MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

Manitoba School Science Symposium

Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): It gives me great pleasure today to rise and inform all members present about a young constituent of mine, Shane Niemez.

To put it mildly, Shane is a 15-year-old science whiz who is currently enrolled in Grade 9 at Stonewall Collegiate. His science project, which looked into the phenomena of toonies popping their centres, has received a great deal of praise and some controversy. What Shane discovered in his experiments was that the new $2 coins have hairline cracks that may result in the centres coming out. Using a black light and fluorescent penetrant that Boeing Canada uses to test aircraft templates, this young man was able to illuminate cracks in the seams of the coins about one-tenth of a width of human hair. Shane then had micrograph photographs, blown up 100 times, made of the results. His science project sampled 18 coins, of which 10, or 56 percent, displayed these cracks.

As a result of his experiment, Shane won a gold medal at the Manitoba School Science Symposium as well as second place from the American Society for Metals. However, not everyone appears to be impressed by Shane's project, specifically the Royal Canadian Mint, which questions the validity of his research and discounts his results. I would therefore like to encourage the Mint, instead of dismissing this ingenious young man's work, to review it, duplicate it and, most of all, acknowledge his work to ensure improvements are made in future coins.

So I want to congratulate Shane, and I would like to extend to him my best wishes in his future science projects. I hope he continues to challenge those who would dismiss him. His achievements are a testament to his family, his education, his community and, most of all, to all of us. Thank you.

Education System

Funding--Rural Manitoba

Mr. Clif Evans (Interlake): Madam Speaker, as a rural member, I have seen first-hand how the priorities of this government have affected the quality and potential of our education system for rural Manitobans. Many public schools in the Interlake do not have some of the luxuries of equipment and services that we see are so present in some of the elite private schools in Winnipeg that are being overfunded by this government.

The province has deliberately embarked on a program of reducing funding to public schools by over $40 million while boosting the funding to private schools. One private school in Winnipeg now receives over $1 million a year from provincial taxpayers. Along with this, they have been equipped with a Zamboni.

However, for rural communities facing this government's school tax hikes, layoffs of school teachers and staff, and shortages of equipment, along with reductions in courses, have affected many in rural Manitoba.

Madam Speaker, home economics and industrial arts, to name two, are courses that are in jeopardy in many schools across rural Manitoba. Distance education is not just a concept in the Interlake constituency. It is a right, and it is the future. For distance ed to work, the province must take a positive leadership role. Sadly, there is little evidence that this government has that commitment.

Public school funding should be predictable and stable in order to allow school divisions and parents to plan for the future. The current government has no more commitment to public education in rural Manitoba than it has to keeping other promises on Pharmacare, rural health care, using public funds for political advertising, or a host of other promises that this government has broken.

The provincial budget this year was a series of broken promises on these and other issues. Public education and our children have become a victim of the misplaced priorities of this government, which clearly either does not understand or care about the future of education and our young people in rural Manitoba. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Citizens Against Impaired Driving

Victim Services

Mr. Frank Pitura (Morris): It was my pleasure to be invited and to attend a very special dinner last night, May 22, 1996. The dinner was hosted by the organization known as Citizens Against Impaired Driving, or CAID. CAID was founded in 1981, and it is an organization comprised of Manitobans who share a common concern about drinking and driving, as well as victims and family members of victims of drunk drivers.

For the last 15 years, CAID has worked in co-operation with law enforcement officers and governmental agencies to bring about amendments to the Criminal Code for drunk drivers and to raise public awareness of the tremendous cost to our society that is meted out by those who drive while under the influence of alcohol.

Those of us who attended the dinner saw the effects that alcohol consumption can have when individuals take the liberty of getting behind the wheel when they are in no state to do so. Unfortunately, the price paid for this decision is often innocent people who have either been hurt or maimed or, regrettably, killed in alcohol-related accidents.

Fittingly, the dinner was held at the RCMP building on Portage Avenue, and it is these law enforcement officers who unfortunately must be among those who see the carnage wrought by thoughtless drunken drivers.

CAID has taken a proactive approach to dealing with this problem. CAID has organized victim services so that those affected have a resource centre to go to, a resource centre headed up by an individual who himself lost a spouse to an impaired driver. In addition, CAID raises funds to promote its efforts by means of annual golf tournaments, brunches and they also receive grant funding from the provincial Victims Assistance Committee and private contributions from families and friends victimized by impaired drivers.

The mission statement at CAID is to reduce the incidents of impaired driving and to provide education and emotional support to victims of impaired drivers in Manitoba. I was moved by what I saw last night and I ask that all members of this House support the mission statement of Citizens Against Impaired Driving. Thank you.

Teaching Profession

Collective Bargaining

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Madam Speaker, I wanted to add comment as a follow-up from Question Period with the document that was introduced by this government entitled The Report of the Teacher Collective Bargaining and Compensation Review Committee.

That document does cause great concern ultimately not only to teachers but to a great deal of Manitobans because of the impact that this document is going to have on all of us. In particular, I would recommend that individuals read page 10 and page 11, where in essence the whole free bargaining or the whole manner in which, I should say, arbitration works for teachers' agreements from the past, which have worked relatively well, is being taken apart. If you read through it people will begin to understand why it is that so many people are upset with the government of the day.

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What I wanted to comment on in addition to that was just the general treatment this government offers different individuals who work for the government in one capacity or another or a school division, and that is something which we take great exception to. It is based on confrontation as opposed to co-operation and consensus building. It appears to be more of a vindictive-type attitude. There has been, whether it is the home care service workers, or other health care workers, to teachers, we find that this government has an approach based on confrontation.

The bottom line of course is that we have found this government has been very lacking on public education and financing of education, as pointed out by our critic for Eduction. From 14.5 percent of the budget in '88, to 13.9 percent for 1995, it is an absolute disgrace the way in which this government treats its public education. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

CBC

Labour Dispute

Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne): Madam Speaker, 1996 marks the CBC's 60th anniversary as Canada's national public broadcaster. As a Canadian voice and presence on North America's airwaves and as a common electronic link for Canadians from coast to coast to coast, the CBC, both radio and television, have played a profound role in the development of Canadian culture and identity and is itself a Canadian institution.

Historically, its willingness to tackle all issues, including thorny controversial ones has earned the respect of Canadians and many Americans who regularly tune in to Sunday Morning, As It Happens or Ideas. These are merely examples, but CBC's 60th anniversary may be marred. About 7,000 workers, reporters, researchers, writers, administrators, clerical and support staff and security and technical staff have voted to strike on May 23, at 11:59 p.m., at midnight tonight.

The key issue is one we in Manitoba are familiar with and which we will no doubt learn more about--contracting out and at the same time laying off in-house staff. These practices are thinly veiled attempts to break worker and union solidarity. Behind this crisis lurks years of cutbacks first by Mulroney's Tories and then by Chretien's Liberals, urged on by the Reform Party.

Friends of Canadian broadcasting have put it succinctly. In a recent Globe and Mail ad we read, quote: these guys, Manning and Chretien are fighting over who can cut CBC the deepest. Reform's 1993 election promised cuts of $365 million. The Liberal 1996 budget and main Estimates cut $377 million from the CBC. By breaking a promise, Mr. Chretien has won round one. The losers, yes, are the workers but, even more, Canadian identity and culture and, most of all, Canadian people stand to lose intelligent broadcasting from sea to sea. Thank you, Madam Speaker.