues to grow faster than inflation and population combined. Structural deficits remain. Debt increases. Higher taxes and new fees are treated as the default solution rather than a last resort. Each year that passes without reform locks in higher costs permanently.

At the provincial level, there was no credible path to a balanced budget. At the federal level, deficits are normalized. Interest on the national debt now consumes tens of billions of dollars annually. That money produces no services and fixes no problems. It is the pure cost of delay, paid by future taxpayers.

This is not an ideological argument. It is a management one.

If government is our biggest expense, it should also be our best-performing investment. We should be able to identify ten or fifteen concrete accomplishments every year tied directly to that spending. Faster surgeries. Shorter permit timelines. Safer neighbourhoods. Lower taxes. Measurable improvements that justify the cost.

Instead, we normalize drift.

The most troubling aspect of 2025 is not any single decision. It is the collective acceptance that standing still is good enough. In reality, standing still while costs rise is falling behind. The longer governments delay reform, the higher the eventual price and the fewer options remain.

There are solutions, but they require discipline.

Tie funding increases to clear, public performance metrics. Cap spending growth to inflation plus population unless voters approve otherwise. Mandate regular program reviews with sunset clauses. Reform bail laws to prioritize public safety. Accelerate permitting and reduce development charges to attract investment. Freeze property taxes until service levels demonstrably improve.

None of this is radical. It is basic management.

The biggest story of 2025 in Winnipeg and Manitoba is not what happened. It is what did not. No meaningful progress on affordability. No healthcare turnaround. No safer streets. No business momentum. No spending restraint.

And that is why 2025 may ultimately be remembered as the costliest failure of all: a year when governments did nothing, while the price of inaction kept rising.