Madam Speaker: Prior to Oral Questions, I would like to draw the attention of all honourable members to the public gallery where we have this afternoon fifty Grade 5 students from R.H.G. Bonnycastle School under the direction of Mrs. Melaney Vermeylen and Mrs. Barb Holden. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable Minister of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship (Mrs. Vodrey).

Also, twenty-five Grade 5 students from J.R. Walkof Elementary School under the direction of Mrs. Linda Wall. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable member for Pembina (Mr. Dyck).

And, twenty-three Grade 6 students from Margaret Park School under the direction of Ms. Dianne Moroz. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable member for Kildonan (Mr. Chomiak).

On behalf of all honourable members, I welcome you this afternoon.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): Madam Speaker, last week a number of municipalities passed resolutions calling on a specific program for a contingency plan for unseeded land due to the flooding this year. KAP presented a specific $50-an-acre proposal to the government, a federal-provincial proposal. Last evening at the City Council meeting in Brandon, they too joined many other municipalities and businesses calling on a specific program and calling on a specific $50-an-acre proposal as a contingency plan.

I would like to ask the First Minister: is there a specific program, a specific contingency plan in place, and do they support the proposal for a program similar to the $50 an acre that is being proposed by farm organizations and municipalities in rural and western Manitoba?

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his question. As he knows, we had extensive discussions at five different locations in the southwest part of the province, the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns), the Minister of Natural Resources (Mr. Cummings) and I, last Thursday. In addition, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Government Services (Mr. Pitura) met with other groups in the Parklands area on Friday, and the Minister of Agriculture had an opportunity to meet with the federal minister, Mr. Vanclief, late Friday. In addition to that, I had discussions on Wednesday of last week and put out a news release on Friday morning, a joint news release with Premier Romanow, requesting certain specifics from the federal government.

What we have indicated is that we believe that an acreage payment should be made and that there are funds available, already committed in substantial degree through federal and provincial governments. In fact, the more than $150 million in the AIDA program that has been committed, if done on an acreage basis as an interim payment towards what we believe could be readily calculable entitlements under AIDA, as soon as it is known what acreage is not planted, then we could go straightforwardly and make the calculations that would allow us to make an interim acreage payment to the farmers. That proposal has been made both in writing and in the form of the proposal that Premier Romanow and I made, and also directly by our provincial Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns) to the federal Minister of Agriculture.

We have not had a direct response yet, other than a willingness by the federal minister, as I understand it, to look at the flexibility that could be used. In addition to that, there are a number of other proposals, which I may touch upon if the member has other questions, that we are putting forward, Madam Speaker.

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Mr. Doer: Madam Speaker, as I understand it, the letter requesting disaster assistance was dated on June 9, 1999, to the federal government, a couple of weeks after the flooding first started, obviously in late April, early May.

Madam Speaker, when we look back to the flooding and the damages of the flooding in 1997, the Premier and the federal minister at that point made an initial announcement on May 1, 1997. It is now well into the middle of June, and we have discussions going on with this program and that program, et cetera, but there is no actual specific concrete contingency plan.

So many producers are asking us: is the contingency plan the government is talking about $50 an acre? Is it more than that, less than that? Is it cost-shared between the federal and provincial governments? In Saskatchewan, there is the crop insurance program that provides for $25 an acre, as I understand it. Many producers are producing contingency plans in specific terms. What is the specific contingency plan proposed by this government, and will he table the letter that was sent to the federal government on June 9?

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, firstly, the member opposite should know that the initial discussions at which the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns) made the proposal to Mr. Vanclief took place two weeks ago last Friday. We would have to backdate that, but it was in the latter part of May. There were verbal discussions that were intended to provide a path and a proposal to the minister. Since the federal minister then took the position in Parliament that he had not received something in writing, it was then put in writing on I guess it was the 9th of June. I do not have that in front of me. The federal minister I understand has now corrected his position saying, yes, he acknowledges that that was proposed to him by our Minister of Agriculture.

The proposals that we have put forward have a desire to achieve something equivalent to the approximately $50 an acre, which we believe could be flowed through the AIDA program. That will be a little bit dependent on the eligibility of people and indeed their economic circumstances.

