LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF
Monday, March 14, 2005
The House met at 1:30 p.m.
PRAYERS
ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS
Westman Area Physician
Shortage
Mr. Cliff Cullen (
These are the reasons for the this petition:
The Westman region
serving
As a result of the severe
shortage of pediatricians to serve the Westman area,
The Chiefs of the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Practice and Anesthesia at the Brandon Regional Health Centre have publicly voiced their concern regarding the potentially disastrous consequences of the shortage.
The Minister of Health
(Mr. Sale) has stated that
Doctors have warned that if the current situation is prolonged, it may result in further loss of services or the departure of other specialists who find the situation unmanageable.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To strongly urge the
Minister of Health to consider taking charge and ensuring that he will improve
long-term planning efforts to develop a lasting solution to the chronic problem
of pediatrician and other specialist shortages in
To strongly urge the Minister of Health to treat this as the crisis that it is and consider consulting with front line workers, particularly doctors, to find solutions.
To strongly urge the Minister of Health and the Premier of Manitoba to consider ending highway medicine now.
Signed by Moray Jamieson, Tim Klassen, Andrew Lodge and others.
Mr. Speaker: In accordance with our Rule 132(6), when petitions are read they are deemed to be received by the House.
Highway 200
Mrs. Mavis Taillieu (Morris): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
These are the reasons for this petition:
Highway 200 is paved from
Due to unsafe conditions, many drivers look to alternate routes around this section when possible and time permits. The condition of the gravel road can cause serious damage to all vehicles.
Insufficient traffic counts are not truly reflective of the traffic volumes because users tend to find another route to avoid this section. Traffic counts done after spring seeding, during wet weather or during school recess are not indicative of traffic flows.
Maintenance costs for unpaved highways are high and ongoing. It would be cost-effective to pave this section.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request that the Minister of Transportation and Government Services (Mr. Lemieux) consider paving Highway 200 between highways 205 and 305 to ensure a smooth, safe and uninterrupted use of Highway 200.
Signed by R. Painter, Eric Cousineau, Remi Sorin and others.
* (13:35)
Riverdale Health Centre
Mrs. Leanne Rowat (Minnedosa): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
These are the reasons for the petition:
The Riverdale Health
Centre services a population of approximately 2000, including the town of
The need for renovation or repair of the Riverdale Health Centre was identified in 1999 by the Marquette Regional Health Authority (RHA) and was the No. 1 priority listed in the RHA's 2002-2003 Operational Plan.
To date, the community has raised over $460,000 towards the renovation or repair of the health centre.
On June 1, 2003, the Premier (Mr. Doer) made a commitment to the community of Rivers that he would not close or downgrade the services available at the Riverdale Health Centre.
Due to physician
shortages, the Riverdale Health Centre has been closed to acute care and
emergency services for long periods since December 2003, forcing community
members to travel to
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To urge the Premier to consider ensuring that acute care and emergency services are available to the residents of Rivers and surrounding areas in their local hospital and to live up to his promise to not close the Rivers Hospital.
To request that the
Minister of Health (Mr.
This petition has been signed by Connie Dixhoorn, Sharon Lamb, Karen Hooper and including others.
Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (
The background to this petition is as follows:
The provincial government is misleading the public by saying they had a surplus of $13 million in the 2003-2004 budget.
The provincial auditor has indicated that the $13-million surplus the government says it had cannot be justified.
The provincial auditor has also indicated that the Province is using its own made up accounting rules in order to show a surplus instead of using generally accepted accounting principles.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request the provincial
government to consider adopting generally accepted accounting principles in
reporting
Signed by Leo Tolledo, Warren Tolledo and Carmelita Tolledo.
* (13:40)
Ambulance Service
Mr. Ron Schuler (
These are the reasons for this petition:
In May 2004, 46-year-old Peter Krahn suffered a heart attack while exercising in East St. Paul and was pronounced dead just under an hour later after being transported to the Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg. Reports show that it took nearly 18 minutes for an ambulance to arrive for Mr. Krahn.
The Interlake Regional
Health Authority claims that 21 minutes is an acceptable emergency response time, whereas the City of
Ambulance coverage for
The municipalities of
East St. Paul and
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request the provincial
government to consider providing East St. Paul with local ambulance service
which would service both East and
To request the provincial government to consider improving the way that ambulance service is supplied to all Manitobans by utilizing technologies such as GPS in conjunction with a Medical Transportation Co-ordination Centre (MTCC) which will ensure that patients receive the nearest ambulance in the least amount of time.
To request the provincial government to consider ensuring that appropriate funding is provided to maintain superior response times and sustainable services.
Signed by Shane Roberton,
Aaron Roberton, Jamie Roberton and others.
Bill 17–The Regional
Health Authorities Amendment and
Amendment Act
Hon. Tim Sale (Minister of Health): I move, seconded by the honourable Attorney General (Mr. Mackintosh), that Bill 17, The Regional Health Authorities Amendment and Manitoba Evidence Amendment Act; Loi modifiant la Loi sur les offices régionaux de la santé et la Loi sur la preuve au Manitoba, be now read a first time.
Mr. Speaker: It has been moved by the honourable Minister of Health, seconded by the honourable Attorney General, that Bill 17, The Regional Health Authorities Amendment and Manitoba Evidence Amendment Act, be now read a first time.
Mr. Sale: Mr. Speaker, this bill builds on the work of the patient safety regime on which we have been working very hard for the last couple of years. It improves the climate within the health care system for reporting critical incidents, requires critical incidents to be examined and requires for the first time that information concerning patients be given to them in a prompt manner without any costs. I think it strikes a balance between the rights of patients and the needs of the system to have an open inquiry atmosphere.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Introduction of Guests
Mr. Speaker: Prior to Oral Questions, I would like to draw the attention of all honourable members to the Speaker's Gallery where we have with us today the Honourable Mauril Bélanger, Minister responsible for Official Languages and for Democratic Reform for the House of Commons.
Also we have the Honourable Raymond Simard, Member of Parliament for St. Boniface.
We also have Ann Scotton, director general, Privy Council Office.
We also have Orli Namian, director of communications.
Also we have Guy
Jourdain, senior advisor of the French Languages Services Secretariat for the
Also in the public gallery from Louis Riel Institute Adult Learning Centre we have 10 students under the direction of Mr. Darryl Toews. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable Member for Point Douglas (Mr. Hickes).
Also in the public
gallery from
On behalf of all honourable members, I welcome you here today.
Gang Activity
Reduction Strategy
Mr. Stuart Murray (Leader
of the Official Opposition): Mr. Speaker, in the
1999 election, the NDP ran on a platform of a Gang Action Plan that was going
to get rid of the gangs in
During the last few days
we have seen four shootings in
Why is this Premier
allowing the gang violence in
* (13:45)
Hon. Gary Doer (Premier): Mr. Speaker, today again, consistent with our promises that we made
in the 2003 election campaign, we announced the largest increase in police
officers in the history of
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, this is very consistent with the commitments that we made in the 2003 election. We also promised to increase the capacity and staffing in our Prosecutions branch, which we have done. We have also promised to increase opportunities for young people, in particular, to have schools that are open into the evening and on weekends, called Lighthouses.
Mr. Speaker, I recall
when the RCMP funding was cut and the number of officers that were authorized
went down by 96 in 1996. In 1997, when Mr. Vic Toews was the Minister of Justice here in
Mr. Murray: Mr. Speaker, we know full well, and we agree and support any time
that there can be more police put into
the
As I said earlier, the
Banditos have become the fastest growing motorcycle gang unit in the
Mr. Speaker, the NDP has promised to make our communities safer, and they have had six years to do something. They promised it in 1999 and failed. They promised it in 2003 and failed. Why will this Premier not live up to a promise that he made to Manitobans and make our communities safer?
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, members opposite, including some of the ones making the
most noise in the Chamber today, cut the number of RCMP officers in
Mr. Speaker, the members
opposite in their alternative budget in the last election campaign called it a
1% increase for spending in Justice over the next four years. This budget alone
puts 9.5% more into police here in
Mr. Murray: Mr. Speaker, Manitobans want action, not words. They want something now.
Mr. Speaker, a gang
expert on CJOB stated that the Banditos have targeted
Mr. Speaker, StatsCan
show that one police officer in
* (13:50)
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite wants to read previous newspaper
articles, there is an article in 1997, 1998, in the Winnipeg Free Press that documents the unfortunate entry of gangs
into
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, when you have no facts you just try to yell. You just try to yell.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, it is documented. I will send the newspaper article over to the member opposite. It is also documented–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order. We are early into Question Period. We have guests in the gallery, we have the viewing public and the clock is ticking. The honourable First Minister has the floor.
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, the work of the
The announcement today, unlike the action in '97 by Mr. Vic Toews to reduce the number of police officers in this province, we increased the officers when we were elected, and the largest increase of police officers in the history of Manitoba is being made and announced today pursuant to the budget we brought in last week.
Gang Activity
Reduction Strategy
Mr. Kelvin Goertzen
(Steinbach): Mr. Speaker, the presence of outlaw
motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels and the Banditos which were welcomed
into the province under this administration; you know, the Premier goes down to
We had a shootout on
Hon. Gord Mackintosh
(Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Mr.
Speaker, it was odd to hear the critic opposite on Friday go in the hallways to
denounce The Highway Traffic Act provisions around prostitution that were
brought in by the Conservative government under Mr. Filmon. I invite him to
denounce the other inactivity of the Filmon government in countering not only
gangs and organized crime in
I remind the House that
during most of the 1990s,
Mr. Goertzen: Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister of Justice can persuade his Premier (Mr. Doer) not to go to any more trade missions because all he does is bring us back more organized gangs.
Since the turf war began
on the gangs in Québec, there have been more than a hundred deaths, including
that of an 11-year-old boy. There have been 84 bombings, 130 reported cases of
arson, 9 missing people. Now people of
The NDP Minister of Justice has sat in that chair for six long years. He has had 2000 days of dithering and now he is asking Manitobans, please give me another 700 days and I will solve the problem. Well, Mr. Speaker, how many more people have to be shot at, died or killed on the weekend, next weekend, the weekend after or this summer? Six long years is enough. What is he going to do today to solve the problem?
* (13:55)
Mr. Mackintosh: Mr. Speaker, the opposition asks what are we doing today. Today we
announced the largest increase in
Mr. Speaker, what does
that largest increase to policing in Manitoba history mean? It means that,
unlike when there were record crime rates and violent crime rates in
Mr. Goertzen: Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice just continues on with his policing shell game. He knows that there is not going to be any more police officers on the street next week. He knows there is not going to be any more police officers on the street the week after that. We do not think there is going to be any more police officers on the street this summer. Now Manitobans are worried about a bloody turf war this summer because this Minister of Justice has sat in that seat for six long years and done nothing.
So now he pleads to
Manitobans, please just give me two more years. I failed you for the last six
years, but I am going to try harder for the next two years. Well, Mr. Speaker,
after a shootout on
Mr. Mackintosh: Mr. Speaker, rather than one day coming in and screaming and yelling and running off in all directions at once, each and every day we have been in office we have worked hard to increase the safety of Manitobans by many innovative initiatives. Today we have announced that over the next two years there will be an addition of 54 new police officers across this province. I regret that, indeed, if the members opposite had formed government in 2003, and based on their budget from their election, this province would have had 50 less officers under their government. Thank goodness Manitobans voted for this government and a commitment to public safety.
Financial Statements
Deficit Reporting
Mr. Gerald Hawranik (Lac du Bonnet): Mr. Speaker, Manitobans do not trust any budget presented by this NDP. The Minister of Finance presented the last five budgets as balanced, yet the Auditor General stated that three of those last five budgets ran deficits. It is no wonder that the B.C. minister of the Crown commented that this NDP is guilty of sneaky accounting practices since the 2003-04 budget figures and financial statements were cooked by this NDP.
I ask the Minister of Finance this. Are the 2005-06 budget numbers also cooked?
Hon. Greg Selinger
(Minister of Finance): Mr. Speaker, we balanced the
budget under the laws of Manitoba every year since we have been in office. The law
that was put in place by the members opposite, we balanced under their rules.
If the member would have taken a moment to read this year's budget, he would
have noticed we balanced under the rules and the law of the
If the member opposite can find anywhere where the Auditor says that we have not complied with balanced budget legislation, let him stand and demonstrate that today. The opposite has occurred. We have met the test of balanced budget legislation every single year, and going forward we will meet the summary budget requirements.
Mr. Speaker: Order. I cannot even hear the questions and the answers. Let us have some decorum in the House. I can hardly hear the questions and the answers. I ask the co-operation of all honourable members.
Mr. Hawranik: Mr. Speaker, the NDP have a history of cooking the books. In 1984, the provincial auditor stated that the NDP Finance Minister, Vic Schroeder, cooked the books by not showing the full extent of the deficit in the '83-84 fiscal year. Would the Minister of Finance agree that not showing the full extent of the deficit in 1984 is no different than denying a $604-million deficit in 2004? Would he also agree that yesterday's NDP is no different from today's NDP and that the books were in fact cooked?
* (14:00)
Mr. Selinger: It is absolutely 100% clear we have balanced the budget under balanced budget legislation every year since we have been in office. We are now moving to a higher standard of addressing the summary budget as recommended by the provincial auditor. We will do that after we do our due diligence. The budget statement shows very clearly this year that we balanced under both tests, balanced budget legislation and the summary budget. We are balancing under both of those tests.
Mr. Speaker, the only thing that has been cooked in this province was the 1995 election by the members opposite.
