Manitoba Unlimited

This last week, I spent visiting Manitobans in communities around our province. My message was this: we have unlimited potential in our province, but under the NDP we are not reaching our potential. We need to change. We need to recognize that Manitobans around our province have good ideas which can be part of the change that is needed.
.
Manitoba Liberals are the only provincial political party which stands for fiscal responsibility and for social justice.
.
Under the NDP, we have seen increasing deficits. Last year the NDP had a deficit of more than $500 million. This year, they are projecting a deficit of more than $500 million again. We do not have to be this far over budget. There are many sensible changes that can and should have been made. The NDP taking the bipole III transmission line down the much longer west side route when there are two other routes which are much cheaper - under Lake Winnipeg, and on the east side of the province. The NDP wants to remove nitrogen as well as phosphorous from Winnipeg's sewage, when only the removal of phosphorous is needed. Removing nitrogen unnecessarily costs an extra $500 million. In Camperville, we saw modest 950 square foot houses constructed by the NDP at a cost of $300,000 each, when larger 1350 square foot homes in a nearby community cost only have as much. These are just some of the many examples of NDP waste. It can't continue. We must change the government in the next provincial election.
.
Liberals are not only fiscally responsible. Liberals also care deeply about having strong, effective social programs - improved health care, better care for our children, improved education. In contrast, under the NDP there continue to be major problems in health care in Manitoba, child and family services are in chaos, and we have the highest high school drop out rate in Canada. Liberals have the ideas and the ability to change and improve these areas to give us a better province. Our potential is unlimited.
.
As I travelled around the province - Winnipeg, Camperville, Swan River, The Pas, Blue Lakes, Dauphin, Rolling River, Brandon, Neepawa, Killarney, Carman, Selkirk, Sagkeeng, Steinbach, Portage la Prairie - I was encouraged to see many young people keen for change and keen to get involved.

NDP are out of touch - no cell phone service in the Blue Lakes area and then they direct people the wrong way.

The NDP are treating people in the Blue Lakes area very badly. This is an area in the Duck Mountains. It has a lot of traffic in the summer - as many as 1,000 people are in the area on a weekend. In the winter, traffic is less, but phone access is still very important in case people are stranded.

.

The people of the Blue Lakes area were promised phone access in 2003, but the promise has remained broken for the last seven years. Letters, emails, calls and much more and the promise remains unfulfilled.

.

Near East and West Blue Lake, there is the sign in the photo above. It says, correctly, that cell phone access may not be available. At the bottom on the sign it says an emergency phone can be reached 21 km away at Child's Lake. If someone is injured and needs to go to hospital, this is 21 km further away from the hospital in Grandview or Dauphin. If time is of the essence, this is the wrong direction.

.

The NDP need to fix this problem. There should be a pay phone at the Blue Lakes Resort store and restaurant beside East Blue Lake.