View From the Legislature

On Monday of this week at around 10:00pm Manitoba’s Lieutenant Governor, Her Honour Janice Filmon, entered the Manitoba Legislature to grant approval to 17 pieces of legislation that had been introduced and debated over the past several months. With her approval, the spring session of the Manitoba Legislature came to a conclusion.

There were several key pieces of legislation passed that our government had committed to during the past election. Top among them is the legislation that will officially allow the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) to be reduced from 8% to 7% on July 1. While this is a commitment that we made during the campaign, there was doubt about its timing as the NDP opposition seemed determined to stall this and other pieces of legislation. In fact, over the past several months the NDP spent hours upon hours stalling most of the legislation that was awaiting debate at the Legislature.

Fortunately, opposition parties finally agreed to allow the PST reduction to come to a vote and it will now come into effect in just a few weeks.

In addition, legislation to modernize family law was debated and passed. For many couples who have gone through a family breakup, the process is both costly and adversarial. Often this is to the detriment of any children who may be caught in the middle of the dispute. The Family Law Modernization Act is designed as first of its kind legislation in Canada to try to divert these disputes away from the court to a more collaborative form of dispute resolution.

Legislation was also passed concerning the possession of cannabis and drinking and driving as well as additional measures to reduce the red tape burden on business. Collectively, the legislation that was passed moves us forward on our commitment to make life more affordable for Manitobans and to improve the operations of many of the key functions of government.

During the spring session, the K-12 Commission that is reviewing our education system was busy holding consultations. The consultations will be the basis for the recommendations it provides government next year on how to improve our education system. The in-person consultation meetings and the online survey consultations were tremendously successful. While final numbers are not in it appears that well over 10,000 Manitobans participated in the process making it one of the most extensive consultations on Education ever held in Manitoba.

All in all, it was a busy spring for MLAs in the Manitoba Legislature. As the summer begins there will be increased activity within our individual constituencies as well as ongoing work at the Manitoba Legislature in a variety of different capacities. I hope that I will have the opportunity to connect with many of you during the summer months.