ORAL QUESTION PERIOD
Personal Care Homes
Public Inquiry
Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, the Minister of Health yesterday left the impression that the incidents calling for a public inquiry were only isolated to the one personal care home. In light of the fact that Judge Rusen in 1994 issued an inquest report on the death of a resident named Anne Sands in the Heritage house nursing home, a private profit nursing home, and stated that in his opinion the staffing levels were woefully inadequate for the 85 residents placed in that home, I would like to ask the Premier, would he now instruct the government to have a public inquiry and look at the lack of follow-up dealing with the recommendations from the inquest as reported by Judge Rusen?
Hon. Darren Praznik (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has brought forward some information to my attention which I must admit that I was not aware of that particular incident. I certainly would endeavour to review this particular matter. He puts on the record an allegation that there has been no follow-up. Before I answer that, I certainly would want the opportunity to check with staff in the Ministry of Health to see what follow-up is there. I would suspect that there has been.
Mr. Doer: Madam Speaker, subsequent to the death and prior to the inquest report, a government report was issued. I address this to the Premier because he has had three different ministers of Health through this period of time, and he has been responsible all the way through for the situation of personal care homes. He is the one accountable to the people of Manitoba. The government report stated that residents in private homes are at an increased risk of having falls, fractures, dehydration and pneumonia. Older female residents in private profit homes are at a much greater risk of having dangerous falls in those homes.
I would like to ask the Premier today, will he order an inquiry to deal with the situation in our personal care homes in Manitoba and to deal with the many reports that he has received as Premier of this province in terms of the recommendations that hopefully could have prevented further death and tragedy in other personal care homes here in the province of Manitoba?
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Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, the member, I think, referenced 1994 and said that we have had three different ministers since then. That is not accurate, of course. The member for Brandon West (Mr. McCrae) served since the fall of 1993. If he is making some reference as to longevity of service, I believe that when the former member for Pembina moved from his post, he was at that time the longest-serving Minister of Health in Canada.
The member brings some information to the House that I am sure deserves review, and we will take that question as notice and examine the material that he has brought to the House. The Minister of Health (Mr. Praznik) will report back.
Mr. Doer: The death took place in 1992. The previous member for Pembina was the Minister of Health. The Speech from the Throne in 1990 was with the two previous ministers ago, a Minister of Health. Many of the reports have come down with the previous Minister of Health, and now we have answers from a new Minister of Health. The one thing constant in all of these reports, inquests and inquiries is the Premier has been responsible for all of these recommendations, and we believe the Premier has done nothing through all of these recommendations.
Madam Speaker, the Premier had a further report in 1995 with 39 recommendations. In 1996, the member for Kildonan (Mr. Chomiak) asked the Premier and the Minister of Health directly to get involved in the Holiday Haven Nursing Home. The Premier said that the member for Kildonan was fearmongering. That is what he said on the radio. Perhaps if the Premier would have listened to members opposite, tragedies could have been prevented, death could have been prevented.
I would like to ask the Premier today to stop the cover-up of his responsibility dealing with personal care homes, the inquests and the reports. Have a public inquiry; let us look at his responsibility and the responsibility of his two previous Health ministers in the dereliction of their duties for personal care homes here in the province of Manitoba, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Praznik: Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to say very clearly that members on this side of this House and certainly myself as Minister of Health and previous ministers of Health take this responsibility very seriously. We believe, yes, we want to ensure that we obtain the highest level of care and concern and security for people in the personal care homes of our province. Let us also remember that this is a very human system. It is one that deals with people and management and issues. From time to time there are always going to be problems that arise. It is incumbent upon us to work as diligently as one can to ensure that those are minimized and corrected when found.
With respect to the report that the member for Concordia (Mr. Doer) has referenced, from the reports I have from the department, most of those recommendations, if not all, have either been implemented or are in the process of being implemented. That is the information I have from those people who are working on it. I will endeavour to report back to the House if that information is not correct.
Holiday Haven Nursing Home
Management
Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): Madam Speaker, there has clearly been a cover-up and a dereliction of duty on the part of this government and this Premier with respect to personal care homes.
My question is to the Minister of Health and it is very specific. On January 22, I wrote to you about Holiday Haven saying that the report commissioned by your government in December called for a management change at Holiday Haven. I knew that in January. I wrote to you about that in January. Why did it take the government until a death occurred at Holiday Haven for you to all of a sudden recognize and realize that a management change was necessary at Holiday Haven? You had a letter from me saying that your own report recommended a change in management in December of last year.
