LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MANITOBA
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Mr. Speaker: O Eternal and Almighty God, from Whom all power and wisdom come, we are assembled here before Thee to frame such laws as may tend to the welfare and prosperity of our province. Grant, O merciful God, we pray Thee, that we may desire only that which is in accordance with Thy will, that we may seek it with wisdom, know it with certainty and accomplish it perfectly for the glory and honour of Thy name and for the welfare of all our people. Amen.
Orders of the day.
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'm sure if you canvassed the House, you'll find leave to go directly to Bill 202 this morning for second reading.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the will of the House to go directly for second reading of Bill 202? Is there agreement?
An Honourable Member: Agreed.
Mr. Speaker: Okay, there's agreement.
Bill 202–The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Bicycle Helmets)
Mr. Speaker: I'll call second reading of public Bill No. 202, The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Bicycle Helmets).
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would move, seconded by the member from River Heights, that Bill 202, The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Bicycle Helmets), be now read a second time and referred to a committee of the House.
Mr. Speaker: It's been moved by the honourable Member for Inkster, seconded by the honourable Member for River Heights (Mr. Gerrard), that Bill No. 202, The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Bicycle Helmets), be now read a second time and be referred to a committee of this House.
Mr. Lamoureux: Mr. Speaker, this is a bill that we in the Manitoba Liberal Party have had opportunity to introduce in the past and continue to push the government to recognize the vi–the benefits of having mandatory use of bicycle helmets.
Other provinces have seen the merit of doing it, Mr. Speaker. I've had the opportunity to, to put on the record some of those, some of those provinces. Information that was provided to me included provinces like British Columbia, back in 1996; New Brunswick, back in 1995; Nova Scotia, back in 1997; Prince Edward Island, back in 2003. In a bit more of a limited way–[interjection]
The mosquito is having a bit of a problem, I think, here. The member from, the member from Wolseley would probably do his constituents a little bit more service if he would be a little more attentative in listening and possibly protecting some of the children in this community by supporting a bill of this nature, Mr., Mr., mosquito, and maybe a little less attention on mosquitoes and a little bit more attention about the health care of our children, Mr. Speaker.
Having said that, if you take a look at the province of Alberta, we're talking 2002. Ontario, 1995. Mr. Speaker, what we're asking the government to do is to recognize an issue that has a very dramatic impact on children in the province of Manitoba. Other jurisdictions, whether it's provincial or in some cases, municipalities, you notice in the list that I had read off, I didn't mention Saskatchewan yet. Other communities such as Yorkton have actually acted on mandatory bicycle helmets. Whitehorse, Inuvik. Again, in a limited way, Mount Pearl in Newfoundland, St. John's in Newfoundland. There are other jurisdictions in North America that have actually acted on this since the research notes that I've acquired were, in fact, developed.
What we're asking the government to do is to give more than just consideration or lip service. And I've been in the Chamber when we've introduced the bill in the past and the Minister of Healthy Living (Ms. Irvin-Ross) will immediately stand up and say, well, this government believes in education and we are giving out lots of free helmets and that is making the difference in the province of Manitoba. Mr. Speaker, I beg to differ. We, in the Manitoba Liberal Party, beg to differ with the, with the minister.
If you use the minister's logic, you could apply it to a good number of safety measures that this Legislature has dealt with in the past. A good example would be that of seatbelts. You know, one could have argued that through education, Manitobans could have been informed of the benefits of wearing seatbelts. And no doubt, this is–if the minister today was serving back then, that's probably the argument she would be using, that of education as opposed to legislation. And Mr. Speaker, we all know full well the benefits of that legislation and the positive impact it's had on, on Manitobans.
Well, let's take a look in terms of even this government and particular, this minister. When I first started to talk about banning, banning or providing fines to those individuals that are smoking in vehicles where there's a child in the vehicle, what was the instant response from the Minister of Healthy Living? Well, we can educate. We just have to educate people about the disadvantages of having second-hand smoke in the close confinement of a vehicle and that's all we need to do in the province, province of Manitoba.
You know, through persistence, the Liberals introduced a bill. The Liberals pushed the issue in question period, and then we had the Premier (Mr. Doer) stand up and indicate that yes, we, we kind of support what it is that the Liberals are talking about. And in the last Throne Speech of the government, the government then recognized yes, there was some value and said that it was committed to bringing in legislation.
Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, now we have that idea in legislation. So the Minister of Healthy Living was wrong. She was wrong. It was more than education that was required; it's legislation and she's been overridden by her Premier. So before she stands up to talk about Bill 202 and talk about the importance of education, she should reflect on that point. She needs to reflect that in certain areas, legislation would better serve than education.
And you know, ultimately–late last night I was watching TV and I saw a commercial on TV and the commercial was from the Manitoba government giving the warnings about smoking in–second-hand smoke in vehicles and discouraging people from doing that. And you know, it was, I thought, a fairly decent, decent ad, Mr. Speaker. And the reason why I say that is that legislation is important and in this case, it is very important. But equally, it's good to have an educational component. So, in one sense, the minister is, is, is right in the sense of how important it is to have a education component, but where the minister is wrong, is when she writes off the need for the legislation.
* (10:10)
We look at what other provinces in Canada have, in fact, done. And I've provided a list of those provinces that have acted in some manner, Mr. Speaker. I would suggest that this minister needs to open her mind a, a little bit and maybe even share some of these concerns with some of her caucus colleagues. She'll find that New Democrats, from virtually coast to coast, would support this type of legislation. It's only the new NDP here in the province of Manitoba, in particular this minister who, who's ultimately preventing the saving of disasters in the province of Manitoba in regards to bicycle safety for our children.
If there's certain aspects of the legislation that the minister has a difficult time with, maybe it's the age requirements. You know, I don't want to, to try to read her mind, because it can be a very complicated thing, Mr. Speaker. I would suggest to you that the minister should, in fact, give serious consideration, allow this bill to pass. Allow it, at the very least, to go to committee but, time and time again, we have seen the government stall good Liberal bills, good private members' initiatives inside this, inside this Chamber, by making the general statement of saying, well, it's all about education.
Well, Mr. Speaker, I would like to indicate very clearly to the minister responsible for this passage of this bill, or the minister that seems to be calling the shots on this bill, that, yes, education is, is important. Yes, it's somewhat impressive that the government has given out so many free helmets, but without the, the legislation, without the legislation, the minister is, is off-base and is destroying the lives of many children in Manitoba because of her pride, her inability to be able to recognize the valuable, the valuable role that legislation can actually–[interjection] Pardon?
Well, you know, the, the minister, the min–the minister, well, to the member of Fort Rouge, if the member of Fort Rouge would have been here during the beginnings of the debates on, on this bill, she, too, maybe would have given up a little bit of hope, because the, the way in which this particular minister continues to, to downplay the importance of legislation. And sometimes you need to say it, sometimes you need to say it for, for what it is. And if the minister continues to drop the ball, she will be soundly criticized by the Liberal Party because what we're talking about is children in this province and it doesn't take a, a courageous minister to do the right thing on an important issue. If the member from Fort Rouge disagrees with what the minister is, is doing on the bill, well, then, she should stand up, or more importantly, talk to her in the caucus. I can assure you, after when she stands up, she's going to talk about education, and she's going to talk about how many helmets that she's given out, and she's going to downplay the mandatory legislation, Mr. Speaker.
And I was saying education is important. Even some of the free helmets is important. But what is important, equally important, is the legislation. That's how you are going to save, save a great deal of number of children in the province of Manitoba. I would encourage the member from Fort Rouge to talk to caucus colleagues. And maybe if the, if the NDP caucus started to give more credibility to the private members' resolutions, maybe, then, maybe, then, there would be more positive compliments directed towards the, directed towards the Minister of Healthy Living. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Kerri Irvin-Ross (Minister of Healthy Living): Oh, that ended so quickly, Mr. Speaker. I was really quite riveted. You know, when the member opposite talks about, let's do the right thing, I can only consider one item where he said that he was going to resign last year if he was proven wrong. Now, let's talk about doing the right thing. We've been waiting.
You know, Mr. Speaker, we've, we've had this debate and we will continue to have this debate. There is no doubt in my mind that our government isn't, isn't supportive of injury prevention initiatives, and we have proven that time and time again by developing our injury prevention strategies that take into account childhood injuries, such as head injuries, suicide, preventable injuries that can happen in people's homes and vehicles.
What we've developed is comprehensive education strategies that share the information with Manitobans, and we've seen success. Specifically, to bike helmets, we have chosen to provide comprehensive education strategy. One such initiative is called Protect Your Noggin. Through the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures task force, this was supported. We have developed the low-cost bike helmets.
Earlier this spring I was delighted to hand over the fifty thousandth bike helmet to a young girl who was extremely excited about the opportunity of cycling this year with her brand-new helmet. We have seen the success. Over 52,000 helmets have been distributed, low-cost helmets, across Manitoba. And at that particular announcement we had sports medicine specialists stand up and endorse it. We had the city of Winnipeg police stand up and endorse it and we continue to have other third parties support our initiative. Bike to the Future applauds our initiative on the distribution of helmets.
But besides the 52,000 low-cost helmets, 4,200 helmets have been distributed free of charge through KidSport. The goal is to ensure that we are encouraging physical activity and supporting cycling across the province, but we are also ensuring that people have the education that they, they need and they deserve to make the right choice.
