Jim's Member Statements - 2000
December 12/2000
Private Members' Business:
St. James Senior Centre
I rise today to highlight some initiatives of the St. James Senior Centre. This centre services seniors in the ridings of Assiniboia, St. James and Kirkfield Park. These constituencies have very high concentrations of seniors, which is expected to increase over the next few years. I understand that the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is currently undertaking a needs assesment to integrate health promotion and prevention into the senior centre. As the centre is very well utilized in terms of social and recreational activities, including the Tae Kwon Do with Jane, who I previously talked about, and an expanding collection of athletic machines and activities, I think this initiative will integrate well into the senior centre and its activities. Another example of this initiative is the flu and pneumonia immunization shots offered in 1999. In 1999, actually, 680 people took the shot. This year, well over 1000 people got immunizations. Under the previous government the number was zero. It is using prevention instead of acting after the fact. Laurie Green, the primary health care nurse on site, saw over 300 clients last month working on issues like blood pressure, diabetes and other health concerns. I would like to commend the regional health authority, St. James Senior Centre, the senior staff, who help do preventive health care and prevention in a good community integrated philosophy for health care. Thank you very much for a job well done.
December 6/2000
Private Members' Business:
Volunteering Initiative
I rise today to bring all members' attention to an exciting initiative that is beginning this year in the St. James School Division. The division has instituted a minimum 40-hour volunteer commitment in order to graduate from Senior 4. This requirement breaks down to 10 hours per year minimum for all students from Senior 1 to 4.
I believe that this is an excellent initiative because it gets youth involved in the community, it teaches community responsibility, gives students valuable work and life experience, teaches skills that can be transferred to the workplace, builds confidence, reaches out and helps those in need and helps support the community. This project centres on the belief that individuals should contribute and volunteer to the greater society. This in turn will build the community spirit and strengthen our communities in the future.
I had the pleasure of participating in a volunteer affair for Senior 1 students at John Taylor last week. Forty community groups that utilize volunteers participated. Mary McCormick from John Taylor ran this event. Schools from Silver Heights, St. James Collegiate, Sturgeon Creek, Westwood all attended this activity. The students went from display to display getting information on volunteer opportunities as diverse as the Humane Society, Age and Opportunity, and Literacy Partners of Manitoba, among many others.
It was an excellent activity. The students were well focused and serious. I believe they will become excellent citizens in the future. I would encourage all school divisions to look at this. It is a wonderful opportunity of combining and partnering schools and the community, and I think it was wonderful. So thank you very much and have a good day.
August 15/2000
Private Members' Business:
Manitoba Derby
Good day, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to highlight a number of activities that have taken place in Assiniboia recently. The first event is the 52nd Annual Manitoba Derby. I had the pleasure of presenting the $100,000 first prize to Gordon Wilson, the owner of Scotman from Alberta. It was really an excellent race. It was very exciting, with a number of horses in contention. Breaker Breaker, the underdog, made a late charge and almost created an upset. That is a $100,000 horse basically competing against a $1,500 horse. It was a great afternoon of entertainment and it was a great pleasure.
I had the pleasure of meeting a number of people who travelled to this event from all over North America. They all commented very positively on the hospitality of the people at the Downs. With 5356 people in attendance, including a number of out-of-town guests, it was an excellent attraction, which provides many jobs and spinoffs within the province.
My congratulations to General Manager Sharon Gulyas and all her staff who always go that extra mile to ensure their guests have a great time and ensure Manitoba continues to build as a tourist destination.
The second activity I had the pleasure of participating in was the Grand Marnier Equestrian Competition put on by the Red River Exhibition. This event involved some of the best jumping I have ever seen. I would like to compliment the Red River Ex board and their staff on their efforts in branching out to new activities and broadening the use of the site. With only 80 out of 480 acres now developed at the Red River site, we can all continue to look forward to exciting new future attractions at the Red River Ex site. Congratulations. I invite everyone down to Assiniboia to see the new attractions that are being formed. Thank you.
August 9/2000
Private Members' Business:
St. James Senior Centre
I am really pleased to have been able to spend some time at the centre this summer. I would like to talk about some of the new and exciting programs that are available there. Some of the things that they are doing is they actually have a summer day camp for seniors who do not normally get out of the city or do not have a lot of mobility. What they do is they have a week where people go to a barbecue at the park. They have some day trips. They have activities, different types of crafts, et cetera. They do a lot of special activities like going to the zoo, going to the Goldeyes game, going to farms, et cetera. I am very pleased that people have this opportunity, and I think it is wonderful.
Some of the other things that are going on is, August 17, they are going to the Goldeyes. They are going on a trip to Minneapolis in August. Again, they are doing a unique thing: on September 13, they have their first annual golf tournament at Elmhurst. It is in partnership with Winnipeg Harvest. It is a charity golf tournament. The registration is $150. What they are trying to do is they are going to help Winnipeg Harvest and also provide good activities for seniors and people in the community.
