Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the winners of the recent Pembina Valley Business Achievement Awards. Rural business continues to play a vital role in the overall health of the provincial economy, and I am proud of the industriousness shown by my constituency.
Outside of Winnipeg, the Pembina Valley region is the largest centre of business and industry in the province of Manitoba. Much of the industrial production in the Pembina Valley region is exported, some 70 percent outside of the region and of that more than 37 percent sold outside of Canada. These strong export sales are an indication of both the quality of the locally produced products and how competitive these businesses are on the world market.
I am proud that the Pembina Valley businesses have become successful players in the global economy. The presence of so many competitive businesses and industries in the Pembina Valley is critical to the health of the local economy as well. Were it not for the enterprising nature of these companies and their willingness to take risk, there would be no jobs. In fact, the businesses nominated for the achievement awards were responsible for the creation of 160 new full-time jobs in the past year. That is quite an achievement, and these companies are to be congratulated for their hard work and dedication.
Once again, I would like to extend my best wishes to the winners of the Pembina Valley Business Achievement Awards. It is a privilege to see so many firms dedicated to enhancing the economic well-being of our communities. They have set a fine example for all Manitoba businesses to follow.
Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): Madam Speaker, in 1992-93, this government raised taxes on all Manitobans by cutting the property tax credit and by broadening the sales tax base. In response to criticism, their own Federal-Provincial Relations Branch did a memo, which has been tabled many times in this House--and it is essentially public document now--showing that the increase was equivalent to an 11 percent increase in personal income tax, over five points of personal income tax. This year it has become very clear that the revenue from the special levy levied by school boards and school divisions throughout this province has increased by $134 million since this government took office, and that is the equivalent of almost six and a small fraction points of personal income tax. This government has raised taxes on ordinary Manitobans, primarily through the property tax, to the equivalent of over 11 points of personal income tax, over 22 percent increase in taxes.
This government continues to maintain it has made no tax increases of any significance of any major taxes. They are misleading Manitobans who read their property tax and know that their taxes have risen because this government has cut its support to the public school system, a 22 percent increase in Manitoban's taxes as a result of this government's starving of the public school system and their cuts to the property tax credit and their broadening of the sales tax base. It is a shameful record for a government that claims that it has not increased taxes on Manitobans when, in fact, over $225 million of tax increases have come from this Finance minister and his predecessor.
Mr. David Faurschou (Portage la Prairie): Madam Speaker, being an MLA of a constituency whose major industry is farming as well as being a farmer who has experienced a farm-related injury, I would like to draw the attention of all members of the House to a very worthwhile awareness campaign. Wednesday, March 11, marked the beginning of this year's Farm Safety Week, the theme of a national campaign which will highlight the idea of safe farming and smart farming.
I would like to share some startling information with members of this House. There are many farm injuries and fatalities which could be avoided if farm safety were made a priority, and by extension it became a habit that every member of the farming family was aware. Between 1991 and 1995 there were 503 deaths on Canadian farms. One disturbing statistic is that over 20 percent of these involved youngsters under the age of 16.
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John Deere Limited, along with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Coalition for Agricultural Safety and Rural Health, as well as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is sponsoring this awareness week. They remind us that the No. 1 rule for all farmers is farm safety.
Ms. Cathy Vanstone of Manitoba Agriculture reminds us that you can never be too careful. Each and every member of a farm family needs to be, and to practise, farm safety. I urge all Manitoba farmers to take part in the National Farm Safety Week all year round and to inform themselves about the potential risks of working with farm machinery. It is my greatest wish that all farmers in Manitoba enjoy a safe and fruitful farming season in 1998. Thank you.
Mr. Leonard Evans (Brandon East): Madam Speaker, the city of Brandon is Manitoba's second largest centre of approximately 40,000 people. It has a major hospital, the biggest hospital outside of the city of Winnipeg, but regrettably it has lost many resources over the past few years. As the regional health authority director has stated in the press, the budget has been cut by $6 million in the last few years, far more than it should have been, and as a result, that hospital today is not able to offer the same quality of care that it did a few years back.
Now very seriously we have lost the services of two pediatricians for on-call service, overworked pediatricians who simply decided that they could not carry on any longer. Madam Speaker, we should have four pediatricians. Everyone says that is the number that the Brandon General Hospital should have, but we have only had two and now we have zero. I have knowledge that as of today there are no pediatrician services on call in the city of Brandon, and as of now and throughout this week, people in western Manitoba will have to go to Winnipeg for this kind of service. I think it is a sad commentary on the state of the health care system in this province that you can only have one city with these types of services available when there is a crying need for this specialty to be available in western Manitoba.
I received a call from a father of a two-year-old boy who has leukemia, and he is extremely upset. He is extremely worried about the fact that he may need some very quick action and that this will not be possible, that he will have to take two, two-and-a-half hours to take his son to Winnipeg which may be a very critical time for him.
So, Madam Speaker, I regret very much that this minister has not resolved the situation and does not seem to be prepared to come to some solution in the very near future. Thank you.
Mr. Mervin Tweed (Turtle Mountain): Madam Speaker, I rose last week to encourage members opposite to enlighten this House and Manitobans on the economic merits of imposing a 32-hour workweek. Unfortunately, they remain silent on this bold new initiative, so it is left to government members to discuss the latest economic enigma proposed by the NDP.
The resolution passed unanimously by the NDP delegates states in part: A shorter workweek would almost certainly help to reduce Manitoba's unemployment rate. While shorter-hour proposals have intuitive appeal, they are based on simplistic economic models. Business practices, as the NDP suggest, would start a negative chain of events. Competition would be reduced, businesses would leave--as they did in the '80s--jobs would be lost and the economy would crumble.
The Swan River Star &Times noted that the Leader of the official opposition, when queried about the proposal, has not yet explained how an employer can afford to pay employees the same for 20 percent less work per week and still remain in business. I should also note that no other NDP province, such as Saskatchewan or B.C., has adopted this labour legislation. As well, we need only look to the country of France, which implemented similar legislation, to see its impact. France's double-digit unemployment rate does not even compare with Manitoba's current 5.8 percent rate. I think not. Thank you.
Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): Madam Speaker, I would like to share with members of the House concerns of many people in the Swan River constituency, as well as people throughout the province, that being the lack of planning by this government in their plan to capture elk for domestication. You would think that after two years, the government would understand the problems related to capturing wild animals. Instead, this year we saw disasters when two elk died and a third was injured. Because the government was so determined to capture bull elk, they did not take the necessary precautions and would not listen to the advice that was given to them that large elk should not be captured in one pen.
The program was supposed to get rid of depredation elk, but instead, this government decided to capture elk in the Interlake area, which is a herd that was established a few years ago and now is being destroyed because this government wants to have more elk for sale. The government made an announcement to First Nations that they would be doing the capture, but of course, because the government did not show leadership on this issue, that did not become a reality. Instead, we had illegal elk captured where the government did not take action. We had the Saskatchewan government aggravated with this government's action of setting pens close to the border.
Since it is obvious that the plan is not working, the government should listen to the people and do as they promised, and that is go back to the drawing board and consult the people before they proceed any farther. If they listen to Manitobans, it would be very clear to them that Manitobans do not support the capture of elk for domestication, and they would want the government to stop this plan immediately.