To the Editor:
While we Thompsonites are thrilled that Steve Ashton is running for premier, before jumping on the bandwagon I think we shouldtake a closer look at our issues:
I have been writing a column focused on health care since last December touch extensively on Northern health care.To date, six members of the legislature who informed me they read my columns regularly, including Health Minister Theresa Oswald herself, have approached me. My columns have been debated in the Manitoba legislature. Surprisingly, Steve Ashton has not only failed to contact me, but has not even returned e-mail requests. I have yet to see Ashton really tackling health care in his weekly "MLA Report" column in the Nickel Belt News. I also wonder how many times he has met Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) brass to discuss our ever-pressing health care issues?
According to Mayor Tim Johnston crime is the most pressing issue facing Thompson today. Thompson ranks third on the crime index in Canada. Things got so bad that the Johnston and city council sent Justice Minister Dave Chomiak a strongly worded letter over the summer on the issue. It didn't seem to move Chomiak's team so - as a concerned resident of the North and one who understands the effect of the press on Chomiak - I personally drove down to Winnipeg, presented and discussed the letter with the Winnipeg Sun's top reporters. A week after publication by the Sun, Chomiak decided to pay us a visit. However, isn't that the job of the intergovernmental minister?Shouldn't Ashton have at least approached Chomiak whom he meets in cabinet weekly? Again, in all of Ashton's columns, I have never seen him tackle crime. While he is currently promoting a crime plan in Winnipeg, no plan exists for Thompson;
When Grey Wolf Bay was purchased and renovated, 130 of Thompson's poorest children were absent from schools the following year. The issue was a provincial one that seems to have taken a very backburner approach to. Does Ashton even know where they ended up? Please let us know because we in the media also shamefully failed to track them down. I am sure they, as one person suggested, they did not go to Churchill;
Today, the Princeton Towers along with Riverside Court are converting to condos and are forcing some of Thompson's poorest and elderly to either purchase their units at ridiculously high prices or leave while the apartment vacancy rate is at zero per cent. That is the equivalent of 75,000 Winnipeggers being forced to either vacate or purchase when no alternative is available.Where is Ashton on this tenancy issue? He wasn't even in the meetings that were held by the tenants trying to fight this off. Manitoba Housing and multi-family housing units don't exist in Thompson. Ashton had 27 years to find a solution.
The city is in desperate need for infrastructure funds to the future tune of $150 million. I do not see a plan or moves from Ashton to fund the city provincially.
At the end of the day, we have many pressing issues that Ashton seems to have sidetracked. If he does the same as premier he will be eaten alive by the opposition. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Hussain Guisti
Thompson
