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Mr. Denis Rocan (Gladstone): I thank you very much for the opportunity to debate volunteerism during private members' hour, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to canvass the House and see if there would be a willingness on the part of members to waive the second WHEREAS, because in consultation with my House leader and members opposite it appears there is a willingness that if we would remove the second WHEREAS, there might be an opportunity that we could pass said Resolution.

Madam Speaker: Is there unanimous consent to delete the second WHEREAS in the Resolution?

An Honourable Member: What does it say?

Madam Speaker: Do you want it read?

The one that has been asked to be deleted reads: WHEREAS governments in Canada must put tax dollars to the best possible use in providing important public services;

Agreed? [agreed]

Mr. Rocan: I thank members for their indulgence.

I would like to move, seconded by the honourable member for St. Norbert (Mr. Laurendeau),

WHEREAS volunteers have contributed immensely to the rich fabric of Manitoba throughout its development; and

WHEREAS volunteers make a remarkable contribution to our communities through service clubs, religious organizations, sport associations, community clubs and health and social service auxiliary groups; and

WHEREAS the spirit of volunteerism abounds in Manitobans across the province who are willing to invest their time and expertise in making Manitoba the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba commend all those who work tirelessly in their communities to improve the quality of life of all Manitobans; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Assembly encourage the spirit of volunteerism among the people of Manitoba which assists in the growth and enhancement of Manitoba's communities.

Mr. Rocan: Again, I take this opportunity just to thank members for giving us this opportunity this afternoon to put some remarks on the record in regard to our volunteerism, which happens on a regular basis throughout the province. It is fitting that I should have this opportunity to bring this resolution before the members of the House today, as people in this province and people around the country celebrate National Volunteer Week. This resolution speaks to the very heart of what National Volunteer Week is all about, to recognize the invaluable contribution that volunteers make in this province, year in and year out.

Here in Manitoba, one way in which we are celebrating volunteer week is with the Premier's volunteer service award, which will be awarded to 12 individuals and organizations who have shown an outstanding dedication to volunteer service in this province.

What we are talking about today is the spirit of volunteerism, which poses the question: how do we define volunteerism and why do people choose to be a volunteer?

I would answer that question by saying that the spirit of volunteerism is present any time an individual is helping others and is doing so because it makes that person feel good inside. Many people also chose to volunteer because they recognize it as an important part of building a healthy community.

To put it into a few words, the spirit of volunteerism was captured by Sir Winston Churchill when he said: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Every day in Manitoba, thousands of individuals volunteer their time to make a difference in their communities. It may be making a visit to the personal care home to sit and talk with the residents or to the hospital to bring comfort to patients. It could be leading a troop of Brownies or Scouts after school or being a Big Brother or Big Sister. It may be driving the local handi-van or being a part of a Rural Crime Watch program, where neighbours help neighbours by keeping their eyes and ears open.

We even see the spirit of volunteerism extend to people far away when, as individuals or as a country, we offer support to strangers facing disasters or turmoil such as is happening in Kosovo. There are countless social, cultural, community, and nonprofit organizations active in my constituency and around the province that each make important contributions through their volunteer and charity work.

Although there are too many to name them all, I would like to take a moment to recognize a few of those organizations which I am proud to have been associated or I am associated with: The Shriner's, who make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of children who have burn and spinal cord or orthopedic injuries, through their network of children's hospitals. The Lions Clubs are another organization that has made great contributions in their communities and our province with their eye programs. The Masonic Lodge, another great philanthropy organization, dedicated to helping individuals or their families travel to and fro hospitals to get cancer treatments.

Volunteers also provide the backbone for many of the large events that we take pride in hosting. Take, for example, the cultural event such as the Fringe Festival and the Jazz Festival and sporting events like the Grey Cup and World Junior Hockey. In fact, it is unimaginable that our province could this summer be hosting such a large event as the Pan Am Games without the generous support of volunteers. The Pan Am Games will be the largest celebration of sport and culture ever staged in Canada. The games will have a great immediate economic impact on this city and will provide Manitoba with a vehicle to expand economic and cultural relationships in the Americas. This just goes to show how much we can accomplish as a province with the help of a dedicated and enthusiastic volunteer base.

