The Association of Manitoba Municipalities

Each year the Association of Manitoba Municipalities holds their annual meeting in late November. It is an important meeting with elected muncipal representatives from all over the province gathered together to discuss the state of the province and to make recommendations for improvements.

On Wednesday morning, I spoke to the assembled delegates about three current issues.
1) This year was a very difficult year for many farmers because of the wet weather. About a quarter of the farmland in Manitoba was either not able to be seeded or was seeded and then saw the crop drowned out. In my speech, I pointed out that, following years of neglect, Manitoba presently has a $1 billion deficit in drainage and water management infrastructure. Sadly, for many years, whether under the Tories or the NDP there has not been a plan to deal with this situation. I pointed out that if there had been proper attention to this drainage and water management infratructure it would have made a considerable difference to many farmers this year. In essence, because too little attention has been paid to this deficit, many farmers suffered, and governments have had to pay out large sums to cover the unseeded and drowned-out acres. It is not good enough. Much more attention should have been paid to drainage and water management infrastructure. Under a Liberal government this is one area we would address in a major way. It is far better for the province to spend dollars to prevent (or lessen the extent) of a disaster like we had this year, than to have to spend a fortune after the fact. Famers are much happier when they can produce a crop.

2) I talked about the Liberal approach to the use of property tax to fund education ( see my blog for November 7). Under the NDP, property taxes are used far too much to fund education. We need to decrease this.

3) I talked about the Liberal view of the way the NDP are managing Manitoba Hydro (see note on my blog November 26). The Gary Doer NDP approach to managing Manitoba Hydro has become retrograde and perverse as even Ed Schreyer has said.

At the evening dinner, I was fortunate enough to join several members of the Council of the R.M. of Morris. In the photo, Councillor Ralph Groening is carving, and serving the food while Councillor Denis Robert looks on.