LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MANITOBA
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
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 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.
ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS
Bill 15–The Firefighters and Paramedics Arbitration Amendment Act
Hon. Jennifer Howard (Minister of Labour and Immigration): I move, seconded by the Minister of Justice (Mr. Swan), that Bill 15, The Firefighters and Paramedics Arbitration Amendment Act; Loi modifiant la Loi sur l'arbitrage relatif aux pompiers et aux travailleurs paramédicaux, be now read a first time.
Motion presented.
Ms. Howard: Mr. Speaker, Bill 15, The Firefighters and Paramedics Arbitration Amendment Act, is a bill that will ensure that collective bargaining disputes for part-time firefighters who are employees of a municipality as a member of a firefighting department are settled by binding arbitration with no work stoppages, in a manner similar to full-time firefighters as currently provided under the act.
We have consulted with the Manitoba chapter of Canadian volunteer firefighters association, Manitoba Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs, the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union and the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, who are all in support of this amendment.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Mrs. Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): I move, seconded by the member for Fort Whyte (Mr. McFadyen), that Bill 209, The Capital Projects Transparency Act; Loi sur la transparence en matière de projets d'immobilisations, be now read a first time.
Mr. Speaker: It has been moved by the honourable member for Tuxedo, seconded by the honourable member–the honourable Leader of the Official Opposition, that Bill 209, The Capital Projects Transparency Act, be now read a first time.
Mrs. Stefanson: Bill 209 brings transparency to capital project agreements entered into by the provincial government on behalf of taxpayers in Manitoba. This bill requires the government to publicly disclose its obligations when it enters into an agreement with a third party to construct a major capital project. And the government must reveal the amount and timing of its financial commitments, the construction timelines and whether the government is responsible for any cost overruns on the project. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion? [Agreed]
Auto Theft–Court Order Breaches
Mr. Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach): Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly.
The background to this petition is as follows:
On December 11th, 2009, in Winnipeg, Zdzislaw Andrzejczak was killed when the car that he was driving collided with a stolen vehicle.
The death of Mr. Andrzejczak, a husband and a father, along with too many other deaths and injuries involving stolen vehicles, was a preventable tragedy.
Many of those accused in fatalities involving stolen vehicles were previously known to police and identified as chronic and high-risk car thieves who had court orders against them.
Chronic car thieves pose a risk to the safety of all Manitobans.
We petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:
To request the Minister of Justice to consider ensuring that all court orders for car thieves are vigorously monitored and enforced.
And to request the Minister of Justice to consider ensuring that all breaches of court orders on car thieves are reported to police and vigorously prosecuted.
And, Mr. Speaker, this petition is signed by D. Cantin, M. Thiessen, K. Smith and many, many other Manitobans.
Mr. Speaker: In accordance with our rule 132(6), when petitions are read they are deemed to be received by the House.
Multiple Sclerosis Treatment
Mrs. Bonnie Mitchelson (River East): I would like to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly.
And these are the reasons for the petition:
More than 3,000 Manitobans and their families are impacted by multiple sclerosis, and Manitoba has one of the highest rates of MS in the world.
New research indicates that there may be a link between a condition known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency and multiple sclerosis. Preliminary studies indicate that many MS symptoms can be relieved with angioplasty, a common procedure.
In order to test this procedure for safety and effectiveness, additional research and clinical trials are needed. Manitoba is not testing for CCSVI, conducting research or conducting clinical trials.
The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador will be monitoring MS patients who have undergone the liberation treatment and studying its impact. Saskatchewan has announced that it will move forward with a clinical trial when their research community presents a proposal and has invited other provinces to join them. Meanwhile, Manitoba's provincial government has not taken up this initiative or–nor shown leadership on the issue.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To urge the Minister of Health to consider making the province of Manitoba a leader in CCSVI research and to move forward with clinical trials as soon as possible.
And this petition is signed by S. Halayda, S. Kwiatkowski, A.E. Borys and many, many other Manitobans, Mr. Speaker.
RCMP Rural Service
Mr. Stuart Briese (Ste. Rose): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
These are the reasons for this petition:
Manitobans deserve to live in a safe environment and feel secure in their homes and their communities. Some regions of rural Manitoba have been hard hit by crime, including residential break and enters, property theft, vandalism and other offences that threaten people's security.
In some areas, RCMP detachments are not staffed on a 24-hour basis. Criminal elements capitalize on this, engaging in crimes at times when officers may not be readily available to respond to calls for service.
Some believe the current RCMP detachment boundaries need to be redrawn so that service delivery could be faster and more effective.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To request the Minister of Justice to consider working with the RCMP, the federal government and communities to develop strategies to address service challenges in rural Manitoba, such as the possibility of having response units that could be dispatched to regions affected by crime waves.
And to request the Minister of Justice to consider working with stakeholders to determine if the current RCMP detachment boundaries are designed to ensure the swiftest and most effective service delivery.
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And this petition is signed by J. Dunn, M. Zoan, J. Mozdzen and many, many other fine Manitobans.
Bipole III Project
Mr. Blaine Pedersen (Carman): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the following petition to the Legislative Assembly.
The background to this petition is as follows:
In September of 2007, the Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro directed the utility to abandon an east-side route for its Bipole III project. Five days later, Manitoba Hydro announced the utility will be proceeding with a west-side route.
Manitoba Hydro staff, technical experts and regular Manitobans have communicated to the provincial government that they would prefer an east-side route.
A west-side route will be almost 500 kilometres longer than an east-side route, less reliable, and cost taxpayers at least an additional $1.75 billion.
The extra cost being forced on Manitoba Hydro and Manitobans by the provincial government will mean every Manitoba family will end up paying $7,000 for this decision.
Since the current provincial government has come into power, hydro rates have already increased by almost 20 per cent. If this decision is not reversed, it will result in further rate increases for Manitobans.
We petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as follows:
To urge the provincial government to allow Manitoba Hydro to proceed with the shorter, cheaper and greener east-side route, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, enabling the utility to keep our hydro bills lower and to ensure a more reliable electricity system.
And this petition is signed by M. Timmerman, C.F. Scammell and E. Wilcox and many, many more fine Manitobans.
First Report
Ms. Erna Braun (Chairperson): Mr. Speaker, I wish to present the first report of the Standing Committee of Justice.
Madam Clerk (Patricia Chaychuk): Your Standing Committee on Justice presents the following–
Some Honourable Members: Dispense.
Mr. Speaker: Dispense? Dispense.
Your Standing Committee on JUSTICE presents the following as its First Report.
Meetings
Your Committee met on December 7, 2010.
Matters under Consideration
· Bill (No. 2) – The City of Winnipeg Charter Amendment Act (Winnipeg Police Service Auxiliary Cadets)/Loi modifiant la Charte de la ville de Winnipeg (cadets auxiliaires du Service de police de Winnipeg)
· Bill (No. 7) – The Polar Bear Protection Amendment Act (International Polar Bear Conservation Centre)/Loi modifiant la Loi sur la protection des ours polaires (Centre international de conservation des ours polaires)
· Bill (No. 12) – The Highway Traffic Amendment and Drivers and Vehicles Amendment Act/Loi modifiant le Code de la route et la Loi sur les conducteurs et les véhicules
Committee Membership
· Hon. Mr. Blaikie
· Ms. Braun
· Mr. Dewar
· Mr. Faurschou
· Mr. Goertzen
· Hon. Ms. Marcelino
· Mr. Saran
· Mr. Schuler
· Hon. Mr. Swan
· Mrs. Taillieu
· Mr. Whitehead
Your Committee elected Ms. Braun as the Chairperson.
Your Committee elected Mr. Saran as the Vice‑Chairperson.
Public Presentations
Your Committee heard the following presentation on Bill (No. 7) – The Polar Bear Protection Amendment Act (International Polar Bear Conservation Centre)/Loi modifiant la Loi sur la protection des ours polaires (Centre international de conservation des ours polaires):
Bob Williams, Polar Bears International
Bills Considered and Reported
· Bill (No. 2) – The City of Winnipeg Charter Amendment Act (Winnipeg Police Service Auxiliary Cadets)/Loi modifiant la Charte de la ville de Winnipeg (cadets auxiliaires du Service de police de Winnipeg)
Your Committee agreed to report this Bill without amendment.
· Bill (No. 7) – The Polar Bear Protection Amendment Act (International Polar Bear Conservation Centre)/Loi modifiant la Loi sur la protection des ours polaires (Centre international de conservation des ours polaires)
Your Committee agreed to report this Bill without amendment.
· Bill (No. 12) – The Highway Traffic Amendment and Drivers and Vehicles Amendment Act/Loi modifiant le Code de la route et la Loi sur les conducteurs et les véhicules
Your Committee agreed to report this Bill without amendment.
Ms. Braun: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable member for The Maples (Mr. Saran), that the report of the committee be received.
Motion agreed to.
Hon. Andrew Swan (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): I am pleased to table the following reports. The annual report of the Provincial Court of Manitoba for the fiscal year 2008-2009, and the Annual Report Concerning Complaints about Judicial Conduct of Judges, Masters and Judicial Justices of the Peace, 2009.
Introduction of Guests
Mr. Speaker: Prior to oral questions, I'd like to draw the attention of honourable members to the public gallery where we have with us today, we have Jeff and Mickey Wharton, Susan and Gavin Jones, and Valerie Charson, who are the guests of the honourable member for the Lakeside (Mr. Eichler).
And also in the Speaker's gallery we have Barbara Dunn, Karen Bartlett, Jacqueline Brisly, Raymond Bartlett and Ryan Bartlett, who are the wife, daughters, son-in-law of and grandson of our Acting Sergeant-at-Arms, Blake Dunn.
On behalf of all honourable members, I also welcome you here today.
And also in the public gallery we have from Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate, we have 20 grade 11 students under the direction of Mr. Caley King. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable Attorney General (Mr. Swan).
And also in the public gallery we have from Kelvin High School, we have 30 grade 9 students under the direction of Mr. Miguel Berube. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable member for River Heights (Mr. Gerrard).
On behalf of all honourable members, I welcome you all here today.
Apology Request for Termination
Mr. Hugh McFadyen (Leader of the Official Opposition): After attacking and firing Dr. Larry Reynolds, a respected physician in Manitoba, for having the nerve to speak freely on matters of health policy, I want to ask the Premier whether the Premier is aware that Dr. Reynolds, last week, was reinstated, and I want to ask the Premier whether he has yet apologized for the way Dr. Reynolds was mistreated by his government.
Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): Mr. Speaker, the processes for the reinstatement of Dr. Larry Reynolds were completely independent from government. Everybody's satisfied with the outcome, and this now allows the doctor to carry on and provide physician services in Manitoba.
Mr. McFadyen: Dr. Reynolds spoke out, and he was attacked publicly and fired. He was reinstated after a finding that this NDP government was wrong and he was right.
Rather than learning the right lesson from that experience, I want to ask the Premier: Why is his government continuing to try to bully doctors who may want to speak freely in the province of Manitoba?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, at no time did this individual have his ability to be a physician in any way compromised. He and his settlement were related to his role as a physician, and the reality is is that all of the parties have agreed on the outcome, including the doctor himself, and this allows him to carry on offering services to Manitobans and continuing his role in association with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.
I am pleased that all the parties have come together and have come to a solution that they're all satisfied with.
Joint Operating Division Contract Concerns
Mr. Hugh McFadyen (Leader of the Official Opposition): Well, Mr. Speaker, as somebody with an academic background, I know the Premier would want to be concerned that rather than learning any of the right lessons from their botched attempt to fire Dr. Reynolds, they have set up yet another bureaucracy under his Minister of Health (Ms. Oswald), a new bureaucracy called the JOD, and this new bureaucracy has been set up to try to bully academic physicians into silence.
Mr. Speaker, the bureaucracy, right now, is trying to force a new contract on academic doctors. That contract has three main features never before seen in a free and democratic society. Those features are: one–No. 1, they strip academic doctors of intellectual property rights; No. 2, they force academic doctors to give advance notice and copies of any remarks that that doctor may want to make in the future, where those remarks may impact on the–on public opinion concerning health-care institutions; and then, the gun to the head, No. 3, allows this new JOD unit to fire people at any time for any reason, and to say that you get no severance if the doctor makes any negative comments after having been fired by this new JOD academic unit.
I want to ask the Premier: Why is it that he and his government can't handle the truth when it comes to health care in Manitoba?
Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Association of University Teachers agreed to the settlement in the Dr. Reynolds case, and they're the ones that defend the academic integrity of any person that's a member of the University of Manitoba. They are satisfied with the result.
With respect to the JOD, the question the member raises now, this is to build a network of physicians that can collaborate with the health authorities to deliver services efficiently and effectively to Manitobans. The member makes a number of reckless allegations there. This is nothing new about the kinds of exaggerated allegations he makes.
The reality is there was this–there was an agreement in the case of Dr. Reynolds and there is a relationship between the WRHA and academic physicians that allows them to work together in the best interests of Manitobans.
Mr. Speaker: The honourable Leader of the Official Opposition, on a new question.
Mr. McFadyen: On a new question, Mr. Speaker.
He doesn't need to take the word of the members of the opposition. I'll table a memo dated July 2nd, 2010, addressed to Dr. Laplume with respect to this contract that they say was being forced on academic physicians. So I'll table the memo that was written, Mr. Speaker, and what this memo outlines is that the contract that they are trying to force, which is the word used by the CAUT, on academic physicians will strip intellectual property rights, force doctors to provide advance notice and copies of public remarks, and allows this new unit to fire people at any time for any reason and to strip them of severance pay if the person makes a negative comment on the way out the door.
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I want to ask this Premier if he'll review that memo and if he agrees with his Minister of Health (Ms. Oswald), who's attempting to penalize doctors in Manitoba who have not only a right but a responsibility to speak up about problems in health care in this province.
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member sharing this document with me. Of course, we will review it to see what the contents of it are, but I'm informed of the following: that the collaboration between physicians and the health authority to deliver better health-care services requires them to agree together before they proceed into any further development of this relationship. Both parties come to the table freely to discuss how this relationship will be developed and both parties will have to be comfortable before the relationship takes further steps down the road.
I know the member opposite doesn't understand that when people actually discuss and negotiate things together, sometimes they outline their concerns ahead of time, then they bring them to the table, work together towards resolution. That's exactly the process that's going on here. They've identified their concerns; they're bringing them to the table. They're working together to find resolution, and as they get resolution, they will move forward together. That's how we would like our health-care system to work, not like members opposite who actually fired people when they weren't happy with them.
Mr. McFadyen: Mr. Speaker, after the botched smear job on Dr. Reynolds, they then come in with this new unit, the JOD, to try to impose a contract on physicians. There's no collaboration. That warning was provided in July. At the end of August, three months after raising those concerns, 14 distinguished academic physicians from across Canada passed a unanimous resolution, and that resolution says that they have grave concerns about the attempt to impose this contract on academic physicians. And they say, in particular, termination at any time and without cause is unacceptable, as is the restriction on an academic clinician's right to fulfill their public responsibilities to speak freely about their universities, hospitals and health authorities without suffering institutional penalties. This is the resolution just passed by 14 distinguished physicians.
Why is he referring to collaboration when what he's done, Mr. Speaker, is put on the jackboots and try to silence doctors in Manitoba?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, the memo here from the Canadian Association of University Teachers is from the same organization which came to an amicable conclusion with respect to Dr. Reynolds. The same association is now putting their concerns forward about this broader relationship and, as I indicated earlier, as this relationship develops, there will have to be an agreed-upon by both parties; both doctors and health authorities will have to agree together how this relationship will go forward.
And that's exactly the way we want it. We want to have a healthy discussion based on all these types of concerns that have been raised and, at the same time, move forward on a better health-care system where people collaborate and work together to improve services to patients, including services offered by physicians. So, there is no forced agreement here. The member's opposite wrong about that. So he can take his jackboots and put them back in his closet.
Mr. Speaker, the reality is the physicians and the health authorities will work together to resolve this matter in the best interests of patient care in Manitoba.
Mr. Speaker: Order. There's a caution to both honourable members. If you look up in our unparliamentary accepted words, putting on of jackboots is not accepted as a parliamentary word in this Chamber, and so I'm giving a caution to both honourable members here. I'd choose my words very carefully.
Mr. McFadyen: In a memo dated July 2nd, Dr. James Turk, who's the head of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said in his concluding sentence, that we want you to consider this very important decision that the WRHA and the university are forcing on the clinical faculty at the University of Manitoba.
The word "force" is used by Dr. James L. Turk, Ph.D., executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. That is his word, Mr. Speaker, not ours.
So I want to ask the Premier that the doctors, 14 of whom have passed this unanimous resolution–they practise in places like Queen's University, University of Calgary, Université Laval, University of Toronto, London Health Sciences Centre, McMaster, University of Manitoba, University of Saskatchewan, Memorial University, University of Alberta, McGill University, Université de Montréal, UBC and Dalhousie, Mr. Speaker. Fourteen physicians have signed off on this resolution. They go on to say that this attempt to force these unbelievable provisions on academic doctors is, and I quote, harmful to health care in Manitoba.
Why is this Premier so obsessed with trying to silence his critics that he is prepared to harm health care for the people of Manitoba in the process?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, again the member is using reckless exaggerations to discuss what are bargaining positions that the Canadian Association of University Teachers brings to their table, concerns that they–in their view may impinge upon academic integrity. Those concerns have to be addressed.
The officials–and I'm glad also that he's mentioned the University of Manitoba in this discussion as well, because now he's identifying that it's not just the WRHA; it's also the University of Manitoba. The WRHA, the University of Manitoba academics, who happen to be physicians in this case, are discussing how they're going to work together and protect their right to academic integrity and freedom. That is an appropriate discussion.
And Dr. James Turk's comments in his memo are intended to focus the concerns of the University of Manitoba and the WRHA on those matters which they believe may impinge their academic freedom.
The point I've just made is people are at the table discussing this. They are working through this together, and both sides have agreed that nothing will proceed until all parties are satisfied that their concerns are addressed. That is a healthy and respectful relationship between all parties. I wish the member wouldn't exaggerate it recklessly like he continues to do.
