I do want to start by saying something I should have said at the outset that Tracy reminded me needed to be and that is going to put the spotlight on the people who work in our amazing schools and do the amazing to teach and feed our kids. So I do want to shout out to Alana, I think she's here the principal, and we met Nancy and Jeremy, who make the food for the kids every day. And I was really touched by how much love and care goes into it goes into the Bannock, goes into the selection of jams. So I just really know it's like, these are the people who take care of our kids every single day. I just want to say, I recognize you. I thank you, Tracy, thank you for showing us the way there. Okay, very serious and important question. Every single one of my colleagues who's made the very difficult and serious decision not to run again is a person I really respect and is a person I have worked with very closely. So it's a personal loss for me. These are really hard working, dedicated elected people who have given so much to work hard to serve their constituents and serve their Canadians. So you know, Philomena, Carla, Marie Claude, Dan, I just want to say I'm sad. I'm going to miss you. Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication. It's a really personal choice to put your hand up to work hard to serve Canadians, and the decision of every single person who chooses to do that, and I respect the decision of every single person who makes the decision to retire and step back from public life, but each of those ministers has my very deep gratitude. One of them is here and talk to us about how meaningful it is for him to be here at the school to grade one and maybe the school year, and how to read anything.
Your question is, what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. For me. It means that in 2025 it'll be 30 years since I've represented Saint Monica, Saint Patel. It's been it's been a time. It means that next year I turn 65 and I think that's a pretty good opportunity to actually do something, turn, start another chapter in your life and do something else. It does not mean that I've lost confidence in our party or the Prime Minister. In fact, I'm very confident that the polls are going to tighten up, and I think it would be foolish to vote against
liberal party on
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Claude and to the past of Korea. CTV News is reporting a group of MPs will formally
ask the Prime Minister to step down at next week's caucus meeting. In your view, Deputy Prime Minister, how serious is this threat to the Prime Minister's leadership? Have you had any conversations with these concerned MPs?
Thanks for the question. And let me just start by saying the Prime Minister has my full support as leader of our government, as leader of our party. The Prime Minister has been very clear that he intends to lead us in an election, and he has my full support in doing that. I have a lot of respect for every single member of our caucus, and you have five of us here today, and am I right? Yeah, and you know, we spend a lot of time together. We spend a lot of time talking with each other. Canada is a parliamentary democracy, and that means that our government is formed based on caucus. We are government because we have the plurality of hard working individual people who worked hard to get elected by their constituents, by their communities, and who represent them every single day. So in a very real way, our caucus is our government, and I take that very seriously. And I take the perspective and the ideas and the work and the contribution of each caucus member extremely seriously. Obviously, in our caucus, as in any caucus, there is going to be a wide range of views. I am absolutely confident that the vast majority of members of our caucus support the Prime Minister along France, leader of the NATO party, that will gonna say things. First of all, these are challenging times for Canada and for Canadians. We are just at the end of a really traumatic experience, covid and the covid recession and everything that followed that we had covid hit, we had a recession, 17% of GDP shrank. Then we had lockdowns, that was really hard. Then we reopened the economy, and we had a shortage of everything, and then we had inflation, and then we had high interest rates. That is really, really hard, and it's still hard. And you know, that's why I started by talking about inflation and interest rates, because we are now at the point in that cycle where we're starting to get inflation now has been within the Bank of Canada's target range for nine months, and it was 1.6% in September. We learned that this week, that is a crucial fact for every single Canadian. And interest rates have been coming down. They've come down now three times. So there is real relief already, and more relief coming, and that is important. Second thing I would say is, for me, for our government, we govern starting by listening to Canadians and being guided by our values. And if you want to know what is our government's plan? What does our government believe we need to do for Canada and Canadians? There is no better, you know, single image, single picture, than our announcement today. For me, I think for all of us, today is really at the heart of what we believe we need to do, which is to invest in Canadians, to support Canadians, to invest, first and foremost, in our most precious Canadians, the youngest Canadians, and to do that with an understanding that investing in Canadians is also an investment in our economy for today and in our economic future, in that, you know, in that little lunch with some Bannock, some jam, a banana and a little carton of milk given to a six year old for free at school. For me, that is at the heart that we are doing and that we need to continue to do.
And a question for Minister Schmidt.
Today's announcement said 19,000 everyone. Educators,
there's change of government.