The time and effort given by volunteers is one of the major reasons that Manitoba is one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family. It has been estimated that the annual economic contribution of volunteer activities to Manitoba, if calculated just at minimum wage, is $264 million. However, it truly is not possible to put a dollar figure on an act of kindness and giving. People coming together to help others is a spirit that really builds and binds communities, and that is priceless. The people of Manitoba are our strongest resource as we all know. Often the important work performed by volunteers is done quietly and may go unnoticed or unappreciated, but we would certainly be a much poorer society if we were to lose the spirit of volunteerism.

To give just a few example, in Manitoba, children and youth are very active and successful in sports. Yet, this would not be possible without the volunteer time donated by teachers and parents to extracurricular sports programs. Manitobans, both young and old, are culturally enriched through our libraries, museums, and arts programs, many of which could not run without volunteer staff. The safety and security of our families is dependent on the fact that we have a strong network of volunteer firefighters in rural Manitoba. Manitoba is blessed with a strong spirit of volunteerism. I can speak particularly for rural Manitoba in saying that in our small communities, volunteering has always been accepted as a way of life. Whether it is through the church or a local organization, volunteering your time is just something that we do as a member of our communities.

In today's world, we seem to lead much busier lives. In many families, both parents juggle work and children, and it can often take a great deal of our time and energy just to balance both. Given this reality, it is even more important to recognize and thank Manitoba's volunteers and to remind ourselves of the great contribution volunteers make on a daily basis to the quality of life that we enjoy here in Manitoba.

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For all of these reasons, I ask the Members of the Legislative Assembly to join me in commending Manitoba's volunteers and to encourage the spirit of volunteerism among the people of Manitoba. We should encourage volunteerism so that it is not lost upon the next generations of Manitobans and so that our communities and our province may continue to grow stronger in the future.

Therefore, this resolution should be supported by the members of the Legislative Assembly as it commends the work of volunteers and supports efforts to encourage the spirit of volunteerism among the people of Manitoba.

I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to put those few remarks on the record.

Ms. Marianne Cerilli (Radisson): Madam Speaker, we are happy on this side of the House to support a resolution that recognizes volunteers and Volunteer Week in Manitoba, which is this week, April 18-24. We want to recognize the contribution that people across the province make to our communities.

I have a few remarks that I want to contribute to the debate. I think we all have the chance to visit with a variety of different organizations in our constituencies, and a number of those are volunteer organizations that we realize the community would not be the same without. I also want to talk a little bit based on my own experience and make the point that volunteers do not just happen. Good volunteer programs require a lot of planning, a lot of good management, and there is a lot of work that goes into recruiting volunteers, into making sure they are aware of what they can do and cannot do, and into making sure that they get the proper recognition on an ongoing basis so that they really feel that they are part of that organization. All of this has been the establishment in the charitable and nonprofit sector and, in fact, in government sector and through the philanthropic endeavours of a lot of companies and businesses in the private sector toward a much more structured and organized volunteer management approach to dealing with volunteers.

Prior to being elected, I was trained in volunteer management and certified through organizations in Winnipeg at the United Way as well as courses through our own Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Citizenship. There is a wonderful program called the National Skills Program that trains people–and I have brought some of the materials with me–in all facets of fundraising, of time management, of building communication and decision making among volunteers, volunteer board management. Now there are even certification programs and degrees in universities dedicated to this sector. There has been a lot of work done in our province in the development of these programs.

I remember back when I was a young person, one of my first positions after university on a nonprofit board was on the Volunteer Centre of Winnipeg. I sat as a youth representative for the Volunteer Centre of Winnipeg for three years. One of the jobs that I had at that organization as well was organizing for International Youth Year the youth volunteer award that was given out as a special award by the Premier in that year. That was 1985. That, I think, represented one of the other new trends in volunteerism, and that trend was to start recognizing that volunteerism provided an opportunity for work experience and for valued skill development.

Young people, it should be recognized, are increasing the rate of volunteerism the quickest and the most rapidly. They are showing the greatest increase by doubling to 33 percent in 1997 from 10 years before that where it was only 18 percent.