Mr. Hawranik: This NDP denies running a $604-million deficit in 2004–
Mr. Speaker: Order. Members who wish to have a conversation, please do it in the loge or out in the hallway. I need to be able to hear the questions and the answers. All the yelling back and forth, I cannot hear a thing. I ask the co-operation of all honourable members once again.
Mr. Hawranik: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This NDP denies running a $604-million deficit in '03-04. Manitobans cannot trust this NDP when it comes to budgets. The Auditor General's recent report stated that the financial statements of the Province portrays a misleading-by-omission picture of the Province's finances.
Why should Manitobans believe any of the numbers in this year's budget, and why should Manitobans believe that this year's budget is balanced and not cooked as we have seen in past budgets?
Mr. Selinger: The member opposite makes an allegation which is completely at odds with the facts in terms of balanced budget legislation, and then he asks us to confirm his allegations.
We do not operate that
way. We follow the laws of
Health Care Services
Funding
Mrs. Myrna Driedger (Charleswood): The Minister of Health admitted to the media that the NDP put forward a false Health budget last year. In fact, he said that the Province really had no intention of ever meeting the budget for Health it set in April.
I would like to ask the Minister of Finance why he accepted false numbers from his Minister of Health in last year's Health budget.
Hon. Greg Selinger (Minister of Finance): Once again, another artificially created accusation by the member opposite. No connection to the facts, no connection to what we printed in the budget, no connection to the actual reality of the situation. We balanced the budget last year. We balanced the budget the year before that. We balanced the budget the year before that. We balanced the budget the year before that. The only problem the members opposite have is that we have been a success under their legislation, and they have not done anything in those six years.
Mrs. Driedger: It was the Minister of Health who admitted to the media that the Province purposely underfunded its Health budget this year. He said that the Province had no intention of meeting the budget for Health it set in April. This came from the Minister of Health to the media.
Mr. Speaker, I went into those Estimates last year in good faith, thinking that the numbers that were presented before me were accurate. I was there representing taxpayers of this province.
I would like to ask the Minister of Finance why he felt it was acceptable for his government to accept false numbers in the Health budget.
Mr. Selinger: Setting aside for the moment that this question is under review as a question of privilege by you, and whether or not the question should even be allowed–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Selinger: It is very clear that we balanced the budget last year and every year prior to that. We will balance the budget next year. We will balance the budget under balanced budget legislation. We will balance the budget under summary budget legislation. We will improve health care for Manitobans. We will reduce taxes for families. We will put more resources into the justice system. We will put more resources into schools. We will protect the environment. We will make sure families have a good and prosperous future in this province. All those things members opposite failed to do when they were in office.
Mrs. Driedger: Mr. Speaker, by cooking the budget the last year, the whole budget process now has been compromised by this NDP government. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance how can we possibly trust their numbers this year when, in fact, we have the Minister of Health who said that they deliberately cooked the books last year. How do we know those books are not cooked this year? How can we trust their budget, any of their budgets, because this whole process has now been compromised?
Mr. Selinger: As I have already indicated, Mr. Speaker, we have balanced the budget
every year since we have been in office. We are now moving to a full summary
budget. We will balance under that test as well. We will go into Estimates and
explain the decisions we have made in terms of allocations of money to every
department, including Health. We will be fully accountable for the results as
we have been every year, and we will, once again, make sure that
Financial Statements
Deficit Reporting
Mr. John Loewen (
I would ask the Minister of Finance this. What can we believe about this year's budget? How can we believe anything that is tabled in this document, given that one of his ministers and a member of Treasury Board has already admitted that last year's budget was false and totally unaccountable?
Hon. Greg Selinger (Minister of Finance): Mr. Speaker, we balanced the budget last year and we balanced the budget the year before that. We balanced the budget the year before that. We propose balancing the budget this year. We will do that.
The only overspending that I remember that was not actually budgeted for was in the election of 1999-2000, when they did collective agreements with the nurses and did not include it in the budget. They did all kinds of election, pre-election, goodies which they did not budget for, and when we reviewed the books we had to include them in the year-end statement. Members opposite know what it is like not to budget for things. We know what it is like to budget for things and then to make it happen.
Mr. Loewen: Mr. Speaker, in the budget process all the numbers from all the departments go to Treasury Board. Treasury Board then approves those numbers, prints them in the budget, and they are distributed not only to the members of this Legislature but to the people of Manitoba as the honest and true facts regarding government's proposed spending for the year.
What we found out last year was this is a government that had no intention of ever meeting their budget from last year. What can Manitobans expect this year? How much more spending is not included in this year's budget? How many numbers in this year's budget have been fudged? What are we going to find out this December that is not true in this book?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, there have been headlines in the newspaper saying, "Fudging the books." There have been headlines saying, "Watchdog puts bite on surplus." Those headlines were in 1998, and the headline went, "PCs fudging the books." The headline read, "Watchdog puts bite on Tory surplus." The members opposite were the ones that brought in balanced budget legislation. They knew at the time it did not comply with the standards put forward by the provincial auditor. They created the problem. We are solving it.
* (14:10)
Mr. Loewen: Mr. Speaker, this government has not solved the problem in five and
a half years, and it is time they stood up and finally admitted that. In an
unprecedented move this year, the Auditor General removed the word
"fairly" when commenting on the Province's balanced budget. He
indicated quite clearly
that the budgets were not balanced and this government was not treating
Manitobans fairly. They were not treating them fairly when they produced the
budget. They were not treating them fairly when they produced the financial
statements. He is not treating them fairly when he produces this year's budget.
When are we going to get the real numbers?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, the real numbers that
the provincial auditor wants are those numbers under a summary budget
presentation. We have provided them in our last three budgets. We provide them
in the Public Accounts. As I explained earlier, the provincial auditor has
problems with the balanced budget legislation which is the proud centerpiece of
the members opposite. They created the problem, we will solve the problem.
While we are solving the problem we will meet all the legal tests required in
Culinary Arts Program
Mrs. Leanne Rowat (Minnedosa): Mr. Speaker, the NDP is refusing to live up to
their obligation of funding our educational institutions fairly by ignoring
Mr.
Speaker, I have a question for the Advanced Education Minister. Why must ACC
wait until this NDP government decides on whether or not to fund the college in
its Culinary Arts program?
Hon. Diane McGifford (Minister of Advanced Education and Training): Mr. Speaker, I thank the member
for her question. This government has a very proud record in funding both
colleges and universities. I would like to point out to the member opposite
that since 1999, we have added $45 million to university operational funding.
Mr.
Speaker, I would like to point out that in the same time period we have added
$11.2 million, or 18 percent to the college budget, but if we add the College
Expansion Initiative monies into that sum, we have added, get ready for this,
$40 million to college education, an increase of 63 percent. I hear the dulcet
tones of the member from Russell emanating across to me.
Mrs. Rowat: Mr.
Speaker, with the increase in funding and this government's supposed interest
in excellence in education, why is this program being offered out of a basement
of a church? The
Why
is the Minister of Advanced Education and Training prepared to allow the
Culinary Arts program to continue to deteriorate? Who is going to want to take
a program in a church basement?
Ms. McGifford: Mr. Speaker, I do not quite understand these disparaging remarks about
churches and church basements. Just setting that aside, what is quite often interesting about questions is
not necessarily what is in the question but what is left out of the question.
What this member did not include in her question was the information that it
was this government opposite that started the program in church basements.
Mrs. Rowat: Mr.
Speaker, with an increase of $64 million in funding, I think that this minister
is neglecting ACC, definitely neglecting the community. The Advanced Education
Minister stated last Thursday that any decision on expanding ACC would have to
wait until after the process to redevelop the Brandon Mental Health Centre. I
do not know where the correlation is here, but I thought that issue was dead.
Why
is the Minister of Advanced Education making the college wait for a decision
based on the BMHC consultation? The president of the college is saying,
"Where is the connection? Why can one not happen without the other?"
Ms. McGifford: Mr. Speaker, just to return to the question of the Culinary Arts program for a few minutes again, the member asked why the program was started in church basements, and I indicated that it was her side of the House that, in fact, did that. They began a certification program, a certificate program. What we did in government through the College Expansion Initiative was boost that program to a two-year diploma program with that involving a large infusion of College Expansion Initiative dollars.
So we are very proud of the work that we are doing. We recognize the importance of the Culinary Arts program when it comes to tourism and economic development in the city of Brandon. We have done good things for this program, Mr. Speaker, and we remain committed to it.
Children's Dental Health
Government Initiatives
Hon. Jon Gerrard (
I ask the Minister of Health how his government has spent billions of dollars on health care, but achieved so little when it comes to improving the dental health of our precious children in this province.
Hon. Tim Sale (Minister of
Health): Mr. Speaker, we have begun to move many
surgeries into rural
In Beausejour, which the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Murray) spoke against this move, Mr. Speaker, we have a hundred dental procedures in Beausejour for children. With that said, we agree that the situation with children's dental services is not adequate which is why we are adding 600 surgeries at Misericordia this year. In addition, this is 100% preventable, or virtually 100 percent. We need to work with northern communities and inner urban communities to make sure that babies do not go to bed with bottles that have sugar in them, that their mothers get proper prenatal nutrition and that this disease is avoided and eliminated.
Mr. Gerrard: The answer is prevention, but the NDP have done nothing. In early October 1999, at the time the Premier was sworn in, I said how the new NDP government addresses the issue of dental health for children will be a test of whether Gary Doer and his team can make a real break with the disastrous policies of the previous Tory government. Yet today, 50 to 80 percent of children in some northern communities are afflicted. In one community, it is 99 percent.
The government cannot pin this one on the former Tory government because almost all the children who are being treated today were not even born when the Tories were in office. Today children are suffering needlessly because this government is not doing its job.
I ask the Premier this. Why does the government not care enough about our children's health to make it a priority? What is this government–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Sale: Mr. Speaker, I was very proud when our Premier said that when we introduced the Healthy Baby prenatal allowance, a baby is a baby is a baby, whether it is a baby in a First Nations community, a Métis community, a northern community, an urban community or a southern community. That is why we introduced that allowance to all women who were pregnant anywhere in Manitoba. It stands as a centrepiece of our work with children.
Mr. Speaker, if those who sold soft drinks in our communities, all of our communities in the North simply sold sugar-free drinks, we would have a whole lot less dental decay. If the federal government mirrors the recent increase of 20 percent in the northern food allowance, which we made in our social assistance rates, we will have more ability on the part of First Nations people living on reserves to afford good food. The answer to this question is with nutrition; prenatal, postnatal. Do not put your baby to bed with a bottle that has sugar in it.
Crime Rate
Reduction Strategy
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to dealing with crime on the streets, when it comes to dealing with auto thefts, we have the highest auto theft in the country, in terms of per capita. In terms of gang activities, it is an ever-growing industry in our province. When it comes to child prostitution, this government has done nothing in dealing with that issue. Time and time again in crime-related issues, this government has failed. This minister has failed.
The question I have to
ask of the Minister of Justice is how do you issue so many press releases, how
do you spend so much money and yet get zero for results. When are you going to
stop trying to pass the buck and passing the blame, whether it is to
* (14:20)
Hon. Gord Mackintosh (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Mr. Speaker, I was certainly dismayed to hear of the remarks of the member opposite when it came to our call on the federal government to take some meaningful crime prevention initiative around auto theft. It is one thing for the justice system to suppress crime, and we have been doing our best working with law enforcement, but there are challenges like auto theft that can be prevented. They can be prevented by technology because vehicles today are manufactured, unfortunately, to too great of an extent to be stolen.
When the member stands up in this House, I would hope that he would support efforts of Canadians and members on this side of the House for crime prevention, calling on the federal government and calling on the manufacturers of vehicles to stand up for the safety of Manitobans.
Canadian Millennium
Foundation
Aboriginal Education
Projects
Ms. Marilyn Brick (St.
Norbert): Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education,
Citizenship and Youth recently announced funding for a project to assist
Aboriginal students in a number of secondary schools in rural and northern
Hon. Peter Bjornson
(Minister of Education, Citizenship and Youth): Thank
you for the question. I was very delighted to be joined by my colleague, the MLA for Lord Roberts,
the Minister of Advanced Education and Training (Ms. McGifford) to welcome Mr.
Norman Riddell, the executive director and chief executive officer of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Mr. Speaker, we have signed an agreement that
will see $2 million from the foundation and $1 million from the
It was an absolutely wonderful day last Monday when we made this announcement. We are looking forward to a combination of academic supports, exposure to post-secondary options, community and parent liaison and mentoring in Aboriginal cultural context. This research will help us make sound decisions around policy.
Transport Vision Report
Release
Mr. Larry Maguire
(Arthur-Virden): Mr. Speaker, a total of 10 people
died on
Hon. Ron Lemieux (Minister of Transportation and Government Services): I appreciate the question very much. Just with regard to transportation overall, the member asked a number of questions last week related to it, and we appreciate the consultation and input we have had from communities. The member from Transcona was chairing this particular committee and working group, a steering committee with regard to 2020. There is a paper being prepared and that paper will be prepared as soon as the draft is completed.
Mr. Speaker, just taking a look at our record with regard to continuing our commitment to a better transportation infrastructure program, this year's budget put $145 million into the transportation system. Overall, that is an increase of $16 million more than last year, unprecedented numbers in this province.
Black History Month
Ms. Marilyn Brick (St. Norbert): I would like to draw your attention to an important event that happens in February. That event was Black History Month 2005. Black History Month ran Sunday, January 30 to Saturday, March 5, 2005.