Bipole III Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Mr. Rick Borotsik (Brandon West): Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report on Manitoba's greenhouse gas emissions targets identifies Manitoba Hydro's attempt to reduce greenhouse gases in the past two years. The west-side bipole line will create 350,000 tonnes more greenhouse gas emissions than the east-side line. In short, the greenhouse gas savings of Manitoba Hydro over the last two years will be wiped out by Bipole III being developed on the west side.
Will the Minister for Manitoba Hydro not make a real effort to contribute to meeting our emission targets under Kyoto and put the bipole line on the east side of Lake Winnipeg where it should be?
Hon. Rosann Wowchuk (Minister charged with the administration of The Manitoba Hydro Act): Well, I would want to say to the member that he should look at the total package of what this government has done and what Manitoba Hydro has done to reduce greenhouse gases by the closure of a plant that used to use coal, Mr. Speaker, not using coal anymore, the Brandon plant, on standby, using coal.
The member opposite also refuses to recognize the benefit of clean energy that Manitoba Hydro will sell into the United States and displace coal production, Mr. Speaker. And we hope also that we will export energy into Saskatchewan to export–to displace coal production. The member has to look at the big picture, and Manitoba Hydro is playing a very important part in reducing greenhouse gases not only here but in North America.
Mr. Borotsik: Well, Mr. Speaker, let's talk about what the NDP government has done about reducing greenhouse gases.
As usual, the NDP government only pays lip service when it comes to greenhouse gas. The Auditor General's report shows that Manitoba greenhouse gas emissions are 18 per cent higher than the base year of 1999 and–when they promised a 6 per cent reduction of those greenhouse gases, another failure on the part of this government. All departments and Crown corporations should be mandated to do their part.
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Mr. Speaker, to the Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro: When will she realize that she is part of the problem and not part of the solution? Why does the minister further jeopardize our commitments to GHG reductions by insisting that 350,000 tonnes of GHGs be added to a west-side Bipole III?
Ms. Wowchuk: Well, Mr. Speaker, I think we've had a conversion. We've never heard the members opposite show any support for Kyoto. We've never heard them support anything on reduction of greenhouse gases. We have not heard that. All of a sudden the lights went on for the member opposite and he realizes that–
An Honourable Member: Total liar.
Mr. Speaker: Order. I distinctly heard a very unparliamentary word spoken, but I can't identify the person because I did not see who said it. But I would ask members to be very, very careful–[interjection] Order.
I would be very careful because all members in this House are honourable members and when they bring–information is brought forward, as Speaker, I take it as factual information, and the use of unparliamentary language will not be accepted. But, like I said, I heard the word very clearly, but I cannot identify because I did not see the person making that comment.
So I would caution all members to be very careful.
Ms. Wowchuk: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that although the reduction of greenhouse gas and the commitment to Kyoto is not important to the members opposite, this side of the House has worked very hard in those areas, and by shutting down the greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants, that has reduced 200,000 tonnes per year. That's the same as taking 38,000 cars off the road.
Mr. Speaker, the amount of coal production that is being reduced, because of the clean energy that is being produced here in Manitoba, is significant and the members opposite should recognize that.
Mr. Borotsik: Mr. Speaker, we heard from the Auditor General, as she has pointed out, the failure of this government to do any reduction on greenhouse gases.
Today, Mr. Speaker, we have an op-ed piece that has been presented by 19 retired professional engineers, most of them former executives of Manitoba Hydro. Those engineers, in their op-ed piece say, and I quote: The current Manitoba government decided that Bipole III must run west of the Manitoba–of Manitoba lakes and directed the technical staff of Manitoba Hydro to make it happen.
Mr. Speaker, these are 19 retired executives, professional engineers. I wonder if the minister responsible for Manitoba highway will allow current engineers and professional staff from Manitoba Hydro the opportunity to register their opinions on Bipole III on the west side. And I wonder if they can do it without reprisals from this government, without reprisals, without the possibility of having them fired.
Ms. Wowchuk: Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the member opposite to look back at the records of his government, maybe when he was not there, but about who might have been fired. Their record is not clean.
Mr. Speaker, people–the engineers are speaking. They have spoken, engineers we have consulted with, engineers. We have the Farlinger report. Mr. Farlinger is an engineer. These are engineers who used to work for Manitoba Hydro. They have their opinions.
These are engineers when–that worked for Manitoba Hydro when things, Mr. Speaker, were much different. Our environmental standards have changed and there have been improvements that have been made, dramatic changes that have been made, how we build hydro stations, how we consult.
Mr. Speaker, the members opposite do not want to admit that there is a much different process and that we have to consult and make decisions–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Minister's Knowledge
Mr. Cliff Graydon (Emerson): Mr. Speaker, on December 1st, 27 dogs, 15 horses, and two donkeys were seized and removed from the property in the Rural Municipality of Swan River due to concerns about their living conditions and care.
Today the RCMP announced that a 68-year-old man has been charged with 44 counts of causing damage and injury to animals under the Criminal Code. It has been reported that complaints about these animals' care go back at least two years.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of Finance (Ms. Wowchuk), the former agricultural minister, confirm for this House when she first learned of this very serious situation unfolding in her Swan River constituency?
Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives): Well, first of all, Mr. Speaker, I think every single member of this House needs to, I think, needs to show an appropriate amount of concern when it comes to these kinds of animal welfare cases. I don't think that there's a person in this House who doesn't understand and who doesn't care about these kind of issues.
The difference is, is that when this government brought forward improvements to The Animal Care Act, I don't know if the member opposite voted for it or not, but you know, we put in place tougher rules to deal with these situations and we follow up whenever there's a complaint that comes forward to our chief veterinarian office. These cases are very serious and we treat them that way.
Mr. Graydon: Mr. Speaker, when this horrendous story broke last week, a woman who had seen the animals firsthand came forward saying she had spoken to the member from Swan River, who was then the agricultural minister, about this situation in 2008. Sharon Otto told CBC News, and I quote: I spoke to her on the phone and she told me that she was going out there and look over the place. End quote. Otto said she followed up with the ministers–with–later in 2008 because it appeared that the situation hadn't been addressed. Others have come forward saying that they have contacted officials about the animals' living conditions and care.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the minister again: Why didn't she fulfill her duties as an agricultural minister then and as the minister responsible for the animal cruelty care act, and promptly investigate the situation in her own backyard?
Mr. Struthers: Every complaint that is brought forward to the chief veterinarian officer is followed up on and action is taken, Mr. Speaker.
My predecessor brought forward The Animal Care Act; tougher regulations dealing with people who abuse animals.
Mr. Speaker, to try to play their usual politics with an issue like this is just shameful. My colleague did her job. My colleague brought forward the regulations that are necessary to deal with this issue and that's–maybe you get a little bit of jealousy on the part of members opposite who didn't lift a finger on this.
Mr. Graydon: Mr. Speaker, The Animal Care Act was brought forward on August 1st, 1998 by the minister, Harry Enns.
Mr. Speaker, the animals seized from this operation were in poor conditions; not receiving adequate food, water or care. That is unacceptable.
Bonnie Riddell, from Papa's Ranch Equine, has stated that this issue was long on this government's radar. She told CBC News, and I quote: This is a very long-term abuse situation that was reported for many years, that was not dealt with. End quote.
Since the mid 1990's The Animal Care Act has provided the legislative framework for animal protection in Manitoba.
Mr. Speaker, I again ask the Finance Minister, the former minister of Agriculture, why did she not fulfill her legislative and moral responsibility and promptly address this situation in her own backyard?
Mr. Struthers: Well, you know, Mr. Speaker, the member from Emerson makes the point that I just made. Mr. Enns took this seriously. My colleague from Swan River took this seriously and this government continues to take this seriously.
The legislation that was brought forward back in the '90s was improved upon by this side of the government. We put some teeth into some of the very regulations that members brought forward back in 1998, Mr. Speaker. And we're going to continue to work to make sure that tough legislation's put in place and that tough legislation is enforced whenever we come across complaints to our chief veterinarian officer, that animals' welfare is in some kind of disrepute, and we're going to make sure that we protect animals that are in the care of Manitobans.
Claim Settlements
Mrs. Myrna Driedger (Charleswood): Mr. Speaker, there are three retired police officers in the gallery today. One is Don Shanski. Mr. Shanski had a car accident 10 years ago where he sustained a head injury. Since then, MPI has done everything possible not to pay him any benefits.
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I wrote to the Minister responsible for MPI back in January and asked him to look into it, and he also has done absolutely nothing.
So I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for MPI to explain why, for 10 years, MPI has dragged this out and refused to settle this claim.
Hon. Andrew Swan (Minister charged with the administration of The Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Act): I do thank the member for the question. Certainly, if there are any cases involving individuals who believe they are not being treated appropriately by the–by Manitoba Public Insurance there are things that can be done. It was this government that brought in a claimant advisor officer to help individuals who may not be satisfied to make sure their concerns are taken seriously. I don't know what step this particular case is at. There is an internal review process, but individuals not satisfied with Manitoba Public Insurance have the ability to take their case to the Appeal Commission and have an independent body look at that case.
I'm pleased, actually, it was just this morning that we announced, Mr. Speaker, that there will now be a new process available. There's now going to be mediation available, as a pilot process, to assist individuals to try and resolve their differences with MPI by having trained independent mediators sit down and try and work things out. So we're always looking to improve the way that MPI supports people in this province.
Mrs. Driedger: Mr. Speaker, according to Mr. Shanski, and the two other retired police officers who have power of attorney, during this 10‑year period MPI violated an agreement; allowed an authorization to lapse; lost a signed authorization form, then went on to label Mr. Shanski as unco‑operative; behaved unethically; violated The Privacy Act; laughed at Mr. Shanski's disabilities; called Mr. Shanski a liar to his face; and forced Mr. Shanski to live in absolute poverty for 10 years because he is so brain damaged that he cannot work.
So I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for MPI to explain this despicable treatment by his government of Don Shanski.
Mr. Swan: Mr. Speaker, again, I'm not going to talk about an individual case in this House. But any Manitoban who is unsatisfied certainly has the ability to use the claimant advisor, something which didn't exist when members opposite were the government in this province. We've moved ahead.
As I've indicated, we've, just today, announced a new pilot to provide mediation, because, obviously, when there are individuals with long-standing complaints it is difficult and it can be stressful for people. We want to find more ways to get better results sooner for Manitobans. Certainly, if there's other issues that–to be looked at I can forward it to Manitoba Public Insurance. But the key is that if individuals are unsatisfied, there is a strong independent process for them to have their claims adjudicated, and, certainly, I hope this individual will be able to do that and, certainly, achieve what he needs to achieve.
Mrs. Driedger: Mr. Speaker, MPI accused Mr. Shanski of faking his disabilities. The medical consultant for MPI said that Mr. Shanski didn't have any brain damage from the motor vehicle accident, but that doctor never even examined Mr. Shanski. Now, finally, somebody at MPI has said that if Mr. Shanski can be seen by a brain injury expert who can attest to the fact that he does have a brain injury, he will be eligible for MPI benefits.
I'd like to table a letter today from a Dr. Andy Gomori, a highly skilled neurologist and an expert in the field, who has examined Mr. Shanski and says, and I quote: "I would consider this gentleman to have suffered cognitive difficulties as a result of his head injury. There is no question that there has been a major change subsequent to the injury as compared to as before."
I'd like to ask the minister if he will now ensure that Mr. Shanski gets the benefits that he should've had 10 years ago.
Mr. Swan: The member should know that there are not time limits for people to seek redress from Manitoba Public Insurance, and if there is more information on any particular file that's coming forward, an individual can bring that forward.
Again, there are internal review processes. If individuals are unsatisfied with the results achieved under the no-fault system–which, I would note, was actually set up by the previous government–there are different processes which have been strengthened and which have been improved since this government took power in 1999. If there is more information available on this or any other case, there are processes that can be followed, and if an individual is unsatisfied, they can proceed to the independent Appeal Commission and have their case heard by an independent, well-qualified body to consider the case.
Construction Update
Mr. Hugh McFadyen (Leader of the Official Opposition): Mr. Speaker, and it's now been over eight months since the Premier started digging that hole at U of M.
I just want to ask him: How's the due diligence coming along?
Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): Mr. Speaker, short answer is: well.
Mr. McFadyen: Mr. Speaker, then my question is simple: How well?
Mr. Selinger: And I appreciate the question because it allows me, again, to state that all the partners are working on this. The City, the Province, the Blue Bombers, the University of Manitoba and members of the community are working towards a long-term solution to replace a stadium at Polo Park, which all agree is close to being time expired, to replace a stadium at the university that all agree is in very rough shape and needs to be replaced as well.
So, by bringing this project together on the University of Manitoba, we will provide a facility that will serve the community. It will serve amateur sport. It will serve the university community to which students from all over Manitoba, and, indeed, across the world, come to study. They will have a better facility now, and, of course, it will provide a first-class facility for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and that project, at the same time, will provide 2,400 jobs in Manitoba over the next year and a half.
Mr. McFadyen: Mr. Speaker, for the deal to go to City Council within a reasonable amount of time for the next meeting, which is next Wednesday, the details need to be ironed out shortly.
I wonder if the Premier can indicate when and how will Manitobans learn about the final deal in terms of what they're building, what it's going to cost, and who's going to pay for it. Will that be announced at some point shortly or can we look forward to a midnight Friday news release, the same way they announced the bipole decision?
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to correct the record from the misinformation the member opposite has just put on it.
We ran on improving hydro and increasing reliability in 2007, and the only individual in Manitoba that does not believe that additional converter stations are needed to protect 75 per cent of the power, which currently goes into one converter station, is the member opposite. So there was lots of public discussion on it. Public discussion continues.
When the final details of the stadium arrangements are brought together there will be more than ample opportunity to review them by all members of the public, including members of this Legislature. We're not going anywhere, Mr. Speaker. We look forward to the debate on all these and other matters that will move Manitoba forward, not just take reckless positions that put our exports at risk, that put our economy at risk, and the same thing the members opposite did on the MTS Centre. They did everything they could to stop the new MTS Centre from being built.
Mr. Speaker, we overcame those objections. We overcame that resistance. We built the MTS Centre to the great benefit of all Manitobans. We'll do the same thing with the stadium.
Screening and Diagnosis
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, last week the Winnipeg Police Service released data showing that crime rates have gone up, skyrocketed across the city, and yet the NDP was speechless. I think I have in my hands why. Despite the fact that most credible experts say there are roughly 160 children with FASD born every year, I table a report from Healthy Child Manitoba claiming that there were on average only 82 children being diagnosed each year with FASD. Many children with FASD are being missed.
Mr. Speaker, this Premier knows that children with FASD are most at risk to fall victim to our criminal justice system. Can the First Minister answer whether he's punishing at-risk children by not properly screening them for FASD or is he just misleading a concerned public with more complex numbers?
Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): Again I thank the member for the question because, as the member knows, it is this government that has made a record investment in the Healthy Child programs that we offer in the province. We do work very closely with young mothers, even at the stage of pregnancy, to provide them with the prenatal benefit so that they can have proper nutrition for the–during the period of the pregnancy and in the early years of when they have a child. And we work with them with nurses that do home visits, we have home visitors as well, and early screening is absolutely an essential part of that process.
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And I can inform the member of the following: that by next fall we will have a tandem mass spectrometer available in Manitoba that will do a wide range of tests which he raised concerns about yesterday. This will allow us, again, to move to the forefront of early screening for children and families so that if any condition is developing, we can know about it early and take remedial measures and prevent some of the horrible outcomes that we've seen with FASD, as well as other early congenital and other issues that young children have when they're born in Manitoba.
So we're investing in the kind of technology and in the programs that will make a difference in the future.
Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, the Premier's mass spectrometer is arriving about six years too late, after many children have become disabled and died as a result of his indifference and inaction.
The government numbers don't add up. This government can only account for roughly half of the children with FASD. Children with FASD who are not diagnosed and helped early are at high risk to commit the crimes that affect everyday Manitobans and that make headline news across Canada. The FASD epidemic in Manitoba is worse here than almost anywhere else, and yet the effort by this government–in spite of many dollars spent–is not getting and not identifying more children early.
Can the Premier explain how he's been able to so mismanage the FASD crisis in Manitoba that not only are children suffering in record numbers, but he's making our streets unsafe at the same time?
Mr. Selinger: I can safely say that no government in the history of Manitoba has invested more in prevention and treatment of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder than this government right here on this side of the House.
You know, we announced in 2007 a co‑ordinated strategy across this province which has resulted in $4.6 million invested in FASD programming. We have an evidence-based, intensive case management program that provides services to women are pregnant and using alcohol. We have world-class research going on in Manitoba, including scientists from around the world, in countries such as Israel, that are working on how we can ensure that any mother with a young child who may be using alcohol during that period of pregnancy can prevent that child from being born with FASD syndrome and conditions. That research is world-class research. It's happening here in Manitoba. We're very pleased to be part of that, and to have world-class scientists working on that. We want to prevent that in every way possible, including having the most expenditure of any liquor control commission in the country on programs that warn people about not using alcohol during a period of pregnancy.
Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, the spin and indifference, the investing more and getting fewer results has gone on long enough.
When it comes to health care in this province in Manitoba, instead of improving screening and quality, this NDP government has gone after excellent physicians, like Dr. Larry Reynolds, and now Dr. Krishan Sethi. And when will it stop? When it comes to dealing with important issues like FASD, is it the–it is the NDP's policy to duck and to cower.
I ask that this Premier feel shame for not protecting children with FASD. I ask that this Premier feel shame for comprising the safety of everyday Manitobans.
And, finally, Mr. Speaker, when will this Premier end his policy of empty promises which result in children who are disabled or dying and are only–only–he's only making these promises to protect and try and shore up his sagging government.
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, the–as I said earlier, no government in the history of this province has invested more in FASD prevention and programs for treatment, and this is a very important area. We know that any child born with that kind of condition will have serious challenges throughout their life. So anything we can do to prevent that is fundamentally important, which is why we announced Project CHOICES. Project CHOICES invests through the health clinics that we have, whether it's Klinic or Nor'west clinic or northern Churchill health clinic. We have programs right at the primary health-care level that work with young mothers and to ensure that their children are born as healthy as possible.
