LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF
Tuesday,
November 8,
2005
The House met at 1:30 p.m.
PRAYERS
Bill
9–The Farm Practices Protection
Amendment
Act
Hon. Rosann Wowchuk (Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives): I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance (Mr. Selinger), that Bill 9, The Farm Practices Protection Amendment Act, be now read a first time.
Motion presented.
Ms. Wowchuk: Mr. Speaker, the amendment to this bill will
provide protection from liability for the Farm Practices Protection Board, its
members and acting members, and any other person acting under the authority of
the act. The amendment will replace the current practice of having individual
indemnification agreements with each person. The amendments represent standard
wording that is being employed in
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Bill 203–The Health Services Amendment and Health
Services Insurance Amendment Act
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the MLA for Inkster, that Bill 203, The Health Services Amendment and Health Services Insurance Amendment Act; Loi modifiant la Loi sur les services de santé et la Loi sur l'assurance-maladie, be now read a first time.
Motion presented.
Mr. Gerrard: The purpose of Bill 203 is to provide for the incorporation of the
principle of accountability in the delivery of health care services in
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
* (13:35)
Bill 200–The Manitoba
Public Insurance Corporation Amendment Act
Mrs. Bonnie Mitchelson (River East): I move, seconded by the Member for Springfield (Mr. Schuler), that Bill 200, The Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Amendment Act, be now read a first time.
Motion presented.
Mrs. Mitchelson: This bill allows an accident victim who receives an income replacement indemnity to keep any part of a disability benefit that is paid to the victim under the Canada Pension Plan as the result of a division of pensionable earnings. Mr. Speaker, this is the third session I have introduced this piece of legislation. I would like to see it debated in the House, moved to committee and passed. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Bill 201–The Child and Family Services Amendment Act (Grandparent Access)
Mrs. Leanne Rowat (Minnedosa): I move, seconded by the Member for Charleswood (Mrs. Driedger), that Bill 201, The Child and Family Services Amendment Act (Grandparent Access), be now read for the first time.
Motion presented.
Mrs. Rowat: This bill provides the court the opportunity and means to recognize the special relationship that exists between grandchildren and grandparents. It requires the court to consider the love, affection and similar ties that exist between the child and a grandparent on a application by a grandparent for access to a child. Mr. Speaker, this is the second time I have introduced this piece of legislation, and I would encourage the opposite side, or the government side, to debate and pass this legislation.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Bill 205–The Elections
Amendment Act (Number of Voters in Polling Subdivisions)
Mr. Denis Rocan (Carman): Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Emerson (Mr. Penner), that Bill 205, The Elections Amendment Act (Number of Voters in Polling Subdivisions); Loi modifiant la Loi électorale (nombre d'électeurs des sections de vote), be now read a first time.
Motion presented.
Mr. Rocan: Mr. Speaker, by way of introduction, this bill will decrease the number of voters that are to be included in a polling subdivision area in order to have a better understanding of the election process and to have greater voter participaction.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Mr. Ron Schuler (
Mr. Speaker: Does the honourable member have leave to withdraw his name from the petition list? [Agreed]
* (13:40)
Provincial Road 340
Mrs. Leanne Rowat (Minnedosa): I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
These are the reasons for this petition:
The hard surfacing of the unpaved portion of PR 340, south of Canadian Forces Base Shilo towards Wawanesa, would address the last few neglected kilometres of this road and increase the safety of motorists who travel on it.
Heavy traffic has
increased on PR 340 due to the many large farms involved in potato and hog
production, agricultural-related businesses, Hutterite colonies and the Maple
Leaf plant in
Annual average traffic volumes on PR 340 are increasing with commuter traffic from Wawanesa, Stockton, Nesbitt and surrounding farms to Shilo and Brandon.
The arrival of the Princess Patricia's
Canadian Light Infantry in 2004 and increased employment at the Maple Leaf
plant in
Access to the
PR 340 is an alternate route for many
motorists travelling to
All Manitobans deserve a safe and well-maintained rural highway infrastructure.
We petition the Manitoba Legislative Assembly as follows:
To request the Minister of Transportation and Government Services (Mr. Lemieux) to consider hard surfacing of the unpaved portion of PR 340, south of Canadian Forces Base Shilo, towards Wawanesa.
Signed by Bev Daymond, Wendy Callahan, Tracy Alden and many, many others.
Mr. Speaker: In accordance with our Rule 132(6), when petitions are read they are deemed to be received by the House.
Mrs. Myrna Driedger (Charleswood): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the following petition.
These are the reasons for this petition:
Overcrowded schools throughout Whyte Ridge, Lindenwoods, Linden Ridge and Richmond West subdivisions are forcing Pembina Trails School Division to bus students outside of these areas to attend classes in the public school system.
Elementary schools in Pembina Trails School Division have run out of space to accommodate the growing population of students in the aforementioned areas.
Five-year projections for enrolment in the elementary schools in these areas indicate significant continued growth.
Existing high schools that receive students from Whyte Ridge, Lindenwoods and Linden Ridge are at capacity and cannot accommodate the growing number of students that will continue to branch out of these subdivisions.
Bussing to outlying areas is not a viable
long-term solution to meeting the student population growth in the southwest
portion of
The development of Waverley West will
increase the need for a high school in the southwest sector of
The government is demonstrating a lack of respect for the students and families of Whyte Ridge, Lindenwoods, Linden Ridge and Richmond West by refusing to provide adequate access to education within the community.
The
NDP constituencies in
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request the provincial government to
recognize the need for a public high school in the southwest region of
To request the provincial government, in conjunction with the Public Schools Finance Board, to consider adequate funding to establish a high school in the southwest sector of Winnipeg.
Signed by Lisa Kaita, K. Cheung, Scott Moore and many others.
Crocus Investment Fund
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (
The background to this petition is as follows:
The Manitoba Government was made aware of serious problems involving the Crocus Fund in 2001.
As a direct result of the government ignoring the red flags back in 2001, over 33 000 Crocus investors lost over $60 million.
The relationship between some union leaders, the Premier (Mr. Doer) and the NDP seems to be the primary reason as for why the government ignored the red flags.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba to consider the need to seek clarification on why the government did not act on fixing the Crocus Fund back in 2001.
Signed by Bev Leadbeater, Brian Leadbeater, Jess Leadbeater and many, many others.
* (13:45)
Hon. Eric Robinson (Minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism): Yes, Mr. Speaker, I have a statement for the House.
Mr. Speaker, today is a very exciting day
for
We believe the Millennium Library to be a
winning investment on many fronts. It is an exciting destination which will
breathe new life into the heart of the city. It is a unique architectural
accomplishment promoting environmentally friendly design and building
principles. Most importantly, it is a hallmark of both traditional and
cutting-edge trends in library service. These are benefits that extend to all
branches of the
Our new Millennium Library will offer a variety of enhanced services including computer training facilities, resources for new Manitobans, as well as promotion of our past through a unique local history room. These services have been tailored specifically to Manitobans including the reading-in-the-round concept developed in co-operation with Aboriginal community leaders. The new Millennium Library has inviting accommodations for teens, a unique restaurant and gift shop concept as well as the Carol Shields Auditorium where we can share and showcase our unique talents and ideas.
The library affords access to a variety of
new, on-line formats, and, most importantly, to that cherished format, the
printed book, the format that requires no computer, no batteries and fits
perfectly in your hands. Once more, this new library offers all of this within
an inspiring environment, inviting the beauty of
I wish to congratulate members of all parties for your support of this wonderful new library. The Millennium Library is a special investment that I am sure will reward all of us Manitobans many, many times over. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Jack Reimer (Southdale): I would like to join in with the minister in congratulating the tremendous accomplishment that has been completed downtown, the Millennium Library and the opening of it.
It truly is a unique structure. We have had the opportunity not to tour it yet, but just to see some of the pictures. The time, the effort and the commitment that was put in by the tremendous amount of volunteers and fundraisers is something also I think that we should recognize because it is that spirit here in Winnipeg and Manitoba that brings a lot of good efforts and good venues here to Manitoba.
The library will be a showcase for
We have to look back on the beginning of the library, and I believe there was an article in the paper just a little while ago about the restoration of the Andrew Carnegie portrait that was found in the bottom of the library and we have brought back to life type of thing. It is apropos that a picture is going to be put back into the library.
A donation from a private entrepreneur
that has grown into such a tremendous asset for
Hon. Jon Gerrard (
Mr. Speaker: Does the honourable member have leave? [Agreed]
* (13:50)
Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, from the Liberal Party perspective we salute the completion of the Millennium Library, and we want to congratulate all those who contributed in one way or another to the building of the library and to the new institution that we are so proud to have here in Winnipeg. I think it is telling that this is a library which will look to the future and use electronic approaches to data, books and so on which are advanced. That is certainly a compliment to those who were involved in the design and the development of the library.
I also want to note with some particular
pleasure that there is a display of photography at the Millennium Library
depicting scenes from the Orange Revolution in the
Brand
Expenditures
Mr. Stuart Murray (Leader of the Official Opposition): Mr. Speaker, welcome to friendly
Well, Mr. Speaker, there are about a half
a million bucks that this Premier has to take responsibility for. I would like
to ask this Premier: Has he already spent the half million dollars, or how much
more is this rebranding exercise going to cost the taxpayers of
Hon. Gary Doer (Premier): Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the
volunteers in the business community that have participated in and are
continuing to lead this discussion on the future of
I think it is important that members of
the private sector be given budgetary authority to deal with this issue. It
will deal with not only the strengths of
Relative to other
provinces, I think
* (13:55)
Mr. Murray: Mr. Speaker,
maybe that is why the Premier has an I Love
The fact of life is this
project, the Premier's branding project, is some five months behind schedule. A
Freedom of Information that we received today shows that the image task group
has not met since May 31, 2005. Yesterday the Premier was silent. Today the
Premier is blaming the flooding. The Premier spent half a million taxpayer
dollars to create an image task group and to hire a
I would ask this Premier will he admit
today that he spent half a million taxpayer dollars to have a
Mr. Doer: The project is not completed. Obviously, when a project is on time we accept responsibility, and when a project is delayed we accept accountability and responsibility. I would point out that the group of people that made the decision on the agency put forward the proposal, made the decision on the agency and have been working on the process, have included the PEAC economic advisory committee co-chaired with Mr. Silver and Mr. Ziegler, before that, Mr. Moist, when this project was developed. Mr. Modha from Mondetta is one of the individuals that is quoted in the newspaper today talking about the product being released shortly, 60 to 90 days.