Hon. Darren Praznik (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, if you refer to the letter that the member provided, he indicated the date on which I believe the letter is dated. That is fine. If you look at the time in which those letters arrive in my office, the time in which I have to look at that information, all of these events, if I remember correctly, were happening around the same time. I say very candidly to him, the letter that he provided to me, the information that I saw in complaints that were coming through the Minister of Health's office of replies I had to sign to letters were factors that convinced me at that particular time when that incident occurred to move very quickly to change the management in that facility. So his letter certainly did not go unnoticed. It was part of the information that I used, quite frankly, in making the decision that I did, and I thank him for the letter.
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Mr. Chomiak: Madam Speaker, can the minister indicate, and will he table in the House today a copy of that Nursing Home Association report, the recommended change in management, and can the minister indicate when he found out that that report indicated that a management change was necessary at Holiday Haven?
Mr. Praznik: Madam Speaker, I can tell the member that my knowledge of that from within the department came at the time this Holiday Haven issue came up with the incident and was brought to my attention, and I asked for a report on what was going on there. In fact, as a result of his letter and other inquiries I had the previous week, I asked my department to give me an update, and that was in the works as this event particularly happened. So I do not think the member could suggest that it is humanly possible for events to have transpired faster than they did.
With respect to tabling that report, I will endeavour to obtain a copy and find out if it is within my purview to table it. If it is, I would certainly be prepared to do that.
Public Inquiry
Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): My final supplementary: How does the minister believe that the public will have any confidence in the internal review he is undertaking of his department in respect to Holiday Haven when in fact the person responsible for the internal review, the assistant deputy minister, is the very person who was responsible for looking after Holiday Haven for the past two years? Does that not justify the need for an independent public investigation and inquiry of the situation at Holiday Haven, the department and the failure of the Premier (Mr. Filmon) to live up to recommendations made by countless reports with respect to personal care homes?
Hon. Darren Praznik (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, to deal with the latter part of the member's question in the first instance, first of all, let us remember that, yes, we need to have safeguards in place, but it is very much a human system. No matter who is on this side of the House or in this desk, from time to time there are going to be difficulties in the system and we have to deal with them, so there never will be a perfect time. I just think that is not possible, and members across the way acknowledge that.
What I have said, and I think it is only fair, anyone who is a minister I think has an obligation to their staff to ask first for a report and the information. We are waiting to see what the coroner makes, the decision that they make with respect to an inquest, and if they have an inquest, the results of that. I have said, I have said it to the media in interviews, we are taking this one step at a time as we go along, and I think we owe it to those people who have worked on it to have a chance to put the information to me, and I will make an assessment.
If a greater degree of inquiry is warranted, we certainly would consider that, but at that time, we have not yet seen information that would warrant it.
Education System
Breakfast/Nursery Programs
Ms. Jean Friesen (Wolseley): Madam Speaker, the Filmon government in successive budgets has chosen to make many of Manitoba's poor even poorer. Cuts to welfare in particular have meant, as any teacher will tell you, that in some rural areas and in some parts of the city the numbers of hungry children are increasing. It is not surprising that this same government also believes that early childhood education and nutritional programs are, I quote, costly enhancements, not educational investments.
I would like the Minister of Education to confirm that she believes that it is the job of the teachers and trustees of Manitoba to only discuss nutritional principles and not to feed the hungry children in front of them.
Hon. Linda McIntosh (Minister of Education and Training): Not accepting any of the preamble, particularly the part about us not doing anything to improve the circumstances of the poor people who now have more job opportunities, more ability to have productive lives in Manitoba, I should indicate first of all that we know absolutely--and my record on this dating back 17 years is well known and well known by those who have worked with me--that what happens in the early years of a child's life will very definitely affect their abilities to produce in every area of life beyond the age of six.
We have right now in Canada a system of public school education that looks after the teaching of academics. We also know, however, that it is vitally important that when those children come to school that they come ready to be able to learn those academics. I think the question we are talking about is, how do you fund these particular items? We are not quarrelling about the need for them or the importance of them. The member would say that these items are not costly and that, of course, is not correct. The question we need to decide, Madam Speaker, which we are doing in our government, is how to go about ensuring children are ready for school, and I have answers for that with the next question.
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Ms. Friesen: Does the Minister of Education truly intend, as she indicated to the Free Press, that the funding of early childhood education, a program of significant long-term value for our children, should be dependent upon attracting foreign students to the inner city and that the feeding of hungry children should rely upon some fluctuating offshore market in education? Because that is what she said.
