Warren McDonald - an incredible story

Wednesday morning, I arrived at the Association of Manitoba Municipalties in time to hear Warren McDonald speak.

Several years ago, Warren's world changed dramatically when a climbing accident led to him being pinned under a rock for two days. Both of his legs had to be amputated.

Since then, using short prostheses he developed himself, and a variety of innovative approaches he has climbed various mountains including sheer vertical cliff walls. It is an amazing story of courage, a strong will to live and persistence.

I had a chance to chat with Warren after his talk, as shown in the photo.

Bryan Trottier, aboriginal mentorship and January 12

Bryan Trottier stopped by my office late Tuesday afternoon to talk about his plans for January 12. Together with Calvin Pompana and Don Marks, Bryan Trottier is organizing a fundraising hockey game at the MTS Centre in which aboriginal ex-NHL players will compete against the Winnipeg Jets Alumni. It should be quite a game. Call to reserve your tickets now.

The game will also showcase aboriginal performers, artists and dancers. But, more than the game, the three are planning a day of mentorship in which thousands of aboriginal youth from across Manitoba will attend to hear workshops on alcohol abuse, drug abuse and self esteem.

In the photo I am with Bryan Trottier, Calvin Pompana and Don Marks.

NDP plans for Manitoba Hydro are retrograde and perverse

NDP plans to mess around with Manitoba Hydro are retrograde and perverse. In this case, we agree with former Premier Ed Schreyer. The Gary Doer NDP are wrong to use try to use dollars from Manitoba Hydro's hydroelectric operations to subsidize the costs of natural gas.
The is bad economics and bad environmental management. It takes away the normal transparency and accountability in running the separate hydroelectricity and natural gas divisions of Manitoba Hydro.

For the last several years, the NDP have acted to interfere in the orderly management of Manitoba Hydro. When the NDP were having trouble balancing the provincial budget, they took about $200 million in extra taxes from Manitoba Hydro. As we found out earlier this year, to provide a political staff person for the Minister of Energy, the NDP have been using funds from Manitoba Hydro. Now, in Bill 11, the NDP want to provide for the use of dollars from Manitoba Hydro's hydroelectric power operations to create a fund which will allow them to do various things including subsidizing natural gas costs.

On Tuesday, we presented our Liberal approach to rescuing Manitoba Hydro from the "clutch and grab" approach of the Gary Doer NDP.

The Liberal Rescue Plan for Manitoba Hydro includes:
- legislation to end the NDP practice of creating politically-driven slush funds using assets and profits from Manitoba Hydro
- legislation to prohibit all cross-subsidization between the natural gas and electricity divisions of Manitoba Hydro
- permanently removing the February 1 natural gas rate review at the Public Utilities Board to stabilize gas prices for the winter months
- provide for targeted assistance when needed to individuals on low and fixed incomes using gas rebates from general revenues at the actual time of gas price increases, rather than resorting to the poor economic practice of cross-subisidization.

We made it very clear that a Liberal government in Manitoba would not artificially distort market incentives which promote the move away from fossil fuels to cleaner electricity. Rather Liberals would harness price signals and incentives to promote environmental sustainability instead of fighting the marketplace the way the Gary Doer NDP do.

Catching up - Quite a week

I am just now catching up with the blog. It was quite a week, in part because of a lot of activities, and in part because I caught a cold for several days. Monday evening, I was at the meeting of Legislative Committee looking at the Architects and Engineers Act until midnight. Tuesday, after a full day at the legislature, I was at the committee until about 9:00 p.m., and then Kevin Lamoureux represented us for the last three hours until midnight. Wednesday, I was speaking in Brandon at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities meeting, back for Question Period in the Legislature, and then in Brandon again for the evening AMM dinner. Thursday, there was a reception for a new Environmental Award at Government House. Friday evening, we had four events, including stops at the pre-dinner receptions for major events hosted by The Peak of the Market and the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association. Today I was at the Community Leadership Summit at the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre - addressing youth gangs, criminal activities and support for parents and children. I will try to cover some of these activities in separate notes, but thought I had better first explain why it has been several days since my last note.