I had the honour of
attending the official opening ceremony of Black History Month. The ceremony
was held at the
Black History Month is an
essential part of Canada's history. This is a history of resilience, strength,
contributing to the community and compassion. It allows us to reflect on the
achievements and contributions of black people in
Black History Month was
first celebrated in the
In conclusion, I want to congratulate the 2005 planning committee. Wade Kojo Williams Sr., Mrs. Mavis McLaren, Mr. Daswell McLeod, Miss Nardia Leslie, Dr. Beryle Jones, Mrs. Pauline Nembhard, Miss Wilma Weekes, Ms. June Springer and Miss Carlette Hibbert. I wish Manitoba's black community continued success, and I thank them for having an active voice in promoting this diversity in our communities.
R.M. of Whitemouth
Mr. Gerald Hawranik (Lac du Bonnet): I had the pleasure of attending the centennial celebration banquet for the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth with my wife Pamela, my daughter Melanie and my son-in-law Steve. Also attending was the Lieutenant-Governor, the Leader of the Official Opposition (Mr. Murray), the Member of Parliament from Provencher, the Minister of Family Services (Ms. Melnick) and many reeves, former reeve councillors, former councillors and guests.
I offer my sincere
congratulations to the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth on their centennial. A
community is only as good as the people who live there. The people in the Rural
Municipality of Whitemouth are and always have been generous not only to their
community but to others. The Rural Municipality of Whitemouth is quickly
getting a reputation as a small community with a big heart. The CPR holiday
trains stopped in Whitemouth for the last two years, and last year, a total of
2200 pounds of food and $4,750 was raised for local food banks in northeastern
Canadian singer Tom Jackson who was part of the entertainment on the holiday train was so impressed with the generosity and enthusiasm of the residents of the municipality that he staged a special Christmas performance in Whitemouth last December.
Most everyone in the municipality is a volunteer at some time or another. Everyone works together to make the municipality a better place to live, to work and to raise a family. Volunteers in every community provide an identity to the community. The identity that the volunteers provide to the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth is one of caring, compassionate, community spirit.
Over the last 100 years, many reeves and councillors were elected in the municipality. They met all the challenges they were faced with. All of them only had the public interest and service to the residents of the municipality in mind. I congratulate all of them for their selfless service to the municipality.
Congratulations to the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth on its centennial and good luck on the many other centennial events planned this year, including the school reunion banquet planned for July 23, and the antique car show on July 24, 2005. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Tributes to Flin Flon
Constituents
Mr. Gerard Jennissen (Flin
Flon): This
is my first opportunity since the session started to draw the attention of the
House to four people who have had a positive impact on northern
The first three are from
Secondly, Dr. George
Skelly of
* (14:30)
Thirdly, Ben Ford of
As well, on February 22,
Father Alcide P. Cossette, an Oblate priest now living at Casa Bonita in St.
Boniface, celebrated his 100th birthday. Father Cossette worked for many years
in northern Manitoba communities including the community of Lynn Lake.
Occasionally he helped out as temporary parish priest in
I call on all members in the House to join me in congratulating these four outstanding northern Manitoba citizens. We wish them many more years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
University Sports
Mr. John Loewen (
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Simon Fraser University Clansmen who won the championship and, in particular, our own University of Winnipeg Wesmen and head coach Tanya McKay, who were able to get to the final and, unfortunately, although being only two points down with little over a minute left, were unable to overcome the hurdle. Congratulations to them for winning the silver medal.
Also a significant
weekend in that the
I just think it is
regrettable that, due to the lack of funding provided by this government,
instead of being able to concentrate their full attention on winning a national
championship, the Brandon Bobcats are going to have to worry whether they are
going to have a team to play on next year. It is an unfortunate situation when
this government will not support our young people, will not support young
people in
Mr. Speaker, this government may not realize it, but in pursuing that dream many of these athletes are going to be faced with a difficult question of whether or not they are going to be able to attend the University of Brandon next year, whether they are going to have to look for a new university, or in fact, whether they may lose a year of eligibility because of this government's lack of foresight.
Congratulations to all
those athletes across
India School of Dance,
Music and Theatre
Ms. Bonnie Korzeniowski
(St. James): Mr. Speaker, on Friday, March 11, our
government took great pride in demonstrating our commitment to
Mr. Speaker: Order. Once again, I would like to remind all honourable members when making their reference to another member in the House not to do it by name, but members by constituency and ministers by their titles.
Ms. Korzeniowski: –could never be as strong as they are without the support and commitment of local organizations and volunteers."
Premier Doer's words could not be more clearly illustrated–
Mr. Speaker: Order. I have just kindly asked the honourable member when making a reference to another member in the House, to do it by constituency or ministers by their titles, not by their names.
Ms. Korzeniowski: The Premier's words could not be more clearly illustrated to me than they were the following day, Saturday, March 12, at a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the India School of Dance, Music and Theatre. Since it first opened its doors a quarter of a century ago, the India School of Dance, Music and Theatre has been a base of instruction, performance, learning and preservation of the East Indian arts.
If there was ever any question of the need to preserve an art, the performances on Saturday night were completely persuasive. The beauty, the power, the sheer artistry of the world-renowned dancer Jai Govinda, indeed the artistry of all the performers in Saturday's presentation, were breathtaking.
Classical Indian dance must be among the most elaborate and intricate performance arts. On one hand, the audience is offered a sensory feast of sound, colour and meaning. On the other hand, one is challenged to catch the multitude of subtle and explicit movements.
The school has proven itself to be a bridge across the ethnic and cultural differences, built on the arts and anchored in a multicultural society's ability to transcend differences through artistic endeavour.
I ask my honourable
colleagues to join me in congratulating the India School of Dance, Music and Theatre on its remarkable history of growth, development, change and
response to the artistic and ethno-cultural development of
The India School of Dance, Music and Theatre is an illustration and an exemplar of the cultural and cross-cultural arts organization, that our Premier (Mr. Doer) and Minister of Culture (Mr. Robinson) took such pride in recognizing with their announcement last Friday.
ORDERS OF THE DAY
GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
(Fifth Day of Debate)
Mr. Speaker: Resume debate on the proposed motion of the honourable Minister of Finance (Mr. Selinger), that this House approve in general the budgetary policy of the government, and the proposed motion of the honourable Leader of the Official Opposition (Mr. Murray), in amendment thereto, standing in the name of the honourable Member for Charleswood, who has 16 minutes remaining.
Mrs. Myrna Driedger
(Charleswood): Mr. Speaker, in the 20 minutes I am
given for my budget response, the NDP government will have spent almost
$130,000 on health care.
It begs the question why. Why has this amount of money not bought change? Why has over a billion dollars not bought an improvement in access to care? Instead, the only time we see change in the health care system is when the NDP are shamed into it after a crisis hits the front page of the papers, like the crisis in cardiac surgery where 11 patients died waiting for surgery, many of them being bumped a number of times before they had surgery, like the crisis in the ER where patients died, unable to see a doctor, and moms miscarried unable to see a doctor.
Now the NDP crow about how they fixed those two programs, the cardiac surgery program and the ER program. Mr. Speaker, what arrogance. They had warnings about these two crises long before the crises hit. I know because I was the one who issued the warning to them, and they chose to ignore me.
Finally, they have moved on the orthopedic crisis which has gone from an emerging crisis to an actual crisis under their watch. Again, we have been after them for a long time to deal with this situation. Day after day we continue to hear about patients struggling with pain, decreased mobility, loss of work or activity, a decrease in the quality of their life. The NDP turned a blind eye despite numerous situations put before them, numerous cases of people suffering brought to their attention, letter after letter going to the Minister of Health (Mr. Sale). This whole situation with orthopedics has been left in the lurch. Only when their own study was leaked to the media showing a need for this year for at least 1000 more surgeries did they do anything, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, what a pathetic response they had to this crisis. Until they were embarrassed with a front-page story, they did nothing. Instead, they allowed their waiting lists for hips and knees to soar 224 percent from 431 in 2001 to 1400 in November, 2004. Then when called on this pathetic response of theirs, the Minister of Health fudged his numbers. He padded his numbers of hip and knee surgeries to try to make things look better than they were.
Padding numbers, falsifying numbers and cooking the books have become commonplace for this government. This is certainly disconcerting in terms of what we see in health care because there have been numerous occasions where information statistics in health care have been falsified. The nurses have been forced to fudge the numbers of hallway patients waiting. The Minister of Health, in the past, has falsified information in terms of the number of nursing shortages that there are in the province. He has falsified numbers in terms of the number of hip and knee surgeries that were done. Now, Mr. Speaker, we have the Minister of Health who has come forward to the media and indicated that the Health budget of last year that was put forward was also falsified.
* (14:40)
Mr. Speaker, this is all extremely, extremely disconcerting, and there appears to be, by this government, a very, very sad track record in terms of wrong information and misleading information being put forward under the Minister of Health. Now, unless this NDP government can get its act together, the health care system is not going to meet future challenges. Even the Premier (Mr. Doer) says it is going to hit a fiscal wall.
Knowing this, Mr. Speaker, why are they so complacent to promote the status quo because that is all they are doing by pumping more and more money into the system? It will not bring about the changes needed to meet the upcoming challenges. The status quo is only going to perpetuate one crisis after another. The NDP are not the saviours of health care. Their mismanagement today will show up down the road and it is going to be ugly.
They had an opportunity
in this budget to do something about it. Instead, they took the easy way out.
They threw more money at the system. They threw more money at the problems. It
is Manitobans that are going to pay a dear price for this. This was, indeed, a
budget of missed opportunities. The NDP government fell into a windfall paid
for by the rest of
The debt, Mr. Speaker, with that debt Manitobans have, it is now worse than the days of Howard Pawley. There was no can-do attitude from this government in this budget, just a can-spend attitude. Manitobans are going to suffer for it. Thank you very much.
Mr. Harry Schellenberg
(Rossmere): Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to
the 2005 budget. This is the sixth budget since 1999. It is a progressive
budget and a balanced budget. It supports families and communities. It serves
people all over
But, before I say more, I
would first like to congratulate Randy Dutiaume and his curling team for their
excellent play at the Brier this last week in
We must also recognize
and congratulate Randy Dutiaume for winning the sportsmanship award at the
Brier. That is well done. Also congratulations go to the Ferbey foursome for winning their fourth Brier
in the last five years. All the best to the Canadian champs in the World
Championship held in
Mr. Speaker, I must also
congratulate the Jennifer Jones team for winning the Manitoba Women's Curling
Championship in the National Scott Tournament of Hearts and who are now in
Again, I wish the Jennifer
Jones team all the best in
Mr. Speaker, I have
digressed from the budget, but I would first like to say what people are saying
in the community about our economy as well as other indicators or what is the
forecast for our economy. I just heard the Member for Charleswood (Mrs.
Driedger) speak here, and in her speech there was a lot of gloom and doom, the
sky is falling. For instance, I want to give one example, I just read in the Free Press. They had a few excellent examples.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, I
know a member of the Business Council of Manitoba, and he said that
Mr. Speaker, there is
another underlying reason for southern Manitoba doing very well, and that is
that the economy in Manitoba is doing well, and the public has confidence in
the economy. Confidence in the future is the most important thing to a strong
economy. If you listen to the opposition, you would think it is not there, but
this afternoon I want to put the point across that the people of Manitoba
certainly approve of the economy and our budget overall. Sales in real estate
are doing very well in
I would just like to read
a few headlines that have been in the Free
Press recently. Here is one. This is January 3, 2005, the headline,
"City Basks in Optimism."
Strong economic signs give Winnipeggers a positive feeling about their future.
The article goes on to say optimism about the economic future of
I would also like to say, in the same article, it says that the opening of the MTS Centre downtown, another addition to improve life in the central business district, has also contributed to a sense that the city is on a roll. As we continue in the article, it says five years ago when we just got in, people were inclined to be negative. They thought nothing would ever happen here, but now there is an extra bounce in their step.
* (14:50)
I must quote what Lorne Weiss, chairman of the Political Action Committee of the Manitoba Real Estate Association, says: "We have good leadership at the city and provincial levels. The economy is good. The city is growing. There are lots of things to be pleased about." Well, when you read the headlines, when you read the daily papers, you get a very different story than you get from the opposition.
I must also refer to
another article from the Winnipeg Free
Press, March 3, 2005, less than two weeks ago. Here it says consumer
confidence in the local housing market may be at its highest level ever
according to the results of a recent survey conducted by the Cambrian Credit
Union. It says 86 percent of the 500
Also, just recently in
the daily newspaper, I read that according to the Dominion Bond Rating Service,
Mr. Speaker, while I was sort of brushing up on my speech last night, I was watching curling once in a while, and I switched the channel to channel 11. Well, lo and behold, I saw the Leader of the Liberal Party being interviewed. Lo and behold, I saw the finance critics, the Tories, on TV. They were talking with some interviewer, and I thought I might take a few notes down while they were giving their great spiel, but I soon turned it off because I was not getting anything there, and I went back to curling.
Mr. Speaker, I grew up on the farm, and you know what? Whenever you take a pail, an empty pail and you rattle it, it gets that tinny sound, the cheap sound. When you fill it with wheat, you know, it is a solid sound. Well, these people were ringing an empty pail.
Mr. Speaker, our government has been working on paying off the debt and our credit rating is increasing. The sky is not falling as you hear from the opposition in Question Period. Wherever I go in Rossmere and so forth, people are very pleased with what has happened.
