Tile Drainage and Rural Revival

It was a pleasant surprise to pick up today's Free Press and see Laura Rance's column on Rural Revival talking about tile drainage.

My interest in tile drainage started quite a number of years ago. I was told time and time again that Manitoba farmers need a better safety net than Ontario farmers because Manitoba agriculture is a lot higher risk. I began asking why the risk in agriculture in Manitoba is so much higher than in Ontario and what can we do about it. As I explored this further, I found out that about half of all farmland in Ontario is tile drained while only a very small percentage (probably less than 1%) of Manitoba farmland is tile drained. And tile drainage lowers the risks for farmers, especially in wet years.

Over the years, I have visited many fields in Manitoba which are tile drained. I talked with farmers using tile drainage. Gradually I learned more and more about tile drainage as it applies to Manitoba. It is not a panacea, but it sure made a huge difference last summer when it was so wet ( see my blog http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2005_09_18_archive.html ).
I have been talking about tile drainage on numerous occasions since. But, often I have felt that few were listening.

So it was a surprise today to learn that Laura Rance has been listening and finding out more about tile drainage too. Tile drainage is an issue for the provincial (and federal) governments.
As Laura Rance said "All the government's support payments or farmers' own investments are simply money down the drain if wet conditions wreak havoc with yields and quality - as was the case last year, the year before, and maybe this year too. Maybe some of that money should be poured into tile drains instead."

The Pas

March 30 and 31, I was in The Pas to meet people and to get an update on the local situation.

Craig and I stopped in at the Subway, always a good spot to get some nutritious food, and to learn about what is really going on in The Pas (top photo). The big story when we were there was the upcoming playoff series between the OCN Blizzard and the Winnipeg South Blues. The Blizzard have a really good team, but they lost out this year (after we left) in their playoff series. Better luck next year to the Blizzard and all their fans at OCN and The Pas.

Another hot topic was the federal Liberal leadership race. A native son of The Pas, Gerard Kennedy, is one of the leading candidates. And there are still quite a few Kennedy's in The Pas. I met two of them (bottom photo), and they are cheering hard for their uncle!

Innovation, Tourism and Cranberry Portage

March 30th, Craig Loewen and were in and near Cranberry Portage to see Doug Eryou and talk about his birch wine and plans to develop local tourism (top photo).

We also stopped in at the Northern Buffalo Art Gallery where Lisa Gamblin showed us the attractive sculpture and paintings (bottom photo).

Flin Flon

On March 30, I had the opportunity to visit Flin Flon and to hear of concerns in the area. This was part of my recent visit in the north. After an enjoyable lunch with members of the Flin Flon Rotary, I stopped in to visit the Friendship Centre where they have an active head start program (top photo). When I was a federal Member of Parliament in the mid-1990s, we worked hard to put in place funding for head start programs like this one. Fortunately the funding is still continuing and the program in Flin Flon is doing well.

Indeed, the Flin Flon Friendship Centre has done well in many ways, and is now, under its present executive director (middle photo) expanding to be able to provide housing for those who are not well off.

On my visit to Flin Flon I was assisted by an enthusiastic Jerad Haggerty (bottom photo).

One item I heard quite a bit about when I was in Flin Flon was the proposed Multiplex Centre which will provide a combined arena and recreational opportunities for a number of sports. It is badly needed. Wisely, the communities of Flin Flon and Creighton (in Saskatchewan) are working together on this proposal. Unfortunately, so far the NDP government of Manitoba has not been supportive. This itself is curious since the NDP were talking so much over the last year about their commitment to have healthier children and adults.

David Love - Liberal candidate in Elmwood

Last night, Dave Love was nominated as the Liberal candidate in Elmwood constituency.

Dave is a community person. He has contributed in many different organizations. He is very concerned about young people and the future for young people in Manitoba.

In recent years he has focused his efforts in the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol addictions. We badly need an MLA in the legislature with David Love's expertise. We are going to do our best to get him elected.

Developing Skills in Manitoba

This week Skills Canada Manitoba held its annual skills competition at Red River College.

It is a wonderful event in which high school students from around Manitoba compete to show their abilities in various skill areas.

There are a wide variety of skill contests - from robotics to hair design, from aesthetics to plumbing and construction, from cooking (top photo) to refrigerator repair to automobile maintenance. It was an exciting venue to visit with Debbie Leiter (Executive Director) and Kim Jasper (President of the Board) (bottom photo).

