As MP for Churchill I have always said that one of my top priorities has been to get national attention to our issues here in Northern Manitoba.
I was pleased that we were able get national attention on many of our issues throughout 2009.
Early on in the year we learned that CBC North Country was scheduled to be cut. I worked with Northerners to save our CBC and took our message to Parliament. In the end we were successful and by May, CBC announced it was keeping our station and the station in Northern Saskatchewan.
In the spring we saw the first impacts of the flu epidemic. It became clear early on that Northern and Aboriginal people were being the hardest hit. I joined with Northern leaders to take our message to Ottawa. We talked about how Northern communities were not only being hard hit but in many cases lacked the resources to deal with the impacts of the H1N1 virus.
The province recognized the impact of the flu virus on Northern and aboriginal people from the start. The federal government did not. In the end the controversy in the spring helped raise awareness about what was at stake and significantly increased resources were made available in the North by the time of the second round of the flu in the fall.
In the fall I also took a clear stand on legislation on the gun registry. I made it clear that the registry does not work for our region. I outlined the fact we are distinct in the North and that the registry has negatively impacted everything from sports hunters to treaty rights.
Later in the year I took our campaign to save the Aboriginal Healing Foundation nationally. The foundation has provided support for programs to deal with the impacts of residential schools on survivors and generations that have followed. It has been around for 10 years but is set to expire in March. I believe the program should be renewed to build on the recent apology to residential school survivors. I have launched a national campaign to renew the program ad will be continuing the fight in 2010.
I also raised many other important issues in 2009 including the need to maintain Northern bus service, Via Rail service, the Port of Churchill, expand the all-weather road network, improve air transport safety, lift the cap on post secondary education, deal with the impacts of the slowdown in the resource sector and protect public pensions.
In looking ahead to 2010 I will be continuing too speak out on our key issues. I will be continuing to fight to ensure we get the national attention we deserve.