So this is a dramatic shift and trend where young people now–there are many programs in schools where young people are introduced to volunteering by having part of a course requirement that they spend time in some type of volunteer position as part of a school credit. Oftentimes I think that introduces them into something that they carry forward through the rest of their life without having to get any kind of recognition through a course credit or any other kind of compensation, but they just realize how valuable it is.

Another trend, I think, is we see across the country with an aging population and with people being able to retire with so much more time available to them and retire at a younger age in better health, we are now seeing that more people are able to volunteer after retirement.

But there is another trend that I think is significant, and that is the effect of the economy and changes that we are seeing. That is also having a squeeze on a lot of families. I think the member across the way for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan) recognized this too. This trend, I think, fits in with something else that we have to be very concerned about, that the trend is for us to have more shift workers, to have more people with part-time jobs, to have more people working overtime, and a greater number of families where both parents are working. They are feeling like they cannot fit in the kind of volunteer requirements that are being asked of them, because the other trend that we are seeing, and I am going to talk about how we are seeing it from this government, is for a decline in public services and an offload onto the charitable sector and an offload on relying on volunteers of what previously was done by paid people, particularly government.

This government in particular, where we have had a very nice resolution today put forward by the member for Gladstone, but if you look at this government's record and realizing that actions speak louder than words, we see an interesting trend when it comes to volunteerism.

Mr. Stan Struthers (Dauphin): What would that be?

Ms. Cerilli: The member for Dauphin asks: what would that trend be? And I am going to tell you. If I was going department by department and looking at the kind of community-based or volunteer-related organizations that this government has had to deal with, there is a telling picture. I look at what this government did with Child and Family Services, where they had volunteer boards throughout the province. They had volunteer boards that were running incredible volunteer programs throughout the province. What did they do? They centralized Child and Family Services. They eliminated thousands of hours of volunteer contribution throughout the province. The one program that has remained in the district that Child and Family impacts on my constituency in east area, until this day they have been fighting to try and maintain the historic volunteer effort related to supporting children and families.

The same thing happened in Manitoba Housing in 1991. This government took over Manitoba Housing. There were 91 local–98, 91–volunteer housing authorities throughout the province made up of community people, municipal officials, and this government again reached in and amalgamated Manitoba Housing. There was a mandate at that time to set up social housing advisory groups in the regions that were supposed to at least carry on this tradition of housing volunteer representation. This government never implemented that. Now again we have one government board of politically appointed people who do get some compensation for their meetings. This government may say that they are volunteers, but it certainly is a far cry from what used to exist.

The same thing happened with the Manitoba Environment Council. There used to be over 50 environmental, I would call them, experts. They were volunteers, but they dedicated their life. Again the government reached in, eliminated the Manitoba Environment Council, appointed about half a dozen of their people that they chose, and wiped out volunteer input to the provincial government in the area of environment from the wide range of people from across the province.

Similarly, last session this government passed the changes to The City of Winnipeg Act, where they eliminated and supported the city, eliminating the resident advisory groups, who were completely volunteer. They ensured that there was some kind of regional input across the municipality of residents into City Council on a regular basis by having city councillors meet with residents from their area. This government saw fit to wipe out those volunteer organizations.

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The same thing with our community hospitals. This government saw fit to go ahead and centralize through the Winnipeg Hospital Authority and the Long Term Care Authority hundreds of volunteer positions from the community who represented the needs of the community, the understanding of the community that only people who live in those communities can have. They chose to create this whole new bureaucracy around a centrally administered hospital and long-term care by eliminating those community volunteer boards.

If we look even further back in this government, this is a trend that has been longstanding, not only with just having volunteer boards but with the kinds of things that they have volunteer organizations do that advise government. The Manitoba Intercultural Council is another example of how they chose to no longer have that organization be involved in advising the government how to distribute funds. I believe they maybe thought that that was a responsibility that a volunteer group could not have.

Similarly, when you look at the Manitoba Sports Federation, we all know of the thousands and thousands of people who volunteer as coaches and officials in the area of sport. Those people also have a history of running very well-organized agencies for sport, and they have in the past elected people to the Manitoba Sports Federation en masse. That was basically an elected community-represented, voter-based by that, or community-agency-represented-based organizations, and this government has changed that. People tell me on a regular basis that they are concerned about how that has affected what is now called Sport Manitoba, what used to be the Manitoba Sports Federation.

