MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

Mr. Marcel Laurendeau (St. Norbert): Madam Speaker, on behalf of all honourable members, I would like to take this opportunity today to give a very warm and heartfelt thank you to our legislative interns who have worked very hard for all of us during the course of the last year.

Mel Mallet, better known in my office as the Hammer, Melanie Vanstone, Shelly Wiseman, Rory Henry, David Markham and Renata Neufeld have been invaluable components to the successful management of our caucuses from their very first day on the job. The quality of their work and their dedicated work ethic speaks for itself, and their professionalism has been exemplary. They have been excellent examples of the success of the program, and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours, though I dare say that they will hardly need it.

Renata, David, Rory, Mel, Mel and Shell, you will be sorely missed, and I hope you come by to visit on a regular basis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Doug Martindale (Burrows): Madam Speaker, what has the economy under Conservative governments given us? Governments have told us that economic growth is good for everyone, making everyone better off, but it is becoming evident that inequality is growing despite economic growth.

First, the rich are richer. In 1973, the richest 10 percent of families with children under 18 made 21 times more than the poorest 10 percent of Canadian families. In 1996, the richest 10 percent of families made 314 times more than the poorest 10 percent of Canadian families.

Second, the middle class is shrinking. In 1973, 60 percent of families with children under 18 earned between $24,500 and $65,000 in 1996 dollars. By 1996, the middle class shrunk. Only 44 percent of families with dependent children made between $24,500 and $65,000. Most of that change happened in the very middle. Those earning the equivalent of between $37,600 and $56,000 in 1973 accounted for 40 percent of the population. A generation later, only 27 percent of the population found themselves in the middle.

Families increasingly have to rely on more than one income to get by. Increasingly, even a second income is not enough. Real average family market incomes are lower today than they were in 1981; 60 percent of families with children were earning less than in 1981.

Governments clearly have a role to play in society, both by setting the rules by which the markets play and by mediating the fallout from the market. Unregulated markets do not do a good job of distributing, for example, health care, education, public safety, public recreation and infrastructure. These are the very things that this government, this provincial government, and the federal government are cutting back. We need to change the government and elect a government in Manitoba that is committed to justice, equity, fairness and economic opportunity for everyone. Thank you.

Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today and offer my best wishes to the many athletes, organizers and volunteers involved in the 1999 Pan Am Games here in Winnipeg.

The 13th Pan Am Games will be the third-largest multisport event ever held in North America. Five thousand athletes from 42 western hemisphere countries will be competing at these games which are being supported by the efforts of over 17,000 volunteers. The excitement surrounding the Pan Am Games is being felt and shared by communities–

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Sveinson): Order, please. I am having trouble hearing the honourable member for Gimli. Could those who are carrying on conversations please do so in the loge or out in the hall.

Mr. Helwer: The excitement surrounding the Pan Am Games is being felt and shared by communities around Manitoba.

Today the Pan Am flame will cross the border into our province at the town of Emerson, and from there it will visit 20 Manitoba communities, travelling as far north as Churchill, before arriving back in Winnipeg to officially open the games.

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Many communities will also play host to Pan Am events, including Stonewall and Gimli in my constituency, which will host baseball and sailing respectively.

The games offer a wonderful opportunity to showcase our beautiful communities and province to people from around the world. There is no doubt that these games will open doors to new cultural and economic partnerships between Manitoba and our southern neighbours.

So I would like to ask all members of the Assembly to join with me in welcoming the Pan Am athletes and offering our congratulations to all of those involved for what is sure to be the most successful Pan Am Games ever. Thank you.

Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): Madam Speaker, in the last two days I have had discussions with people from Grand Rapids and Lac du Bonnet who are very disappointed in the actions this government has taken by passing Bill 47 which will exempt Manitoba Telecom Services from paying taxes. Grand Rapids and Lac du Bonnet passed by-laws in their communities to have personal properties assessed on Manitoba Hydro in their communities.

The province was to assess these properties, but over the last couple of years the assessor has refused to do that work. As a result, the two communities had to go to the Court of Queen's Bench to get the assessor to do his job. The province tried to talk both these communities into dropping their case, but they refused. However, the case was to be held in June and was extended into September. When it was extended, they were given the assurances to have the same conditions in place at the time that the case would be heard. However, this government has brought forward legislation which changes those conditions. They made a commitment to the communities that the retroactive clause in the bill would be removed, and it has not been removed.