Both myself and the MLA for St. James (Ms. Korzeniowski) would like to congratulate the St. James Senior Centre on their efforts in all the programs they offer to the people of St. James and Assiniboia. I would like to congratulate them and thank them for their continued efforts
August 2/2000
Private Members' Business:
Icarus 2000
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight a wonderful, innovative community fundraising event that will be held this weekend. This Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the Village Clinic has an annual fundraising skydiving activity named Icarus 2000 this year. This fundraising activity is used to raise awareness and create information on AIDS and HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. It also creates money so that people living with AIDS have some money for an emergency assistance fund in case they need funding for housing, for medical reasons or, of course, for just emergencies.
AIDS has affected over 34 million people around the world. In Canada, we have numbers of people, about 43 000 people living with HIV and AIDS, including over 630 children. In Manitoba, we have 767 people living with AIDS, with 131 deaths. This is a disease that affects the young, and it is very, very sad.
Therefore, I am very, very pleased to say that I am jumping in the parachute activity this weekend in order to raise money for this most worthwhile cause.
I would like to thank a number of other jumpers: Shirley Lord, Amber Anderson, Buzz Collins, and Eva Kovacks. I would like to thank the organizers who are Caroline Rickey and Gabrielle Hamm. Thank you very much for this wonderful activity.
July 25/2000
Private Members' Business:
Last Post Fund
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the Last Post Fund I attended on July 16, 2000. It was really an impressive ceremony. What happened was there was a columbarium that was dedicated on behalf of those people who served as veterans in the war or served in our armed forces in peacetime. It was very important because we owe so much to our veterans who through their devotion to duty gave us the liberty and freedom we now enjoy as Canadians. They have given us the lead, and they have served across the world and done a lot in wartime and peacetime that we can all be thankful for and our country can be thankful for.
This structure that was dedicated on that day will stand as a fitting tribute to their valour and sacrifice. It is also important that as they passed to their final reward, we ensure they are laid to rest with honour, respect and dignity, providing for them in death what they fought to give us in life. I commend the board of the Manitoba Branch of the Last Post Fund, Larson Memorials and a lot of people who gave of their time, the volunteers and those who worked towards this final project being finished. I am certain that this compassion, the dedication and the commitment that they showed to this project will really help the friends and families and the history of Manitoba which we all can appreciate.
Thank you very, very much for all of those people who helped on this valuable project.
July 19/2000
Private Members' Business:
St. James Collegiate
Mr. Speaker, today, I want to take a few moments to highlight the important work of some of the students at St. James Collegiate.
Recently both myself and the Member for St. James (Ms. Korzeniowski) made a contribution to enable two representatives of the St. James Collegiate Teens Against Drunk Driving, or TADD, to attend the National Convention of Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving held in Edmonton.
Angela Collins and Terence Hadley had a wonderful time at this conference and came back with many new ideas and renewed energy for the entire TADD group.
This group has been very, very active throughout the years. Their adviser has been doing some wonderful work in creative activities.
As many of the members here are aware, TADD groups exist all over the country, bringing together young people in a common goal to stop their peers from drinking and driving. Every summer drinking and driving results in countless tragedies. The members of TADD use creative methods to educate people about the dangers of drinking and driving. They also help each other make responsible choices about alcohol consumption and create a positive peer pressure to avoid drinking and driving among youth.
I am sure all members of this Assembly will join myself and the Member for St. James (Ms. Korzeniowski) in congratulating this TADD group and all
TADD groups on their hard work and worthwhile efforts to promote safety and responsibility among young people. This will lead to a much, much safer environment. Thank you very much.
July 12/2000
Private Members' Business:
Golden West Centennial Lodge Auxiliary
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of the entire House the efforts of the Golden West Centennial Lodge Auxiliary. The purpose of this group is to have fundraisers and have family get-togethers for the residents of the Golden West Centennial Lodge. This group ensures that people who have contributed so much to our society are not forgotten in their later years.
Some of the activities that this group plans on a regular basis are Christmas celebrations, Mother's Days, Father's Days, Canada Day barbecue, and many, many other activities. There are approximately 50 volunteers, and the volunteers come from all over the city. Some people who started out as volunteers when their family members were residents continue even after family members pass on. Their dedication is awesome.
The Auxiliary provides corsages and boutonnieres to each resident on their birthday. Every resident receives a Christmas present. Everyone gets something at each activity. The Auxiliary has also provided microwave ovens, coffee and tea urns on each floor, and locking cabinets for each resident. They have also contributed to make Golden West Lodge more like home, including putting in wallpaper borders, decorating rooms, and floral bouquets at Christmas.
At Christmas the volunteers outdo themselves including decorating the entire facility, six Christmas trees and providing presents. Irene George, as an example, has even gone the extra mile in decorating her mother's room closely resembling the room she had at home, while still complying with provincial standards. This made the transition into Golden West much easier and is an excellent example of the Auxiliary's work. The Auxiliary has also involved community businesses to assist in their many functions, including providing food, donations and prizes. I would like to thank the Golden West Auxiliary for all their efforts enhancing the quality of life for the 116 residents of the Golden West Centennial Lodge.
July 10/2000
Private Members' Business:
Bill and Michael Bilous
I would like to rise today to recognize the efforts of Bill Bilous and his son, Michael, in Assiniboia.