I said I was going to
give you some forecast. Well, the Conference Board of Canada projects that
capital investment in
I would like to point out
some of the major capital projects that have been completed or are underway.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out that
There is a Manitoba Hydro building coming downtown. It should be starting in 2005, completed in 2007. The $19-million Millennium Library is coming downtown and being remodelled. Plans are underway for the Red River Floodway Expansion with construction to begin in 2005, completed in 2009. This is a $660-million project.
We have the Biovail
Corporation announcing that it is
going to invest $28 million in the expansion of its Steinbach pharmaceutical
manufacturing facility. Then we have the Richardson Centre for Functional
Foods, which is underway at the
We have the 99-megawatt
St.
Mr. Speaker, there are many more that I could, but time will not allow me to give them all, but I will give you another one, the Rancher's Choice Beef Co-op plan to build a new $16-million mature cattle slaughter plant near Dauphin. Construction is planned to begin in 2005, 60 new jobs to be added. There is lots happening in this province. I have many more examples, but we will leave that for now.
Mr. Conrad Santos, Deputy Speaker, in the Chair
Other indicators point to
a strong economy such as: total personal income in
House values in
The land is strong. This is the strongest population growth in 20 years. With our 2005 budget, the economy will continue to perform very well. Budget 2005 is based on four pillars: pay down the debt, which we are doing; making strategic investments; we have been cutting taxes; we have been saving for the future. But in 2005 we continue to pay down our debt in pensionable liability by increasing this year's payment by $100 million to $110 million, bringing the total to $594 million since 1999 that we have paid down.
This budget continues to make strategic investment in health care, education, infrastructure and clean water. Further, it continues to keep our promises on tax reduction by producing another $80 million in property and personal income tax, as well as an additional $54 million in business taxes. Finally, Budget 2005 invests in our future with a $314-million deposit in the Fiscal Stabilization Fund. This is the second-largest deposit ever made into the fund and it was achieved without selling off a Crown corporation.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I
would like to focus on rural
* (15:00)
The BSE is a crisis of
great magnitude. I realize the stress on farm families because my family that
farmed near Boissevain for many years experienced those same hardships. My
family experienced drought, rain. I remember one year in the fifties
southwestern
Farm families do know how to survive and get through hard times. However, times are different today, I realize, than they were but I do understand the stress and hardship to rural families because of my own personal experience on the farm. I want to say we are concerned about the plight of rural people. Our government has given a total assistance of $116 million to our cattle producers–
An Honourable Member: What are a few zeros?
Mr. Schellenberg: The member from Pembina is getting a little nervous here. I did say $116 million.
We have plans to build a
new $16-million mature cattle slaughter plant near Dauphin, and I will
re-mention that we are cutting farmland school taxes by 50 percent. This is an
indication that we are concerned about rural
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I
could say more. The time is almost up, but I would love to speak on education
and health and what good things have happened in northeast
I also missed telling you
that we have an excellent cancer clinic at the
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am proud to stand in support of this budget. I look forward to receiving the support of all members opposite. I am confident many of them would like to give their vote for the priorities and sound fiscal planning that are reflected in Budget 2005.
Again, I will commend, congratulate the Minister of Finance (Mr. Selinger) for an excellent budget. I thank you.
Mr. Larry Maguire
(Arthur-Virden): Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is my
privilege to be able to put some words on the record in relation to this budget
that has come down by the NDP today as well in
I have heard a lot of
references before this budget came out from the Minister of Finance about how
it would be a good-news budget for Manitobans, and how he raised their
expectations so much that even the press, as I pointed out when it was over,
did not really feel this was that good a budget for Manitoba. They reflected a
lot of the average citizens of
I would never say that a
budget is 100 percent bad. There are some areas in any budget that are
worthwhile moving forward with. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I think that the
opportunities that arise every year from a budget being put forward are
something we have to take very seriously in
We need to provide that opportunity so that our young people have an opportunity and a legacy to be able to stay and build homes and expand their businesses and work for businesses in this province, and that they would be proud to do so and that they would not be put in a detrimental position compared to their peers in other provinces.
I want to say that I
believe in this budget our youth in
Mr. Deputy Speaker,
before I go further, I want to also provide my congratulations to a number of
people in the province. Certainly, it has been mentioned many times in this
House our top-level curlers in
I would like to reiterate
a comment that has been made earlier today too about congratulating the
I would also like to point out that due to the lack of foresight by this government in the budget for developing education, even though they give lip service to saying that education is the future for our young people in Manitoba, which I certainly believe, the university of Brandon Bobcats, though, are going to be wondering whether they will even have a team to play for next year as opposed to being able to concentrate on continuing the saga and the historic legacy that they have put forward.
When the member from Rossmere speaks about historic circumstances, I would say that he of all people should have been one of the first people to have recognized that the reason we have history is so we do not make the same mistakes twice, never mind as many times as this government has made them.
So my theme for this budget presentation is that Manitobans deserve more. Of course, we have seen circumstances where we feel that certain levels of our government would provide for funds for other areas, and in this particular case, I am referring to the federal government providing those funds for our provinces, and the area of education is one that I think was very important.
* (15:10)
Another citizen in my
constituency that I would like to make reference to and congratulate again, as
well, as I have already done private members' statements for Mr. Irvin Goodon
in the Legislature, I would like to
congratulate Mr. Goodon on being
recognized in the inaugural presentations for Businessperson of the Year, among
Métis citizens, as Mr. Goodon was
recognized as one of the two accomplished citizens of the Métis nation in
Canada to be recognized as winning the Businessperson of the Year. Of course,
he had had that accomplishment in
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have made some references to education, and so I want to make it very clear that the government is to be commended for moving in the direction of eliminating education taxes off of farmland. They had an opportunity in this budget with $359 million, I believe it was, increase in transfer payments from the federal government and then the extra taxes they have received from increasing the taxes on professionals, 7% PST last year on lawyers, accountants and architects. They have increased the taxes to Manitobans in those areas. We are quite embarrassed by this budget that they did not dare raise those taxes again at any level, but they still raised the Pharmacare costs to homeowners and individuals from $1 to $5 a month in this budget.
The tax levels that this government has gone to in the previous five budgets that it has brought down has continued to put further hardships on the average Manitoba household in those areas, and so it is no wonder that they have continued to reduce the support levies and the special levy in those areas. But all I would say is they have taken part of the Progressive Conservative page and tried to deliver it in a manner that they were forced into doing by not only ourselves and a provincial budget platform, or our provincial election platform from 2003 to eliminate education taxes off of residences and farmland, which we still will do in the next election after this government is removed from office. We also want to commend them, or mention as well that we would move toward then, over a period of time, working toward the elimination or removal of the education taxes off of commercial property as well.
This government was
forced at the AMM meeting last fall
to make a statement that they would eliminate a third of the property taxes off
of education and in this budget repeated the statement that they would go with
50 percent. That is good news for
Well, I am sure that the Minister of Finance (Mr. Selinger) fought hard and long around the table at the Treasury Board to try and make sure that this was just done by doing a stroke of the pen in the assessment branch to eliminate a third or a half of those taxes which could have been done very readily and the farmers would not have had to pay them. I am sure the member from the Interlake and the other few members that come from rural areas would have acknowledged that would have been probably a better way to do it than banking on the fact that maybe 10 percent of those farmers will not even bother to ask for the rebate. In fact, the government would save those dollars in the coffers. Extra administration costs would be eaten up by any of that, but my point is, if there is even one farmer out there who does not get that rebate or misses the opportunity of doing it, this government should be ashamed of themselves. They should have put this forward in the area of an assessment change in the assessment branch which would have been much simpler in being able to deliver this fund back to the farm community.
Those dollars left in the farm community, of course, would help with rural development. They would help with a number of opportunities to put more businesses, make the businesses stronger on the farms and put the processing and value-added that we need in our rural communities to keep our youth in the first place in our rural communities and taking off of residences as well in Manitoba would have helped every citizen in this fine province.
I want to just say as
well in relation to the BSE crisis how hard that has hit Arthur-Virden and all
rural constituencies in
If you have either of
those, an inheritance or a windfall in your family or in your income locally, I
daresay that most citizens in
I want to say that that
is exactly what this government has done in this budget. They have added 6.6%
cost to the bottom line of this government and future governments. The
Progressive Conservative government, when we come into power, are going to have
to clean this mess up again, and I
think that is what the citizens of
Their concern to me was what happens if those interest rates were to go up 2 percent, 4 percent, 5 percent, or 6 percent would double those interest rates from where we are at today and this government would be in very serious problems and having to go back to Crown corporations like Manitoba Hydro and others to rob them again and to take more funds from them, causing our hydro rates to go up even further than the 10 percent that they will have risen by the 1st of April here since the government has taken over the second term in the last election. This government has not been able to control its spending in relation to its annual budgeting in this province.
That leaves
* (15:20)
Mr. Deputy Speaker, they
admitted the other day in this House that they have $64 million left to spend yet,
never mind the fact that out of that $116, probably $66 million to $70 million
of it were loans to farmers, but farmers do not need more loans. This puts very
little into programming for the farm community. My point is that with those
funds they could have completely built a slaughter plant in
The BSE issue is far from over. The judge in Montana that forced the border to be closed by injunction last week is the same judge, I understand, that a further resolution would appear before, later this week, in relation to keeping the Canadian border closed to boxed beef. It is one thing to have no live animals able to move across the border; it is another one to think that senators like Dorgan and others from North Dakota and others that have made statements, the Kennedys, the Clintons, in the United States, who have said that Canadian beef is not safe to eat, out-and-out lies, because they have no scientific evidence to back up those statements. If we had a stronger provincial and a stronger national government, they would be chastising those people publicly for making those statements, and helping our citizens.
It is my understanding
that a resolution to stop the flow of boxed beef out of
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the seriousness of that situation cannot be emphasized too much in this House, and I want to reiterate to the government today that the budget that they have brought forward, to put $3 million into more feasibility studies for more slaughter plants in Manitoba, falls on very deaf ears when they have had 22 months to even build the facility that should have been there and, by their own admission, has the money in their budget to do it. That is why rural citizens have completely given up on this government. The citizens in rural Manitoba do not even bother going to meetings when this government comes to speak anymore, because they know that it is full of rhetoric, that there is false hope, false promises, and while the machinery for the slaughter plant that is proposed for one of the communities in Manitoba is being brought into the province as we speak, none of the dollars that the government has put forward have gone to put the first spade in the ground yet, to begin the building of the new facility.
I want to close by saying that, in regard to issues of transportation and rural development, if this government wonders why it has no support in those rural areas of Manitoba, then they should obviously look internally and make the decision to support some of these people in our rural communities, particularly in communities like Brandon as well, because it is very harshly impacted by the no-plan government. A prime example of that is the questions that I have been raising in the House the last few days over the fact that the government was supposed to have had a vision for transportation that was started work on in the spring of 2002, to be released in the fall of 2003, and here we are in the spring of 2005 and, after repeated questions in the House, the minister still has not made public his 2020 Vision for transportation in this province.
So I just want to say, as
well, I do not even know what the right word is to chastise the government for
not being able to be responsible in its promises to the citizens of
Particularly one on
infrastructure, with the $680-million
floodway, that is the largest undertaking of an infrastructure project in this
province. We now see that we are into a situation of forced unionization where
it is going to cost $2.83 an hour for every employee to work on that floodway.
I just think it is worthwhile putting on the record that this government has
forced that action upon the people of
There are two other
things that I want to say before I close, and one of them is about how lax this government has been with adult
educational opportunities in rural
I would also like to say
that one of the key issues for me in this budget is the fact that regardless of
whether you agree that it is $549 million in new spending, of new income, that
this government has, $359 million of which came from transfer payments, or
whether we agree that there was 6.8% new revenue and 6.8% new spending, the
bottom line is the debt to Manitobans that is going to have to be paid by our
youth, and we are mortgaging our youth on, has gone up by over $3 billion in
the last in six budgets. I think that is an absolute shame at a time when our
economy has seen growth in
The Conservatives brought balanced budget legislation forward because they were concerned about the operating side of the budget. Crown corporations were always balanced under the Conservative government, so there was a need to only look at the operating side. Now we need to have generally accepted accounting practices in this province because the government is robbing from the Crown corporations to pay off the operating loans.
It is imperative that the
Auditor General be listened to because he has come forward and stated that
there was a $604-million deficit by this government last year, and two previous
years there were deficits as well. I think it is that kind of mismanagement
that continues to have
I will close by saying,
as I have said in previous budget documents in this House, that the government
has put forward from 1984 to 1988 under the Pawley government, the debt of
I think the point to make is that this Doer government is on an absolutely parallel road to the Pawley debt by allowing the debt of Manitoba to increase on the operating side alone from $6.l billion back up over $8.1 billion in its six short years in government again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, five and a half.
I want to close by saying
I think that this budget could have done a lot more for the citizens of
Manitoba, that it could have been much more ably applied to giving long-term
relief to citizens of Manitoba, that slaughter facilities could have been built
in Manitoba already, up and going, and we would be less dependent on the
government. So there are many things that we could go on and on about in this
budget, but I am going to close by just forewarning this government that they
need to make sure that they reduce the debt of
* (15:30)
Hon. Jon Gerrard (
Adrift on a sea of gold,
Mr. Deputy Speaker; this government is adrift on a sea of gold. There is lots
of new money but no new ideas. There is so much new money and so little in the
way of a new plan.