Mrs. McIntosh: The member is taking two issues: One, the issue of fundraising and should fundraising itself be passive, i.e., lotteries, or should it be active, i.e., educational, the purchase of education from other places? That is one issue; the other issue is how we deal with children before they come to school.
We provide right now to school divisions, particularly Winnipeg No. 1, for example, received an additional $200,000 this year specifically to deal with their students at risk coming into the school system. Through the Child and Youth Secretariat, which this government formed, this government saw the need to co-ordinate activities between Health, Education, Family Services and Justice. Native Affairs is now included in that number. We each will have our own specific mandates, but it is important that we co-ordinate those mandates for the sake of the whole child.
We are looking at the whole child even before birth. We are now funding programs for adolescent mothers to help prevent things like fetal alcohol syndrome, teaching proper nutrition in the school system. We believe in a co-ordinated effort, not a piecemeal effort, and we absolutely believe in the importance of early intervention, and we work as a co-ordinated group to provide that.
Ms. Friesen: Would the minister explain why it is that early childhood education and nutrition programs recommended two years ago by the Postl report, endorsed yet again a year ago by the Youth Secretariat, recommended by many studies throughout the world, are now simply reduced in Manitoba in the elitist view of this Minister of Education to costly enhancements to be talked about endlessly in throne speeches and dependent upon offshore fundraising?
Mrs. McIntosh: Once again, there is a very, very misleading implication being left to the House which is not fair to the people, the students and the government members who have worked so hard to try to finally get some co-ordination. We see already $450,000 has been transferred from the Department of Health to the Department of Education to provide for registered nurses in schools for special needs students, that kind of initiative which we have done so that the education dollars can go to hire teachers, not nurses, the nurses being provided by the Department of Health, when, under their day in government, school boards were forced to take education dollars to hire nurses. Now we are saying education dollars can go to hire teachers. The Department of Health will provide the nurses. We intend to extend that kind of thinking, that kind of common-sense approach to funding sources for important programs in a co-ordinated way, not taking from the mandate of any of the areas to provide for a mandate in another.
Manitoba Telecommunication Service
Investors
Mr. Steve Ashton (Thompson): Madam Speaker, in January of this year a dinner was held following the privatization of MTS. The memento given the 80 guests was a global tradition, a 4 by 5 inch Lucite block displaying the tombstone announcing the $910-million deal. That is what the attendees want, said Darrell Burt of CIBC Wood Gundy. It means they joined the club.
Madam Speaker, MTS's name is indeed on a tombstone. I want to ask the Premier if he can indicate that MTS is now not only a privatized company but in fact that the club, the owners of MTS, are now a majority of non-Manitobans, primarily institutional investors on Bay Street.
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Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I am aware that at least some of the institutional investors are right here in Manitoba. They involve people who are the developers of mutual funds here in Manitoba, the investors of large estate monies here in Manitoba, as well as pension fund investors here in Manitoba. So the premise of his question is incorrect.
Mr. Ashton: Madam Speaker, will the Premier finally tell the truth and that through either the deliberate design of this government or the incompetence, within the first week 40 percent of the shares were flipped, and that it is very clear to any objective observer that MTS is now no longer owned by Manitobans and is basically owned by his friends on Bay Street?
Madam Speaker: Order, please. I would remind the honourable member for Thompson that "to tell the truth" has been ruled parliamentary on many occasions, and I would ask him to exercise discretion in the choice of his words.
Point of Order
Mr. Ashton: Madam Speaker, on a point of order.
Beauchesne Citation 490 states very clearly that "not telling the truth" has been ruled as parliamentary. I believe it is not only parliamentary but absolutely appropriate to question whether the Premier was not telling the truth when he said that MTS would end up being a Manitoba-owned company and when his minister issued a press release on December 20, 1996, indicating the exact same thing.
Madam Speaker: The honourable government House leader, on the same point of order.
Hon. James McCrae (Government House Leader): On the point of order raised by the honourable member for Thompson, I believe it has been seen as appropriate and remains appropriate for the interpretation of the rules, the reading of Beauchesne to be taken in a context of the intent surrounding the words used, and so that is why it is never always as clear as one might think to find words in a list here and in a list there. It is what is the intention of the speaker when using language such as "not telling the truth," and I would invite you, Madam Speaker, to take that into account as you assess this point of order.
Madam Speaker: I will take the matter under advisement and report back to the House after having researched it in more detail.
