Being overbudget by $275 million another sign of poor NDP management

The NDP government's quarterly forecast that they will be $275 million over budget this year is more evidence of poor management by Gary Doer and his NDP government.

In 2002, the NDP were $16 million over budget. In 2003, this grew to $184 million over budget. In 2004, this was $164 million over budget and now for 2005 the projections are for a whopping $275 million over budget. It is not a good sign.

Clare Tarr

Last night in MacGregor, the Chamber of Commerce held an evening to commemorate Clare Tarr. Clare was a council member of MacGregor for many years. He was active on the Central Plains Regional Development Corporation for 34 years promoting economic development and was a big booster for the community of MacGregor.

The tributes last night were numerous. It was said that while he was alive, there was never a fundraising event in MacGregor that he did not attend and contribute to. Sometimes, at teas, he was the only man present, but he was there.

I first got to know Clare in the 1980s, and as the Member of Parliament for Portage-Interlake and as Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party I had the good fortune to meet and talk to Clare on many occasions. Clare was a very strong promoter of MacGregor. He fought hard for his community and for a fair share of attention and support for MacGregor.

And he was forward thinking. When it became clear that there were going to be changes at the Hospital in MacGregor, he did not fight for the status quo but rather worked to develop a new approach that would build an innovative health centre with an emphasis on wellness, as well as having hospital beds.

In the photo above, Clare's daughters Allison Wilcox and Elaine Verwey receive a plaque honouring their father.

Naomi and the Ripple Effect Project in Guatemala

Naomi is in Guatemala as part of a project called The Ripple Effect. She is with a group including Rotarians and members of our church - St. Andrews River Heights United Church. In the photo above are from the left - Alex Zahradnitzky, Helen Forrest, Gail Zahradnitzky, and Naomi.

The Ripple Effect project recognizes the importance of education and how educating children has a ripple effect that improves the well-being in communities in many ways. She has writing from Guatemala about the visits she and her group have made to schools there. They certainly have been challenges.

Letter of February 19: "We had a very interestiing day looking at schools. We met with the Mayor just to say hello and his wife, Carolina, took us to three schools she is involved with. The first was very poor, located in the middle of a squatters colony, and is a squatters shack at the bottom of a ravine which floods during the rainy season. One teacher for 55 students in one little tiny room with no running water. A very committed teacher who really is trying to make a difference in this community. The school leaks badly during the rainy season which is about 5 months. We met the students and they were enthusuastic; no supplies, no electricity but if they didn't have this school they would not have any. We are attempting to get another plot of land for them to build a new school on, but of course it will be another squatters plot, so if the land owner decides to take it back he might take the school with him. We are determined to set up an agreement so that if he takes the land back for his use we would remove the school. It is a very difficult situation but one big plus is that the mayor's wife is working very hard for education and is very involved with this school.

The second school was a 6 room school of about 350 kids with 6 teachers, built out of corugated iron and tin. It also leaks badly and floods during the rainy season, has very few school supplies, no electricity nor running water. We are very interested in becoming involved with and helping at this school.

The third school was like the second school but with the help of the mayor's wife, this school was upgraded very nicely to cement block, cement floor, and tin roof which does not leak during the rainy season. It has 8 teachers for 400 students, an enthusiastic principal, and both teachers and students wear uniforms. All of these students are getting some subsidized nutrition through the mayor's wife's office. She has a staff and has been working very hard for the kids programs. There is so much to be done in this country."

Letter February 22: "Our tour continues. We are running a very busy, tight schedule which means there is little time left for emailing and the computers are slow and in Spanish. We took time-off yesterday to climb up the side of a volcano which spews out smoke about every 5 minutes. There are about 32 volcanoes here in Guatemala and several which continue to be active. This one was active last in 1996 and at that time destroyed a few communities and killed many people. It was fascinating and hard work climbing up the mountain side on black sand and volcanic dust and rocks. There is very little vegetation on the mountain yet and it is very easy to see how the lava flowed down the mountain side.

This region is into the 4th month of a 6 month dry season, so vegetation is dry and brown but there is lots of green as well. The orchids are beautiful along with many other flowers. The country is very mountainous with deep valleys. The main roads are good but there is a lot of hard climbs up and down, hairpin turns and lots of trucks on the road because there are no railroads in this country. We´ve been seeing lots of agriculture terraced up mountain sides.

Today we left our hotel at 5AM and drove about 4 hours to visit a school which the Ripple Effect Project has been helping to build into a school of the future. It is K to 6 and has about 185 students. They have built a class room and improved the security and the electricity to install computers which will be done in a few weeks. This was one of the better schools with a few library books, some text books, and scribblers for the kids' use. It wasn´t nearly as crowded as the other schools we saw and there was a lot of community effort put into helping this school and its kids. For kids to graduate from grade 6 here is a big thing. It is very expensive for them to go to middle school but some manage to do it. Very few go to high school because of the cost of travel and books. The teachers have the equivalent of our grade 12. This community is largely agricultural and they grow 200 acres of ferns which are exported to Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and USA. It was amazing to see a mountain side of ferns growing under netting. They employ up to 1500 people because the harvest is very work intensive.

So far we´ve visited about 8 schools and most of them are very crowded with very little supplies, dirt floors, and leaks during the rainy season. Some have nutrition programs for the poorest kids, but most have no electricity and toilets are flushed with a bucket of water. Some do not have running water at all and use a barrel on the roof to provide water. We are visiting some of the poorest schools because these are the ones this program is funding."

The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals

This morning, on CBC, the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals was featured. This is an important initiative which builds upon Manitoba's agricultural expertise and recognizes that people are increasingly buying foods based on health benefits.

Canola has been a tremendous success on the Canadian prairies, not only because it grows well in our climate, but also because Canola oil is one of the best oils from a nutritional perspective.

For many years, I have pushed for increased attention to functional foods and nutraceuticals. When I was at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba, one of my research interests was the development of healthier foods. When I was a Member of Parliament from 1993-1997, I pushed for attention on functional foods and nutraceuticals and managed to start more and more people in Manitoba thinking about the importance of this area to our province.

Congratulations to the Richardsons and all who have made this centre possible. I met recently with Dr. Peter Jones who is leading the way in moving this institute forward, and I wish him all possible success in his endeavours.

For those who want more information on this centre, you can visit the following site:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/fiw/030508.html

There is still a gap at the University of Manitoba

As Jim Carr and others have been pointing out recently, under the NDP there is still a gap in support for Manitoba's universities. This funding gap is creating problems for all universities and is due to the fact that the NDP will not provide the conditions for adequate funding of universities (that is, some combination of sufficient direct provincial support and allowable tuition increases which will provide adequate funding for the universities to maintain a high quality of post-secondary education).

Symptomatic of this funding gap is the physical gap shown in the photo above of the wall in the basement library of the architecture building. Because no repairs have been made in many years, the wall and floor board have pulled farther and farther apart from the floor. The bottom of the baseboard is now about ten centimeters above the concrete basement floor because over the years the basement floor has settled and no measures have been taken to stop this or even to correct the interior problem.

It is time to make changes to ensure our universities are adequately funded and that our students get a top quality education.

Why is Saskatchewan an A and Manitoba a B?

When I was in The Pas recently I found there were significant concerns about the condition of Highway 283 which goes from The Pas to the Saskatchewan border and is the connection between The Pas in Manitoba and Nipawin in Saskatchewan.

On the Manitoba side of the border this highway is graded a B1 while on the Saskatchewan side it is graded an A1. Because it is not at an A1 level in Manitoba, there are limits on the highway's use for grain trucks and other commercial trucks. This is an important economic route and Manitoba's highway 283 should be at an A1 level. It is past time for the provincial government to make sure this happens.

By the way, I was told that large companies can get overweight permits for their trucks but independent farmers do not have that option. What is up with that? Why is the NDP government being "selective" when it comes to issuing such permits?

Ralls Island Needs a Dike

At the opening of the Trapper's Festival, I had a chance to meet Dan Davie (top photo) a councillor with the R.M. of Kelsey. Later that day, we had a chance to follow up on his concerns. One of these is the Ralls Dike (bottom photo - proposed dike is shown in the black line). It is badly needed.

Last year with the high water much of the farmland was flooded out, either it did not get seeded or was flooded out after it was seeded. This year with the high amount of snow in northern Manitoba in The Pas area, there is a concern, once again, about potential flooding problems.

This Ralls Island dike is badly needed. There has already been a lot of planning and community consultation. It is just waiting for the approval of funding by the province to proceed. The community has already raised more than its share of the funds. It is time for the province to come to the table to make sure this project is completed before there is more flooding.