There are statistics that have been proven. In 2006 IMPACT did a study and it proved that individuals between the ages of 16 to 19 years old have tripled their use of bike helmets. I tell you, Mr. Speaker, that this is evidence that proves that the education initiatives are effective. There's also information to say that childhood injuries have reduced by 12 percent. This is, this is related to a number of initiatives which our government has promoted, one such being the bike helmet education strategy.
When we talk about safety for cycling we have to talk about the investments that we've made as far as trails across this province. We've made record investments alongside many volunteer groups who know the benefits. We will continue to make those investments and provide a safe area for individuals and families to cycle. We know the benefits of that. We know the benefits of a physical activity. It's good for their mind, body and soul. It's a great family activity as well, and while they're participating in that family activity, they're given the information and the opportunity to buy low-cost helmets. And, by purchasing these low-cost helmets, they are protecting their noggins.
So we'll continue to promote bike safety. We have many partnerships, MPI being one of them, the Cycling Association that provides in-services for children in schools and in communities about safe cycling. Safe cycling includes a safe place to cycle. It includes knowing the ru–rules of the road and through that information, that sharing of information, we will be able to continue to ensure that many Manitobans enjoy cycling throughout this summer. Thank you.
Mr. Larry Maguire (Arthur-Virden): Mr. Speaker, I'm, too, wish to rise and put some words on the record in regards to the member from Inkster's Bill 202, private member's bill, The Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Bicycle Helmets).
I listened intently to the latter part of his presentation and that of the ministers here and, you know, something came to mind as we get into baseball season here that three strikes and you're out on this type of legislation. The member has, the Liberal has brought this forward, you know, you know, in 2005. He brought it forward last year. He brought it forward again now, and the government still hasn't got the picture in regards to whether or not they are in favour of protecting our citizens in this province from the wearing of bicycle helmets or not, Mr. Speaker.
* (10:20)
You know, and for the minister to stand up and say that the member should resign, that's the only thing she can remember about him, but obviously, she hasn't paid any attention at all to the private member's res–bill that's, that's before the House, and, and that's why I mention three times the three strikes, you know, and I, I would say three strikes and the minister's out on this one.
And I say that because where are their priorities? The government has felt it a priority to put $1,500 at one point, which has been withdrawn now, but at one point they had $1,500 for rebates to buy a hybrid car in this province. Well, you know, Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that our children and our citizens are much more important to the society than, than whether or not we drive a hybrid car. I guess I probably feel that we'll all be driving at least a hybrid car or something more green in that regard in the future decades as they come along.
But immediately, today, we've, you know, we've seen legislation come forward to have car seats and booster seats in, in vehicles and the government there again hardly knew the difference in some of the presentations between what a child seat was and a booster seat. And, Mr. Speaker, it's, it, it, it's concerning to me as a, as a grandparent and a, a parent that had car seats back in the days when we probably weren't mandatory to have them in those days, but it certainly was a plus and gave me a great deal of comfort and still does in regards to the safety of, of my children at that time, and grandchildren.
And so, Mr. Speaker, I guess I look at this type of legislation as something else that's very serious, and it is. I see it as preventative medicine. I see this as an opportunity to eliminate some hedge–head injuries. Not all people fall off a bike or run into something or have an accident with a bike, but that's why they're called accidents. We don't know when they're going to happen.
Mr. Speaker, for the government to say that they've reduced injuries by 12 percent through things like their bike helmet education strategy, then I guess I feel that for the small investment that they would have in being able to purchase bike helmets in this province that, perhaps, we could eliminate some of the costs from our health system. And I only say that because today in Manitoba, of course, as you are aware, with the type of situation we've got in health care, it is mandatory to be in the health-care system in Manitor–Manitoba, and I don't have a problem with that.
But I–for the government not to look at doing everything they can to provide preventative measures from injuries occurring, it seems to me to be a bit of an oxymoron. They are looking at continuing to fund health care. It's the double–they, they've doubled the budget from 1999, as you know, Mr. Speaker, and the situation still hasn't gotten any better in regards to shortening the lineups we have in our health system. We've still got major, major delays. I, I could list a number of them that I've got in regards to people in my own constituency, never mind the fact that Melita's emergency room services are closed again as we speak here and with no sign of when they'll reopen.
And so I guess I, I bring it to the fact that if the government is spending double the health-care budget up to $4.2 billion now, or $4.4 billion now in regards to health care in the province of Manitoba, over 40 percent of our budget, then I think it's almost disconcerting to think that they wouldn't spend a little bit more time in regards to looking at the safety of children that are riding bicycles in the province.
Mr. Speaker, I think we should encourage bicycle riding, walking, all of those kinds of exercises anytime we get an opportunity to do so in this province. I truly believe that, that it is a, a great exercise. That it is a, a preventative measure. It's a wonderful opportunity for keeping young people in a more fit condition, which also helps keep them out of, out of the medical system and medical needs that we have today.
I just feel that, that in closing it, it would be–it, it would be a great opportunity for the, for the government to heed the member from Inkster's motion–bill on this regard to provide much more safety for bike helmets in the province by–for our children, rather. And much more safety for the children of Manitoba by providing an opportunity to encourage the use of bike helmets in the province of Manitoba.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Tom Nevakshonoff (Interlake): Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
It's my pleasure to rise today to speak to the legislation put forth by the member from the Liberal Party next to me here.
And it's, it's, it's another example of something that the Liberals in our province are, are putting forward. They feel that this is a good thing that they're trying to look after us and make sure that we remain healthy and so forth. But, really, it's another example of, of going a little bit too far, of imposing upon the freedoms of, of individuals, and I think it's, it's, it's a better course of action to proceed, as we have as a government, by promoting the use of helmets, of course, through education programs, and so forth and, and helping the poor out in our province by offering free helmets, by offering low-cost helmets and so forth so that, if people so choose they can, they can go that route and, to their credit, many people have.
I know–well, first of all, I wanna address the comments of the Member for Arthur-Virden (Mr. Maguire), because I'm curious to see where the Conservative Party stands on this. Are they going to follow along with the, the other members of the opposition and just blindly support everything, and it appears they, they have decided to do so. And I would remind the member of Arthur-Virden of words of one of their most venerable members, the member for–former Member for Lakeside, the Honourable Harry Enns, who used to sit in the front row there. And, and Harry, himself, said that every day the Legislature sits, the people of Manitoba become a little less free because we have this, we have this obsession with passing laws that, that's our job. We're here to pass laws.
So, obviously, members opposite are cobbling together everything that they can think of to justify their positions in the–in the Chamber here. And that's not how we should do business. We should always bear in mind that we live in a free and democratic society and that people should be allowed to, to make some choices, if they would choose to do so. But, of course, the Liberals are the Big Brother party of Canada and are obsessed with, with regulating, with legislating, with, with putting us into those smaller and smaller boxes now.
I remember, I was–I served on the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures task force and our, our objective, at that point in time, was to look at the health of our children, and we focussed on their eating habits, of course, on, on things like smoking cessation, on violence prevention, on, on drugs and injury prevention. And after going across this province and consulting extensively, the all-party task force made a recommendation that we pursue a comprehensive education program in conjunction with a low-cost bike helmet program, and this government is following that path. It's taking the advice of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures task force, and that is the policy that we've put in place, and we are, we are content with that.
Now, the members, members opposite, they want to talk about bicycles today, but I have to, I have to wonder, there's a wide range of inherently dangerous activities that humans can enter into, and, you know, in the workplace, for example, I worked in the oil fields for 18 years. I wore a helmet every day of those 18 years, along with safety boots and glasses and ear plugs–the whole works, because it was, it was the wise thing to do. And wearing helmets is wise, but, you know, leaving it to the people to–to decide I think is even wiser, Mr. Speaker.
I have to look how far are we going to go with this? Like, are we going to impose it upon people who are on Rollerblades? Are we going to, are we going to, anybody who's wear–riding on a skateboard, is it gonna be the law that they have to wear helmets and elbow pads–skiing, for example, sure it's probably wise to wear helmets in all of these sports and people do.
* (10:30)
I was in, I was in Russell with the MLA for Russell (Mr. Derkach) just not too long ago. We went up to the, to the ski hill. He wanted to show us the development there, and I was pleased to see that almost everybody was wearing helmets skiing. And I haven't skied for many years myself, and it sure has changed from then until now, but it's nice to see that people are making these decisions themselves so, you know, and how much further are we going to go with it? Like, are we going to mandate that hunters use helmets when they go up into trees to hunt? You know. Well, we know what the Liberals would do with that because we've already had their example in terms of gun control where they want us to–all hunters are supposed to register their firearms, among other things.
And how much has that boondoggle cost us, Mr. Speaker, over the years? Billions. Billions of dollars. Money wasted, going down this path of gun registration. So, you know, I have to assume that if the Liberals had their way, that ultimately, we would be dealing with helmet registration because we can't stop with just simple legislation, so, this is how Liberals think. They are the ultimate utopians, I would have to say, where they want to control people. They want to regulate people. They want to put people in these little boxes and have the government watch them.