And, as I said earlier, we will continue to do that: prenatal benefits, home visits, nurses' access to those young parents, prevention advertising. The Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, which the members opposite are threatening to privatize, spends a quarter of a billion dollars a year–spends a quarter of a billion dollars a year on–
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Increased Coverage for Firefighters
Mr. Bidhu Jha (Radisson): Mr. Speaker, yesterday was a great day here in our Chamber when our Minister of Labour and Immigration introduced the historic bill to support firefighters of our province against the occupational health injuries and disease. This team of brave men and women, led by a great community leader, Alex Forrest, deserve all we can do for them. These people throw their lives into the premises they go to protect lives and protect property for us.
Can the Minister of Labour and Immigration please inform the House the recent additions made that reaffirm this government's ongoing commitment to the firefighters of our province?
Hon. Jennifer Howard (Minister of Labour and Immigration): Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the member for that question.
It was my pleasure yesterday and my honour to follow what has become a tradition of Labour ministers of this government, first introduced, of course, in 2002 by Becky Barrett, followed up by the now Minister of Education (Ms. Allan), and now I was able to build on that by adding to the Workers Compensation Board–proposing a bill to add to the Workers Compensation Board, for the first time ever, coverage for breast cancer, first time ever in Canada that that's happened.
I want to also at this time thank the member of Transcona and the member for Thompson (Mr. Ashton) who, in opposition, brought forward the bill for presumptive coverage for firefighters as a private member's bill, a cause that was never taken up by the government of the day. We're very proud to be in the position to protect those firefighters and to protect people who work every day to protect all of us. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker: Time for oral questions has expired.
Barrie Strohman
Mr. Stuart Briese (Ste. Rose): Mr. Speaker, it is with great sorrow that I rise today to pay tribute to the passing of a beloved member of the Neepawa community, Barrie Strohman. It was Mr. Strohman's passion for lilies that earned him the nickname the Lily King of Neepawa.
Ms. Marilyn Brick, Deputy Speaker, in the Chair
Despite being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in June that created considerable suffering for Barrie Strohman, the Lily King remained active and involved with his lily business. Mr. Strohman opened his business, the Lily Nook, in 1990. Each year the business fills over 2,000 lily orders for its patrons. Lily Nook has the largest collection of named lily varieties in North America, many of which the Lily King developed himself.
Barrie Strohman was by nature very outgoing and was always happy to share his knowledge of lilies with those around him. Many people enjoyed talking with the Lily King as he shared his expertise on cultivating lilies. His horticultural passion was infectious and, as a result, Neepawa quickly became a town that is known for its lilies.
The Neepawa and Area Lily Festival has played an important role in contributing to the town's international recognition of lilies. Each year over 10,000 people partake in the festivities. A lily parade, vendors, tours, including a tour of the Lily Nook, are all part of the festival. Barrie Strohman was a strong force in the development of the Neepawa and Area Lily Festival.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Lily King's devotion to lilies has helped Neepawa become the Lily Capital of the World. The achievement was a long time dream of Mr. Strohman and a goal he put a great deal of hard work and dedication toward.
He passed away on June the 23rd at the age of 79, just days before opening of this year's festival. Although festival organizers and attendees were saddened to learn the news, it was Mr. Strohman's wish that the festival would continue on without him. This year, the 14th annual lily festival went on as planned in memory of Barrie Strohman.
Madam Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the entire Progressive Conservative caucus, I would like to extend our condolences to Barrie Strohman's friends and family. Mr. Strohman was a valued member of our community and will be remembered for his kindness, hard work and the beauty his lilies have brought to Neepawa.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Sarb Sanjha Dashmesh Tournament
Mr. Mohinder Saran (The Maples): Madam Deputy Speaker, last September the Punjabi community organized the annual Sarb Sanjha Dasmesh Tournament at the Maples Community Centre. This two-day event invites athletes to travel to Manitoba to compete in different organized sports. One of the biggest events in the tournament is kabaddi, a team contact sport which originated in the Punjab province of India and has grown into an internationally popular game, particularly in India, Pakistan and all over Asia.
There are two teams in kabaddi. The goal is for one player to run into the opposing team's court and try to tag one of the opposing team members while shouting "kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi." This must be done in one single breath, combining self-control with vigorous physical activity.
The Punjabi community has hosted the Sarb Sanjha Tournament for 15 years. Aside from kabaddi, there were also other sports. The club's doors were open to the public. Many families enjoyed games of volleyball, basketball and soccer.
Not only do players come from cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver to compete, but the tournament also sponsors a few players to come from India to play on the Winnipeg team. The Indian players get a rare opportunity to visit our beautiful province and get a taste of the Canadian experience.
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is very exciting to see different countries' talents come together. Congratulations to all the organizers, athletes and people of the community who came out to the event and made it a success. Thank you.
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Harry Enns
Mr. Ralph Eichler (Lakeside): It's an honour for me to rise today to pay tribute to an extraordinary man who passed away on June 24th, 2010. Harry Enns was a dedicated member of this House who served this Legislature for 34 years as the MLA for Lakeside and three years in the Rockwood-Iberville for a total of 37 years.
Mr. Enns was very proud to represent his constituents and Manitobans. He quickly became popular within the Lakeside constituency and was elected a total of 10 consecutive times before his retirement in 2003. Mr. Harry Enns was a good‑natured, passionate and down-to-earth person. Although he was thrilled to serve as a member of this Legislature, Mr. Enns was happiest when he was on the ranch. As a rancher, he was known for his interest in agricultural issues, particularly those affecting rural Manitoba.
Throughout his life, he remained a true friend to the farmer and referred to them as my farmers.
Mr. Speaker in the Chair
Throughout his tenure at the Manitoba Legislature, Harry Enns held several ministerial portfolios, including Agriculture, Mines, Natural Resources, Public Works, Highways, Transportation, Government Services, Manitoba Data Services, Manitoba Public Insurance and Manitoba Telephone System.
Affectionately known as the dean of the Legislature, Harry Enns knew a great deal about legislative procedures. A lifetime member of the Progressive Conservative Party, Harry Enns was a physical Conservative, he was a true public servant and felt that his time spent as a member of opposition was just as fulfilling as his time in government.
Looking back at his time as an MLA, Harry Enns had a remarkable career in this House. During the Flood of the Century, Harry Enns continued to have a [inaudible] for aid for his farmers. He was also proud of the work he did to provide supports for private schools.
Mr. Speaker, I know that members of this Legislative Assembly will join me this afternoon in offering our condolences to the family, members of Harry Enns who are here in attendance today.
Manitoba has lost a valued member of this province but, Mr. Speaker, I can assure you, all Manitobans, his legacy will carry on forever.
Southdale Softball Teams
Ms. Erin Selby (Southdale): Mr. Speaker, we know that in sports not everyone can win the championship. Someone's got to have a lower score or fewer home runs. But the beauty of sports is that, regardless of who wins, teammates encourage determination in each other. Southdale is fortunate to have a strong softball program which develops this kind of sportspersonship in our teams and, this year, that determination led the Southdale softball teams to multiple wins.
This summer, Southdale softball players shone in the Bonivital playoffs, in which teams from the area compete to determine who will continue to the provincials. Southdale teams finished with three gold medals, one silver and two bronze. In the July Provincial Championships, four Southdale teams competed: Squirt C2, Pee Wee B, Pee Wee C and Midget. The Pee Wee C team earned a bronze and the Pee Wee B team went through to the provincials, undefeated, to take the gold medal.
Southdale has been a long-time supporter of softball. There are 16 teams and about 200 players from the Southdale Community Club registered with Softball Manitoba. In an age where the television may seem like more fun than a game, it's great to see so many kids getting involved in outdoor sports. There are various softball teams for kids aged 15 to 17, with both more competitive, overhand-pitching B streams, as well as the more recreational C divisions. Southdale has also consistently provided knowledgeable and caring coaches, skilled competitors and some of the best baseball diamonds in the area.
In closing, I'd like to thank the parents, coaches and organizers of softball events for putting so much passion in our kids' sports teams. However, the biggest congratulations goes to the Southdale softball girls themselves, for showing excellent grit and team spirit. Win or lose, these are qualities that every player can be proud of. Thank you.
Newborn Screening
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, our provincial NDP government has put Manitoba in a backwater on children's health. Newborn screening is at the status of a third-world country. The Canadian Pediatric Society, in its report, Are We Doing Enough?, rated Manitoba among the worst of all provinces on child and youth health policy.
We're behind all other provinces in Canada in not offering genetic testing for rare disorders, genetic testing for familial cancers and microarray testing, the current standard for helping children and families with intellectual disabilities and autism.
Being behind in newborn screening leads to unnecessary illness, suffering and children's deaths. For example, a child with Medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency who's not screened and diagnosed will likely go into crisis and become severely disabled or die. Screened and diagnosed, such a child can be kept healthy on an appropriate diet.
As the Ontario Ombudsman has said, failure to provide these tests is a breach of ethics and puts the government at legal liability for the preventable morbidity and mortality of children.
And we also need much better screening and help for conditions like learning disorders and FASD where early diagnosis and help can make a big difference and improve the life of children. Yet adequate screening for FASD is not occurring and the number of children identified with FASD has not changed appreciably in 10 years. We're still missing half or two-thirds of children with FASD, perhaps more. Missing a child with FASD can be catastrophic. Such children, when not diagnosed early and helped, are more likely to become involved in crime.
For 11 years, the NDP have done too little. NDP mismanagement has led to increased problems with child health, increased family problems and increased crime.
As I said when I first became Liberal leader, FASD is a Liberal priority. I believe it's only with improved management by a Liberal government that we'll be able to improve the health of children and decrease the crime in our province. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker: The honourable member for River East, on a grievance?
Mrs. Bonnie Mitchelson (River East): Yes.
Mr. Speaker: Okay.
Mrs. Mitchelson: It's a sad day for me to have to stand in the Legislature and exercise my right to grieve about the dismal failure of this government when it comes to protecting children in our child and family services system.
And, Mr. Speaker, we've seen all too many times children murdered, killed under the watch of this NDP government as they move to change the child welfare system. And the government has to accept complete responsibility for their legislation that devolved the child and family services system in 2002 through legislation and then rushed ahead to implement that legislation to the detriment of children that needed to be protected, children that needed the care and the supports, some of the most vulnerable children within our Manitoba society, who, for whatever reason, were removed from family circumstances because of abuse or neglect, put into foster homes, in many instances, where those foster homes cared for them and looked after those children in a safe and secure environment, only to be moved back into an abusive family situation that ultimately ended up in their death, murdered at the hands of family members who this government believed was the most appropriate place and a safe place to move these children back to.
Mr. Speaker, it's a sad day in Manitoba. And just let me review for the history of those in the Legislature and those that might be listening to my comments today.
The first instance was Phoenix Sinclair, who, in 2005, was killed by her mother and her stepfather after being moved back into a family situation that was abusive and, Mr. Speaker, not safe. And we still don't have the details, five years later, of the tragic, unnecessary death of Phoenix Sinclair, who was missing and not even noticed, gone for nine months under this government's watch.
And, Mr. Speaker, to give credit to the former premier, Gary Doer, four years ago, before the last provincial election, he committed and promised a public inquiry so all of the details could be exposed on what went so terribly wrong in this situation. And to date, we've had no action from this government on calling that inquiry and getting to the bottom of the issue.
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And, Mr. Speaker, if Phoenix Sinclair had been the only child in that circumstance, we might, you know, wait for this government to move and to act. But since the murder of Phoenix Sinclair, we've seen Gage Guimond, a young two-year-old child that was placed in a loving, caring foster home only to be uprooted by this government and its policies and moved again back into a family situation where he was murdered at the hands of a caregiver that this government placed him in, and it was a terribly tragic death. And as a result of that, the government promised, with fanfare and after a lot of pressure from our side of the House, to change legislation to indicate that the safety of children would be first and foremost, the most paramount consideration for children when they need to be removed from neglectful or abusive situations.
Well, Mr. Speaker, we know that that has not occurred, and we continue today to see children that are uprooted from safe and loving, caring foster homes and moved again back into situations where they're abused and neglected and beaten. And we've seen some just in the very recent months that have details that I don't even want to repeat in this House today. There's details around how these children were so badly treated and, again, continue to be murdered, continue to be killed in circumstances that no child should be exposed to.
And, Mr. Speaker, these are children that were defenceless. They couldn't speak out for themselves. They couldn't ask for help. I'm sure they cried out for help many, many times as they were being abused and beaten and neglected, but there was no one there to stand up and speak for those children. And as a result, they came to a terrible end where they were murdered at the hands of people that were supposed to be providing care and support and supposed to be keeping those children safe.
Mr. Speaker, we've seen a pattern by this government of not accepting responsibility or taking any accountability for the system that they created. And we've called on this government to put a moratorium on moving children from safe environments where there are no protection concerns until a complete review is done and there's justification in writing for why it would be in the best interest to move that child from a long-term, safe and caring, loving foster home. And that request has fallen on deaf ears, and we continue to see children being placed in unsafe circumstances.
And, you know, I see in here the minister stand up and talk about what happened in the past, but the reality is, Mr. Speaker, that the buck stops in his office. He is ultimately responsible and accountable–or should be accountable–for what is happening in his child and family services system.
And I know he wasn't the architect of the plan; it was Tim Sale, former member of the Legislature and former minister of Family Services, that was the architect, and it was the Minister of Water Stewardship (Ms. Melnick) today, the member for Riel, that was the one that rushed ahead with the implementation of devolution, without the proper checks and balances in place and without ensuring that those that were providing advice and moving children had the skills and the expertise and the training to do that.
And the minister now, the Minister of Family Services (Mr. Mackintosh), is the one that has the ultimate responsibility for trying to fix the mess that was created by his predecessors. And what has he done? Mr. Speaker, he has sat on his hands, he has buried his head in the sand and tries to blame absolutely everyone else for the mess that exists today under his watch.
Mr. Speaker, it's time that he stood up, showed some leadership and said this will not continue under my watch. This will not happen to children that are supposed to be protected, that are supposed to be cared for in our child and family services system. They are the most vulnerable children in our community. They are removed from unsafe circumstances for a reason, and that is a reason of an abuse–of abuse or neglect.
Mr. Speaker, those children should be nurtured and cared for in a safe environment. They should be protected, but what is this minister doing to protect them? He's doing nothing. He's not ensuring, he's not directing that the system look after these children. He is allowing them to be moved back into abusive, neglectful situations and circumstances, and we are seeing children continue to be murdered, to be killed in the system that they have created.
It's time for this government to stand up, to show some leadership and take some action to protect the most vulnerable children in our society. It's not good enough to have a minister that–a minister and a government that shirk their responsibility and fail to protect children.
Mr. Speaker, I would hope that government would listen carefully and take some action and be accountable for what's happening today. Thank you.
House Business
Mr. Speaker: The honourable Official Opposition House Leader, on House business?
Mr. Gerald Hawranik (Official Opposition House Leader): Yes, on House business, Mr. Speaker, and I know that the next order of business will likely be the condolence motion for Harry Enns, and I would ask leave that we not see the clock until the condolence motion has been completed.
Mr. Speaker: Is there agreement that at 5 o'clock, if there's members still wishing to speak, that the Speaker not see the clock? Is there agreement? [Agreed]
Mr. Speaker: Okay, as announced yesterday, we will now move on into condolences.
Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): Yes, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. McFadyen), the member for Fort Whyte,
THAT this House convey to the family of the late Harry J. Enns, who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly, its sincere sympathy in their bereavement and its appreciation of his devotion to duty in a useful life of active community and public service, and that Mr. Speaker be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the family.
Motion presented.
Mr. Selinger: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and contribution of the Honourable Harry Enns.
Harry Enns served as an MLA in the Manitoba Legislature for a remarkable 37 years under seven different premiers. He was the longest serving member of the Manitoba Legislature in recent memory. His election to the Manitoba Legislature in 1966 for the rural riding of Rockwood-Iberville marked the beginning of a career that would span nearly four decades and four Progressive Conservative governments. Harry decided to run after some encouragement from his brother Sig, who was the Member of Parliament for Portage-Neepawa at the time.
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In 1969, redistribution placed Harry Enns in the riding of Lakeside, the seat which he held for a further 34 years. He was re-elected in the elections of 1973, 1977, 1981, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995 and 1999. Harry served as a Cabinet minister under four premiers, beginning with the late Honourable Duff Roblin. He was appointed Minister of Agriculture by Duff Roblin in 1967, and later that year he also became the Acting Minister of Highways.
In 1968, Harry moved to the Ministry of Mines and Natural Resources. In the government of Sterling Lyon, Harry served as Minister of Public Works and Minister of Highways from 1977 to 1978, Minister of Highways and Transport from 1978 to 1979, and Minister of Government Services from 1979 to 1981, and Minister of Natural Resources in 1981.
He was selected again to serve on Gary Filmon's Cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources in 1998–in 1989. He held this position until 1993 when he became the Minister of Agriculture for a second time, after a gap of 25 years. He served as Minister of Agriculture until 1999.
Harry Enns was a master of House procedure. He was known as the dean of the Manitoba Legislature, a title which was well earned. He was a well-regarded member of the Legislature and known to be an accomplished and entertaining speaker who rarely needed notes.
Harry was a member who understood and appreciated the traditions of the Legislature. His tenure in the Legislature always allowed him to talk about the issues with a historical perspective that few could match. Harry attributed his eventual career in Manitoba politics to first getting involved in agricultural issues and the implementation of a federal-regional development program in the Interlake of Manitoba.
Harry Enns acted as a strong advocate for his constituents who supported him through thick and thin in 10 consecutive elections. Elected with pluralities ranging in the high thousands to nearly 2,500 votes shows that his constituents respected him as their representative and the work he did on their behalf all those years.
