Mr. Mervin Tweed (Turtle Mountain): Madam Speaker, Manitoba's pork industry continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. Our province is leading all Canadian provinces in hog exports, and in 1997 Manitoba pork and pork by-products increased 97 percent over 1996. For the first time, pork exports have surpassed the $100-million mark, reaching $153.5 million in '97. These tremendous numbers are the result of an aggressive industry that has worked in co-operation with our province to market the Manitoba Pork Advantage.
This morning a ground-breaking ceremony occurred in the city of Brandon, a ground-breaking ceremony that marks the beginning of a $112-million state-of-the-art pork processing plant, a project that will create thousands of high-paying jobs and make our province the pork production centre of Canada. Our government is committed to working with the agricultural industry to facilitate future diversification opportunities, and continued co-operation between government, industry and local stakeholders pay benefits to all Manitobans.
My congratulations go out today to Maple Leaf and the city of Brandon. This partnership has already resulted in approximately $2.5-million worth of land being sold by the city of Brandon, and I am confident that this economic growth is but the tip of the iceberg.
I do hope that the member for Brandon East (Mr. Leonard Evans) continues to enjoy his window view of the new plant. As he watches the plant go up and sees thousands of Manitobans heading to work, I hope he reflects on the strong economic policies that this government has implemented to help make it happen.
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Mr. Conrad Santos (Broadway): Madam Speaker, last Friday Canadians awoke to find that another bank merger had been announced between the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Toronto Dominion Bank. Added to the proposed Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal merger, this means that 70 percent of the banking business will be controlled by just two banks in Canada.
While the stated goal of business, including commercial banks, is to promote competition, their actions are geared to wiping out competition. This projected bank merger--the banks hope to cut overall costs by 10 percent. They cut costs by laying off people who work for the banks, by decreasing bank services and by closing branches of banks, particularly in the inner city area and in the local towns like Lynn Lake. This is happening, despite the fact that the bank profits have been increasing and soaring. Last year alone there was almost over $7 billion total overall bank profits among the few banks that we have in Canada.
For Canadians, they feel that they have been gouged by these high service fees the banks are charging everywhere. They simply have less choices now, the consumers, the Canadians as consumers. When will the federal government act to protect consumers from this gouging and lack of competition. The proposed bank mergers would only make matters worse. There is no evidence that the federal government is willing to do anything about it, given that the banks have contributed too much money in the political coffers of both parties in the federal government. The NDP urges the federal government to act now. Thank you.
Mr. Gerry McAlpine (Sturgeon Creek): This past weekend, my wife Jeanie and I chaperoned an event at The Void. The Void offers young people in the constituency of Sturgeon Creek a safe place to spend their leisure time. The event attracted over 120 students from the middle and senior schools in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division, and there were also students at this event from Tec Voc, Gordon Bell, St. John's, and General Byng in Fort Garry. Students and staff of the St. James-Assiniboia Focus on Youth deserve congratulations for their hard work and commitment running a youth drop-in centre in our community since 1987, Madam Speaker.
The Void, located at 1970 Ness Avenue, has a gymnasium for physical recreation activities and a lounge area for crafts and conversation. Having such a drop-in centre provides our youth with an opportunity to develop their leadership skills through volunteer activities. The goal of all of those involved with the drop-in centre is to help the youth of today become the productive adults of tomorrow.
With the help of the program co-ordinator, Sarah McLachlan and The Void's volunteer committee, including Cory Narharnie, Glenn Cook, Tanya Lautermilch, Matt Miller, Daina Leitold, and Trevor Hyshrall, the centre has been able to host events for groups as large as 200 students. I am not aware of any other facility which boasts free admission that operates this extensively for young people on a year-round basis. I would like to congratulate our own Sarah McLachlan and all the volunteers, including the ones referenced, that make The Void such an inviting place for young people to spend their time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Gerard Jennissen (Flin Flon): The plans by the provincial government to gut Misericordia Hospital has saddened residents far beyond the city of Winnipeg. On March 27, a resident of Leaf Rapids, Mrs. Nettie Dearborn wrote to me stating that, as a patient of the breast care clinic at Misericordia, she disagrees with the government plans and strongly urges the government to drop plans to spread the service among several hospitals. She calls the plans ridiculous, and says the current service is helpful, professional and comforting. Rural Manitobans, like her, pay the $969 cost of having to get to Winnipeg from Leaf Rapids only to be shuffled around from institution to institution. She says the changes to the health system have been a joke. The clinic in Misericordia Hospital is perfect for many unfortunate cancer patients, so please do not try to fix something that is not broken, she says.
Earlier this month, in Leaf Rapids, I met many men and women concerned with what the impending changes for Misericordia would mean for the future breast services in this province. Over 40 residents of Leaf Rapids signed a petition opposing the government plans. Leaf Rapids residents, like Manitobans elsewhere, want their breast care program kept at one hospital--the Misericordia. The province should listen to the public and keep the breast program operating as is.
In this regard, a recent letter to the editor by J.R.M. Smith, the president of the medical staff at Misericordia Hospital, stated that, considering the debacle in pediatric-cardiac surgery, the horrendous system-wide inpatient bed shortages, which delay surgeries at other hospitals, and the congestion and chaos in emergency rooms, to deny patients access to the operating room services at the Misericordia is illogical at best.
Mr. Denis Rocan (Gladstone): Manitoba's potato producers are very close to achieving an important milestone that they have set for themselves. They are on their way to overtaking Prince Edward Island as Canada's potato-producing capital. Statistics Canada has released information which reveals that Manitoba's potato producers' income is $83,290, and including all farm sources of income, it reaches an average of $126,122 per potato producer. Our potato producers do so well because our potato farms are bigger here than in P.E.I. Although P.E.I. has nearly two times as many acres of spuds as Manitoba, officials note that if another potato-processing plant would open here, our total acreage of potatoes could surpass P.E.I. As a result, the price of potato-farming land is skyrocketing to approximately $2,000 per acre. As Reg Curle of Manitoba Agriculture stated, and I quote: We do not take a back seat to anybody in terms of potato farming.
I am very pleased to be able to bring this news to the floor of the House, and I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all potato producers and processors on the success of their industry. This goes to show that Manitoba producers are adapting very well to the post-Crow era. Successful processing plants such as Midwest Foods in Carberry and McCain's in Portage la Prairie provide potato producers with an excellent market for their crops; moveover, they employ a vast number of Manitobans in our growing agri-food industry. I would like to wish all potato producers the best as they begin a new farming season. Perhaps this season will see Carberry become Canada's potato-producing capital. Thank you.