And when I was in university, in fact, I did a study of Utopia because I thought–I had a misunderstanding of the word utopia. I thought it was the ultimate society where everybody was happy, and that is supposedly the objective of a utopia, but anybody who's read the original by Sir Thomas More, as I have, or other books, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, of course, the classic, 1984, by George Orwell. And I would make reference also to a Russian work, a book called We by Eugene Zamiatin, and if you want to do a true study of utopia, you should study all of those books and, at the conclusion, I came to realize that utopia is the opposite of what people set out to accomplish.
In fact, when you have governments watching every step you take, every move you make, you're in that glass cubicle with all the other people in glass cubicles beside you, you're no longer living in a free society. You're living in that utopia where the state controls every move you make, and I don't think we want to go there. So we would rather leave the choice with the people. If they choose to go that path, then they are free to do so.
I would also like to look at the aspect of police resources, and I would draw a parallel to the International Court of Justice. When I was in university, when I was in university, I studied a lot of international law amongst other things, and one of the things that I learned about the International Court was that they will not hear cases that, that they feel the proponents, the two sides, will not obey, so I look to police resources. Should we have our police chasing down people on bicycles because they're not wearing helmets or should we be looking to reduce crime; should we be looking to reduce car thefts, and so forth. I think if you asked an average police officer, that they would say let's not go there, to mandatory helmet use. I would rather use my resources on something more productive trying to prevent crimes and so forth.
So these are, these are the types of issues. It feels good to put a law in place and mandate something such as mandatory helmet use, but really, it's an infringement on our inherent freedoms. It's a misuse of police resources, and it's misguided in the sense that it covers off one small aspect of our society where there are a wide range of ways people can injure themselves. It's just common sense to wear helmets, and anybody who lacks that common sense will bear the consequences.
So I see my light is blinking, Mr. Speaker. I know there are others who would care to speak on this so I thank you for the opportunity.
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, let me put some common sense words on the table.
An Honourable Member: Big Brother Jon.
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Gerrard: Talk about Big Brother. The way the NDP are running the WRHA, this is Big Brother incorporated.
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Gerrard: Top-down control; the NDP know all about this. We don't want it but, but there are some sensible things that we can do in legislation that will send a common sense message out around the province and to which people will listen to, and that, indeed, is what has happened in other provinces which are forward thinking. You gotta recognize today that the NDP are one of the last bastions of the old time way of doing things. The old time way of–who running around on a bike without a helmet is getting your noggin' busted. That's not smart and–[interjection]–and I would–I would ask the, the member for the Interlake, you know, when he was wearing a helmet on a construction crew, you know, was that because, you know–
An Honourable Member: That was common sense.
Mr. Gerrard: I think that it was because it was mandatory to do it, and most construction sites that I'm familiar with have got it very clearly posted. In fact, I worked on some when I was growing up and I visited quite a number, have mandatory helmets as you enter this gate–
An Honourable Member: Mandatory elbow pads, too, right? And kneepads, we should think–
Mr. Gerrard: Well, we, we, we know that the, the NDP want elbow and kneepads because they want to elbow everyone else out of the way.
But, but it's time to, to focus on this legislation. There is abundant evidence that this type of legislation in other jurisdictions has saved lives. It has saved costs for the health-care system. I mean, that would be the last thing that the NDP would want to do, is save costs for the health-care system. They're such freewheeling spenders that we have a deficit. It's so bad that they have to call it a–
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Mr. Speaker: Order. Order. Order. Order. I need to be able to hear the speaker–the person that has the floor.
Mr. Gerrard: There is piles and piles of evidence that shows that when you pass legislation like this, which is now present in most provinces, that you get a big increase in the number of people wearing helmets. It's just like on a construction site when you say, look, in order to enter here you have to wear a helmet. You get a big increase in the number of people wearing helmets at the site.
Common sense, the studies are available. The fact is, that with all the data that's been amassed with the Canadian Public Health Association meetings, which are here in Manitoba as we speak, I, I want to–I want to tell the, the member for the Interlake that, that one of the people at the public health meeting is Dr. Rick Stanwick, and, and he has long been an advocate of making sure that we have common sense safety measures for kids, and he was very surprised that Manitoba is so backwards.
He left here a while ago to Vancouver and he's been working there as a public health officer for quite some time and, coming back here, he's talking about the Canadian Public Health Association–probably needs to look at the jurisdictions where it holds their meetings and, and to hold the meetings and bring the benefits of visitors to provinces which have up-to-date laws and are concerned about the safety of kids. And, and this NDP province, unfortunately, is backwards and, and maybe, you know, the–as a result of the backwards thinking of the NDP, we'll lose the opportunity to host meetings because people won't want to come here because it's not up-to-date. That's what Rick Stanwick was telling me. So, I mean, that's where it is. That's life these days. People are concerned about child safety. People are concerned about the environment. It's time that we're up-to-date instead of being dependent on things in the old way.
* (10:40)
There's also a lot that we need to do in terms of improving opportunities for people who are cycling. There need to be a lot more in terms of dedicated bike paths. There are huge problems at the moment with bicycling riding on sidewalks. I've had e-mails fired my way in the last few days from people who are very upset because they were just about mowed down walking along sidewalks, by bicyclists. You know, there, there is some basic attention to making sure that our roadways, bicycle pathways and sidewalks are safe, and we need to do much better than we're doing at the moment.
And that's all part of what we should be doing. We, we, we applaud the government for trying to help improve the education, for trying to get more bicycle helmets out there, but in fact, what has been shown time and time again in other jurisdictions–[interjection]
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Mr. Gerrard: –the thing which makes–the thing which makes the biggest difference is making bike helmets mandatory. And that's what we need in this province, just as we have passed for seat belts and, and many other safety devices. They should be used all the time by people in Manitoba. This should be mandatory legislation. That's why we support this bill, and that's why we ask all members to stand up and vote for it by the end of this hour.
Mr. Rob Altemeyer (Wolseley): Mr. Speaker, I, I'll begin my comments on this highly important piece of legislation, brought in the middle of a global recession, on mandating something that isn't going to work for people who have brought this legislation before this Chamber previously with, with a bit of good news for the Liberals. They've actually inspired me to write a book. It's not something I've ever done, but having listened to the honourable Member for Inkster (Mr. Lamoureux) a few, few days ago wax philosophic on something he knew absolutely nothing about, I've decided to compile a, a new, a new book, and the title of it will be: I think they're called fishlets, and the subtitle will be: mangled moments from Hansard.
The Member for Inkster was, was trying to remember the, the very complicated word for small fish. And, and, there've been a couple of other potential, potential chapters added today, just listening to their, their presentations on this proposed amendment–which is doomed for the recycling bin, I can assure you–on, on bicycle helmets.
The notion that this is a good Liberal bill is one of the best oxymorons that we'll come across and the, the comments on, on freewheeling spenders in the context of our government's excellent action to actually provide bicycle helmets for low-income families who would not be able to afford them otherwise just shows the extraordinarily narrow perspective that that this legislation is coming from, and it speaks volumes of the, of the people who have brought it forward and their complete absence of a reality check and the extent to which they are so out of touch with, with the day-to-day lives of, of people that I represent, in Wolseley, and I'm sure I'm not the only place.
Now, Wolseley, of course–we all got our packages recently showing the latest statistical breakdown on income distribution in our constituencies, and Wolseley as is–has always been the case since I've been elected, is, is well below the average income in Manitoba, and I bring that perspective to the Legislature, Mr. Speaker. And someone brings a piece of legislation in front of me saying that they're going to make it mandatory for a, a family to somehow magically, with all the other obstacles that they're dealing with in their lives, to procure bicycle helmets for however many people in their family may need it.
I'm going to ask what normal people call an obvious question, and I will pose this obvious question to the Liberals yet again, as we have done over and over again: What do you have against education? What do you have against the low-cost bike helmet program? And what do you have against free bike helmet giveaways?
Our government has done some extraordinary work on this file. I highly commend our Minister of Healthy Living (Ms. Irvin-Ross) for the program she's brought forward. What on earth is wrong with 52,000 helmets being distributed to kids who need it? What exactly is wrong with having a remarkable increase in the percentage of children aged 16 to 19 who are wearing bike helmets? That's normally the demographic that wears bike helmets the least. What is wrong with providing 1,500 helmets for free, no cost at all, to children who have been identified by their child-care centres, identified by their school, identified by their community clubs, as being in need of bicycle helmets and not having the capacity to pay for it?
The Liberals love to bring forward a piece of legislation over and over and over again and pretend that it's our government that is not taking appropriate action. I think, in fact, Mr. Speaker, what this is, is living proof of what I call the map–the Toronto Maple Leaf syndrome. With all due respect to our Conservation Minister, this is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The Liberal proposal is flawed. It has been flawed the first time it was brought forward. It's flawed the second time it's brought forward. It will continue to be flawed every subsequent time that they bring it forward. And, in the meantime, Manitobans, regardless of your income status, regardless of what part of the province that you live in–we don't all live in River Heights. I don't quite know how to break this to the, the Leader of the Liberal Party, not everyone lives in River Heights in Manitoba. But, regardless of where you do live, our government is distributing thousands of helmets every single year to families in need, and that's something that I am personally exceptionally proud of.
I think my, my colleague has raised an excellent point, as well, with the fact that if we bring in a mandatory requirement that everyone on a bicycle has to be wearing a helmet, I got to ask, how do the Liberals plan to enforce this? Are they going to get in their cars or are they going to be on their bicycle cycling around, handing out tickets, you know, maybe with the Liberal logo saying, you know, you're breaking our law. How on earth can they justify that as a good use of, of resources?