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Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, as the member should be aware, many of the large institutional investors who did indeed buy shares in Manitoba Telephone System after the commencement of trading were from Manitoba and were Manitoba based. So his premise is not accurate.
Brokerage Firms--Fees
Mr. Steve Ashton (Thompson): Madam Speaker, the facts speak for themselves and the Premier knows what has happened.
I would like to ask one further question to the Premier. Since he would not give this information before the sale of MTS, will he now confirm that the brokers made at least $24 million prior to the issue of the shares on the stock market and that indeed the lead brokers, Wood Gundy and Dominion Securities, each received $4.8 million apiece, the same companies that recommended the sale of MTS in the first place?
Will the First Minister finally admit to the greed that was the real basis for the sale of MTS?
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Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, as is the case with any private share offering, commissions are paid to the people who sell those shares. Indeed, in return for that, Manitoba received $910 million in revenue, of which a very substantial part of that revenue will go to pay down the debt of this province, the long-term debt of this province, that will pay for hospitals in this province, that will pay for health--
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable First Minister, to complete his response.
Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, that money will go to the long-term benefit of the people of Manitoba as money that they used to pay in interest on the debt that the New Democrats put on this province, and instead of being put as interest on that debt, will be put into health care, into education and into vital social services. That is the difference between the twisted thinking of the New Democrats and what the people of Manitoba want to have happen. They do not want the money to go to the bondholders in Zurich and in Tokyo and New York. They want the money to go to health care, to education and to the social services that they depend upon.
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Point of Order
Mr. Ashton: Point of order, Madam Speaker.
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable member for Thompson is attempting to cite his point of order, and I am having difficulty hearing him.
Mr. Ashton: A point of order, Madam Speaker. I asked about the commissions that were paid to the friends of this government. The Premier referenced Switzerland. I do not know if he was referencing his many trips to Davos, Switzerland, but any reference to Switzerland in response to this question is obviously out of order.
Madam Speaker: On the point of order raised by the honourable member for Thompson, I would remind the honourable First Minister that his response should be explicit to the question asked and should be as brief as possible.
Regional Health Authorities
Deficit Reduction
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Madam Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.
In moving towards the creation of regional health authorities, this government has been using somewhat heavy-handed tactics to co-op local volunteer boards. This government in essence has been blackmailing boards all over Manitoba. Unless a volunteer hospital board amalgamates or agrees to surrender their independence and control and submits to the dictatorship of an unelected Tory-dominated regional health care board, your government is not interested in helping reduce their debt.
The question is, why is that?
Hon. Darren Praznik (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, first of all, I certainly look forward to a very rational discussion on this issue because I think it is one that deserves a rational discussion. The rhetoric that the member for Inkster has used in talking about dictatorial boards and unelected boards, let us put some things into perspective. There are very few, if any, health care boards in Manitoba today that are elected. In most cases today, they are appointed by their constituent municipalities. I do not hear the member calling them dictatorial boards to the people, their community. Let us not forget that the vast majority of funding for health care in Manitoba is voted by this Legislature; so this is where the responsibility exists.
What we are trying to achieve through regionalization is grouping large enough blocks of citizens together so that we can find ways of providing better and more services. If one allows it to continue to exist, an organizational structure of small institutions, the member, quite frankly, will condemn rural Manitoba in particular to declining health care over the years.
Mr. Lamoureux: Madam Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister of Health is, if the government through the regional health authorities has the money today in order to accommodate these debts, why are they holding out? Why are they trying to force compliance with regional or local health hospitals and so forth that are out in the community? Why not allow for a more natural flow into the regional health board? Why the heavy hand of government?
Mr. Praznik: Madam Speaker, as I said, again, let us keep the objective in mind, and the objective is to get to a regional authority and administration of those dollars so that services can be properly distributed throughout a region and be appropriate to the people that they serve. I know we will get into this debate.
I can show the member many, many numbers today that show us inappropriate use of services, lack of services, et cetera, because we have an institutional organizational model. Regionalization gives us a very good tool to reverse that trend. I would also point out to the member that for those boards that have a constituency today, whether they be municipalities or particular organizations, if they wish to retain their corporate identity and make decisions to run their institutions, with that also comes the responsibility for any financial loss or deficit. You cannot have it both ways, Madam Speaker.
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Mr. Lamoureux: Madam Speaker, that is in fact what is happening over at the Dauphin regional hospital--
Madam Speaker: Order, please. I would remind the honourable member for Inkster he was recognized for a final supplementary question, and this is not a time for debate. Would the honourable member please pose his question now.