We raised the issue today in the House of the kind of work that is going on in the community by parents who are forced to volunteer more and more in their schools under this government's cutbacks in education, but looking at the kinds of things that those parents are now doing, and what are they doing more often than not, they are fundraising. We were concerned today that the Minister of Education (Mr. McCrae) is not necessarily going to listen to those parent volunteers to hear the concern about what is happening in our education system.

So when we talk about volunteers, we cannot only see them as a way to offload services and a way for them to generate more revenue. I think we also have to realize that one of the most valuable things that volunteers bring is that voice from the community, is that advisory capacity, is that ongoing checks and evaluation and needs assessing that can so much benefit government programs.

That seems to be what this government really does not want to have volunteers do, or else they would not have eliminated this very small grant they gave to the Foster Parents' Association, which was another volunteer-based organization that allowed foster parents to come together and deal with issues and provide support to each other, but also at a time when the government was reducing the funds to foster parents, they would have provided some strong advocacy for that important service. I guess when it comes to volunteers in that capacity, the government is not necessarily as interested in having those volunteers recognized.

I often talk about the shifts that go on in our community with respect to the voluntary or charitable sector and how if we are going to see certain things like education and health care as a right–and we believe that education and health care are a right–then we have to be very careful about transferring those kinds of services onto the charitable sector, just like you cannot have something be a right if you have to pay for it. It is also not a right if you are relying completely on the charitable sector to provide that service.

So with those few comments, I do want to wish all the thousands of volunteers well in Manitoba and recognize them for their contributions and wish that they would be recognized on an ongoing basis and recognized in all their capacities whether it is the service they do, the funds they raise, and the important advocacy that they provide. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship): Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in support of the resolution brought forward by the honourable member for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan), in recognition of volunteers in the province of Manitoba.

This week, from April 18 to 23, 1999, Canadians celebrate National Volunteer Week. Though we want to pay particular attention to volunteers in Manitoba, where we derive a great deal of benefit from all of the work that they do, I am also very pleased to spread that recognition across Canada, recognizing that there was this August a major conference on volunteerism. It was an international conference. Manitoba had representatives there. I know that those representatives came back to Manitoba able to in an even stronger way recognize the volunteer element of our province.

This annual event gives us an opportunity to show our appreciation for the vast contributions of many volunteers and also the many volunteer organizations who really do give selflessly of their time, and also of their resources in order to enhance the quality of living in communities across our province and across our country.

The 1997 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating reports that 31.4 percent of Canadians aged 15 and older volunteer an average of 149 hours per year, for a Canadian total of 1.1 billion hours of volunteer time. Closer to home, 40 percent of Manitobans aged 15 and over volunteer an average of 130 hours per year. The annual economic contribution, as referenced by my colleague for Gladstone, of this volunteerism in Manitoba has been measured at $264 million if assessed at a minimum wage, and that is a very large commitment quantified for the people of Manitoba.

As a Manitoban, I am very, very proud of our volunteers throughout the province, and I know that there is no work that is more rewarding than volunteering. The volunteer effort is often the basis of people's interest and passion, and they spend hours and hours in an effort to assist in an area of their interest.

I come from a volunteer background also, Madam Speaker. Other members have spoken about that. I have had extremely good training as a volunteer, and it has really assisted me in all areas of my life. This government recognizes the tremendous contribution of the extensive volunteer effort that we are so fortunate to have in all of our communities. As the member for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan) referenced, there will be a recognition at a specific event, a luncheon a little bit later this week, when individuals will be recognized for their very specific and tremendous volunteer effort and contribution to Manitoba.

Never was the spirit of co-operation and community service more evident, however, than it was in our largest civil disaster in our province's history, and that was the flood of 1997. With the assistance of tens of thousands of volunteers, Manitobans joined together with courage and with determination to assist friends and neighbours in this time of great adversity.