As the member may know, and certainly in the discussions with the producers and the municipal leaders, the expectation, in my judgment, was not that there would be an immediate flow but that there would be a cash flow that would come to them approximately at the same time as they would have normally been expecting some income to start to flow from the crop, because if they were successful in seeding a crop this year, they would not be getting income from it in May or June or July. It would not be until after they harvested it. So their expectation is that money should flow at a similar time to what it would normally flow under normal conditions, not immediately.

They are, though, looking for specifics about certain things, and that is why today the minister has announced the custom seeding program so that if the weather continues to provide an opportunity for people to get on the land and seed in the next short while, they can do it on an intensive basis, and there will be a support for the extra costs of the intensive seeding process that would come from government. That was precisely what was done in response to the 1997 flood on the Red River, and that is exactly what we are asking for them to do, to give similar treatment here.

That would be the kind of immediate thing that they would be looking for, and certainly our government has provided for that, saying we are prepared to fund the program and to request of the federal government that they do what they did in the Red River, which is to in fact provide the funding for that. But the farmers need to know it this week so that if they are going to get intensively on the land, it has to be done in the next very, very short while.

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Mr. Doer: We had asked the government to table the letter they sent on June 9 in terms of the specific proposal they made to the federal government on that date. Can the Premier indicate when we will have the specific plan in place, the contingency plan in place for unseeded acreage? Will the Premier, with the federal and provincial governments–when will we know, when will producers know?

Mr. Filmon: The producers know that our government is making the commitment to them to utilize funds that we have set aside, of which over $60 million is our provincial funds in AIDA, of which approximately 40 percent of the funds in NISA is our provincial funds, that we will make those funds available to them through this process. They also know that all of the terms and conditions of AIDA and NISA are set by the federal government unilaterally without our control. They also know that in order for those funds to flow, only the federal government can allow for that now. That demand has been made to them by our government, by the government of Saskatchewan and by the producers of western Canada, and it is now going to be up to the federal minister to tell us when a decision is made and under what terms and conditions those funds can flow.

Mr. Oscar Lathlin (The Pas): My questions are directed to the Minister of Health. Virtually every day now we continue to receive calls from people of northern Manitoba concerned over access to quality health care. This past week, for example, we saw once again the closure of the Garden Hill nursing station, and that was due to a shortage of nursing. This past weekend I was phoned by several other residents concerning the fact that the only IC unit operating in northern Manitoba is at The Pas.

I want to ask the minister if he could tell the House why the other IC units in Flin Flon and Thompson are not operating, and when might they be operating full time.

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): The member in his preamble touched on an issue that we discussed yesterday, the need for more nurses at some of our First Nations nursing stations, certainly the issue of Garden Hill. Our department has been working with the federal government on that issue. I have indicated I will also follow up with my counterpart at the federal level on this issue. I am told that out of eight positions at Garden Hill, five were presently filled. I am told now, as of today, there are six that will be filled as of tomorrow. So that is certainly some improvement, but obviously there is a great deal more to be done.

In terms of the IC units that the member referred to, it is a follow-up to a question I had from the member for Flin Flon (Mr. Jennissen) a week or two ago, and again, that is a staffing issue that the RHA and our department are working on addressing.

Mr. Oscar Lathlin (The Pas): Madam Speaker, I want to ask the minister another question, and that has to do with the shutdown issue that he talked about last week, the closures that are happening in Thompson and Flin Flon. Does that have anything to do with the people wanting to go on vacation and on everything being shut down for the summer?

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): Again, Madam Speaker, that is in part what happens in terms of some of the summer requirements. On an overall basis, we made progress in terms of addressing the issue of recruitment and retention of health care professionals in the province of Manitoba, but everybody knows we continue to need more nurses in Manitoba. That is the issue when it comes to some of our First Nations communities, and that is also an issue in other health care facilities. That is why we have set aside $32.5 million for 650 nursing positions in this budget that members opposite supported. That is why we have set aside a $7-million nurse recruitment and retention fund. That is why there are more permanent positions being created in the health care system.

A number of steps are collectively being taken to address that very important issue of bringing more nurses into our health care system, and progress is being made and progress will continue to be made to eliminate that issue.

