Altona and its Sunflower Festival - the parade

There were an amazing variety of floats in the Altona Sunflower Festival parade today. After, Ted Klassen and I had completed the parade route, I had a chance to join David Stoesz and his grandson Dustin (bottom photo) to watch the rest of the floats.

Thank you to John Westervelt who was kind enough to let me ride in his mustang (top photo) during the parade.

More rural infrastructure repairs on hold due to NDP dithering

About a year ago, the bridge that crosses the Red River at Letellier was found to have structural problems and the load capacity for the bridge was downgraded to 24 tons for safety. This immediately created a problem for people and businesses in the area, such as Emerson Milling. Emerson Milling has put their business expansion plans in the area on hold while they wait for a decision by the provincial government to refurbish or replace the bridge. They want to be sure that they will have a bridge able to handle the heavier loads that Emerson Milling wants to haul across the Red.

But like the people of the R.M. of Portage la Prairie and the R.M. of Franklin, which I wrote about earlier, Emerson Milling and the people around Letellier are still waiting for an answer from the NDP government about its plans for the bridge. Business has been on hold now for about a year while the NDP drags its feet on rural transportation infrastructure. There are many people who used to use the bridge who have to detour long distances either north or south to haul their grain and other commodities, at considerable extra cost to their business.

So, again, while local farmers and business bleed money in transporation costs, the NDP sits back and does nothing to help.

Is this a disaster? The NDP can't tell...

This bridge just north of Dominion City in the R.M. of Franklin collapsed about three weeks ago. It appears the highwater and high flows of last year and early this spring set the stage for weakening the bridge and resulting in its collapse.

Is it a disaster? I think most of us would agree that when a community loses an important local bridge like this due to natural causes, it should be eligible for some disaster assistance.

Well, it appears that the province is not really sure.

When I visited the bridge with Reeve Archie Hunter and Councillor Bryan Nichols on Sunday, I learned that the provincial government is dragging its feet in determining whether the costs related to this disaster are eligible for funding under the provincial Disaster Financial Assistance Agreement. Neither clean up nor reconstruction can begin in earnest until the provincial government makes a decision on whether or not it will pony up some money to help the local community rebuild.

In fact, Reeve Archie Hunter and his Council in the R.M. of Franklin are not asking for full restoration of the bridge to its previous size and capacity. All they are looking for is its replacement with a modest foot bridge to enable foot traffic across the Roseau River. The R.M. Council's decision is consistent with local needs, the importance of a quick connection across the river, and the importance of emphasizing health and exercise. The provincial government's lack of any decision, however, is entirely consistent with NDP dithering.

Belgian Independence Day Celebrations

Celebrations were held yesterday for the 176th anniversary of the Independence of Belguim (in 1830) on Provencher Boulevard and at the Belgian Club.

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

Thank you to those who helped with the eagle project

Thank you to those who helped us with the eagle project this summer. I have already mentioned my brother Peter and his wife Nikki, Gary Bortolotti and his wife Heather, Elston Dzus and his wife Connie. In addition, thank you to Dean (top photo), to Debbie Martens (second photo), to Stan and Joan Claassen (third photo), and to Don and Donna Zacharias of Besnard Lake Lodge (only Donna is shown in the photo).

Gary Bortolotti - we are always learning about Bald Eagles

Each year that we spend time with Bald Eagles we learn new things about them.

From 1979 t0 1982, Gary Bortolotti (in the centre - bottom photo) did the field work for his Ph.D. thesis on Bald Eagles at Besnard Lake. One of the predictions from his thesis work (and subsequent studies by Elston Dzus) was that there might come a year when we would see a disproportionate number of nests with one young, and that a high proportion of such young would be male.

Although the full story is quite complicated, Gary's work predicted that when food resources were more limited, Bald Eagles (through normal biological processes) would have more male young (in these one young nests). He suggested that this adaptation would occur because males are smaller and take less food to raise. In the year's since Gary's work, a variety of other bird species have been found to adjust the sex ratio and the birth order of young.

This year, when we visited Gary, his wife Heather (on Gary's right hand side), his daughter Lawren (on Gary's left), and his graduate student at the summer home on Besnard Lake that they share with Elston and Connie Dzus, we had interesting news to report. This year, we found that 13 of 16 Bald Eagle nests with young had one young. The number of nests with two or more young was only 3 or 19% of successful nests. This is the lowest proportion of nests with two or more young we have ever seen. Normally about half (47% was the average for 1993-2005) of all successful nests have two or three young (in fact most of these nests have two young and very few nests have three young).

Furthermore, of the four nests with one young where we banded, three of the four were males.
This sample is too small to draw a firm conclusion, but the results are consistent with predictions from Gary Bortolotti's thesis work.

The photos above show (at the top) a Bald Eagle nest from above. The second photo shows the same nest closer up - so you can see one young in the nest. The third and fourth photos are close-ups of a young Bald Eagle in its nest.

Bald Eagle trees and the Boreal Forest

Bald Eagle nests are found in the larger, and older, trees in the boreal forests of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. On Besnard Lake, we have found that about 10% of nests are lost each year, many of these because the tree with the nest is blown down in a high wind. Such blow downs are a normal part of the cycle of activity and or renewal in the boreal forest.

The top photo shows trees recently blown down near one of the eagle nests. The bottom photo shows an eagle nest in a tree which was blown down early this summer. In this case we searched the area nearby, but did not find any young on the ground as we sometimes do ( see also http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2006/07/finding-young-bald-eagle-on-ground.html ). You can get some idea of the size of a Bald Eagle nest from the bottom photo.

Rita Deverell at the Fringe

As a young actress, just starting her career in Saskatchewan, Rita Deverell was practicing a part when she heard a loud voice in the back saying "Speak up". It was Florence James.

Florence and her husband Burton moved west to Seattle in the 1920s, and several years after their arrival started the very successful Seattle Repertory Playhouse theatre.

In 1948, Florence was brought before the Washington State Committee on Un-American Activites chaired by Representative Albert Canwell. Florence was blacklisted, and over the next several years, the lives and fortunes of Florence and her husband Burton were ruined. Burton died of a broken heart in 1951.

Florence came to Saskatchewan where she found a new life and had a huge influence on many up and coming actors and actresses, and on theatre in Canada. Rita tells the story of Florence James with passion. Last night in the hot, not air conditioned, venue 21, the sweat dripped from Rita and from the audience as the play built to a climax and our outrage grew at the treatment Rita received in Seattle.

It was not until the late 1990s that the state of Washington apologized to the descendents of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse founders who were ruined.

This play - McCarthy and the Old Woman - is a fitting tribute to Florence and Burton James and to those in Vancouver, in Banff and in Saskatchewan who provided the James's with an alternative and with hope.

Happy Birthday Catherine Schaefer

Happy Birthday Catherine. Yesterday, Naomi and I stopped by to join others in celebrating Catherine's 45th birthday. Catherine is well known through the biography Does she know she's there? written by her mother Nicola. Catherine is clearly very aware and responsive to those around her. She shows us why she and others like her belong in the community, not in an institution.