Mr. Gerry McAlpine (Sturgeon Creek): Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to inform members of the House about some very intelligent and creative students of Sturgeon Creek High School. Recently at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, Sturgeon Creek entered 12 robots into the Manitoba Robot Games, and they placed first and second place in both the Sumo Wrestling and the Atomic Hockey categories. They also placed first in the Seek and Capture category.
Two students, Michael Alexander and Chris Johnson, were the designers and operators of the first-place Sumo Wrestlers, and they received $500 in prize money to attend the Western Canada Robot Games in Calgary in November of this year.
John Sparham, a Grade 11 student who placed first in Atomic Hockey, said that "the Manitoba Robot Games provide an ideal opportunity for students to gain valuable job readiness skills."
Madam Speaker, these students and their teacher, Mr. Yakimoski, worked through their lunch hours and after school to come this far in this program.
On behalf of all honourable members, I would like to wish these students the very best of luck as they prepare for the games in Calgary. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Gerard Jennissen (Flin Flon): The CRTC hearing into phone service in a high-cost area, namely northern Manitoba, was very important, given the move towards full-cost recovery for rural and northerners.
NDP MLAs Eric Robinson and Steve Ashton both presented briefs, noting that northerners are most at risk. MTS, when it was publicly owned, as a policy, ensured that local phone rates were the lowest in North America. Since 1995, as a result of privatization, local phone rates have gone up nearly 50 percent and are scheduled to go up even further. Over 80 percent of the population is unemployed in many of our First Nations communities, with the majority of people living on social assistance. Basic telephone service is a luxury item for the thousands of First Nation residents who face Third World housing conditions, food costs as much as 90 percent higher than Winnipeg, and social assistance cuts of 21 percent. The actual costs of providing basic monthly phone service to most northern communities range between $40 and $55 per month. If full cost recovery occurs, the numbers of people having phones will drop even further.
Communities such as Pukatawagan, Lac Brochet, Brochet and Tadoule Lake must put up with spotty telephone service now. Granville Lake only has a single pay phone. Virtually every telephone call that people make from these communities is a long-distance call. For all of these reasons, northern Manitobans were strongly opposed to the sale of MTS. Now even the Manitoba government admits that service needs to be improved in rural and remote areas and that local rates need to be protected.
Having sold off MTS for at least $500 million less than it was worth, the government of Manitoba now says it is up to CRTC to keep rates low and improve service in rural and remote communities. The communications advances of the past few years have the potential to truly give some of our most isolated communities in the country the ability to reach the outside world. So far, much of the revolution is not reaching the North because of costs. South Indian Lake, for example, has trouble accessing the Internet because of the long-distance charges.
As presenters told the CRTC this week, telecommunications--
Madam Speaker: Order, please.
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Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): I rise today in honour of the seniors in Manitoba. This is Manitoba's Seniors Week, and we celebrate the initiative that seniors are taking to be part and become part of our community and community development. As we all know, our forefathers came to this country and opened up our country. The seniors that we honour today were part of setting an historical pattern in this country and specifically in this province, developing rural communities as well as urban communities, establishing them and establishing systems such as education, health, and all those kinds of things to ensure that our quality of life would be enhanced.
Altona celebrated, on Tuesday, an event which some 300 seniors from across southern Manitoba attended and celebrated not only their being there but celebrated the economy and celebrated the wealth of this nation and this country. So we honour today, and I ask all members to join me in congratulating the seniors and the tremendous amount of work and effort that our seniors have put into this province in ensuring that our future generations will in fact have a home that is second to none in all of the world. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Daryl Reid (Transcona): This morning I was honoured to attend the Westview Elementary School to participate in the HUG program. This exchange program began in 1986 and involves the English/Hebrew, the English/Ukrainian and the English/German bilingual programs. The HUG exchange program is hosted each year by one of these participating groups. This year Westview Elementary played host to this important event. There were hundreds of students from five schools, including Donwood School, R.F. Morrison, Margaret Park, Brock-Corydon and the host, Westview Elementary School.
I would like to thank the Westview principal, Jason Jones, and Mr. Albert Christ and the organizing committee of HUG. We are proud of their efforts in bringing students of these bilingual programs together to share their language and culture, to appreciate one another's uniqueness and to build greater friendship through a mutual understanding of our collective heritages.
(Continued)
Madam Speaker: For the information of the House, the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs will meet on Monday, June 15, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to consider Bill 36, and again at 7 p.m. on the evening of the same day, Monday, June 15, and, if necessary, again on Tuesday, June 16 at 7 p.m.
Mr. McCrae: Further to that, at 12:30 on Monday, June 15, if there is a presentation half completed or not yet completed, I would like this committee to have the mandate to allow the sitting to be extended beyond 12:30 to allow the completion of a person's presentation, and maybe I need to say that here now. I do not know if the committee can decide that on its own if we give it a mandate to sit until 12:30 p.m. That is why I raise it, Madam Speaker. I simply would like to see that flexibility in there.
Madam Speaker: The Speaker will not repeat that directive. That is not required. The committee has the autonomy and authority to establish the extension of the time line mentioned by the honourable government House leader.
Mr. McCrae: Well, that certainly makes it better, does it not, Madam Speaker?
I told you this would not be happening, but here we go again. I wish to obtain the unanimous consent of the House, notwithstanding the sequence for consideration of Estimates as outlined in Sessional Paper 142 tabled on March 24, 1998, and subsequently amended, to consider in Room 254 the Estimates of the Department of Health, transferred from Room 255, on completion of the Estimates of the Children and Youth Secretariat. This change is to apply until further notice.
Madam Speaker: Is there unanimous consent of the House to alter the sequence for consideration of the Estimates in Room 254 to deal with the Department of Health, transferred from Room 255, on completion of the Estimates of the Children and Youth Secretariat? This change to apply until further notice. Agreed? [agreed]
Mr. McCrae: Sometimes it is a good thing the little comments of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer) are not on the record, because one might be tempted to respond to them and--
An Honourable Member: And you just did.
Mr. McCrae: No, I did not. Anyway, we attempt to deal with these matters in a co-operative fashion between the House leaders, and I think thus far we have made some progress.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns), that Madam Speaker do now--[interjection] Oh, yes.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for Gimli, with committee changes.
Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the member for Pembina (Mr. Dyck), that the composition of the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs (for Monday, June 15, 1998, at 9:30 a.m.) be amended as follows: the member for Niakwa (Mr. Reimer) for the member for Ste. Rose (Mr. Cummings); the member for Charleswood (Mrs. Driedger) for the member for Roblin-Russell (Mr. Derkach); the member for River Heights (Mr. Radcliffe) for the member for Brandon West (Mr. McCrae); and the member for St. Vital (Mrs. Render) for the member for River East (Mrs. Mitchelson).
Motion agreed to.
Mr. George Hickes (Point Douglas): I move, seconded by the member for Broadway (Mr. Santos), that the composition of the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs be amended as follows: Osborne (Ms. McGifford) for Kildonan (Mr. Chomiak), for Monday, June 15, 1998, for 9:30. Thank you very much.
Motion agreed to.
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Mr. McCrae: --leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into a committee to consider of the Supply to be granted to Her Majesty.
Madam Speaker: It has been moved by the honourable government House leader, seconded by the honourable Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns), that Madam Speaker do now leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into a committee to consider of the Supply to be granted to Her Majesty. Agreed?
Some Honourable Members: Agreed.
Madam Speaker: Agreed and so ordered.