Mr. Gerry McAlpine (Sturgeon Creek): Madam Speaker, I am delighted to ask my colleagues in the Manitoba Legislature to join with me in wishing the Winnipeg Music Competition Festival a happy 80th anniversary in 1998. This prestigious musical forum has long been a key component of Manitoba's educational process for aspiring musicians of all disciplines. Since the first Winnipeg Music Competition Festival took place in 1919, it has served as the springboard for the careers of countless young Manitobans who have gone on to pursue successful vocations in music.
When the 1998 festival took place on March 2 to 21 of this year, with the final concert on March 25, over 24,000 participants between the ages of five and 80 years of age participated and made the 1998 presentation one of the largest in the festival history.
The remarkable musical event has in fact grown by almost 20 percent over the past five years, underscoring the significance of its role in Manitoba's cultural community. I was very proud of my youngest daughter, Laura, who was one of those successful, talented participants in this festival. Music talent in this province is alive and well, and our future looks great in the music industry.
For 80 years the Winnipeg Music Competition Festival has been a musical experience of unparalleled excellence and learning, and it has been a major source of enrichment and validity for Manitoba's dynamic cultural legacy. Therefore, Madam Speaker, it is my great privilege to ask our honourable members of the Manitoba Legislature to join with me in expressing our deepest appreciation for that of the people of Manitoba, to all past and present participants, staff and management, for their contributions to this cherished community institution. Thank you.
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Ms. MaryAnn Mihychuk (St. James): Madam Speaker, today we see in the papers the announcement that the private consortium that was going to save the day for AECL has backed out of the deal, and again we hear more bad news for the people who live in Pinawa. Today we hear that Pinawa's nuclear research facility is running out of options. Yes, that is certainly the case.
In both the situation of the federal government and the provincial government, through their bungling we have seen the people of Pinawa left in a very undesirable situation. As the federal government keeps on passing deadlines, making more promises, we see them always broken. The province is standing by as we hear in the comments from Ben Sveinson, the member who represents the area, that our government stands ready to implement an economic development plan, as announced in December of '96, as soon as the federal government lives up to its commitments.
Well, the fact is that it is this government and the federal government that have let down the people of Pinawa and the scientists at AECL. Both governments are responsible for this disaster and need to take immediate action to save those jobs that are remaining and the economic security of eastern Manitoba which is in jeopardy right now.
Mr. Peter Dyck (Pembina): Madam Speaker, the member for Concordia (Mr. Doer) in the response to our throne speech in 1990 said, and I quote: The overwhelming majority of initiatives announced by the government were aimed at directly assisting businesses. There were new agencies to help business, promises to reduce corporate taxes, commitments to consult business, but virtually nothing for the people.
Let us focus on that last comment, "but nothing for the people." Our government's long-term economic plan, our approach of living within our means and creating an environment conducive to employment growth continues to bear fruit for the people of Manitoba. Today's news that Manitoba's unemployment rate of 5.2 percent is the lowest rate in all of Canada and the lowest figures since February of 1981 is clear evidence of the success of our policies. It is evidence of our commitment to the people.
Our government recognizes that Manitobans want quality employment opportunities. Our targeted tax cuts and fiscal responsibility, initiated when we took our financial mess left by the members opposite, has resulted in full-time employment, averaging 416,300 people for the first three months of 1998. This is an increase of 11,400 over the same period last year.
The member for Radisson (Ms. Cerilli) once rose in the House to say, and I quote: We cannot accept business's greed and irresponsibility.
Now I ask: are businesses such as Loewen Windows, Bristol Aerospace, Maple Leaf Foods, and Acrylon Plastics greedy? Maybe they are, Madam Speaker, but not in the manner implied by the member for Radisson. They are greedy for workers, greedy to provide quality jobs and quality wages to more Manitobans. Our economy is strong, our policies are strong, and our employment numbers are the strongest in Canada. Thank you.
Mr. Leonard Evans (Brandon East): Madam Speaker, I want to raise the issue of citizens of Manitoba having to use private nursing agencies and private nurses in our public institutions, our nursing homes and our hospitals because the funding has been cut in these hospitals and these nursing homes in large measure and because they have reduced the number of nurses and staff, and I know in particular in the Brandon Regional Health Authority area they have cut $6 million in the past few years and they have laid off hundreds of nurses. As I indicated the other day in this House, in Killarney we have an example of a family having to hire a We Care agency to come in and look after this 94-year-old mother because they did not have enough staff to look after that particular lady. Another example: in the hospital in Killarney where the family were required to use We Care agency and pay $3,000 a month to look after this individual because the hospital said they did not have adequate staffing.
Madam Speaker, I have heard of other cases, the River East Personal Care Home, and now in Brandon I have a letter from a person who had a mother in the Brandon Hospital who, unfortunately, recently died, but she says in this letter, a copy of which has been given to me--this is a letter to Mr. Backman, the CEO of the regional health authority--and she said that she went to visit her mother who was very bruised and in considerable pain. I am reading this from the letter, and she said: I have grave concerns regarding the staffing levels, the staff mix, communication and lack of direct supervision of nursing care and interdisciplinarian approach. These incidents have prompted us to put private nursing service in place three hours every evening since December 13, 1997. This was acknowledged by Mr. Backman's letter to her of February 5, when he said indeed that they did facilitate her care by hiring private nurses.
Madam Speaker, what is happening to our public health care system? It is deteriorating; it is eroding. This is why the people of Manitoba are concerned, and I ask the Minister of Health to do something about it, as I did a month ago, and we have not had any response from this side thus far.
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Madam Speaker, I was actually hoping to bring it up at some point during Question Period, but I figure this is maybe just as good an opportunity for this particular issue, and that is with respect to an issue on immigration visas and so forth. Every year it seems I am, as I am sure many others are, approached about visiting visas. One of the concerns I have, and it is primarily from the Philippines where this particular issue is raised I must say, where individuals apply to be landed here in Manitoba or in Canada, if I can say, and after maybe being rejected a year or so later, they will make application to be able to come to Manitoba under a visiting visa.
What I have found is time and time again, these individuals are in fact being denied, and I think that is unfortunate. What we have is the provincial government does have a bilateral agreement. We see that provincial governments are participating more in immigration matters Well, this goes beyond immigration in terms of one could argue for tourism and so forth of our fine province, that we have individuals who want to be able to come and visit Manitoba, and I am not hearing anything in terms of numbers as to why it can be justified, the rejection of the numbers that are in fact being rejected. I have not seen any sort of justification for it.
I have made mention of it to the minister across the way and she had indicated that she would take a look into the particular issue but I think that we need to be aware of the fact that there are many people who live outside of Canada that do want to be able to come to Canada and we have to do what we can to ensure that that in fact does occur, and hopefully that issue will be addressed.