These fine gentlemen have been spending a great deal of effort coaching and promoting the development of a soccer program in Assiniboia. These two have spent countless hours working with the youth, age 10 boys, in developing skills and, more importantly, a very, very positive attitude. This year they played out of Assiniboia West Community Club, and they coached a team called Impact, 10-year-old boys. They played indoor soccer. Sixteen boys played. In the previous year they had zero wins, this team. This year, with a lot of practice, a lot of dedication and a lot of commitment, they became B side winners. That was really important.
This past summer is the first time St. James ever entered the A league in soccer. The team combined Kirkfield, Woodhaven, Assiniboine West boys, 33 boys tried out, and 16 eventually joined the team. They had an excellent attitude. They had great parental support. They had a really good spirit. Michael and Bill told me that the kids go to practice, they try hard and they give it their all. Anyhow, they were undefeated in league play, and they had a great, excellent year.
I would like to thank and congratulate Mike and Bill Bilous for the thousands of hours they have donated to their community, their community-minded spirit, commitment and dedication to the future of our province. I would like to thank Michael who has played in the premier league for Winnipeg Dynamo, and has represented the province in soccer. He really leaves an excellent legacy. Thank you.
June 27/2000
Private Members' Business:
Jarino Timmerman
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to bring the entire House's attention to a remarkable man. His name is Jarino Timmerman of 3200 Portage Avenue. This man was born in 1909 in Rotterdam, and right now he swims for Assiniboia and trains at the Centennial Pool in sunny St. James. He moved to Assiniboia in 1992 and took up competitive national swimming at 78, about 20 years ago. He has represented Manitoba and Canada at the senior swim competitions since. He holds 12 national records.
In 1989 he started with the World's Masters and won the 400 gold and the 100- and 200-metre freestyle and came second in those. In 1990, he won gold in the 50, 200 and 400. In 1991, he won in the 50, 100, 200 and all those in the freestyle. In 1993, he went to the U.S. Nationals and came first in the 800 metres, first in the 200 metres, second in the 150 metres. I will now skip to the present, and he has a lot of other records.
In 1998, he went to the Nationals in Québec where he won the 100, 200 and 400 gold medals in the freestyle. This year he will travel to Munich to represent Manitoba and Canada in the World's, and at 91, he figures that he has the best chances for a world championship.
I wish him and all the people in the competition well, and I wish him a great trip and much success. Thank you
June 21/2000
Private Members' Business:
Fairlane Children's Centre
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to bring the entire House's attention to a wonderful celebration that I attended in Assiniboia on June 14. The Fairlane Children Centre celebrated their 25th anniversary with children, present staff, parents, former staff and many people of the public in attendance. It was a great celebration with lots of good food, interesting speakers and excellent company. It was a great celebration had by all.
This child care centre was incorporated February 4, 1975, as the St. Charles Tot Stop. The first location was in the annex of the St. Charles United Church on Isbister Street with only 24 children and limited resources. I would like to recognize Karen Kumka as the original founder and visionary for the centre.
On May 1, 1989, the centre moved to Hedges School and the name changed to Fairlane Children's Centre on December 18, 1989. Presently, the centre has 32 children aged from 2 to 6 combined with a preschool program and a very good special needs program that meets the needs of some children who have disabilities.
I would like to congratulate the entire staff: Connie Mozdzen, Lois Pruden, Laureli Ellis, Robyn Slominsky, Chad Stevenson, Nichole Oryniak, Sheryl Taylor, Karen Todd, and Paul Janz, and all the children and the staff and their parents for the 25th anniversary. I was really, really pleased to see a well-run, well-organized centre that provides multiple services to the children of the area. Thank you.
May 29/2000
Private Members' Business:
Ness Middle School
Good day, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to bring the attention of the House to a wonderful extracurricular program that is being operated in Ness Middle School. This program, which involves the choir and choral groups, is run by Charles Mitterndorfer, who is the band teacher, and Ed Reynolds, who is the choral teacher.
These gentlemen took a group of Grade 7s and 8s to Minneapolis, U.S.A. There were 25 kids in the Grade 7 jazz band and 60 kids in the Grades 7 and 8 concert band. This festival had kids from all over the U.S. competing from May 5 to 8. This school brought a total of 120 kids, counting the band kids and the choral people. There were eight chaperones involved, and I am pleased to say that they won gold medals in both the band competition and the choral competition. In the adjudicated festival, they won the best performance in the festival.
Anyhow, their mission project involves students who practise at lunch and before school. So does the other program. The Project and Mission kids practise before school. They donate their time all the time.
The kids also competed in the Optimist Music Festival in March and won gold medals for band and choral and are invited to compete in the nationals in Ottawa next May.
These kids are outstanding in the performing arts. They are committed very heavily. The parents are committed very heavily, and I would like to commend the administration, the staff, the students and the people who commit the hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteer time to make this program possible. I would like to congratulate everyone.
