Corporal Paul Davis and Master Corporal Tim Wilson - a tribute

The memorial service in Shilo yesterday morning was a moving one. Paul Davis and Tim Wilson were exemplary Canadian soldiers who were killed recently in Afghanistan.

Master Corporal Shane Schofield and Seargent Guy Britten provided eloquent tributes to Paul Davis and Tim Wilson.

It was a time to honour our soldiers in Afghanistan and to recognize the contributions they are making to help the people in Afghanistan, and to help bring a more stable and more peaceful world for all of us.

Thank you Paul and Tim. You have served your country well.

I extend my sincere condolences to family and friends.

The children who never went home

Friday morning in Brandon, I visited the Brandon Friendship Centre where I met Andrea Hinch-Bourns and Lorne Mosionier (bottom photo). Andrea showed me the plaque (above) to honour the children wh stayed at the Brandon Residential School between 1896 and 1923 who did not go home.

There were children who were brought to the school during this period from communities around the province. Sadly there were quite a number of children who came, who never got to go home. It is a very sad story.

The Retired Teachers Association of Manitoba - In search of fairness

I met, this week with members of the Retired Teachers Association of Manitoba (RTAM). They are looking for fairness. For quite a number of years now, their pensions have been falling behind the cost of living because they have had virtually no cost of living increase. It is making it difficult for retired teachers.

Though the RTAM has been raising this issue with the NDP government for some time, there has been little action. Last year we had a large rally in front of the Manitoba Legislature. It is time to resolve this issue to ensure that retired teachers are treated fairly.

A Sad Day at the Manitoba Legislature

It has been a rough week in the Manitoba Legislature with the release of the Auditor General's report into the Aiyawin Scandal and the shocking details surrounding the tragedy of Phoenix Sinclair. (see
http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/03/aiyawin-corporation_15.html and http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/03/phoenix-sinclair.html )

Both of these troubling incidents reveal a pattern of mismanagement within the Department of Family Services and Housing. In the tragic case of Phoenix Sinclair, administrative mismanagement appears to have resulted in Phoenix being lost by the system, with no follow up after being in the care of Manitoba Child and Family Services.

In the case of the Aiyawin Corporation, the Auditor General's report reveals that many red flags were raised warning the government of problems at Aiyawin. Time after time, however, the Minister responsible reacted too slowly and the result was that hundreds of thousands of dollars were depleted from the Aiyawin reserves, even while the honest whistleblowers suffered. And there is still no word from the government if it plans to refer the case to the RCMP to look into laying charges for the misappropriation of funds.

So, it was with great reluctance and only after this mountain of evidence of administrative and financial bungling became fully clear, that I reached the conclusion that I must call for the resignation of Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick.

I have no doubt that she is, as with all Members of the Legislature, well intentioned and tried her best. But sometimes doing one's best is simply not good enough; the job has to be done properly. Unfortunately, it is now painfully clear that Ms. Melnick failed in providing the required ministerial oversight for her department. She should now do the honourable thing and resign from her post.

Happy 100th birthday to The Prairie Crocus - Manitoba's Floral Emblem

Today, March 16 is the 100th Anniversary of the day when the Prairie Crocus was made the floral emblem of Manitoba.

In the early 1900s, the Manitoba Horticultural Society nominated three flowers as candidates for an official floral emblem - the Prairie Crocus, the Prairie Lily and the Wild Rose.
Manitoba school children voted. The Prairie Crocus came first, the Prairie Lily second and the Wild Rose, third. On March 16, 1906, the act making the Prairie Crocus Manitoba's provincial flower was given Royal Assent and thus one hundred years ago, the Prairie Crocus officially became Manitoba’s floral emblem.

There is an interesting story about the Prairie Crocus which dates back to the time when James Wickes Taylor became the American Consul in Winnipeg in 1870, when Manitoba became a province.

Each spring Consul Taylor would go to Bird's Hill Park to gather Prairie Crocus blooms. He would then make his rounds delivering these flowers to many of the leading ladies of Winnipeg. When Mr. Taylor died in 1893, it was discovered that his list contained 500 ladies' names. Each spring he had delivered a Prairie Crocus to each one on his list.