Harry's many accomplishments remain gifts to our province today. We have Oak Hammock Marsh and the preservation of tall grass prairie lands. Harry was instrumental in bringing the Maple Leaf processing plant to the citizens of Brandon, creating jobs and development for the area. As a rancher himself, Harry advocated for and supported farmers all across the province of Manitoba.
These, of course, are just a few examples of Harry's lasting legacy in this Legislature. Among his accomplishments one might say his ability to prove a point. Harry Enns might be best remembered, at least in the media, for his infamous swim across the Red River to prove to reporters and the public how well his government was cleaning up the waterway.
Harry Enns was an outstanding member of this House and the one that will be remembered for years to come.
Years ago, Harry was gracious enough to make the gesture of giving me the 1967 budget of the Honourable Duff Roblin's government, something which I will remember him for. And that budget was interesting for what it revealed in terms of where resources went, Mr. Speaker. At that time, for every dollar put into health care there was $2 invested in education, and since then, during that 43-year period, that ratio is actually reversed. We now spend about $2 for health care for every dollar we put into education, just to show you the trend of how a budget at the time, in the order of $300 million, has now moved to a budget of over $10 billion in the last 43 years.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of all members of this House, I extend my deepest condolences to the family of Harry Enns: his wife, Eleanor, who is with us today; his son Nathan and wife Kate; his son Andrew and wife Lori; and his other son Curtis; and, of course, his daughter Allison and husband Sean; his grandchildren, Matthew, Sara, Peyton, Cohen and Harlow; his brother Sig and wife Vera; his brother John and his wife Martha; and his brother Henri and his wife Marie; and, of course, his sister Selma and sister-in-law Irene, along with many nieces, nephews and friends.
After we hear from the members of the other political parties in the Legislature, I ask that we stand for a moment to mark the life and contributions of Harry Enns.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Hugh McFadyen (Leader of the Official Opposition): Mr. Speaker, I'm honoured to second the Premier's motion and thank him for the–for those very appropriate comments about somebody who was one of the most interesting and colourful and accomplished members ever to serve in this Legislature.
I'm very happy to welcome members of Harry's family who are in the gallery with us today, many of whom are friends and, in particular, to welcome Andrew and Peyton, Eleanor, Curtis, Allison and Sean, John and Martha, Sig and Henri. If I've missed anybody then I will probably seek leave to insert that to Hansard at some point later on. But I want to welcome all of you to the gallery today and just say how nice it is to have you here as part of this.
Given both the length and the richness of his service and the close connections that he developed with members that he served alongside, Mr. Speaker, I know that there will be some very good recollections shared by other members in the House this afternoon, and for that reason want to state my appreciation to all members for granting leave to not see the clock at 5 o'clock to permit members to fully share their feelings and their very warm recollections about this remarkable man.
As the Premier said, Harry Enns was born in November of 1931. He passed away just this past June, and that funeral service, which was an opportunity for family and friends to share some of their recollections, took place at the First Mennonite Church here in Winnipeg, where Harry's father was once a minister. I was very honoured to attend that memorial, along with members from all parties, and we appreciated learning even more detail about the remarkable life of Harry Enns at that time. Harry leaves behind his wife Eleanor, his sons Nathan, Andrew and Curtis, as well as his daughter Allison, and five grandchildren, wonderful, loving grandchildren, Matthew, Sara, Peyton, Cohen and Harlow.
I will always remember Harry Enns as the man with the twinkle in his eye at all times, somebody with a firm handshake and a big smile. He was warm. He was funny. He was absolutely passionate about every issue that he was engaged in and completely and entirely grounded in reality at all times, never a sense of being better than anybody else, always completely attached to the circumstances he was in and completely interested in what was going on in the lives of other people.
As has been said, Harry was educated here in Winnipeg, graduated from St. John's technical high school in 1949, taught school for a year after finishing technical school, and, if you knew Harry later in his career, you would have assumed that he grew up on a farm and–the way he spoke with such knowledge and passion about agriculture. But he was a city boy in the first years of his life and he made the transition to rural life later on. Before doing that, he spent time in the sales and advertising branch of Monarch Machinery. I can only imagine how gifted he would have been in sales and marketing at that stage in his life, and then he developed a passion for all things rural and agricultural at a later stage.
He and his first wife, Helene, ran the Double H Ranch in the Woodlands area. On their 400 acres of treed and open country the Enns fed about 500 cattle each winter. They put up as much as 25,000 bales of native hay each summer, and Mr. Enns acquired the nickname of Sparky in that region of the province for reasons that can be better elaborated on by members of his family. But he did have his own way of dealing with stubble at the end of each year, and it was not always, perhaps, as controlled as some of his neighbours may have wished it was. Mr. Speaker, he–in addition to learning a lot about forecasting wind directions, Harry went on to be a very good rancher and farmer, and he–as he did with everything–was passionate about it, loved every aspect of that life and then came to serve in this place with this incredible history of having grown up in the city, spent time in industry and then having gone on to a rural agricultural life.
As an MLA and a Cabinet minister, Harry was known for his strong interest in all matters affecting the well-being of rural Manitoba, whether it was the state of agriculture, the environment or roads. In fact, until his funeral, I assumed that he had grown up on a farm and didn't realize that he actually had urban beginnings, but that assumption was grounded in how passionate and knowledgeable he was. Mr. Speaker, throughout his life, Harry remained a true friend of farmers in this province, usually referring to them as my farmers when he made his public comments.
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Mr. Enns was committed to public service in so very many different ways. He was a trustee on the Interlake school board, served on the Interlake south area development committee. He would serve with ARDA boards. He was a 4-H leader, recognized the important of–recognizing the importance of training the next generation of producers and community leaders throughout Manitoba.
He had a lifelong love of music and a beautiful singing voice. Many members of this Chamber have been privileged to hear that voice singing in this Chamber and in other places, through the hallways and offices of this building, at various times. And that was something that all of us who had the privilege of knowing him got to enjoy at various times of the year, the Christmas open house in particular; he raised the game for the remaining MLAs, and I don't want to cast aspersions on any existing members of the House, but we could have used him just this past Saturday at the open house. There were some discordant notes sounded this past Saturday. Harry probably could have helped carry the rest of us, but he was always somebody, along with members of other parties, who could carry a tune and had a very strong voice.
He also enjoyed fishing and spending time with his family, who adored him, and his very, very many friends.
In politics, which is where he's best known to a wider number of Manitobans, he began his lengthy tenure in the Legislature when he was elected MLA in 1966. The riding was later renamed Lakeside and to this day carries on under the name of the Lakeside constituency. And he had a remarkable string of re‑elections–nine consecutive elections before deciding to retire in 2003–in a seat that wasn't historically a safe Conservative seat, if you look at the history of Lakeside in the years that preceded his time there. He was strongly supported by voters every time he sought re-election, which demonstrated his broad popularity with his constituents.
It was his brother Sig who encouraged Harry to get into politics. Sig had been the Member of Parliament for Portage-Neepawa and a similarly passionate and articulate advocate for the people that he represented.
And in 1971, Harry Enns ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party. And I hadn't realized that until some years ago, and what I will just share as a personal reflection was that after my grandmother passed away we were going through her belongings and came across a drawer full of Harry Enns's leadership material. This was a number of years ago. My grandmother, who was involved in politics, clearly was a Harry Enns supporter in that leadership campaign, and to this day I'm hoping that nobody will share that with members of the Spivak family. But she obviously saw his many good qualities, and it was a fascinating read to go back through the leadership material from 1971 and a great lesson in Manitoba history when you look at the issues that were being debated, some of which are similar to the issues that continue to be debated here and now in this Legislature.
Harry Enns came to be known as the dean of the Legislature for obvious reasons. His mastery of rules and procedures, his length of service, his knowledge of policy all led to that designation. It was a designation that was offered freely by members from all political parties. And it was known around here during his years of service that, however passionate and partisan he could be, he could be counted on at various times to offer sage wisdom on any matter before the House and done in a way that was thoughtful and offered with a view toward being constructive, whether it was advice to members of his own party or to members of other parties.
During his tenure here, Mr. Enns held several ministerial portfolios. They included Agriculture, Mines and Natural Resources, Public Works, Highways and Transportation, Government Services, and Minister responsible for the Manitoba Data Services as well as MPI. As has been said, he served under four Progressive Conservative premiers in Cabinet: Duff Roblin, Walter Weir, Sterling Lyon and Gary Filmon.
To pay tribute to his 35th anniversary as an MLA in 2001, the House did a rare thing and allowed him to break protocol during question period, allotted him the entire time to pose questions to the government. That's something that I would love to have the opportunity to do at some point, Mr. Speaker, which I say in jest, invoking leaders' latitude from time to time. That was a rare break in protocol and was a nice tribute to a man who had served for 35 years.
He was a lifetime member of the party, extremely proud to serve his constituents and extremely proud of his connection to this very special place that all of us are privileged to have an opportunity to serve in.
When you consider his contributions to agriculture, everybody knows how passionate he was. He was always looking for ways to diversify the agricultural economy, to ensure that farmers were not caught up in major downturns and that we had some ability to weather the storms that would inevitably rise in various agricultural sectors. And that diversification strategy is one that he pursued and has been a strategy and a policy of all governments, of all parties, through time.
One of his key initiatives involved changes to the pork marketing system which led to the creation of thousands of jobs at the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon and throughout the province of Manitoba. That debate was a passionate and intense debate. People had very strong feelings, well-grounded, strong feelings from all perspectives. Harry believed it was necessary to move ahead and to diversify the economy and create spinoff jobs and opportunities, and we believe that history has proven that he was right.
As his former colleague, Jim Downey, noted, Mr. Enns understood the art of the possible. Harry Enns helped to co-ordinate aid for farmers following Manitoba's landmark Flood of the Century in 1997.
One of my favourite stories about Harry Enns is told by Jim Downey. Shortly after Harry became Minister of Agriculture, he was on a driving tour of rural Manitoba, and this is against the backdrop of his city upbringing, was on a driving tour with a newly appointed deputy minister of Agriculture and the two of them were driving. They were looking at crops and Harry was explaining to this new deputy, who was known to be a good administrator but didn't have a lot of background in agriculture, explaining the various crops and came back and apparently reported on this trip to Cabinet. At which point, Jim Downey piped up, what would Harry Enns know about agriculture?
And I think that was to the farmers in Cabinet and caucus well appreciated at the time. He appeared to know a lot about agriculture; some of his colleagues in the early days perhaps knew just a little bit better. Nonetheless, he came to know it intimately and made many great contributions to our province as a leader on those various issues.
In terms of his background on conservation issues, this is another area where Harry was passionate. As a rancher and as an outdoorsman, he had a deep appreciation and understanding for the importance of protecting the environment and our natural heritage for future generations. As an MLA representing a constituency well known for its waterfowl population and some of the both challenges and opportunities in managing water in that part of the province, he had a very special interest in the preservation of natural habitat.
He was integral to the establishment of Oak Hammock Marsh and the interpretive centre. That was his initiative. He made it happen and it's been a great legacy of Harry Enns and a great place for young Manitobans to learn about these important issues. Since that centre opened, tens of thousands of people have visited the facility, learned about the value of protecting wetlands, waterfowl and wildlife.
He was also responsible for initiatives aimed at the preservation of tall grass prairie lands. He brought in amendments to The Forest Act which charged woodcutters a fee to help pay to replenish our forests, and he also launched a program to replace trees that were impacted by Dutch elm disease. He introduced legislation to protect endangered wildlife species and, in 1992, he was recognized by the Canadian Wildlife Federation Legislator Award presented to a legislator who's made significant contributions toward the conservation of wildlife in Canada. He was given the award because of his commitment to conservation and his many achievements during his various stints as Minister of Natural Resources.
As the Premier (Mr. Selinger) recalled, one of the most memorable political moments of Mr. Enns's career took place in the early 1990s involving Harry swimming across the Red River in a 1920s-style swimsuit complete with shoulder straps to prove to the media and to Manitobans that the river was suitable for swimming. Mr. Speaker, I'm inspired by that example and I may very well, at some point, be forced to do something similar in Lake Winnipeg, if it comes to that. It was–he was a great inspiration. He had a way of telling a story in colourful and dramatic ways, and that was one of the most memorable ways that he made his point.
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Harry Enns also was a passionate believer in the value of education, dedicated much of his life and career to advancing public education in the province of Manitoba. He also believed in the need for diversity and choice within education, was a supporter of some level of support for independent schools in the province to ensure that families would have the freedom to make choices and the freedom to choose the sort of education they thought was most appropriate for their children.
Although Harry Enns was happiest when he was on the ranch, he loved to travel. He was known–he and his brother John were known to have travelled, as some of the early hippies, around Europe after the Second World War, backpacking around Europe following the Second World War, before returning back to Manitoba.
As was said, he had such a passion and a talent for singing, he even landed a role on Rainbow Stage at one point in his life. He sang with his family at concerts to raise money for charity. He sang to his constituents at weddings. He sang at funerals. He sang at anniversaries. And, most recently, Mr. Speaker, he sang at a Progressive Conservative fundraiser in the Woodlands constituency on behalf of my colleague the current member for Lakeside (Mr. Eichler), and we were pleased to have him come and sing just weeks before he passed away.
Mr. Speaker, Harry Enns also, as has been said, was passionate about farming. He sang while he fed his cattle, cut his hay and baled his hay.
Here are a couple of comments from other distinguished Manitobans who are not able to be in the Chamber today, but I do want to put these comments on the record: On behalf of the Honourable Gary Filmon, former premier of Manitoba, who said, with respect to Harry Enns's political career, that it was a remarkable record. To me it was like having a walking history book because he had such a knowledge of government. It was very, very valuable.
Secondly, from the Honourable Vic Toews, former MLA, current Member of Parliament for Provencher and Minister of Public Safety, who said that Harry Enns left a lasting impression on everyone that he met. He could always be counted on to make an appropriate comment that would put every debate and discussion into context.
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to have known Harry Enns. I am honoured to know his family members. It's been deeply enriching to me to be friends with members of the Enns family, to have benefited from their wisdom and experience and their passion for Manitoba.
So, Mr. Speaker, with all of those comments, I want to provide time for others to share their recollections, but I want to thank the Premier (Mr. Selinger) for the introduction of the motion. I'm incredibly honoured to second it and to extend our condolences to this very special family that Harry Enns loved so much.
Mr. Ralph Eichler (Lakeside): I, too, want to put a few things on the records in regards to Harry Enns and this special day that we're paying remembrance of Harry's legacy.
And I remember meeting Harry first back in 1972, and we were actually neighbours at that time. We were on the east side of the Shoal Lake, which we pastured a 3,700 head of cattle there at that time, and Harry was on the other side of the lake. And we got to know each other back and forth in checking our cattle and, of course, talking about different things and different things that came about as a result of running cattle. Sometimes the fences weren't quite as good as they should have been and they got mixed up, and so we got to know each others brands and those types of things pretty quickly. But we did look after each other's cattle in a good way that made sure they were cared for and looked after, so it was nice to have a neighbour that was as good as Harry.
And I know it's easier for you to see up there the paperwork that's on my desk. And I know all of you can attest to the fact that Harry didn't need a computer. We've got this computer era, and I've got 15 or 20 papers sitting on my desk, and Harry did all his off a matchbook. And anybody that knew Harry when he was about to prepare a speech, he would just make a few notes on his matchbook, and that was his way of doing his notes, so, and he could speak for hours just off that little piece of paper that was a matchbook. So I think everyone that knew Harry knew that very well.
And, also, I noticed that in the gallery today is Phillip Houde as well, and Phillip was one of the last people that were able to work with Harry whenever he was still in the House, and it was just a great assistant. And also in the gallery is Suzanne Jones and her husband, Gavin, and Suzanne was also a neighbour and volunteered and worked on Harry's board and executive at the time. In fact, she brought me a binder here not just about a year ago and it had all the events, the notes going back to 1966, and I would really love to share that with the family some day. And some of the events that they had–it was remarkable thinking that you charge $2.50 for a supper, a dance and the entertainment back in those days, and it was just phenomenal. The amount of money they raised wasn't a lot, but in comparison it was actually very good, and they had a lot of great events that was packed into that. It's something that should be shared with the family and kept forever.
Also, I remember talking to Harry. I'd never had aspirations to be a MLA at the time when I was first talking with Harry, and so we'd talk different things and different things. But Harry was always very passionate about whatever he wanted to talk about and he had such depth of whatever he wanted to say, and you knew whatever he said was going to be right because he did such a great job at researching whatever he was going to be talking about and making sure that it was factual.
And I know that he was known as the dean of the Legislature, or the senator. A lot of people referred to him as the senator as well. Lakeside–Harry was the second MLA in Lakeside. D.L. Campbell was there for 47 years. Harry, of course, it's been already pointed out, was 37 years in that riding. I got started a little late so I don't think I'm going to be breaking any of those records, so–my hair's starting to go a little bit on the back already, but anyway, I remember–[interjection] A little bit, yeah.
I remember after I'd been elected for about six months and I just wanted to get a little more information about a particular issue and I knew the best person to call would be Harry. So I called Harry's number, and Eleanor answered the phone, and Harry was in another room doing something, and she said, Harry, hurry up, get over here. It's your MLA. So Harry was still dawdling, and she said, Hurry up, hurry up, Harry. And so Harry come running to the phone, and he's puffing away and he said, man, you got a lot of pull with my wife. But thank you for that, Eleanor, we do appreciate all the advice. And, of course, the time and the effort that you put to help Harry is going to be remembered forever as well. And I did have the opportunity to visit Harry at his ranch a number of different occasions and I'll remember those forever.