I would point out that people like Dave Angus, Harvey Secter, Barry Rempel, Doug Stevens–
An Honourable Member: Do
you know who they are,
Mr. Doer: Yes, I do know who they are. –and Carole Vivier were involved in selecting this firm. We would say to members opposite stay tuned.
Mr. Murray: Mr. Speaker, I am hoping the fact that this is supposed to be an exercise about on budget, on time, that somehow the Premier is not trying to work in a master labour agreement.
A
Mr. Speaker, I ask this Premier: Other than blue skies and cold temperatures, what did he buy for half a million taxpayer dollars?
Mr. Doer: Mr. Speaker, I find it passing curious that the members opposite would on the one hand–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Doer: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The members opposite are absolutely apoplectic about the no-strike, no-lockout agreement in the floodway agreement, and then they are very, very upset about a process that took place with the private sector.
The business volunteers who recommended
strongly on seven recommendations for
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, we do believe in
free trade. We believe that governments in
* (14:00)
Update
Mr. Jack Reimer (Southdale): I think the Premier has to get some new lines. Mr. Speaker, there is only one phase of the five-phase initiative that has been completed.
An Honourable Member: One phase.
Mr. Reimer: One phase. Big
blue skies, friendly
Hon. Jim Rondeau (Minister
of Industry, Economic Development and Mines): Mr.
Speaker, what we are doing is we are working as a government that is supporting
a business initiative of the Premier's Economic Advisory Council. What we are
trying to do is rebrand
Mr. Reimer: Mr. Speaker,
maybe the minister's idea of rebranding is putting a happy face on the buffalo.
The Premier (Mr. Doer) stated, and I quote, "It is there now and will be
presented to government shortly." I ask the Minister of Industry again:
When will Manitobans see the result of these half million dollars spent on
rebranding
Mr. Rondeau: Mr. Speaker, the end results will take some time and we are not going to rush it. What we are going to do is we are going to work with business, we are going to work with industry, we are going to work with the tourism industry, we are going to work with multiple partners to get the right image.
You know, it is passing strange where it says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, David MacLean said they should leave the marketing to the private sector, which we have, which is exactly what we are doing in this case. Number 2, Rob Warren from the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship said that if it increases tourism by $5 million that is not a bad return. What we are doing is we are leaving the businesspeople in this province to work through a process to rebrand the province, to take the time to get it right. What we are doing is we are anticipating a good return for our investment.
Mr. Reimer: The report was to be tabled and, I believe, brought to the government on July 1. Now they are saying that they still need more time, more time, more time. Maybe it even means more money. We learned today through Freedom of Information that, in fact, none of the final four stages have been completed. The FOI dated yesterday states, and I quote, "As the stages have not been completed, there are no final reports for the stages." I ask the Minister of Industry who is correct, the Premier stating that the report is there now, or the department stating there is no final report.
Mr. Rondeau: Mr. Speaker, thank you very much, and I trust the members opposite understand that this is a process working through the business community, working through multiple stakeholders to get the right image. It is people like Dave Angus who is with the Chamber. We have Harvey Secter with the law school, we have Barry Rempel with the Winnipeg Airports Authority, Doug Stevens with the WOW Hospitality, Carole Vivier and many others who are busy. They are the driving force behind this new image. What we want to do is work with them. We are not in the position to say here is a deadline. It is their process. We want to work with them in partnership and we want to do it right, so we are going to give them the time to talk to the private sector, to talk to different groups and move it forward on a regular basis. Now we have not got the final report, but the process is continuing.
Out-of-Province Testing
Mrs.
Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): Mr. Speaker, health care is in crisis in
Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister of Health:
Why are
Hon. Tim Sale (Minister of Health): Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting. The
members opposite are in favour of Maples clinic. It is a private group. We send
a great number of our lab tests to private labs in
Mrs. Stefanson: Mr.
Speaker, between January 2004 and August 2005, the WRHA spent more than
$360,000
I ask again: Why is the Minister of Health
sending
Mr. Sale: Mr. Speaker, the head of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Smith, is from
Mr. Speaker, Mayo Clinic is one of the premier diagnostic and research centres in the world, and I am very pleased that Manitobans are served sometimes by having some of their diagnostic tests read by the very competent people at the Mayo Clinic. The opposition is in favour of private sector work today, public sector work tomorrow. It must be nice to not have to have any intellectual dignity whatsoever–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order. I would remind all honourable members that the clock is ticking. We have guests in the gallery and we have the viewing public that are trying, I am sure they came down here to hear the questions and the answers. I ask the co-operation of all honourable members.
Mrs. Stefanson: Well, Mr.
Speaker, I am glad to hear today that finally this Minister of Health
recognizes the added benefit that private clinics add to our health care
system. I ask again: Why is the Minister of Health sending
Mr. Sale: The budget that
we spend on private labs in
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, the ideologues are
over there. We are pragmatic. When we need to contract with the private sector
we do. When we need to send patients for treatment we do. I am proud that we
have a working relationship for very complex DNA bone marrow testing with the
premier institution in
* (14:10)
Funding for Additional Officers
Mr. Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach): Mr. Speaker, earlier this year after analyzing
crime statistics, Manitoba Progressive Conservatives determined that an
additional 100 officers were needed in the city of Winnipeg to bring it on par
with other cities' per capita crime rates. Yesterday senior officials of the
Winnipeg Police Service publicly stated that to truly protect
Progressive Conservatives stand shoulder
to shoulder with the
Hon. Dave Chomiak (Minister of Energy, Science and
Technology): Yes, Mr. Speaker, there has been an increase
of $23.81 million that this government has put in to fund 95 more officers in
communities across
Mr. Goertzen: We voted with the Winnipeg Police Service who said they needed 100 more police officers. That is what we voted for. Never was the lack of police officers more apparent than with the tragic death of an innocent bystander who was caught in gang crossfire. The murder suspect was out on a warrant for his arrest, but police said they did not have the resources to go and get him.
Mr. Speaker, the Winnipeg Police Service has joined with Manitoba Progressive Conservatives in saying enough is enough. We stand by our police officers. Why do they stand by the gang members of this province?
Mr. Chomiak: Mr. Speaker, I do not think in any legislature in the country any party would accuse another party of standing with gang members. I find that part of the rhetoric and the overblown rhetoric of members opposite who somehow suggest that their voting against our increase to police officers somehow puts them on a pedestal. They voted against it. They had a chance to have their say in this Legislature, and the record showed they voted against increased police officers.
Mr. Goertzen: The minister has a chance today to stand by the
Mr. Chomiak: Mr. Speaker,
I am very pleased that we have a Justice Minister that right now as we speak is
meeting with other justice ministers, has been recognized by the federal
Justice Minister as lobbying the federal Justice Minister to make changes and
has been recognized at that. I might also point out that on a per thousand
basis, in comparison to Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, Winnipeg has more
police officers per 100 000. Thirdly, I do not think they would stand up
in the Legislature where in
Every jurisdiction in this country is fighting the same cause except, I think, members opposite who are trying to make political hay out of something that is very distressing and tragic in our society. We put our money where our mouth is and will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker, rather than words of garbage.
Interest Costs
Mr.
Gerald Hawranik (Lac du Bonnet): Mr. Speaker, the interest costs on the total
debt of
Hon. Greg Selinger (Minister of Finance): Mr. Speaker, I only wish the member was as accurate as he is loud. In the year 2000, the total interest cost was $1,022,000,000. Our interest costs this year are $767 million. We are paying $255 million less, more than 25 percent less. The member is just dead wrong on the facts, dead wrong on his allegations and innumerate.
Mr. Hawranik: Mr. Speaker, the total debt of this province is skyrocketing and the member from Elmwood agreed with this statement in this House on November 4, so check with his member.
Mr. Speaker, has the Minister of Finance
at all considered the impact of increasing interest rates in
Mr. Selinger: I know when the member gets the facts he still has to follow his script. He missed the answer to my first question. Interest costs on this apples-to-apples comparison are $255 million less. The member should stand up and apologize for the misinformation he has put on the public record.
Funding Sources
Mr. Cliff Cullen (
Hon. Ron Lemieux (Minister
of Transportation and Government Services): Mr. Speaker, we have the second-lowest gas tax
in the country and we are very proud of the fact. Also, the gentleman, if the
member opposite wants to have an answer with regard to how are we spending gas
tax revenues, I can tell the member that we have the northeast Perimeter
Highway, maybe he should take a drive out there, take a look at it. Number 1
highway to
Mr. Cullen: Mr. Speaker, I think Manitobans deserve the proper numbers here. This government is collecting $335 million in fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees. This government is only spending $187 million on highways. Vehicle registration fees in 1999 were $48. The annual vehicle registration fee for each and every passenger vehicle now is $99. We are simply asking will the minister admit that vehicle registration and driver licence fees are simply another tax on the backs of Manitobans.
Mr. Lemieux: Mr. Speaker, we have listened to the members opposite talk about the infrastructure that is being run down. We have heard over the last number of months about hospitals, schools being run down. Not only did that take place in the 1990s, but also our transportation system, our roads, our bridges have been continually run down through the 1990s. Even recently we added another $10 million into the budget, and who voted against that particular budget? They should look in the mirror. Each and every one of them voted against an increase to the transportation budget.
Mr. Cullen: Mr. Speaker,
Manitobans are aware of the crumbling infrastructure in
Mr. Lemieux: Mr. Speaker,
quite frankly, I believe the public of
* (14:20)
Accountability
Hon. Jon Gerrard (
On October 13, on CJOB, Dr. Rob Robson,
the chief patient safety officer for the WRHA, indicated that it is very tough
to implement these recommendations because the incident occurred at
My question is: What is the minister going to do about the lack of accountability in the system which means that recommendations for patient safety, some of which are listed as very high priority, have not been implemented?