May 29/2000
Private Members' Business:
Mrs. Jane Seal
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring the House's attention to an amazing community-minded lady. I would like to bring to the attention of the House a Mrs. Jane Seal of 758 Buchanan Boulevard who is 84 years young. Last Friday she received her second-degree black belt in tai kwon do. This lady has spent the previous 22 years as a volunteer teaching fencing in the Buchanan School to youth in this community.
She has also spent the last four years as instructor of a tai kwon do class out of the St. James senior centre. What happened was four years ago she started tai kwon do at the young age of 80. Two years ago she got her black belt in tai kwon do, and twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, she teaches the young'uns, people 55 and older, in tai kwon do. This Friday, she got her second-degree black belt. I have to admit that if I have half her energy at 60, I would be very pleased.
This lady just does not quit. She volunteers her time in the St. James senior centre, she volunteers her time in the community, and she has given to the community-minded activities for multi, multi years. She is just a wonderful person that I hope we can all emulate in the future. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
May 18/2000
Private Members' Business:
John Taylor Musical Production
I rise today to bring notice of the entire House to a wonderful event that happened in Assiniboia. John Taylor Collegiate presented The Sound of Music. In it we have some people of particular note to mention. One, Mr. Ross Shaver who was performing as visual arts department head. He did a wonderful job with hundreds of students preparing the music. We have a number of other people. We have Jim Stewart who has produced 25 musicals in a row over 25 years, and that has helped thousands and thousands of students. We have Meridith White McMahon, who contributed her time and expertise to do the sound. We have the choreography from Paula Olko. Again, it was a very, very beautiful presentation. The costumes were done by Linda Liberta.
Anyhow, what I would like to say is that this is a perfect example of people devoting time and commitment to our youth and to the future of Manitoba. This goes together with our Lighthouse schools, will keep the youth busy in Manitoba, will give good positive role models and create wonderful opportunities for the youth of Manitoba.
I would like to congratulate all the students, the staff and volunteers of John Taylor for an excellent production. Thank you very much.
May 12/2000
Private Members' Business:
Assiniboia West Tournament of Champions
I rise today to recognize the ongoing dedication of the board and members of the Assiniboia West Community Centre in hosting their 29th annual Assiniboia West Tournament of Champions. This year, the hockey tournament, the largest in western Canada, was held over the course of 17 days, using 6 different arenas, 2300 players from-well, 155 teams took part in 8 age divisions, playing at 20 different skill levels. This is a huge tournament, and it was a huge success.
The Assiniboia West Tournament of Champions offer young hockey players, both male and female, the opportunity to develop and display their skills. It encourages young people to challenge themselves, to play their best as individuals and as part of a team. Recognition for the success of this event must go to all the players, their coaches, their families and the hundreds of volunteers who support and encourage them season after season.
Particular recognition for developing and hosting this tournament must also go to the people of Assiniboia West Community Centre, the tournament organizers, their chairperson, Mr. Jerry Jones [phonetic], and the 250 volunteers whose efforts and time paid off so well.
I invite this Legislature to join me in commending these and all the dedicated volunteers across the province, who by example helped people become better athletes, better sports, and better citizens of Manitoba. Let the games continue.
May 8/2000
Private Members' Business:
Commercialization in the Classroom
I would like to answer the honourable members opposite, some of their discussion on this commercialization in the classroom. As a previous school administrator and working on the board, and working actually with school education-business partnerships, I have had a lot of experience in this and would like to respond to some of your issues that you have brought up and some of the discussion points.
The first discussion point is probably the most essential. The Minister of Education (Mr. Caldwell), according to The Public School Act, section 3, part 1, does have the authority to establish course of study, including the set of instruction time, the authorized programs, the materials for use, and, of course, how they are conducted. That is, The Public School Act gives the Minister the power to set the curriculum. The other thing is that the Minister has the right to say what is taught and what is not taught in our classroom. Exercising this is, in no way, an infringement on the right of the school boards. School board autonomy has not been jeopardized by the Minister's decision to prevent schools from signing or extending agreements within a corporation.
It is important to note that the curriculum must be maintained, and it cannot be commercialized. The other thing is we have to talk about what a public and a private corporation partnership is all about. By doing that, I have gotten some research on what a partnership has to deal with.
The purpose of an education curriculum is to enhance the quality and relevance of education for the learners. It has to be curriculum based.
Now, for those of us who do not have an educational background, what that means is curriculum is outcome based. That means educational outcomes. That means you are looking for growth in a student. You look for growth by sitting there taking the inputs and coming out with academic outcomes. You do not sit there and say, we are going to put in x and come out with a product. What you are saying is you are looking at the kid, you are devising an education curriculum, you are devising systems by which the student can improve academically. You do not sit them in front of a classroom television and then expect them to learn x, y and z. That is not an appropriate curriculum input nor an outcome. Time in front of a television is not educationally sound. It is not an appropriate outcome, curriculum- or academic-wise.
The other thing is that all successful business-education partnerships need to talk about the learner's needs and come out with the outcomes in consultation with all partners. Again, YNN does not meet this criterion. What happens is they sit in front of a TV. That does not come up with educational outcomes.
It has to express behaviours and outcomes for all participants that can be measured. Again, how can you measure the productivity and the outcome of sitting in front of a TV listening to a news or so-called news show? It does not work like that.
