Nickel Belt News Volume Volume 58 59 Number • Issue 3611
Friday, March 16,6,2018 Friday, September 2019
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Provincial election candidates butt heads during public forum BY KYLE DARBYSON
KYLE@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
the budget on track for balance, we have kept our promises to Manitobans and will continue to move the province forward.” Meanwhile, Adams lambasted Bindle for being an absentee MLA who is never around to address important issues relating to Thompson and simply parrots talking points from Manitoba PC party leader Brian Pallister. “We need somebody that’s going to represent us and not represent Pallister,” she said. “You need a voice that will speak for you in Winnipeg, somebody who will stand up for workers rather than big corporations, somebody who will stand up for drivers rather than insurance companies.” Wednesday’s forum also served as a big showcase for Jemmett, since it marked the first time she’s interacted with the public on a large scale after announcing her candidacy back in late August. The criminal defence lawyer fully admitted that she doesn’t expect to win this seat, but said a vote for the Greens will send a strong message to the establishment that their current approach to fixing issues like climate change and economic inequality is not working. While the event’s organizers, the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, provided a handful of starter questions, audience
members supplied most of the hard-hitting inquiries. Familiar battle lines were drawn when Thompson Coun. Les Ellsworth asked about each candidate’s stance on the Mining Community Reserve Fund (MCRF) and whether or not Thompson city officials deserve access to it. Bindle echoed past statements from Pallister by stating that the MCRF can’t be accessed when it drops below a threshold of $10 million. He also cribbed notes from Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen by saying that former Thompson mayor Dennis Fenske never presented the provincial government with a long-term plan to justify relinquishing some of that money. However, both Adams and Jemmett agreed that the MCRF could be put to good use in the local community and that the PCs are simply making excuses. Adams also pointed out that a recent access to information request from the Manitoba NDP showed that the MCRF held a balance of close to $11 million back in May. For a lot of these audience questions, Bindle touted the tangible measures his party has put forward over the last three years they’ve been in power. For example, when asked about what he’s done to improve health care and mental
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
After weeks of campaigning, three candidates running for provincial office in Thompson came face-to-face at the Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre Sept. 4 for a public forum. Incumbent Kelly Bindle (Progressive Conservatives), Danielle Adams (NDP) and Meagan Jemmett (Green Party) talked at length about the biggest issues facing the north, including health care, crime reduction, jobs and education. Manitoba Liberal candidate Darla Contois didn’t show up for Wednesday night’s gathering. Bindle and Adams spent most of the evening going after each other, trying to convince the audience that they’d be worse off voting for the opposing side. Bindle repeated several variations of the phrase “we were left a mess,” referencing the high taxes and broken healthcare system the PCs had to contend with after winning a majority government from the NDP back in 2016. “Since being elected we reduced taxes, cut ambulance fees and we’re the only province in Canada that has lowered hospital wait times over the last three years,” he said. “We have
ct e l E
Nickel Belt News photo by Kyle Darbyson From left to right, provincial candidates Kelly Bindle (Progressive Conservatives), Meagan Jemmett (Green Party) and Danielle Adams (NDP) answer audience questions during a Sept. 4 public forum at the Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre in Thompson. health services, Bindle pointed to the opening of the rapid access to addictions medicine (RAAM) clinic in Thompson last October. However, Adams and Jemmett said the PCs’ healthcare system is still plagued by cuts and privatization, with the suspension of the air ambulance services still being fresh in a lot of people’s mind. Adams wrapped up the evening by promising big changes on several fronts and more active representation down south if she is elected. “I will protect our health care system, our children’s educa-
tion system and our northern way of life,” she said. “I will ensure that Indigenous voices are heard loud in clear in the legislature halls. I will continue to listen. I will find out what really matters and I will bring it to attention.” Jemmett pitched herself as a viable third-party candidate during her closing statement. “Voting Green … sends a strong message to the major parties that what they’re offering isn’t enough, that they need to rethink their approach.” Bindle ended Wednesday’s forum by guaranteeing voters financial stability under a re-
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill.
eR EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Kelly
BY IAN GRAHAM
to write things that you have to figure out. It’s pretty clear Though she’s now written when I get through.” a book about her experienDeMeulles said she wrote ces growing up in Churchill, her book, titled Whispers in Addictions Foundation of the Wind: Stories from the Manitoba northern director North - Life in Churchill for Gisele deMeulles said writ- a couple of reasons. ing wasn’t something she “I just sort of thought, always thought she would you know what, this hisdo. tory, this stuff that’s in my “In my youth I never head, it’s going to be gone felt good204.228.2685 at writing,” she if I don’t write it down,” she votekellybindle@gmail.com said. “But when I moved said. “My kids are not go@KellyBindle to Thompson to get into ing to get it if I don’t do it Kelly Bindlework, and it’s something I’ve althe school of social at that point I had to write ways wanted my mom to kellybindle4mla.com for university and realized, do. My mom’s an elder and ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, she’s an artist, she’s got so right?’ I certainly developed many wonderful stories bea lot of skill in university cause she always tells her and came out of there with stories at Parks Canada in a very strong skill in my Churchill and I’ve always writing and confidence in hounded her, ‘Please, just my writing. I write very put it on tape, I will write it clear and that’s it. It’s there. for you because your story Some people say it’s kind of is going to be lost,’ and she’s blunt or direct. I don’t tend never done it and I thought,
Bindle THOMPSON
‘Oh, I’m just as bad, right?’ I have all these stories and I need to capture them for my grandchildren really because they will be lost if I don’t.” She also has a reputation as a storyteller herself. “I had such a varied history and I would tell people stories and they would go, ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, ‘You didn’t do all that, did you? You’ve got to be really old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually I did all that before I was 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” Looking back, some of those experiences are things she might not do again. “I did some pretty bizarre stuff like fuel hauls into the high Arctic at -35,” said deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn on me until after. That was a very dangerous thing to do. Being on a plane full of fuel
was not a very safe thing to do but I jumped at it. I thought that was exciting until the plane landed and they started throwing the fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy cats, I was probably sitting on a bomb.’” Another thing that spurred her on was the hard times facing Churchill since the Hudson Bay Railway suspended operations north of Gillam last spring. “It used to be a really thriving large community and it’s just dwindled down to such a small population now,” deMeulles says. Though she’s not there any longer, her parents and her sister and other family members still are. “My cousin owns the hardware store there,” she says. Because of that, deMeulles finds it hard to
elected PC government. “It’s time to ask yourself what four years of NDP government would mean to us,” he said. “The NDP will bring new punitive taxes like their super carbon tax and the LEAP Manifesto will decimate new investment and resource development.” Manitobans’ last chance to cast their ballot in this provincial election is Sept. 10. For more information on all of the candidates in the Thompson riding, please visit the “2019 Provincial Election” section of the Thompson Citizen website.
Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham
For all the harsh weather swallow when people say that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar should just find somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it easier to live. had been viable she would “To say, ‘Those people have moved back to Churchchoose to live there. They ill in a heartbeat. should just leave,’ is quite “I miss the shoreline, I simplistic. It’s quite disre- miss the rock, I miss the spectful. If we were in the polar bears even though same boat in another area they’re very dangerous and I think we would scream I really miss the Hudson about that so why don’t they Bay,” she says. “When I go have the option to do that? back home, standing on the I think right now they’re Hudson Bay looking out on feeling like they’re pawns the bay, it just gives you an in a political game and that’s incredible sense. You feel so really sad for them because I small and you feel great.” think the people of ChurchNow that she’s got ill really want to thrive. one book under her belt, They’ve built their worlds deMeulles says she may try there. How would we feel to produce another. if someone came to you and “I have another book in said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to me,” she says. “It’s a darker leave your home community story, more about personand we’re going to displace al growth and struggles. you somewhere else and all Maybe in the next five years your loved ones and your it’s something I’ll focus on Authorized by the Official Agent for Kelly Bindle history is gone?’” doing.”
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