Hon. Tim Sale (Minister of Health): Mr. Speaker, I made it very clear that I expect any hospital in which there is a critical incident to take very seriously and act on any recommendations that follow from the investigation.
What Dr. Robson was saying was that
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority does not have direct supervisory
responsibility for
Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, Dr. Robson indicated most of these recommendations still have not been implemented and it is more than a year after the report. We have here in the gallery Leslie Worthington who has been pushing for more accountability in the health care system.
Now, on that same radio show, Dr. Robson made the extraordinary statement, "We are all somewhat accountable." Either people are accountable or they are not accountable. I ask the minister to tell us what the situation is. Is the minister running a somewhat accountable health care system? How can the system be accountable if high priority recommendations have not been implemented more than a year after the recommendations were made?
Mr. Sale: Mr. Speaker, I expect the recommendations to be implemented. I expect them to be worked on seriously and to be taken seriously. The whole point of the critical incidence legislation, which was passed here last year, was to ensure that staff and all of those involved in a critical incident are protected from being sued for their particular role in making that incident public and making sure that there is work to be done to improve the situation that might have led to that incident in the first place. The House supported that legislation. I support the fact that any critical incident that issues in recommendations should be taken seriously and the recommendations should be implemented.
Reduction/Prevention Strategy
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (
We have children as young as 10, 11 and 12 years old that are getting more and more involved in activities that include crystal meth, child prostitution, break-and-enters, car thefts and you say it, Mr. Speaker, they are getting more and more involved because this government has chosen to stand by and do nothing in dealing with this.
Yesterday I asked the Premier (Mr. Doer) if he would work with all parties of this House and try to resolve this issue. My question to the Premier today is: Does his government have a strategy that will work, that will deal with the children of our communities and get them out of those crime situations, Mr. Speaker?
Hon. Christine Melnick (Minister of Family Services and Housing): Mr. Speaker, I think that we have to be very, very serious about this issue, and this is why when this government came into power in 1999, one of the first things we did collectively was work on a strategy around child sexual exploitation.
Now this, as I informed the House yesterday, is a multifaceted strategy. It deals with prevention, keeping children out of those dangerous areas, and if they are victims of sexual exploitation, helping them to get out, but then also working on the follow-up and helping them to stay out.
We agree this is a very serious issue which is why we have put a lot of resources and we have worked very closely with our community to build more resources, and we will continue to do so, Mr. Speaker, but this is not a glib issue to be made light of.
Organic Farming Initiatives
Mr. Tom Nevakshonoff (Interlake): Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition
talked a lot about branding in his first question to the Premier (Mr. Doer)
today. The Member for Southdale (Mr. Reimer) made reference to smiling
buffaloes, but what was lacking once again from members opposite was the
question related to the topic of agriculture. Therefore, I would like to ask
the Minister of Agriculture, organic agricultural production is a growing
industry in our province presenting new and exciting opportunities for
The minister was in Virden on Friday announcing funding that will help this industry expand in our province. Would she please tell the House about that announcement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Rosann Wowchuk (Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives): I certainly want to thank the member for–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order. I need to hear the questions and the answers. I ask the co-operation of all honourable members.
Ms. Wowchuk: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the member from the Interlake for raising a very important issue that relates to the agriculture industry. When we took office, we recognized that the members opposite had absolutely no support for the organic industry in this province, and we put in place an organic specialist. On Friday, I announced funding from both the federal and provincial governments, funding of $225,000 for the organic producers of Manitoba, better known as OPAM, to help expand its infrastructure and to better serve Manitoba organic producers.
Mr. Speaker, organic market trends are growing. This is a growing opportunity for our producers, and we are supporting the industry so that they can expand their existing infrastructure so that they can–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Public Consultations
Mr. David Faurschou (
Today I ask the Minister of Conservation once again when will this government hold the public consultations that it committed to, or has it relinquished the $30 million for this project?
Hon. Stan Struthers
(Minister of Conservation): Once
again, Mr. Speaker, I will tell the Member for
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Federal Office Closure
Mr. David Faurschou (
I would like to ask the Minister of
Conservation: Why was the
* (14:30)
Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister of Conservation): Mr. Speaker, that federal office was moved by the federal government. I do not know if I can make it any clearer than what I just did. I can speak slower if the member would like me to, but I only have a certain amount of time to get a lot of information on the record.
That is a federal decision that was made. I can tell the member that this government will take seriously its signing of the MOU, and this government will take into consideration all of the people who live in the area and their leadership. We will do the right thing when it comes to this park.
Report Availability
Mr. David Faurschou (
Will the minister now commit to this House
to tabling of the report that cost $50,000 of taxpayers' money here in the
Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister of Conservation): I would not want the Member for
The federal government and our government,
the Minister Stéphane Dion and I have been in close communication about this
park. Both levels of government have been in communication with the leadership
at the local level. Two weeks ago I met with representatives at
Mr. Speaker, my commitment has been very clear. We are not going to impose a park on people who do not want the park to be imposed on them.
Mr. Speaker: Time for Oral Questions has expired.
Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): On July 31 of this year there was a severe
windstorm went through the southeast part of Manitoba decimating the village of
Sandilands, knocking down 22 000 acres of pine forest land. The
Municipality of Piney is estimating that the cost to the municipality will be
anywhere in the neighbourhood of $300,000 to $1 million to clean up the trees,
to restore services to the community, to rebuild the 60 damaged homes that were
incurred. Yet, it took 60 days after the storm before even a government
minister came to the community of Sandilands and the
To this day we have not
yet heard from the
We have also asked, in that area, that the minister of highways give a special permit to allow the hundreds of thousands of cords of wood and trees to be moved out of that area before those trees rot next spring. If those trees stay there without being harvested till next spring there will be no wood harvested there and it will rot in the forest. There is a tremendous economic saving to be had by the Province to be allowed to harvest those trees, to haul them to market, make pulp out of them or boards for building purposes. Yet, this minister of highways has refused to issue special permits to allow the trucks to travel on those roadways to get that wood to market in a timely manner.
Mr. Speaker, it is time that this government recognizes it has a responsibility to the people–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Drew Caldwell (Brandon East): Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I
rise today to bring to the attention of the House a number of recent health
care announcements made in western
As a lifelong resident of western
Members on this side of the House, Mr.
Speaker, strongly believe that rural Manitobans deserve more than the poor
access to health care which was available to them throughout the 1990s. With
this in mind, the Doer government has made it a priority to better utilize
rural hospitals and to make health care available sooner and closer to home.
Whether it is through the development of an acute rehabilitation program at the
Riverdale Health Centre in Rivers to help people recover after joint
replacement surgery or through the new arthroscopic surgery program in the
Minnedosa hospital or through Manitoba's only MRI machine outside of the
Winnipeg perimeter at the newly developed state-of-the-art Brandon Regional
Health Centre, this government has shown its commitment to provide accessible
health care in western Manitoba. These positive changes will free up surgical
slates in
Finally, with the creation of the Medical
Transportation Co-ordination Centre in
I recognize that, while
much has been accomplished in health care in western
Mr. Speaker: Order. Time has expired. Does the member have leave?
Some Honourable Members: No.
Mr. Speaker: No. Leave has been denied.
Mrs. Myrna Driedger (Charleswood): Mr. Speaker, early this fall I was pleased to attend
the Charleswood Broncos Annual Family Day and participate in a ceremonial
kick-off. The Charleswood Broncos Football Club is home to eight contact
football teams for children aged 7 to 14 years. Their home field is Eric Coy
Arena on
The Broncos have been an integral part of the community for the last 12 years, offering competitive tackle football to youth aged 7 to 14 years. Their successful program has grown from 82 players to over 200 players this year. It is a great program for youth as well as their families. This year the Broncos have added a new element to their games, a cheerleading squad. Twelve girls from Grades 6 to 9 are led by two members of the Westdale Junior High provincial championship squad.
The Broncos participated in championship playoffs at Canad Inns Stadium on November 5 and 6. They were in the final championship game in three of the four age categories. Special congratulations to the Minor Bantam Broncos team who won the city championship by defeating the Greendale Falcons by a score of 30 to 16.
Coaching staff and program administrators are dedicated volunteers who have been recipients of my Heart of the Community Volunteer Awards. As well, they participate in the Charleswood Community Leaders Networking Luncheons which I sponsor. They have a terrific group of parents who really help out when needed, whether it is coaching, helping in the canteen, cheering on the sidelines or filling in where needed. Their dedication to youth and to our community as a whole is commendable.
I would like to recognize the organizers, coaches and parents for their commitment to promoting excellence in sports for our youth, and I would just like to say to the young football players: Go Charleswood Broncos. We are proud of you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Tom Nevakshonoff (Interlake): It gives me great pleasure to rise in the House today to tell of a very special event which was celebrated at the Silver Hall on the 29th of October.
I am referring to the 25th anniversary of Riverdale Place Homes Inc., a non-profit organization based in the community of Arborg which provides community residential services and independent living with support services for adults who are facing mental challenges.
The organization operates four homes and
serves the needs of 19 individuals, two of whom are in independent living with
support services. For the most part, funding is supplied by the
The highlight of the evening was the burning of the mortgage of Taylor House, one of the group homes, which is now in whole an asset of the corporation. This happy occasion was presided over by Mr. Oli Palsson, the chair of the board of directors of Riverdale Place Homes, and it epitomized that anything is possible when government is aided by determined community volunteers who give entirely of themselves and stay the course over the long term.
Also of special significance that evening was the 50th birthday of one of the residents, Mr. Lorne Johnston, whose accomplishments to date as described to us by his niece, Ms. Jenna Sigurgeirson, prove that any person's potential is unlimited given a certain level of drive and determination.