In order to have an effective partnership between business and education, what you need to do is you have to ensure the quality and relevance of education for all learners. Again, if you have a canned academic program coming out from one sort of group, it does not meet the learners' needs. It does not meet the curriculum needs. Therefore, a TV broadcast from Ontario does not have relevance to what the teacher is supposed to be teaching, does not have relevance to what the students are being examined on or tested on. Therefore, what has to happen is that it has to have relevance, which a TV show canned from Ontario does not have, and quality.
I was able to look at a couple of the early YNN broadcasts, and I do not think it meets either criteria of a successful business-education partnership. It must mutually benefit all partners. What that means is the students have to benefit. Yes, the school has to benefit, but basically we want to have a student-centred educational program. YNN is not student centred. It must treat fairly and equitably all those served by the partnership. In this case, the school board may win. The actual equipment in the classroom might be enhanced, but the students, again, what you are doing is you are taking time away from academic growth. The purpose of a school and the purpose of curricular time is to allow the student to grow academically. YNN does not do that.
The most important part of a business-education partnership is to allocate resources to complement and not replace public funding for education. What you want to do is enhance the education. So what you want to do is not replace what is being done by the curriculum. You are not trying to replace what is done in the classroom. You are trying to enhance it.
Now, those things that I just talked about, it is important to know that it was the Conference Board of Canada in their Business-Education Partnership Forum that talked about that. That is not a group that generally is very left wing. What they are is the right-wing corporations who have said, what is the successful business partnership? They have said that it is not supposed to benefit the corporation. It is supposed to benefit the education of the individual student. It is nice to see that our government philosophy is doing the same thing. It is not benefiting only for the cash, only for the equipment that can be acquired, but what it is doing is we are worried about what the students are learning and how they are learning it, and that, I am very proud to say, our government is following.
In the past, as Frontier School Division co-ordinator of work education, et cetera, what I did was I set up business-education partnerships, and all of the partnerships had to do with working on what the students needed to do in the long term to benefit them either socially, personally, et cetera.
I would like to respond to some of the things my honourable friend from Portage la Prairie (Mr. Faurschou) raised. He said: Why not use recess time? Well, we have all shown that lifelong activity, exercise, is really critical for students. The actual ability to interact with each other becomes a lifelong learning process. You need to know how to interact with people. You need to have active life. The kids often sit in front of the TV too long now. After school they sit in front of the TV; they sit in front of the computer. What we have to do is give our students, our children of Manitoba, the opportunity to be active, get active, and live a lifelong learning with lots of activity, lots of energy.
We do not want to be where we are the couch potatoes of North America. We want our kids to enjoy recess, to interact and have fun during recess and give them a break. We should not be taking young kids and making them so that they have to sit all day with no breaks in the classroom. That is inappropriate education, and for those opposite who are not educators, you do not have young kids sit all day. You have to have activity.
The other thing is that we have to worry about the subliminal messages that are given. I can remember many years ago I was driving with my niece who was 2 years old at the time. I asked her where she wanted to go eat, and at 2 years old she says: McDonald's, good food, priced right. I thought about that afterwards. Originally, I laughed very hard because it was a very strange comment to me, a little 2-year-old girl sitting there, saying that. But then I started wondering what happens with the subliminal messages that are brought to us every day. Every day.
So a few years ago I had the opportunity to go to a conference in Toronto on business-education partnerships, and I was appalled by what some school divisions around the country and in the States do. I went there, and we saw where some corporations actually pay for the textbooks and put in the curriculum in the actual schools. So it is no longer one car and one car; it is one hamburger and one hamburger equals how many hamburgers. You start wondering about that.
You get computers that what you do is you turn them on, and they have a nice corporate message, a commercial, before you get to use the computer. [interjection] Yes, you do get that in Grades 2 and 3. You get all sorts of interesting things where you get a message as, oh, the Canadian dollar might not be at the same par as the American dollar, so you cannot buy Nike runners at the same rate as your American counterpart. You start wondering about the subliminal messaging that is being given to the youth. You start wondering about the corporate messaging that is given to youth.
What happens is that sometimes you have to allow the kids to have an educational pause where they know that they can develop critical thinking skills, where they can start looking where they are not inundated by advertising like on TV. Every show seems to have materials that they sell afterwards. Every TV show, every movie has that; every skate, every sport, everything has gotten so commercialized that we have to start taking it where we wonder what message we are giving to their kids. Are they just a commodity where all they have to do is buy and sell?
I think that our party is taking a stand toward some commercialization where we say we have to stop sometime. Our kids are not for sale. Our schools are not for sale. I am happy that I am with that party.
I look at some of the people, like in Flin Flon. I know the members opposite referred to Flin Flon. I have had a response from the superintendent in Flin Flon. The superintendent in Flin Flon has done some interesting partnerships that have benefited the kids. He has done some wonderful things where he has worked with kids on curriculum-based material. He has taken them and shown them how to partner with businesses and business-work education opportunities where kids get an ability to work with professionals. He also has got where the kids actually run their own businesses, but, again, using the curriculum. Therefore, the kids are interested in it. He is using curriculum, and he is working with the kids to develop academic and social skills so that the kids are tied to the learning.