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Mr. Oscar Lathlin (The Pas): I want to ask the minister a final question, Madam Speaker, and that has to do with a patient from The Pas who had been looking to come to Winnipeg to get heart surgery. The minister last week advised me that he was going to check into the individual case and get back to me. As of last Friday, when I phoned the family, nothing yet had been resolved. Now I want to ask the minister again today what he has done to resolve Mr. Porter's rather serious situation.

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, I did follow up on that issue after a question from the member for The Pas, and I am certainly prepared to provide more information to him subsequent to Question Period today. But the information that I have been provided is Mr. Porter is considered an elective patient for surgery and therefore is being dealt with within that process. We have indicated that if the situation is emergent, when it comes to cardiac surgery, it is done within 48 hours, and if it is elective, there is a longer waiting period, recognizing that our waiting period in Manitoba, when it comes to cardiac surgery, is significantly reduced. We are now up to over a thousand cardiac surgeries annually in the province of Manitoba, a significant growth in all of that. The Health Sciences Centre alone is doing 50 percent more cardiac surgeries last year than two years ago. That is all because of the additional resources that are being dedicated to address that very important issue.

Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): Madam Speaker, last Wednesday after midnight, I visited a number of the emergency rooms in the city of Winnipeg. I can report that after midnight there were 14 people waiting at the St. Boniface emergency, 10 waiting in the hallways at the Seven Oaks and three in observation, 13 were waiting in the Misericordia, 10 children were waiting in the waiting room at Children's Hospital and over 40 were waiting in the waiting room at the Health Sciences Centre, some of whom had waited since three o'clock in the afternoon, and I was there after midnight.

My question to the minister is: in good conscience, how can this department spend $175,000 on propaganda Tory television ads when they could be spending that money trying to reduce waiting lists, trying to provide services, trying to provide intensive care units in the North for the members? How can they in good conscience waste $175,000 on Conservative propaganda ads?

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, waiting lists have come down significantly all across the board, whether it is in the area of diagnostic services like CT scans or MRI testing or bone density testing and similarly with surgery procedures, that they continue to come down in terms of waiting lists. As well, we are doing more and more surgical procedures. Our surgical volumes are up some 2 percent. We are doing this year alone some 600 to 700 more hip and knee surgeries. I have already outlined that we are doing more cardiac surgery.

I am sure that is one of the many reasons that members opposite supported this 1999 budget of ours, because we have dedicated $194 million more for health care, in large part to reduce some of the waiting lists and to continue to improve services.

We discussed at length yesterday with the member for Thompson (Mr. Ashton) the need to continue to provide information to Manitobans. Manitobans want information on their health care system, and I believe it is incumbent on governments to provide that health care information. I know the member opposite believes in providing information to Manitobans, and that is exactly what is being done.

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Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): Madam Speaker, can the minister tell me, in light of the fact that these new TV ads say that they are increasing dialysis and increasing the number of CT scans: who was the government in charge when our CT scan lists were the longest in all of Canada and when the government laid off a thousand nurses and when the dialysis program was in danger? Who was the government responsible for that?

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): Madam Speaker, I will gladly share with the member for Kildonan the information on how Manitoba stacks up today when it comes to issues like waiting lists for diagnostic services, like CT scans or bone density scans or ultrasound or other diagnostic services, as well as our comparisons when it comes to waiting times for surgical procedures, as well as how Manitoba stacks up when it comes to the number of positions per capita, the number of specialists per capita, the number of nurses per capita. That is all because we have continued to dedicate more and more resources to health care in each and every budget, today some 35.5 percent of all of the money we spend on behalf of Manitobans, $2.1 billion this budget alone which they supported, $194 million more to continue to address all those issues, improve services to Manitoba and have some of the shortest waiting times in all of Canada.

Mr. Dave Chomiak (Kildonan): Madam Speaker, my final supplementary to the minister, who I note did not answer the question and refused to indicate it was the Tories under whom we had the longest waiting lists: can the minister perhaps indicate to this House whether or not the minister or the Premier (Mr. Filmon) will have the courage to perhaps, since the waiting rooms that I visited all have TVs, will the minister and the government perhaps be willing to show these ads to the patients who are waiting in the waiting rooms at all of the hospitals, the Flin Flon Hospital, and Thompson ICUs, and will they be prepared to show these ads to the patients as they wait in the waiting room to get the service–

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The question has been put.