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In closing, on behalf of the people of the Interlake, I want to congratulate and thank all of the dedicated people who are a part of this worthy enterprise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Larry Maguire (Arthur-Virden): It is my honour to rise today to congratulate
the citizens of Kola, a community located in the fine constituency of
Arthur-Virden, as the most generous people in
Kola has also community members with big
hearts. While the average Canadian donated $1,127 to charity, community members
in Kola this past year donated nearly three times as much, $3,380. Manitobans
are known for their generous hearts and continue to give donations to a variety
of charities. Since 1995,
I would ask that all members of the
Legislative Assembly join me in congratulating the persons of Kola,
(Eighth Day of Debate)
Mr. Speaker: Resume debate on the proposed motion of the honourable Member for The Maples (Mr. Aglugub), that the following address be presented to His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, and the debate remains open.
House Business
Mr. Speaker: The honourable Minister of Water Stewardship, on House business?
Hon. Steve Ashton (Minister of Water Stewardship): Yes, Mr. Speaker, as Acting Government House Leader in consultation with opposition House leaders, there appears to be an agreement. If you could test the House too, in light of the fact that this Thursday there are many significant events around the province dealing with the fact this is the Year of the Veteran, of course, leading into November 11 when we do not sit. There is, I believe, a willingness not to sit this Thursday. There would then be a sitting next Friday, and there would be agreement not to have quorum calls on the 18th.
Again, I want to stress this is something that, in this particular case, I know certainly, actually, members of the opposition had brought forward as, I think, a legitimate reason not to sit, given how much we owe to our veterans. So I believe, Mr. Speaker, if you canvass the House, you will find there is a willingness to not sit this Thursday and sit next Friday for a normal Friday sitting with the one exception that there would be no quorum call.
Mr. Leonard Derkach (Official Opposition House
Leader): Mr. Speaker, I would just simply like to thank
the Premier (Mr. Doer) and the members of the government for allowing this
because many of us who live in rural
Mr. Speaker: Is there agreement not to sit this Thursday but to sit on the next Friday with no quorum calls, and the sitting will be 10 till 12:30 with Routine Proceedings? Is there agreement? [Agreed]
* * *
Mr. Speaker: So now we will resume debate on the proposed motion of the honourable Member for The Maples (Mr. Aglugub), which remains open.
Mrs. Mavis Taillieu (Morris): Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to respond to the Throne Speech, but just before starting, I would like to congratulate and welcome the pages to the Legislative Chamber. I know that it is a big job that they undertake. They put in many hours, and I would just like to congratulate them and welcome them. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of Healthy Living (Ms. Oswald) and her husband on the birth of their new son. I think that is a wonderful event as well.
In regard to the Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker, Manitobans deserve a clear vision from this government. We want hope for the future. We deserve better government than this. This is the seventh Throne Speech in a row with no vision, nothing new. In fact, this government keeps reannouncing after reannouncement. We do not see anything in here expect the mention of, since 1999. How many times did we hear that? I think it was 17 times we heard "since 1999," "We did this since 1999." But what about the future? Manitobans do not want to look back. We want a government that is forward thinking, not backward. All we get is empty rhetoric and broken promises and unprecedented debt. The member from Elmwood even admits the debt is going way up. I can tell you why we would not vote for this Throne Speech. There is no strategy to deal with the growing debt. There is no strategy for economic growth.
We will not vote for a Throne Speech that underresources the police. We will not vote for a Throne Speech that offers no hope to Manitobans who wait in pain on long waiting lists. We cannot vote for a Throne Speech that does not address the crisis in rural health care. We cannot vote for a Throne Speech that offers no support for Manitobans assessed large ambulance transfer bills. This Throne Speech shows that this NDP government has absolutely no new ideas on how to sustain agriculture in this province, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to just comment a little bit on the area of Family Services and Housing and people with disabilities. Young families, of course, need affordable, accessible, available and sustainable child care. It is a very, very important issue, but families we talked to also feel that they would like choices in obtaining their child care for their children.
Surveys tell us that nine out of 10 Canadians feel that in a two-parent situation, ideally, one parent should stay at home to raise the children. We also know what preferences families have for the care of their children. Of course, this is really easy to figure out. The first choice that parents would make is that one of the parents looks after the child. Then the next choice is a relative. The next choice is home day care and the next and last choice is a day-care centre.
We recognize that many families need, and need to choose, accessible and affordable day care, but we also recognize that there are many people that would like to have choice. There needs to be a continuum of child care options. Child care centres with qualified staff who are motivated to stay in the profession by wage parities are part of that continuum.
* (14:50)
Unfortunately, I think the NDP have focussed all their funding on regulated spaces and wages for benefits. We appreciate the fact and want to encourage people to take this profession and stay in this profession, but we do recognize there is a push and a focus on creation of more unionized jobs in child care.
Our focus is what is in the best interests of the child and the family. Parents want options which include things like tax breaks or direct payments to families. We feel, and parents tell us, that parents manage money better than governments. The NDP's philosophy is government knows best. Our philosophy is families know best.
The NDP's focus is on a universally publicly funded system that could be similar to our health care system and our education system, but we feel that by putting money in the hands of parents who can then choose their care options instead of putting money into building institutions for day cares, building huge bureaucracies and creating a system that may not be sustainable in the long term.
Also, even though the federal government has put no strings on the money, this government has chosen to not include for-profit centres. This is restrictive, controlling, non-inclusive and forcing entrepreneurs out of business. Our focus is on entrepreneurship, creation of small business, private-public partnerships. Profit is not a dirty word. It is in fact what drives our economy. We need to have some choices for people who want to choose to open a for-profit day care. Why should they not be included in any federal funding?
The NDP's focus is on institutionalized
child care. Our focus is on family and community. We support and recognize the
need for affordable, accessible, available and sustainable health care. We
support more child care spaces and recruitment and retention of early childhood
educators. We recognize the importance of provincial standards and
accountability for public funding. A child's care should not be limited to
child care centres. We recognize that parents are the ones who choose how to
take care of their children, and we want to provide a continuum of options and
choices. We recognize that child care is about caring for children and not
about creating unionized jobs. We recognize that parents are the best managers
of money and make the best choices for their children. We recognize the need
for a variety of options for families who work outside traditional hours and
for families in rural and northern
We support public money flowing into the for-profit as well as the non-profit centres. We support entrepreneurism, creation of small business and recognize successful business adds to the provincial economy. We support tax incentives for families who choose stay-at-home parenting. We recognize that a universally publicly funded child care system is not sustainable, and we are responsible and visionary and looking at child care which will work for our children and future generations.
I would like to ask the question who cares more about children. Families or government? It is families. Who makes the best choices for their children? Is it families or government? The answer is families. Who handles money better? Families or government? The answer is families.
Mr. Speaker, I have to say also in this Throne Speech that there was not much mention, or any mention at all of the very, very serious problem that faces our province, and that is fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. We know that this is a huge and growing problem in our province. This is a totally preventable syndrome. It is the leading cause of cognitive impairment in the Western world. Individuals living with FASD often experience a lesser quality of life because of their cognitive impairment and secondary disabilities.
Mr. Speaker, there are only three doctors in Manitoba who can diagnose FASD, and the cut-off line for diagnosing children is 12 years old. So many children in this province are not diagnosed, have problems within the education system, have problems within the social services because many of them will be in foster care and within the care of Child and Family Services. Unfortunately, many of them end up in our institutions, in our penitentiaries and jails, because they turn to crime where they have not had the proper supports to help them progress through their daily life.
It is estimated that each child living with FASD will incur a cost of approximately $1.5 million in care, supports and programming from government departments such as Health, Justice, Education and Family Services.
People living with FASD often have impaired judgment, and this often leads to involvement with alcohol, drug abuse and criminal activity. There are few supports for these young people once they reach the age of 18 other than to apply for income assistance, and really what they need are supports for daily living, because they are not really capable of remembering the activities that they have to do each day.
We saw this with one unfortunate young person whose foster mother had advocated for 24-hour support for him. He did not receive that. He was left alone. He did go out onto the street in the middle of the night and, unfortunately, he was murdered. So we need to look at helping the people who cannot live without supports on their own. They must have more supports, Mr. Speaker, and I am very disappointed that this Throne Speech did not address this most serious problem.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that there have been a number of announcements made in terms of low-income affordable housing, made around the province, recognizing that there is a need, and, certainly, I look forward to more announcements on affordable housing but just to say announcing housing does not really look at the plight of the homeless person.
I just would like to mention that I participated in A Hard Night Out through the Harm Reduction Network just a couple of weeks ago, where I spent a night on the street with a homeless person and a guide. I would just like to say that the Minister of Family Services and Housing (Ms. Melnick) was invited to participate, she did not give an answer, which put back the date for having this, and the organizers were very miffed at this because they were waiting to pick a date that would suit the minister's schedule. In the end, they picked a date that would suit her schedule and then she failed to participate. I think that was very, very disappointing.
So I would like to take a moment to just
speak about that experience. It was a very, very hard thing to do. I recognize
that. I have to say that when I agreed to do this, I felt that I was going out
onto the street and I did not feel safe. I did not feel safe on the streets of
So this made me think that this is a very,
very unsafe situation because anything could happen. I have to say that the
people that I was with, the homeless person that guided me through the streets
of downtown
* (15:00)
It was certainly an eye-opening situation. The person that I was with readily told me that she was an addict. She did crack cocaine. She sniffed paint solvent. She had not done crystal meth yet, and I pleaded with her not to ever try that drug. She agreed that she would not, but she said her preference was sniffing solvent. She did that every day, and she did crack cocaine. She is 26 years old. She had three children. She has been on the street since she was eight years old. She knows no other life. I asked her, "Would you like to have a job? Would you like to have a home?" She did not really know how to answer that because she did not want to leave her family on the street. She did not want to leave that environment because that is her environment. That is the only environment that she knew. That was her safety net. Those were her friends. I felt that in some way we must do more to help people that really need our help.
I am going on just–[interjection] Well, I know that maybe, you know, this is a story that many people do not want to hear, but I think it is important to know that, if you have spent almost 20 years and some people I spoke to had spent more than 20 years on the street, it becomes such a way of life it is very difficult to understand there is any other way of life. I think just the way all of us enjoy our lifestyle, it is very difficult to go into another lifestyle and appreciate how different people live their lives.