Mr. Lamoureux: Madam Speaker, my question to the Minister of Health is, why, then, does he feel the government, if it has the money, has to take away the opportunity of some of these boards that are volunteer based in being able to have more of a natural flow into the regional health authority? Why does it have to happen tomorrow? Why can there not be more of a natural flow so we are not upsetting and getting people upset over the way in which this government is trying to manage health care reform in this province? Can you not consult, can you not work with people?
Mr. Praznik: Madam Speaker, I can assure the member that I do lots of consultation and lots of travel. Last night I was in Carman for the annual meeting of the central health authority board, 275 people there, lots of questions and suggestions, but not one who opposed regionalization, not one individual.
Madam Speaker, in the case of Dauphin, it is a very difficult situation, as I know the member for Dauphin (Mr. Struthers) is probably very much aware. That hospital has a very significant deficit, I think somewhere in the neighbourhood of a million dollars if memory serves me correctly. They are not a municipally backed hospital; they have a group of founders there, and they are the major hospital in that part of their particular region. When one analyzes the numbers, a lot of their difficulties as to why in fact they have a deficit I think can be corrected and fixed as they move into a regional model. It is very important that their regional health authority be able to put those kinds of steps into place that will solve many of the health care problems in the Dauphin region. I am sure the member for Dauphin, the member for Swan River (Ms. Wowchuk) want to see improved and better health care in their region, and they are entitled to that.
Elk Ranching
Regulations--Poaching
Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): Madam Speaker, Manitobans across the province were furious when they learned of the regulations this government put forward to regulate the elk industry, particularly when they found out that the regulations would legalize poaching and help friends of government.
The minister has admitted that there was a mistake in these regulations. Can the minister now tell us what he has done to address this unfair situation and whether new regulations have been put in place to close the loopholes that legalized poaching?
Hon. Harry Enns (Minister of Agriculture): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to indicate to you and to the House that, as the regulations call for, a very specific process of identification which involves a DNA process is currently taking place properly identifying all those animals that had been reported to the department for registration into the agricultural domestic elk farming program. That process will take a while because it involves the individual handling of each animal, a blood sample having to be withdrawn from that animal. Once the status of those animals that had been reported during that period of time from February 1 to 14 has been established, the future registration of potential elk farming will take place.
I want to indicate very clearly, Madam Speaker, to the honourable member for Swan River that this involves a fairly onerous job. It involves going back into the records when her brother was Minister of Natural Resources and permitted a number of elk to be held in captivity in this province and my commitment to the Manitoba Elk Association that met with me that all will be treated equitably with respect to registration in this program.
Ms. Wowchuk: Since the minister wants to talk about relatives, maybe he should talk about some of his friends who call him Uncle Harry.
Madam Speaker, I want to ask this government how they can be so hypocritical to press charges against two people who poached bear but are letting friends of the minister's, friends of government who took elk illegally, letting them hold those elk and not pressing charges of poaching against those people. Does it matter who your friends are and whose chain you can pull?
Mr. Enns: Madam Speaker, I am further pleased to report to the House and to the member that not a single animal that has been reported to the Department of Agriculture for registration has been acquired in the manner that she describes, by poaching. The so-called friends of the government will be the last to be given any favourite treatment by this minister, by this government.
Ms. Wowchuk: I would like to ask the Minister of Natural Resources whether those people who took elk illegally will be charged with poaching and have those elk repossessed, and will they be charged with poaching just as the people that the Department of Natural Resources charged for poaching bear? Will the minister enforce the law and charge the people who took elk illegally?
Hon. Glen Cummings (Minister of Natural Resources): I would welcome any information that the member has regarding poaching of elk.
Elk Ranching
Capture
Mr. Stan Struthers (Dauphin): My question is for the Minister of Natural Resources.
Your government passed legislation last fall to capture and ranch elk solely to benefit your friends. It has been a disaster. Last year, the capture was stopped at the end of February because cow elk were aborting their calves. Wild elk today are being lured out of our parks and you are the minister responsible. This is already March 5, so why are you allowing this capture to continue right through calving season?
Hon. Glen Cummings (Minister of Natural Resources): Madam Speaker, we are accepting the best advice of biologists and experts as to the timing, and as a matter of fact, the capture is just about over.
Mr. Struthers: Will the minister confirm that of 80 elk captured, only 16 were taken from crop depredation areas, and the rest were lured out of our provincial parks?