The YNN does not do this. YNN is, in fact, commercialization at its worst. It is where we are trying to sell classroom time for economic benefit, and it is wrong. One of the things we should take note of is we wanted to make sure that we have an education system second to none. I agree with the members opposite where what we have is when we are working with our education system, we are working with our future, Manitoba's future, and it is critical to do it right. It is critical to have the best education system that is possible.
You do not do that by having 10, 12, 15 minutes outside of our classroom to watch TV. In the case of Coke, in the case of other advertising, what we want to do is we want to have passive advertising, not active advertising. When you have a group of students forced to sit and watch TV in classroom, that is active; that is incorrect. When you have a Coke machine in the hallway to earn money for academics, that is a little bit different. I think that is where the line is drawn. The line is drawn where it is not curriculum time, it is not instructional time, it is not school-base time, but what it is it is outside school hours. It is outside our curriculum. We will not change that.
It is important to take the time to make students computer literate. So, if they are spending time in front of a computer, it should be for computer literacy, to ensure technical proficiency. I think what we have to do is start focussing on positive business-education partnerships where kids can get exposed to careers. I think it is important that we spend some time having the kids become critical thinkers. I think it is very important that we take the time and have the kids become good, solid citizens, but I do not think you do that through the use of YNN, sitting in the classroom in front of a TV and responding.
I think it is really critical that we drew the line in the sand. I am very proud that our party has chosen that we do not commercialize our classroom and our learning system. Thank you very much.
May 1/2000
Private Members' Business:
Post-Secondary Education
Accessibility and Affordability
I would like to thank the Member for Portage la Prairie (Mr. Faurschou) for another good resolution. I have to agree with him. We do need, it is essential that we have affordable post-secondary education. As our economy and jobs continue to become more technical, be more difficult, what we have to do is have an educated workforce. We have a choice in this province whether to head to the top and be the best trained, best skilled, and have good solid employment and compete at the high end, or we have a choice as to whether we are going to do low-skilled, low job, et cetera. We want to do the high-skilled, high job.
What we want is we want a job where people feel like staying in the province. What we want to do is have the jobs where people can earn a decent living, where people have a decent future. So, if we can create an environment where people can get educated, where people have high skills, a high degree of training, employers will come here and provide employment to those individuals. If those individuals have a decent standard of living, have a decent job that they can go to, they will stay in Manitoba. They will raise their families in Manitoba and help the whole economy.
So it is essential that, rather than compete at the low-wage, low-skilled jobs, what we have to do is make education affordable, make training available, so that we can compete at the high end, and this Government is going to do that. We are committed to maintaining affordable post-secondary education for all Manitobans. That is not just having jobs or education opportunities available in Winnipeg, but what we want to do is investigate distance education programs, investigate different ways of delivery so that education is accessible to all Manitobans.
In the past, I worked for Frontier School Division. In Frontier School Division, which encompasses two thirds of the province, what would happen is it would cost a fortune for kids to come down to Winnipeg and take post-secondary education. What we can do is real easy. If we offer things by distance ed, if we offer things by computer-assisted learning, if we offer different methods, we can have them where the tuition, which is only a small part of their entire cost of going to school, if we offer alternative methods of delivery then what will happen is school is cheaper. By making school cheaper, more kids can take it. By making education more accessible, then we can actually have a system where more people are trained, more people can fill jobs, and we can go further as a province.
During the election, we pledged to give students hope by reducing tuition fees by 10 percent. This is essential. In the last decade, tuition fees doubled. It is interesting to note that two years ago I took a university course, one single course. The course cost more than my whole first year university cost counting books and tuition. That is ridiculous. When I went to school and university, I was able to actually go work for the summer and have a part-time job and afford university tuition, afford the books.
An Honourable Member: How many decades ago was that, Jim?
Only two-and-a-half decades ago, I was able to work in a job and be able to afford school without a debt. What has happened is that in the last few years tuition has gone up so much that almost every student is forced to work very, very hard to scrape and strive to get enough money to borrow money to acquire money to go. What has happened is that more and more students are going part time rather than full time. More and more students are taking longer to complete their degree and their training because they cannot afford to pay the tuition and the costs. More and more students are forced to go part time rather than full time because they cannot afford it.
So what we have to do as a government is make education accessible by lowering the tuition and keeping the tuition reasonable. We cannot allow people, students to mortgage their future. We cannot allow them to take longer and longer to go to school and finish their post-secondary training. We need to do it now.
Of particular interest to me are some of the programs, like apprenticeship. We must do something about apprenticeship. People in apprenticeable trades are growing older and we have not done anything strongly to address this issue. What we have to do is increase the opportunities for apprenticeship, increase the opportunities for co-op education.
Again, with Frontier School Division, one of the things I was doing was developing business education partnerships, and what we have to do is have students get the experience necessary to become productive members of society. The way you do this is develop the co-op programs, develop apprenticeship programs so that people have a chance. We can fill the vacancies that are coming, because a lot of the tradespeople presently are getting a little older. What we are going to have to do is look at replacing them in the workforce. That is where our post-secondary plan has to come up. We have to plan in the future to fill the vacancies in our economy.
