Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I have a statement for the House with copies for members.

It is my pleasure to draw the attention of the honourable members to the fact that today is Manitoba Day. May 12 marks the 129th birthday of our province, and with the new millennium soon upon us, this is a most appropriate occasion to reflect on the achievements of Manitoba and its people.

Manitoba entered this century as a young province, the western frontier of a still-growing nation. We were brash, bold and full of promise. Our doors were open to the world as we invited men and women to come share our dream of a dynamic and prosperous community, and we still do. Just a few minutes ago, right in our beautiful Legislative Building at the heart of Canada, 38 people took the oath of citizenship and became Canada's newest citizens. We welcome them to share in the opportunities of our communities, and we share with them the responsibility of being this province's stewards for the next generation. The citizenship ceremony reaffirms the unbridled optimism of Manitoba's early years and the courageous spirit of our aboriginal communities and of the pioneers that drove us forward with great energy into the 20th Century with a sense of pride and confidence that has never diminished.

Down through the generations, Manitobans have come together to build, to share and to dream of a better future for our children. To achieve this great legacy has meant facing great challenges from many sources: war, depression, flood, storm, drought. We have faced them all as a community, struggling side by side to preserve the legacy and enhance it for those who follow after us.

It is therefore appropriate that on Manitoba Day I also share with you the names of the people and organizations who won Prix Awards last night. Since 1988, our provincial government has honoured Manitobans who have contributed to the province in the areas of culture, heritage, recreation and multiculturalism. Yesterday's awards were presented to Bill and Shirley Loewen for their commitment and generosity towards the preservation and enrichment of Manitoba's French-Canadian and Metis heritage.

The Western Canada Aviation Museum volunteers received an award for their support of an institution that has grown into one of the largest collections of aviation history in the nation.

Sharon Reilly was honoured for her work as curator of history and technology at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature.

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The Centre du patrimoine received an award. This Société historique de Saint-Boniface project ensures that a significant part of Manitoba's history is preserved and made available to future generations through the building of a state-of-the-art archival facility. The new centre is the repository of Francophone and Metis archival material of provincial and national significance.

Finally, Jean Oscar Guiboche received a Prix Award for his promotion and preservation of the heritage of aboriginal people, the voyageurs and Manitoba explorers through education.

Madam Speaker, these people and their commitment to better our communities exemplify the spirit that helped make Canada into the greatest nation in the world. Furthermore, I consider it a great privilege to speak these words that will go down in history as the final Manitoba Day statement of the 1900s. The next time we gather to celebrate Manitoba Day, we will have hosted the 13th Pan American Games and we will be firmly in the year 2000.

I would like to close out this era by thanking all of Manitoba's families for the tremendous foundation of achievement, development, compassion and community service they have built recently and over many generations. Our province is a better place because of your continued commitment to turn visions into reality and that is a tremendous thing to celebrate on Manitoba Day. I urge all Manitobans to enter the year 2000 with renewed confidence and optimism and a commitment to ensure that Manitoba's future will always be greater than its past.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne): Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the Premier for his statement and congratulate his government for continuing the tradition which New Democrats initiated when we were in government. I refer, of course, to recognizing and celebrating Manitoba Day. I was pleased to be present at the Prix Manitoba Awards, and I and my caucus certainly join the Premier in congratulating all winners.

Today, May 12, 1999, marks the 129th anniversary of our province. On May 12, 1870, The Manitoba Act created the province of Manitoba and on May 12, 1966, Manitoba's official flag was dedicated and unfurled. Subsequently, former Premier Howard Pawley designated May 12 as Manitoba Day because this date is significant in the history of our province.

Yet today we would do well to remember our larger history, to remember that the aboriginal members of this Legislature and the aboriginal people throughout our province have at least 12,000 years of Manitoba history, of which most of us know very little. We might share in this history through formal study or perhaps by hearing aboriginal elders and joining in their celebrations. We might imaginatively recreate the past, viewing it through the mind's eye: aboriginal people at The Forks or on the buffalo hunt or on the traplines; aboriginal people hunting for food, battling the cold, fighting floods or prairie fires; Portage and Main when there were no buildings; the tall grasses on the prairies when the prairies were virgin; Riding Mountain before it was a national park.