Mr. Cummings: Madam Speaker, if the member can tell me which elk are the resident elk and which elk are the ones that are nonresident in the valley, I would be more than prepared to deal with the question.
Mr. Struthers: Somebody across the way ought to know what is going on with these elk. Neither of these ministers do.
How can you and your department contract two individuals to capture elk from our parks on the one hand when your mandate is to protect this province's wildlife?
Point of Order
Hon. James McCrae (Government House Leader): Just over the past year or so I have noticed a practice, quite unintentional I am sure on the part of members perhaps on all sides of the House, tending toward using pronouns instead of addressing their questions through the Chair, as we are all supposed to do, or making our answers through the Chair. I wanted to bring that to the attention of the House.
One of the things a new House leader gets to do is perhaps mention something that has been on his mind for a long time.
Mr. Steve Ashton (Opposition House Leader): On the same point of order, Madam Speaker, I am sure what the member for Dauphin meant to do was, through you, ask why no one on the government side knew what was happening with elk.
Madam Speaker: On the point of order raised by the honourable government House leader, I thank him for refreshing all of our memories that indeed the questions being posed should be put through the Chair.
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Mr. Cummings: Madam Speaker, the member, through innuendo and the choice of his words, is implying that there have been large numbers of elk that have been poached. I suggest that he should provide some names and some information if he believes that. If he chooses not to believe that, or if he is convinced that that is the case, then he is saying that those who have declared that they have elk on their property, as required by the Department of Agriculture under the program, you are suggesting that those 80 elk and not 900, which was apparently the rumour that the members of the opposition were circulating, that those 80 elk--if he has word of any others out there, then I would please ask him to put it on the record.
Legislative Building
Royal Doulton Product Promotion
Mr. Jim Maloway (Elmwood): My question is to the Minister of Government Services. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his recent appointment.
Now everyone knows that this is a pro-business government. Recently the Speaker turned her office into a private store and yesterday Royal Doulton, a private company, held a product launch of dishes downstairs in this building.
I would like to ask the minister whether we can expect to see more examples of this occurring at the Legislature and whether other product lines such as vacuum cleaner sales companies are now free to start operating out of the Legislative Building.
Hon. Frank Pitura (Minister of Government Services): I thank the honourable member for that question, and I am afraid I do not have an answer for you. I will take that question as notice.
Mr. Maloway: Madam Speaker, while this is not the first time that this has happened, I would like to ask the minister, would he put a stop to this practice and acknowledge that the Legislature is an important public institution and not a building to be used to sell dishes or vacuum cleaners or to be turned into a shrine to Tory ideology?
Mr. Pitura: Again I thank the honourable member, but I understand that a lot of the areas that fall within the area of the Legislative Assembly come under the Legislative Assembly Management committee, and so a lot of those decisions are made at that committee level.
Mr. Maloway: My final supplementary to the same minister then: Is he saying then that this is the responsibility of the Speaker, that it is the Speaker who is allowing this practice to occur in this business?
An Honourable Member: That is what he said.
Mr. Maloway: That is what he said.
Mr. Pitura: I would just advise the honourable member that the Legislative Assembly Management committee is a committee of the House and as such is not the responsibility--the Speaker is the Chair of that committee, but it is a committee of the House.
Again, I will take most of the question as notice and get back to the member.
Northern Affairs
Office Closure--The Pas
Mr. Oscar Lathlin (The Pas): I would like to ask the Minister of Northern Affairs a question, and that has to do with the office of the Department of Northern Affairs that has been closed in The Pas putting three people out of work. I know the promise was made to the workers to relocate to Thompson. I understand one is willing to go and two, for family reasons and being from The Pas, are unable to move.
I would like to ask the minister what rationale he has that would have prompted him to make the decision to close the office in The Pas.
Hon. David Newman (Minister responsible for Northern Affairs): The Pas regional office closes March 31 with the expiration of the lease. This is part of an evolving program towards the empowerment of the 53 northern communities. The whole direction of the legislation is designed to encourage self-sustainable independence. This is a step in that direction, a step that has been progressive and is designed to recognize the pioneering spirit and independence of people in the community.
You should also know that the people being transferred, three of them were offered the opportunity to move to Thompson into that office. The fourth individual was offered the opportunity for training as an entrepreneur, so that person could then provide the services, formerly provided as an employee, to the communities that are being empowered in that fashion.
It is very interesting. The mayor of Cormorant expressed support I believe for this kind of direction because they are very proud of their self-sufficiency.
Madam Speaker: Time for Oral Questions has expired.