We were met by Jeff Zabudsky (President of Red River College). In the second photo you see us together at the construction skill site.

For robotics, students had the challenging task of designing a robot to pick up a football and put or throw it through a basketball hoop (third photo).

Congratulations to Debbie Leiter, Kim Jasper, Jeff Zabudsky and all the many others who made this possible.

For more information you can visit the Skills Canada Manitoba web site at tp://www.skillscanada.mb.ca/about.htm

Our "hypothetical" provincial Minister of Finance

Wednesday this week in the legislature, my Liberal colleague, Kevin Lamoureux asked a straightforward question about Bill 37, a bill which had just been introduced in the legislature.

First he asked the Minister of Industry

"Mr. Speaker, in a quick look at Bill 37 that the minister has brought forward today, it would appear as if the government now is opening the door for some form of financial compensation. I think it is important for the Crocus shareholders and the public as a whole that the government be honest and transparent in terms of what its intentions are with regard to the Crocus shareholders."

When Minister Rondeau avoided the question twice, Kevin Lamoureux turned to the Minister of Finance.

The Minister of Finance said in reply:

"His question is entirely hypothetical. We know under the rules of Beauchesne and the rules of the House that hypothetical questions are not even legitimate questions."

It is clearly not a hypothetical question when the government has tabled a bill dealing with precisely this issue. The government has a responsibility to tell Manitobans what the financial implications of its bill 37 are. For Minister Selinger to claim this question was hypothetical when his government had just tabled a bill dealing with precisely this topic is outrageous.

If you wonder why we are furious at the lack of accountability of the Gary Doer NDP, you have one more in a long list of examples.

The federal Liberal leadership race

Things are heating up in the federal Liberal leadership race. This week we had two of the contenders in Winnipeg - Stephane Dion and Gerard Kennedy.

Stephane Dion has quite a reputation as a result of his efforts to keep Canada united and his forceful stand on environmental issues.

Gerard Kennedy, born and raised in The Pas has a large number of family and friends in Manitoba. He has run the food bank in Edmonton and in Toronto and has served as Minister of Education and Deputy Premier in Ontario.

The photos above show Gerard Kennedy addressing Liberals on Wednesday at the Forks.

The Association of Manitoba Municipalities

The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) does an excellent job of making sure MLs are aware of the issues important to their members. At the moment they are concerned about the high level of education taxes on property and they are concerned about water management and the impact of regulations being put forward which attempt to micromanage affairs for farmers. We are convinced there is a better way.

In the photo, Kevin and I are with Ron Bell, President of the AMM and with Board Members Shirley Kalniuk and Bert Lagimodiere.

Battling on behalf of children in Manitoba

Speaking in the legislature today, once again I spoke up on behalf of children in our province. The deaths, by homicide, of 31 children in the care of Manitoba's child and family services in the last six years has highlighted a situation which needs urgent attention and urgent action.

I tried to move things forward by suggesting that we should have an All-Party Task Force led by the three party leaders so that we could have all three parties working together to achieve better solutions and a better approach to prevent such homicides in the future. Sadly, my approach was not supported by the government. But this issue is far too important. I will keep up my efforts on behalf of Manitoba children. For me, as a father, a grandfather and a pediatrician, I feel very strongly that we must end such deaths.

Manitoba's Olympians at the Legislature

At the legislature today, we celebrated Manitoba's Olympians. Clara Hughes, Jennifer Botterill, Cindy Klassen, Sami Jo Small and Shannon Rempel (shown in photos from top to bottom) were at the legislature meeting the MLAs and watching the start of the session from the gallery. It was an opportunity to salute their contributions, to recognize their ability to inspire us, and to say thank you to them.

A candle for children

Today in the legislature, I put a candle on my desk. The candle was in memory of the 31 children who were under the responsibility of Manitoba child and family services and who have died of homicide since the year 2000. The candle was a symbol of remembrance and also of hope for the future.

I feel passionately that we must do better in Manitoba. We must prevent future homicides of children in care. We must provide a nurturing environment for all Manitoba children. As a father and a pediatrician, I know there can be no more important goal of public policy than to make changes to improve things for the future.