I do also want to share with the House a few comments from one of our other colleagues. And Harry was always great at providing advice and support for all members of the House, and anybody federally or provincially. And that individual is James Bezan, a very good friend of mine and, of course, now the current MP. And he asked me just to read onto the record. So I'd like to do that, Mr. Speaker, from James Bezan on the passing of Harry Enns:
He was one of my role models during the many years I knew him. Harry was a fantastic mentor, a tireless legislator, the people's representative and a great man. Senator Harry Enns was the cornerstone of the Conservative politics for over 40 years, and everyone who knew him, loved him. I first met Harry back in 1986 when I worked for United Grain Growers Red River Feedlot at Sanford where Harry had a pen of cattle on feed. He always took time to talk to the guys in the feedlot. Our paths continued to cross. When I worked for the Gunton Bull Test Station, he would come out to open the sale. I would lobby him as Agriculture Minister when I was with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, and later, when I owned my livestock export business, would accompany him on Manitoba trade missions to Mexico and South America. It was inevitable that I would turn to Harry for help when I made the decision to enter federal politics, and he nominated me and introduced me to all the party candidate meetings. I owe Harry my personal success in politics for that effort. Harry was a special, one‑of‑a‑kind politician. He loved his family, ranching, his country, which he loved and often demonstrated by singing "O Canada" at media events and functions. Harry was a true friend of the farmer, always referring to them as my farmers and was one of the greatest Agriculture ministers Manitoba has ever seen.
Manitoba was blessed with the gift of one of the finest politician ever to have served in the Legislature. He was a great orator. He was known as–for his wits and sense of humour, and it's often said Harry had the stuff that legends are made of, and Harry has been, and remains today, a legend.
Harry touched the lives of many people, especially mine. I am very lucky to be one of the many who can say he was my friend. I was glad that I got to see him just last month in Woodlands, where I told him that he looked great. Little did I know that he'd be taken from us so soon. Harry Enns will be sadly missed.
On behalf of my family, the Government of Canada, the people of Selkirk-Interlake, I wish to expend–extend our heartfelt condolences to Harry's wife, Eleanor, all his family, friends, and pray that we'll find comfort in sharing the great memories Harry has left for us to cherish.
That was submitted on behalf of James Bezan.
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I do want to come back to the event that we had in Gimli, or in Woodlands, on May the 1st that the leader had talked about, and Harry, along with his brother Sig and Henry all got up and sang "O Canada" together. And I can tell you, it was an experience for the family that–and I know they're here; some of them are here today that was there at that dinner–it will be remembered forever that–the number of the members that were there, and I'm sure they'll be talking about it in their comments.
I do want to just close by saying, Mr. Speaker, that it's an honour and privilege even to be sitting in the very same seat that Harry Enns sat in the last part of his life, where he sat in this very chair. So it's with pleasure that I can honestly say his legacy will live on forever.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Steve Ashton (Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation): Mr. Speaker, when I was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature, it was a humbling experience. Coming into a Legislature with people I had seen, that I had watched, as I had an interest in politics going back to my teenage years, and when I came in here I–little did I expect that I would be sitting with Harry Enns in the Legislature for what turned out to be 22 years. Now, it may have something to do with the fact that I was elected by 72 votes. I probably wasn't anticipating that I would survive even the first election.
But, as I stand here today, I'm reminded of some of the figures that we saw and a bit of the transition that we saw in this Legislature and how remarkable it was that Harry Enns really was part of all of those eras. There were MLAs, Larry Desjardins, who went back to the 1950s in terms of election. And a number of MLAs were elected in the 1960s, and what was interesting, really, in the 1960s, Harry told me that a lot of the dividing lines in this Legislature were actually more rural-urban than they were on political lines. There was much more of a fluid situation in terms of votes, and I've heard the same from Ed Schreyer and others that were sitting here in the 1960s.
There was an element that even in the 1980s I watched Harry Enns stand and vote for the second reading on the bill that would have brought in public ownership of the gas company. That was a position that was somewhat different from the rest of his caucus. It was interesting, of course; it was classic Harry. He was ahead of his time because he then became part of the government, the Filmon government, where Centra Gas was purchased.
And what was interesting, you know, watching those times, too, was the degree to which it was a very different place. We sat three evenings a week. Boy, did we get to know each other. We sat on Fridays. I'm kind of reminded when we occasionally sit on Fridays now why we don't sit on Fridays anymore. They were rather rambunctious. And what was interesting with Harry is–I remember early on, by the way, you didn't try to debate with Harry Enns because he had a rather unique approach. There are MLAs that are vocal in their seats and they're vocal when they stand on their feet. Harry was pretty quiet in his seat. Actually, I'll get to this in a moment because there was a parallel with cards, because that's another lesson I learned. But he had a way of immediately coming to life if there was even one person in the gallery. He could give a remarkable speech on virtually anything. Now, there were some subjects which he was particularly passionate about. There were some very memorable speeches. But he would go instantly, and when he had the opportunity to speak–and, you know, it was one of those things, if Harry Enns was speaking, you made a point of sitting down and listening because it was always heartfelt. It was always quite the performance in an oratorical sense, but it was something you always remembered, and Harry was like that, I think, in every phase that I saw, whether he was in government or in opposition.
Now, I mentioned about lessons, you know, that same approach I learned at the hotel association evening events, and you could get into things like card games. I learned that you don't play cards with Harry Enns because, again, he was–he had a great way of reading people. And, you know, it's quite an era where, you know, as a rookie MLA, I'd be sitting, talking to Harry Enns across the table, you know, it's sort of the wee hours of the morning, and really getting a sense of just how much he knew about this place and he knew about this province.
Now, what was interesting, by the way, is the number of other lessons I learned with Harry. He–I remember him talking about when he ran for leader, and I do remember that. I remember watching this–it's 1971, I believe. I only had one discussion where he even referenced that, but he said to me–it was a number of years back–he said, you know, he always appreciated the opportunity he had to go for, as he put it, the brass ring. And he was very proud of that; he was very proud of the fact that he put on a very spirited approach.
It was interesting, because when I also had the opportunity to go for the brass ring, I remembered that comment, because you tend to, you know, when you go through a tough contest and especially when you–you're used to winning elections, as Harry was. And there's the one you, you know, as I said, I had an affinity with the American hockey team. You know, you go for the gold; you get the silver. I remember Harry was really proud of the fact he was able to run, and he was actually supported by people all over the province. And it was one of the things that stuck in my mind as I went through the same experience.
It was interesting, too, with Harry, by the way, because if you look at a lot of the issues he was involved with, they really go to the heart and soul of this province, and particularly in rural Manitoba. I had some very good discussions with Harry. I mean, most people would remember Harry more for his agricultural issues, and being the MLA for Thompson, I know over years I perhaps learned a few things about agriculture, but I never felt that I should get into a discussion with Harry Enns about anything to do with agriculture, because he could always trump me.
I didn't know until the funeral, either, of his urban roots, because, again, you could've sure fooled me with his–you know, he had that sense of born and raised as well as what he went through.
What was interesting is, he was, to my mind, I think if he was proud of anything, it was really on the natural resources and conservation side. Yes, he was a passionate defender of a lot of rural issues, but he really was someone that was an environmentalist in his–I'm going to say in his own way. I mean, you know, he wouldn't have necessarily described himself that way, but I think he had a really strong sense of leaving a legacy. And I watched him, both as minister and I watched him even in opposition, where if there was one thing that really got Harry going, was–it was, well, he had some good debate over agricultural policy, but it was very much about protecting our–you know, our natural resources and our environment.
You know, a lot has been said about Harry on the personal side. I have to say, by the way, with the family here, you know, and I know this sounds like an oxymoron, and when you're grieving, you know, it really–when you talk about a good funeral, you know, when I came out of the funeral, I was so impressed by what I heard from the family and particularly the kids, and you know, maybe it's sort of you never quite know, I mean, you know, my family–my–both my children have undertaken political roles. My daughter is a Member of Parliament; my son, most recently, is a school trustee. I was reminded, by the way, I remember Harry talking about the remarkable situation of the Enns family; Sig as an MP and Harry as an MLA, and I–again, that struck me as an interesting, you know, discussion over family dinner tables. Believe you me, I have some interesting discussions as well over family get-togethers in our family.
But, really, what I wanted to say about what struck me about that is, is seeing that other dimension of Harry and how much Harry, even though he was a member of this Legislature 37 years, and he was a Cabinet minister under four leaders, and knowing the time pressures and how many times that took him away from home, I was struck by the love and the respect from his family who, obviously, were there for Harry during those times when he was serving this province. And I don't think we do enough in this Legislature, quite frankly, at times, to recognize how much none of us would be here without the support of our families, and Harry was very much an example of that.
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You know, there's been a lot of reference to Harry's singing ability. That was the other lesson I learned, by the way, is stand close to Harry at the piano. Actually, I go back to Arnold Brown, as well. There were a couple of good singers at the time. I mean, Harry had a real zest for life, and what really struck me, by the way, was when we did have that socialization back and forth, is–you could go from probably the most partisan debate in this House, and no one was more partisan than Harry–I must admit I was probably equally partisan on the other side–but you could walk out and there was a certain–there was an immediate respect that went with that. And it's something we can all be reminded of because I think at various times we often tend to forget that we're all here serving the people of this province.
Now, I look at it. I've only been here–I've only been elected eight times. I haven't matched the 37 years yet, so I still, I'm–you know, when I talk about Harry, I feel like a rookie and, by the way, he had a way–over time, there was a bit of respect from having sat for some period of time, but Harry had always had that way of quietly making you feel like a rookie. He made everybody in the Legislature feel like a rookie, but it really was because if you wanted someone that had, you know, that term that's often thrown around, gravitas, it was Harry, because he could say volumes, you know, the–through the twinkle of his eye. He could say volumes when he spoke as well. He wasn't someone that measured that. I still remember one of his colleagues, as Minister of Agriculture, when Harry was minister in the last go-round, actually asked me–it was from another province and we were in the transition–he said, I was always interested with Harry Enns because he didn't say very much but when it needed–something needed to be said, boy did he say a lot. And I said, you know, that was really what summed up Harry as a member of the Legislature. He knew when to speak, and, boy, when he spoke, people listened.
So I wanted to say, as someone that sat, you know, that very extended period of time, how much I respected what he contributed and I think we can all learn from, perhaps, Harry's approach to politics, the dedication he had, and to life. And I think we could all perhaps learn some of the lessons that we've seen over the last number of years. You know, maybe we need to, in Harry's memory, you know, when the House adjourns, get back to the days when it was not unusual for caucus members–and I was reminded of this by the–by Clif Evans, former minister in the Interlake–to gather in the other caucus and it was not only not considered suspicious or something that was out of place, it was considered something that was expected, because I do think, you know, and I always felt that with Harry. Harry would be the first one to tell me: Are you coming over to our caucus for the singalong afterwards? And you know what? It's a good reminder to all of us that no matter how partisan we are at times or how passionate we are about politics, we can learn from someone that contributed so much in 37 years, a remarkable political career, but not just in the length of time he spent or even what he accomplished, but the spirit in which he gave it. No one was a better constituency‑based MLA than Harry. No one cared more passionately about any of the portfolios he had responsibility for in government or in opposition and yet, at the end of the day, no one would be more welcoming to anybody–not just members of the Legislature, but I know members of the public–than Harry Enns was.
I was honoured to be able to attend the funeral to share with everyone that was there how great an MLA Harry Enns was. And I can tell you one thing, to the family members, and I say this as someone that clearly not only sat with Harry but at times debated and had that passionate exchange, he had my undying respect. We will miss him, not just in this Legislature, but we will miss him in the province of Manitoba. He was a truly great Manitoban.
Mr. Leonard Derkach (Russell): Mr. Speaker, and I'm honoured this afternoon to rise and put a few words on the record with regard to someone who I considered a friend, a colleague and a mentor and, before I say any more, I want to extend the condolences of my family and also the people in my constituency to Eleanor and to the Enns family because Mr. Enns was somebody who was so respected in–across this province and in my constituency. He was dearly regarded as a friend and someone who my constituents respected as almost their own MLA. I know that, oftentimes, if we were having any kind of a fundraiser and I were to ask my executive who they wanted as a guest speaker, the first name that came to mind and the first name that was mentioned was Harry Enns because they all appreciated not only his speaking capabilities but, indeed, the message that he could leave and inspire people within our province.
I had the privilege of sitting with Mr. Enns for a number of years, from 1986 till 2003. We were seatmates from time to time, and I think in the last while when we served in opposition, as a matter of fact, he was my seatmate during that period of time, and one of the things that I learned about Harry was that if you sat with him, you–he would sometimes lean over and he'd give you a bit of a lesson on the history of this Legislature. He'd give you a bit of a lesson on the protocols that perhaps sometimes were breached by all of us in this House, and if you did your research you found that Harry was right.
He would sometimes tell you that, oops, the vote isn't being conducted in the appropriate way according to the Westminster model that we follow. And, true enough, if you went back into history and researched it, you would find that Harry indeed was correct.
He also had views on how important it was to follow the traditions that have been established over decades and over many years in a parliamentary system, and why they were important, and why those should be kept and should be respected. And those are the kinds of things that I–you can never forget, Mr. Speaker. Those are the kinds of things that we, as MLAs in this Legislature, learn and should pass along to those who come after us and those who are elected to this Chamber.
And the other thing that I learned with Harry was that everybody in this Chamber is a colleague. And, yes, we could have a heated debate because we differ philosophically on many issues, but at the end of the day we are still considered as colleagues of this Legislature. And I don't know any time when Harry didn't treat a member of this Legislature with respect and, indeed, whether it was in this Chamber or outside in the public. And if we were at a function, Mr. Speaker, where there were members of this Legislature there, it did–and Harry was at the microphone, it didn't matter which party you were from, Harry made sure that you were introduced and recognized as a member, as a respected member of the Legislature.
And so he had a lot of lessons that he passed on to us, and over the years I considered Harry an important mentor to myself. In sitting with him in Cabinet was another experience that I will treasure always because when it came to very difficult decisions, and, although Harry may not have spoken on a decision to that point in time, somebody would turn to Harry and ask him for his opinion. And, when you got Harry's opinion, you knew that that was a valued one, one that he had thought about and one that he wasn't sharing frivolously with anyone.
The other thing that I remember about Harry is his speaking ability in this Chamber. He was one of the last great orators, in my view, in this Chamber. And there are many good speakers, Mr. Speaker, who speak even today in this Chamber, but I think the member from Thompson would agree with me, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation (Mr. Ashton), that when Harry spoke in this Chamber he was considered one of the orators of this Chamber.
And I remember one time we had a speaking order that was supposed to be followed in the House and somehow Harry missed his spot, and everybody had thought that Harry was going to be speaking. And we walked down the hallways and everybody was kind of rushing into the Chamber, and I really didn't know what the excitement was about except that people thought that Harry was speaking that day, and they were wanting to make sure that they didn't miss his speech.
And so, when Harry spoke in the House, Mr. Speaker, not only were the members of his side of the House here to listen to him but, indeed, members of this Chamber were also very inspired by the words that Harry would put on the record.
Mr. Speaker, I worked on projects with Harry and I always admired him for his depth of knowledge on issues as they relate to this province. The difficult debates we had with regard to, you know, the changes to the hog industry in this province and the issues that were debated were important ones because they had to deal with the issues of environment that Harry was very cognizant of. But he was also very cognizant of the fact that if we were to grow our province, that these were the industries we could not overlook and ignore.
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And, yes, I was there with Harry when we worked on the Maple Leaf–bringing Maple Leaf into this province. I was there with Harry when we–when he lead the charge on the Oak Hammock Marsh and, Mr. Speaker, this is a true treasure in our province, and, you know, history will record that this was a vision of Harry Enns for Manitoba and for the preservation of the important wetlands that our province has within it.
And there were many other projects, Mr. Speaker, that Harry took charge of. As the Minister of Agriculture, there was no one more passionate about the issues and the well-being of agriculturists in this province than Harry Enns. He made sure that he understood, whether it was the programs that were being administered by our Province but funded jointly by the federal government and the Province of Manitoba, whether they were initiatives that were being taken by different groups within the province and why it was important to understand how those would impact on everyday farmers, Harry would do his research and he would know which direction we should be moving in.
So he was a great leader in that respect, Mr. Speaker, and I will always have a great deal of respect. He was a legend. He leaves behind a legacy, I think, that is rich, that anybody who knew Harry can appreciate and respect, and I think his family should be extremely proud of the things that Harry has left in this province.
This province is a better place because Harry Enns was here. This Legislature is a better place because Harry Enns was here, and forever and a day, as long as I'm a member of this Legislature or, indeed, a Manitoban, I will always have the highest regard for Mr. Harry Enns.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, I rise to extend condolences to the Harry Enns family, to Eleanor and the other members who are here, and to friends, and to recognize the contributions of Harry Enns over the 37 years that he spent in this Chamber.
I was lucky enough for a number of those years, from 1999 to 2003, to sit fairly close to Harry and we had quite a number of conversations. But I want to start earlier than that, because in the 1980s and in the 1990s I was living in what was then Lakeside constituency and certainly heard much about the legend of Harry and his contributions, about his singing and his wonderful voice and about his ability to make sure that he was visiting and on top of issues in various parts of the constituency.
Then, when I was elected the Member of Parliament in Portage-Interlake, I had to work quite closely with Harry on a fair number of issues, quite a number of infrastructure programs. It was actually interesting because at that point Eleanor was working at the minister's regional office in Winnipeg, and so there was a little bit of back and forth there and I got to know Eleanor as well as Harry.
It was a time when there was a lot of discussion about the hog industry, and Harry was very much pushing for the change to remove the–change the situation from what it had been and to end the supply management, as it was then, in the hog industry and open things up. Harry had a way of embellishing things. I remember him talking about his plans in making this change to make sure that all the hog manure in Manitoba was smelling like strawberries.
And he managed to be charming in the way that he approached things. I remember when in 1999, dealing with the concern of very wet weather in southwestern Manitoba, and the government–Premier Filmon, which Harry was a part, announced that there would be compensation of $50 an acre. Well, of course, Harry couldn't, you know, let that go and be sufficient and just come out to Melita where there was a huge meeting. But Harry made sure that, you know, I don't think $50 is enough. I want it $60 or $70 or $80 or $90 or $100. I mean, he was charming and he charmed people because, you know, he was always trying for something more, even when he got a pretty good deal for the farmers in the area.