I can tell you that it was a very scary evening walking down the streets with a group of five of us, all women, and having cars drive by with threats of people throwing things at you. I can also say that, when we were to go to sleep, I was not prepared to sleep on the ground, but many people do sleep on the ground. This person I was with showed me where people sleep and the shacks that they manage to make and sleep in. She said to me, "Watch out for the needles." They are littered with needles and packages of alcohol for sterilization, swabbing the arm before the needle.
Watching people walking on the street with a rag around their hands and sniffing as they walked along was very disheartening. We need to address the problem of addictions with people before we can address a lot of other things. My heart went out to many of the people I met on that evening, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to move on, I
think, a little bit into other areas. I would like to speak a little bit about the
finances in the province. It is very dismal that we are the highest taxed
province in
There is nothing in the Throne Speech to
show that this government is making economic growth and job creation
priorities. There is no long-term economic vision. We have one of the lowest
average weekly wages in
Mr. Speaker, I was just talking about being on the street, and I would like now just to talk about the gang issue. This is a big, big disappointment. This government has not been able to address the issues of gangs. In fact, they embrace gangs moving into the province. They have really done nothing to address this issue. Here we have innocent people who are caught on the street in the crossfire of bullets intended for gang members die innocently. Then we learn that these people, the gang members, were out on bail. That is just shameful. The police say, "Well, we cannot chase all the people that are supposed to be on conditional sentences that are supposed to be in their homes. We do not know if they are in their homes or not." Then things like this happen and innocent people die.
They talk about more
funding, talked about that today, more funding for police officers. But those
are virtual police officers somewhere in cyberspace, because the
Manitobans do not feel safe. We have the Hells Angels. We have the Bandidos. In fact, we had the Hells Angels very close to where I live. We have managed to uproot them. They are not there right now.
I would just like to talk a little bit
about this government's non-strategies in terms of crystal meth. I was at a
seminar in
They also talked at that time about methamphetamine labs, how easy it was to produce methamphetamine. One of the ingredients in methamphetamine being anhydrous ammonia, which can be found on any farmer's land because it is a fertilizer that the farmer uses on his land at the end of the year to prepare the soil for the next year. It is very simple to make this drug, very, very simple. There are very few ingredients necessary. Methamphetamine is the first step, and then it can be converted to crystal meth with just one more step.
So the idea was these meth labs were being
set up in abandoned farm houses or abandoned barns, which we have in abundance
in southern
So this was 18 months ago, Mr. Speaker, and certainly we recognized and pushed the government at that time to get involved because our neighbours to the south had a strategy that provided for monitoring, in hardware stores and pharmacies, for unusual purchases or group purchases of the ingredients necessary to make crystal meth. They had a huge campaign, awareness campaign, watching for this to happen.
* (15:10)
Well we have now seen that crystal meth is here in our province, in our towns, in our city, and it is here in a big way. I just had one of the RCMP officers come and do a presentation to my community. My community was absolutely shocked at what he had to tell them, and the visuals, the pictures of crystal meth addicts and what it had done to them in a very short time, were absolutely horrific. My families were very, very thankful that they saw this and would be able to alert their children and their families to the very real dangers of crystal meth.
Mr. Speaker, many people in my constituency and many people that I speak with in the variety of places that I go to say one of the biggest frustrations they have with this government, there are many, but one of them is they are increasingly frustrated over the proliferation of drugs, the gangs and the violence in the province. When we say enough is enough, we are only saying what many, many Manitobans have reiterated to us. We need to fund more police officers, not just make announcements of funding. We actually have to have bodies in those funded spaces. We need to have a gang strategy. We need to deal with this because this is a very real issue.
We need to expand police in school programs. The children in schools are quite vulnerable too because, as this RCMP officer was saying when he made this presentation in my community, it is not the people hanging out at the edge of the school yard beckoning the poor young innocent kids to come over and buy drugs through the schoolyard fence. It is not like that at all. It is the average kid from the average house selling the drugs right in the classroom. It is not outside the school; it is right in the classroom. Well, the Minister of Education (Mr. Bjornson) is shaking his head, but he has not been in a classroom for a while. The RCMP officer was saying that this is a very real issue and they support that idea.
Well, let us go to health. Manitobans
deserve timely access to health care services. But we want to see a clear plan
here for reducing waiting lists, and we want to see a restoration in rural
I am disappointed in my own area,
We do need to address the shortage of physicians and nurses and health care providers in our province, Mr. Speaker. This government has had six years to do that and they really have failed. There are still long waiting lists. We still have people in the hallway. We still have people waiting for surgeries, and we need to build a better system. We need better care and we need it sooner.
We need closer-to-home treatment. I do not think that rural Manitobans should be separated from urban Manitobans and given a lesser quality of health care because it is not available. Why would we want to make services to rural Manitobans less available?
This government has to take responsibility for the failures in health care. It is a very, very serious issue. We know that as the population ages, we are going to need–
Mr. Speaker: The honourable member's time has expired.
* * *
Mr. Drew Caldwell (Brandon East): Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the member–[interjection] No? Okay.
Mr. Speaker, I previously requested leave to finish my member's statement. I understand that the members opposite have granted leave.
Mr. Speaker: What we will have to do first, we will have to revert to Members' Statements. First, is there leave to revert to Members' Statements? [Agreed] And is there leave for the honourable Member for Brandon East to conclude his comments? [Agreed]
Mr. Drew Caldwell (Brandon East): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to thank the members opposite for their courtesy.
Mr. Speaker, in concluding my remarks, I recognize that while much has been accomplished for health care in western Manitoba to develop better health care in western Manitoba, there is still much more work to do. It is in this spirit that I would like to take the opportunity to both congratulate the New Democratic Party government for the work already undertaken and to encourage all parties in the House and in the province to continue to work with the Brandon Regional Health Authority and the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority in serving the health care needs of western Manitobans. Thank you.
(Eighth Day of Debate)
(Continued)
Mr. Speaker: Now we will move back into Orders of the Day. On the proposed motion of the honourable Member for The Maples (Mr. Aglugub), the honourable Minister of Family Services and Housing, are you wishing to speak?
Hon. Christine Melnick (Minister of Family Services and Housing): Yes, I am asking leave of the House to complete my response to the Throne Speech.
Mr. Speaker: The honourable member has already spoken once, so is there leave of the House for the honourable Minister of Family Services and Housing to speak?
Mr. Peter Dyck (Pembina): That would be then for the duration of the time left, right? Or is it for a total of 30 minutes?
Mr. Speaker: For the clarification of the House, Manitoba practice has been if you have spoken on the subamendment or the amendment, whether it is one minute or 15 minutes or whatever, that is recorded as spoken to the motion. She is seeking leave to speak again, so she would have 30 minutes remaining, because she is asking leave to speak again to the Speech from the Throne. Is that granted?
Some Honourable Members: Yes.
Mr. Speaker: Okay, it has been granted that the honourable Minister of Family Services and Housing to speak again to the Throne Speech.
Ms. Melnick: Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking the House for leave to continue my remarks in support of the Throne Speech.
I was talking about child care yesterday, and I think it is very important to note that the child care plan that we have in Manitoba is the only one that actually exists in Canada, and it was developed post-1999 with input from over 24 000 Manitobans. We took their responses to how they would like to see the not-for-profit child care system grow, and they told us that they wanted to continue with a not-for-profit, community-based system. We honoured that. We then worked with the regulatory review committee to put together an actual five-year plan, and it is that plan through which we are rolling out the monies that we are receiving from the federal government, and it is those elements of the plan that I have been announcing portions of over this last while.
I think it is also
important to note that the OECD report which came out approximately 15 months
ago talked about what were the elements of a truly successful child care
system, and some of the elements that they named were not-for-profit. In
Mr. Conrad Santos, Deputy Speaker, in the Chair
* (15:20)
The international child care movement is
also very supportive of our plan. In fact, there was a woman here from
Australia not long ago who talked about the fact that she had travelled across
Canada before coming to Manitoba and had stated that everyone in Canada is
talking about how Manitoba is showing the leadership that people feel proud of.
I feel very proud to be the minister at this time, and I would like to thank
the child care community. You know, we have a tremendous community here in
This past week as I was
speaking the other day, we had announced some $5.75 million to create over 3000
spaces. In the
This is not only part of caring for our children, but this is part of growing the economy. When we really invested in child care from '99 on, we saw that double-parent families who were on income assistance, once they were able to acquire affordable, reliable and quality child care, we saw the welfare rolls drop by about 50 percent, which tells us that investing in our children is a good investment for our economy. In fact, reports have stated that for every one dollar that we invest in child care there is at least a two-dollar return into the economy. So this is good for our kids and it is good for our communities as well.
We have received some quite good responses
from the community. Don Giesbrecht, who is the past president of the Manitoba
Child Care Association, said he recently returned from a Canadian Child Care
Federation meeting in
Now there is the child care system and the nursery school system. We are working with the nursery school system as well. In fact, I just announced support for up to $140,000 to more deeply fund 200 nursery school spaces around the province. Again, we will work with the not-for-profits to identify areas of greatest need. We work on the criteria of is there community support for a child care, for the spaces; what is the proportion of low- to middle-income families who can most greatly benefit from child care; is there already a movement to build or develop a new centre or to continue to support a centre. We will use those criteria to determine where these more deeply funded nursery school spaces will be placed around our system.
Also, with the funding that we are rolling
out now, currently there is a $9.40 maximum cap for a nursery school space. We
have been able to reduce that to a $5 cap, Mr. Speaker. That means that more
low- and middle-income families will be able to access this. We have also
removed the need to demonstrate for a subsidy based on work or school. Quality
of care is very important, and, of course, one of the pillars of that care is
to have trained and professional staff. This government recognizes that early
childhood educators are professionals in their own right, and they must be
regarded and respected and paid as such. Which is why, Mr. Speaker, on July 12,
I was very pleased to announce that our first announcement with the new monies
would go toward the wages and benefits of these workers. Child care workers in
I would like to talk a little bit about
housing in
So, for almost 10 years, we saw no growth of social housing; even maintaining the current units was a real struggle. When we came in in 1999 we realized that social housing was very, very important. I credit my predecessors, the Honourable Tim Sale and the member from Brandon East, with working with the federal government and our colleagues across the country to build and develop and roll out the Affordable Housing Initiative.