Hon. Eric Stefanson (Minister of Health): They are interesting questions from the member for Kildonan because he asks me about waiting lists. He asks me about hospital over-crowding, and I have outlined to him very clearly that we have made significant progress in both of those areas. In fact, our waiting lists now in many areas are amongst the best in Canada. They have gone down literally across the board, whether diagnostic services or surgical procedures, and that is exactly what this information is providing to Manitobans. It is providing them information on those two very important issues which I would expect he supports.

We have had lengthy discussions about the need to provide information to Manitobans on health care. We believe in providing information to Manitobans on their health care system. Manitobans want information on their health care system. The only people who seem opposed to providing information to Manitobans about health care are members opposite, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Gord Mackintosh (St. Johns): Madam Speaker, to the Minister of Justice. Other than the long overdue efforts to track gang members in provincial jails, the only other known little program of this government that deals specifically and in a targeted way with gangs is their gang hotline put in place before the last election, which the former minister said was extremely helpful.

My question for the minister is: would he tell us if the gang hotline is still being advertised, or was it only advertised before and during the last election?

Hon. Vic Toews (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Madam Speaker, I do know something about that gang hotline. It is something that the provincial government funded and that the City of Winnipeg is responsible for maintaining, and I understand that we are still paying the funds for the maintenance of that gang hotline.

Mr. Mackintosh: Would the minister, who tries to take full credit for this gang hotline from time to time, not agree, and the former minister, that if the gang hotline was extremely helpful several years ago when gang membership was a few hundred in strength in Winnipeg, it would be even more important, if not critical, now that known gang membership has escalated under this government to about 1,500 in Winnipeg alone?

Mr. Toews: Madam Speaker, I do know that in fact today there are approximately 830 inactive gang members. I think that is as a direct result of many of the initiatives that our government has taken.

Madam Speaker, I know that our government believes that convicted drug dealers and gang leaders should be behind bars. I know that members opposite want early parole for gang leaders and drug dealers. They, in fact, supported early parole for gang leaders and drug dealers.

Mr. Mackintosh: Well, this minister with a vivid imagination, I do not know where he was when we opposed early parole for Dwayne Archie Johnston.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. Would the honourable member please pose his supplementary question.

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Mr. Mackintosh: Would this minister explain why a message that was left two weeks ago today on the hotline still has not been returned? The hotline has gone cold. It is the gang cold line. That is how much they care about gangs, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The question has been put.

Mr. Toews: Well, I know, Madam Speaker, in speaking with the relevant authorities, that his office has called at least eight times, never left a message, never left his name, simply hung up. I know that he is checking up on the gang hotline, and that is good to see that the member from the opposition does that.

Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable Minister of Justice, to complete his response.

Mr. Toews: But, Madam Speaker, if he wants a return, all he needs to do is leave his name and number.

Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable member for St. Johns, with a new question?

Mr. Mackintosh: A point of order, Madam Speaker. I am sure the minister would not want to leave an untruth on the record. He should know full well that the call that was made was by people other than myself, no return phone call.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable member for St. Johns did not have a point of order. It is clearly a dispute over the facts.

Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): Madam Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice. The minister has spent a week highlighting his law and order policies. Yet, if we read today's newspapers, the City of Winnipeg does not seem to be co-operating. In fact, it appears the mayor seems to be declaring war on emergency workers, first cutting a pumper from the fire department, going after paramedics. Now he will be fielding fewer police officers in the coming years instead of more. Possibly the head of their union should have been as co-operative as Paul Moist was with mayoralty candidate Glen Murray.

Can the minister indicate if, before any of his current announcements, including an offer to boost the number of city police officers, he had at any time consulted with the city or the mayor, or did he simply take unilateral action?

Hon. Vic Toews (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Indeed, Madam Speaker, we continuously consult with the City of Winnipeg on a wide variety of issues, including policing. Indeed, the issue related to the Joint Forces Intelligence Unit was a proposal that was brought forward by the Criminal Intelligence Service of Manitoba which involved the City of Winnipeg, City of Brandon and the RCMP.

One will recall that a number of months ago I had occasion to sign the memorandum of understanding in terms of the creation of that, and there was some concern about the police chief not being in attendance at that particular signing. That was of course because it is the RCMP who are our provincial police force. However, I have certainly discussed the issue, and indeed our government responded to a request from those three police forces for the Joint Forces Intelligence Unit.