My point is that 1870 is a construct, an artifice of sorts. We have agreed to recognize this date as important and it is important, but we should remember that it is only a marker and on the other side of that marker, there are other stories, ancient, rich, alive and full, the stories of our aboriginal peoples. We might today as well dwell on the ways in which the present can reconstruct the past and recast our history. Living in the present and with an awareness of the ways in which colonialism and racism have distorted aboriginal traditions and history, we have a duty to cut through these distortions, revisit the past and take a clearer, fairer, more honest and respectful version to our schools and universities.

We have the same duty to the ethnic groups and immigrants who have come to our province to make better lives for themselves and for their children and who, at the same time, have made a better province for all Manitobans.

Because of all our people Manitoba can boast of economic prosperity, social diversity and cultural richness. Together we have made Manitoba a fine place to live, to raise our children and to grow old. Two years ago, the defining moment in our history was the flood of the century, an event that tied us to the past, to 1826 and to 1950 and the other years lost to the past because they were not written down but are alive in the imagination which transcends dates and places.

May 12, 1997, like May 12, 1870, is alive in the present because we know this year is two years after the flood of the century, a time when spring came early, allowing us to dare the frost and plant our flowers and vegetables before May 24. History then, our past, ties us to the present and to the future as we all wonder about next year.

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Unfortunately for Manitobans, respect for history has not always characterized this Premier's (Mr. Filmon) administration. We regret that this government has denigrated Manitoba history by its neglect of Canadian history. First, Canadian history was removed as a required course in our high schools and then reintroduced as a pale shadow of what it should be. The hiatus in the teaching of Canadian history has meant a backward, outdated curriculum which has not kept pace with major historical events or with other jurisdictions.

Still today, as we celebrate Manitoba history, let us transcend this anomaly and remember that we are really celebrating Manitoba peoples, remembering the past, living the present and dreaming the future. We are linked through time and space, living our myths and formulating the stories which, by defining who we are, become our history.

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): I would seek leave just to add a few comments on this very auspicious day.

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Inkster have leave?

Some Honourable Members: Leave.

Madam Speaker: Leave has been granted.

Mr. Lamoureux: It is with great pleasure that I rise today on behalf of members of the Liberal Party to pay tribute to this very auspicious day. The United Nations for years past has said Canada is the best country in the world to live. Well, we will go one step further and say Manitoba is the best province to be in Canada.

An Honourable Member: That is a vote of confidence if I ever heard one, Kevin.

Mr. Lamoureux: Madam Speaker, it is not necessarily meant as a vote of confidence for the government. We are talking about the province which we all call home and the province in which many people would like to be able to call home. Hopefully, we will see more and more people calling the province of Manitoba home.

We make reference to our First Nations people as the people who were here first. If we take a look at Manitoba, as in all of Canada, it is something in which every year there are more and more immigrants who come to our beautiful province. It is, in essence, what has made us what we are today, whether it is individuals who have come from the Ukraine, to the more recent immigration waves that come from the Philippines, the Punjab, Asia, Poland. Our culture is so diverse, our heritage is so rich, that we should be very proud of the contributions that all members have made to our community.

At one time I was the multicultural critic for our party, and I would go out and about and meet with many of the different groups. We always talked about the importance of the many different cultures.

I was hoping to be at the citizenship swearing-in ceremony. I understand that was a little bit earlier today. I have had the opportunity to participate and, you know, it is a very humbling experience to witness individuals take their oath and their citizenship. We have so much to look forward to as Canadians but, in particular, as Manitobans, and when we see a day like today where we should appreciate what we do have, it is worthy of taking a moment of our time just to make mention of all those wonders that we have in the province of Manitoba.

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I had discussions with members in terms of–you know, this building is a very grand, beautiful building. One of the things that I think would be an appropriate thing to do is in the Pool of the Black Star to see–and you go around the steps where we have the names of the different aboriginal reserves, I believe it is, that are along the stairs. Well, maybe what we should be doing is designating that area as a multicultural room where we can actually see contributions from the many different immigration waves to the province, much like when we have tourism, many thousands of tourists who come to our province. They come to this building because of its majestic appearance and so forth. The tour guides do a wonderful job of explaining the building–to designate the Pool of the Black Star, as we know it, Madam Speaker, as something that clearly shows Manitoba's history of immigration, I think would be a positive thing. I look to the government to give the idea some thought, that we need to do what we can in terms of promoting our culture, our heritage. We are, in fact, a very young province. It is with great pleasure, and I thank members for allowing me to pay a special tribute to today, given it being Manitoba Day. Thank you.