I remember on one occasion when Harry was sitting here, and one of the things, I mean, Harry was always paying attention, but he very often had a novel or a book that he would read. And on one occasion he was sitting here with a novel with a rather interesting title, and watching this and looking at the political situation at that point in time, I got up on a member's statement and I talked about Harry Enns and his novel. And it was quite a bit of humour in the statement and it was taken up and broadcast on CBC. But the interesting thing is Harry came up to me afterwards and he said, you know, I'm going to be a little bit more careful next time about what the titles are of the novels I read here.
He had a way of, you know, making sure that he'd make–kept in touch with people and he had a really good sense of humour, and he enjoyed being here. He enjoyed being able to make a contribution. He was very pleased to have been part of the Oak Hammock Marsh development which has been a substantial benefit for many people in the Interlake.
I was at, I think it was the 35th anniversary dinner at the Hitch'n Post even though I was an opposition MLA and the leader of the Liberal Party, because I wanted to recognize the contributions that Harry had made in non-partisan as well as partisan ways because of the contributions he'd made to the Chamber. And I was also, as was the MLA for Thompson, at the funeral service to pay a tribute to Harry and to recognize him.
And once again, today, I'm pleased to have the honour of being able to recognize Harry Enns, his contributions and the things that he's done for people in Manitoba and the importance that he's always had for activities which happened in this Chamber and the contributions of this Chamber. Thank you.
Mrs. Bonnie Mitchelson (River East): Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to have the opportunity to stand today and say how privileged I was as a member of this Legislature to serve with Harry Enns for 17 years. He truly was a gentleman and someone who I looked up to and admired in my years here in the Legislature.
And to his family, I want to say how proud I know he was of all of you and, you know, how he affectionately spoke of and referred to Eleanor as Miss Ellie, and very often we had opportunity to spend time with her also when she came after hours to be here with us. And when I was first elected in 1986, we sat–as the Minister of Highways had said–we sat three evenings a week. We finished our day sitting at 6 o'clock and had a two-hour recess, and came back from 8 o'clock till 10 o'clock on–I think it was Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. And so very often we had time in the evening over dinner, and time to socialize, and many of the spouses of members of the Legislature from rural Manitoba came in and visited. So we got to know them quite well. And I remember, very fondly, times when not only did Harry break out into song, but also Miss Ellie was there and singing with him. And those were times that we all very much enjoyed.
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Many have said that Harry had a twinkle in his eye, and I recall often the big smile that came upon his face and the kind words that he had to say and how he often told us not to take ourselves too seriously. He had had the experience of opposition and government and opposition and government many, many times and knew that there was ups and downs, that political parties were elected to government and political parties were defeated as governments. And he enjoyed very much his time in the Legislature, whether it be in government or in opposition, took his job very seriously and made his contributions based on all that he had to offer.
And, although I was a MLA from the city of Winnipeg and a novice MLA in 1986, hadn't really expected to win my seat, and I did, and wondered what I was going to do next. I very quickly, as I moved into the Legislature, in opposition for the first two years of my political career, had some sage teachers. Harry Enns was one of those.
And I can remember those evenings when we sat until 10 o'clock at night and later into the afternoon, when many of my first lessons on what politics was all about were in Arnie Brown's office with the likes of Arnie Brown and Dave Blake and Harry Enns and Abe Kovnats, who taught me what the Legislature was about and what the political process was about.
And I valued some of those times, and some of the advice that I received when I was first elected was, you know, sit back, don't say too much, listen and learn. And I certainly did learn from some of those, especially Harry Enns, about what politics was all about and what the process in this Legislature was all about.
I know that those in the River East constituency knew Harry Enns very well and probably knew brother Sig much more because of his association with northeast Winnipeg and his tenure at Concordia Hospital. But Harry was also welcome in River East constituency. He was out and did speak at some of my fundraising events.
I remember one speech that he made at a fundraising breakfast that I had and I think it was all of about five minutes. He said what he needed to say, and the speech was over. And most of you know that when people do come to breakfasts, to fundraising breakfasts, that they're not wanting to be there for a long time, they have other things that they need to do. They come–it starts early. They like to eat breakfast, they like to hear a few words of wisdom and then get off to their jobs. And so many were very pleased that Harry spoke, said what he had to say and left a very strong message with my supporters and my constituents. And I know that many times he didn't have to take a long time to say what was really important, what was on his mind and leave a message for those that were listening.
I have to say that the family, children and grandchildren, must be very, very proud of the accomplishments that he made over his 37 years here in the Legislature. And he has left a legacy for–and I'm not sure there's going to be too many to follow that will have that number of years and that experience that Harry did have in our Legislature.
I wholeheartedly have to say that I miss Harry Enns. I miss his wisdom. And, you know, very often, as we sat around the Cabinet table and listened to Harry, and it wasn't just the agricultural issues or the natural resources issues or the rural issues that he had passion about and had great knowledge and understanding. I tended to have more experience on the social side of issues within government, spent many years as the Minister of Family Services, and he always had words of wisdom for me and understood the needs of people that couldn't help and support themselves, and Harry had good words of advice.
The other thing, too, that he said very often–we went through some very difficult times when we were in government in the 1990s, where the federal government had cut transfer payments, and we had to make some pretty tough decisions, and we all knew that the expenditures in the Department of Health were increasing at a pretty significant rate. That was an area where we couldn't cut, and many, many departments within government were asked to take reductions and try to find out where they could save money and decrease expenditures to try to make ends meet and to try to balance the budget, which we felt so very strongly about as a party and as a government, and I can remember Harry very often standing up for the smaller departments within government–natural resources, specifically, when he was the Minister of Natural Resources–and saying, there's no room to cut; there's no room to move.
And, as we continue to see, the expenditures on some of the social services side of government, which we continue to see today, we're going to find that those increases are unsustainable and we're going to have nothing left for the Department of Natural Resources and for some of the smaller departments within government that are so very crucial and vital to what needs to be done to make Manitoba a strong and vibrant province.
So I know he stood up for what he believed in, for the issues that he believed in, and certainly gave me an understanding. When he spoke, I listened, and I want to tell you that I learned a lot in the 17 years that I had the opportunity to spend with Harry Enns.
And I just want to, before I close, tell you that I appreciated very much his voice and his ability to sing. And I cannot carry a tune but I–there were many, many times when we were here late at night, into the wee hours of the morning at the end of session, and I know that very often we did, in those days, visit back and forth from caucus office to caucus office, and I was always a part of that process. The ending of the session was a very special time, and it was a time where we set aside our differences and treated each other with respect, and there was a lot of camaraderie regardless of which side of the House you were on. And we spent many, many of those times in our caucus office, sometimes were still here in the morning when our staff came in at eight or 9 o'clock. I was there, Harry was there, and there were times when we even went off to Salisbury House for breakfast after that at the end–at the close of the session.
But there were many times when Harry caught me completely off guard, whether we were sitting in the caucus room waiting for our caucus meeting to start, sitting in the Cabinet room from time to time or in some of those sessions after hours, where Harry would break out into song and start singing "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" for everyone. And those were special times, times I will remember very fondly, and he always had that smile on his face and that twinkle in his eye and made me feel a part of the team and a special part of what this Legislature is all about.
So to all of you who knew Harry much better that I did, you have to be extremely proud of who he was and what he accomplished and the legacy that he's left for the province of Manitoba.
So with those words, I just want to give my condolences to you, and his memory will continue on forever. Thank you.
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Mr. Tom Nevakshonoff (Interlake): It is my pleasure to rise today to offer my condolences to the family of the Honourable Harry Enns. I speak on behalf of the people of the Interlake region, a region that Harry and I shared for a brief time, and I'd like to begin my remarks by passing on condolences of the former MLAs of the Interlake, Clif Evans, of course, who is in the gallery today or was a few moments ago, and the Honourable Bill Uruski, who served six terms in office along with Harry Enns.
I had the good fortune of spending one term in office with Harry. I was elected to my first term in 1999 when he was elected to his 10th and last term in office, and truly it was an honour and a very fascinating experience to have spent those four years with him. We sat very close in the House. He was sitting where the current member for Lakeside (Mr. Eichler) is sitting, and I just sat across the way from him–of course, a couple of rows back–but we were close enough to each other that we could kibitz back and forth over the years, and it was fun to do so with him.
When I entered the Legislature in 1999, it was just shortly after the death of my father, Mike Nevakshonoff, and when I was thinking of what I had to say about Harry, I was thinking of the similarities of the two men. First of all, my father had actually sought the nomination for the Interlake in 1969, and if it wasn't for the fact that he came up against who turned out to be a true juggernaut in the NDP party, Bill Uruski, I think he may have had the opportunity to sit across from Harry for a number of years.
And it's coincidental that the similarities that they have–as I wrote them down, they all start with the letter "s." And the first one, of course, Harry was a great singer and my father loved to sing as well. He was Russian, a Dukhobor, and he would always sing the Russian songs. He was a storyteller, as was Harry. Coincidentally, they were also very short individuals, both of them, not exceeding much more than 5'6" or 5'7", and I always think back to the famous–another very famous short politician, of course, Tommy Douglas, who when he was being derided in the Parliament one year by a strapping big member of the opposition making fun of his short stature, Harry said that–or not Harry, but Tommy Douglas said, sir, in these parliamentary chambers a man's stature is measured from the neck up, and that certainly applied to Harry. He was a brilliant man and a brilliant orator as well.
Another "s", of course, is that he was a swimmer. My father was a very good long-distance swimmer and a diver as well, but nobody made a more famous swim in all of Manitoba, of course, than when Harry swam across the Red River to prove a point, and it was a brilliant move politically, because, as politicians, we know how difficult it is to get our message out at times. I often think to that advertising adage where an individual watching a commercial on TV has to see the commercial 17 times before he actually grasps what the product is. So sometimes you have to be flamboyant and dramatic, and, of course, his swim across the river certainly got the message across to all Manitobans.
And the last "s" I had, of course, was they were both prodigious smokers, I have to say, and it's not a politically correct thing to do, but they were unabashed in their habit, and, coincidentally, both of them lived out their regulation lifespans. They both lived to 77, I believe Harry was when he passed away, and my father was 78 years when he passed away. So they went against the grade a little bit in that sense.
Of course, they were complete opposites on the political spectrum, but one thing that both men had in common was that I argued prodigiously with both of them about politics, and with my father as well, and I learned a lot from both of them through that process. I think both of them believed that, you know, debate was necessary and sometimes it got a little bit elevated, but both of them truly believed in the political dialectic, where you have a thesis: a government that forms the theory; automatically you have an opposition that puts forth an antithesis to that, and, as a result, you get a synthesis of ideas, and that truly is the essence and the nature of democracy.
When I think of the nature of democracy, I would make reference to a quote that Harry quite often said, and he said that every day a legislature sits, the people of that province or that country become a little less free. And I don't think that's our intention here. We certainly try and do best. And every day when you read the prayer to us, I recite it along silently myself and try to adhere to those convictions. But legislatures can have a tendency to get a little beyond themselves. We're here; we have to legislate; we have to pass laws. And sometimes we do 50, 60 a year, and at times it does tend to tighten the box up a little bit. So myself, personally, listening to that quote from him, have learned always, when we're trying to legislate here, it's one of my personal convictions to see that we do legislate bearing in mind that we should not be encroaching on freedom and democracy in the process.
Harry Enns was certainly a man of strength and conviction and principle, and nothing typifies that more than the whole debate over the ending of the single-desk selling of hogs in this province. This was not an easy thing for Harry to do. The members of the Pork Council and so forth, a lot of them were his supporters and a lot of them spoke against this process. But Harry had a vision for the hog industry, and that was bringing Maple Leaf to our province and so forth. And there were changes to the industry, and Harry led those changes. He did so in opposition to a lot of people who supported him, and that's always a very difficult thing for politicians to do. And any man or woman who has the courage to do that should have the respect of all, regardless of whether or not they agree with him.
They say that a man's stature is measured by the quality of his opponents, and I'm going to share one anecdote with you, and it's coincidental that the opponent that I'm referring to, Harry's opponent, was sitting in the loge just yesterday, the Right Honourable Ed Schreyer, who was our premier and went on to be our Governor General. This was during a debate on hydro, and I was sitting in my chair listening to Harry's version of the development of hydro in our province, and it was definitely a Conservative point of view, and it didn't quite mesh with my understanding of how hydro developed, but it–this all occurred, you know, when I was a very young man, if not a child, and before that, even. So I phoned up Mr. Schreyer that night, and I said, boy, Mr. Schreyer, you should have heard what old Harry Enns had to say about you today about hydro.
And he said: What? What do you mean? What did he say? What is it? Send me a copy of his speech. I want to see the Hansard. Right? And I said: Well, I'm going to be giving my response to the Throne Speech the next day and maybe you could give me a few pointers. Well, the next day I got a page–a speech 25 pages in length, typed response to it, and that was when we still had 40 minutes to speak in this House, and it took me all of 40 minutes reading as quickly as I could, getting Mr. Schreyer's rebuttal to Harry's version of Manitoba Hydro. And I would–if anybody wants the historical perspective, they can go back and pick that up in Hansard because it was quite the juxtaposition of two different points of view.
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And I want to close my remarks. I know others want to speak, but I want to pass on the condolences of my family, and my family also includes another well-known Manitoban, Cubby Barrett, who is my uncle and a very close friend of Harry's over the course of both their lives. I know they went on many brave adventures together, the canoe trips on the Seal River and the Nelson River. These were true pioneering ventures in our province, and I know that–I'm sure when I entered this Chamber and introduced myself to Harry Enns as the nephew of Cubby Barrett, he was wondering what I was doing on that side of the House, not this side of the House. But, as I said, my father and my Uncle Cubby were another interesting political juxtaposition, to say the least.
So, on that note, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my family and the people of the Interlake region, I offer my condolences to the family of Harry Enns.
Mrs. Myrna Driedger (Charleswood): Mr. Speaker, I'm very, very honoured today to be able to speak to this condolence motion recognizing the Honourable Harry Enns, and to add to the very eloquent comments that have been made today about Harry, and just to say that I feel very, very honoured that I had the opportunity to work with Harry for a number of years, not as many as some others in the House, but it was a fabulous experience.
I got to know Harry after my by-election in 1998 and he made me feel very, very welcome into this caucus. It's quite intimidating to, you know, come in on a by-election and you're the only person there that– you're the new one, you know, new kid on the block. Harry'd been around for a while. He was–you know, he knew his way around this Legislature and he was so experienced but he always, always made everybody feel so incredibly welcome and never out of place.
When we met, for some reason, he thought my name was Irma, rather than Myrna, and I never changed that. I says, if Harry wants to call me Irma and he thinks that's my name, I'm not going to tell the dean of the Legislature that he can't do that. So for about a year and a half that's what he thought my name was and I let him do that.
I just–I loved working with him. He was really a great person to work with. He was a fabulous mentor. He loved this place. He loved the Legislature. He loved his job and it was nice to be around somebody who felt that way and there wasn't, I don't recall, ever a day being around Harry Enns, where you ever felt that he wasn’t enjoying what he was doing. And as, you know, other members have said, whether it was in opposition or in government, he just absolutely loved what he did, and he was very passionate about what he did and passionate about the issues that he chose to tackle.
I learned a lot from him as well about the ebb and flow of politics, and other colleagues have mentioned as well that he was very calm and cool and collected about, you know, how politics changed. You know, you're in government, then you're in opposition, and I came in at the time we were in government. We lost in 1998 and then in '03 lost again, and I can remember some of the very, very sage advice that Harry was giving at the time and, you know, saying, you know, your time will come. Our time will come again; it always happens. And he just had such a calming effect in how he felt about those things and then how he spoke about them. And he was very pragmatic, you know, about his view on things.
When he decided to retire, I was very, very worried because he was, you know, as some have said, a walking history book. Any time we would have a caucus discussion, he always had the history. If you were looking at an issue, you always could count on Harry knowing the history, and so when he decided to retire, I got into a bit of a panic and thinking, what are we going to do when we lose this historian that could bring so much to the table?
And he could recall, you know, amazing details and you know, in listening to the last speech on Hydro and Mr. Schreyer, his rebuttal, but maybe Mr. Harry Enns was right. He did have a phenomenal memory and it was always interesting to hear his speeches in the House and, you know, people did like to sit and listen. You wouldn't find people–when Harry was speaking, you wouldn't find people just, you know, working on something or reading something. People would really listen to Harry Enns when he spoke, and he did give fabulous speeches. He was a wonderful orator and, you know, a great role model for many of us, especially those of us that came in new.
There was a little bit of a quiet rebelliousness to him as well, and he was a little bit cheeky in the House sometimes. Some people have said he sat here very, very quietly, but he sat quietly, but also you'd hear some of the heckling that would go on across the way, and he didn't miss too many chances that way, and he had some great, very, very targeted heckles.
I can also remember during the debate on smoking here in the House, and, of course, you know, Harry was sitting here at the end and Denis Rocan was sitting in the next seat, and it was Denis's legislation. You know, he was the one that was pushing the non-smoking. And so Harry just quietly, for several days in a row, took his cigarette package out of his jacket, stood it up on the end of his desk as a symbol and just sat back, as Harry did, and left his cigarette package sitting there as a little bit of, I guess, rebellion against what was happening.
You know, people have talked about the Red River swim and I can remember him, very excitedly one day, showing me the Christmas card he made out of it. And I thought, oh, that's pretty interesting, to take a picture of him in this old bathing suit in the water and put it on your Christmas card, and I loved that, you know, that spirit about him.
One day I walked into his office when he was the Ag Minister–and it was probably the first time I'd been in there–and there was a great big picture of Margaret Thatcher, you know, sitting up in his office, and I said to him, I said, Harry, what are you doing with Margaret Thatcher's picture? I wish I could remember the answer now because it was probably a really good one, but he had that picture all the time that I knew him.
He often had an impish grin on his face, too, when, you know, he was enjoying the moment. I can recall on a number of occasions, too, where he'd be sitting in caucus, and maybe an MLA next to him was complaining about something or feeling bad about something, and Harry would gently be stroking their arm, and he did that, you know, to many people. It was his way of, you know, showing comfort or maybe saying, oh, don't worry about it, or maybe, oh, get over it, or something like that, and I can remember seeing that happen many, many times.