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Mr. Gary Kowalski (The Maples): Can the minister indicate if, while the province supplied money to support 40 additional police officers, in fact Winnipeg has put these officers in the street, or have they just taken the money and kept their complement down?

Hon. Vic Toews (Minister of Justice and Attorney General): Madam Speaker, I have had a number of conversations with the former mayor as well as this particular mayor, and I know that there are always issues of whether or not an agreement is being met on any particular day. I think, in these types of agreements where there are issues of human resources, that we see flexibility in terms of the staffing levels. We have tried to be reasonable. I think one of the things that we are trying to stress is, by putting these resources at the disposal of the City of Winnipeg, that we want to work together in partnership for a safe Winnipeg. I believe that we can continue to work together with the City of Winnipeg to ensure that outcome is achieved.

Mr. Kowalski: If the city is intent on cutting 100 police officers in order to achieve their budgetary objectives, is this government going to put its money where its mouth is and protect the half of Manitobans who live in Winnipeg by funding a greater portion of police services in the city of Winnipeg?

Mr. Toews: Madam Speaker, as I understand it, the mayor has made certain comments in respect of possibilities. These are by no means certainties. I know that other councillors, specifically if what we are to read in today's newspaper is correct, do not support that particular proposal. So this is an issue that city councillors must resolve on the floor of City Council.

I want to tell the people of Manitoba and the people of Winnipeg in particular that this government continues to be supportive of police services, as we see this as a very effective way of reducing the crime rate, and we want to work together with the city to resolve any issues that they might identify and that they might have.

Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): Madam Speaker, on January 18, 1996, the Scurfield report on the conflict of interest allegations against Michael Bessey was released. In spite of this report, this government has failed to take action on the very real problems of conflicts of interest with its senior civil servants.

It has come to our attention that a senior civil servant is now in the habit of loaning his own money at very high rates of interest to companies that have dealings with the same department he works for without disclosing to the borrower his employment in that department.

I want to ask the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism whether he will confirm that Ian Robertson, now assistant deputy minister and then managing partner of Financial Services for IT&T, personally loaned $50,000 for a one-year mortgage to a lodge operator whose loan application had already been turned down by the department, without disclosing that he, Robertson, was a senior official of that same department, Madam Speaker.

Hon. Mervin Tweed (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): I can advise the member opposite that when those suggestions were brought forward to my department, I asked the deputy minister to get involved immediately, and that, through him and the office of the Civil Service Commission, an investigation has been carried out. The conclusion of this investigation found that there was no conflict of interest with the person suggested by the honourable member.

Mr. Sale: Madam Speaker, how does the minister respond to Mr. Collette's assertion that Robertson had privileged information on Mr. Collette's business plan which could only have come from the business plan which Collette had not given to Mr. Robertson? How does he explain the privileged information that his own official had when he went and made a private loan?

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The question has been put.

Mr. Tweed: As I suggested to the member earlier, upon notification of the concern brought forward by Mr. Collette to my department, the deputy minister, along with the Civil Service Commission, carried out a complete and full investigation, and they found that in their statement back to us there was no conflict of interest.

Mr. Sale: Madam Speaker, I want to table the current guidelines of the Conflict of Interest Policy and I want to ask the minister: how does he explain the fact that Mr. Robertson, who is an assistant deputy minister covered by both this policy and by the legislative policy on conflict of interest, does not have a duty to report to his deputy minister his loan activities, not have a duty to disclose to his client his status in the department? How does the minister explain the failure of his civil servant to abide by his own conflict of interest regulations?

Mr. Tweed: Madam Speaker, again, being notified of Mr. Collette's concern, we have advised him, and it is available to all people who have a concern or an issue to bring forward that they have an alternative route that they can take. They can request that the provincial Ombudsman investigate, to review to make sure that the investigation was properly performed. If Mr. Collette so desires to do that, he is able to do so. But I would like to just confirm that the investigation carried out by the Civil Service Commission did indeed state that there was no direct conflict of interest.

