A fair price for milk in northern Manitoba

On Friday this week Kevin Lamoureux and I introduced a bill to set a single price for milk across Manitoba.

A year ago, when I visited northern communities as part of the Healthy Kids Task Force, we heard again and again about the high price of milkin northern communities. In God's River for example, the price of a four liter container of Milk was $10.29, while in Winnipeg the same four liter container of milk cost about $4.00.

The problem with the situation is the effect on the health of children. Too many children are being given pop instead of milk. We found this starting very early after birth. Clearly in these circumstances we need to make milk more affordable in the north in order to improve the health of children in northern Manitoba.

The costs of not making milk more affordable in northern Manitoba are large. All of us contribute to the additional health costs imposed by the present circumstances, and the children suffer in many ways including in having major problms with their teeth.

As Kevin said when he introduced this legislation, "If the price of beer can be the same across Manitoba, so can the price of milk"