Manitoba's Public Accounts Committee

Last night the subject before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Manitoba Legislature was the Auditor General's report on the Crocus Investment Fund.

Sadly, the time was used in procedural wrangling as the NDP did not want us to call witnesses like the former Ministers of Industry Economic Development and Mines, MaryAnn Mihychuk and Scott Smith, nor the government appointed representatives to the Crocus Board, John Clarkson and Ron Waugh, nor Eugene Kostyra, nor Premier Gary Doer.

The government successfully stonewalled the committee. At one point, Committee Chairperson Jack Reimer was so exasperated he said "the rules are not clear... This PAC committee can't operate under these types of rules. We have said that 10 times. The Vice-Chair and I are in total agreement on this. So I am thinking that somewhere along the line and before the end of March this has to be cleared up, or we are not going to have any more PAC sittings."

It was a frustrating evening. We have tried to change these rules to make them more effective, but the problem is that the NDP have no interest in making the Public Accounts Committee more effective.

Aiyawin Corporation

The Auditor General's Report on the Aiyawin Corporation, a housing corporation funded by the provincial government, shows clearly that the concerns which I raised inside and outside the legislature in the fall of 2003 were well founded.

The Auditor General's report shows that there were reasons to be concerned as early as the 1999/2000 fiscal year. The Auditor General expresses concerns about excessive payments to Board Members, and in that year one of the board members was payed $3,900. This was the first of many red flags.

On January 23, 2002 the Board of Aiyawin granted "exclusivity" to the brother (the exclusive contractor) of the general manager of Aiyawin. By September 2002, there were allegations coming forward to the Manitoba government of major problems at Aiyawin.

Basically, the government did not act. Through the government's failure to act when it first learned of major problems in September 2002, the housing corporation was put in a disastrous downward spiral.

Up until the 2001/2002 fiscal year the Aiyawin Corporation had mainted prudent replacement reserves of about $800,000. The bad mismanagement at Aiyawin led to the rapid expenditure of these reserves so that by the end of the 2003/2004 fiscal year, they were down to about $72,000.

And still the government did nothing.

In late fall of 2003, Don Dorion, who had been working at Aiyawin, approached me and others. The result was stories by the CBC I-Team, and questions in the legislature to the government. Yet, still the government hesitated to act.

By the time the government acted in June 2005, it was 30 months after they should have acted - far too late - and the Auditor quite rightly is very critical of the NDP for their incompetence and poor management. It is sad that we are seeing so much of this type of incompetence. It is time to replace this government.

Phoenix Sinclair

It is astounding to learn that Phoenix, a five year old child under care of Manitoba's Child and Family Services died last June - and that she was so lost in the provincial system of care - that no one even knew she had died until recently.

The first tragedy is that Phoenix, who had been in the care of Child and Family services died amidst horrible abuse.

In late 2003, Phoenix's family had asked that Phoenix be transferred from Winnipeg Child and Family to an aboriginal child and family services agency. This was not done, in spite of the government having stated numerous times that it wanted to transfer children to aboriginal child and family services agency. The government just seems to be incompetent in getting things done. And now, we learn Phoenix died in June 2005, more than a year and a half after the transfer request was made.

Even more horrific, we learn that Winnipeg Child and Family Services apparently lost track of Phoenix Sinclair, indeed apparently closed the file in March 2005, and we have heard no justification for whatsoever for this closing the file.

Day by day, I hear more and more about problems occurring in looking after children in care in Manitoba. This is a very sad and tragic example. I am fearful that the level of NDP incompetence is such that we could have more stories like this.

The Crocus Investment Fund

Three months ago, Kevin Lamoureux and I made public our intention to slow down the Doer government's legislative agenda if the Premier did not do what is needed and call a public inquiry into the Crocus Investment Fund fiasco.

As you have probably heard by now, the Premier has refused to do the right thing and we have made good on our pledge. We are working with the Conservatives to send a message to the Premier that he must call an independent public inquiry.