Thank you volunteers

One of the wonderful things about an election is the many people who come forward to volunteer their time. This by-election in Fort Whyte constituency, with the snow conditions we have, it is not as easy as during the summer, but still many people come forward to help and have fun. The photos above show some of our volunteers, including Manitoba Liberal Party president Warren Thompson who have taken time to help. Thank you all.

If you are interested in helping out, please call 988-9380, or send an email to Dennis Trochim (manager@manitobaliberals.ca)


An a further note, spending time holding signs in Fort Whyte in the morning last week, brought home very clearly the problems with waiting in traffic. The traffic delay on Kenaston was terrible. With the expected development of Waverley West, this issue needs attention. And it needs to be a priority.Jean Paterson, our Liberal candidate is determined to make this a priority. And she has some good ideas - stay tuned for more on this.

Architects and Engineers

This week at the Legislature will feature committee hearings on Bill 7, The Architects and Engineers Scope of Practice Dispute Settlement Act.

For many years there have been disputes between the architects and engineers about their respective roles in the design and construction of buildings in Manitoba. For the most part, other provinces have settled this issue, but in Manitoba the conflict has lingered on. A considerable part of the fault lies with consecutive Conservative and NDP governments in Manitoba which have failed to resolve the dispute, even though it has long been clear that provincial leadership is needed.

The matter was brought to a head this fall when a court order haulted construction of buildings which fall within the parameters of the Architects Act, if there has not been an architect involved under the terms of the Act. Basically the court pointed out that the province was failing in its duty to enforce the terms of the Architects Act which has provided for the role of architects in the design and construction of complex buildings.

The NDP have decided to bring in changes to the Architects Act which will clarify the respective roles of architects and engineers. Sadly, Bill 7 is badly flawed. One result of the problems in the way the NDP have written Bill 7 is that we now expect well over 100 people to come to the committee meetings to talk about this Bill and the changes that are needed to it.

One of the good things about the Manitoba process for making laws is that citizens have an opportunity to have input. After a Bill, like Bill 7, has passed second reading, it will go to a Legislative Committee. Any citizen can call up the Clerk of the Legislature ( phone 945-3636) and register to present.

It is worth commenting on one of the reasons why Bill 7 is flawed. Normally, in putting forward bills to the Manitoba Legislature, a careful comparison is made with other jurisdictions, and the Manitoba legislation is modelled after legislation which already exists elsewhere. In this case, there are many other successful examples. Bills in Alberta and Ontario have been cited as examples.

When we prepared Bill 202, The Good Samaritan Act, we first looked carefully at legislation in other jurisdictions and made use of this material in drafting Bill 202.

Unfortunately, in drafting Bill 7, the NDP appear to have disregarded what has been done and is working well in other jurisdictions. One result has been that the bill contains some quite problematic clauses which could have varied interpretations, and which could result in practices quite different from what we have been told is the intent of the legislation. As Bill 7 goes through committee, Kevin Lamoureux and I will be listening carefully to the presenters (many are engineers or architects) to try to do what we can to remedy the NDP errors in the Bill.

Gimli

Last night in Gimli, I had an opportunity to talk with Deputy Mayor, Lynn Greenberg. He and other municipal councillors have been having quite a time dealing with the recently constructed provincial dykes.

On one point I did get clarification. Whenever there are problems, Gary Doer has a tendency to blame other levels of government - either the federal government or the muncipal government. In the case of problems with the Lake Winnipeg dykes, he has, depending on the occasion tried to blame the muncipalities or the federal government.

I had already received a very clearly worded statement from Joann King, the chief administrative officer of the R.M. of Gimli. She said "The dykes were built by the Province of Manitoba and they are the party responsible for any clean up."

Lynn Greenberg was able to provide further clarification. On the $8 million dyking project, the funding, the design and the construction of the dykes were the responsibility of the province.

In the photo, I am shown with Lynn Greenberg and his wife Bernice.

Southport Aerospace Centre

Congratulations to the people at Southport Aerospace Centre. It is a major step forward to have the long term (22 years) contract. As the Member of Parliament for Portage-Interlake from 1993-1997, I worked closely with people at Southport to help build the efforts in flight training, and other activities there. To have this 22 year contract is wonderful because it will provide for long-term stability in the flight training efforts, and stability for the Southport Aerospace Centre. Well done!

The Allied Wings consortium led by Kelowna Flightcraft is also to be congratulated.