Mrs. Shirley Render (St. Vital): Madam Speaker, volunteerism has always been strong in Manitoba, and today the Premier (Mr. Filmon) announced the 10 recipients of the 1998 Premier's Volunteer Service Award. This award celebrates the efforts and dedication of all Manitoba volunteers. Recipients of the award have all made outstanding contributions to their communities, demonstrating leadership, personal initiative and determination through their volunteer activities. The Premier's Volunteer Service Award is a great honour, and it serves as a reminder that there is a lot that Manitobans can accomplish in our province.
On behalf of all members of this Legislature, I would like to congratulate all who have received awards this year, and I would just like to note that the panel of judges who sifted through all of the applications and selected the recipients are themselves volunteers and their contributions are also very much appreciated.
Just as a P.S. to this, we would just like to say to members and any who are listening, volunteer activities, anybody who is interested in them need not look any farther than the 1999 Pan Am Games. There is still a need for volunteers, and I cannot think of a better way to promote our province and our people on an international scale while at the same time learning about other people from all over North and South America. Thank you.
Mr. Gerard Jennissen (Flin Flon): As anyone who has travelled on northern roads the past few weeks knows, many of them have deteriorated significantly over the past winter. The mild winter has been followed by a record number of potholes. Highway 6 north of Grand Rapids and Highway 60 are in particularly bad shape. Last weekend I experienced several severe potholes on these roads, and I have had many calls from others concerned about the conditions of those roads. I urge the Highways minister to either personally drive on some of these roads over the next few weekends or have staff investigate the situation so that action can be taken to make the roads safer.
Disappointment over the broken promises of the department to tackle on an orderly basis PR 391 continues to come in. On April 15 the Leaf Rapids town sent the Minister of Highways a letter requesting the minister to reconsider his decision to not have the PR 391 base and AST capital project on the 14.6-kilometre section west of PR 280 in the 1998-1999 highway new construction program. This follows a similar letter sent to the minister by the Leaf Rapids Chamber of Commerce which I tabled in the Legislature earlier this week or last week. I hope the minister will now take the situation seriously instead of quoting out-of-date letters or clippings.
As the Leaf Rapids mayor noted, the community is striving to develop economic diversification and encourage companies to do exploration in the area and to attract business people. PR 391 must be brought up to an acceptable standard as soon as possible. It is our hope that the minister will now accept this reasonable request and live up to past promises and that he will improve this section of PR 391. Thank you.
Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): Madam Speaker, last night I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of the Regional Alternative Education Centre in Altona as part of the Education Week celebration in the Rhineland School Division. The theme of the Rhineland School Division is Community Through Learning, and Learning Through Community. This is seen in the division's long-standing commitment to providing quality education to learners, young and old.
The Regional Alternative Education Centre is an important link between the school division and the community. It serves an adult constituency that has expressed a desire to achieve high school graduate status within the context of their busy family and working lives, and some of the people are actually using it to increase their knowledge through higher degrees of learning past high school.
The centre first started its co-operative venture which included among the partners: Manitoba Education and Training, Pembina Valley Development Corporation, Pembina Valley Learning Centre, the Pembina Valley Literacy for Adults, Red River Community College and Human Resource Development Canada. The Altona centre is in its first year of operation and has experienced significant success as a large number of students have taken advantage of this important service.
The centre shows considerable promise in being an important factor in helping the region achieve economic and social success. More than 90 students have registered in the centre today. They range from high school to adult. The centre is obviously fulfilling a real and important need for southern Manitoba. I congratulate the organizers and staff of the Regional Alternative Education Centre in Altona for a job well done and wish the students well as they upgrade their education, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): I would like to use my member's statement today to say goodbye to a staff member who has been our lone staff member since the '95 election, and he has carried a lot of weight on his shoulders; that is Andy Drummond.
His last day of work for us is on Friday. He is going to China to teach English on a program being done by Red River Community College, and I believe the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism (Mr. Downey) will know something about the program. This is a person who has acted beyond and above the call of duty, and that is Andy Drummond. He has been a loyal, loyal employee who has been there, and not only put in his 40 hours a week, but working for a number of elected officials--he has political leanings, and he spent many hours of his free time helping us out. I think if you look back at the newspaper clippings, the stories since the '95 election, the three members here, with the assistance of Andy Drummond, a number of times have brought issues forward with his keen research and hard work, and I want to commend him for what he has done, how loyal he has been to us, how he has followed direction and wish him the best of luck in his travels to China. Thank you.
Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne): As most members know, Madam Speaker, Sunday, April 19, to Saturday, April 25, is Manitoba Book Week. I believe all members have received a package of information from the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, and an excellent package it is, including a calendar of events, biographies of accomplished Manitoba writers, a directory of Manitoba book publishers, the names of book stores participating in this week of literary celebration, a celebratory week which features book launches, readings, meetings, awards, and draws for book prizes. This list is not inclusive since Manitoba Book Week is richer than I can document in a member's statement.
Manitobans are justly proud of our writers from the time of Frederick Philip Grove and his work of the '20s and '30s, to writers like Margaret Laurence with her now classic Manawaka novels, which delineate prairie consciousness only to suggest finally that the local is the only universal, to the many fine Manitobans writing in the '90s, Ian Ross, for example, who recently won the Governor General's Award for drama.
Manitoba writers have contributed to the myriad of voices that we call Canadian. As a Manitoban who loves literature and remembers a time when Canadian literature was disregarded, even denied, when a colonial mentality so prevailed that our universities did not teach our literature, I am terrified at the prospect of the MAI and the disastrous effect it could have on our writers and culture. Clearly we must be vigilant, and I know the NDP, federally and provincially, will be just that.
In closing, I ask all members of the House to join me in congratulating Manitoba writers, publishers and bookstores for their creative work and dedication to culture. These people help us to see who we are, and because of them our lives are richer, our vision stronger and our voices remembered.
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