The next government doesn't have this specifically as priority. What's plan to top this up yourself, not yourself, but your government's not selling that many books. But how many back for
you the media folks, what
is the change of government plan here for for in the event that the Liberal government isn't around to follow through on the multi
year aspect? Well, first of all, I just want to give a shout out for wearing the same jacket as me today, and if I, like, am avoiding you after this. It's not anything personal. I just don't want the two of us wearing the same outfit. To be honest, we're happy to be able to announce this program. This is a multi year commitment that's going to allow us to enhance this universal School Food Program here in Manitoba, and we have a priority here at the provincial level that we want this to be baked into the educational landscape here in Manitoba. You know, this is our one year anniversary as a provincial government creator, willing. There'll be many more years to come with our team in government, but at some future date, if there is a change in the provincial government, I want it to be out of the question for the school food program to be cut. And that's why we need to understand that, yes, this is about feeding kids today and about improving the report cards this year, but it's also about bending the curve of so many of the priorities that Manitoba has talked to us about each and every day, when they come and they say, We need a plan on downtown safety, we need a plan on homelessness, we need a plan on the economy. We need a plan to build the Manitoba tomorrow. It starts with feeding kids so that they show up for school and they can achieve more. And so I guess, how do we permit this against the future governments? This month, everyone feels good about feeding hungry kids. Two, it makes so much sense of term investment. And then three, we dare a future government to try to take food away from kids. I'm
not wearing the same but I want to add one thing, okay, so all previous This is federal, provincial collaboration. Okay? I just want to add one thing. It's partly right. So I get asked versions of that question a lot. I get asked them at press conferences, and I get asked in private meetings with people, meetings with people who love $10 a day daycare, meetings with people who love programs, meetings with people who love the CBC, meetings with people who believe we need climate action. Okay? And people say to me, what can we do? What can we do? How can we future proof these programs? And you know what the reality is, you can't future proof, something with some kind of fancy political work, some kind of fancy legislation. The way Canadians get the programs that they like and believe in to continue to be in place is to vote for the people who believe in those programs. We have a democracy. There is a very easy way for every single Canadian who believes in school food for their kids and their neighbor kids and their nieces kids. And the way you do that is elect governments who believe in that program and will continue to fund it. There is no magic there, and we are a government who believes in it. In fact, we're the government that put it in place in the budget in the spring at a cost of a billion dollars over five years. That's a lot of money, but we believe in it. We're doing it, and we also know that the conservatives do not believe in it. In fact, you know, Jenna made a great point. She said, The conservatives actually it's hard for them to believe they do this, right, that they are so open and overt about their views. Here, they have dismissed a national school food covid program as just bureaucracy. Okay? Is it bureaucracy to give a kid a banana? Is what Nancy does, putting together these little these little snacks for the kids. Is that bureaucracy is Jeremy baking Bannock for this district? Bureaucracy? No, it isn't. You know that it's not we believe in it people who believe we're doing the right thing, you know they need to not be mourning the future loss of something. They need to be working
hard so that
we don't lose it. That's not my second question. Okay? Play a pleasure with this common esque guarantee, common uncle aware in politics, for not the system National de gavability, performance, comma on the protege President la reality. A second again, again, will the program complete? Open, difficult. See evil phones. See on a radio
Canada possibility, more federal liberality. Plans,
thank you. Different topic for Premier, please.
I'm going to help you.
The tobacco companies have filed their settlements in court right now regarding the long standing class action and the rest of the lawsuit. You can actually talk about this now.
I beg to differ. Okay, well,
how is this going to but it is, how will this settlement, multi billion dollar settlement? How much money will flow to the cashier project that you spoke about? And when do you think that money can flow? Ballpark stick, you know, to stick to a specific timeline. But how is that now going to work now? And are you pleased to see this come out in the courts?
So let me start with all the disclaimers, and, you know, all that stuff that I have to do at the top, and then I'll get to the heart of your question. So, you know, with this filing and the details, and, you know, dollar values and stuff like that, it's, it's something that I can't comment on the details of. And so, you know, I wish I could answer in detail all the specific things, but I just have to respect what's going on with this specific filing and the process that is laid out there. Let me just however this process played the day when the provincial government receives resources, we are going to ensure that everything goes to fighting cancer in this province, every single person here was moved by the children, because we all know the magic of having a young joy in your family. Tragically, one of the other universal experiences that we have is being touched by cancer. Every person in this room, every person listening to these words, has a story about the impacts of cancer in our lives. And because of that tremendous social cost, personal emotional cost that we've all born. Our team does view it as a sacred responsibility to work to ensure that more Manitobans can hear those four magic words. You are cancer free. One of the aspects of the provincial healthcare system that always gets high marks, and you know, has a history of excellence in is cancer care. And we want to ensure that the resources are there so the Manitobans can get the best in class cancer treatment right here at home, and that we can continue to build cancer care into an institution of excellence, because that's going to help us recruit and build stronger health care, but most importantly, because it's going to help more people who are on that marathon of a cancer journey. And if we can help that marathon that you're running be a little bit easier by having a nicer room for you to receive your treatments in to have a more calming space for your recovery, to have the staff have the proper equipment and facility, so that when they show up to walk you through the next steps on this marathon, then we're going to make those investments. Because this thing is something that's bigger than politics. It's bigger than $1 value. This is something that's about the fight of our lives. For many people, and I made a commitment on election night, do you decide to get out of bed one more day to fight cancer? Our government is going to be there to make sure that you have the best cancer treatment in the world right here at home. And so this journey is going to continue. There's legal process and all other things that I can't talk about, but at the end of the day, we are going to make good on our words to Manitobans, because that's what you deserve. You deserve. You step up to take the next step you deserve to have a government to the mix
and for
the deputy prime minister or minister. If you could speak to the provincial nutrition program, there's a percentage breakdown. I'm wondering with this program, to speak to the details here, I'll be tall. So I think your question is relating to the investment that we're making today, and what that breaks down to is there a percentage difference versus food, and then investments for staffing as well infrastructure, sure. So the agreements that we've announced today is an agreement that funds three aspects, primarily, the largest majority, of course, is food, and that's why, you know, we had the opportunity this morning to go to classrooms and provide food to kids and see the impact. But above and beyond, obviously, the needs of food, schools need to have the facilities in order to provide the food. So it does allow for investments in things like fridges, toasters, those facilities that schools need in order to run a program, can appreciate not every school is set up as well as this one, and having the facilities. And lastly, of course, in the staff, as far as what that breakdown, those are decisions that will be made on the ground as the province moves forward in in the agreements with the various school boards and implements, it's going to vary from place to place, for very obvious reasons. Some schools are more broad than how they can supply the food than other schools, so they have the flexibility to make those quick question for France. Rieland, your colleague earlier, had told the Globe and Mail that there was a huge failure on the part of police virtual landfill. Do you have any comment on those? Yeah,
I agree with Ken very much. Can you expand? Usually, journalists complain answers are too long. So look, let me just say, you know, this is something that is very painful for the people of Manitoba, the people of Winnipeg, and we think the people of Winnipeg and Manitoba are right to see this as a real failure, and we really support premier Kennewick and the province in working to fix this.