It seems very strange that this government did not recognize the problems they were creating when they privatized Manitoba Telephone System, that it was a private corporation and should be paying taxes. Now they have brought in an exemption for Manitoba Telecom Services and Manitoba Hydro, and it is hypocritical to try to think that you can treat a private corporation like MTS and Manitoba Hydro the same. This legislation that the government has brought forward will cause concerns for many municipalities, that they will not be able to collect taxes on other private corporations. It is unfortunate that the government did not do more consultation before they brought this bill forward, rather than saying that they are going to do the consultation after the bill is passed.

Ms. Marianne Cerilli (Radisson): Madam Speaker, the countdown for the Pan Am Games is indeed on. There is only nine days to go. The torch is in Manitoba. The sprinklers are going full time to try and get the new sod to grow. They are madly trying to finish the Norwood Bridge and other infrastructure. The teams are being announced, and what do we have? We have MTS, the first corporate sponsor, has its employees locked out, with no consideration about the games. Before the games, MTS was the first corporate sponsor, but that was before privatization. That was when MTS was a Crown corporation and a Manitoba company. Now that MTS is 80 percent owned by people who are not Manitoban, they do not care about their employees and they do not seem to care about what happens in Manitoba.

The employees, of course, are concerned about their jobs, and MTS also is not concerned about jobs and keeping jobs in Manitoba. There are 1,100 jobs that have been lost since they privatized MTS and hundreds of employees that are now locked out are concerned that their jobs are next in line, that they are going to be contracted out and will lose more jobs to the United States. The operating jobs could go to Phoenix, Arizona.

The employees are walking the pavement in front of the MTS buildings now, and those hundreds of people are slated–a number of them–to be volunteers at the Pan Am Games. But they are at risk of having to forfeit that opportunity in order to try and get the company back to the bargaining table. We know that the government currently has four board members who are still part of the board, and we want the Premier (Mr. Filmon) to pick up the phone and not jeopardize the MTS sponsorship of the games, to have MTS get back to the bargaining table so that these employees can have a decent summer like the rest of us.

Mr. David Faurschou (Portage la Prairie): May I first say my appreciation to all members of the House at this time for allowing me to rise here this afternoon. I rise today to offer congratulations to Dan and Anita Penner of Halbstadt, Manitoba, who were this year's winners of Manitoba's Outstanding Young Farmers Award. Dan and Anita were recognized this past weekend at the annual event during Saturday night's official opening of the Portage Ex. The Outstanding Young Farmer Award is a project sponsored by Canada's Jaycees and the alumni which honours young farmers for their achievements in agriculture. Candidates must be between the ages of 18 and 39 and receive two-thirds of their income through farming.

It goes without saying that the Penners are no strangers to farming. Dan has been farming for over 14 years and currently Anita, Dan, and Dan's brothers grow grain, special crops, beans, oilseeds, and corn on their 3,300-acre farm at Halbstadt. In addition to farming, the Penners are valued volunteers in their community. They are active leaders in the 4-H club, in church activities, and co-ordinate local junior curling. They also are involved in the Rhineland Ag Society, Farm Women's Committee, Manitoba Sugar Beet Producers' Association, which has since been not as active, however, at its time, they were most active, and the Manitoba Pulse Growers' Association.

The Penners are not only outstanding farmers, they are outstanding community people. Mr. Chair, I might like to add that they have been mentored by a member of this House, the Honourable Jack Penner, who is the member for Emerson. Dan is Jack Penner's son. Jack has shown leadership in the ag community all throughout his life. I am certain that Dan and Anita have benefited from that leadership.

I would like also to recognize the other honourees in the competition. They were: Darryl and Tara Albrecht of Boissevain; Kevin and Bev Coughbrough of Portage la Prairie; and Robert and Leifa Misko from Roblin. Each family has demonstrated excellence in farming, and I congratulate them all as being the finalists in this competition.

Mr. Chair, I ask all honourable members to join me in congratulating Dan and Anita on winning Manitoba's Outstanding Young Farmer Award and wishing them all the very best in the national competition this fall in Regina competing against the seven other regions nationally. Congratulations and good luck.