NDP missing in action as farm roads suffer in the RM of Franklin

Yesterday, I was told of problems the RM of Franklin is having with the current NDP government. Today, I went to see for myself.

The problem began on April 4 of this year, when a major culvert collapsed on an important farm road south of Dominion City. The cause, as far as I was able to determine, was the high spring runoff coming after the high waters of last year. It should be a straight forward matter of shared cost funding between the province and the municipality based on the Disaster Financial Assistance Agreement. But the fact that the province has not yet confirmed it will share any of the funding means the municipality is caught. It can not proceed until it has confirmation from the province. The result has been that the repair of this road has not been done, and farmers and farm business like Emerson Milling which use this road are suffering.

In the top photo, you can see the big drop in the road as a result of the culvert caving in. The second photo shows the size of the valley. At times a lot of water comes through here. The third and fourth photos provide views of the collapsed culvert. If there were a very heavy rain there could be a big problem at this site as the water flow through the culvert is dramatically reduced. Yet, the RM can not proceed because theNDP have not made a decision.

Worse, the Minister responsible for the Emergency Measures Act, the Honourable Scott Smith, has not even been to see the site since the April 4 disaster. Neither has Premier Gary Doer. I say to Scott Smith and Gary Doer "Don't you care about farmers and farm businesses? Have you really written off the farm vote? Because of your inattention and delays, fairly straight forward matters are not being attended to. It is time to start paying attention to what needs to be done in our province."

And to Scott Smith: "What would you Brandon consituents say if they knew you were failing to support farmers?"

For more problems with farm roads see:
http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/07/more-problems-with-ndp-when-it-comes.html
and
http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/07/when-it-comes-to-roads-ndp.html