The next thing is we have to increase the enrolment across the board in all our colleges. It appalled me when I found out that we had, I believe it was, the lowest participation rate across Canada in colleges. Well, those are the jobs that are the backbone of our society. Those are the jobs that build the bricks and mortar. They are the ones that fix the infrastructure. They are the ones that work on the tools that make our society run. What we have done is we have neglected the college sector. We must take our time, build up the college sector in the technical and trades skills, and this is essential. We cannot allow our community college enrolment to be the worst in the country.
Manitoba's community college enrolment rate for students between 18 and 21 is among the lowest in Canada, 5.6 percent compared to a national average of 24 percent. That is very, very sad. We believe, and I believe, that Manitoba's college and university tuition fees should be among the lowest in Canada so that people are able to afford these training systems.
Now what happens? If people can afford the post-secondary training, then what happens is they can get into the employment, get a decent job and start paying taxes. This is a positive input to society.
At the Manitoba Century Summit-and the Chamber of Commerce has said time and time again, the No. 1 problem is lack of skilled, trained employees. It is the Government's role to fill that need. So what we have to do is look at how we fill the spots. We have to set up the programs. We have to fund them appropriately and allow a tuition fee that people can afford. So what we need is programs and we need the fees. We cannot allow what happened in the last decade where we allowed the tuition fees to double. We cannot allow that to happen. We have to control tuition fees.
We need the highly skilled workforce. We need a tuition fee structure that people can afford. We need a system where all Manitobans have accessibility to post-secondary education. More importantly, we cannot mortgage our future for our province and our students to long-term debt.
The other exciting thing is using technology. I think that this government is taking a good shot at distance ed technology, interactive technology, computer education, and I think that is essential. For people outside Winnipeg and Brandon and The Pas, to take courses costs a small fortune. Why? Because they have to not only pay the cost of tuition and books, but they also have to pay the cost of relocating and the room and board and the apartment rent, et cetera. By using new technology-[interjection] We have it. You are right.
By using the new technology, we will reduce the amount of money it costs. By using the new technology and investing in the technology, we will be investing in Manitoba's youth so that we will have a future, regardless of where they live. A lot of my students from Frontier School Division, one of the major problems is that they could not afford university or college or post-secondary training. What this means is that by using the Internet, by using other methods, they will be able to afford to get the skills so that they can become productive members of society, faster and better.
During the summit, the representatives from business, labour, government and the community met and said that this was our No. 1 priority. What we are going to do is work together with all our partners, work together with the colleges, with the universities, with the employers, with the students and develop a plan and a system where people can afford to get post-secondary education and also be able to become productive members of society. Thank you very much.
April 27/2000
Private Members' Business:
Proposed Resolutions
Graduated Driver's Licences
Good day, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to state my support for graduated licensing and this whole idea.
I had the privilege of serving on the graduated licensing task force, and I would like to publicly thank the Member for Transcona (Mr. Reid), who was the head of the committee. He has done lots of different activities. I would like to thank the members for Brandon West (Mr. Smith), Flin Flon (Mr. Jennissen), St. Vital (Ms. Allan).
We ended up going and having 15 hearings. During the 15 hearings, it was truly amazing how many people actually participated, came out and actually got involved. We talked to hundreds and hundreds of people.
The interesting part about this process is that we did not have a final product in mind. We wanted to see what the public had to say. We wanted to hear what their ideas were in looking at the whole driver's licensing system.
It is interesting to note that in a survey for graduated licensing that 82 percent of the population supports the theory behind graduated licensing. Not only that, but it is not just a rural or urban issue. It is across the board as far as urban people support it, rural people support it, young people support it, and older people support it. So across the board Manitobans support this concept.
What it is is a system of licensing that allows people to learn how to drive properly. It is really strange in our society that we have training courses to teach many, many things. If you are going to be any type of profession, you go through a many-years training course. If you are going through most machinery, you go through a major training course. Driver's licensing, though, is a very simple project.
Right now, what you do as a process is you write a simple written test, you drive for 10 minutes, and you can get your licence and drive anywhere in the world. That means you can drive on the 401. That means you can drive on highways. That means you can drive in any conditions with minimal training or no training. So what we do is we have to set up a system that is fair and that is appropriate for all novice drivers, not just young drivers, not old drivers, but all drivers that are learning how to drive. We can do that in a system where we provide safety, security and an environment where people can learn to drive appropriately.
It was really neat to see the statistics that when people are driving with someone, with an experienced driver and in the learning process, they had crash statistics at about 3 percent. That is the lowest crash statistic available. What happens is that that is the least crash statistics. The biggest crash statistics come in the next group. It is those people who are no longer learning but are the novice drivers. They are the people who have been driving for less than a year. What happens is these are people who have the highest crash statistics. We are talking about people who have three times the regular crashes as the normal population. That goes across all age groups, so those people you are talking about, almost 150 crashes per 100 000 versus a statistic of about 50 in males. So what you are talking about is three times the statistics for crashes and that is very, very scary.