In the last few months,
we have seen demonstrations at the Legislature calling for just such an
overhaul. During the hearings on the task force on Healthy Kids there had been a call for such an
overhaul of the social assistance system. Last Friday, with the release of the
poverty barometer, once again there were calls for this government to address
child poverty. This budget fails to show an understanding that this is an issue
in
There was an opportunity
in this budget to address the major problems in the management of
Manitobans are waiting two years for hip and knee surgery. That is inexcusable, given the vast sums of money pouring into this government from the federal government and designed to be spent on health care and improved waiting lists. This money was not provided by the federal government to be socked away in a rainy day fund so this government can haul it out to magically give the illusion that its budgets are balanced. Indeed, the budget does not recognize the fact that the NDP have never in their two terms of office been able to balance the health care budget and keep the amounts spent on health care within the amount that was targeted in the budget at the beginning of the year.
This budget does not recognize the poor management in health care which is all too evident to Manitobans. It is as if the NDP are living in a cocoon of their own making which isolates them from the reality of life in our province. The NDP cocoon is spun from the fanciful threads of their media spinners rather than the reality of the lives of ordinary citizens. The budget was evidently put together by individuals living inside this distorted cocoon world rather than the real world of Manitobans.
There was an opportunity
to provide for a modernized approach to environmental issues in
Inside the government's
cocoon the environment in
Outside in the real world where Manitobans live we see the reality of toxic contamination of Kississing Lake extending inexorably day by day, kilometre by kilometre across the lake bed. It is so bad not even invertebrates can survive such toxic contamination, and if even invertebrates cannot live, what does that mean for the fish? What does it mean for people?
A modern approach to
environmental issues recognizes that failing to be stewards of the environment
carries huge costs and is already costing
There has been a
tremendous loss of personal and provincial income in
This government has an outdated
review of environmental review processes. They have failed to move to using
federal provincial panels for major projects instead of using a provincial only
review. The approach of
One of the problems of the NDP government in their budget is that government is no longer credible when it comes to financial issues. Year after year the government said it is bringing in a balanced budget, and year after year the Auditor General looks at the government's efforts and says your budget is not balanced when normal accounting procedures are used. Now the government is free to use whatever accounting procedures it may like, but when the government deviates from generally accepted accounting procedures in order to make it appear that it has balanced the books, then it has a major credibility problem.
The government's credibility problem arises from the fact that the government claims a balanced budget while the Auditor General says it is not balanced. When a government deviates from generally accepted accounting procedures in order to say it has balanced the books, it gives the impression that it is cooking the books to make the government look good.
This, of course, brings
us back to the government's cocoon. Inside the cocoon the government can say,
and indeed believe, it has balanced the books, but outside of the cocoon in the
real world, the Auditor General's word carries more weight. Outside of the cocoon,
the budget has not been balanced. Away from the orbit of the government's media
spinners and the government's cocoon, in the world of the average Manitoban, in
the coffee shops and the main streets across
* (15:40)
The budget also lacks
credibility when it comes to the handling of the rainy day fund. We are provided
by this government with a budget which puts more than $300 million into the
rainy day fund. When we look carefully we see that a large part of the money
that is put in the rainy day fund is money provided by the federal government
to improve health care and reduce waiting times in
There are some obvious questions here. The government, in its own budget speech, says it is going to provide accounting of how the health dollars are spent. Does this provide an accounting when the dollars go direct to the rainy day fund? Is this what we expected the health care money to be used for, to build up a rainy day fund which the NDP have so vigorously depleted? Many of us thought the rainy day fund was for emergencies, not just for waiting lists. Why was the money transferred from the Liberal federal government to the Province for health care not put in a health care trust fund with proper accountability in place to ensure the dollars are used properly and wisely for the purposes intended.
The government says it will be accountable, but in five and a half years, it has failed so miserably to be accountable with health care dollars, we do not hold out any hope of real accountability in the way these dollars are spent. It is a sad and sorry state of affairs when Manitobans do not believe what this government says anymore. This government has not been credible when it deals with issues of children and Child and Family Services and Housing. We have seen over the last year problems with Hydra House, with the Aiyawin Corporation, with the handling of Osborne House, with the way that they have spent $40 million on the Manitoba Developmental Centre in Portage without even having a plan, when most provinces are moving people out into the community and looking after people–out into the community because they have recognized that for the large majority of such people, it is a better way.
During the last several
months, since December, I have been a member of the all-party task force looking at fitness, nutrition, and
injury prevention in children, and
indeed, looking at the broader picture of health issues in children. Our
present understanding is that the state of our children's health is very
important to the state of the health of our adults. If we do not look at our
children's health, we will have adults in
What we are seeing at the
task force is presenter after presenter talking about the lack of action in the
last five years. We are seeing presenter after presenter talking about the
increase in obesity, the increase in diabetes in
Yet, year by year, the statistics have gotten worse while members of this government curled up in their cocoon and talked to themselves about how much they were doing. What is clear is that in the real world where real children live, almost all the statistics are going in the wrong direction because this government has been so ineffective. It is amazing that this government could be spending $2 billion more a year than when it started, but spend it in such a way that so many of the statistics are worse and not better. It is a singularly bizarre approach to government. Indeed, it is pathetic that so much has been spent and so little has been accomplished.
Let us go into another
area of children's health looking at the situation of the dental health of our
children. When children have poor nutrition, one of the results is early
childhood tooth decay and a need for dental surgery. Where children have good
nutrition, such surgery is rarely needed. Yet, because this government has not
acted, we have an epidemic of children in
Clearly, the government cannot blame this problem on the former Tory government because most of these children were not even born when the former Tory government was in office. Today the epidemic is so huge that we have witnessed, in this Chamber from time to time, a debate between the government and the official opposition as to who might be the best at providing more surgeries. But, indeed, the answer here is to provide the nutrition and the approach to parenting that will prevent these terrible teeth in the first place.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the NDP government has been all too ready to blame the former government for all its woes. Anything that is not going well, the NDP blame on the former Conservative government, and sometimes they are right, but many times they are failing to take responsibility. This time, clearly, it will not work because these children who were born under their watch have had so many dental problems it has become abundantly clear that this government has failed to address the nutrition, the poverty and the problems which have led to this epidemic of dental problems.
The NDP cannot claim that
they were not aware of concerns about the dental health of
Mr. Deputy Speaker, they may have pretended to be on top of this issue then, but now the truth is revealed. In five and a half years there has not been a whiff of progress. We are seeing record numbers of children needing surgery. The problem has gotten worse and not better. It is five and a half lost years. That is what people will say about the last five and a half years. It has been five and a half lost years when it comes to children's health and children's dental health. It has been five and a half lost years.
Almost two years ago, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, in May of 2003, the first case of BSE was discovered in a cow
in
I have talked earlier in this session about the need to introduce mandatory testing for BSE in all animals over 30 months. Once again, the NDP has done nothing. I have talked from time to time in the last several years about rural economic development but, once again, the NDP has done little or nothing.
A considerable proportion
of the new federal money for
We should have seen this
budget not only a multiyear approach but a clear accounting of how the
equalization dollars are being spent to provide for a reasonable equivalency in
the delivery of services compared to other provinces. We should have seen how the
NDP are going to provide for reasonable equivalence in taxes with other
provinces, and we should have seen a clear plan to take
* (15:50)
I talked last week with
Mayor Sam Katz and Councillor Mike Pagtakhan of the City of
While thousands of
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I now
move, seconded by the MLA for
THAT the amendment be amended by adding thereto the following words:
And further regrets that this budget also ignores present and future needs of Manitobans by:
(r) Failing to provide an effective plan to improve health and prevent sickness; and
(s) Failing to provide an effective strategy to deal with child poverty; and
(t) Failing to provide Manitobans with the approach needed to decrease childhood obesity and diabetes; and
(u) Failing to provide Manitobans with the legal right to timely, quality health care; and
(v) Failing to do any better than the previous Tory government in
improving the dental health of
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The motion put forth by
the honourable Member for
Some Honourable Members: Yes.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: THAT the amendment be amended by adding thereto the following words:
And further regrets that this budget also ignores present and future needs of Manitobans by:
(r) Failing to provide an effective plan to improve health and prevent sickness; and
(s) Failing to provide an effective strategy to deal with child poverty; and
(t) Failing to provide Manitobans with the approach needed to decrease childhood obesity and diabetes; and
(u) Failing to provide Manitobans with the legal right to timely, quality health care; and
(v) Failing to do any better than the previous Tory government in
improving the dental health of
Continuing debate. This time the topic of the debate will be the amendment of the amendment to the main motion.
Mrs. Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): Mr. Deputy Speaker, once again I want to thank the people of Tuxedo for giving me the honour of representing them in the Manitoba Legislature. I feel privileged to represent such a dynamic community that extends from as far east as River Heights, as far west as Charleswood, as far north as the Assiniboine River and as far south as the train tracks on Wilkes where we are patiently awaiting a Kenaston underpass. And I am glad that that is finally going to go forward at some point although it has taken such an incredibly long time for this to take place.
Constituents in my community are concerned about the future of our province. This government had an opportunity to step up to the plate last week when they introduced this budget and provide hope and opportunity for young people, yet regrettably they chose to mortgage the future of our young people in this province. Mr. Deputy Speaker, this hits the heart of why I got involved in politics. I got involved so I could try and make a difference for young people in our communities. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to try and make positive changes for our young people when this NDP government continues to pass budgets like the one introduced last week that erode the very future of their opportunity in our province.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to give you an example. In this budget, this NDP government had the opportunity to change the unfairness in taxation that currently exists for families who choose to have one parent stay at home with their children, but they chose not to. A single-income family continues to be taxed more than a dual-income family who earns the same amount. This NDP tax on families must stop, and I call on this NDP government for the fifth year in a row to make this change, or we will continue to educate the future of B.C.'s, Ontario's and Alberta's workforce, not something I am prepared to let this government get away with.
There has been a theme to my responses to throne speeches and budgets introduced by this government in the past and, regrettably, the theme continues. No plan, no vision and no hope for the future of young people in our province. I know members opposite have heard me say that time and time again, and it is, again, regrettable.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I
recently took over the job of Health critic for the province and have
learned a great deal about our
health care system from various stakeholders in the health care system and from
patients. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Murray) and I recently had the
opportunity to hold a health care
forum in
We heard about the many challenges, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
that the system is facing, and we also heard some great solutions to these
challenges that are being faced, particularly in the
* (16:00)
Well, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
we on this side of the House are listening to the people of
The Member for Brandon
East (Mr. Caldwell) again talks about the
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the NDP had an opportunity to make serious changes to the health care system in this budget, yet they continue to refuse to make these changes because of their unfortunate ideological beliefs that seem to get in the way of looking at all options when it comes to changes that could possibly take place in our health care system.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, health spending has increased by some $1.3 billion-plus now since 1999 under this NDP government, yet we have not seen any real results.
Mr. Speaker in the Chair
The only results we are seeing are negative results, Mr. Speaker, unfortunate results of growing wait lists. People are continuing to line the hallways in emergencies. People are on highways now, being sent in our rural communities to other communities so they can get health care, and the lists, the doctor shortages, the nursing shortages. Hospitals are closing in our rural areas. This is not something that I think that the Member for Brandon East and for other members opposite would be proud to call a legacy, but, unfortunately, I guess it is.
An Honourable Member: Which hospital is closing?
Mrs. Stefanson: Again, they say, "Which hospital?"
Unfortunately, because of the lack of funding for this Taj Mahal that they built–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mrs. Stefanson: Because of the lack of funding that the government has given to the
Mr. Speaker, waiting
lists are growing. Administrative costs have skyrocketed, and the government
has yet to introduce any real plan to deal with the increased health care needs
of
Let us look at the wait
lists in
Mr. Speaker, orthopedic wait lists: November 2003, the combined hip and knee replacement wait list was 1478. In October, some one year later, of 2004, the combined hip and knee replacement wait list was over 2000, at 2081. Some patients are now waiting up to three years in pain with limited mobility for hip and knee replacement surgery. The WRHA wait list currently sits around 2500 people waiting for surgery. This is extremely important and is something of great concern to members on this side of the House. We have heard from hundreds, from several Manitobans who are waiting in pain for hip and knee surgery.
Yes, the government likes
to make announcements, but they do not tell these patients when they are actually going to get their
surgeries. They make announcement after announcement after announcement,
promises, promises, promises, but do not seem to be following through on those
promises. They made a promise some six months ago to perform 100 more hip and
knee surgeries at
Mr. Speaker, it is
important that this government bring transparency and accountability to the
health care system in
Administration costs at the WRHA have increased from $5.7 million in 1999 to $16.6 million in 2003, but we do not know what these costs are in 2004, because this government refuses to report these figures to us and give us access to it. Again, when they promise transparency and accountability, they do not deliver on that, and they leave the people out in the cold, not knowing where these administration costs are going. They leave them out in the cold and on wait lists and so on, and it is, again, unacceptable.
Our rural communities are facing significant challenges in health care. We are facing rural hospital closures. We are facing severe doctor shortages and nursing and technical support staff shortages as well. This NDP government claims their policy is not to close rural hospitals. Unfortunately, it is clear this commitment is quickly evaporating. Rural hospitals represent far more than simply access to medical services. They represent the life blood of a community. This situation is particularly acute in the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority with the announcement by several physicians that they will be relocating.
We need only look at the Riverdale Health Centre closure. The Riverdale Health Centre was closed to acute care and emergency services for seven months beginning in early December 2003. The acute care and emergency services were once again downgraded in October 2004, and, regrettably, they remain closed today. To date, the community has raised over $450,000 for this purpose, and I only hope the government will agree to step up to the plate and honour their commitment to the people and this community who deserve much better than the empty promises from members opposite.