This initiative has worked very well in
the
We found that there really is an acute need for low-income units. When we were negotiating Phase 2 of the Affordable Housing Initiative, I worked with the Honourable Joe Fontana, the federal Minister of Housing, and we agreed that it is important to have monies targeted at low-income individuals so that people who are unable to afford what would be the MMR, or the median market rent, would be able to access safe, clean low-income housing.
So we have targeted the Phase 2 monies at
the low-income market, and we are working with Aboriginal groups, we are
working with groups that are community-based, the neighbourhood renewal
corporations. We are doing a lot of work through the Neighbourhoods Alive!
program, which, as I mentioned in the House the other day, I was very pleased
to see that the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (Mr. Smith) has extended
the boundaries of that program, and we will work with those communities. We
work with people, again, throughout all of
I am wondering if I could share with the
House just some of the more recent announcements that we have been making. I
will start with an announcement made yesterday by the MLA for
* (15:30)
So this was an announcement by the
Province, by the City and the government. But, also, Mr. Speaker, this was an
announcement in partnership with HOP, which is a neighbourhood group that works
around the inner-city area. This announcement was particularly exciting,
because it was the first announcement of the WHHI in the Centennial
neighbourhood, which is one of the new neighbourhoods to be receiving funding
through Neighbourhoods Alive!. This just shows the community spirit that exists
in the inner city of our city of
I, also, in mid-August traversed up to Arborg and made a very nice announcement with the member from Interlake. He had worked for quite a while with members of his community around more affordable housing for seniors not needing the services of a personal care home but needing more intermediary services. So I was very, very happy to announce with the group from Arborg, the Arborg senior housing group, and the local MLA that we are building an Arborg seniors housing complex that will be relatively adjacent to the personal care home.
This means that people will not have to leave the community of Arborg. In fact, this is located right in the centre of Arborg. It is located close to shopping districts, close to the medical facilities, and I was very, very happy that we had worked hard on this and that it is now coming to fruition. My understanding is that they have already put the shovels in the ground and that they are hoping for an early spring actual opening. I would be very honoured to go back there to celebrate that with them.
In August, a week earlier, I went down to
Morden and celebrated with the town of
In October, just a few weeks ago, I was
unable to be at the announcement, but we did have the member from Burrows
attend on my behalf the Indochinese Association of Manitoba affordable seniors
rental housing project. This is located on what is not–well, soon will not be,
but what is now a vacant lot on
In late June, I was again very thrilled to join with the St. James Kiwanis Manor and the local MLA, the Member for St. James (Ms. Korzeniowski), who attended–again, the St. James Kiwanis folks are well known for many decades for providing affordable housing to seniors. I was there to acknowledge their funding and to congratulate them as they announced that they will be building–they are actually going to be tearing down some cottages and building–it is actually already built–new apartment units, again, accessible and, again, affordable and, again, revitalization for their community, for their seniors.
Another announcement that we made for low-
to moderate-income residents in the William Whyte and
There is a very vital community group there, people who refused to leave, but who are instead taking up the challenge to revitalize their community.
Not too long ago I also joined the HALS
group which is housing for assisted living project. They attempted to get this
project underway through the nineties. Unfortunately, the provincial government
of the day was not supportive. But they have now seen through to renovate and
rehabilitate seven newly designed accessible apartments at
In Dauphin, the local
MLA, the Minister of Conservation (Mr. Struthers), announced low- and moderate-income
seniors projects in the Dauphin area, 23 units of the 27-unit development which
will be built through the Canada-Manitoba Affordable Housing Initiative. I
thank the minister for attending on my behalf. Again, this was working with a
not-for-profit group. The local MLA was involved, as were myself and the
department, and this was more good housing for the people of
An Honourable Member: And Dauphin in particular.
Ms. Melnick: And Dauphin in particular.
I then went up to Woodlands in August and joined the good folks from Woodlands there as they are building 10 units of a 12-unit apartment, which will be, again, supported by the Affordable Housing Initiative and which will see housing for seniors so that they can stay in their community, they can continue to be active in their community and they can live in safety and affordability.
In my closing remarks, I
would like to reiterate an announcement that was made some weeks ago. We had
the first ever accessible housing forum, or visitable housing forum, in the
history of
At that event, I was
announcing that
When we started to
receive proposals for the Affordable Housing Initiative, we had to help people
understand what accessible housing was. I am very proud to say now that 90
percent of the proposals that we get, if not all, have a substantial proportion
of their units accessible and visitable. I congratulate the community of
* (15:40)
Mr. Leonard Derkach (Russell): It is a pleasure to rise today to respond to the Throne Speech. But, before I do, I want to welcome our new pages to this Legislature, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I also want to welcome Mr. Speaker and yourself as the presiding officers of our Legislature because I know how impartially you attempt to do your jobs as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Sometimes we do get into issues, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but hopefully, with the start of a new session, we are turning a new page as well.
To the table officers, the Clerk and her staff, I want to say welcome to this new session, as well, from our side of the House and also to wish them well as they preside over the day-to-day chores that they have to do here in the Legislature to keep us on track and make sure that the business of this House is recorded properly, is indeed appropriately dispatched as it should be.
Also to the Sergeant-at-Arms and his staff, we have a wonderful tradition in this province, and every day that the Sergeant-at-Arms brings the Mace into this Chamber I stand proudly because it is a symbolic gesture, if you like, from all of us that we respect the democracy that has been given to us, and, indeed, we respect Her Majesty and her representatives. That is so important in a democracy so that, indeed, we can pass on this wonderful tradition that we have in this province to future generations as well.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I also want to address the Hansard staff who very carefully record our comments in this Legislature. They do a wonderful job. There is always a quick turnaround on Hansards, and, indeed, when we sometimes are misquoted, they are very obliging to make sure that, indeed, what it is that we have said is recorded properly. So I want to thank all of the Hansard staff, those who are working here today but also those who work during the night to make sure that the transcripts are done for us in the next session.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am sure there are other assistants to this Chamber who need to be thanked, because without them this Chamber and this Legislature would not work as smoothly as it does. Now, we sometimes question that, but, indeed, in an overall sense it works pretty well, I think, in everybody's estimation.
Now to the task of addressing the Throne
Speech. This is the seventh Throne Speech that we have received from the
government, and of all of them I would have to say that this one offers very
little to Manitobans. It is very weak in its approach to how it addresses
issues, and it does not offer
Mr. Deputy Speaker, every Throne Speech is supposed to provide a vision for where our government is taking the people. It is supposed to reflect the promises that a government has made to the people through the election campaigns and in its addresses, but we have seen that the promises of this government have been broken time after time. No matter what it is the government says, you can rest assured that that promise will not be fulfilled.
We can go back to the first promise that was made by this Premier (Mr. Doer) to this province, and, Mr. Deputy Speaker, you will remember it, I know. I remember it, and that was that we would fix health care with $15 million. Now, he said, "If we need the nurses, we will hire them. If we need the doctors, we will hire them. We will do what it takes, but for $15 million we will cure the ills of the health care system."
An Honourable Member: And in six months.
Mr. Derkach: And he was going to do all that in a period of six months.
Well, Mr. Deputy Speaker, he hoodwinked Manitobans, because Manitobans said, "Wow, if this is all that it is going to take to fix this health care system, and if it is only going to take six months, we had better give this man his mandate and let him free." Well, I think even the member from The Pas had some questions about that promise, but Manitobans went along and they said, "We are going to give this man the mandate to do that."
Well, six years, more than six years later, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Manitobans are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. Even if we forget about the $15 million, it is the other part that we want to see fulfilled, and that is that our health care system be addressed and the ills in our health care system be fixed.
But what have we observed since this government has taken office on that important issue of health care? Well, Mr. Speaker, today waiting lists are longer for hip and knee surgeries. Today we have converted hallway medicine into highway medicine. Manitobans today are being transported from all parts of the province in ambulances for the most routine types of procedures that could have been done in their local communities and their local hospitals. But what has happened is the government has failed to ensure that those resources are present in those hospitals to fulfil those tasks. We have seen emergency wards, emergency departments of hospitals closed, hospital after hospital after hospital, and especially on the west side of this province.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you, the
population is not as dense on the west side of the province as it is here in
the city of
I want the Premier (Mr. Doer) to listen to this example that I am going to give him. When we had a volunteer ambulance system in our community, I could rest assured that an ambulance could travel six miles or 12 miles within 15 minutes. Just two weeks ago, a friend, a gentleman who was 70 years old or thereabouts suffered a stroke in his neighbour's house. The neighbours recognized what the problem was immediately and called the ambulance. Now, I cannot fault any individual who drives that ambulance or who responds to that call. But, because of the bureaucratic system that has now been set up in the regional health authorities, it took that ambulance 45 minutes to get to that patient. Do you know what the result is, Mr. Speaker? That patient has suffered enough brain damage, because it took so long, that he will never speak again and that he will never walk again. He is a casualty of the health care system that we have in our province today.
There are more travesties, Mr. Speaker, that I could speak about: a child who dies because there were not the services available in her local hospital and had to be transported to another hospital. The passage of time caused that child to die. That is where we are today in our health care system in the rural part of our province.
Mr. Speaker in the Chair
Mr. Speaker, I live seven miles from my hospital. If I have a heart attack, the standard that has been adopted is that it is 40 minutes to get to me. If I have a heart attack, in 40 minutes I will probably be dead. In 40 minutes, there is no sense in sending an ambulance; send a hearse. I would rather be thrown in the back seat of a car or in the back of a half-ton truck and rushed into that hospital so that an attendant, whether it is a paramedic, whether it is a doctor, whether it is a nurse can attend to me who might know how to save my life.