And, speaking of freewheeling spenders, what does the honourable Liberal leader think is more expensive? Hiring a police officer to, to chase down inner-city kids who can't afford the bike helmet that he won't give them for free because he wants it to be mandatory for everybody, or is it maybe a better idea to provide education which doesn't cost very much? If you think it's expensive, you should try ignorance, or maybe we should provide bike helmets for free to the people who need it. Which one's going to be more expensive and which one's going to be more effective? I'll take effective government proposals from the NDP over this Liberal recycled hash any day. You want to talk about last bastions, the honourable Leader of the Liberal Party should look in the mirror, if you want to know what the last bastion looks like.
I'm very pleased personally, in my constituency, Mr. Speaker, to contribute in a small way to this. It shows you just how important this issue is to everyday Manitobans. Mulvey School, fantastic community there in my constituency of Wolseley. The school's technically located in the Wolseley neighbourhood, but it services a wide range of children, many of them coming from the West Broadway neighbourhood. And when I offered to them, shortly after getting elected the first time, what would be a useful gift or, or a useful prize or award to hand out at the annual community picnic, which we just, we just celebrated a couple of weeks ago at Mulvey School, they said bike helmets and bike locks and bikes would be fantastic. To help the kids get more exercise. To help them to commute to school in a safe way and to do it on, with the assurance that, you know, their bike is going to be there and that their noggin will be protected.
And we've done that every single year, Mr. Speaker, responding to that community need in a useful way rather than coming in with a gigantic Liberal hammer and slugging people with it, saying, you must do this whether you can afford it or not, and if you have a problem with that, well, you're going to have to deal with it because this is our law and wow, we thought that we'd just make this a requirement of everyone without considering your day-to-day circumstances. You know what? It's not going to work, it's not worth pursuing, and I actually see a lot of similarities between how they have approached this piece of legislation and some of the other pieces of drivel that they've brought forward in this Chamber. I'm thinking specifically of their so‑called poverty reduction legislation. We have managed to reduce the poverty rate of children in Manitoba since we came to office by 40 percent, and it's gone down by over 50 percent for households headed up by single women with children. Now the Liberals have twice now brought legislation forward saying that only one group in the entire province, one community group, would be their official adviser on the poverty legislation as they see it. They also have a marvellous line in there about how they're going to use universally and internationally accepted measurement standards to keep track of their progress.
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Mr. Speaker, there's no such thing as an internationally accepted measurement for poverty. There isn't even a national one in Canada. We're the only G8 country to not have a national poverty measurement. The Liberals carve out this massive loophole for themselves. Heaven forbid they ever had the opportunity to pass such a piece of legislation. It would enable them to, to, to, to not achieve a single thing and still call that a success story. I think that is exactly what the Liberal Party is and I'm going be very pleased to not see this particular piece of legislation pass in this Chamber.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mrs. Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I'm always pleased to put a few words on the record with respect to some of the Liberal bills that have come forward in this Legislature, this one in terms of how it, it brings a debate forward in this Legislature that I think is very important for us to have and that has to do with the protection of our, of our children and protection of Manitobans and protection of those who choose to ride bicycles.
And I always find iro–it ironic when members of the NDP get up in this House and, and try to say that they don't believe in the heavy hand of government legislation. And I just find it quite amusing, Mr. Speaker, when, when members like the Member for Interlake (Mr. Nevakshonoff) and the Member for Wolseley (Mr. Altemeyer) like to stand up in this House and try and claim that they aren't in favour of the heavy hand of government legislation when, when that's really what this government is all about. They are all about the heavy hand of government legislation.
We see it day in and day out in this Legislature and I think it's unfortunate because the heavy hand of legislation, as the member, the Leader of the Liberal Party said when it comes to the WRHA, when it comes to government institutions who are dictating to Manitobans about how things should be run in this province. And yet when it comes to the safety of our children, when it comes to the safety of, of our children's, as members opposite have used the word, noggins, as–when it comes to the safety of our chi–kids, when it comes to the safety of Manitobans who choose to ride bicycles, members opposite suddenly somewhere find this card somewhere where they're saying they're suddenly opposed to any kind of government intervention in certain areas and I always find that debate ironic. And that's why I felt compelled for, one of the reasons why I felt compelled to, to speak to this legislation today, plus, Mr. Speaker, I have two children of my own.
I have a daughter who's seven, a son who's five years old and, you know, they're just at the point where my five-year-old is learning how to ride his bicycle and, you know, he's just taking the training wheels off and, and I can see him as I'm running beside him and letting him go down the, down the, the street, Mr. Speaker. I can see him wobbling from side to side and side to side and, and eventually see him fall over. And you know what? The worst thing that he gets at this stage is, is a few scrapes on his knees. And this is what happens when you learn these things in life but because I, because I have–I make sure that my children wear bike helmets, I am sure that if they do, when they do and they're–when they do fall down 'cause it will happen, and sometimes it can be unexpected when it happens, but when they do, they are protected and their, and their noggins, so to speak, are protected.
And I think that's very important and I think we need to educate people out there to understand the importance of, of bike helmets. We need to understand that it does save lives and a significant number of lives and it saves people from being debilitated. It saves people significantly as they move forward in life, Mr. Speaker. And I think it's very important that all citizens of Manitoba, indeed, all citizens of our country understand the importance of, of bike helmets and the use and what they do in terms of, of protecting Manitobans.
So, Mr. Speaker, I, I think that there are a number of other provinces who, who already do this. In certain provinces like P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia, this type of legislation pertains to people of all ages. And then there other provinces where, like Alberta–I believe it's Alberta–where it pertains to individuals under 18.
And I think, certainly, it's very important that we protect our children, that we educate families across Manitoba, that we make sure that they understand, because the statistics are out there, and I know that the members of the Liberal Party have already put those statistics on the record. They've told us about how bike helmets saves–bike helmets save lives.
And, so, I think it's very important and I think that what the Liberals have done is brought a number of pieces of legislation before this House that have given us the opportunity to stand up and debate this honestly in this House, Mr. Speaker.
So I think it's very important to have this debate, and I would, I would encourage other members to, to speak on this bill too. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Ms. Jennifer Howard (Fort Rouge): After that invitation by the Member for Tuxedo (Mrs. Stefanson) and hearing my honourable friend the Member for Inkster (Mr. Lamoureux) invite me to speak, I'm happy to stand up and do that on this issue.
Nobody, I don't think, questions the value of bicycle helmets and I think it's only–we can only reflect on our own childhoods to see how far we've come with the understanding of wearing those helmets. So I don't think that's what's under debate, that's it's valuable and important and people should wear bike helmets. I think what is at question is what is the best way to ensure that that happens.
But early on in the debate, the member introducing this bill sought to broaden it and make it about the health and safety of children. So I'm pleased to talk about our respective records on the health and safety of children for a moment, and I want to start by talking about child care, for example.
You know, the Liberals in Ottawa had many, many, many opportunities and many, many, many promises. I think they promised a national child-care program in '93. I think they promised it in '97. I'm pretty sure they promised it in the year 2000, and they never delivered on that. Not once did they deliver it. [interjection] Well, I hear the member of Inkster with that old, sour grapes philosophy of the Liberal Party, that even though they promised it for 13 years and never delivered on it, somehow that's not their fault, Mr. Speaker. They had many, many years in government to introduce a national child‑care program, and they failed to do that, so I have no time for that particular argument from the Member for Inkster.
This month, June, we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the breakthrough NDP government in this province, and as we reflect on that, I think it's important to note that each time we have formed government in this province, we've moved forward those issues like child care. And I want to particularly pay tribute to some of the early women members of this Legislature in our party, Myrna Phillips and Muriel Smith, who pushed very hard for a child-care system that was rivalled and is rivalled by no one in the country.
And we have continued to move forward on protecting the health and safety of children by providing good quality, accessible child care. We've moved forward on capital. In my own constituency we've seen the building of the River Avenue day care co-operative which is a beautiful new building with many children taking advantage of those programs, of all ages. They provide very innovative child care in the evenings. They provide very innovative child care for school-age children. So we've invested on the capital side in child care.
We've invested in wages for child-care workers. We have a lot to make up for in the wages of child-care workers because taking care of children has been and continues to be a very undervalued task in our society. And so there's a long way to go to make up for the past in terms of wages, but we're making important investments there.
We also have made investments including more children in child care, in making sure that children who have special needs, children who have disabilities also have access to child care, and recently I was visiting the deaf centre of Manitoba and watched through the windows the kids in that child-care centre playing with each other, both hearing kids and kids who aren't hearing communicating in sign language and speech. And it was a very good example of creating child care that includes all children.
I also think it's important as we head into summer to reflect for a moment–
Mr. Speaker: Order. When this matter is again before the House, the honourable Member for Fort Rouge (Ms. Howard) will have six minutes remaining.
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Res. 16–Flood Worker Recognition
Mr. Speaker: The hour now being 11 a.m., we will move on to resolutions and we'll deal with resolution No. 16, the Flood Worker Recognition.
The honourable Member for, for St. Norbert (Ms. Brick).
Order.
Point of Order
Mr. Speaker: The honourable Member for Inkster, on a point of order?