I know that many people in this Chamber were out for hours on end as well sandbagging. Wherever the call was given, volunteers went to that area. It did not have to be an area that they knew well or that they represented. There was a need, and Manitobans went to that area to assist and to save a property and people's homes.

Volunteerism not only creates a co-operative community atmosphere, but it is also a part of a healthy and active lifestyle. Manitobans play an important role in assisting Manitoba to host events of national and international status, and that has allowed Manitoba to showcase our home-grown hospitality to all of the world.

We have cultural events such as the Winnipeg Folk Festival which I know many Manitobans enjoy, and it really runs on an incredible volunteer base of people from all areas and interests in Manitoba; the Winnipeg Fringe Festival which I think many people in this Chamber have enjoyed; the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, a very successful event here in the city of Winnipeg, International Children's Festival.

It goes on and on. I think many of us, and most Manitobans, have had the opportunity to experience a benefit in our cultural showcases which again are by and large actually run during the time of the event by volunteers. Those volunteers, many of them make a commitment year over year. It is not just a one-time effort and then they forget about it. It has become their passion, their interest, and they volunteer year over year

The1997 Canada Summer Games in Brandon; the 1998 Grey Cup; and, most recently, the World Junior Hockey Championship which was the most successful junior championship ever. All those things seem to occur in a very short period of time. It is amazing the resiliency of volunteers in Manitoba that they continue to give over and over again to benefit our province and also to show our hospitality to the world.

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My colleague for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan) mentioned the upcoming Pan American Games. That is the third largest sporting event in history. I just wanted to pay some respect and some attention to those people who are volunteering, because many of those people began their volunteer effort three, five years ago. They were involved as volunteers to conceptualize what was required. They were involved and beginning to recruit volunteers years before the event, and they had to be able to explain and gain a commitment. Manitobans did come forward and agree to act as volunteers, and now we are less than 95 days to those games. I believe that, again, the world will see Manitoba's spirit of volunteerism and Manitoba's spirit of hospitality.

Volunteers also play an integral role in providing an important community service function as well. I would like to just give a few examples. Volunteers are an important support to Manitoba's multicultural community, and they provide such vast services as supporting English as a Second Language program. They work as tutors and also as learning partners, serving as host to assist newcomers in understanding rules and systems and cultures, committing to sponsorship agreements to assist refugees on arrival.

Manitoba would like to attract more immigrants, more immigration to our province. Not only do we want to attract and increase our immigration, we also want those people to stay here. In order to help them stay here, we have to make sure that there is a system in place that will assist people in their settlement. Volunteers have had a very, very important role in our settlement services. That settlement service being, as I said, to help people understand the cultural and legal framework of Manitoba, as well as, to assist them in simply getting settled and providing a friendship basis.

Multicultural volunteers are also an important component of the voluntary sector. They volunteer within their own cultural groups to support new arrivals and act as interpreters and translators, volunteer in business and social service and education committees to improve language and employment skills. They support cultural awareness training for main street groups.

Madam Speaker, I think at this time it would also be important to recognize the efforts of volunteers in terms of their concern with what is happening internationally at the moment with the people of Kosovo. Manitobans very early stepped forward to say that they were prepared to offer support to people from Kosovo, who may not yet be refugees but to whom Canada may be asked to in fact take to a safe sanctuary and allow those people to finally be returned home. As I think all members in the Chamber know this effort is one which actually is being organized by the United Nations, and Canada is responding. I think one of the important messages has been that Manitobans stepped right up first and without being asked. There have been meetings with our settlement services organizations in Manitoba, organizations who work with refugees. I know that, should Manitoba then be called upon by the United Nations, Manitoba will be ready because our volunteers are very heartfelt in wanting to help people who are in these very desperate situations.

Madam Speaker, I would like to also speak for a moment about the cultural boards, because Manitoba is really known for its cultural activity. It has a reputation across Canada, and because of the efforts of a number of our cultural organizations, its reputation is, in fact, international. But the work that goes into organizing and setting up a system is often done by the cultural boards, and those people are volunteers.

I have had the opportunity to meet with cultural boards across this province, both community boards, who are inspiring cultural activity within their own community, and the cultural boards, who support our major cultural organizations within the province. I know that they give a lot of time and that they spend a lot of their time working for the organization and also spreading the word about Manitoba's wonderful cultural opportunities, so I would just like to take a moment in speaking today to acknowledge the work that they do.

I would also like to recognize those people who work in recreation and fitness across the province. There are a lot of individuals who come together within their region or municipality to support recreation councils. It is through those recreation councils that there is a co-ordinated effort for a community then to have recreation and fitness opportunities. These lead to a healthy lifestyle. These lead to an improved quality of life, and these individuals do spend a lot of their time and effort on improving our quality of living.

I know that others have also spoken about volunteers in sport. I had the opportunity to work with communities who are involved in sport, not necessarily the elite side of Sport Manitoba, as has been spoken about before, but communities who are actually organizing themselves around community clubs for recreation, fitness and sport. I would like to recognize all of those individuals who spend a lot of their time organizing hockey and ringette and aerobics and all of those sporting activities that take place in neighbourhoods.

I would also like to recognize those people who work as volunteers on our historic and heritage projects across the province. It is because there are Manitobans who really have a deep love of their history and their heritage, who want to promote their heritage and who want other Manitobans to know and be able to appreciate where we came from and what the very valuable contributions of those who came before us have made, that they then put a great deal of their time into recognizing and preserving historic and heritage–sometimes it is a building; sometimes it is a monument; sometimes it is a place. But they spend time in making sure that we as Manitobans of today do not lose sight of what happened in the past. I would like to say that for that volunteer community it is really a very vibrant and, it seems to me, growing community of volunteers, and I would I like to recognize them as well.

I would also like to recognize parents. We have spoken about parents and the role of parents in terms of school, parent advisory committees, the work that they do on behalf of their young person. Sometimes people are on those committees and they do not have children in the school, but they are community volunteers who want to assist in the development of that particular community.

People who volunteer in seniors homes. In my community, we have seniors homes, and I can tell you their door is open to the community to come in and volunteer so that those seniors are still members of the community.

People who volunteer in the hospital guilds. I would like to give particular recognition to the Victoria Hospital Guild because that is an area that I represent, but I know that there are guilds in hospitals all across this province where there is a great deal of effort and time made to make the life of people who need to be confined to a hospital for a short or a long time better.

Volunteer training is important. Volunteer recognition is important. We will be announcing a method of recognition of volunteers across the province, in co-operation with municipalities, in the very short while.

So, Madam Speaker, in closing, I would like to take this opportunity during National Volunteer Week to extend my appreciation to the numerous individuals and the volunteer organizations throughout the province whose contributions really do make Manitoba a great place to live, to work and to raise a family. Thank you very much.

Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): I am pleased to rise in support of this motion proposed by my honourable friend opposite, and with the amendment that was agreed to by all parties. I think it is a strong recognition of the essence of voluntarism in our society.

The honourable member who just spoke and her colleague who spoke before her have listed a catalogue of volunteers, and there is not enough time in any short speech to recognize the breadth and depth of volunteerism. So I would like to turn to the issue of the role of civil society and what volunteers really mean in that context of a democratic state.

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The root of the word "volunteer" is a Latin word that talks about the will, that is, that it is people's will to do things as opposed to their being rewarded for doing them or their being forced to do them. The words "volunteer" and "voluntary" and "volens" refer back to the root word "for the will."

I think that we perhaps misunderstand the degree to which our entire civil society rests on the assumption that people have the will to take part voluntarily in its shaping. A couple of Lutheran sociologists, Peter Berger and Richard Neuhaus, wrote a treatise on voluntarism some 30 years ago when I was first involved as a staff member of the Anglican Church of Canada, and it has stayed with me ever since.

One of the lines in that little I think about 50-page book is that voluntary groups are the value-generating and value-maintaining level of society, and without such groups there is nothing left between the citizen and the state. Berger and Neuhaus go on to say that essentially that is the definition of totalitarianism. Where there are no voluntary activities, no acts of free will to pursue a citizen's sense of what their society ought to look like, then by definition we would be living in a totalitarian state.

