Culverts and how Gary Doer's team is letting us down

Within days of the agreement on Devil's Lake, the NDP government moved to install new culverts under the road at the border between Manitoba and North Dakota. This will allow much faster drainage of water from the United States into Manitoba. In the photo Reeve John Falk is standing on top of the road with the four culverts below. I went down to see the situation myself early this morning. In the second photo, I am standing beside one of the culverts. Before these four culverts were inserted the drainage capacity was about the equivalent of two of these 1.5 meter diameter culverts. But there is a problem. Downstream from this site the same water (and any new water coming in to the drainage ditch in the interim) must go through four smaller culverts. Almost certainly there will be some backup of water on Manitoba farmer's fields as the flow from the larger culverts tries to go through smaller culverts. The normal practice is to have smaller culverts upstream and larger culverts downstream so you do not have these water backups.

The Tobacco Creek Model Watershed

A number of years ago, several enterprising individuals got together to build 26 small dams along the South Tobacco Creeek near Miami, Manitoba. In the years since they have studied the effect of these small dams on the watershed. These dams, a bit bigger than beaver dams, have created new small ponds or marshes and have considerable reduced the peak flow with a big rain (and the damage to culverts and roads, and flooding of farmland). The water in South Tobacco Creek is cleaner (with less phosphorous) because organic matter settles out and nutrients are used by the marshes. It is a good example of excellent watershed management and it was on display at the Prairie Water Policy Symposium the last two days. The photo shows George Jackson, one of the representatives of the project and Herm Martens, the Reeve of the R.M. of Morris who is a strong supporter of the project in front of their display.

NDP can't adjust to the changing world

August 3, seven weeks ago, we received an urgent call from Marietta Brudy. A born and bred Manitoban, she keeps a Manitoba address, operates her business from our province and pays tens of thousands of dollars in taxes here each year. But she has a business - RV tourism. RV tourism is not a priority for the Manitoba government and so she has little work here. In order to work, she must travel to where the work is. Because her job takes her outside of Manitoba for more than half the year, the NDP have yanked her health insurance.

The reality is that the world is changing, and there are more people, like Marietta, who are being hurt by the old view of the NDP. The fact is Marietta's business means she is not in any province long enough to have health coverage there. She is a Canadian and deserves coverage under our medicare system. She is a Manitoban and she pays substantial taxes here. She deserves coverage under Manitoba Health. Yet the NDP have an old view of the world, that does not include people like Marietta who have employment which means they have to be more mobile. It is time to catch up with what is happening in job and business opportunities and support Manitobans like Marietta who want to contribute to our economy and who pay taxes in Manitoba.

Oh, one more thing. The very day, we got the call from Marietta, I wrote to Minister Tim Sale explaining the situation and urging him to help Marietta. The letter to Mr. Sale was hand delivered August 3. In spite of follow up correspondence and many phone calls to his office, we still, now seven weeks later, have not received a written reply. Only today, in the Free Press, do we learn that Mr. Sale is hunkered down in his old view of how the world operates and is unwilling to help Marietta and her family.

Diabetes by the numbers - time for better accountability

A report in today's Winnipeg Free Press says that there are 67,000 Manitobans with diabetes and that the cost of treating Manitobans with diabetes is $193 million each year. There are clearly some problems with these numbers. The costs of diabetes may in fact be seriously underestimated. Using the above numbers, the annual cost of care for those with diabetes is $2,881 per person. Using 2004 figures, we know that the public health care costs in Manitoba (provincial and federal) were $3,206 per person. It can not be correct that individuals with diabetes cost the health care system less than the average. When I have asked people to give me an estimate of the relative cost to the health care system of a person with diabetes compared to the average, I usually get back - probably twice as much as the average, possible four or five times the average. I suspect that a variety of health care costs related to diabetes are not being counted. It is time for better accountability in health care and this is an example.

Lake Winnipeg and algal blooms

This morning Naomi, Walt, Tanya and I were out with Bruce and Linda Benson to look first hand at the fishing on Lake Winnipeg. We did not see algal blooms today, but we sure heard about them. Bruce reports that the algal blooms cover his nets almost like a carpet at times. The NDP have now been in power for six years, but the situation appears worse not better. To date they have not been very effective in addressing the future of Lake Winnipeg. In the first photo, I am pulling out a fish net with Bruce Benson. In the second photo, I am standing with Bruce and Linda at Silver Harbour.

Tile drainage and phosphorous - answering Steve Topping

Steve Topping is concerned about enrvironmental problems with tile drainage. Well, a careful study by Bengtson published in 1982 showed that tile drainage decreased the amount of phosphorous in the runoff by 48%, while increasing the amount of nitrogen by only 3.2%. Phosphorous is the more critical limiting nutrient and the one of greatest concern in contributing to the algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg. Tile drainage may not be perfect, but we need to look at the nature of public policy in Ontario which led to its wider use and consider it for Manitoba. The photo above shows a tile drained wheat field in Roland municipality which I visited. Bruce and Bob Bartley are the farmers. Note the consistent quality from one end of the field to the other. Almost every other field in the area had significant wet spots in the fields which were drowned out - like that in the second photo. The improvement with tile drainage was dramatic. We need to look more into this as a way of decreasing risk to farmers and increasing their potential.

Tile drainage

Several years ago when I was discussing the farm situation with farmers in Manitoba, the point was made that Manitoba agriculture is much higher risk than Ontario agriculture and therefore needs bigger and better safety nets than Ontario. I began asking why is Manitoba agriculture a higher risk proposition than Ontario agriculture. One of the reasons, I found, was the half of Ontario agricultural land is tile drained, whereas very little of Manitoba's farmland is tile drained. Tile drainage improves crop yields and decreased the risk of crop failure. Over the years since then I have watched the difference between tile-drained and non tile drained fields in Manitoba. This year the differences were dramatic. The photos above, taken in July of this year, show a good crop of soybeans on the tile drained part of a field and very poor crop of soybeans on a part of the same field that was not tile drained. Interestingly, the part of the field that was tile drained had much worse drainage before it was tile drained.

Terry Fox

Twenty-five years ago, in 1980, when Terry Fox ran a marathon a day for 143 days, it seemed improbable. I remember the time. In July of 1980 I joined the staff of the University of Manitoba and the Health Sciences Centre to look after children with blood problems and cancer and to do research and teaching. Dramatic improvements were occurring in the treatment of children with cancer, but much more research was clearly needed, and still is. Today, at the start of the Terry Fox run in Assiniboine Park, the photo shows Gail Pierce telling her personal story and talking about the importance of the efforts of Terry Fox. Goldie and the Jazz Junction are behind Gail. Just to the left of the photo, members of Terry Fox's family looked on.