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Yes, on a point of order, Mr. Speaker. We're, we were somewhat hoping that there might have been the will to allow for a vote on this bill, given that it's the third time that it's brought forward and would ask if there would be leave to allow for a vote.
Mr. Speaker: Well, it’s not, it's not common practice in, in any House to interrupt the member that is speaking because all members have the right of debate, and the honourable member had the floor. And also, at 11 o'clock we move on to resolutions, so, so the honourable member does not have a, does not have a point of order on that issue.
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Mr. Speaker: We'll move on to resolutions.
Ms. Marilyn Brick (St. Norbert): Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Selkirk (Mr. Dewar), that:
whereas Manitobans in many regions are dealing with high levels of flooding this spring, as rivers spill over their banks and run-off causes overland flooding; and
WHEREAS flood workers and volunteers standing shoulder to shoulder play a vital role in assisting their communities in building dikes and assisting with evacuations; and
WHEREAS all sectors, recognizing the exceptional circumstances of natural disasters, consistently work with government to put the needs of Manitoba citizens first in disasters of this nature; and
WHEREAS public service employees at all levels provide outstanding support and assistance in dealing with these exceptional circumstances to make the best of a bad situation; and
WHEREAS this support continues in full force as Manitobans dedicate their time and energy to protecting their friends, neighbours and even strangers against spring flooding; and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba commend all Manitobans who have been working to combat spring flooding across the province; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba extend a thank‑you to all those who sacrificed their time and labour to help fellow Manitobans mitigate the effects of this flooding.
Mr. Speaker: It's been moved by the honourable Member for St. Norbert (Ms. Brick), seconded by the honourable Member for Selkirk (Mr. Dewar):
WHEREAS Manitobans–dispense?
An Honourable Member: Dispense.
Mr. Speaker: Dispense.
Ms. Brick: Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to put forward the private member's resolution on thanking and, and really extending our best wishes to the volunteers who assisted during the flood of 2009.
We know that the 2009 flood was the third worst flood in 100 years. During the flood, 60,000 sandbags were deployed to protect people and their property from destruction. Sandbag dikes were built at 100 Winnipeg properties along the Red, Seine and Assiniboine rivers. We know, Mr. Speaker, that severe flooding resulted in a state of emergency being called in Dominion City, the R.M. of Franklin, East St. Paul, West St. Paul, St. Andrews, St. Clements, Selkirk and the R.M. of St. Laurent. We also know that other flood‑affected areas included Gretna, Emerson, Roseau River First Nation, Letellier, St. Jean Baptiste, Morris, Riverside, Rosenort, Brunkild, Aubigny, Ste. Agathe, St. Adolphe, Niverville, St‑Pierre-Jolys, Grande Pointe, Peguis First Nation, Fisher River First Nation and, as I mentioned, several and quite a few areas of Winnipeg. Peopr–people in many of these communities experienced property damage, evacuation, road closure and the stress that comes from having their day-to-day life completely and utterly changed.
We know, Mr. Speaker, that people in general love water and rivers that flow through Winnipeg and provide our province with a picturesque landscape for us to enjoy, but this all changes when we experience flooding.
Manitobans answered the call this spring to assist by the hundreds. They recognized the needs of their neighbours, friends and often people they had never met. This spirit of communityism and volunteerism speaks volumes about our province and the people who live here.
The act of volunteering to help sandbagging during a flood is truly a selfless act. The job is dirty and physically challenging. The sandbags often weigh in excess of 40 pounds and there is a need to act quickly while you are moving the sandbags along a chain of people.
Among the groups of people who volunteered were students from Collège St. Norbert. In excess of 50 students spent the week of April 13th to 17th at many different, different critical points in the city of Winnipeg and outside the city. They sandbagged at Turnbull Drive, St. Adolphe arena, Breezy Point in Selkirk and on Scotia Avenue. These students and their teachers are to be commended for taking such selfless actions and for spending their time and energy ensuring that people's properties were well prepared to battle the rising water.
In addition to the students from local high schools, on April 3rd students from the Canadian Mennonite University spent their time sandbagging at one home on Christie Road. These students comprised one in 10 students who were attending the Canadian Mennonite University. Their efforts resulted in 5,000 sandbags being placed to build a 16-inch ring dike around the home.
John Brubacher, who is an assistant professor of biology at the Canadian Mennonite University and who joined his students at the sandbagging line said: I've never sandbagged before. Partly, it was to live in Winni–to live the Winnipeg experience, but really I like the community aspect of everyone pitching in. He said the camaraderie of his students kept the serious work light-hearted. There was singing. There was a lot of laughter and there was a really good energy there.
In addition to people who helped to make sure that the flood of 2009 was fought, we also have to thank the Province for providing two Amphibex icebreaking machines that broke up ice jams on the river north of the city and the gates of the floodway.
I know, Mr. Speaker, that in my community of St. Norbert there was a lot of tension and nervousness on Good Friday as we waited to see what would happen. The flood of 2009 posed a unique challenge as it was the first time the floodway had been operated with large jams as part of the equation. It was thanks to the hard work of the equipment operators that the ice jams were moved onto the shoreline or broken up into smaller pieces so they could move down the river.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer my thanks and gratitude to the equipment operators who sometimes put themselves at risk working in a situation that was challenging and often life-threatening. They worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of our community, and I was so pleased to see that they were successful. I know all the members of the House will join me in thanking them for their hard work.
Another piece of equipment that proved its value during the flood of 2009 was the sandbagging machine. This amazing piece of equipment was designed and built here in Manitoba. The sandbagging machine takes 60 volunteers to operate and it turns out 5,000 sandbags in an hour. That's an amazing number, Mr. Speaker, when you think about it. This machine was used extensively in Selkirk in the 2009 flood. Manning this machine is a huge task as it takes an amazing number of people to keep it running. In discussing the machine with several volunteers, I've been told it is just a, a, a revolution in terms of how it was done previously. Previously we know that the method of filling sandbags by shovelling each bag by hand was very time consuming and never operated at the pace that this sandbagging machine does.
The 2009 flood was an occasion for Manitobans to come together to support each other. Thousands of people came out to sandbag in the Red River Valley. In Winnipeg the new 311 phone system was used extensively. There were 2,800 calls about volunteering to the 311 system. As a result of those calls, 1,600 people volunteered to assist at-risk property owners to protect their homes.
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Mr. Speaker, we also know that the floodway has been used this year to a great level. The, the Province has made significant improvements to our infrastructure in order to deal with reoccurring floodway in the Red River Valley.
Mr. Daryl Reid, Acting Speaker, in the Chair
Since 1997, there were roughly 95 percent of the homes, businesses and farmyards in the Red River Valley have been flood-proofed to the 1997 flood levels, plus 0.6 metres. Since 1997, nearly 1,750 homes, businesses and farmyards have been protected by pads, ring dikes, relocations and buyouts.
We know, Mr. Speaker, that 19 community ring dikes have been raised, extended or constructed. These communities include Rosenort, Morris, Brunkild, St. Jean Baptiste, Dominion City, St. Adolphe, Emerson, Letellier, Ste. Agathe, Grande Pointe, Niverville, Gretna, Aubigny, Lowe Farm, Riverside, St-Pierre-Jolys, Rosenfeld and Roseau River.
As I mentioned, Mr. Speaker, the floodway has been just an amazing improvement for us. Manitobans are very familiar with nat–natural disasters. We had the flood of 1950, which many of us have seen pictures of, and, and I know that when we take a look at it, we can see the devastation that that flood has caused. As a result of that flood, the floodway was built and in–since 1968, Duff's Ditch has operated over 20 times and has prevented over $10 billion in flood damages.
The floodway expansion project is on schedule to provide one-in-700-year flood protection this spring, and the expansion of the Red River Floodway will increase flood security and improve the quality of life for many Manitobans.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I would like to say thank you so much to all the people who volunteered to ensure that the flood of 2009 wasn't such a huge event in terms of people's property loss. It was thanks to them that we have to say that we are safe here in Manitoba. Thank you.
Mrs. Mavis Taillieu (Morris): Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And I'm, I'm pleased to, to speak to this resolution, the flood worker protection, oh, sorry, Flood Worker Recognition resolution today, because I think it's very, it's very important that we do recognize the valiant efforts of so many people in this past high-water event of 2009, and recognize that these, too, these floods are all too often here in Manitoba.
As I represent the constituency of Morris, and I know that the, the member from St. Norbert talked about many of my communities that suffered again in this year's high-water event. That's what we like to refer to this situation in Morris. They don't like the f‑word, they like the high-water word.
Seven floods in 14 years we've had in the, in the area of Morris. So the people, the people in Morris are very familiar with how to fight floods, not, not the town of Morris, specifically, because they are very well protected with a ring dike, but many of the communities in the municipality of Morris. Those, those communities would be Morris, Rosenort and Riverside, Aubigny, Ste. Agathe, St-Pierre, and the, and the area which is known as Howden, which is just immediately south of the floodway gates, who are quite impacted in a very short time when the floodway becomes operational.
These people are very, very well aware of, of, of what needs to be done. I'd like to commend the people in the R.M. of Ritchot, in particular Mr. Bob Stefaniuk, the reeve of Ritchot, who put in a lot of hours manning the, the station at St. Adophe and, and making sure that the equipment and sandbags were provided to the area, the region of, of Ritchot. And certainly, the–Herm Martens, the R.M. reeve in Morris, who has fought floods for many years, lives in Rosenort, and, and certainly, was involved with evacuation of Riverside residents again this, this time, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Also, should recognize Dale Hoffman, the mayor of Morris, who is a lifelong resident of Morris and is very familiar with what happens in flood events.