* (15:50)
I want to show the Premier another
example. My son and I came upon an accident 12 miles, 13 miles from the town of
Mr. Speaker, after an hour, the first people to come–I was 14 miles away from Russell, and the first person on the scene was an RCMP officer from Roblin, 50 miles away. We finally got connected and I said, "Please call off the firetrucks. Please call off the other vehicles because this gentleman is okay. He is sitting in my vehicle right now but please send an RCMP." "Oh," they said, "we cannot stop it. The system has been dispatched."
Well, this was like the Keystone Cops, Mr. Speaker. Because of the bureaucratic system that has been established, you cannot call off a firetruck; you cannot call off an ambulance. So, at the end of the day, we had two ambulances, three firetrucks, emergency vehicles, four RCMP vehicles arrive at the scene about the same time, about an hour and 15 minutes after we had come up on the scene.
Now I say, "Is there not a better way
for us to do things?" You cannot blame the government for this perhaps,
but it is a system that has been set up, a system that does not work. It might
work in
Mr. Speaker, I want to address another issue as it relates to health care. This government was going to fix it. It was going to fix it in six months with $15 million. Now, the Premier (Mr. Doer) laughs about it, but those were his words, not mine. Those were not my words. Those were his, and we have them on tape. I still have the image implanted in my brain when he was on television. I have the clip where he says, "$15 million, six months. If we need the nurses, we will hire them. If we need the doctors, we will hire them."
Well, Westman right now is 27 doctors
short, Mr. Premier. Why have you not hired them? You said you were going to do
it. Now, that is a simplistic question. A simplistic answer could follow, but I
say to you, Mr. Speaker, that those are real problems that people in rural
Mr. Speaker, I want to also address the issue of transfers. I asked this government whether or not they would license not ambulances but the halfway service between an ambulance and a car which is called stretcher service in Manitoba, operating only in Winnipeg, whether they would license stretcher services in rural Manitoba because there are people who cannot go in a vehicle but can go by a stretcher service to get diagnostic tests, to get different procedures in hospitals in Yorkton, Brandon, Dauphin, wherever it may be.
They do not need an ambulance, but today the bureaucratic system that we have developed forces the individual to go in an ambulance. He does not have the choice because it is the doctor who says, "You have to go in an emergency vehicle," instead of its being a stretcher service which would cost about half of what an ambulance costs. Today those people would have the services of a stretcher service if the government were to allow for them to operate in this province privately. Oh, that is a terrible word. "Private" is a terrible word to this government.
What would be wrong with a stretcher
service operating anywhere in rural
Now, we have a two-tier system in this
province, whether you like to admit or not. People who live in the North can
hop an air ambulance, be down in
An Honourable Member: What about family?
Mr. Derkach: Oh, escort is a family. No, you are wrong, because the escort is a family.
Now, what do I know about the North? Probably more than the Minister of Education (Mr. Bjornson) because I have spent a lot more time up there than he has. I spent a lot more time up there than he has. So, Mr. Speaker, let not the Minister of Education try to tell me that I do not know anything about the North. I spent years up there.
Now, Mr. Speaker, the government said when it came in, "We have to create a level playing field. We are not going to charge people to ride the air ambulance from the North because that is discrimination." Okay, that is fine, do it. You are the government, do it. So they have done it. But, now, rural Manitobans, aha, no, no, no you do not deserve that kind of treatment. You do not deserve that kind of treatment.
An Honourable Member: Who set that system up?
Mr. Derkach: Who is the government? Who is the government?
An Honourable Member: Who set that up?
Mr. Derkach: Well, Mr. Speaker, he says, "Who set that up?" I can tell him that, when we were in government, my father had to be transported by ambulance between hospitals and that was paid for. Today it is not. Today the individual has to pay for it.
An Honourable Member: That is right, because you set it up.
Mr. Derkach: No, we did not set that up; this government did, Mr. Speaker. This government set it up.
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the honourable
Premier (Mr. Doer) something else. You know, the community of Russell has an
airstrip for the air ambulance. However, the government directive has come out
that you cannot use the air ambulance in Russell if, in fact, the patient can
be transported to
Now is that called equity? Is that called equal treatment? Is that called really having the system respond to the needs of the clients? There is no answer for that. There is no legitimate response for that because there is not one available. There is no justification for doing that to any of our citizens, Mr. Speaker.
We have addressed the issue of
inter-facility transfers and who should pay for it, Mr. Speaker. If I can be
transported from Russell to
Now, Mr. Speaker, I can go on and on about our health care system and where the shortcomings are. I acknowledge, and the Premier is listening here, and I will acknowledge that it is not an easy system to fix. Anybody who thinks they have got a quick fix for this system is not really understanding what it is all about. I acknowledge that. The Minister of Health (Mr. Sale) is here. I acknowledge that, and I would have to say he is probably doing everything he can. But there is time for us to review the system. We need to review it. I plead with the government because, on behalf of patients, on behalf of Manitobans, it is time for us to review that system because there are parts of it that are just not working.
An Honourable Member: Better off to go to the veterinary clinic.
Mr. Derkach: Many people have said that, too. They have said you might be better off to go to a vet clinic, you will get service quicker than you will in our hospitals.
Now, enough said about the health care
system because I know my time is limited, and I know that the Premier does want
to have some time to address the Throne Speech as well. But, Mr. Speaker, I
want to talk about the economy. The economy is the fundamental part that is
going to determine how our lifestyles and our living standards are vis-à-vis
the rest of
* (16:00)
Well, look at us, look at us. Look at our
income tax rates. We used to be, last year only, we were, I think, the highest
west of
Mr. Speaker, we had, in 1999 and before, a
thriving economy in this province where people were paying less tax than they
are today. [interjection] Oh, yes,
they were. When the Premier talks about land taxes, I just had the misfortune
of realizing what my land taxes and my building taxes were, and his rebate last
year has just been eaten up by everything that they want back in taxes this
year, because they have done a reassessment in the province. Now, he knew that
was coming. We are not talking to somebody who did not know that was coming.
So, in essence, our taxes are higher now, the personal income tax. The personal
income tax for a family of four is higher than it is anywhere in
Other provinces have been lowering their
corporate tax, their business tax, all of their taxes. What has this province
been doing? Well, we will lower them just a tiny little bit here and we will
see how it goes. Well, Mr. Speaker, we had companies clamouring to come into
this province, companies like Maple Leaf wanting to come into this province,
setting up in this province, employing people, wanting to open up a second
line. What have they done now? "Oh,
Mr. Speaker, what private-sector
initiative has this government really gotten involved in since they have been
in government? Well, they will tell you that the cranes have come back to
An Honourable Member: What about the airport?
Mr. Derkach: Oh, what about the airport. Bad example. Oops, better try again. Better try again.
Then we have the Minister of Industry (Mr. Rondeau). Now, this is the Energizer bunny. He got so excited about giving loans out that he did not even bother to think about whom he was giving them out to. Six months after he gives the loan out, the business is gone. It has kind of disappeared.
I wonder how many other loans like that he
has given out, Mr. Speaker. He is also the man who has been charged with the
responsibility of branding
Now, Mr. Speaker, if, in fact, he gets involved in any more initiatives, we could be in real trouble in this province because we could have a great big hole because of his involvement. So I say if any business wants to operate in the province, stay away from the Minister of Industry because it is just going to cause greater problems for all of us.
Well, Mr. Speaker, jobs.
Jobs are important, but the only jobs that we have in this province are all at
taxpayers' dollars. But the Premier (Mr. Doer) says, "Not only are we
going to create jobs through taxpayer dollars, now we want the union dues too.
So we are going to dig a big ditch around
That is the Premier's
approach to everything. "We are going to have a great big Hydro building
too, great asset in the city of
Then the Premier has found a way of how you can get those dollars into the NDP party. You go tap an employee on the shoulder, you get the shop steward, the foreman to tap the little worker on the shoulder and say, "Now, you know what? We want you to contribute because the leader of the government who is an NDP Premier needs a little bit of assistance. So we want you to contribute, but you know what? You give us the money and we are going to write a cheque to the Premier because that is how we get acknowledgment and thanks, you see."
Now, Mr. Premier got caught. Mr. Premier got caught, and after six years of abusing the law, he has now decided that he is going to bring a law in to fix this. But then he says, "How am I going to get at those Conservatives, because they are causing me a bit of a heartache too?"
So I am going to address the issue of
loans. Oh, yes. Now, a loan is legal. Go to Elections
Now, Mr. Speaker, I ask you, what are we getting to when we say that kind of activity is not appropriate? This is nothing more than Gestapo tactics. This is nothing. We are going back to the Communist era, you see. A friend of mine used to call the socialists Commie-socialists because there was kind of a union between them and the Communist Party. Of course, I think we are getting back to that now, Mr. Speaker, because now the leader is trying to find ways of how you tramp on the rights of other people. That is unfortunate in this province. So I look forward to that legislation that he is going to be bringing forward because it once again will demonstrate how deceiving the Premier's (Mr. Doer) intentions really are with this kind of legislation.
Well, Mr. Speaker, we have got to keep going because there are so many issues to address. I want to talk about the agriculture issue because that is one that is near and dear to me.
Mr. Premier, how much time do you need? I will take five minutes. I will give you five more minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about agriculture. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy in this province. It has always been and will be. There are other industries that are growing in our province like tourism that should be growing even faster than it is today, but agriculture has been in trouble for three years. In my area, last year there was zero crop. Zero because the frost took it all, and the only assistance we got from government, the only recognition we got from government was to go to the crop insurance program that was paid for by the producers.
Mr. Speaker, the government said, "Go to CAIS." We told the government CAIS is not working. CAIS is not working. Farmers who are in desperate trouble have been applying for CAIS and nothing is coming to them because the program does not work. This Premier, his government has not fixed it.
Mr. Speaker, this year we had a flood, the greatest flood of the century for farmers. The Premier said we have got flooding insurance. Well, he now put that program in so that producers have to pay premiums on that program. When we were in government, we paid for it ourselves. Government paid for it. The taxpayer paid for it. The Premier says that was not a good enough approach. We are going to force the farmers to have insurance and they will pay the premiums. It will be their program.
Mr. Speaker, there are so many issues to address. I have got so much to say and so little time to say it in, and I know that the Premier has to make the closing remarks. I respect that and I offer the floor up to him.
