Mr. Peter Dyck (Pembina): The member for Brandon East (Mr. L. Evans) recently referred to the 3 percent cut in personal income tax as equivalent to a cup of coffee per week. This analogy speaks volumes about the attitude of members opposite when it comes to the issue of taxes. Let us imagine, if you will, members opposite back in the mid-1980s during the dark tax-and-spend period of Manitoba's history. We know that the NDP believes strongly in the role of government–

Madam Speaker: Order, please. I am experiencing difficulty hearing the honourable member for Pembina.

Mr. Dyck: –to influence people's day-to-day lives, so they gathered round their caucus and decided that Manitobans drink too much coffee. What else could explain the province's high debt, high unemployment and struggling economy. So, in their infinite wisdom, they began a concerted effort to reduce Manitobans' caffeine levels. By the end of 1987, thanks to the creation of five new taxes and the raising of 16 existing taxes, Manitobans would no longer be able to afford to drink coffee. Even Juan Valdez and his donkey left our province as they were unable to continue their coffee business.

So, as we look back at the NDP's little social experiment, it did not work. Did Manitoba's economy grow? Did unemployment drop? Did the debt shrink? The answer, of course, is no. This cavalier attitude members opposite have in relation to tax cuts speaks volumes, so I suggest to them that the next time they are enjoying a cup of coffee, they think about the over 20 cups of coffee a week that they denied to Manitobans back in the 1980s. Manitobans are all coffeed out. Thank you.

Mr. Leonard Evans (Brandon East): I wanted to talk about the budget also, but obviously the members opposite are terribly sensitive about my searching question regarding the matter of coffee. My God, you are sensitive. I would suggest, if you do not like coffee, you can have hot chocolate or some other drink.

Unfortunately, the members opposite believe their own rhetoric on a lot of matters. They do not look at the facts. I mean, they blandly say the economy did not do well under the previous government, but the fact is the rate of job creation was much better under the NDP government of Mr. Pawley than it has been under this government. Definitely. Look at the numbers.

In fact, in 1992 and '93, the level of jobs dropped in this province. The former Minister of Finance knows that. It is in the books; it is in the statistics. So, Madam Speaker, do not confuse yourself with your own rhetoric. If you want to go blindly along pretending that your economy was so great compared to that which was under the NDP, well, you are just fooling yourselves, because the figures tell you otherwise.

Madam Speaker, they are also fooling themselves if they think they can sustain the level of spending in this budget. They are fooling themselves because, in the revenues here you have got, they have included monies from the Fiscal Stabilization Fund and the medium-term plan that is referred to in this document also has a budget surplus they are hoping for next year that is based on the same kind of a revenue base which would include monies from a Fiscal Stabilization Fund. They just do not have the money to put into it next year. Therefore, given the fact that this budget is predicting a poorer economy next year, lower levels of investment, lower levels of employment, lower levels of economic growth, there is no way under God's heaven that you are going to sustain–

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable member's time has expired.

Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): I have enjoyed the debate in here as much as anybody has today.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. The honourable member for Emerson was recognized to deliver his member's statement.

Mr. Penner: Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, again for giving me the opportunity, first of all to recognize the tremendous amount of work that has been done by many of the volunteers, specifically in southern Manitoba and in much of central Manitoba during the last three or four days of the tremendous devastation that we have seen by the fires that have been caused by we do not know who or by what. On Saturday and Sunday the community of St. Malo was in severe danger when fire came within half a mile of the edge of that community. It was only through the effort of local volunteers and local fire brigades that the fire was stopped from entering that community. Sundown had a huge fire going on Sunday. Menisino, Piney, Vita, Zhoda, La Broquerie, all of these communities were, at one point or another during the weekend, threatened by fire. It was the local fire brigades, the local Natural Resources officers and all the people that pitched in to fight these fires, they are the reason why we had no huge loss of real property in those areas.

So we thank, all of us in this Legislature, the efforts that were put into fighting these fires. Secondly, we thank the municipalities for having put in place the kind of resources that allowed these firefighting activities to take place by putting in place voluntary fire brigades, and all their women for providing services to these firefighters on this weekend that allowed the saving of these communities. So, Madam Speaker, I ask all members here to join me in thanking those communities.

Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute today to the work of the community board of the Winnipeg Airports Authority who had its annual meeting this morning, the fifth annual meeting that I have been privileged to attend. Its staff and its employees have had an incredibly successful year in making the transition to full community operation as a nonprofit, community-operated board.

At their annual meeting today–unfortunately, no members of government were present at that meeting–the board announced two very successful initiatives. One is that we will in July have the first direct connection to Denver in a number of years by Air B.C. Secondly, our airport is now in partnership with a corporation from Alberta in operating on a nonprofit basis community-based airports in North Bay, Ontario, shortly in Castlegar, B.C., and in St. Andrews. The expertise of this board is now being shared across the country, and it is a model of community organization and community entrepreneurial approach to the management of airports on a nonprofit basis.

This community board is also a model of accountability. I look at the annual report which has four pages of board accountability information in terms of meeting the standards set for for-profit as well as nonprofit corporations. They released their entire financial report with no holdbacks. They provided a two-hour meeting in which all questions were answered, in distinction, Madam Speaker, to the Urban Shared Services Corporation, the Winnipeg Health Authority, which will not even release financial information, let alone have open public meetings that would be accountable to the people of Winnipeg. It is simply unacceptable that boards that spend 100 percent public dollars hide behind the Minister of Health's statements, that these are owned by the hospitals. We own the hospitals, ultimately, and everyone who has been involved knows that.

So I offer my congratulations on behalf of my caucus and on behalf of the people of Winnipeg to the Winnipeg Airports Authority for a very successful year, both in terms of their accountability and in terms of their achievements.

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Madam Speaker, I just want to take this opportunity to make a quick comment on a point which we have raised in the past and will continue to do in the future, and that is in fact the whole issue of the property tax. Even though one can be quite supportive of the first decrease in personal income tax, there is a great deal of concern, that Manitobans share, that the government has totally ignored, and that is in fact the property tax. There is a need for government to address this particular issue, at least to give some reason to be optimistic that the government is not only going to take it seriously but is also prepared to take action. It is something which we believe is absolutely essential. It is something which we are committed to doing, and that is looking at the property tax in bringing direct relief to property taxpayers. Thank you.