Mr. Sale: Madam Speaker, on a new question, to the Premier. Does the Premier then approve of senior civil servants like Mr. Robertson, assistant deputy ministers, loaning their own private personal funds to companies whose information is clearly available to Mr. Robertson in files of the department Mr. Robertson works for, without disclosing to Mr. Collette or to any borrower his status as an assistant deputy minister in the department, giving Mr. Collette his business card, meeting with him in his own departmental office, never disclosing when he made the loan that he was an assistant deputy minister or a senior official of the department? Is that the conflict of interest policy of this government?

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The question has been put.

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, in all of these things we have to have a due process, and the process that has been followed has been one of taking the allegation and having it investigated by the Civil Service Commission, which is independent of government. The member knows that. As a former civil servant, I am sure he appreciates that.

So once that is done, if the investigation says that the allegations in some way are not as they appear to be, and then that in fact the civil servant is being supported by the investigation, we would have difficulty in overruling that civil service review. In fact, the member knows that we would leave ourselves open to a lawsuit if we did not follow the due process, the investigation and the recommendation.

So, if the member wants to have the matter looked at further, he has been given the avenue by the minister which was to suggest that the Ombudsman be called in, that that individual would have to then put his information forward and have the Ombudsman do the investigation. We have absolutely no reason why we would want to protect a civil servant who, it is assumed, has done something wrong. We have to go through a process though to verify whether or not all the facts are as they are being presented either in the letter of allegation by the individual or by the member.

Mr. Sale: Madam Speaker, then essentially is the Premier saying that he approves of an assistant deputy minister loaning money, meeting clients in his office, not disclosing his role when the money was loaned, using information which potentially is in a conflict, or it certainly has the appearance of being a conflict? The facts are on the record. Does the minister approve of this conduct?

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The question has been put.

Mr. Filmon: Madam Speaker, I am saying nothing of the sort. I am saying that when an allegation is made, there has to be a due process followed to investigate the allegation and to establish whether or not it is in fact the truth or whether or not there is something that does not appear to be as is presented, and we did not undertake that. We turned it over to an independent body, the Civil Service Commission, that is independent of government. We asked that they look at it, and they are in a position where they must not only enforce the conflict of interest rules of this government but they also must ensure that they protect the rights of an individual who is being accused. So they have to be very careful in terms of how they do it.

I have not seen the investigation or the report, but I am saying, Madam Speaker, that we would have difficulty not abiding by the report and in fact would probably open ourselves up to a lawsuit if we did not follow due process and then accept the results of the process as long as it is independent from government, which it is.

While I am on my feet, I am not sure what letters the member opposite, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer) was referring to at the beginning of the Question Period, so I will table with him the letter of the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Enns) to his counterpart, the Honourable Lyle Vanclief, dated the 8th of June, and my letter to the Prime Minister, dated the 7th of June, for his information. [interjection]

Sorry, the member did not give me any specifics. He is now saying it was from the Minister of Government Services (Mr. Pitura). I will go back and undertake to get that one as well, Madam Speaker.

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Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): [Ukrainian spoken]

I want you to know I can drive a car but in Manitoba I must take a written test before I can get a driver's licence, but our government does not allow me to take my written examination in Ukrainian.

I want to know why this government has cancelled testing in Ukrainian and will not allow me to take the test in my Ukrainian language.

Hon. Leonard Derkach (Minister of Rural Development): I understood the member's question from Swan River, asking why it is that people who speak the Ukrainian language could not write their driver's examination in the Ukrainian language. I believe, and this is something that I would refer to the minister who is responsible for Manitoba Autopac, but certainly I have had members from the Parkland area come to me who have come from a country recently and have asked that same question, and at that time they were allowed to take with them someone who could interpret the questions for them and could then respond in their own native language. I will certainly defer that matter to the minister's responsibility.

Ms. Wowchuk: I appreciate the Minister of Rural Development answering the question, but this government has to understand that there are many people who can drive but do not speak the English language and want to take drivers' tests. I want to ask this government why they have reduced the number of languages from over 20 languages down to 11, and they have eliminated Ukrainian as one of the languages that we can take a written test in. Why are you taking this right away from people who want to be able to drive in this province?

Hon. Gary Filmon (Premier): Madam Speaker, without accepting the veracity of the preamble, I will take that question as notice on behalf of the Minister of Highways and Transportation (Mr. Praznik).

Madam Speaker: Time for Oral Questions has expired.