And what does happen when the river rises is a threat to persons and persons' property, and it can be very, very devastating. As we saw in '97, many people were flooded, homes were lost, and it was an event that had far-reaching consequences for these people even now, today. When another flood event threatens, they remember the anxiety and the stress and the loss that they experienced in, in 1997.
Many, many people helped in this, in this fight against this 2009 flood, and I suppose there have been many floods, as I mentioned, in the last several years, '97 being the flood of the last century, and I guess we could say at this point that 2009 flood is, is so far the flood of this century.
Many, many people worked very hard to protect people and property in this last flood. I've mentioned some of the people from my particular area that worked hard, but I also want to recognize there were a lot of people employed by this government that spent countless hours every day on the job, making sure that there was management of the, of the, of the, of the systems and equipment needed to, to be in place to fight the, the ice jams and the high waters and make sure that sandbags got to where people needed them and dikes were built or up-built in order to protect properties.
I also want to thank several groups of people. I know the member from St. Norbert talked about the schools who came and the students, and I want to recognize their efforts. But I also want to recognize the efforts of the Hutterite people, who really dropped everything they were doing and, because it is in their nature to be helpful to other groups, came into the city of Winnipeg and worked side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with the other volunteers and helped out where needed. And I, I really think that that is really an important thing to recognize about these people, their helping nature. And, and certainly, even after they felt that this government had abandoned them in, in their, in their issuance of Bill 17, they turned the other cheek, I guess you could say, and came and, and helped fight the flood and helped the efforts of government in doing that.
The member from St. Norbert also mentioned Mr. Guy Bergeron, the inventor of the sandbag machine, who is a constituent of mine who lives in Elie, and his efforts all through the, the last several years. His, his invention, the Sandbagger–the Sandbagger, that's what it's called–has automated the sandbag process so that over 5,000 sandbags can be filled in a short time, and that–those sandbags were very much needed, needed this year. Not only this year, but in 1997 it was used extensively, and this year again here in Winnipeg and south of Winnipeg, north of Winnipeg and in Fargo, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I want to recognize his efforts. I think he was a person, he was another one of these people that went to every site that there was one of his pieces of equipment working because he felt he wanted to ensure that that machine didn't fail and that he would be there to make sure that he could fix it if it did. He is a, a man of, of 79 years now, who spent many, many hours going around and touring every single day that that piece of equipment was in service in this province.
And it's, it's very unfortunate that he, that he had to miss an opportunity to showcase his invention, but time ran out on that for him.
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I, I think it's really important I think to, to, as I say, recognize all of the people that, that helped fight this flood, all of the people from the government employees, all of the, the students, the Hutterites, the many volunteers from areas south of the city, in the city, and north of the city, how everybody worked shoulder to shoulder to make sure that people and property were protected.
It can't be understated how much that would be appreciated by the people who were protected. It's so many people, so many people just dropped what they were doing and decided, you know, this is important. This is important for me to get out and help with sandbagging.
I don't know if the member from St. Norbert was able to get out and do some sandbagging, but certainly that sandbagging has been occurring in, in areas along the Red River for many years. I recall driving into Morris in 2006, not being able to get there, of course, because the highway was again closed, but seeing people just south of the city, along Highway 75, sandbagging and, you know, you looked across and you thought, they're so far from the river–and they were a long way from the river, but it just reminds you how fast that that river can come up and how far it can spread across the land. It's something that you need to see to appreciate, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And I know my time is coming to a close here so I just want to end in saying thank you to all of the people that have fought this last flood of 2009, recognition very well deserved. Thank you.
Hon. Steve Ashton (Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs): First of all, I want to thank the Member for St. Norbert (Ms. Brick) for bringing this forward because you know, in Manitoba, we know about floods. We have a pretty significant experience historically with, with floods.
And it was interesting, by coincidence I actually just, just did an interview with a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota, and guess what? They're looking at Manitoba as a model. Looking for us as a model for flood protection. They're certainly aware of the floodway, the floodway expansion. They're also aware of the Shellmouth Dam, the Portage Diversion.
I was able to fill them in on what we've done the last number of years in terms of flood protection in the Red River Valley, with community dikes and individual ring dikes, but you know, I, I also added that there's another element, and I think it's our secret weapon, Mr., Mr. Acting Speaker. It's our volunteers. It's the true Manitoba spirit, and I know this even made question period the other day. I think at some point in time I did say that Manitoba, we, we should probably have a course in sandbagging. I certainly think, given the number of schools that volunteered to sandbag this year, we should certainly give a, a credit for sandbagging. It's great for fitness, but what a way to teach our, our young people how important it is to be there to help your neighbour.
I mean, I just can't say enough, and I, you know, I was actually glad when this came up in question period because I know it was meant as a compliment for the suggestion, but I know it may be taken in jest, but you know, the fact that we saw so many young people out there and school groups, but also individual young people, something I think we should mark. We often talk about, you know, young people in a different light but you know, they made a real difference, and I want to commend that. I want to commend as well people that came from all over the province.
You know, what I find unique about volunteers from sandbagging is that you'll get people who've got no connection to an area will come in. I remember a couple of years ago, when we had elevated lake levels in Lake Winnipeg. People from the Red River Valley came out to help sandbag in and around the Gimli area because they remember when people from the Gimli area had come and helped sandbag in the '97 flood. And I thought the ultimate irony was when I, I had a friend of mine who's from Nelson House who was headed down to Winnipeg for spring break who said the first thing he was going to do was go and volunteer as a sandbagger.
Now, you know what's ironic, Mr. Speaker. Nelson House has experienced flooding but not the type that goes away. You know, it's permanent flooding, and it struck me, didn't matter where you lived in the province, there was that sense you help your neighbour out.
And I want to note, by the way, that because of our expanded flood protection, we certainly had a very different situation this year in terms of volunteers. To put it in perspective, in the R.M. of Ritchot, in 1997 there were five million sandbags that were used. This year there were 300,000. So our permanent protections have made a big difference and have taken the burden off in terms of the sandbag. But, you know what, in terms of volunteers that were required, there were still many situations where we needed the sandbags and we needed them fairly quickly.
And this year, even though we were able to deploy flood tubes–in fact, we had a couple of different flood tubes. They proved very effective north of Winnipeg, I know many of the municipal leaders have talked about the Tiger dams and how effective they were. The reality is you need sandbag dikes and as long as you need sandbag dikes, yes, there is the sandbagging machinery, and we certain commend all those and, and, and certainly Ms. Bergeron, in terms of development of that. There's also the super sandbags, but, you know what? We're still going to need volunteers. We're still gonna need them.
I do want to echo the words, as well, by the way, from the Member for Morris (Mrs. Taillieu) about the Hutterite colonies. They were a very clear and visible part of that response, and it's certainly something that we should commend the Hutterite communities for the, you know, the degree to which they came to, to assist people.
And, you know, we're talking about fairly lengthy distances to travel for many people, fairly significant shifts, but, you know, it made the difference. And if you want to look at the impact of the flooding this year, one of the key issues, I think, the key elements that come out of the flood this year is how much, in comparison to previous floods, we've seen far less of an impact.
I mean, in this year's flood event, we had a higher level of, of, of flood waters than 1950. In 1950, 100,000 people evacuated. This year, and actually not even in the valley, mostly outside of the valley, 3,000 evacuated; 100,000 homes were evacuated in 1950, and this year here in the city of Winnipeg–where flood waters were above flood level for 51 days in 1950, I believe that at peak we were 12 feet below what the, what the level would have been without flood protection. And flood protection is always going to rely on those that are there to, to, to act as volunteers.
I also want to particularly reference our municipal staff, our provincial staff and certainly federal staff and the many people from the NGOs who were out there. I can't say enough, by the way, about how people worked 24/7 in terms of flood protection, and I particularly want to credit the, the people who were on the front lines on the rescue situations that developed. We faced some very difficult situations starting March 25th north of, of, of Winnipeg in a number of affected municipalities. That continued over the, the, the next couple of weeks.
And when you consider we had people rescued from their rooftops in the middle of the night with rapidly moving floodwaters, it just amazes me that we did not have any loss of life or significant injury during those rescue missions. And I can't say enough about the first responders who were part of that, the emergency response teams and the municipal officials and municipal leaders who were out there.
And I want to say, by the way, we will not forget them, and we will make sure that as we go ahead in terms of the next steps in terms of flood mitigation, we'll make sure that we minimize any of the kind of risks in future flood situations that our first responders might, might face as well as minimizing the, the potential dam–damage for Manitobans.
And I can't say enough, by the way, how tough that, that situation is. You're not always going to run into the situation where people perhaps even immediately will express their appreciation for what those individuals are doing 'cause it's stressful times. And I know when times are stressful, people can sometimes express that stress towards some of the, the volunteers that are out there. You know what, Mr. Acting Speaker? I can't say enough about each and every one of them, and it goes right from, quite frankly, the first responders all the way through with our, our staff right up to and including–I know I certainly worked very closely with people in my office and my department.
