Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Brandon East--order, please. I am having difficulty even recognizing the honourable member for Brandon East, and I wonder if those members that are engaged in conversations would do so either in the loge or outside the Chamber.

Mr. Leonard Evans (Brandon East): Madam Speaker, I wonder if I could have leave for a nonpolitical statement.

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Brandon East have leave to make a nonpolitical--leave has been granted.

Mr. Leonard Evans: Madam Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity to urge all members of the House to attend the Royal Winter Fair in Brandon, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1.

This is a long-standing tradition of the House to adjourn for that particular day so that members can take their families and friends to attend one of the finest shows of its type anywhere to be found in Canada or, indeed, North America. It is indeed a first-class show, and among other things there is a wonderful horse show that we are usually privileged to see in the evening. My only complaint is that, at the same time as the horse show is going, there is a great CKLQ old-time fiddlers' contest that I like to hear, as well as, I know, others. So there are a lot of things going on to be taken in, and I would surely hope that each and every one of us will do our best to attend on Tuesday, April 1. Thank you.

Hon. James McCrae (Minister of Environment): Madam Speaker, might I have leave to make a nonpolitical statement?

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable Minister of the Environment have leave? [agreed]

Mr. McCrae: Madam Speaker, last evening the Deputy Premier (Mr. Downey) and the Minister of Rural Development (Mr. Derkach) and I, and hundreds of others from the Brandon area attended the annual Chamber of Commerce dinner. At that dinner there was an award presented, the annual presentation of an award for the business person of the year.

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This year, the Chamber of Commerce, in its wisdom, significant wisdom I might say, decided to make that award to Mr. Stuart Craig of the Craig broadcasting company. The contribution of Mr. Craig and his father and his family, not only to the community in Brandon but through their efforts throughout Manitoba and now well beyond and all across western Canada, is well known to everyone, I am sure, in this Chamber. I just wanted to call this matter to the attention of honourable members, because I think it is a well-deserved recognition of the work of the Craig family in general and Stuart Craig in particular of their contribution to our cultural life, to our ability to know what is going on in the world today through news broadcasts done by Craig broadcasting company. I just thought that honourable members would like to be aware that this citizen of Brandon has distinguished himself not only in our area but nationally, and I believe in the future more and more internationally. A very successful story for Manitoba and congratulations go to Mr. Stuart Craig.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): May I have leave for a nonpolitical statement?

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable Leader of the official opposition have leave for a nonpolitical statement? [agreed]

Mr. Doer: Madam Speaker, I would like to join with the Minister of Environment in paying tribute to Stuart Craig and recognizing his tremendous contributions to Manitoba.

Before I was elected, I had the opportunity to participate in letters of support to the CRTC for the Craig network to establish the MTN or Manitoba network. I think all of us feel in this House and all of us feel in public affairs and debate that there is often a tremendous void in coverage in communities outside of the so-called Perimeter Highway. I think to some degree we tried to meet that. The Pawley government tried to work with the former federal government to meet those challenges by establishing some native communication systems in northern Manitoba to start getting the video and voice messages of people in those communities that would deal with the unique nature and the unique challenges of those communities.

I think it is also similarly true that the Craig family, with the establishment of the MTN network and the work in Brandon, has been able to get a lot more of the stories of Manitoba communities, of the diversity of Manitoba communities and the diversity of stories across to all Manitobans, and for that I think every member of this Chamber, no matter what our political stripe, is indebted.

I am pleased to see that many local communities in the Craig system have their own networks and access to those networks, and I have always found that the media network, the Craig networks have always been very fair to all political parties in having the opportunity to speak directly to the viewers or to the people in the other forms of media.

I think it also very interesting to note that in Alberta, the Craig family has been awarded the licences in Alberta, but he was competing against another Manitoban, Izzy Asper. I think when we look at what these two business people have done in terms of establishing communications across Canada, I think we are to be very proud.

Having said that, Madam Speaker, I also think we have to redouble and triple our efforts to ensure that we have a nonprofit public broadcasting network that also will provide, not competition, but the balance. We always talk about balance in here, I think we also have to, in paying tribute to Mr. Craig, remember that we need balance in our broadcasts and balance in our coverage. It is interesting that the TV station in Brandon is a private station but also receives the national feed from the CBC, both in their local news coverage and in their evening news coverage.

So I want to pay tribute to Mr. Craig, wish his family well and also pay tribute to the ability of all Manitobans to have access to public and private broadcasting.

Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): A nonpolitical statement, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Crescentwood have leave to make a nonpolitical statement? [agreed]

Mr. Sale: Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a group of Manitobans who have developed over the last five years an environmental education project called the Global Change Game. These young people, for the most part, were graduates of the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, some in natural resources and some in other areas. They took it upon themselves to develop a game that involves simulating the world's current environment and playing forward into the future with assumptions about global arms, pollution, health care, feeding, resources, et cetera, with largely high school students, although many adults and university students have also played the game.

Madam Speaker, they have toured this game across Canada from Victoria to St. John's, Newfoundland. They have had the support of the Mennonite Central Committee, VIA Rail Canada and other corporate sponsors to make this game available.

I have had the honour and opportunity to have the game played twice in two high schools in my constituency, in Kelvin and Grant Park. In both cases, approximately 90 young people took a morning to find out how complex it is to think about public policy in managing the environment of our world in the kind of conditions it finds itself in.

Madam Speaker, recently this group of young Manitobans were the winners of the Sustainable Development awards in the category of education. The game is now on tour in eastern Canada. By the end of this year, more than 400 high schools across the country will have used this game. I commend it to honourable members of both sides of the House as a marvellous educational opportunity in environmental and other policies moving us towards a more sustainable world.

The Global Change Game can be located easily in the phone book, and I hope other members will take advantage of it for their high schools.