Hon. Gary Doer (Premier): Mr. Speaker, it was very curious to listen to the previous speaker become almost a political pretzel in terms of the positions he was articulating here. It is too bad he did not have the courage of those convictions when he was in the previous Cabinet for 11 years. I could go on and on and on about some of those opportunities that he had that he failed to deliver on, but let me just list three of them just now that I have–do not have his attention, but I just want to point out that they swagger into the coffee shops, put their hands on their belt buckles and say, "You know, we care about farmers. We are the Conservatives; we care about farmers."
They raised the tax on farmers when they were in office. They raised the tax. What is that, hooey? Would they not call it hooey? Of course, who is the party in this Speech from the Throne that is again lowering education tax on farmland?
* (16:10)
You know, he is now talking about
ambulances. He had a revelation on the road to Russell on ambulances. Well, I
seem to remember in 1995 when he was sitting at the right hand of the former
Premier they delegated and moved all ambulance policies and fees to the
regional health authorities. Who had established the regional health
authorities? His little buddy, Darren Praznik, and all the other little gang. You
know, frozen food, regional health authorities and user fees for ambulances in
rural
Of course, he talks about the Hydro building,
and I will go into that in a moment. Their plan when we came into office was to
build a new Hydro headquarters, get this, in Waverley West, you know, in
Waverley West. Our plan is to build houses in Waverley West and headquarters in
downtown
Mr. Speaker, again, I
know members opposite are really upset when we talk about the endangered
species, the building crane, being returned to
Look at the Millennium
Library. I congratulate the Minister of Culture (Mr. Robinson) on not only the
Millennium Library, but again on library literacy policies right in
Mr. Speaker, I would
point out that the Millennium Library proposal, when the volunteers, the
Friends of the Winnipeg Public Library came to us in 1999, they said that the
former government said no. In fact, my briefing note said that the former
Filmon government said no. My MLA said no. I cannot believe it. You know, and
we said yes to a new Millennium Library. We were positive. I am proud of the
fact that we have done so. Every day, every day another crop, based on the
vision that we have had in office for the last six years, another crop is being
harvested by the people of
Now, members opposite, also, they were not as bad as the Liberals on the True North MTS Centre. Remember the Liberals? They wrote a letter to Mark Chipman because, you know, they thought he was a friend. "Oh, Mr. Chipman, you are so good to build the new arena, and we support you completely." Then they get four protesters, and they run around the old Eaton's building with yellow ribbons trying to protect the asbestos that was located in the old Eaton's Centre. What absolute hypocrites.
You know what? That is
why when the former member from Fort Whyte, who has now joined the Liberal
Party, whose national government is funding the new MTS Centre, I do not know
how this happens, Mr. Speaker, but the former member who voted against the new
arena, now is running for the party that helped fund the new arena as opposed
to their junior members from the provincial party, that is why when he moved
the motion on the arena, we had a motion up or down for a new arena in Manitoba
and in Winnipeg, and the Tories, to a person, voted to keep the asbestos
museum, and we said yes. We said yes to a new arena in
I was proud this weekend
to be with the member from St. James–[interjection]
Mr. Speaker, the member from McDonald's Big Mac hamburger, you know, he is a
really good example to youth fitness here in
Mr. Speaker, there was a
military tattoo at the new arena, speaking of yellow ribbons. There was a
military tattoo at this new MTS Centre and were we ever proud to have military
bands, military cadets, reserve corps, the 17th Wing marching with the
Mr. Speaker, a new Asper
building in downtown Winnipeg, a new Red River College being built, and, yes, a
new Hydro building, not built in the suburbs but built in downtown Winnipeg. I
would point out that part of the reason why that building is being built–and I
pay tribute to the Millennium Library; just wanted you to know that. Everybody
clap. It was also part of the fact that we took
Members opposite want more superintendents running around in offices. We want more teachers in the classrooms. That is the difference.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I can always tell by the
faces of members opposite what they really think is going on. Did you see how
long their faces were when the same day as the Speech from the Throne was being
introduced in this Chamber we finally had the announcement of $500 million-plus
in hydro-electric sales to
Mr. Speaker, the Conawapa project is
extremely important for the future of
* (16:20)
That is why, Mr. Speaker, we have no difficulty meeting with the 18 First Nations communities on the east side of the lake and not doing something over top of them, but working with them on their traditional lands and territories. I am proud of the six Cabinet ministers who have been meeting for the last two or three years to make sure that people who live in those areas have the opportunity to plan their future for their lands, and not have somebody else in Winnipeg do it for them, Mr. Speaker. I am proud of that.
So the long faces of members opposite got
even longer when we announced the 10 times development of ethanol here in
Mr. Speaker, now that we got your
attention, you know, what about wind energy? How many windmills were built by
the Conservatives for 11 years? None. You know, I have to admit something. We
the NDP did not invent wind in
Mr. Speaker, biodiesel, another positive program and, yes, organic farming. You know why? Consumers are buying more and more organic food. Members opposite guffawed when they saw the new developments from the Minister of Agriculture (Ms. Wowchuk): food development, nutraceuticals, organic food. That is the future. You are the past. She is the future. We are the future.
"Oh, oh. We are going to raise your farm taxes. Oh, oh. Vote for us. Oh, golly be, golly willy. We really care about farmers." Oh, you had your 11 years, folks. You have a record. You have a record, and the former president of KAP should never have sat with the Conservatives when they raised the portioning on farmland. Shame on you. Shame on you.
I have already talked about ambulance policies in health care, and in the few short minutes I have ahead of me, I already talked about the policy and the timing. I would say that the new ambulances have better technology, but, you know, it is not that complicated. Less doctors in the nineties; more doctors now. You know, 250 more doctors now; less doctors under the mean Conservative years. It is not that complicated. Less nurses in the nineties; more nurses in this decade. People have figured it out. Mr. Speaker, 1200 more.
Mr. Speaker, we believe now that the very
important priority besides the excellent wait list strategy that the Minister
of Health (Mr. Sale) has unveiled that builds upon the successes of lowering
the cancer care waiting lists today. I mean, where was the opposition? They
asked the question today about the
Mr. Speaker, the other priority for us is,
of course, Aboriginal health, and we are very committed to having prevention,
primary health care, needed health care services, sewer and water,
transportation, economic development, language and culture, K-to-12 completion
rates and post-secondary education for Aboriginal northern residents. Was it
not shameful that the only alternative to save some $400 million in the alternative
budget prepared by the Tories in the last election campaign, the only thing
they could say that they would cancel is the
Mr. Speaker, in terms of the future, we are dealing with all Manitobans: Minimum wage every year; poverty policies that make sense for low-income people; minimum wage increases; child poverty credits and the clawback all reinstated; child care centres now expanded by 33 percent since we have been in office. Stay tuned, there is more coming.
We also have hired more police officers. The members opposite, you voted against police officers last year. We are going to hold you accountable.
We have three times more people working
per year in
Mr. Speaker, post-secondary education is a
very important priority for us. I have said it before and I will say it again,
the symbol of Tory economic policy in post-secondary education was an
engineering building where the roof leaked, and we have reversed that. There is
a new roof and a new building at the
I could talk about a lot of other issues that are in the Speech from the Throne, transportation, economic development, but I want to end by talking about a couple of other points. I would point out, though, that the number, the enrolment in Manitoba's colleges and universities, the policies have changed from the Flat Earth Society for members opposite to a more intelligent investment strategy. The enrolments are up 33 percent, Mr. Speaker.
I want to say a couple of things. One,
this is the Year of the Veteran, and I know that many of you have participated
in and will participate this week in many, many events to commemorate the work
of the veterans. I am proud this Legislature has recognized, in this Year of
the Veteran, the contributions made by all veterans. We have designated activities
for Aboriginal veterans that were not recognized years ago and we have
participated in those activities. I was pleased to see the Aboriginal veterans
with the new Governor General on
I just think all of us in this Legislature
should be proud of the fact that we have named Highway 8 Veterans Memorial
Highway to
I also know that in the last week since the Speech from the Throne has been introduced there has been a little bit of an elephant in the political room. I think sometimes we have to acknowledge the fact that all of us, whether we go for a nomination, whether we go for a seat, whether we win or lose, everyone in this Chamber has put their name on a lawn sign and has had the guts to run, the guts to get criticized by each other, and each other in our own teams and other teams. Democracy is a very, very sacred, sacred profession that we are in and vocation that we participate in. I just want to say in closing in the Speech from the Throne, that anybody in this Chamber that puts their name on a sign, I respect. I do respect every member in this Chamber. We all go through different debates in our political parties, but I respect everyone. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker: Order. The hour being 4:30 p.m., pursuant to Rule 45(5), I am interrupting the proceedings in order to put the question on a motion of the honourable Member for The Maples (Mr. Aglugub), that is, the motion for an address in reply to the Speech from the Throne.
Do members wish to have the motion read?
An Honourable Member: Dispense.
Mr. Speaker: Dispense.
THAT
the following address be presented to His Honour the Lieutenant Governor:
We, the
members of the Legislative Assembly of
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
Some Honourable Members: Agreed.
Some Honourable Members: No.
Voice Vote
Mr. Speaker: All those in favour of the motion, say yea.
Some Honourable Members: Yea.
Mr. Speaker: All those opposed to the motion, say nay.
Some Honourable Members: Nay.
Mr. Speaker: In my opinion, the Yeas have it.
Mr. Leonard Derkach (Official Opposition House Leader): Well, Mr. Speaker, you know, I think we should do this on division.
Mr. Speaker: On division. Agreed? [Agreed]
* * *
An Honourable Member: Five o'clock.
Mr. Speaker: It is the will of the House to call it five o'clock? [Agreed]
Order, please. I want to take this opportunity to address the House. When we are adjourning, it is proper for members to be in their chairs, and we have a procedure that when the Mace comes up and the Speaker leaves with the Mace, that is when the members depart. That is respect for the institution of this House.
Is it the will of the House to call it five o'clock? It has been agreed to, so the hour being 5 p.m., this House is adjourned and stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday).