"I always look for a silver lining out there, and unfortunately, I just didn't see it."
That's from Portage la Prairie MLA Jeff Bereza on his reaction to Tuesday's Throne Speech by the Wab Kinew government in the Manitoba Legislative Building.
He explains there was talk of a hydro rate freeze, but he wonders if this would set Manitobans up for higher hydro rates down the road.
"Right now, we're paying over $0.33 on the dollar just to cover the interest payments on Hydro. I looked for something that was different, but even going back—I keep the Throne Speech from last year—even some of the language was pretty well the same. It's like they put everything into a blender and then what is it that TV show I think it's called Mash Up. It looked like that," says Bereza.
Agriculture
Bereza's portfolio includes Agriculture, and he says the Throne Speech document basically contained little or no support for agriculture or the farmers. He explains the only element that he heard was a quick mention about sustainable agriculture fuel.
"That was one of the things that comes back from the Progressive Conservative government before they were defeated. I was a little shocked on that, and on the agriculture, as well. With everything that's going on in the US regarding president-elect Trump talking about tariffs, there was no mention whatsoever about U.S. trade or what we're doing on that part of it."
He notes the Progressive Conservative side was hoping to hear of some relief or how Manitoba would join some of the other provinces to not recognize the carbon tax that the federal government keeps pushing through.
"Again, it's causing barriers for our farmers because if they have to dry any grain or anything like that to feed their animals, that's all heated by natural gas, which is a hefty price for carbon tax. The other thing that wasn't talked about was a project called COOL (Country of Origin Labelling), which is labelling requirements that the US is looking at."
Bereza says they felt there would be more information on that program. And then there's the pork industry.
"One of the issues in this industry is African Swine Fever. It can spread quickly and it's deadly. Even a short three-month closure would cost the swine sector in Manitoba over a billion dollars. And where I was so disappointed with the ag business is how it provides such a large portion of our GDP. The other thing that was mentioned was two new MASC (Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation) offices opening up. That again, was promised in last year's Throne Speech."
He adds he spoke with some producers from Western Manitoba who said they all heard this before. And yet there is still no movement on it.
"One other thing on agriculture was our irrigation issues that we're running into. I know that the Manitoba Potato Growers Association has been expressing concern over irrigation. Some of the processors are getting potatoes in from other provinces. The last thing we want is to be affecting that potato industry in any way. There was no talk about any of the potential threats regarding canola with China. There was no mention of avian flu. We've got our first case of avian flu in a human in BC, but no support to our feathered farmers out there."
Municipal Funding
"I know the NDP have talked over and over about more funding for municipalities, but there was absolutely nothing in the speech about that at all. There wasn't any talk about what they're going to do to help out with food inflation, and veggie prices are up over 10 percent. Meat prices are up as well as baby formulas. We're leading the country right now in food inflation."
Crime
Having shared his concerns over mitigation of crime in Manitoba in our previous interview with the MLA, he notes there was very little mentioned.
"The NDP said during their election that they would bring meaningful bail reform within the first 100 days. As you know, our crime rates continue to rise and we're just not seeing that."
Healthcare
Regarding healthcare, he noted there wasn't a word mentioned about an MRI in the new Portage Hospital, as the NDP are holding their ground on that decision.
Overall, he says nothing new was brought to the table.
"We heard the same thing in the previous Throne Speech, and that was an MRI going up in the north; which still hasn't happened from last year's Throne Speech. Down here, especially in the new hospital here, our wait times for diagnostic services just continue to skyrocket. And I just didn't see anything there. There were no new plans regarding addiction treatment services."
As far as mammograms are concerned, again... nothing.
"Our Health critic Kathleen Cook has been talking daily about having this mammogram put into law. We reduced the breast screening age down to 40 and still nothing on that. I talked about this numerous times and I thought we were really onto something here. We might get it. We've got one of the best breast surgeons in the province, if not in Western Canada, in Portage. Portage is going to be a hub here by that hospital that we're building and a mammogram would be obvious for the hospital. If somebody is attacked, they have breast cancer, the next steps would likely be a biopsy. Then an MRI to identify it would come next. We had an opportunity there."
Summary
To summarize the overall speech, Bereza says a comparison of the previous Throne Speech with this one has many similarities, even when considering the language.
"It's certainly not on affordability because the carbon tax is still out there. They didn't mention the 14-cent gas tax at all. I'm speculating somewhat there, but that's probably gone by the end of December. I think the one thing that we do know is that this government is doing it, and we're seeing a lack of office space for even our own Members in the Chamber. We're seeing a bloated amount of people, a bloated amount of bureaucracy, and I don't know any Manitoban who wants to see more red tape or more autocracy out there."