The other thing that is interesting is every single jurisdiction that we surveyed, once they implemented graduated licensing, saved money as far as accidents, saved injuries. Huge amounts of injuries were dropped, and that is just a huge toll on the families and on society.
You have to look at the toll as far as hospitals, as far as our police services and, of course, the human toll. It is interesting to see that the decline of injuries was between 7 percent to 32 percent on average. That is a huge decline in a short period of time. In driving a motor vehicle, it is one of the most complex tasks. It is one that you do not have absolute control over, because you have drivers driving that are in their own vehicles. It is a rapidly changing environment. It is a very scary environment. When you look at Manitoba, we have some of the most challenging weather conditions in the year. We have ice. Of course, we have all sorts of different weather conditions that are hard to drive in. For the novice or inexperienced driver, that makes it very, very tough. So what we have to do is develop a system where people can learn how to drive in those challenging environments in a controlled environment. Give them a chance to learn with assistance. Do not just throw them out there and say you can do it. What we want to do is set up a system that makes sense.
Some of the interesting things that we learned on the task force were the impacts statements. I do not think there was one session, including the one out in Birchwood Inn or the Holiday Inn Airport West, where people did not come out and talk about the personal tragedy that could have been avoided if it was not for the errors of youth or not being experienced enough as far as learning how to drive in their vehicle.
It was really scary to hear of how families were decimated, how you have loved ones killed because people are young, inexperienced. I know myself, when I was a young teacher in Norway House, I know some of the people in the graduating class, there were four or five of them that rolled their vehicle, and it ended up that a number of them died. What it was was they were out there inexperienced, going too fast for the conditions. It was just icy, and they rolled the vehicle. Every month you see another case where people have gotten injuries. They are in over their head driving the vehicle, and they get into trouble, and because of that we have death and disabilities and, of course, suffering.
The statistics prove that graduated licensing works. Statistics prove this across the board no matter what the age. It makes sense to implement the system. I would like to thank the Minister of Highways (Mr. Ashton) because what he has done is he has allowed us as a task force to go around the province. I would like to thank the members of the task force, because it was probably one of the most open experiences of public consultation. What we did was we talked to everybody. It was an open dialogue. We had good discussions from multiple groups. We had representatives from the motorcycle groups. We had representatives from youth. We had representatives from medical associations. We had all sorts of assistance from different groups, and they came and they made presentations to us, and they were very open and frank and gave us a lot of feedback. This feedback was compiled into a very good report that we are putting together now that we are going to give to the minister.
What it basically gave was the opinions of Manitobans. The interesting part about this whole process was there were not a lot of people who did not agree with the process. When I talked to a group of students, I asked them: How many people figure that people should be allowed to drive in the first year of operation of a motor vehicle? There were about 50 students there, and only one kid put up their hand and said no. Forty-nine agreed that novice drivers, new drivers, should not be driving while drinking at all. It was funny. You asked people this and we got an agreement that I was very surprised at.
I would also like to say that we also had a lot of impact statements from people who across the province said time and time again, do it now, do not wait. When you look at something that can be so simple, that will save lives in the long term, that will, in fact, make a true difference then I do not think that we have any right not to act. Therefore when we are talking about this law, when we are talking about the theory of graduated licensing, we have to take action. We have to take action quickly because we cannot allow the carnage to continue. We must continue the process and go on from here.
Some of the interesting things is that if you look at a three-stage graduated licensing system it truly works. What happens is the kids or the new drivers or the older people get a chance to learn with someone. Then what happens is they get more controlled circumstances where they are working with someone. They have some restrictions and then, of course, you have the full licence where they can do anything.
Any skill, what you want to do is you want to learn it in stages. You do not want to jump into something that is way over your head. I think a graduated licensing system allows people the chance to learn a highly complex, dangerous, tough skill over time and gives them the controlled circumstances to do it. That way I believe that we should really do well as far as setting up a graduated licensing system.
The interesting part when we are reading this is you look at all the organizations that are supporting it. The Insurance Institute has said that in Ontario, the amount of money that was saved is in the multimillions of dollars. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving, it was interesting to hear their proposals and they are all for it. The Teens Against Drunk Driving, I was really happy to know that St. James Collegiate did a presentation. The kids, I met with them and they were really, really supportive of the whole concept.
You have other places. The Motor Vehicle Branch has mentioned that, again, the statistics show that it does save lives. The interesting part about our province is that we are not a leader in this, but we can be at least proactive as far as getting it in quickly and setting it up. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration says that it makes sense. It is got to be the way we go. They have, in fact, a whole bunch of information on how we can present it and do it, and we have read that into part of our proposal and our presentation will be that to the Minister. The New Zealand graduated driver licensing system, one of the oldest systems in existence, has proven-if you read the study it proves that the system works and does make a big difference as far as teenagers' attitudes towards to experiences in car driving for their entire life.
So, therefore, as a government I think it is important to support this initiative. I also think it is very, very important to save lives and make a difference to the youth and to our entire population.
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