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I want to particularly credit EMO and I want to credit also the degree to which Don Brennan and his staff at EMO worked countless hours with the many other agencies. I want to credit Clif Evans in my office. I want to credit my deputy minister who were very much part of the flood response, 24/7. And many of the MLAs by the way, and I'm not going to pick partisan affiliations here because I know there's MLAs of all different political stripes who were part of it, showing leadership in their communities.
So if I could, in conclusion, I want to, I want to say this is a very well-timed resolution. We don't do enough sometimes to thank the people who were there. But we, in Manitoba, owe a big thanks, a big boat of thanks, because I, I'm hoping this resolution will pass, Mr. Speaker, unanimously. And I want to put on the record–you think about flooding in Manitoba, yes, it's a fact of life. But when it comes to the real story here, it is the spirit of Manitoba and Manitobans. And it, it shows in our flood protection, in our vision on the floodway and the Shellmouth Dam and the Portage Diversion and the diking, but it shows each and every time you see a Manitoban volunteering during the flood.
And, the, and–I want to credit also those at post‑flood, particularly the fundraiser that Tom Jackson and many local artists organized.
And the Red Cross. By the way, we're celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Red Cross. We have to, I think, put on the record our thanks.
Bottom line here is, that's what Manitoba is about. That's the true Manitoba spirit. Anytime we have our neighbours, friends, relatives and neighbours impacted, we're there to help them and that's what this resolution is all about. So I would urge us to 100 percent support saying thank you to the workers and volunteers that made such a difference once again in the 2009 flood, and will be there for us again in the future. Thank you.
Mr. Ron Schuler (Springfield): It brings me great pleasure to put a few comments on the record in regards to this private members resolution. The flood, or so it's called, of 2009, was one of those strange kind of events that took place. We had a very cold winter. We had a very cold spring and a lot of the ice wasn't melting like it should have. There was, however, melting taking place south of us where it was a little bit warmer. And basically what happened was we had a, like they call it, the perfect storm that came at Manitoba, in particular, Winnipeg and communities north of it.
I was alerted early one morning that there was an issue on the Red River north of the city that impacted both the communities of East St. Paul and West St. Paul. There was an ice jam and in very quick order, the water was rising. It was rising very quickly.
And I would like to, first of all, commend the leadership of Mayor Morris, Mayor Lawrence Morris and his council, the council of East St. Paul for having acted very quickly, for having gotten involved and, and being on the spot and seeing to it that, that things were put into motion. They worked very closely with the Emergency Measures Organization of East St. Paul and saw to it that there was very little damage in the community.
I'd also like to commend Mayor Cliff Dearman and council of West St. Paul who did an outstanding job ensuring that their community was well protected. And there, again, because the water was backing up so quickly, decisions had to be made and they had to be made very quickly. And together they worked, not, not just individually in their communities, but they also worked as the, as the reeves and councils of–it was West St. Paul, East St. Paul, St. Clements and St. Andrews, the four saints as we call them. And they worked well together and they ensured that there was the kind of help, the kind of assistance that was necessary.
We then also had the new term introduced into this House called tube diking, something we hadn't seen before in the scale that it was used during this flood. And in East St. Paul, there wasn't that need to do the kind of sandbagging that they saw in other areas for, for instance, in St. Clements. And certainly the Breezy Point, we've heard a lot about. In other areas, the sandbagging ended up becoming far more intense. We are very happy that the tube diking was, was displaced.
I brought the issue to this House during question period and asked the minister if the government would be prepared to purchase the tube dypin–diking 'cause it is expensive and it's one of those capital outlays that you have to decide, Johnny-on-the-spot; it's got to be made quickly. And with some prompting, the Province was, was agreeable to underwrite the cost of the tube diking. And it does make a lot of sense to have a trailer with tube diking, with pumps in it, that are at the disposal of the Province. And it should be the Province that owns them. The Emergency Measures Organization should have them, that anywhere in the province where there's all of a sudden flash flooding that they can be dispensed and they work very effectively very quickly.
I did, however, learn there are some limitations to tube diking and that has to do with debris or ice flowing. If, if they're anywhere near where those kinds of things flow, as we know ice is just another form of glass and it is very sharp and it is very dangerous. And if ice–any kind of ice flow rubs along the tube diking, and if there's a bit of pressure it does cut the tube diking.
I spoke to the owner of the company, and he indicated that the only way to mitigate that is to fill them with concrete and then they set and, and they're, they're not movable, and it doesn't matter what comes at them. The only problem is the cleanup then becomes a nightmare because you have to bring a, a jackhammer in, break the tubes apart and there was substantial tube diking that took place. I, I spent quite a bit of time going through neighbourhoods that had tube diping–diking, making sure that they were working and that the citizens felt that, that everything was doing–everything possible was being done for them. And at some points in time it was a little iffy if the tubes would've held if the river would've come any, any higher.
The good news of the whole story is that the ice dams did break. They were massive in size. There was no way you could, you could explode them. The Amphibex couldn't get on them. These ice dams just created and they were always shifting and grinding. So it was very dangerous and, thankfully, they broke and, with that, all of a sudden the water level dropped substantially and, and the fear was of, of–the fear of flooding was mitigated.
On behalf of, of all the constituents of, of Springfield, East St. Paul and West St. Paul, I'd like to thank all of those individuals who volunteered, all of those individuals whose jobs it is to see to it that, that an emergency like this is taken care of. I'd like to thank the mayors and the, the councils and the reeves, the EMO staff, all those individuals, whether it be provincial staff or municipal staff who took care of these issues. They were there. I'd have to say that it was one of the calmest groups of people you could ever meet. The answers were forthcoming. The–there was never an air of panic. They laid out the difficulties. They laid out the challenges, and they dealt with them.
Again, on behalf of the people of Springfield, East St. Paul and West St. Paul, we thank those who have been tasked to protect us. They did it well. They protected us from severe flooding, from catastrophic flooding, and we appreciate their efforts very much. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Gregory Dewar (Selkirk): It's my pleasure to, to put a few words on the record in terms of this resolution brought forward by my colleague from St. Norbert, and I congratulate her for, for putting in the time to draft this and to present it to the House. I think–and the other two members that spoke, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (Mr. Ashton) and my other colleagues that have spoken to this.
Mr. Speaker, it's important that we pause now to recognize the work that was done by flood workers in the more–in the most recent high water level that we had to contend with in our area. This is the area north of the city of Winnipeg in St. Andrews, Selkirk, St. Clements, West and East St. Paul. As was stated, there was an emergency–they called for a state of emergency in the area, and it was caused–the high water level was caused by an ice jam.
And really it was the, the flood of the century for, for certain individuals in our community and, and the community as a whole. This really was our flood of the century. I was there and I recall, I think many members will recall all the various floods we've had to deal with over the, over the decades, I recall flooding–sandbagging in '74, and in '79 I was in St. Norbert, in '70–excuse me–'96 in the Selkirk area, and '97, who can forget that? I worked on that. And 2007, we had an ice-jam incident in Selkirk, but it was–it happened so quickly. It happened so quickly, Mr. Acting Speaker, that the community didn't have a chance to mobilize to do anything about it.
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And, of course, recently, in 2009, I had an opportunity to, to work with individuals and I commend all them. And I think, Mr. Speaker, people need to realize it's incredibly hard work. There is–there's not too many easy jobs when you're, when you're, when you're producing and, and producing, sandbagging, sandbags and building sandbag dikes.
And the member from Morris raised the issue of, of the sandbagging machine, and it was a very effective machine. I spent many hours, I know the Minister of Water Stewardship (Ms. Melnick) and I spent many hours working on that sandbag machine. It was, it was able to produce some 4,000 sandbags an hour, I believe, and I know every 15 seconds we had to have another bag into that chute or else the sand would pour all over the ground. And many times we, we missed it and many times the, the sand did pour on the ground. But, Mr. Speaker, we, we continued on.
It required warmer sand. In fact, the sand was heated up, because when it–when we first started, the very first or second day, the sand was cold and it was frozen, as a matter of fact. And we were using shovels to chip at the sand to fill up the sandbags manually, and they tried the machine but it wouldn't work. It kept jamming up. But when they used warmer sand, the sand flowed through the chutes much easier, and she was saying that, you know, you have to do regular maintenance on it. All, all he took was a ball-peen rubber hammer and he banged it, and that was the–that was the maintenance that we used on the machine to get the sand to flow. So you'd, you'd hold on your, your bag and it would take two, two turns around and that would be enough, and you'd hand it off to someone else and that person would then tie it up and to someone else who'd hand it down the line, Mr. Speaker.
But she mentioned the–all the individuals who, who turned out and there were like hundreds and thousands answered the call to, to help in the, in the St. Andrews area. In fact, it was at the St. Andrews fire hall that was the, the central location for all the activity in our community. It was decided, and rather than having sandbagging activities in Selkirk or in, in St. Clements–although there was some in St. Clements, and I spent some time there, and in Selkirk–that the majority of the effort would be located in the fire hall in St. Andrews, which was just a mile and a half or so from where I lived. And so I, I spent a lot of time there. But sometimes you couldn't get close because the cars they had, there was no parking in the streets and they, and the roads and the parking lot was full, Mr. Speaker, it was–Mr. Acting Speaker–it was very heartening to see.
