Helping aboriginal children in Manitoba

Tuesday November 28, Kevin Lamoureux and I raised concerns about the approach of the NDP provincial government with respect to aboriginal children. Below are excerpts from question period in the Manitoba Legislature:

Children in Care - Jordan's Principle

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, it is painfully clear that for seven years this government has bungled the administration of our province's child welfare system. Responding to the external review into the child welfare system, the new Family Services Minister himself said it takes a village. What the heck happened to this village called Manitoba?
Well, Mr. Speaker, the NDP government is what happened. A year ago this government was told in this Chamber to stop its practice of keeping Aboriginal children stuck in hospital in Winnipeg just because it refuses to pay for the home care that it thinks the federal government should pay for.

The external review specifically instructs this government to implement Jordan's principle and stop this practice. Why has the government not imple­mented Jordan's principle? [For more on Jordan's Principle see http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/2005/12/jordans-principle-putting-interests-of.html ]

Hon. Gord Mackintosh (Minister of Family Services and Housing): [The Minister failed to answer the question].

Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, the minister is responsible. He says he's doing something, but the reality is that there are children right now in Winnipeg who can't go home to their communities because this minister has not implemented Jordan's principle. Right now, while this minister is busy doing photo-ops, is putting on his armour, is mounting his charger and is attacking the feds and everybody else, these children are stuck in Winnipeg, some in hospital because this minister is not doing his job. They can't go home to their communities.
I ask the minister: When is he going to get off his hobbyhorse and implement Jordan's principle and make sure that these children can go home to their communities as they should?

Mr. Mackintosh: [The Minister failed to answer the question].

Milk - Fixed Prices

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Mr. Speaker, we look to a government that would actually
stand up for our children and bring in policies that'll make a real difference.
We brought in a bill, or introduced a bill, last session and re-introduced it this session dealing with the setting of milk prices. Government, through regulation and law, says that if you buy a bottle of beer here in Winnipeg or you buy it up anywhere in northern Manitoba, it's going to cost you the same amount of money.
Yet, Mr. Speaker, when it comes to a litre of milk, a parent will pay four or five times the price for that same litre of milk that someone in the city of Winnipeg would pay for it.
My question is for the Minister responsible for Healthy Living. Can she explain why it is that she does not support the setting of a fixed price of milk? [Having milk prices in nortern communities will definitely help improve children's nutrition in the north]

Hon. Kerri Irvin-Ross (Minister of Healthy Living): Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the question.

We are aware of the additional challenges facing northerners in Manitoba regarding the purchasing of healthy food for their families. That's why we've increased the northern allowance for people, so we can increase their employment assistance payments so they can purchase better quality food. We have a northern strategy around healthy food.

We're working across departments, developing a strategy to look at how to support local people to encourage local production of food, examples such as community gardens. We have an initiative where we supported community members to buy freezers so they can preserve the food they raise. We're working on the strategy.

Phosphorous and Hogs

Tuesday, November 28: Herm Martens, Reeve of the R.M. of Morris, in Winnipeg for the Annual Meeting of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, stopped by to visit at the Legislature. We discussed how best to approach the problem of reducing the amount of phosphorous coming from hog farms going into Lake Winnipeg.

Herm Martens was clear. There are two good measures they have been promoting in the R.M. of Morris. First, the have required hog manure to be injected into the ground. This dramatically reduces the amount of phosphorous on the surface which can run off into the creeks and rivers and into Lake Winnipeg. [Sadly, the province has now taken over regulating this - and the province is much less strict and no longer requires manure to be injected. This is an example of bad provincial NDP policy] Second, they have eliminated the winter spreading of hog manure. It is hog manure spread in the winter on the field which can so easily have phosphorous from the manure run into the creeks and rivers and into Lake Winnipeg during the spring runoff. Graphs of the timing of the phosphorous going into Lake Winnipeg shows a huge peak associated with spring runoff - and reducing the phosphorous in the spring runoff must be a priority. These two measures will do a lot more than the NDP's moratorium on hog barn construction.

Phosphorous in Winnipeg's drinking water - there are alternatives

Monday November 27, I asked about the phosphorous added to the City of Winnipeg's drinking water. More than one scientist had approached me at the recent Canadian Water Resources Association Conference in Winnipeg on this issue, because it is one source of a significant amount of phosphorous going into Lake Winnipeg that can be addressed.

Here are the abridged questions and answers:

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): ... Each year the City of Winnipeg actually adds between 57 and 70 tonnes of phosphorus into the city's water supply, and a substantial portion of this makes its way into Lake Winnipeg causing further ecological damage and algal growth in the lake.
My question is to the Minister of Water Stewardship. Why ... in seven years [has] this government ... failed to work with the City to eliminate the huge amount of phosphorus added to the city's drinking water?

Hon. Stan Struthers (Minister of Conservation): [Mr. Struthers failed to address the question].

Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, in the December 2006 edition of Canadian Geographic, Lake Winnipeg is called Canada's forgotten lake because the NDP forgot about it and the Tories, when they were in power, forgot about it too. ... The phosphorus added by the City of Winnipeg to its drinking water is added as phosphoric acid to control leeching and erosion of the pipes, but there are now practical alternatives to adding phosphoric acid which will not cause the problems with algal growth in Lake Winnipeg [other cities use sodium silicate, potassium silicate or carbon dioxide as reported on page 40 of the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board report -
http://www.lakewinnipeg.org/web/downloads/LWSBInterimReportJan05withoutcover.pdf ]

I ask the Minister of Water Stewardship whether she is going to help the City of Winnipeg switch to these practical alternatives and help reduce the algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg.

Hon. Christine Melnick (Minister of Water Stewardship): [Ms Melinick failed to provide an answer to the question].