Skip to main content

A thank you to Brenda Still and other child care workers who have done so much during the COVID-19 pandemic

 On Tuesday May  18, in a  Members  Statement I thanked Brenda Still and others who work in child care  and early childhood education in Manitoba.  My remarks, from Hansard,  are below. 

Child-Care During Pandemic

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Deputy Speaker, I honour Brenda Still and all those who work in child care and early childhood education in River Heights and in Manitoba.

      COVID‑19 has been an incredible challenge. Indeed, providing services for young children and keep­ing the virus away from them and from staff has  been a challenge far more than most of us can imagine. You can't put plastic shields around kids; you can't effectively use masks, and yet the service that child care and early childhood educators provide is essen­tial in order that so many other essential workers can work, including those in health care, in grocery stores, in emergency services and in transportation, and in so–and so many other occupations.    It is a chal­lenge like no other.

      There is also joy in spending time with young children. At the same time, it is a challenge to be flex­ible under constantly changing rules and often without nearly enough support early on when schools were closed and child-care centres were to remain open. It sent shockwaves through the system.

      At another point, there were several changes in a single day in what was communicated. Yet, Brenda Still and others working in this area have persevered. And, more than this, Brenda has advocated at a Legislative Assembly committee, written op-eds, and made numerous calls, emails and texts to me, her MLA.

      One of these was about the lack of attention in Bill 47 to school-aged children. In this quest, my col­league, the MLA for Tyndall Park, worked with child-care workers and was able to bring forward two critical amendments, which have been accepted by the government and are now part of Bill 47.

      Thank you, Brenda, for bringing this to our atten­tion. Thanks to all who work in child care and early childhood education in our province. You are helping raise the next generation. You are helping to ensure the future for all of us.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science