June 3 2016

Page 1

Volume 56 Number 22

Friday, June 3, 2016

Thompson, Manitoba

Nickel Belt News Serving the Norman Region since 1961

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Hotshots

Nickel Belt News photo by Kacper Antoszewski Miners from Hudson Bay’s Lalor Mine in Snow Lake broke ground at the 2016 Provincial Mine Rescue Competition in Thompson on May 27-28. Snow Lake’s mine rescue team took home first place in the competition’s firefighting challenge, the first year which the challenge has been designated its own award.

PC campaign promise to eliminate East Side Road Authority fulfilled BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government has made good on a promise to do away with the East Side Road Authority (ESRA) that has been overseeing the construction of all-weather roads to First Nations communities that currently only have surface transportation links during the winter road season. Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen announced May 27 that the ESRA’s responsibilities will now be overseen by Manitoba Infrastructure and that that department’s deputy minister

Lance Vigfusson would become the ESRA’s acting CEO effective May 30. “The integration of the East Side Road Authority’s mandate into Manitoba Infrastructure will bring about efficiencies while ensuring centralized co-ordination of all provincial infrastructure projects,” said Pedersen. “This move aligns with our government’s commitment to achieving value for money in the delivery of government services. Mr. Vigfusson has a mandate to operate on a ‘business-as-usual’ basis, while establishing an integration plan that will include consultation and regular

communication with all impacted stakeholders.” The government’s move was not appreciated by NDP MLAs who said the move was evidence that Premier Brian Pallister’s government has a hidden agenda to move jobs out of Northern Manitoba. “Their lack of concern for northern jobs and northern roads is obvious,” said Flin Flon NDPMLATomLindsey.“Manitoba made a commitment to the communities that will benefit from Freedom Road that it would involve them, invest in trainingandcreategoodjobsfor NorthernManitobans.Ibelieveit is our duty to ensure infrastruc-

ture projects in the north benefit thenorth,especiallyourindigenous communities.” The Pas NDP MLA Amanda Lathlin asked why the PC government wouldn’t commit to the previously planned upgrade of Highway 384 to Moose Lake. “Let’s call the Conservatives’ efficiencies what they are: cuts,” said Lindsey. “We ask the premier to stop hiding his secret agenda and confirm that the elimination of the East Side Road Authority is really nothing more than the beginning of the shifting of resources out of Northern

Manitoba.” Judy Klassen, Liberal MLA for Keewatinook, who was named her party’s caucus whip and critic for education and training, indigenous and municipal affairs, Crown services, agriculture and housing May 30, criticized the government’s budget, unveiled May 31, for not including specific economic development initiatives for the north. “It is offensive to people in my community that there was very little mention of ways to improve the life and death situation in the north, and yet, the premier

was able to provide himself with a $22,000 raise,” Klassen said in a press release. The ESRA was created by the NDP government and tasked with building a new, all-weather road alongside the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, which will fi rst connect Berens River First Nation and its surrounding communities to areas further south, then run north along routes similar to those of existing winter roads, connecting with communities in the Island Lake and Oxford House areas.

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