But I want to commend the, all the local leadership and they really, truly deserve this. Mayor Steve Strang from St. Clements who was incredibly hands-on; he was there night and day and he was there filling up. Him and I once spent one afternoon filling up sandbags. Re–Reeve Don Forfar from St. Andrews, and he was there constantly and Mayor Bell from Selkirk, as he said, the Mayor Morris from East St. Paul, Mayor Cliff Dearman from West St. Paul, all the municipal staff who worked night and day, both in terms of actually getting out there and doing the physical work but as well administering all the effort that was needed. The volunteer firefighters and all the volunteer firefighters from east saint, from East St. Paul, West St. Paul, St. Clements, St. Andrews and Selkirk, who came out, the provincial staff and we know that provincial staff from the Water Stewardship, from the Emergency Measures, from Conservation, from Highways and so on, they were all, everyone was put on high alert. And I do want to commend my colleagues, both the minister of Emergency Measures and the Minister of Water Stewardship (Ms. Melnick) who I really, showed tremendous leadership, Mr. Speaker, and I really want to commend her for the work that she did, and that she held regular meetings in her office, I think every day for several weeks. And she really did a great job co‑ordinating the, the efforts of Manitobans, and I thank her very much for all the work that she did.
Mr. Speaker, the, it's also important to note is that although the water has resided–receded, excuse me–many lives are still in, in turmoil over what happened, and we know we've raised the issue and others have raised the issue here about, in our community there was many homes and cottages destroyed and individuals still, there's still much work to do and we are committed as a government to work with the municipal leaders and the individuals who had their–who were affected by this, to get their lives back in order.
I think in my area there are about 14 properties that are going to be bought up in the R.M. of St. Andrews, and the Breezy Point area there's 42 properties that are either going to be, have to be dealt with the one way or the other, both in terms of the, whether they're cottages or permanent, permanent facilities, permanent residents that they need to be dealt with, because there is a mood in the community that they are tired of having to do this every spring. And so there needs to be permanent action taken and that's why I commend the Mayor Strang and Reeve Forfar for insisting that action be taken, that to try to deal with this in more of a permanent basis than to deal with we are on an annual basis.
I spent one afternoon working on a sandbag machine with a group of Hutterite women and Hutterites were fantastic. They did a fantastic job and often we'd have to wait for the Hutterites to come ups, to come to the community so we can then start the sandbagging machine. But I worked there one day with Mary and Mary was from the Morris area. I worked with Savannah, who was from Beausejour; Priscilla and Lisa who were both from Anola; and people came from Netley, and I remember Priscilla said to me–I congratulated them for coming out and for supporting and thanking them for coming out and supporting us, and Priscilla said–excuse me, Savannah said, well, it's good to know that there are people out there protecting our backs, Mr. Speaker.
So I want to say to all those who protected our backs, thank you.
Mr. Lamoureux: I believe that, in looking at the resolution, that this is a resolution that has received all-party support. We've, we've recognized the value of our volunteers and the government service personnel of different levels, all three levels of government, Madam Deputy–or Mr. Acting Speaker–in the valuable role that they have played in fighting our floods.
I was around in the '99 flood, as you were, Mr. Acting Speaker, and can recall the many different stories that came and surfaced and in this most recent flood, many of those stories resurfaced. And I think that we inside this Legislature need to acknowledge the valuable contributions that the, particularly the volunteers and the amount of co‑ordination that is taken and the way in which our civil services respond to the demand. So whether it was in the '97 flood of the century, or it's in this particular flood–from what I understand, the third highest in Manitoba's recent history–that, really, Manitobans, collectively, do come together in an attempt to minimize the damage.
Also would want to pay a special tribute to Duff Roblin and his vision of putting into place the floodway–as we all know, the floodway has saved Manitoba economically and socially and into the billions of dollars over the years. We can move forward and look at, as been cited in previous speeches of inventions in Manitoba, in regards to the sandbagging machine and the impact that that has had, not only for–in our province, but for other jurisdictions as well, Mr. Speaker.
We have seen the impact of the ice-breaking machines that are brought, brought forward. We in the Liberal Party would have liked to have seen something done in regards to the Hovercraft and the role that a Hovercraft would have been able to assist in combating floods in order to minimize. So you get individuals, and the impact that a individual can have on flooding in the province. You can talk in terms of organizations and the impacts that they have and then you can go forward and talk about the civil service and the responsibility and impact that they have to the average Manitoban that gets involved as a volunteer and the impact and the responsibility that they have. And quite often, Mr. Speaker, you know, we watch the news and we see what's happening south of the border as we anticipate the waters coming to our province and there seems to be given a lot of attention, a lot of media attention as the water and ice approach, and we start to see the ice break up.
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And it's important in recognizing this particular resolution, and when we look at applauding the efforts of so many, that we highlight the fact that, even though a great deal of media attention is given all the way to the lead-up and as it goes through Winnipeg, it somewhat dissipates the amount of attention, but for many Manitobans, the flood doesn't end until it's well into our northern lake, Mr. Acting Speaker.
And we need to recognize the valuable contributions further north of Winnipeg in terms of the individuals that contribute and the impact that they have to continue to fight the floods even at a time in which maybe they're not getting as much attention, and I think that that's a point that I wanted to pick up on. People, in general, do not do this in order to garner attention for themselves. They do it because they believe in the broader community and preserving and protecting and minimizing damage, Mr. Acting Speaker, and that's why, when we have this particular resolution before us, it's good to be able to recognize those valuable contributions because they are done for very noble reasons, and you know, it's hard to imagine–in fact, I would argue, one cannot imagine the degree in which lives are affected by the tens of thousands of Manitobans that, that go out and protect properties and people through their volunteer or their civic responsibilities, as a civil servant, for example, in, and protecting us.
And I think different floods call for different measures. Every year there's always some flooding of some sort somewhere in the province of Manitoba, and take this opportunity to commend, in particular, those that year in and year out are putting in extra efforts in protecting our province, whether it's life or property, Mr. Acting Speaker. And with those few words, we're prepared to see this resolution pass here this morning. Thank you.
Hon. Christine Melnick (Minister of Water Stewardship): I am grateful for the opportunity to put some words on the record here as to the flood of 2009. It was an incredible event south of Winnipeg. Within Winnipeg, there was a lot of work done for prevention, and north of Winnipeg as well.
I would like to, in the few minutes that I have, thank the people who had worked so hard in preparation. I toured southern Manitoba a couple of weeks before the water began to come, and what I sensed from the people was pride, pride and confidence that they had done a lot of work since 1997, very necessary work, and we can see that it really came to fruition as, during even the height of the flood, southern Manitoba, for the most part, was thriving and was open for business, and people were able to stay in their communities.
You know, it is the ordinary people who, in extraordinary times, perform miracles that are the true heroes of our world, and I saw many of these people performing many incredible events, and I was very honoured to be at the ceremonies and the celebrations put on by the R.M. of St. Clements and St. Andrews to thank the volunteers, to show their appreciation. Many individuals attended, which I think was really a tremendous event, and there were two who were specifically honoured, Bill Sinclair, the manager of public works in St. Clements and Jim Stinson, the head of EMO. These are two individuals who were watching the water rise when that fateful ice jam formed around Breezy Point. They were asked to come back in to safety, and they said no, they wanted to stay. They wanted to stay and make sure that people were evacuated safely. You know, in the dark of the night and over the water, they went to homes to evacuate people and bring them out by boat, and that is heroic by any measure.
I also want to commend the municipal leaders and the First Nations' leadership in southern Manitoba. They did a tremendous job, and it is true that we met every day for about five weeks in 314, my office. But there were, there were a lot of people meeting with us, and I want to commend from the Department of Water Stewardship: our deputy, Don Norquay; Grace Wereta, the assistant to the deputy; Alf Warkentin, our flood forecaster; Steve Topping, Manitoba's top flood fighter, which I still, sort of tease him and call him by; Eugene Kozera and Bob Harris, part of the team there; Chris Pawley, who worked endlessly with his knowledge and was particularly helpful on the issues of overland flooding; and Rachel Morgan from Cabinet Communications.
As well, I want to thank IGA, in general, particularly the EMO team, who were right there with us the whole way. MIT, I want to thank the fellows who worked night and day in those culverts trying to thaw them so that the water could flow through. Never before had we seen culverts freeze up again in Manitoba. And the government communications staff, and to commend my colleague, the Minister of IGA, Steve Ashton. He had a lot of tough messaging to do during that time and, I think, performed the job very well.
So, very few minutes, just want to thank everyone for the tremendous Manitoba spirit that was shown throughout that time.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): Is the House ready for the question?
Some Honourable Members: Question.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the resolution?
Some Honourable Members: Agreed.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): It is agreed. Agreed and so ordered.
Is it the will–[interjection]
Ms. Brick: Mr. Speaker, I think if you canvass the House, you'll see that it was unanimous and if it could be shown in that fashion, that would be–
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): Is it the pleasure, is it the pleasure of the House to declare this motion–resolution passed as unanimous?
Some Honourable Members: Agreed.
Hon. Jim Rondeau (Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mines): Mr. Speaker, I think if you canvass the House, you'll see the will as it's 12 o'clock. We can call it 12 o'clock.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): Is it the will of the House to call it 12 noon?
Some Honourable Members: Agreed.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Reid): The hour being 12 noon, I'm leaving the Chair with the understanding that the Speaker will return at 1:30 p.m. for routine proceedings.