Manitoba Liberal Party and grassroots efforts to help those in northern Manitoba

Grassroots News is a paper which reaches many in northern Manitoba. The following is from a recent paper - and covers Liberal activities to help those in northern Manitoba.

Reproduced From Grassroots News:

A Message from the Manitoba Legislature – Dr. Jon Gerrard Manitoba Liberal Leader

Manitoba Liberals hit the ground running in the short 11 day legislative session and continued to lead the way with the introduction of several pieces of forward thinking legislation.

While the leader of the official opposition wasted an entire question period, amid global economic crisis – the worst in decades, to berate the Premier about the federal Liberal-NDP coalition, Manitoba Liberals were the only party representing the interests of average Manitobans.

Manitoba Liberals introduced a total of 16 bills, including a bill recognizing the importance of grandparents by proclaiming a day in their honour. The grandparents’ bill introduced by the government and co-sponsored by Deputy Liberal Leader Kevin Lamoureux will be passed in the next session.

Lamoureux realized that the best way to get the bill through was to work with the government, since they have a record of copying private members’ bills.

This session was no different with the NDP failing to support liberal initiatives and then introducing their version of the Liberal legislation - the bill to end smoking in cars with children and the ban on single-use plastic bags were both copied by the government.

In dealing specifically with First Nations communities, Manitoba Liberals re-introduced Jordan’s Principle – a child first policy in Bill 203 The Jordan’s Principle Implementation Act. Earlier this year, the NDP and federal government signed an agreement to recognize Jordan’s Principle. However, the principle as agreed upon by the two signing parties will only apply to children with complex medical needs, leaving many children out. Furthermore, the agreement has terms which may make it difficult to work in practice. Liberals will be watching the results closely. The NDP did not support the bill in the last session.

Next, we introduced a bill calling for standardized milk prices across the province. This bill has been introduced by Kevin Lamoureux and every time the government has failed to support this bill, citing reasons such as it’s not part of the aboriginal traditional diet and reverting to rhetoric and self-praise about supplying gardening kits and potatoes to northern farms, and the abundant supply of Cheese Whiz.

The fact of the matter is that the government has managed to standardize alcohol prices across the province but has failed to standardize milk, a proven necessity for optimal child development.

There are far too many young children in northern Manitoba with dental caries within the first year or two of life and apart from being extraordinarily expensive it is very detrimental to the health of children and has an impact later on.

It is common sense to have a low price for milk in the north, particularly young children, but this government has proven time and time again that it is long on rhetoric and short on common sense.

Following this, Manitoba Liberals introduced a bill that would require all new cases of diabetes to be reported and recorded, a process used in epidemic situations.

Since 1990, the incidence of diabetes in Manitoba has increased drastically. While both Conservative and NDP governments must share the blame for inadequate action in dealing with this epidemic, the fact that the incidence rate has continued to climb under the NDP illustrates the dismal failure of NDP public health policy, with respect to diabetes prevention.

The first essential step in an epidemic is to have updated records about the number of people affected. In Manitoba, the lack of record keeping has put us at a great disadvantage because it is impossible to gauge the impact of programs and resources when the full extent of the problem is not known.

According to a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request (FIPPA) in 2006, the latest year for which information is available, there were 6773 new cases of diabetes in Manitoba. This is dramatically higher than the 3,845 new cases diagnosed in 1990 and substantially higher than the 4,943 new cases in 1999, the year the NDP came to power.

The United Nations has recognized diabetes as an epidemic and even the provincial government refers to it as an epidemic on its website, but it’s time to start treating it like the epidemic it truly is.

Manitoba Liberals lead the way and will continue to demand accountability from the government and will continue to represent Manitobans by providing forward thinking ideas and real opposition to the washed up and outdated NDP rule.