Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 13, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 SOUTH. FP NORTH. 204- 284- 6632 204- 261- 9580 RISK- FREECarBuying... WeGuaranteeit! LEASE FOR/ APR: $ 198 @ 1.99 % PER MONTH FOR 48 MONTHS DOWN PAYMENT $ 420 ORDER YOURS TODAY LEASE/ APR: $ 298 @ 2.99 % WITH $ 3,050 DOWN PAYMENT OVER 48 MONTHS $ 27,630 MSRP INCLUDING FREIGHT & PDI* FREE BRAKEINSPECTION WITH ANY OTHER SERVICE! $ 69 9 5 ALIGNMENT MONTH OF JUNE ONLY! 2012 CIVIC DX 2012 CR- V LX 2WD $ 16,485 MSRP INCLUDES FREIGHT & PDI . ABS . SIX AIRBAGS - STANDARD . VEHICLE STABILITY ASSIST ( VSA � ) WITH TRACTION CONTROL * All offers oac, plus taxes and fees. See dealers for details. Program guaranteed until June 30, 2012. TOP NEWS WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2012 winnipegfreepress. com A 3 O TTAWA - The federal government is insisting Riel House will stay open, even though questions remain unanswered about what programming will exist at the historic site. Just 48 hours after it was reported Parks Canada decided to terminate its contract with the St. Boniface Historical Society and close Riel House, Canada's environment minister, Peter Kent, said Tuesday the doors to the home where Louis Riel lay in state after he was hanged will stay open. In question period in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Kent said the museum will stay open - just not with guided tours. " Riel House National Historic Site is not closing," said Kent, who was on the defensive under questioning from NDP MP Pat Martin and Liberal Denis Coderre. " Visitors will still be able to enjoy self- guided tours, as they can at all of Canada's less- visited historic sites. The house will remain open." David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba M�tis Federation, said this is the right thing to do. " We're very pleased," said Chartrand. " This was done by bureaucracy, a purely financial decision, without consideration for the historical importance ( of Riel House). Politicians stepped in, recognizing what this means to Manitoba and the rest of Canada. He is recognized as a father of Confederation. " Prime Minister Harper has, in the past, shown personal compassion for Riel as a leader, a strong figure. I'm sure he played a role ( in keeping Riel House open)." The St. Boniface Historical Society was informed three weeks ago its $ 56,000 annual contract with Parks Canada to provide guided tours of Riel House National Historic Site would not be renewed in 2013. Society president Michel Lagac� said without that, there will be no more guided tours and he can't see how the house will stay open. " We have no idea what their plans are. We know after the September long weekend we will close the door and give the keys to Parks Canada. It's their house." St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover said the government is consulting with interested groups in Manitoba about the future of Riel House, including how the self- guided tours will be supported. She said it could be with new interpretive panels, or with tours available on headsets or for handheld devices such as iPhones. Glover also said St. Boniface Historical Society's funding isn't being eliminated - it is being reduced by about 50 per cent. " This is part of a move towards efficiency," she said. " Taxpayers' dollars need to be spent wisely." Parks Canada has contracted with the St. Boniface Historical Society to provide guided tours at Riel House since 1980. Parks Canada bought the house in 1970 and restored it to what it would have been like in 1886. Riel never lived there but his mother and widow did. His body lay in state in the home after he was killed in 1885. His descendants lived in the home until 1969. Kent insisted the artifacts on the site will remain there, and staff will remain on site. A spokesman later said Parks Canada will continue to fund maintenance of the site, and there will be funding to ensure the public has access to the site. He did not say how much or how it will work. Parks Canada has been told to cut $ 29 million from its budget as part of the federal government's deficit fighting plan. As such, it reviewed all of its historic sites and identified 27 with lower attendance that will all be reduced to self- guided tours only. Three of those sites are in Manitoba, including Riel House, St. Andrew's Rectory and York Factory. A memo on the matter said they will still provide school tours on a cost- recovery basis, and can host between two and three community gatherings a year. Attendance at Riel House has dropped below 5,000 people a year and Glover said funding interpretive guides to stand around and do nothing for days on end isn't wise. Pat Martin said the government's cuts to the museum seem like a slap in the face to the founder of Manitoba. " Louis Riel House will not survive without the stable core funding that was reduced to zero in this brutal budget bill. Is $ 60,000 a year too much to honour the memory of the best member for Provencher ever elected, to honour this great Canadian hero, this icon?" mia. rabson@ freepress. mb. ca By Mia Rabson OTTAWA - The Conservatives' controversial omnibus budget bill is so big, not even the Library of Parliament could digest it all. At more than 400 pages, Bill C- 38 pokes into almost every nook and cranny of Canadian life, from the high end - how the Governor General gets paid - to the low: making sure people can still spend their discontinued pennies. Skipping a detailed review of the Reducing the Jobs, Growth and Prosperity Act in favour of a point- form precis may have been a time saver on the part of the library's researchers. But it highlights the crux of the opposition's argument against a bill that's now the centre of a parliamentary game of chicken, which will keep MPs in their seats around the clock starting today. The bill didn't get enough study or debate, they argue. It's too big. It simply changes too much. " The list is so broad, this has been a challenge for the opposition. In describing what's going to happen to the country, which ones do you pick?" said NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen. " The list is absolutely extraordinary, and extraordinarily bad." In a last- ditch effort to pare back the changes the bill will make to more than 70 laws, the opposition threw more than 1,000 amendments at it last week. Today, MPs will begin what will likely be more than 24 hours of consecutive voting on the 800 amendments the Speaker deemed acceptable. It's not just parliamentary mischief, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae insisted. " Procedure is just a way we have to do things sometimes because of the battle over the principle," Rae said. " This is over a basic principle. It's about the principle of sustainability. It's about the principle of democracy and respecting the public. It's about the principle of living up to your promises and not doing things which go completely contrary to what you said even a year ago." The Conservatives call the barrage of amendments a stall tactic. " We have had a record amount of study of this particular piece of legislation. There has been major work before Parliament for three months," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday. Opposition to the bill doesn't just come from within the parliamentary precinct. Environmentalists are outraged over the changes being made to assessment criteria for natural resources projects. Social groups are upset about the plan to raise the age of eligibility for old age security to 67 from 65. Workers in seasonal industries are concerned about changes being made to employment insurance. The bill also creates stricter rules for charities on how much political activity they can carry out, eliminates oversight of Canada's spy agency, changes the way the government approves marketing claims for food and gets rid of plastic cards for social insurance numbers. The math will be crucial over the coming 24 hours or more of votes: if the Tories don't maintain their majority, they run the risk of accidentally letting some of the amendments through. " I want these folks to feel a little bit of a pain for their arrogance," said Cullen. " I think it's foolhardy to approach Parliament as an annoyance, as a problem to overcome, that democracy is somehow in the way all the time." - The Canadian Press Future of home is a Riel puzzle Skepticism greets word Riel House to stay open, but with half the cash ' Politicians stepped in, recognizing what this means to Manitoba and the rest of Canada' - David Chartrand, Manitoba M�tis Federation Tories must be on toes as marathon voting begins By Stephanie Levitz PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS' Dressed in period costume, Fran�ois Freynet guides tourists Denis and Lise Hebert through Riel House Tuesday. A_ 03_ Jun- 13- 12_ FP_ 01. indd A3 6/ 12/ 12 10: 28: 48 PM ;