* (16:10)
Mr. Speaker, let us talk
about the
Mr. Speaker, valuable health care workers are stressed-out and overworked in the current system. This government needs to consider all options when it comes to reducing wait lists in our province. This NDP government needs to remove its socialist dictatorial blinders about the use of private care facilities to deliver medical services to patients in our province.
The public deserves much
better, and if this government continues to refuse to look at all ways of
reducing wait lists in our province, we will challenge them on this issue each
and every day that we sit in this Manitoba Legislature, which, I gather, is not
too many days in a year, so we will take it beyond just the days that we sit in
this Manitoba Legislature. We will take it each and every day that this
government is still in government, and we will challenge them on this issue. We
will show the archaic Band-Aid solutions of this NDP government and show how
they have failed the people of
Mr. Speaker, I have gone
on for a little bit here, and I would like to touch on some other areas of
great importance about the unfortunate missed opportunities that I believe this
government has in this budget. I would like to look at some of the areas of finance at this time and point out
to this government some of the missed opportunities that they have: $2.8
billion of all revenues come from federal transfers and equalization, in all,
34.2 percent of all provincial revenue. It is up 2 percent from last year.
These tax cuts do not take place until January of 2006 and do little when they
actually do kick in. Only Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and P.E.I. have a similar
basic personal exemption to Manitoba, and we still continue to be the highest
taxed province for income taxes west of Québec, and again, I refer back to one
of the previous throne speeches introduced by this government some three years
ago or so when they announced the Welcome Home to Manitoba plan. Well, welcome
home to being the highest province taxed west of Québec, or actually west of
Again, unfortunate, Mr. Speaker. Clearly this government is going in the wrong direction. So I think the general theme of what we are seeing, we are seeing a lot of new money come in from the federal government in the way of transfer payments, some $262 million more this year. They have been able to increase some spending in certain areas. They basically took the $262 million and spent the money, and I think it is unfortunate to Manitobans because this government missed the opportunity to give much of that back in the way of tax cuts. Instead, they chose to spend it, giving a little bit in the way of tax cuts but not enough to make a difference to keep young people in our communities over the long term.
Again, typical of this
government, a bit of a Band-Aid solution. Keep some people happy here and there
and maybe they will stay. But this is not a long-term solution to the problem
that we will have, and we continue to have in terms of the fact that we are
educating people in our province that are moving to places like B.C., Alberta
and Ontario, where they have better opportunities there and do not pay as much
in the way of taxes. We continue to be one of the last have-not provinces in
Mr. Speaker, I just want
to touch on a few areas in Education, Justice, Agriculture and Family Services
before I have to end this today. In Education, the NDP had more than enough new
revenue to finally take the burden of education taxes off of residential
property owners and to find a new way of providing sustainable funding for
public education. Instead, the taxes remain and they continue to skyrocket.
There is no mechanism set in place to prevent the school boards from increasing
the taxes that this government cut. That is the unfortunate part about it,
because we will see, because of the offloading of the taxation responsibility
onto the people in the local communities, those taxes go up. This government
knows that those taxes will go up. They have been warned by the school
divisions that, because of this government's refusal to see that they have
responsibility for the education of people in our province, because of their
refusal to accept that responsibility, we know that those taxes will go up. I
think it is unfortunate. They know it, we know it, the people of
Provincial education funding is at an all-time low as well, Mr. Speaker, of less than 56 percent. It is forcing school divisions to raise taxes or cut programs. I think it is time that, we have advocated for years now, that number go in the other direction. This government needs to take responsibility for its areas of jurisdiction. Education falls under its jurisdiction. They need to step up to the plate and be responsible for the education of children in our province.
Mr. Speaker, forced amalgamation has also placed a burden on many school divisions and local taxpayers. What was supposed to have saved $10 million a year has actually cost amalgamated divisions millions and continues to do so through contract rationalization. We know that that number is probably close to $17 million to $20 million in terms of the costs. I think that that is unfortunate.
In Justice, Mr. Speaker, this government announced some 20 new police officers in the city, 20 in rural areas. When will we see these police officers? That is what I want to know, because crime continues to rise in our city and our rural areas. I think it is unfortunate because, time and time again, the Minister of Justice (Mr. Mackintosh) sends out press release, after press release, after press release, promising and promising and promising all these things, but they never actually deliver. They never say when they are going to deliver these things. They actually do not ever deliver in the end. It seems to be a common theme, whether it be in Education, or Justice, or tax cuts, or whatever. They make the announcement and then they do not follow through, so then they remake an announcement and then they do not follow-through again. There is this continued pattern, and I think it is rather unfortunate.
The people of
Mr. Speaker, where was
the vision and plan for rural
The NDP's promise of $3 million is a far cry from the $40 million needed for slaughter capacity, as is outlined in our plan. Perhaps the NDP government could look once again at our five-point plan, which they have started to implement components of, but again I think there is a theme about what this government is all about. They have no plan. We are offering plans. They are stealing our plans and it is very interesting, but again there is no plan, no vision, no hope for the future of people in our province. Again, very unfortunate.
* (16:20)
I want to just touch briefly before I have to end–I have taken enough time, probably more than enough time–on the area of family services. Where is the long-term strategy for child care in this province? There is no long-term strategy. They just got a bunch of money, an announcement from the feds. Where is the strategy on this money and how it is going to be spent and the future of child care in this province? What can Manitobans expect from this money? Where are the options for parents? We support a tax credit for stay-at-home parents so they have options. We support putting more money in the hands of those parents that choose to stay at home so they have options.
Let us look at the Department of Family Services. Essentially, what I can see from this, which is unfortunate, is this really is a department in chaos. There have been so many issues, and maybe many of them had to do with the previous minister of family services and not so much the current Family Services Minister who inherited many of these issues from the previous minister. But things like Hydra House, Aiyawin, the Child Advocate's report, Osborne House, kids in hotels. The list goes on. It is just a long list of things that show the Department of Family Services is in chaos, and has been for quite some time under this current NDP government. Again, I think that there is–I will leave it there.
I want to thank the people of Tuxedo. I am very pleased to represent such a dynamic community. Again, I think the government missed a huge opportunity here to make some very serious changes to some very serious challenges that are faced by our province. Yet the fifth year that I have been here and the fifth budget that I have seen, there is still that theme out there that I see, and really it is no plan, no vision and no hope for the future of our young people. Something, again, very unfortunate. I think this government missed a huge opportunity to make some serious changes for all Manitobans.
Mr. Jim Maloway (Elmwood): I am very pleased to speak today on the budget, our budget, and I would like to say at the outset that I do not know what planet the previous member has been on, listening to her comments about the budget. Judging from the press coverage that I have seen since the budget was introduced, it has been pretty well all positive.
Judging from the opposition's speeches and the opposition questions in the last few days, in fact, the Liberal Leader himself no more than an hour ago was talking about this budget being "a sea of gold." And I do not see how we can get any better. We started six years ago with a budget. We went to the second budget, the third budget. I thought, things have got to get bad sooner or later, but they just keep getting better.
Find me a government anywhere in this country at any time that has been able to deliver a better budget the sixth year than it did the first year. I would expect these members to be calling for an election if they think the budget is so bad. Typically, that is what an opposition does. An opposition who thinks the government has a bad budget, bad ideas, bad timing, calls for an election. Have I heard anybody over there call for an election? Not a chance because they would all be sitting over here. We will have all the seats. There will be nobody in opposition.
Mr. Speaker, I do want to deal with some
issues that did come out of the budget speeches from the members opposite. I
notice there is not a lot that they have to criticize in this budget, but I do
notice they seem to be talking about the increase in the debt. They want to
make a case that, somehow, the debt of the province has increased $3 billion
since 1999. In fact, what I want to tell the members is the total debt of all
the public sector entities has increased by $3.2 billion since 1999 and in
recent years the total debt has increased in every province except
So the point is, Mr.
Speaker, that the GDP in 1999, does anybody know what it was, anybody over
there, you are the experts in the budget here, you want to tell us what the
debt is? The GDP, to the honourable members, in 1999 was $31.9 billion. Now, in
six years, the GDP has grown to $41.7 billion. That is a $10-billion increase.
So, as a percentage of the GDP, we have actually decreased. The debt-to-GDP
ratio has improved in
So now let us look at a different aspect. Let us take a different look, let us pretend for a moment that they do not buy that argument, and it is a darn good argument, but let us pretend they do not. Well, let us look at some of the expenditures that have gone into contributing to that $3 billion that they want to criticize, and let us ask them what they would do with those expenditures.
They want a hospital. They want a road. They want Road 200 paved at a million dollars. You know I drove that road in December. It is only 10 kilometres long that is unpaved. It was a Friday afternoon. There was not a single car on the road for the whole 10 kilometres, and I drove nice and slow. I could have turned around and driven all the way back and probably not have seen another car. There were not any animals either, farm or any kind of animals.
So this is what the members spend their time doing, as if there is no other issue in Morris constituency but paving 10 kilometres of road that nobody drives on. I am sure that the highways department has a priority and if there is enough traffic on the road, they will pave the road. So the members should be trying to get the roads increased in its priority rather than running around getting petitions and bringing them to the House. Now, last year she just said, she wanted to pave the road. This year, she admits that nobody is travelling on the roads so obviously she has to try to get around the issue.
Now the minister tells me that the policy guidelines say that it needs 400 vehicles per day, or more, to get paved, and I did not see one, not one. So you know she has to get a new issue here. How many years has she been bringing in this petition? It seems to me it is for six years now but, you know, get an issue and hit it a few times and then move on, move on to something else.
Let us say that we did go pave the road for her. Now she is going to turn around next year and the pavement is not even going to be dry and she is going to be saying, "Oh my God, you have increased the provincial debt." Well, of course, we did. We had to pay for this road.
So let us deal with the Finance critic, the newest and latest victim to the post over there. They are working their way through the whole caucus. The Member for Lac du Bonnet (Mr. Hawranik), I mean, what kind of things have been built in his riding in the last six years that might have contributed a little bit to this extra $3 billion that we have spent?
Well, Mr. Speaker, let us start with the $342,000 for a waste water treatment plant in the R.M. of Alexander. Does he want that taken away? Did he not want to build that?
* (16:30)
What about the half-million dollars for a waste water treatment plant in Tyndall-Garson? Does he not like that? When I send all these things out to his constituents next week and they read them, he is going to have a real problem on his hands trying to explain to them why he does not like their projects.
What about for the
$95,000 for a clean water project in Beausejour? What about the $1.3 million
for a clean water project in Lac du Bonnet? What about the $99,000 for a clean water
project in Whitemouth? What about that $12.4 million in new schools and school
upgrades in Lac du Bonnet constituency? What about the $6.2 million for the
Beausejour Early Years replacement school? The $1.1 million for the upgrades to
the
Let me just finish with his constituency, because I have a bunch more here on my list. In the health care issue, we spent $11.3 million in the Beausejour hospital. We spent money upgrading equipment to the operating rooms at Beausejour hospital so it can perform pediatric dental surgeries closer to home for kids and their families.
These are good things. These are things that he wants done, and he will rise in the House on day one and he will demand these things. On the very next day he wants to know why the debt goes up. Just think about it for a moment.
Now, Mr. Speaker, who
else is here and wants to find out about what is happening? In Steinbach, the
Member for Steinbach (Mr. Goertzen), I hear him very clearly every day, I do
not have to turn up my hearing aids to hear him. In Steinbach, to the
honourable member, we have spent money on the Bethesda Personal Care Home. We
put a new CT scanner in Steinbach. Where was that CT scanner for those 11
years, when the Tories were in government? His party, his great fiscal
managers, those great Tory managers who were running the province for 11 years.
Where was that scanner? But all of a sudden the NDP is in government, and he
has a scanner. You do not like the scanner? But that added to the debt. Now he
got a new school, the
Who else is here? The
Member for
We have a new primary health clinic in Sprague for the Member for Emerson (Mr. Penner), and on and on and on. I have six pages, but I do not have enough time to deal with them all. So I am going to save some of this. I am going to save some of this for the next speech.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I want
to deal with an issue that probably could become a very big issue for us, and
that is the situation regarding the
I am used to the old Tories, the old red Tories, the responsible Tories, the ones that believed in paying off your bills. Do not go into debt. Those are the old Duff Roblin Tories. Those are the kind of pussycat Tories we are used to, and the Liberals and NDP of past years thought they were a little outdated and slow and that we could probably suffer a little bit of debt to get some things we needed today. But then somewhere maybe 10 to 15 years ago we had these neo-cons come on the scene and they kind of took over parts of the Tory Party. These are the really dangerous ones. These are the ones that are running the Stephen Harper ship and Brian Pallister, these kinds of guys. I am not too scared of those old blue ones, but the new neo-cons, they are the scary ones. There are members in this group over here who want to follow that philosophy.
If they had their way,
they would be cutting taxes, and they would be cutting taxes drastically. This
is what you are going to find if you do that. If you cut your taxes
drastically, you are going to develop a system of trickle-down economics and
you are going to have huge deficits and you are going to drive your province
into a big mess. You know something? If things do not work out in the United
States in the next two or three years, good luck. The rollover effect on
I look forward to these members opposite in how they are going to be framing their next campaign platform a couple years from now when they try to get re-elected, as to whether or not they are going to be looking at the tax-cut agenda, because we will be waiting for them. They tried a tax-cut agenda last time. It did not go very well. We will be waiting for them, I am sure they will not be hiding. They will be in full view. We will have a pretty good look at them as they poke their heads over the ridge.