Everybody's mentioned his great singing voice and he really did have a, you know, a great following in terms of the people that loved to hear him sing, and it was amazing. People have mentioned the one dinner at the Hitch'n Post where he and his brother sang, and that really was quite a remarkable event, watching these brothers standing there singing as they did with such strong voices, and it was a wonderful evening. It was kind of a little strange afterwards when Elvis came into the building and then did his thing, but he sure didn't take away from the Enns brothers' singing.
The last time I saw him, like others have mentioned, was in Woodlands where he very, very proudly sang "O Canada," and he was a very, very proud Canadian. And I looked over at him, and the singing was just starting, and he put his arms down by his side and he puffed out his chest and he started to sing. And you could see the pride just in how he stood there and how he sang and the strength of his voice, and you could see he loved singing, but he loved Canada very, very passionately as well.
So he definitely is somebody we're all going to miss very, very much. So from my husband, Hal, from the people of Charleswood, our deepest condolences to the family. Thank you.
* (16:20)
Mr. Drew Caldwell (Brandon East): I, too, want to rise and give condolences to the family of Harry Enns.
I think this–the words that have been said here today thus far–and there's more to come–is a testament to the fondness with which Harry was viewed in this Legislature–the fondness and affection, I have to say.
He was a great orator. He was–the twinkle in his eye had–you know, it never left him, I have to say, and it was always appreciated in this House. Sometimes it can get pretty rancorous in here, but Harry always had a sense of perspective that transcended some of the more silly, partisan things that happen here.
I just want to say, you know, I'm mindful of my colleague, the member for Interlake (Mr. Nevakshonoff) and his comments about Ed Schreyer being–what did Harry say, and going into a paroxysm and spending the night on his typewriter to be able to rebut him.
I just want to relate an instance, and Harry and I both chatted about it afterwards and laughed to no end, because he had a lot of gravitas in this House, a tremendous amount of gravitas. And in this particular instance, the gravitas kind of bit both he and I on the rear end. He was–this was during debate in 2000 and I was Minister of Education and Training at the time, and those who were around back in 2000 will know that there was a lot of education issues that were burning at that time. There was a lot of minefields going off and mines going off across the department.
And one the issues that we were dealing with was the adult learning centre issue back in those days, where several millions of dollars were unaccounted for in the adult learning centre system throughout the province–that's a significant amount. It was in the neighbourhood of $40 million, as I recall–11 years ago now.
But Harry was sitting where my colleague from Lakeside's sitting right now. He's sitting at his desk and the debate was going on about the adult learning centre issue in Manitoba. And he was reading a novel; it was a thick novel. I don't know–War and Peace. I don't know what it was. It was probably a thousand pages long. It was a thick, thick novel. But Harry was sitting back in his chair, and the debate–it was quite rancorous.
It was loud in the House, and all of a sudden, Harry thundered from his chair. He just thundered: that sounds like fraud, Mr. Speaker, criminal fraud. And all Hades broke loose and–but it was a heckle. It was in the middle of debate and there's heckles, you know. So nothing really changed in the debate.
Well, I woke up the next morning, and I don't think a heckle has ever been reported on the front page of a Winnipeg Free Press before. I woke up the next morning to get my newspaper, and there across the front page of the Free Press was: Criminal fraud, says Enns–I believe it was saying. It was the worst week of my life, Mr. Speaker. The worst week of my life. It was–and Harry came in that day and he read the paper and said, geez, I'm sorry, I heard the debate; I just threw it out.
And I said, well, it's okay. We'll deal with it. We'll deal with it.
And, of course, we did, but, you know, he was very gracious and that. And it's just he was caught up in the debate as he was reading, and as I said, it was a loud exchange that was going on. But his heckle–and I don't think it's ever happened–I know it's never happened since. I'm not sure if it's ever happened before. His heckle, though, became, you know, a page one story, and the bane of my existence for the next month or so.
But, you know, that was the kind of tenor that Harry brought to this place. He was very, very friendly, very collegial, very–he loved this place. He really loved this place, and he was a bare-knuckle kind of guy, which I appreciate. Coming from Brandon East, I think bare-knuckle politics–I like bare-knuckle politics. And he was a bare-knuckled guy, but he was passionate and he had integrity, so much integrity. I really respected him as a colleague in this House. I, like colleagues have said they miss him–I do miss him in this Chamber. I feel privileged to have been able to serve a few years with him. He was already a legend by the time I got here. I replaced another legendary figure in this House–Len Evans, who served 30 years in this House, along with Harry's 37. They came in roughly the same time in the 1960s, I believe–was elected in the '60s–'69.
But he–I have a very fond spot in my heart for Harry, and I know that he was–he had to have been a great man for his family as well, because he certainly was a great man in this House with–none of us owed him anything compared to his family, who he cared obviously deeply about. And we all care about our families.
But in this House, he was well-respected and well-loved, and I'm just–I was reminded of that when my colleague from–reminded my–of my own experience with Harry and the degree of weight he carried in this House in my own little small way with that particular story. So I just wanted to share that with colleagues and with his family.
We all will miss him here, and we miss him with fondness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mrs. Mavis Taillieu (Morris): And I welcome the opportunity to express my condolences to the family.
I guess I'm one of the people here that didn't have the opportunity to sit in this House with Harry Enns, but I've certainly heard some of the stories not only here today, but at other times sitting around the caucus table and reminiscing about days gone by, I guess, and certainly there were stories of Harry.
But I met Harry in the–it was about 1994, I guess. I was, at that time, the editor and publisher of the Headingley Headliner, and the area that I published to included Cartier which would be Elie and St. Eustache and St. François Xavier. And at that time those constituencies belonged to the constituency of–those municipalities, rather, belonged to the constituency of Lakeside. So, of course, I would cross paths with Harry quite a bit in doing news coverage stories. And, of course, I recall Harry as always being very friendly and very eager to always talk to a friendly reporter that's going to be writing something in the local newspaper about him.
And last night I took the opportunity to go through my collection of newspapers and look for times that I actually did some stories and covered events with Harry. And, interesting, I did see a picture of the grand opening of the municipal office in St. François Xavier in April of 1995 with Harry Enns and the reeve of the municipality at that time, and, in fact, the member from River Heights was also in the picture because he was the MP for the area at that time.
I also recall, in going through the newspaper articles, a time in Elie where the St. Eustache or the–well, it's in St. Eustache, but it was the Cartier Regional Water Co-op system was being discussed, and it–that was a joint effort between the municipalities of Portage la Prairie, Cartier, St. François Xavier and Headingley. And so there was a meeting going on, and I was invited to go by the reeve of Headingley, who was not Wilf Taillieu at the time, but Jarl Johner. And I–fine, I thought this was a great opportunity to go and get an exclusive news story. But when I showed up in the Chamber there, there were officials there from the municipalities that I mentioned, and, in fact, the member for Russell (Mr. Derkach) was there and Harry Enns was there, and there was a little bit of a consternation about who I was and what I was doing in the room because there was no other people in the room doing any reporting. Some of the political staff were a little nervous, I guess, about what I was going to write, but, anyway, it was a great opportunity.
And looking through some of those times when I had the opportunity to see Harry, and he was always the kind of guy that, as soon as he would see you, he'd come right up and start talking to you. I do recall a time at the Rural Forum in Brandon where he was accompanied by Phil Houde–and I know Phil was in the gallery–and I saw Harry coming towards me and his big coat on, flapping, and walking very quickly and Phil behind him trying to keep up to him. And I saw him and I waved to him, and, oh, hi, and he came right over. Well, I don't have my notebook and my camera with me today, Mr. Enns, I'm just here as a visitor. So, oh, well, that's good anyway. And proceeded to tell me all about his involvement with Rural Forum. So I felt obligated to pull out a notepad and start doing some reporting anyway, which I did.
* (16:30)
But, Mr. Speaker, I also want to say that my constituency of Morris now includes the areas of Cartier, Elie and St. Eustache and St. François. So that was part of the Lakeside constituency, now it is in the Morris constituency, and that happened with the boundary realignments in the 1999 election. And when I was seeking election in 2003, I was going around to these areas and talking to people, and I remember knocking on one door and seeking their support, asking if they'd vote for me, and they just said, oh, no. And I was a little shocked, and I said, well, is there a reason for that? Well, we always vote for Harry Enns. So I had to tell them that, well, Harry is retiring, and they didn't really want to believe that. He had been their MLA; he was going to be their MLA. But I had to convince them, well, he's retiring and, in fact, he really hasn't been your MLA for the last four years. I didn't really know how to break that to them. Anyways, gladly they did end up supporting me once they realized, that, you know, it was proven to them that Harry wasn't, indeed, running again.
Another interesting fact that I just thought about as the member from Lakeside was speaking, the Lakeside constituency, of which–part of my constituency was in the Lakeside constituency–is no longer. But Mr. Enns did serve for 37 years, and as the member for Lakeside (Mr. Eichler)–the present member for Lakeside did say when he was speaking–the member for Lakeside before that was D.L. Campbell, who served in that constituency for 47 years. Interesting, Doug Campbell was my grandfather's best friend, and, in fact, was a pallbearer at his funeral. My grandfather died at a fairly young age. And it was actually my mother that nominated Doug Campbell for the Lakeside constituency, so just a little factoids there that could be of interest.
But, Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to having had the opportunity today to express my condolences to the family and say a few words about the Harry that I knew and the way in which I did know him, and express my condolences on behalf of the people in Cartier and St. Francis that once were served by him in the Lakeside constituency.
So thank you very much.
Ms. Erna Braun (Rossmere): Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay respect to the life of the Honourable Harry Enns and extend my condolences to the family.
I did not know Harry personally, but I do know that he came from a family with a long tradition of caring for community and for the welfare of others.
As a member of the First Mennonite Church of Winnipeg, I grew up in the church community led by Harry's father, the Reverend John Enns. Even as a youngster, I could sense the gift of leadership that Reverend Enns had and instilled in his children, and the responsibility all members of the Enns family shared in building and sustaining our congregation. It is, therefore, not surprising, just as each of Harry's siblings have shown leadership through public service, that Harry would also choose to work for and advocate for his community as a member of the Legislative Assembly.
As a long-standing member of this House, Harry will be remembered for his contributions in and out of the political arena. He served as MLA for Lakeside for nearly 40 years, many of those years in Cabinet. Ten elections, by anyone's standard, is a remarkable achievement and certainly makes him worthy of the title, dean of the Legislature.
While there are many pages of the exceptional work that he has done for Manitoba, he will be remembered as a passionate and dedicated public servant that respected the traditions of the Legislature.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the family of Harry Enns, his wife, children, grandchildren, his brothers, sisters–sister and sisters-in-law. I know his legacy and his legend, the contribution he made to the province of Manitoba, will remain part of the history of this Legislature. Thank you.
Mr. Ron Schuler (Springfield): I wish to put a few comments on the record, a few thoughts about the years that I got to know Harry Enns, and pass along my condolences to his family.
I got to know Harry when I was 18 years old, and we actually became very good friends. He would greet me with the German, now, mein guter freund or, well, my good friend, and then we would have a conversation. And I would term my memories of Harry as my good friend.
He was very wise with a lot of experience, and that's an amazing combination. As mentioned before in caucus, you could turn to him and you could say, so, what was sort of the thinking behind that policy? And he would give us the history, and it was always incredibly deep, well-thought-out and very animated.
It was also said that he was probably one of the last orators in this House, and I would concur with that. I would have to say that, if you go back and you read his speeches, as good as they might be, they were nothing like when he gave them. They–he just had a command of this Chamber. He could bring in facts, and he did it with such passion that it was a joy–and it was, actually, as a new MLA in '99–it was actually a thrill to sit and listen to Harry Enns speak. One of my colleagues said people would rush into the Chamber to hear him speak. I was one of them.
He also had a lot of sayings that he would give to us as the newer members and, as I've spent a little bit more time here, one of them has, if I may say, Mr. Speaker, come to haunt me. And he says, be careful that you don't pass laws that make honest people into criminals. That's very deep and it's actually scary that we should be very careful in the legislation we pass here, and it was a warning that he would give, amongst many others, and we don't have time to list all of them. This is one that, whenever I meet legislators, I will quote Harry Enns on that particular one.
I will never forget when he gave his speeches, he would have that little defiant moment, as one of my colleagues said. He would often stand at the end there and give a speech–with an unlit cigarette in his fingers–and he would stand and he would give a speech because he said that way, when he left, he didn't have to look for a cigarette. He would leave with it already in his fingers.
And, with the comments that most colleagues have made, he had that twinkle in his eye and that smile. I sat right behind him with the member from River Heights, and one time Harry got that glint in his eye and that smile on his face and he turned his chair around and he looked at the member for River Heights and he said, Jon, I want you to know, Ron and I are actually true Liberals. But you know what? We could never get elected as Liberals in Lakeside and Springfield so we ran as Conservatives, which would automatically qualify us as Liberals. The honourable member for River Heights used to look at him and just shake his head.
Jon had–Harry, at times between the three of us, we would have such fun. It was just amazing. We would talk German together, Harry and I would, and we would put the member from River Height's first name in there periodically so he knew that we were talking about him, and we just had a lot of fun.
In fact, people have mentioned that Harry loved to sing, and he loved to sing in this Chamber. And there is that time-tested and true song that we all remember from the year 2000, 2001, 2002, when we would sing it lovingly, and I'll sing it for the Chamber: Bye, bye, Becky; Bye, bye, Becky. Hey, hey, hey, goodbye. And then the Speaker of the day would shut it down, and he got up and he said, order, order. He said, no more singing in the Chamber. Harry would sit there, just shake his head. How could that be, no more singing in the Chamber? But it was one of those songs that he and I would periodically sing and promptly got shut down on.
One of my favourite stories–my all-time favourite stories–is of Harry Enns at committee, and it was a rougher committee. And this was during the Filmon years, and people were coming forward and, rather than addressing the legislation, were berating the government. And a lady came in and took her time to berate the Filmon government and, at that point in time, Harry had had enough so he picked up a newspaper and started reading a newspaper. Well, this individual started to get more and more frustrated with Harry and finally interrupted her comments and said, excuse me, sir. Would you please pay attention to what I have to say? Harry, in fine form, laid his newspaper down on the table and he said, lady, I get paid to sit here; I don't get paid to listen to you, and he promptly picked his paper up and he continued reading.
Harry never suffered people lightly. If he had something to say to you, he would say it to you and what he said, he meant. What he meant, he said. And he did that whether it was a caucus member or a member opposite–we've heard some stories–or it was people from the public. When he had something to say to you, he said it and you knew it wasn't trivial. He meant what he said.
* (16:40)
I had the opportunity to be at the funeral; to the family, it was beautiful. I really enjoyed it. It was nice to see and it was really telling. His brothers, rather than just sitting with the family, went and sang in the choir. It was very touching. It was very moving. And I thought about it; I sat there and I thought, you know what? This is exactly the funeral Harry would have wanted. You gave him a funeral that he deserved. It was very beautiful to the family.
In closing, although there is a lot more that I'd like to say about Harry Enns and the time I got to spend together, I would like to say a little something in German. I'd like to close in saying: "Ruhe sanft in stiller Gruft, bis der Herr dich wieder ruft," my good friend.
Translation
Rest in peace in your silent grave, till the Lord calls you again.
Mr. Doug Martindale (Burrows): I spent the years 1990 to 2003 in this Chamber with Harry Enns. When I was a rookie in my first session in 1990, a minister took a bill to committee, and I happened to be the critic and I took a break from the committee and I went out in the hallway. And Harry was out in the hallway, having a smoke, and he took me aside and gave me some advice, in a rather fatherly way, and gave me some good political advice. And he said, Doug, don't put on the record things that were said off the record, because that's exactly what I had done, and it was good advice. And I never forgot that, and I appreciated him taking me aside as a rookie and giving me some very sage advice at that time.
I always admired Mr. Enns in question period for the way that he answered questions. I know that ministers have briefing books, and, you know, they're supposed to start off talking about the terrific record of the government and, you know, all the things that maybe don't actually answer the question, at least not on the first response, but Harry never did that. Harry would defend the policy. He'd defend his department. He'd defend his government and he never opened his briefing book on his desk, and I always admired that about him.
From 1999 to 2003, I had a rather lonely existence in this Chamber because I was the only member from my caucus that sat on the other side of the aisle. And, in fact, I was behind the member for–the current member for Ste. Rose and behind Mr. Enns, and every day when I came into the Chamber for several years the member for Springfield (Mr. Schuler) would say: Doug, we love you, don't we, Harry? And Harry would say yes. That was a rather strange thing to have two opposition members tell me every day that they love me. But, if you talk to the member for Springfield, I'm sure he will verify this story.
There was a tribute dinner to Harry Enns, also a Tory fundraiser, at the Hitch'n Post, and I think it was when I was chair of the NDP caucus because I went. I was the only member from my caucus there. I don't know if I was the only New Democrat there, but I was the only elected New Democratic there, and there were a number of speeches. I remember that former Premier Filmon spoke and, of course, Harry Enns spoke. And I would've expected that most of his speech would be, you know, thanking people and reminiscing and telling stories. But it was a blistering speech and, of course, it was blistering at the NDP. He probably called us socialists and all kinds of bad names and people loved it, and it was kind of a classic Harry Enns speech. You would think he was still in the Legislature. But it was a tribute dinner and it was quite interesting. Everybody, of course, stood and gave him a standing ovation, and I stood and clapped with everybody else. I'll never forget it, believe me.
During his last session here, I remember that he brought in scrapbooks, and they were absolutely fascinating. I think he had a number of scrapbooks and they were full of every newspaper clipping that was about him or had him quoted, going back, I think, to 1966, and I hope that the family will treasure those scrapbooks and hope that maybe some day they can be donated to the Manitoba Archives so that researchers can use them.
