 You can’t tell me they really care
By: Ken Waddell
“Green” program of little benefit to Northern communities
The problem with our current government is that they love to make announcements and pronouncements, toss a million here, a million there, make this or that illegal, tighten up some obscure regulations, slam the farmers for things they don’t even do and package it all up and make it look good.
It’s been said that Premier Gary Doer sets the bar low and always jumps a little higher. Doer’s standard could explained by saying he doesn’t even use a bar to set his standards. He simply places a thin piece of twine on the ground and shuffles across it. Nothing actually happens but his union led cheering section always comes through to lead the applause.
The NDP government of Manitoba has brought out a so-called “Green” program. One of the items in this bafflegab initiative calls for more food self-sufficiency for Manitoba’s north and hence for many Aboriginal communities.
The press release states, “One of the projects receiving significant funding involves food self-sufficiency for northern Manitoba. “The high cost of commercial food in remote communities is a significant obstacle to good nutrition,” said Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Minister Rosann Wowchuk. “Promoting local food production has the added benefit of lowering transport emissions and helping communities adapt to a changing climate.”
Please don’t tell me that the NDP really care about food prices, food supply or the northern people. They simply don’t. Here’s some proof.
I called the Northern Stores outlet in Churchill and the nice young lady who answered the phone told me the price of a 2 litre carton of 2 per cent milk was $5.29. In a local Neepawa store it’s $2.44.
But a call to the Manitoba Liquor Commission store in Churchill shows that a 26 oz. bottle of Crown Royal whiskey sells at $25.95 plus taxes. And by the way, they don’t sell that brand in the “mickey” size, just the 26 and larger bottles. At Neepawa’s MLCC the 26 of Crown Royal costs $25.95 plus taxes, exactly the same as Churchill.
Now if the NDP government, or any previous government for that matter, really cared about aboriginals, about children, about people in the north, they would do something about the cost of milk. They have no qualms about subsidizing whiskey but not milk. The milk and the booze likely go up there on the same plane but for some strange reason, milk is twice as much in Churchill as Neepawa. Crown Royal fans get a free ride (pun intended) on their bottle of hooch.
There’s another little local food wrinkle that is lost in history. Many years ago, when the Inuit and some of the Indian people lived off the land they would go out in the spring and gather Snow Goose eggs. Darn good nutrition I’d say, those great big eggs would make a great breakfast and with their thick shells, they would likely last well into summer. But as fewer and fewer people lived off the land the eggs went ungathered, the snow goose population skyrocketed. So much so that the Canada Goose population has been forced further and further south.
It’s likely illegal to gather goose eggs but if the government wants to encourage northern food production and harvesting maybe they should look at encouraging gathering of Snow Goose eggs. God knows there’s enough of them around.
But then the government would have to do common sense things like encourage natural food harvesting and making their government-owned whiskey traders share the freight bill with the dairy farmers.
|
Post New Event
Our neighbours to the south