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Ensuring Eldon Ross Pool will be open year round - Well Done Fred Morris!!

Congratulations to Fred Morris and the citizens of Brooklands for the fine effort which has led to the decision, announced this evening by Councillor Scott Fielding that Eldon Ross Pool will be staying open year round. This is excellent news.

Now, it will be important for people to continue to show support for the pool by using it, and a community committee will be set up to help achieve this.

Fred Morris was a moving force behind getting about 1,000 signatures on a petition to have Eldon Ross pool stay open year round.

In the top photo, Fred Morris and Scott Fielding are at the front of the meeting. In the bottom photo, among the crowd were Kevin Lamoureux and Roldan Sevillano.

The Pembina Valley Water Cooperative and Sam Schellenberg

Last night Naomi and I attended a retirement party for Sam Schellenberg who is stepping down as the General Manager of the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative. In the photo above, Naomi and I are with Sam and Caroline Schellenberg at the event.

I was invited to speak and I told the following story of my role in helping the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative become what it is today - the largest regional water system in Manitoba with infrastructure with a market value of about $70 million. It has made an incredible difference to the lives of many people in southern Manitoba and by ensuring the provision of adequate water, it has enabled the rapid expansion in the businesses and the number of people living in communities like Altona, Winkler and Morden.

In 1980, Naomi and I moved to live near St. Francois Xavier and I became involved with the Lisgar Liberals (Lisgar was the federal constituency which included Altona, Winkler, Morden and Carman - a large part of southern Manitoba. In January 1984, I was asked by then riding President Joyce Popkes to consider becoming the Liberal riding association president. I did, and as a result of organizing meetings and meeting people in the region I got to know the communities of Altona, Winkler, Morden and Carman quite well. One of the people I got to know well was Bob McKenzie, and we were both delegates to the federal Liberal leadership convention in 1984. Later I would also get to know well Bill Roth, the Reeve of the R.M. of Dufferin - the rural municipality which surrounds Carman. Bill was a Liberal and the provincial candidate for Morris Constituency in 1995.

In 1993, I was elected a federal Member of Parliament for Portage-Interlake, and selected to be in Jean Chretien's cabinet. In 1994, the financial situation of the Canadian government was quite precarious as a result of the very high debt left after Brian Mulroney's nine years as Prime Minister. It became clear we would have to bring in a budget which drastically reduced expenditures in 1995. In the run up to the 1995 budget, for example, I was working closely with John Manley when we were told that the Industry Canada budget would have to be reduced by 40% in three years. Similar directions were given to Ralph Goodale in the Agriculture Department, though I am not sure if he received directions to bring in precisely the same 40% reduction figure. After consideration and consultation with others in his department and with others in the Liberal cabinet and caucus, Ralph, as the Minister of Agriculture came to the decision that there was no choice but to end the Western Grain Transportation Act subsidy for the rail transportation of grain. Recognizing that this would mean a huge change, Ralph put in place a number of programs to help with the transition. These included, as an example, the establishment of the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council. As well to support this transition, a fund of about $30 million was established for Manitoba (and a similar one for Saskatchewan) to facilitate the transition.

I was given the responsibility of working with the other Liberal Members of Parliament for rural southern Manitoba (David Iftody - Provincher, Marlene Cowling - Dauphin-Swan River, Glen McKinnon - Brandon-Souris, and Ron Fewchuk - Selkirk) to provide advice to Ralph Goodale on how these dollars should be spent. In Saskatchewan, Ralph Goodale decided that a large proportion of the dollars would go to roads. In Manitoba many of the Conservative MLAs called on the money to also go to roads. But we felt it was important to hold public consultations to get input from people before making a decision, and to carefully investigate where the money would be put to the very best use in helping people in rural Manitoba with the transition. We were also very interested in projects in which people from different communities were working together.

We then proceeded to hold a series of public meetings. One of these was in Steinbach - I believe in the summer of 1996. Presenting at this meeting on behalf of the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative was Sam Schellenberg and Jake Schroeder. Sam told me that they initially did not have much in the way of expectations. However, Sam and Jake presented very well, and we listened carefully. They talked of the need to provide adequate water to this area of southern Manitoba to make the change to build a more diversified economy and achieve greater population growth. They also emphasized that they had some 14 different municipalities working together on this project.

Either in Steinbach, or at another of the meetings, Bob McKenzie and Bill Roth made a similar presentation on the need for a water treatment plant at the Stephenfield Reservoir near Carman to provide a water supply for Carman and the R.M. of Dufferin.

When we considered all the proposals we had received, we made the decision to fund both the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative for its ambitious proposal and the Carman/Dufferin proposal. It helped that David Iftody, as Member of Parliament for Provencher, was a very strong supporter of the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative project. As things moved forward, Carman and Dufferin then negotiated with the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative to build the infrastructure at Stephenfield and supply the water to people in the area.