Now, I've known three deans of legislatures. I knew Harry Enns when he was the dean of this Legislature. I've been here for 20 years with the current dean of the Legislature, who's only been the dean since Mr. Enns left, the member for Thompson (Mr. Ashton), and also the member for Elmwood (Mr. Blaikie), who was the dean in the House of Commons for a number of years. But, of all the deans that I have known personally, Harry Enns was by far and away the most colourful character of all three.
In conclusion, I would like to add my condolences to Harry's family and his friends, and many, many acquaintances.
Mr. Cliff Graydon (Emerson): I, too, would like to pass on condolences from my family to the Enns family.
I did not have the opportunity to sit in this Chamber with Harry, although I did sit in the gallery many times and watched the proceedings as they went on. My involvement–well, and I should point out that Harry's family has roots in the Emerson constituency, in the Ste. Elizabeth area that's also produced other notable politicians such as Warner Jorgenson, for example, who sat in this Chamber.
But my time with Harry was spent with things like when he was the member of–and the minister for Natural Resources and I was a councillor in the RM of Franklin and also a member of the Southeast Border Wildlife Association. And we had worked real hard at getting a staging area set up on the Rat River, and we needed some flood protection because that happened to be the–or the part of the municipality that I represented. And so I convinced the Wildlife Association to have a number of dinners with the–with Ducks Unlimited and we raised a lot of money, and the project wasn't moving forward. And I thought, well, I'm going to go and talk to the minister.
So I made the trip to Winnipeg, met with Minister Enns and he said, well, son, he said, convince me. I said, well, that's what I'm attempting to do. He said, well, one person isn't going to convince me. We need to have more people. You have to tell me who all is going to be here.
So I brought in the Wildlife Association. At the same time I talked to our MP, Jake Epp. Jake said, yes, I've got some money for this type of a project. I came back and I said, Mr. Enns, we have some money from the federal government; the Wildlife Association's onside; the RM of Franklin's onside, but he's–Ducks Unlimited are a little bit hesitant. I'm running into resistance. He said, I just gave them Oak Hammock Marsh. There won't be any more resistance after today.
We do have a cell built on the Rat River that provides a staging area for the wildlife and for the birds and also for the fur-bearing animals, so the project did go ahead, and I have to thank him for that.
On another project that I had as a cattle person, as a–also as a member of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, we've always looked at support programs, and the support program that it came out was the NISA program. The cattle organization or the cattle people of the province of Manitoba weren't involved in that at the beginning. The Manitoba Cattle Producers Association passed a resolution that they didn't want to be involved in it. They didn't think it would be GATT-green. Our federal national organization, the CCA, said, no, we wouldn't be GATT-green.
I felt that it was important that the cattle people in this province were able to participate, so I went to see Mr. Enns and, again, he said, son, convince me. So I went back out into the country and we went to work and Phil Houde, his assistant at the time, will agree that they got convinced.
And I give Harry credit, 100 per cent credit for having a vision to understand that if there was ever, ever a disaster in the cattle industry in the province of Manitoba, that at least the producers would have something to fall back on. He brought NISA in for the cattle people, and when the disaster of BSE hit we at least had two years that we didn't feel the full impact of the market collapse of BSE.
So the vision that Harry had and the conviction to do the things that went against stream sometimes were beneficial to the whole province. It wasn't that he was a selfish individual; he did it for everyone. That was his goal, I think.
And when he went–it's been mentioned here before when we talked about the hog industry, he had a vision for Manitoba. He realized the impact that the hog industry could have on the economic impact in the province. He went against some of his own people in his own constituency. He went against people in his own caucus. But he did bring Maple Leaf here and he did provide many, many jobs and a lasting legacy, and so that agriculture in this province will always, always, always remember Harry Enns.
Thank you very much.
* (16:50)
Mrs. Heather Stefanson (Tuxedo): And it's indeed an honour to rise in the House today and put a few words on the record with respect to a former colleague and someone who I called a dear friend in this Legislature, Mr. Harry Enns.
And I want to start by offering my condolences to the family. Harry was a remarkable person. He was a tremendous politician, great father, husband, brother, all of the above, and just a great friend to all of us here in the Legislature. And I think all of the words that you've heard here from so many different members, on either side of the House here, is a testament to the true person that he was and the impact that he made on each and every one of us here in the Manitoba Legislature, and that is something that will live on for many, many years to come.
Harry was, of course, to me–I didn't have a long time to have the opportunity, but I had a great privilege, in my opinion, to have had the opportunity to sit with Harry for three years in this Manitoba Legislature. And I can recall one of the first days when I was first elected. I was a little bit nervous coming in, and I had my briefing book of all my bills and the notes that we were supposed to talk about with each bill. And I came in and I sat down at my desk, and we were going to be debating bills all afternoon. And I can recall Harry walking in with nothing more–and I think this has been mentioned already–but a pocketbook and a matchbook. And I thought, wow, that's remarkable, and, every once in a while, he would take out the matchbook and he'd jot something down and I thought, wow, that's incredible; here we've got all these notes and things that we're supposed to talk about with respect to these pieces of legislation, and here's this person that–he'd literally stand in this Legislature with nothing more than a few notes jotted down on a matchbook, and he could speak for hours. And he was an incredible orator and he could speak about pretty much anything and make it incredibly interesting.
And I think that that's–certainly one of the comments that's come out today is you could literally hear a pin drop in this Legislature when Harry Enns got up to speak, and it was such a remarkable thing to watch because it wasn't just members of our side, it was members of both sides of the House. He always had something interesting to say, very witty, about whatever it was that he was talking about. And so I always will remember that when I think of Harry Enns.
The other thing that I remember fondly about Harry Enns, and it does have to do with hog manure actually, and he spoke very eloquently actually about hog manure in this House, and I wanted to sort of bring this forward because there's been some discrepancy over whether or not it was raspberry jam or strawberry jam, and so I just wanted to bring forward the actual words from Harry Enns himself and quote him, and he said–he was asking the Minister of Agriculture at the time a question in question period, and he said: Mr. Speaker, a final supplementary question. In the event that they manage to remove all the obnoxious odour from the hog manure, would the minister consider making an old ex-Minister of Agriculture's day by inserting a bit of raspberry flavouring to the process, just making it that much more acceptable?
And I thought the response was wonderful and it's on the record and here it is today. The Minister of Agriculture at the time, the current Finance Minister, said, and I quote: "The day that it should smell like raspberries, I will give big credit to the previous Minister of Agriculture." So I think that's–and we will hold her to that. You bet we will.
So, with those few words, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that, again, I'm just so honoured to have had the opportunity to have sat in this Legislature with such a remarkable person like Harry Enns. To the family here with us today and those that couldn't be here, my condolences on behalf of my husband, Jason, the Stefanson family–our condolences to all of you, and we wish you all the best.
Mr. David Faurschou (Portage la Prairie): Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege for me to rise this afternoon to speak briefly about a person that was in my life since I was 10 years old–truly a friend–and we should be celebrating the life of Mr. Harry Enns.
And my first introduction to Mr. Enns was in that very first election when he faced Mr. Bobby Bend of–the leader of the Liberal Party, and we were participating in the election process of–in support of Mr. Enns. However, I made a big mistake as a youngster, 10 years young, of listening and–to an inspiring speech of Mr. Bobby Bend at that time, and I placed a Liberal red button on my jacket. I went home. My father spied the Liberal red button on my lapel. The words uttered from my father, I will never forget: Either that button goes or you go.
An Honourable Member: What was it?
Mr. Faurschou: The button went out the door and I stayed. Mr. Enns was elected from the Lakeside constituency which, at that time, included Oakland and Burnside where we farm today, and so the legacy began.
When I entered the Legislative Assembly as a member, the first person that gave me guidance and words of wisdom was Mr. Enns. But it would–didn't come as some of the people have told their own stories here. It came by invitation of–to attend to the Agricultural Minister's office, and, on my entry to the Agricultural Minister's office, I found the Agricultural Minister on his knees pulling at the carpet. And he said: David, please come here. Give me a hand.
I knew I was destroying government property, but the minister told me to do it. We pulled back the carpet in the Agricultural Minister's office and he says: I knew it, I knew it, because 25 years previously as Agricultural Minister, he knew that there was hardwood underneath that carpet, and he thought the carpet was covering over something of the heritage of this building and it was to be removed. So he and I pulled back the carpet, and, to this day, now–the honourable member from Swan River can attest–there is beautiful hardwood floor in the Agricultural Minister's office for all to see.
It is a real privilege to have had the opportunity to serve with Mr. Enns here in the House, and I had great, great admiration for him. He and I had a very close relationship, and we had the opportunity to spend many an hour talking about agriculture, his passion.
And we did take a number of road trips. One most notable one was to learn more about a new crop for Manitoba, and that being the hemp production. And we spied the crop that he was intending to review, and we went out, and this massive plants at seven-plus feet tall, he just had to have one back at the Legislature for it to display this new crop kind in–grown–now growing in Manitoba.
But this plant was not to be removed from this field. But, just in case anybody was watching, it wasn't the honourable minister that removed the plant from the field; it was the honourable member for Portage la Prairie. And, keeping true to this, when we pulled into the parking lot here at the Legislative Assembly, it was not the minister that carried the plant into the Legislative Assembly building, it was the honourable member for Portage la Prairie.
So that plant stood proudly in the minister's office for quite some time for display of the new crop kind, which he was most proud, and thought that it would bring greater diversity to agriculture here in the province and value-added processing besides.
But other members have talked about the matchbook cover, and I was absolutely in awe how a half hour speech could come out of two little notes on the back of a matchbook cover, but it was amazing to behold.
The Minister of Agriculture also made an indelible impression upon our family before I became a member because I witnessed a near-tragic event as my mother brought lunch to the field as we were combining and hit a pit that was dug by duck hunters the night before, and very well-camouflaged. And my mother hit that with the car and was badly injured. It was a phone call to the Agriculture Minister, and it was not long after that that it was in legislation that all persons hunting on fields owned by various farmers, that those farmers had to give permission to allow those hunters to hunt on the field so that we would have knowledge of potential hazards like the pits that had been dug the night before.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Mr. Enns, though, in the Legislative Assembly here, also gave us very sage advice because he was a master, and, as was told earlier on, that he never opened his briefing book. It was all there in his head, and he answered questions after questions, day in day out, of the honourable Agriculture critic, the honourable member for Swan River. The honourable member was so frustrated that she could not find a crack in this gentleman's armour, but one day she did leave the honourable Agriculture minister speechless, and that was the day that she rose in her seat and posed the question on agriculture in Ukrainian language. I'm afraid the honourable minister was left speechless, not knowing or understanding the question, and the translation was not available for Ukrainian. But, fortunately, the honourable member for Russell (Mr. Derkach) rose in his stead and answered the question.
Mr. Enns was truly a remarkable man, and that is why that at the funeral, it was mentioned on more than one occasion, that never had anyone witnessed a greater gathering of politicians ever witnessed here in the history of Manitoba at the time of the celebration of the life of the Honourable Harry Enns.
Thank you. It has been an honour and a privilege to know him.
Hon. Rosann Wowchuk (Minister of Finance): Mr. Speaker, I know we've had a lot of people pay tribute to Mr. Harry Enns, and I want to recognize his family who is in the gallery. And I had the opportunity to speak with the family earlier today and to offer my condolences and share a few stories about my–what I had learned during my time here in the Legislature, with coming in as a new member, and I have to say to members across the way and to the family that, when we talk about question and answer period, it was Mr. Enns who taught me over time on how we should answer questions in the Legislature.
As the member for Portage la Prairie indicates, there were–you could ask him just about any question, and he could string you along the line on whatever he wanted but–and Estimates with him were quite interesting. And I have to say that he was, for me, a wonderful teacher in–for when I became minister of Agriculture.
Others have put on the record many of the accomplishments of Mr. Enns, and I'm not going to be–repeat them, but he–I just want to say that he has had, and did have, a very illustrious career in politics and made changes. The member of Portage la Prairie talked about different legislation that he had the opportunity to bring in and influence rural Manitobans.
He was a proud farmer, a proud rancher, and it was in those areas that he and I often had the ability to have conversations on it. Although we were from different parts of the province, the industry, in many cases, face the same kinds of challenges, and we were able to share those, but I know he was truly proud of the ranch that he had and he did make some significant contributions.
I will say that, when we talk about the role he played in bringing Oak Hammock Marsh, the role he's played in Oak Hammock Marsh, I'm reminded of my brother, Harry, who was the MLA at the time and the discussions they had. And there was a common support by some members to ensure that this Oak Hammock Marsh become a reality, and I remember the comments that my brother made about him at that time.
Certainly, he is recognized as the dean of the Legislature and has–House procedure. I think some of us also remember his voice when he had the opportunity to lead us in song, and I know that this is something that he was remembered for in his community as well, for his ability to sing, whether it was at family events, at church events, or in other areas. That is something that people will miss, and I think he was part of getting the tradition going that we have now where we sing "O Canada" and "God Save the Queen" after the Throne Speech. Those were some of the–that was some of the places that he played a role in.
In my experience in agriculture as his critic, one of the things that we didn't agree on was on the orderly marketing and on the hog industry and the changes that he was making on that, and so, quite often, we were on a road show holding public meetings in different parts. And he would be there on the government position; I would be there on our position. But I have to say that, although we had different views, he always was a gentleman. He had a sharp tongue and he could cut you down, but he was a gentleman, and I respect that very much about him.
Now, the other thing, when we were in this pork industry, I think–getting this pork industry going and there was a concern about odour from pork, one of the things I will remember is one of the quotes he made here in the House, and he said, we're doing–and I can't quote him exactly–but he said, we're doing all kinds of research here and, before you know it, that hog manure is going to be smelling like raspberry jam. And he very much believed in the research that was going. It hasn't got quite to that point yet, but there is more need for research to continue on in those important issues.
And, finally, I just want to comment on his loyalty to the Crown. He very much was a supporter of the royal family, and when I became Minister of Agriculture and took over this office that had those nice hardwood floors in–and I will tell the member, I now have those other nice hardwood floors in my other office because I liked them so much–but he came back to the office and he wanted to know whether he had left behind a picture of the Queen, because if he did leave behind that picture of the Queen, he wanted it back. And, as it was, he didn't leave it behind. But it was his way of welcoming me into the office and, really, he was very gracious of him. He used the excuse of a picture, but he came and wished me well in that position.
And so to all his family that is here and to those members who are not here, I want to really offer my deepest condolences to all of the family of Harry Enns, and you can be proud of a good soldier.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Larry Maguire (Arthur-Virden): It is my privilege as well to rise in the House today as the member for Arthur-Virden and offer my condolences to the family of Harry J. Enns as we celebrate his life here in the Chamber today, and for all Manitobans, and that's what Harry would want us to be doing today, celebrating the life that he led, and was a true patriot of Manitoba and Canada, that's for sure.
I had many discussions with him in that first four years that I was elected from '99 to 2003. Although I thought I knew him well before that time, Mr. Speaker, as a farm lobbyist, he was always there when we were–when I was dealing with groups like the Manitoba Farm Business Association and others, but, through the '80s and the '90s–but he, you know, when you go as a lobbyist to lobby government, you usually try to put your view across on them to get your point across, and you always seek that kind of support from government for the issues that you're taking forward at the time. And, of course, we did that, technically, I guess, every time we had the opportunity of meeting with Harry Enns in his offices here in the Legislature or in public in other venues.
But I'll never forget one particular time that I was here. It just happened to be the same day that he was making the changes to the hog marketing board, and that was just the time that we were scheduled to be in his office, and that was an historic day for me as well.
I just want to say, though, that when you departed your information, why I always liked being accepted to go to the minister's office when we requested that opportunity was because, probably, I learned more than he did in regards to how policy and politics worked when I was in his presence, and that was always something that I continued to learn with him right through to till the end of 2003.
* (17:10)
I came in in 1999 as a very enthusiastic individual in regards to cheerleading our efforts even though we were in opposition. And, of course, committees still went on till the wee, small hours of the evening in those times, Mr. Speaker, and I remember walking home about 5:30 in the morning two mornings in a row with Mr. Enns because we had sat in committees dealing with bills that the government had brought forward at that particular time. I think it was either the summer of 2000 or 2001. And it suddenly struck me that this was great for me because it was my first or second year here in the Legislature, but this gentleman had already been here for 33 or 34 years and he still had the dedication and the enthusiasm to be out there and chatter with me all the way home as we walked down the street after the building closed and the committee was all over, as to, you know, the things I could learn from what happened in the last eight or nine hours that we'd sat in this Chamber.
Mr. Speaker, I was also honoured that this fine gentleman, as the minister, asked me to sit on the ag research, or the rural development initiative in this province and had the opportunity of dealing with a number of opportunities to enhance agriculture and that's what he wanted us to do in that committee. And it was a great opportunity, I think, and one that's still going today, to put forward, you know, new initiatives, private and public partnerships, basically, in this province for those areas.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that loyalty was a key issue, a key trademark, of the minister, Minister Enns, from all of the different venues that he was the minister of. I only experienced more Natural Resources and Agriculture with him but I, over the years, we've all seen in the changes in agriculture today and over the last two or three decades how important natural resources, environment, conservation, and agriculture fit together. And he had a great vision as to how that would fit together vis‑à‑vis Oak Hammock Marsh and a number of other venues that he put forward in this province and was a cheerleader for in getting them through Parliament. We've just heard of another one from my colleague from Portage la Prairie.
I just want to say in closing as well, that two of my colleagues, not the only constituency in Lakeside that's had long-standing members, I just want to say as well a tribute to Mr. Enns and his family today that has gathered from all of the members of the constituency of Arthur-Virden but particularly, and the only two colleagues that I can remember being members of the Legislature from that area back as long as I was involved in understanding what politics were and that comes from James Downey, a fellow colleague of Mr. Enns's here, and Doug Watt, who was also in this Legislature, both of them having served as Agriculture ministers at various times along with Mr. Enns as well.
With that, I want to close my remarks saying that Harry Enns was a builder of this province and a great gentleman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion? [Agreed]
Would the honourable members please rise and remain standing to indicate their support for the motion.
A moment of silence was observed.
Mr. Speaker: The hour now being past 5 p.m., this House is adjourned and stands adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.