So I think we have to look very carefully at our society from time to time and try and discern the degree to which we are moving away from or towards a more civil society. It seems to me there are lots of danger signals for us as a society in the latter stages of this century, some of which have been enunciated by my colleague for Radisson (Ms. Cerilli), who pointed out that it has been the tendency of the government of Manitoba, strangely, I think, to devalue and dismiss volunteers from central roles, roles in which real values are formed, real decisions are made, real actions are taken.

I think of the Manitoba Arts Council, the advisory council, that was essentially disbanded by this government soon after it had taken power. My colleague has listed all the other groups. Whether it is foster parents or whether it is the boards of hospitals or whether it is RAG groups in the city of Winnipeg, there is a long, long list of very important organizations that have been either disbanded or taken over by this government. I have often chuckled with friends about what the members opposite would have said had a New Democratic Party government announced that it was abolishing hospital boards and putting them under the control of central, appointed, partisan boards, boards full of defeated candidates and people that clearly are partisan.

I can just hear the howls of derision that would have issued from the benches opposite had an NDP government done such a thing. We would have been ridiculed as being state socialists, centralists. Yet, this government does this and defends it as good policy to fire literally thousands of volunteers and to take away their capacity to act. Perhaps they might be able to make the case that they have created some levels of volunteer activity that have real authority and power, but for the life of me, I do not know where they are if they have done so because I do not see them in Manitoba today. What I see is a vibrant volunteer community of the arts and preservation of history and culture and sports, but I see volunteers being marginalized from decision making in the areas of life that are very important–education, health, other similar kinds of areas.

So I think that if we could step back and understand that the very nature of a civil society and a democratic society, its essence is volunteerism. Volunteerism is not an extra that preserves the Prairie Dog Central or makes Folklorama happen or the Festival du Voyageur. It is not an extra. It is not icing. It is the cake. It is the essence of society to have people coming forward to work on things that they deeply believe in and deeply value. It seems then to me that it follows, and Berger and Neuhaus said this in this little book they wrote, that public policy ought to do everything in its power to nurture and support the capacity of citizens to act for their own and society's betterment and not to put roadblocks in their way. When I think of the sheer pettiness of the elimination of supports to some 50 volunteer organizations in, I believe it was 1993-94, one of which I just cite, the friendship centres, for example, very low cost, very high involvement, very large numbers and, I think, in those communities that I know about anyway, a very significant impact on the quality of life.

I will close because I want to give members opposite an opportunity to speak before we have agreed to pass this resolution, if indeed they wish to do so, by simply pointing out that a little organization in my community, the Earl Grey Neighbourhood Safety Association, has made an enormous difference to the real and perceived safety of their community on a budget of less than $1,500 a year, all of which comes entirely from their own activities and efforts. That is laudable. This little group has made a simply staggering difference in the sense of that neighbourhood's ability to understand itself and act on its own behalf and in its own best interest.

So I commend to all members again the book by John Rolston Saul, Reflections of a Siamese Twin, as well as, Unconscious Civilization. In both of those books, he reflects powerfully and with a great understanding of Canadian history how the very essence of our society is a voluntary essence. It is not simply making things better by acting after hours as an extra. The nature of a democratic society is that people have a sense that they are voluntarily acting all the time to undergird and support their democratic state and to make their society a free one in which they live with dignity and have a full and rich life.

That is the tribute I would pay to volunteers: that they understand and are committed to that deep perception that a free society is a voluntary society and that we honour them for that sense and for their commitment to maintaining and strengthening our democratic society through their voluntary activities. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Marcel Laurendeau (St. Norbert): Madam Speaker, I will be very brief. I would like to thank the honourable member for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan) for bringing forward this motion today, this resolution that speaks to the very fabric of Manitoba and Canada, this fabric which holds our country together, our province together and helps us to be who we are as a nation.

Madam Speaker, I asked the question to the Grade 3 children the other day, I said: what is a volunteer? The answer was varied throughout the room, but there was one child who came back with: it is someone who cares; it is someone who shares. That was the part that really got to me, was the way they could understand in Grade 3 how it was someone who cared and shared.

Madam Speaker, they also said that volunteerism knew no boundaries. We saw that during the flood with us able to work with members of all parties on one common goal as we were working toward success.