This funding for the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative turned out to be the critical funding which enabled a large expansion which has continued to the present. For example, the Stephenfield reservoir is now supplying water not just to Carman and Dufferin, but also to St. Claude, and to the Rural Municipalities of Grey and Thompson, and when needed the Stephenfield reservoir can be topped up from the Assiniboine River. At the same time, the major source of water for the whole Pembina Valley Water Cooperative is from the Red River, and this has provided the needed enhanced stable water supply to the whole region which has fueled rapid growth in Altona, Winkler, Morden and other communities. It is quite a story.

When I chatted with Sam Schellenberg during the dinner, he said to me - pointing at the rotating slide show showing pictures of the large number of projects and infrastructure initiatives undertaken by the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative - "I hope you take a careful took at those slides - its all your fault." When I spoke I made sure I gave the major credit where it is really due - to Sam Schellenberg and the many people who have helped in many different ways to make the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative into what it is today. I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time, to help move things along. And I should note that among the many Municipalities there were Mayors and Reeves of varied political stripes. So this project was and is a good example of how people of different political backgrounds can work closely together in rural Manitoba to make good things happen for the benefit of all.

And I have one more thing to add. Chairing this event were Herm Martens, the present chair of the board of the Pembina Valley Water Cooperative, and Paul Peters. Congratulations to both, and to all those involved in organizing this event.

The high cost of FASD

Congratulations to Shelagh Marchenski and Don Fuchs and the work they have done while at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba. Their report, at a conference this week in Vancouver shows that the costs to our health care system and our education system for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are very high in Manitoba.

In our Manitoba Liberal Party report of June 2005, we came to a very similar conclusion - that the cost of FASD to our provincial treasury is huge. See http://www.manitobaliberals.ca/documents/Healthy_Kids_Minority_Report.pdf
or you can find it by googling SIX LOST YEARS - Jon Gerrard.

In our report we looked at the extra costs associated with FASD in the Justice System, in Child and Family Services and Housing, in Education and in Health Care. We came to an overall cost estimate to the provincial treasury of between $426 and $924 million per year. This amount is staggering, and we concluded as did Don Fuchs when he said at the conference "Our model clearly shows because FASD is preventable, it would make sense to move more money into prevention."

As Manitoba Liberals, Kevin Lamoureux and I have invested a lot of time dealing with FASD. Back in 1999, when Neil Strohschein interviewed me in Neepawa shortly after I had been elected Liberal leader, I emphasized then the importance of preventing FASD. Neil, by the way, won an award for the interview.

Over the years since then Kevin and I have introduced measured to make FASD a reportable condition and to have much better approaches to prevention including labelling alcoholic beverages (as we do with cigarettes) with a warning about FASD, and good signage about FASD everywhere alcohol is sold. Sadly, the NDP have never supported these measures. And, even through attention to FASD is much better than it was in 1999, and some increased funding is now in place for diagnosis and treatment, we could still be doing much better in Manitoba.

Two-tiered access to government services, to education, to health care and to business opportunties exists in Manitoba due to NDP delay on broadband

More than 200 Manitoba communities are not connected with broadband access to the internet due to delays and inaction by the NDP government. The NDP have been in power for more than ten years, which is plenty of time to have connected all communties in Manitoba to broadband access.

The result of NDP delays is that we now have a two-tiered system of access to government services, to education , to health care information and to economic opportunities, with many Manitobans being left out.

Because delivery of on-line government services requires downloads of pdf documents, graphics and adequate access to educational and health material and economic opportunities requires on-line access to videos and other material with large files, many Manitobans are being left behind.

The result of poor access to the latest information in education is we have students not doing as well as they should be, or even dropping out and losing major opportunities for themselves. Communities without broadband access tend to have lower graduation rates and their young people then fall further behind. Communities without broadband access have less access to critical health information and their health status is affected. Communities without broadband access have fewer opportunties to start businesses and participate in activities with economic potential so the communities as a whole fall further behind instead of catching up.

We need to reverse this downward spiral which has resulted from the NDP's inaction. Today, in question period I asked the government why it has let this slip so badly? Of course, Greg Selinger talked about all his future plans. But the reality is, in Manitoba today, after more than ten years of the NDP we are behind and it is hurting people in communities which are still not connected through broadband. We need to move forward as quickly as possible.

Camperville - high drop out rates, ambulance service and the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables need attention

March 30, 2010, I was in Camperville with Marvin Krawec to follow up on my earlier visits there. Back in Sept. 2006, when I visited Camperville to meet with Ernie Urbanowski and others (see my blog of Sept 16, 2006), I found that there were some real issues in the way in which housing was being supported by the NDP government in Camperville. I described it as the "Save a buck and spend a fortune" approach. Fortunately, my efforts and those of others have led to changes and improvements in how things are now being done. It was good to hear that this was happening.

This time in the meetings I had in Camperville, there major issues emerged.

1) The NDP approach to ambulances in this area is a problem. When an ambulance is needed in Camperville it will normally come from Winnipegosis about half an hour away. This is too slow for the people of Camperville and I was told that there have been deaths because people have had to wait so long. People in Camperville want an ambulance stationed in their community so that the time to have an ambulance come in an emergency can be much shorter.

2) Grade twelve graduation rates for children in Camperville are too low. I was given figures of about 20% of students graduating from grade 12. This is very, very low compared to the average grade 12 graduation rates throughout Manitoba of about 79% currently. [Our drop out rate province-wide continues, however, to be the lowest of all provinces in Canada so even provincially we need to do better - and lack of attention to the situation in communities like Camperville certainly does not help the provincial average]. Camperville is in the Swan River constituency of Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk. It is disappointing that after ten years, that the Camperville students have not had more attention from their MLA and that the graduation rate is still so low.

3) People in Camperville want to be healthy and eat healthy food, but there is no store in the community which sells fresh fruits and vegetables, and for Camperville residents going to Dauphin or Swan River is a long way and it is expensive. A store which sells fresh fruits and vegetables in Camperville is badly needed.

I have told people in Camperville that I will take up there issues, as I do for people in communities around Manitoba. Already, this past week, in question period in the Manitoba Legislature, I raised my concerns about the low graduation rates in Camperville and other similar communities in Manitoba. Sadly Nancy Allan, the Minister responsible, did not even mention Camperville specifically in her answer, though she did indicate that her government was concerned about the high drop out rates in Manitoba (they clearly have not done what is needed in the last ten and a half years!) and might be making an announcement soon. Well- I can say to Nancy Allan - the people of Camperville will be watching you.

A win for patients and families in Manitoba and for the fighting Manitoba Liberals in getting 24 hour access to health care records

On May 1st, the provincial government will implement 24 hours access for medical records for inpatients and their families. This is important so that patients and families can be full participants in care and that from this participation will come improved care and fewer medical errors and tragedies as happened with Mimi's mother.

For the last several years, I have been working with Mimi Raglan, Blake Taylor and other to get this change. On February 26th, 2006, together with Mimi and Blake I formally called for the government to make this change. (see my blog post for that date). Later that year, December 5, 2006, I introduced legislation to bring this into effect. Because of the spring election of 2007, the legislation had to be reintroduced after the election on June 14, 2007. It was debated that fall with the NDP Jennifer Howard saying it was not practical, Jim Maloway saying it was redundant and Jim Rondeau saying there should be help from the federal government.

In 2008, the government introduced changes to the Personal Health Information Act, but did not initially go further than 72 hours access to records. However, when Dr. Brian Postl announced the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority was going to introduced this change, it became apparent that we should be moving to 24 hour access and a further amendment to her legislation was introduced and the 24 hour access to medical records for inpatients became part of the bill. Finally, on May 1 of this year the legislation will come into effect and all Manitobans and where needed their families, will have 24 hour access to medical records when a person is an inpatient in a hospital.

The Irresponsible NDP Budget 2010

There can be no better word to describe the recent NDP budget than "irresponsible." The budget for this year (2010-1011) projects a deficit of more than $500 million. The budget for next year (2011-1012) predicts a budget deficit of more than $500 million.

Normally, one starts by looking at the year just ended (2009-1010) and asks - what is the structural deficit coming out of the present year - this is the deficit after taking away one time expenditures and taking into account reasonable fiscal management. Now, on March 23rd, in the Question Period before this year's budget was delivered, when I asked Premier Greg Selinger why his budget for 2009-2010 had gone so far off track from his original projections he blamed the very large one time expenditures for the H1N1 flu and the Flood last year. If we take away these expenditures from the deficit in 2009-2010, and allow for reasonable fiscal management, the structural deficit coming out of 2009-2010 should be in the range of $200 - $300 million. It should be reasonable to expect this year's (2010-2011) deficit to be held to about $200 million instead of ballooning to the projected $537 million deficit (in core government operations). The NDP's projected $537 million deficit is just irresponsible.

As I pointed out previously see my blog post of March 23rd, the NDP have never yet, in ten years, been able to stay within the expenditure projections they have made in their budget. If they over spend this year, after starting with a projected $537 million deficit, we could be in worse trouble than this.

NDP budget shafts students by increasing tuition and decreasing student aid at the same time

Standing out like a red flag in this week's budget is the NDP's plan to increase tuition for post-secondary education and to decrease student aid at the same time.

The NDP budget provided for an increase in tuition of $150 for colleges and by 5% at universities. Today's Free Press makes is clear that as well as a general 5% increase in tuition at universities, there may well be "massive increases" in some faculties.

The budget also made changes to student aid. In last year's budget, $42,334,000 was provided for student aid. This year there is a dramatic reduction in student aid by 20% to $34,149,000. This double whammy on students shows the extent that the NDP have deserted students and are launching a double hit on Manitoba's students.

It is likely that the NDP will argue that a significant reasons for the decrease in student aid is a decrease in federal support. However, the numbers I report above are the numbers from the provincial budget. It is the NDP budget which decreases student aid. The NDP had a choice and they chose in their budget to go after students.

Even, if we accept the excuse that part of the problem is the federal Tories, then the best light we can put on the provincial NDP is that they are working with the federal Tories to gang up on students.

Whichever way you look at this, the NDP did not support students in this budget.