Though we as MLAs have put small trees, baskets of strawberries, small tokens from Manitoba's mining industry on our desks at various times, the Speaker would not let me put this candle on my desk. Sad.

I strongly disagree with the Speaker, George Hickes. There can be little more important than putting forward a symbol of remembrance for these tragedies coupled with a commitment to do everything possible to prevent them in the future.

Flooding in southern Manitoba

This morning I joined Gary Doer and Stuart Murray on a visit to have a look at the flood situation in Morris. As you can see from the photo above, the main bridge into Morris coming from the north on highway 75 now has water on the bridge and the bridge is closed to traffic.

The consensus from our visit was that so far we have been relatively fortunate in Manitoba, thanks in part to dykes upgraded or constructed after the flood of 1997. However, all will depend on having good weather for the next two weeks. If we were to have a lot of rain the situation could change dramatically.

It is also apparent that we need to improve our ability to predict the extent of flooding. Early last week, the prediction was a minor flood event. A day later, a major flood was being predicted with much higher water levels similar to what happened in 1996. If there had been a heavy rain such a change might have been understandable. As it was, the change signalled a clear need to do better earlier on in predicting the size of the flood.

Winnipeg Beach - The porous Doer dyke

Last fall $8 million dollars were spent on a dyke around the southern parts of Lake Winnipeg. Now, apparently millions more must be spent to clean up the mess. It is increasingly apparent that the effort involved much waste of taxpayer dollars by the Doer government.

The more I learn, the more it is apparent that aspects of the Doer dyke were not well planned or well thought out. The photos above show an example. In the top photo - sand bags are shown around the Boundary Creek marina at Winnipeg Beach. In the bottom photo, you can see a big gaping porous gap below the walkway and deck was not sandbagged or protected at all rendering the rest of the sandbagging next to useless. Sadly, in this venue, as in some many other areas, Doer's good intentions have turned out to be full of holes.

I want to add that these photos were provided to me. I was hoping to get to Winnipeg Beach to visit to see the situation for myself, but was not able to.

Sherridon, Cold Lake - and toxic mine waste

Thursday March 30, I met at 8:30 with the mayor and council. They are pleased with progress on funding for infrastructure to ensure they have clean drinking water. But there remains the larger outstanding problem of containment and clean up of the large amount of toxic mine tailings near Sherridon. The toxic wastes are continually leaching into Kississing Lake and need, urgently, to be properly contained so no further ecological damage is done.

A community health assessment is also needed, not just to identify current problems, but also as a baseline, so that if there are problems identified in the future we will know the health status of the community now.

For more on Sherridon and Kississing Lake see my earlier blog post at
http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2005_09_04_archive.html

Snow Lake and Water Treatment

Wednesday March 29, when we were in Snow Lake in the afternoon, we took time to visit the local water treatment plant which is being upgraded. Gary Zamzow and Dale (top photo) took us on a tour to see the progress. Gary, in his usual cowboy hat, looked over every part of the plant very carefully (bottom photo)

It is a difficult time for Snow Lake at the moment with the closing of the New Brittannia mine last year. The population has dropped from about 1250 people down to about 850. But Mayor Zamzow and his council are determined to build for the future, and there is a lot of exploration being done now and certainly much potential for increased mining activity in the future.

Mayor Zamzow and his council would much appreciate some cooperation from the province in allowing them to proceed with development of additional lots on Wekusko Lake. For some unexplained reason their request of 18 months ago has met with long delays by the province.

Wabowden and building with logs

Wednesday March 29, when I was in Wabowden, I had the opportunity to visit the new restaurant, lounge (and in the future - there will be rooms for people to stay) that Caroline Sanofsky and Rick Hall are putting up along the highway.

They have built with logs and it is beautiful. Rick tells me that because of the availability of logs up north, it is possible to build log houses cheaper than conventional homes and other buildings. There is a potential opportunity here.

The top photo shows their new building from the outside. The middle photo shows the entrance with a bear carved by Rick Hall. I am with Caroline Sanofsky and with reeve Reg Meade. In the bottom photo, I am sitting in the restaurant (not yet officially open when we were there - but will be soon) with Reg Meade.

There are lots of issues needing attention in Wabowden. One of the big ones is the arrangement for ambulance services. The province does not seem to understand the unique circumstances of the Wabowden area in the plans to insure good ambulance services to this region which includes a considerable stretch of highway 6.