They do not like the rainy day fund. They do not like it because they see the money in the rainy day fund as a threat, and actually they would like to see the money spent on the farmers' problems. I know we are going to hear calls in the future for, "Well you know, it is raining today, we should be spending that money on cash advances to the farmers." They will find a hundred different ways for us to spend that money in the next little while, but let us just think back to how they dealt with the rainy day fund just six years ago. They took a public telephone company, and they sold it to their friends for half price.
They talk about ethics in business, and the Enron president and all these other guys should be locked up and taken away. I do not know what you are supposed to do about a group that goes out to its buddies, sets up a publicly owned telephone system, values it at half price, $13 a share, lend the people half of that and then immediately it went up to double in price. Now what do they do with the money? Once they got the money, they put it in a rainy day fund. They should have taken it, as a good Conservative would, and paid off the debt. Did they pay off the debt? Not at all. They spent the money. Now we ended up with no telephone system. It was sold; then the money is gone too. These are the evil geniuses over there who think they know all the economic answers and have an economic plan. The voters took care of that problem. The voters were fooled a couple of times. One of them was because we were kind of hamstrung there in 1988 to 1990, so they got away with a couple of curve balls. Eventually, it caught up to them.
* (16:40)
That is what we have to show for it, no telephone system publicly owned anymore and the money is all gone. What have we gained? So we are not doing things like that. We have the money put in the rainy day fund. These are the kind of financial issues that these guys do not like. They only wish that they had these problems. Your caucus meetings must be pretty depressing. I do not know whether you are going to have to get some Ouija board-séance people in there to kind of get you through this one. I do not know whether Harold is going to be able to do it for you, honestly.
An Honourable Member: Speak up.
Mr. Maloway: Am I competing with the Member for Steinbach (Mr. Goertzen) for volume here?
You know the pension liability issue is a big issue here. It bears no end of repeating how all those years, NDP governments too–we are not immune from it–but governments since 1962 ignored the pension liabilities that were increasing every year with teachers and public servants. You know, it was this government that came to grips with it and started paying off what is going to be a pay down over 30 years. We have been paying $75 million at one point, and now it is up from $96 million to $110 million this year. All currently hired people are being funded as we go. Why have we not had Tories stand up and tell us what a brilliant idea this is? We could have taken the money just as they did for 11 years and pretend that the problem did not exist. Do the old ostrich, put your head in the sand, pretend there is not a problem. I guess that is what they were doing before the last election. Their leader had his head under the sand like a big ostrich pretending that there was no problem. I can just imagine the panic in the ranks there.
These are some of the fiscal management changes that we made. They have to be really shocked over there. They did not expect this. They did not get these results from their own government, and to get it from an NDP government, this has to be something that is causing them no end of grief about how to deal with a government that actually runs things the way they should.
The banning of union and corporate donations, that must have driven them crazy because it sent them back to oblivion. They have not figured yet that they have to go out door-to-door and raise money from their folks. They are so used to getting those $5,000 and $10 donations from their corporation friends, and all of a sudden the money was not coming in. They could not figure it out. I mean, how complicated is it? You cannot collect it. It did not come in. It is not there so you have to go out and get it a different way. Do not sit here and complain about it. What are you going to do in your next campaign? Are you going to promise, "Oh, well, we are going to bring back union and corporate donations." That is going to be a big seller. That is going to get you lots of votes.
I think my light is blinking a little bit here. I must be getting near my time limit. But, anyway, thank you very much.
Mr. Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach): It is a pleasure to rise today to respond to the most recent budget speech. I am disappointed that the Member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway) would–as a relatively new member, I was quite disappointed that he would take the kind of shots he did at the member from Morris who brings forward petitions from her constituents. I know that the minister of highways, who is sitting beside the member from Elmwood, was quite concerned. I give the minister of highways credit, because he realized what the Member for Elmwood was saying, that only 10 kilometres of unpaved road, that he is not concerned about safety; obviously, the Member for Elmwood is not. I am not surprised that the minister of highways was kind of ashamed for his own colleague and kind of the words that he was saying.
I think that is unfortunate that a member, any member, from any side of the House or from any political party would stand up and make the kind of derogatory comments that the Member for Elmwood made about an elected representative, the honourable Member for Morris, who brings forward those concerns that her constituents have brought to her, that her constituents have said, "We think that this is an issue that should be brought to the Legislature. We want attention made of it and we want it brought forward." And the Member for Elmwood stands up and criticizes that kind of a local initiative. Well, perhaps he does not take that kind of initiative in his own riding. Perhaps he does not care to represent the views of the constituents within Elmwood, and I think that that is unfortunate. I think that that is unfortunate, that he does not see the value of that kind of representation.
Certainly, I know he was making comments about the Member for Lac du Bonnet (Mr. Hawranik), and I want to say that I have had the opportunity now for two years to work with the Member for Lac du Bonnet, not just here in the Legislature but also back home in his constituency, and I do not know of another member of his equal who works so hard in his constituency and communicates with those residents within Lac du Bonnet to ensure that he understands what their concerns are and understands how he can best represent them in the community and in this Legislature. Yet we are left to hear the Member for Elmwood criticize that kind of initiative and criticize the real hard work that the Member for Lac du Bonnet has put in, in representing those constituents. I find that concerning.
I know I heard some of
the comments regarding Steinbach and the
Certainly, I heard him
speak about the
He did mention the
I wondered, when the member was speaking about newspaper reports, and I also heard the Member for Rossmere (Mr. Schellenberg) speak about the newspaper reports that he has seen that he thought were so very positive, and I hark back to the day after the budget was introduced and the two major daily newspapers here, in the city of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Free Press and The Winnipeg Sun, and both of those editorials struck a common chord. Certainly, I do not believe in collusion in the media, but some might think that there was an element of it, because they both recognized, and maybe this speaks to how blatant it was, that there was a missed opportunity. In fact, I think the headlines in the editorials specifically said, "Missed opportunity from this government."
* (16:50)
So the Member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway) and the Member for Rossmere (Mr. Schellenberg) seem to be reading newspapers that other members do not. Perhaps they are mistaken. They do not realize that franking pieces for the NDP are not actually newspapers. Those are not actually the kinds of unbiased reporting that happens within our community and certainly the Free Press and The Sun did not see the budget the way these members did. They did not see the budget in the sense that they did.
Mr. Speaker, I suspect that in a bipartisan fashion, I behoves me to try to bring some light to the members opposite about why they did not get the political spin that they were hoping for on this budget, and I am sure it shocked many of the members opposite.
I am sure it shocked the new Member for Minto (Mr. Swan) who, I think, is sitting through his first budget. He probably thought, when he went back into his caucus, all of his senior colleagues said, "Oh, do not worry. Do not worry. We are going to get a great spin off of this. Everybody is going to love this budget, because we are sprinkle a little bit here and sprinkle a little bit there. We will wave our magic wand and try to put out fou-fou dust, pixie dust that is going to baffle everyone."
Then it turns out that people were not fooled, as the Member for Minto was probably led to believe from his own caucus. They were not fooled by what happened with this government, and they saw it for what it was. They saw it for a missed opportunity.
The Premier's (Mr. Doer) communication guru was probably scratching her own head and thinking, "What went wrong? How can you spend so much money and get such bad political spin off of one budget?" I heard the Premier, and it was an interesting comment, he was on the radio and there were some comments being made about virtually every group thought that this budget did not do what they were looking for. The Premier said, in his usual tone, "It must be a good budget because everybody did not like it."
How do you set the bar that way, Mr. Speaker? How can you set the bar so low that you think you have a good budget when everybody does not like it? That is a tough bar not to leap over, if that is how you put your own standard about how successful a budget is in the province. I am concerned that we have a Premier who thinks that the mark of a good budget is that everybody is dissatisfied with it. Certainly, I think that the Premier needs to readjust his own standards, readjust what he thinks is a positive thing.
When we look at the
budget, I think that, in trying to offer some advice, if I could, Mr. Speaker,
to the members opposite about where this budget
fell flat and why it did not get the political spin that they hope to,
that they did not get the political bounce as it were, I think perhaps it is
indicative of where the New Democrats have moved in the last number of years.
Certainly, they have become the Jack Layton New Democrats of Manitoba. That is
an approach that has not worked. It has not worked federally, and it certainly
is not working in the
The Member for Elmwood does not agree. Maybe he is still a Svend Robinson New Democrat, and if he is, that is certainly fine. He has every right to do that, and he has every right to follow that particular lead. I would certainly encourage him to look at something better and something brighter for our own province.
He spent a good deal of time talking about the American situation. I think that it is fair for members of this House to look at what is going on in other jurisdictions, but I think that it is also a little hypocritical for the Member for Elmwood to point his finger south at what is going on with our neighbours in the south on the debt side, when here in Manitoba our debt, as he admits, has gone up $3 billion.
He tries to wave that away and tried to say, "Yes, it is $3 billion, but we have gone about doing a project here and a project there, and that accounts for the $3 billion." I suspect that the member did not add up the costs of those projects and whether or not they costed out to $3 billion. I am sure that they did not. I am sure that they did not cost out to 5 percent of that increase in our budget, so he needs to do his homework a little bit more before he comes into this House and sanctimoniously points his finger at everyone else.
I had the opportunity
during our break from the last session to travel to a number of different
areas. I had the opportunity to go to
When we were in Ethelbert, actually–the Minister of Agriculture (Ms. Wowchuk) lifts her head because she recognizes the town, I think maybe she drove through it one time on the way to another important meeting that she was on, waved from the window as she kind of went by with the flags flying from her vehicle, but in fact we actually stopped in Ethelbert. We actually stopped in Ethelbert to talk to constituents there and to hear what their concerns were. As we sat in the kitchen of an individual in Ethelbert who said that they were left to wait for two, two and a half years for a hip replacement, I thought: "This is a very, very sad situation, not just because it is happening in Ethelbert, it is happening all over the province." Those are the kind of waiting times that residents are left to suffer through, residents are left to wait, and I asked the question because I thought it was an important question to ask, "Have you spoken to your local representative about this issue?" And the individual said, "Well, yes, I did, but she said that I should put more pressure on the doctor."
Mr. Speaker, that is the kind of a response that is not becoming of a member of this Legislature, that is not becoming of a very, very serious problem within our medical system, and it is the kinds of concerns we heard throughout the area, throughout the province in the north and in the south and in the east and the west, those are the sort of concerns that are happening throughout Manitoba. But the Jack Layton New Democrats across the way, they do not listen. They do not think that these are real concerns. They do not want to hear anymore. They become kind of believers in their own spin, in their own news releases. They go back and they listen to the great spin doctors that they have hired in their area and feel, "Well, it does not really matter what our constituents are saying because our spin doctors say if we put out this message, people will believe us, people will continue to support us and people will vote for us."
Mr. Speaker, I think that the expectations of Manitobans have changed and they have moved, and I do not think that the members opposite fully understand it. They still have that kind of Big Brother mentality; that they should be able to rule over all the different areas and they should have complete control in every area. The Member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway), and I do not mean to pick on him, but he gives us such good fodder in the House that it is difficult not to go back to the areas, but the Member for Elmwood was the individual who stood in this House not too long ago and said, "Well, we cannot give anybody anymore freedom over their pensions because they might go out and do something like buy a cottage." Go out and buy a cottage. Oh, heaven forbid that somebody would actually take the money that they worked for for 40 or 50 years and then, in their twilight years, in their golden years, that they would go and do something that they wanted to use it for. But that is the mentality. There is the mentality of the Member for Elmwood, because he would rather say, "You know what? We know best and we will give you out a penny at a time and if you suffer a little bit, then you are suffering for a greater cause."
Well, Mr. Speaker, I think that that is what the Jack Layton New Democrats across the way have fallen into. They have begun to believe their own spin and are not listening anymore to people in the area. I do not think there is any area that typifies or exemplifies that more than the area of Justice. Members opposite went out campaigning for the federal New Democrats last time when the policy of their leader was to not only legalize marijuana, but to reduce penalties, if any penalties, for grow ops. Well, now, all of a sudden that is going to be something. It is interesting because the Minister of Justice (Mr. Mackintosh) who daily puts out press releases and announcements that do not really go anywhere, that do not really do anything, says, "We need to get a little bit tougher on this; we need to get a little bit tougher on that," but then when the election comes around, he is out there door-knocking for lower penalties for grow ops.
Well, Mr. Speaker, that is the kind of mentality that the members opposite do not think that people will pick up on. They do not think that people will understand that that is really where they are coming from; that that is where their ideology lies. But we understand and Manitobans are beginning to understand. They are starting to see that this is a government that likes to put out announcements and likes to have political spin, but in the end, after six years, it is kind of hard to hide from your record. You cannot run and hide because the proof is there.
The Minister of Justice
today decides to put out a release and says that this is going to be the
cure-all. This is going to be all the solutions for the crime in the city of
* (17:00)
The
Member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway) says, "What do you not like about the
budget?" Well, I need a bit more time. I suppose I could ask for a leave
yet, but I am glad the Member for Elmwood is asking me what I do not like about
the budget. I find it interesting that in the last six years, since the New
Democrats have taken office, they have never asked my own constituents about
the budget, for six years. Prebudget meetings have been held throughout the
province. I suspect there have probably been 70 or 80 since the government took
office. There has not been one, single, solitary prebudget meeting in the
Steinbach constituency, in Hanover, Niverville, or Steinbach.
