Agri-Tec Canada Inc.
Mr. Peter Dyck (Pembina): Over a week ago the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism (Mr. Downey) announced that a Manitoba-based consortium for agribusiness will continue to pursue opportunities in offshore markets with the help of $35,000 in funding from the Manitoba government. As Minister Downey noted when he made the announcement, Agri-Tec has helped several of our agribusiness firms navigate the long and complex roads into overseas markets. With the organization's help, Manitoba companies have won new export customers and in turn created new jobs here in the province. This additional funding will ensure Agri-Tec's valuable marketing support continues.
As a group, Agri-Tec represents more than 800 jobs and more than $50 million in annual export sales. Under Agri-Tec's umbrella they are able to pool their collective expertise to compete against large multinational corporations. They exchange ideas, experiences and successes encountered individually, and they trade individual experiences for that of others.
From its Manitoba headquarters the organization helps member firms as they penetrate promising offshore markets, particularly in the grain-handling industry. Agri-Tec serves as a one-stop contact for agribusiness and its related project work and helps members deal with lengthy and complex business negotiations and volatile competitive markets. The organization also helps present the industry to trade missions visiting Manitoba.
Madam Speaker, this government has played a pivotal role in the development of Agri-Tec. Since its inception in 1988, Agri-Tec has helped member firms win seven major contracts totalling $10.9 million. Bids currently in progress involve several significant multimillion dollar projects. Working with Agri-Tec is another example of how this government is working to make Manitoba strong. Thank you.
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Manitoba Eco-Network Awards
Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): Last weekend, on Saturday, the Manitoba Eco-Network Awards Banquet was held following the North America Forest Conference. Awards were given to recognize individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to the protection of the Manitoba environment. Awards were given to the Mathias Colomb Band, Dr. Eva Pip, Harvey Williams and Dan Soprovich.
I want to extend my congratulations to all recipients, but in particular I want to recognize Mr. Soprovich who is from my constituency. I want to recognize him for the tremendous amount of work he has done to make people aware of the impacts of clear-cutting and overharvesting of our forests and the amount of work he has also done to try to protect our forests and wildlife habitat in the province.
You will remember that Mr. Soprovich was once the biologist who worked in the Swan River office that this government tried to muzzle when he raised serious concerns about the overestimate of volumes of hardwoods that were to be harvested under the Louisiana-Pacific agreement. It was Mr. Soprovich who raised concerns when they were given only two days to review 35 pounds of information in the EIA report.
It was this Mr. Dan Soprovich who was threatened by a local Tory executive, to say to him he would be transferred to Thompson if he did not do what he was required to do. But Mr. Soprovich was not to be muzzled, and he spoke very clearly, and he is recognized throughout the province and Canada for his efforts to protect and make people aware of the impacts of harvesting. We should not be afraid to listen to the experts in this field.
I want to commend Mr. Soprovich for his work and wish him well in his plans to do more work on cavity habitat of birds in the area and hope that this government will also show their support in his effort to get funds from the North American fund for environmental co-operation.
We have not had the support. I hope we hear it from this government. These are important issues to the province of Manitoba.
Winnipeg School Division No. 1
Mr. Mike Radcliffe (River Heights): Madam Speaker, I am pleased today to advise my colleagues that I had the occasion to attend the 125th anniversary celebration at Winnipeg School Division No. 1 yesterday. I read a proclamation from our Premier (Mr. Filmon) declaring October to be the month to honour Winnipeg School Division No. 1.
The motto for the occasion is, From a Log Cabin to the Universe. The growth of public education has been a vital and integral part of Manitoba's history, so it is fitting that we gathered yesterday to salute our first school division. All our colleagues in this Chamber celebrate the education system in Manitoba, and I would invite them to acknowledge the commitment and the care of teachers, of hardworking administrators, capable and enthusiastic students, supportive parents and other members of the community.
We believe that with educational renewal now spreading across Manitoba, an already good system will be made even better. Schools will do an even better job of preparing our students for the future in which an explosion of information and the globalization of the economy will shape their lives. An excellent education system remains critical to our prosperity as a society. We must think ahead and reshape our institutions to face changing circumstances.
Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.
Madam Speaker: Order, please. I am experiencing great difficulty hearing the honourable member for River Heights.
Mr. Radcliffe: I will repeat for the benefit of the member for St. James (Ms. Mihychuk), who seems to want to--
Madam Speaker: Order, please. Now, in my opinion, private members' hour is very important and every honourable member in this Chamber is a private member and has the right to put his or her views on in this two-minute time slot without interruption and with some respect. I would ask for the co-operation of both sides of the House in ensuring that that occurs.
The honourable member for River Heights, to complete his member's statement.
Mr. Radcliffe: Madam Speaker, I would continue, and say that we must think ahead and reshape our institutions to face changing circumstances, knowing that the world for which we are preparing our students is very different from the one to which we adults were educated.
Let me again offer my sincere best wishes and congratulations to Winnipeg School Division No. 1. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Education System
Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne): On September 16, opening day for the fall session of the House, the Manitoba Teachers' Society presented MLAs with an open and visible, a concrete form of a troubling question. The question appears on the outside of an envelope: Puzzled about Manitoba's future? The answer lies within when the puzzle pieces are put together to reveal the words: Public schools, the best investment in our future.
Now, envelope and puzzle are a metaphor, a metaphorical way of telling a government closed to other modes of communication, like consultation and reasonable discussion, that public education in Manitoba has been fragmented. The pieces need to be gathered and fixed together if we are to solve the mystery of our future. Manitoba Teachers' Society, operating on the assumption that one picture is worth a thousand words, has produced a picture, an image, a symbol, and to make doubly sure that the message gets through, they have, in the tradition of educators since Socrates, included questions and answers--sound pedagogy.
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The problem here is the students. The students in question, the current government and particularly the Minister of Education and Training (Mrs. McIntosh), they and she are slow delinquent learners, even failures. For example, they have failed again and again to put the pieces together to answer the puzzle's question and to see that government cannot invest in Manitoba's future by divesting itself of responsibility for public education.
The minister does not understand that attacking teachers and fostering a divisive educational community means denying our students quality education and denying Manitoba a future. At present, public education lies in fragments. A few more nasty bills may shatter the system, but we begin to suspect that shattering public education and shattering teachers is exactly what this government wants.
Manitoba Breast Screening Program
Ms. Becky Barrett (Wellington): Madam Speaker, I am glad to rise today in conjunction with the government to mark the first anniversary of the Manitoba Breast Screening Program and to highlight October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During the first year of operation, the Manitoba Breast Screening Program screened 11,500 women and in its second year of operation they have already booked their capacity of 15,000 screenings per year.
This program and others like it provide for an ongoing awareness of the options for early detection, diagnosis and treatment, which are increasingly important if we are going to conquer this disease. Particularly for women between the ages of 50 and 69, the combination of regular mammography screenings and breast exams has been shown to reduce mortality by as much as 30 percent. This is an incredible opportunity for us in Manitoba to continue this program.
On a more personal note, Madam Speaker, I want to say that not only do the screenings work but early detection can enable women to carry on full and productive lives, and we need go no further than the Honourable Penny Priddy, a minister in the British Columbia government who has been fighting breast cancer for years and at the same time has managed several very important portfolios in the British Columbia government.
Finally, I hope that the option that the government has said of opening a third site in Thompson and investigating the need to offer improved access for rural women throughout Manitoba with a mobile unit actually comes to pass so that, in effect, next year when we speak of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, even more Manitoba women will have been able to take part in this excellent program.
Committee Changes
Mr. George Hickes (Point Douglas): I move, seconded by the member for Broadway (Mr. Santos), that the composition of the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs be amended as follows: St. James (Ms. Mihychuk) for Selkirk (Mr. Dewar) for Thursday, October 3, 1996, for 9:30 a.m.
Motion agreed to.
Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the member for Morris (Mr. Pitura), that the composition of the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs for Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. be amended as follows: the member for Fort Garry (Mrs. Vodrey) for the member for Arthur-Virden (Mr. Downey); the member for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan) for the member for Gimli (Mr. Helwer).
Motion agreed to.