We are doing this for two reasons:

1) There remain many unanswered questions around the Crocus Investment Fund. Some 33,000 Manitobans have lost millions of taxpayer-supported dollars as a result of what happened. This issue is not only about Crocus shareholders; it's about Manitoba taxpayers and confidence in our government. We need a public inquiry to find out why things went so very wrong at Crocus and to ensure that mistakes like these do not happen again.

2) Kevin and I believe it is important to keep this type of pressure on the government as one way of achieving the best possible outcome for individual shareholders of the Crocus Investment Fund. We have been in steady contact with many Crocus investors and have attended shareholder meetings (such as the March 8 meeting at the Victoria Inn) so we can work with shareholders to help achieve the best possible outcome for them.

Mr. Nathaniel Okwumabua and the Afro-Carribean Association of Manitoba - Never Give Up

Last night was the 38th annual meeting of the Afro-Caribbean Asssociation of Manitoba.

The featured speaker was Mr. Nathaniel Okwumabua. He came to Canada about 30 years ago to study and has earned a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics and Management, as well as a master’s degree in Natural Resources Management from the University of Manitoba after his B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Engineering Technology from the University of Wisconsin. In the years since, he and his wife Christina (top photo) have worked hard and persevered against all odds to be successful.

Mr. Okwumabua has worked in many jobs, from janitor, to agricultural economics to his present position as a highly respected health economist and accountability analyst.

Mr. Okwumabua had a number of strong messages for the young people there. He said: "Learning is more than just university learning". He said "Stay focused - do your best - and then leave the rest to those who can help you." One of the people who was of particular assistance to Mr. Okwumabua was the late Errol Lewis. Errol was a good friend of mine as well - and I still miss him and his advice to me - so I was impressed when I heard how much Errol had done for Mr. Okwumabua.

If there was a theme which ran through Mr. Okwumabua's talk it was "Never Give Up". Certainly, Mr. Okwumabua has persisted and succeeded in spite of many obstacles.

Doing an excellent job as Master of Ceremonies were Blue Hodges (middle right), and Antoinette Bryan (bottom left).

UNIFEM - Local to Global 2006: The Feminization of HIV/AIDS

Thursday evening this week, at the Canad-Inns Polo Park, was the annual fundraiser for UNIFEM - the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

The featured speakers - Katherine McDonald with Johanne Fillion talked about the changing pattern of HIV/AIDS - with increasingly high proportions of women being infected. In fact, if I have the statistics correct, Katherine indicated that 75% of those with HVI/AIDS in subSaharan Africa are now women. Also troubling is the fact that young women appear to be the most vulnerable - with teenage girls being 3-5 times as likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS as boys the same age.

Katherine, with Action Canada for Population and Development, talked about the meetings in the 1990s which have now led to agreement that reproductive rights and women's rights are human rights.

Katherine emphasized that for historic reasons health care for people with HIV/AIDS and care for those seeking sexual and reproductive health care services have often been delivered separately. She emphasized the need to integrate health services that provide women and men with a full complement of HIV/AIDS, STI, and sexual and reproductive health information and services so that all are part of a "one-stop" access to services.

I have a particular family interest in this event. My wife, Naomi, considers this one of her favourite charities and donated a wonderful painting called Freedom Dance which was raffled off during the evening to raise money for UNIFEM. In the painting children and mothers are dancing. Naomi weaved threads into her painting to give it an exciting context and texture. Jennifer Rattray was the lucky winner of Freedom Dance.

Women's Day Breakfast - Belinda Stronach

For her annual Women's Day breakfast, Anita Neville invited Belinda Stronach (second from top photo - Anita is shown with Belinda and Leah Ross). There was a packed hall at St. Mary's Academy.

Belinda spoke of the need to involve more women in politics, and the commitment of the Liberal Party to try to achieve 50% of candidates being women in the next federal election. She also drew a quote from Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas who said "Being a woman in politics is like being Ginger Rogers. You have to do all the same dance steps as Fred Astaire, but you have to do them backwards and in high heels." This reference was also used in Sharon Carstairs recent book about women in politics (Peter St. John is shown in top photo with Belinda and Sharon's book).

Ann Coghlan of St. Mary's Academy was effective at the podium (bottom left). Among the guests was Gail Asper(bottom left photo).