It
got awful quiet on the other side there. I
know it is surprising. I know there are some members scratching their
head. The Member for La Verendrye,
the Minister of Transportation (Mr. Lemieux), has had three prebudget meetings.
Well, apparently you can just draw a line at La Verendrye and everything south
of that does not matter. You might as well just take it off the map. I am not
surprised there is no roadwork that is happening south of that area, but you
might as well take it off the map.
The
Premier (Mr. Doer) likes to load up the wagon and call all the ministers
together and say, "Oh, get in the truck because we are going to Steinbach
for our ribbon cutting. We had nothing to do with it. We did not put any money
in it, but there is finally a ribbon to cut in the province, so let us head off
to Steinbach. We will cut a ribbon and then we will head back to
The
minister nods his head, the minister of highways says, "Yes, yes, we are
going to do that." Well, I am holding him to that commitment that next
year there will be that meeting in the Steinbach constituency. I will make sure
there are people out there to bring their opinion. If he wants to nod his head
in agreement, I will be happy to welcome him to the area to finally listen to
the views.
The
New Democrats across the way decided that, for the sixth year in a row, they
were going to ignore the Steinbach constituency, that they did not care to hear
what the residents of the Steinbach constituency heard or felt about the
budgets, I took the opportunity to send out my own prebudget survey because I
knew the government would not. I was happy to have more than 100 responses. I
think I am understanding now why they do not come out to my area. Only 38
percent are optimistic about the economy in this province. Only 7 percent
believe that this government has an economic plan for the people in the
Steinbach constituency. They do not believe they have done enough on personal
income taxes. They do not believe they have done enough on payroll taxes.
They
believe that high taxes is the No. 1 issue in our area. They believe too much
government regulation is the No. 2 issue. Those are all very, very serious
issues. Now I understand why the members opposite do not want to come to Steinbach.
They do not want to hear that message because it is not the Jack Layton mentality. It is not the Jack Layton message of these New Democrats. I
would welcome them next year. I would ask them to come next year. For the sixth
year in a row I would extend an invitation and say, "Come and hear what
the people of Steinbach, of
The
Member for Elmwood (Mr. Maloway) can get up and he can pontificate all he wants
about what he thinks is not happening in other areas, but unless he opens his
ears and comes out and says, "Yes, we are going to hear you and listen to
you," he is a hollow man with hollow speech. Thank you.
Hon. Peter Bjornson (Minister of Education, Citizenship and Youth): Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased
today to rise in the House to speak on Budget 2005. I am also very proud to
represent the fine constituents of
Gimli. The town of
An Honourable Member: And what did you have to do with that?
Mr. Bjornson: Oh, absolutely everything, I assure the member opposite.
The village of Dunnottar, which is a very wonderful site along Lake Winnipeg built on the tradition of the railway and the vision of Sir William Whyte, they are doing a lot to forward their history; of course, Winnipeg Beach, which has been reinventing itself over the last five years as a summer destination in Manitoba. I am indeed very proud to stand up in the House representing the fine constituents of Gimli.
I would like to take members opposite on a little journey. Five years ago, if you were to enrol in university with the dream of becoming a teacher, for example, you would have found that your tuition fees were lowered 10 percent. They have been frozen ever since. So in that five-year pursuit of an arts degree, science degree and then a post-secondary degree, Bachelor of Education degree, on top of that, a two-year degree, in that five-year time, tuition was lowered 10 percent, frozen for five years.
In that five-year period the student might be taking a part-time job to pay for that tuition and, lo and behold, we have consistently raised the minimum wage. In that five-year time when that student graduated, what do they come into in the teaching profession? They come into a system that has $130 million more invested into it. They come into a system that has been reinventing itself with new curriculum and new supports. They come into a system where their chances of getting a job in a school that has had some type of renovation done are pretty darn good. The chances of a student teaching in a brand new school in Manitoba are, I believe, one in thirty when they graduate this year under our watch and the work that we have done in capital projects.
An Honourable Member: Are those real teachers?
Mr. Bjornson: Those are indeed real teachers. The chance of working in a school
that has had a major capital project completed in
Their chances of working in a school that has had some improvements done through capital program under this government is one to one. If you are using simply the numbers, we have done over 600 projects. What else are students who have chosen a career in education going to see when they get their first job as a teacher? Well, they are seeing adequate, reasonable compensation for the first time in 15 years, Mr. Speaker.
An Honourable Member: Thirty-two kids.
Mr. Bjornson: We are seeing smaller class sizes than members opposite. If class sizes are growing, Mr. Speaker, that is because we have growth in this province once again.
An Honourable Member: You are not building schools.
Mr. Bjornson: We are building lots of schools. Our capital plan: $45 million a
year every year for the next three years, and that is a commitment to capital.
Members opposite, $18.6 million, $18.6 million for the entire public school
system. We inherited quite a legacy of neglect as far as infrastructure is concerned.
[interjection]
I hear the members opposite talking
about building new schools. When I listen to the member from
The member opposite also
suggested that we should eliminate the capital tax. We should eliminate payroll
tax. We should be more competitive with
An Honourable Member: Santa Claus.
Mr. Bjornson: The honourable Minister of Water Stewardship (Mr. Ashton) is
suggesting maybe Santa Claus is part of their plan as far as their idea of what
is deliverable here in the
Again, their record is
very clear in capital. They promised the
* (17:10)
Let us talk about deliverables. I heard members opposite refer to what we are doing as sprinkling, little sprinklings here and there. Well, $30 million in education levy being cut is a pretty significant sprinkle, if you ask me. Mr. Speaker, $20 million cut from the farm taxes, that is a very significant cut. When you consider our record, every time we have made a promise, we have delivered, and because of that our education system is a very robust education system. Members opposite do not even talk about education; they talk about taxes. They do not talk about the investment in education; they talk about it in terms of costs and taxes. As a teacher, I find that quite offensive.
We have a very robust education system because we are investing in that system. [interjection] Yes, I am a taxpayer, and I see the value of what we were getting for our money in our education system. But members opposite just talk about it as costs, costs, costs. You know what? The costs of education have gone up, yes. In fact, the telephone bills have gone up 68 percent in our education system, and we are big consumers of telephone in the education system. But a 68% increase in costs when they privatized the telephone system–68% cost increase. Of course, there are other costs that have increased because we do bus a lot of our students. We have seen the price of oil at record levels. So there are certain things that are driving the costs of the education system.
Certainly, we are making a difference by funding at the rate of economic growth, $130 million more into the system. This year I had the privilege of bringing forward the second-highest announcement as far as real dollars being reinvested in our education system. By the way, when was the highest announcement? Oh, that would happen to be during our tenure in government as well, the highest announcements in education funding. If I look at the highlights of the announcements, we put in $6.5 million into special needs education alone in this announcement. Now, how does that compare to members' opposite $15.2 million in five years? One thing that we announced in our budget was almost half of what they put in the entire system in five years.
This is a government that is committed to education, and Budget 2005 affirms that commitment to education. We fund 100 percent of the employer contribution to pensions, and they said, "Why do you not talk about teacher pensions?" Let us talk about that for a while. Why do we not talk about it? What are you doing for teacher pensions? I heard a little bit of nattering across the floor earlier today.
First of all, we are funding them, a $3.2-billion liability. We are funding it, and we have seen our credit rating improve because of our commitment to fund that liability. We are funding all new teacher contributions, 100 percent of the government responsibility of teacher contributions to pensions for new teachers. We have opened up pensions three times, and we have made a lot of really significant changes that are good for the educators in this province. Why? Because we value teachers. It is something that was really lacking in members' opposite 11 years in power, 10 of those years of which I taught in the public school system and never once felt valued as an educator because of the actions of members opposite. We invest in education; we are investing in our future.
Now, members opposite talk about missed opportunities. I hear this over and over again: you missed an opportunity to eliminate the school taxes. Well, Mr. Speaker, we have made our promises, we have kept our promises, and we continue to deliver on those promises. They talk about, "Oh, taxes are going to go up in the schools." Well, I would gladly bring my tax bill and show the members opposite how mine has gone down because my taxes have been impacted by this government cutting the education support levy. My taxes have gone down. I heard my previous critic from Tuxedo say, "Your taxes have gone up 60 percent." I will show her my tax bill; they have gone down significantly. That has to do with our cuts to the education support levy, modest increases at the school board level, and also some initiatives taken by the municipal councils. But the bottom line is my taxes are going down.
An Honourable Member: You live in an ice shack.
Mr. Bjornson: No, it is not an ice shack. Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, we have indeed been making a
difference. I keep hearing members opposite talk about taxes going up, but,
again, it reminds us time and time again why the members opposite said,
"We do not want to teach history as a compulsory subject in school because
history makes us accountable." Well, they did not say the "makes us
accountable" part, but that was obviously their motive. They said to the
They talk about press and spin. Well, I can just imagine the spin doctors of the party opposite when they were saying, "Well, the Education Minister announced we are going to cut education funding by 2.6 percent this year." That is investing in education, Mr. Speaker. "Members opposite are pleased to announce that 800 teachers have left the province since we have been in power." That is really something that they would have to spin. The Filmon Tories announced that over 800 nurses have left the province in the last 10 years, and they want to talk about spending.
The reason we have a lot of announcements is because we make promises. They are good news announcements. Manitoban people know that; Manitoban people hear that. Manitobans are pleased when we step forward and we say we are investing in education, we are investing in health care, we are investing in capital, we are investing in highways. We are investing in the future of this province, and our growth speaks for itself, $10 billion more since we have been in office.
I also hear members opposite saying that we are the only province that funds education this way. Well, again, they have not done their homework. There are seven out of ten provinces that continue to use property tax levies to support education. Arguably, there are eight. I you were to take into consideration one province where it is not specifically designated for education, where it does go to general revenues, where general revenues are used to fund education, arguably, there are eight provinces that fund education through some property tax levy.
Now, how do we compare? Well, quite favourably, I must say, Mr.
Speaker. In fact, we compare quite favourably when you factor in the property
tax credits, which members opposite do not want to talk about, when you factor
in our reduction in the ESL, when you factor in our reduction in the
apportioning of the farmland, when you factor in our recent announcement of the
cut to the farm property taxes for education as a rebate. When you factor that
all in, we compare very favourably to both
What we promise to Manitobans and what we deliver to Manitobans time and time again is a balanced budget, sustainable, affordable tax cuts, and investment in the programs that are important to Manitobans. We have done that every year we have been in office, and we are going to continue to do that every year we are in office.
Let us talk about rural
An Honourable Member: Where do you live?
Mr. Bjornson: I live in Gimli. The constituency of Gimli, the constituency of Selkirk, the constituency of Dauphin, these are all rural areas.
An Honourable Member: Interlake.
Mr. Bjornson: Interlake,
yes, my friend, in Interlake and the North. To members opposite: the North. You
remember that part of the province they consistently cut off the top of the
map, the area they completely ignored, did not even visit during the last
election? That happens to be quite rural. We are a party for rural
We do have a very strong record to build on, and we have been
investing in rural
We do have four main
pillars, and members opposite should be voting for this budget because of what
these four main pillars mean for
* (17:20)
Paying down the debt. First pillar. Increasing our debt payment to $110 million from $96 million and addressing, as I said before, the pension monster. We are funding that $3.2-billion liability for the first time in 40 years, Mr. Speaker.
No draw on the rainy day fund. This is all prudent fiscal management, Mr. Speaker.
Strategic investments. Recently announcing more hip and knee surgery, an announcement that we are going to deliver on, Mr. Speaker, as we deliver on every single announcement.
Now, if you were to take a look at some of the comments of members opposite saying, "We are looking for a better and brighter future," well, so are we, Mr. Speaker. We are looking for a better and brighter future. The member from Steinbach talked about how we need a better and brighter future. Budget 2005 speaks to a better and brighter future for Manitobans.
Again, I mentioned the
first pillar, paying down the debt,
and start talking about the second
pillar, strategic investments. Members opposite were talking about how there is no vision
for municipalities. We have the second richest tax-sharing, revenue-sharing
arrangement in the entire country, and we are saying we are going to increase
that by 8 percent. Oh, no, no, that is not having any vision for rural
Mr. Speaker, the
tax-sharing agreement would be municipalities on fuel tax. We are talking about
additional police officers as well. The announcement today, an unprecedented
investment in justice in
Mr. Speaker, we are doing
this at the same time we are cutting taxes. Members opposite just must be
scratching their heads over this one. How can you deliver on all these promises
and cut the taxes? Because we have been working very hard with the people in
Also, I guess this is the thing that really gets members opposite, is saving for the future, putting in another $314 million into the Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
Mr. Speaker, the only regret I have today is that I only have a little bit of time to speak about this budget because there are so many good things, so many good things that we could be speaking about here with Budget 2005.
So it is with that, Mr. Speaker, that I was very pleased to rise in the House today on behalf of my constituents in Gimli and suggest to the members opposite that they should look at this budget with open minds, not the political glasses, let us look at it with open minds, ladies and gentlemen, and let us say, "This is a good budget for Manitoba. This budget builds for the future of Manitoba." For that purpose, for that reason, members opposite should be voting for Budget 2005.
Mr. Leonard Derkach (Official Opposition House Leader): Seeing that the hour is 25 after 5, at this time, Mr. Speaker, and it is difficult to launch into a good speech and to have it cut short, I am wondering, with the indulgence of the House, if there would be agreement to call it 5:30 so that we could begin with a new speech the next day.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the will of the House to call it 5:30? [Agreed]
When this matter is again before the House, the debate will remain open.
The hour being 5:30, this House is adjourned and stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday).