The hothouse atmosphere at the Manitoba Legislature

In the past few weeks, you may have heard about the lack of air conditioning in the Manitoba Legislature (except of course for the Premier's office). Most of the time, it's not that big of a deal, but when the Manitoba mid-summer heat strikes, things change dramatically. That's when the offices on the south side of the building heat up like stone ovens.

Visitors and guests almost always end up commenting on how unpleasant the temperature is in the offices that Kevin Lamoureux and I occupy on the first floor. I've been told that conditions can be just as bad, if not sometimes worse, above us on the third floor. We have already had a few instances of heat exhaustion and mild heatstroke among staff at the Legislature.

Yet, the NDP government that runs the building has told us they will not allow offices to bring in portable air conditioners for a few months in the summer. That's the same NDP government that has happens to have central air conditioning installed in their caucus office.

Okay, Kevin and I are pretty used to getting the short-end of the stick from the NDP, but this type of abuse being heaped on visitors, maintenance staff, security personnel, and other workers in the Legislature is totally unnecessary and uncalled for. What did these working people do to deserve such shabby treatment from their NDP employer?

One of the things that I want a Liberal government to do is modernize the working conditions in the Legislature so that all MLAs (regardless of party), staff, media people, and public servants in the building have a more reasonable environment to work in. Clearly the NDP doesn't understand that a better working environment leads to better productivity, so we'll just have to wait for a Liberal government that cares about working people.