So as we have this motion toward us today, I would like to thank all the volunteers throughout Manitoba, throughout Canada, who have helped to make this nation a great nation, who have helped to make Manitoba and my community of St. Norbert a place where I want to raise my children. I want all members of this Chamber today to pass this resolution brought forward by the member for Gladstone and spoken of so highly by all members in this Chamber today and see that this motion goes forward.

So, Madam Speaker, thank you very much.

* (1750)

Mr. Doug Martindale (Burrows): I rise to speak briefly on this resolution in support of this resolution from the member for Gladstone (Mr. Rocan), and we agreed to pass it at five to six, so I will be very brief.

It is interesting that we have a motion that has the support of the government and the opposition, and I am sure that probably all of us here have had a great deal of experience as MLAs or prior to becoming MLAs in the community as volunteers, and so all of us support volunteerism in our community and encourage our constituents to volunteer.

However, there have been some trends in recent years in terms of volunteerism. For example, when I was working at the North End Community Ministry in the 1980s, there were about 35 volunteers there who were involved in schools, and I am just going from memory here in terms of the numbers, but they were working one on one in five elementary schools in the inner city.

However, these people, most of whom were women in their fifties and sixties, were part of the sandwich generation. Many of them had children and grandchildren, and they also had elderly parents that they had to look after. The result was that every year had fewer of those volunteers until eventually that particular volunteer program disappeared because we were not able to recruit new volunteers to replace them.

Now, interestingly, I was volunteering at the Old Spaghetti Factory a few years ago with one of my colleagues from the government side of the House, and we had lunch together after we volunteered, and we had a lengthy discussion about volunteerism. It was his contention that there are thousands of volunteers out there and that they are an untapped resource and there are lots of people that we could draw on.

I said, no, I respectfully disagree because the traditional source of volunteers were women who worked at home unpaid and volunteered in their spare time, and, now, because of changes in society, about 60 to 65 percent of women are in the paid workforce, and so that source of volunteers is no longer available or as available as it used to be.

Many organizations are having trouble recruiting and retaining volunteers. For example, I was recently talking to the executive director of Meals on Wheels in Winnipeg, and they have a great deal of trouble recruiting and retaining volunteers. They actually have a crisis every year in January and February when so many Manitobans go south for a holiday, and especially retirees. So it is actually getting, I think, increasingly hard to attract volunteers.

Now, that does not mean that we should not try, but I think we need to make horrendous efforts in order to recruit volunteers and train volunteers and show that they are appreciated so that they can continue to volunteer. I have certainly done this in my constituency. I sent out letters to almost my whole constituency to recruit volunteers for the adult literacy program at King Edward School, and I probably sent out, I do not know, 7,000 or 8,000 letters and got maybe two volunteers. Now, those individuals are very much appreciated by the adult literacy program, but it just shows how difficult it is to recruit volunteers.

So with those few remarks, I will let the member for Inkster put some remarks on the record. Thank you.

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): Madam Speaker, we too want to see this particular resolution pass. It should be noted that whether it is the smallest micro of all communities or it is the larger community as a whole, that being all of Manitoba, it is the volunteers that will make or break it. We would ultimately suggest to you that Manitoba likely has if not the highest, I challenge anyone to find another jurisdiction where we have so many volunteers based on a per capita. I think we are all overwhelmed, whether they come out in the droves such as the great flood that we had a couple of years back, and that is for the province as a whole uniting together, to the local community clubs, the parent councils. It is virtually endless.

What we do know, Madam Speaker, is that our communities are successful when we get people volunteering to make life that much better for us. If the Pan Am Games is going to be a success, as I believe it will be, it will be because of the volunteers. We have seen huge successes in terms of the Grey Cup sponsoring. That, again, is because of volunteers. One could go endlessly at all levels.

We, on behalf of the Liberal Party, applaud all of those that commit so willingly their time and efforts to so many good causes. We pay special tribute to those individuals today in recognition of this particular resolution. Thank you.

Madam Speaker: Is it the will of the House to adopt the resolution? [agreed]

Is it the will of the House to call it six o'clock? [agreed]

The hour being 6 p.m., this House is adjourned and stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday).