Newfoundland and Labrador Hansard — Statements by Ministers; Oral Questions — 15 April 2025 (50th General Assembly, 2nd Session, Vol. L No. 111)
2025-04-15
Newfoundland and Labrador — Debates (Hansard)
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April 15, 2025 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS Vol. L No. 111
The House met at 1:30 p.m.
SPEAKER (Bennett): Order, please!
Admit visitors.
Before we begin,
I’d like to recognize, in our public gallery, the members of the Newfoundland
and Labrador Rangers from the Western region.
Welcome.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
Statements
by Members
SPEAKER: Today we’ll hear statements by the hon. Members for
the Districts of Bonavista, Conception Bay South, Placentia West - Bellevue,
Ferryland and Fogo Island - Cape Freels.
The hon. the
Member for Bonavista.
C. PARDY: Thank you, Speaker.
As a recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal, Fred Cuff of
Elliston has admirably dedicated a lifetime of service to the residents of the
District of Bonavista. As a journeyman and master electrician, executive
assistant to two MPs and Chief of Staff to the Minister of Fisheries –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
PARDY: – Fred’s community achievements further validates his outstanding service.
Mr. Cuff was CO, Commanding Officer, of the RCSCC Matthew of Bonavista
when it received the top corps in Canada in 1988 and awarded the Navy League
National President’s Award – the Navy League of Canada’s highest award.
He was past president and founding member of Bruce Denniston Bone Marrow
Society in Newfoundland and Labrador Society; past member of the mental health steering committee on
our peninsula; served on the board of trustees of the peninsula health care
complex; founding member and chair of the peninsula emergency response
committee; served on the Elliston Town Council; past vice-president of the
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 7, et cetera. His involvement led him being
awarded the Canada 125th Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 1992 in
recognition of contribution to community and country.
I ask the
Members of the 50th House of Assembly to join me in celebrating the outstanding
service contributions of Fred Cuff for exemplary community service.
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Conception Bay South.
B. PETTEN: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, I rise
today to acknowledge two remarkable ladies from Conception Bay South who have
recently launched a children's book titled Tilly the Too-Tall Clover .
Ida Linehan
Young is a local author with numerous awards for her
eight published books from 2014 to 2024, which cover a range of fiction,
historical fiction and now, children's literature. You
can explore her books on her website, www.idalinehanyoung.ca , and, of
Emma Dooley, an
illustrator and art event host since 2016, has facilitated over 1,500 events
and creates art suitable for all skill levels. Her work
can be viewed on her website, www.emmadooleyart.com , and, of course,
Today, Ida and Emma collaborated on their new project,
a children's book named Tilly the Too-Tall Clover . The book features Ida's writing and Emma's
illustrations. Both are thrilled about this venture as it marks Ida’s first
children's book and Emma’s first published book. The story of Tilly revolves
around a clover who faces bullying for being different. However, her unique
traits ultimately come to define her and pave the way for a new happy life.
Congratulations
to Ida Linehan Young and Emma Dooley on this exciting launch. I am confident
that this book will bring them great success.
Thank you very
much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the
Member for Placentia West - Bellevue.
J. DWYER: Thank you, Speaker.
Today I rise in
this hon. House to acknowledge all the young athletes in our beautiful District
of Placentia West - Bellevue. During Easter break, there will be provincial
minor hockey tournaments taking place for various groups from U11, U13, U15 and
U18. I want to recognize all the hard work and dedication put in by the
thousands of volunteers who make these tournaments happen. Each player is not
only an ambassador of their hockey club, but their community.
The game allows
them to develop their hockey skills, teamwork, social skills and sportsmanship
in a structured and supportive environment. The game of hockey is so rewarding
and open to all. It’s important that we continue to support and promote hockey
for all ages so they continue to have the opportunity to play and compete
amongst their peers. To the players, I would like to say: Play with heart, stay
focused and give it your all.
Speaker, I ask
all hon. Members to join me in wishing not only athletes in my district, but
all our province’s minor hockey players and wish them good luck at their
provincials while having fun, making friendships and making memories.
Thank you,
Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Ferryland.
O’DRISCOLL: Thank you, Speaker.
I rise in this hon. House today to recognize Stephen Walsh from Petty
Harbour, who now resides in Goulds. Stephen has been bowling for five decades
and is a fierce competitor.
Stephen has made numerous appearances on the national stage. He
represented Newfoundland and Labrador as a singles competitor, once, at the
Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association Open and, twice, at the MBAC Nationals as
tournament men’s single and, most recently, as the senior single. He also
appeared on seven teams carrying the Newfoundland and Labrador flag: Four men’s
teams appearances at the Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association Open National
Championships, two tournament men’s teams and one senior team at the MBAC
Nationals. Accompanying a variety of local success and accomplishments, in
2000, Stephen achieved perfect throwing, a 450 game. In 2005, he also added a
CBC Champion to his résumé.
Bowling is in Stephen’s blood. With his induction, he will join his
father in the Hall of Fame. His wife has seen much success in her career as
well and they have passed the torch to their children – a continued Walsh
legacy and one that will surely continue for decades to come.
Please join me in congratulating Stephen Walsh on being inducted into the
Newfoundland and Labrador 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association Hall of Fame in the bowler
category.
Thank you.
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Fogo Island - Cape Freels.
MCKENNA: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, today I rise to honour Raymond Oake .
On February 18, 2025, I had the pleasure to present Ray with the 75th
Anniversary of Confederation Medallion while celebrating his 85th birthday.
Ray was born in the town of Fogo and married Jean Hart. They had two
children and raised their family on the island. Ray held the position of CEO
for the Fogo Island Cottage Hospital from 1968 to 1996.
To quote American author, Elizabeth Andrew, “Volunteers do not
necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”
This speaks to Ray and what he’s done for most of his life – actively
volunteering and giving up his time in many different areas. Ray was an
Anglican lay reader for 40 years, a chartered member with the Brimstone Head
Lions Club for 46 years, justice of peace and was a former mayor of the town of
Fogo. Ray has been dedicated volunteer community leader for his whole adult
life, and this presentation is well-deserved recognition for a lifetime of
service to the island and its people.
Congratulations,
Ray, and thank you for your years of service.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: Statements by Ministers.
Statements by Ministers
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Industry, Energy and
Technology.
PARSONS:
Speaker, last week I was honoured to host the 2025 Research Inspired Student
Enrichment Awards, the RISE Awards.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
PARSONS: Twenty
of our brightest Level II high school students were recognized for academic
excellence in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Our department
invests approximately $320,000 to enable highly motivated, eager minds to
attend one of three enrichment programs: the Research Science Institute located
at MIT, the Boston Leadership Institute located in Wellesley, Massachusetts,
and the Davinci Engineering Enrichment Program located at the University of
Toronto.
This year’s
recipients are: Kate Blanchard, Valmont Academy; Jack Hanlon, Lakewood Academy;
Sydney Hartle , Gander Collegiate; Lily Hefford , Crescent Collegiate; Ava Hodder, Pasadena Academy;
Abigail Janes, Holy Heart of Mary; Noshin Khan,
Waterford Valley High; Samuel Lane, Mealy Mountain Collegiate; William Lane,
Mount Pearl Senior High; Aivin Siby
Nilakkapallil , White Hills Academy; Grace Noseworthy,
St. Bonaventure’s College; Alpita Patro, Gonzaga High
School; Emma Rogers, Random Island Academy; Katherine Rumbolt ,
Holy Heart of Mary; Anastasia Saika -Voivod, Gonzaga
High School; Sahil Singh, Gonzaga Regional High; Keagan Smith, St.
Bonaventure’s College; Sarah Thomas-Mouland, Holy Heart of Mary; Paige Whittle,
Waterford Valley High; and, finally, Sophia Zhang, Holy Heart of Mary High
School.
Speaker, we are
incredibly proud of these students and we wish them continued success as they
pursue their education and career goals.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cape St. Francis.
J. WALL: Thank you, Speaker, and I’d like to thank the minister
for an advance copy of his statement.
Speaker, I had
the opportunity to attend this event last week with several of my colleagues,
and on behalf of the Official Opposition, we extend our congratulations to the
20 recipients of the RISE Awards. We wholeheartedly support this initiative.
These students
represent just some of the countless bright youth throughout our province. We
are reminded each and every day that our province’s
future will undoubtedly be in great hands for generations to come.
We wish them all
the best as they continue their education, and in all their future endeavours.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
J. DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, I thank
the minister for an advance copy of the statement.
We, too, would
like to congratulate all the students who received the RISE Award. It’s indeed
a great achievement and we wish them every success.
We also call on
government, please, to ensure schools have the appropriate resources to address
class composition and class size so that all students have an enriching
environment and have the ability to grow and thrive in
school.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: Are there any further statements by ministers?
Oral Questions.
Oral
Questions
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, we’re
hearing from volunteer fire departments all across
Newfoundland and Labrador that they’re now regularly responding to 911 medical
calls. We’ve been told that these volunteers receive no funding for supplies,
time or resources.
I ask the
minister: Are volunteer firefighters now the first responders in the new
provincial ambulance program and will they be funded?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.
A. FUREY: Thank you, Speaker, and thank you for the question.
Certainly the
integration of the road ambulance service has been an incredible success story
throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. I can tell you having seen it and having
gone on ride-alongs on the ambulance, finally now, the health authority and
officials know where the assets are distributed throughout the province so that
in a modern way they can distribute those resources, where they’re best needed
throughout the province.
I can tell you
on this side of the House, there’s incredible value and we value the volunteers
who are in those firefighting roles, Mr. Speaker, throughout the province. They
play an incredible role not only to their communities, but to the overall system.
We’ve been there to support them. We’ll continue to be there to support them
into the future.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Speaker, I didn’t hear an answer to whether
or not they will actually be funded in this fiscal year, and we
recognize volunteer firefighters continue to have incredible dedication.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
T. WAKEHAM: They are the ones who often risk their own lives to
save others.
Now we’re
hearing from communities, though, that their volunteer fire departments are
experiencing a significant increase in the number of medical calls that they
respond to. In some cases, going from a few dozen calls a year to now 40 or 50
in a few months. Again, these are volunteer departments.
I ask again:
Who’s footing the bill?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.
A. FUREY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly the
Member opposite is correct, these people, not to understate it, but to
celebrate it, are heroes, Mr. Speaker. They run into places of danger when all
the rest of us would be running out. I come from a family of firefighters. My
wife’s family is full of firefighters. Her father was a firefighter. Her uncles
were both firefighters. It is a true calling, Mr. Speaker.
We will continue
to support them. The volunteer firefighters, the professional firefighters, the
first responders, we will continue to be there to support them and if there are
gaps, we will ensure that we address those gaps going forward to make sure that
they have the critical resources that they need.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Speaker, again, the volunteer fire departments are
telling us that they’re maxed out with no sustainable funding for equipment,
operations or the medical calls they’re now expected to handle. We’ve heard
cases where the cost of just the supplies that they’re using in response and
they have no source of funding other than go out and fundraise to replace this
necessary equipment. So every call means more cost for small towns that are
already stretched thin.
So again, I ask:
The volunteer fire departments are making sure that the patients are looked
after; who’s looking after them?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.
A. FUREY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the Member
opposite is aware, we are trying to look after them as well, Mr. Speaker. The
Member opposite was here for the budget. Presumably he’s read the budget.
There’s an additional $4 million for volunteer firefighters across the
province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
A. FUREY: That’s in addition to the support we provide with
things like grants for new fire trucks, new pieces of infrastructure,
modernizing the breathing apparatus instruments, Mr. Speaker. We will continue
to be there, should there be subsequent gaps.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Speaker, we’re aware of the additional money that’s
been put in the budget for fire departments and it is welcome, but what I’m
particularly asking about is money to cover off the cost that they incur when
they’re doing medical responses. Those are the things that we’re talking about
and hearing.
Speaker, last
Friday, a staff member at a local business in CBS experienced a medical
emergency and 911 was called. It took an hour for paramedics to respond.
I ask the
minister: Is that acceptable?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
The triage of
calls is done through provincial medical control and the response times are
sometimes a challenge. One of the comments from the previous question was
around volunteer fire departments and they have been integrated now into the
911 system as we move towards an integrated first response for accidents and
emergencies of all kinds.
Certainly if the
Member opposite has some details, I would be happy to look
into the specifics of that and supply him with some answers to his
questions.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Speaker, I would suggest that and if they’ve already
been integrated into the road ambulance system, then they already should be
compensated for being part of that integration. They shouldn’t have to wait any
longer.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
WAKEHAM: Speaker,
waiting over an hour for a medical emergency is not acceptable. Minutes matter
and lives are at stake, and I am sure the minister is well
aware of that. I’m also aware of another 911 call last Friday that
happened to have a medical emergency at a volleyball tournament when the caller
called 911 and was transferred and ultimately put on hold for five minutes.
Speaker, does
that mean our ambulance system is working? How many more people in our province
have waited over an hour for an ambulance response?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Public Safety.
B. DAVIS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the hon. Member
for the question.
Speaker, 911 is
obviously a very, very important service that we provide in this province. They
are essentially taking the calls and then fielding them out to either
ambulance, police or fire. That is done; they’re not left off the phone at any
point until they’re picked up on the other side by either ambulance, fire or
police. That’s the process that we go through.
If the Member
has a specific example that he would like to provide me I’ll get that checked,
because all those calls are recorded.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
T. WAKEHAM: Speaker, there are examples all over Newfoundland and
Labrador of people who have waited well over an hour for an ambulance response.
If the system isn’t working, it’s time to make sure that it gets fixed. In this
particular instance , that particular individual was
put on hold and certainly it needs to be addressed or found out why it
happened.
Speaker,
Clarenville, Carbonear, Burin all regularly have no internal medicine doctors
to admit patients, therefore patients are waiting days in emergency rooms
waiting for a transfer to a facility to be admitted. The problem is because
they are in hospital, the provincial ambulance service considers them to be a
routine transfer and not a priority.
I ask: Is this
exactly what is going on in our system and does it make any sense?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you, Speaker.
Inter-facility
transfers are organized physician to physician. That is done on
the basis of clinical need and clinical priority. Nobody else makes
those decisions. Nobody else has a role in that except the physicians
concerned. So if someone waits longer than somebody else, there is a medical
reason for that.
In terms of the
actual mechanics of that, there are at least two mechanisms by which, if not
three, an individual would then be transferred. The decision to move and when
to prioritize them is medical. How to do it is then operationalized by a
medical control centre using either ground or air, elective or emergency.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
B. PETTEN: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, last
night during Estimates the Acting Minister of Mental Health and Addictions
confirmed that there are no new community beds, which was a key recommendation
of the Towards Recovery report to allow people to seek treatment and
care closer to the family supports of home.
Why has
government cancelled this?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
I’m not sure
where the Member opposite got that from the comments at Estimates last night.
Not that I heard anyway. There are community beds for those patients who
require them. There are also what we call now supportive living arrangements
and transitional beds. So it may be simply a question of language.
The whole plan
around Towards Recovery was predicated on expanding community services
and funding them to a level where they could support care at home, hospital at
home and not rely on institutionalization which had been the bane of mental
health care for decades, if not centuries, and it’s well consigned to the
history of this province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
B. PETTEN: Thank you, Speaker.
I was on that
Committee and I was one of the most vocal people about stigmas because I have a
background in mental health. It’s something that’s near and dear to me and I’ve
always spoke about it in this House and will continue to speak about it.
Speaker,
community care homes, supportive housing and independent living arrangements,
they’ve been around for decades. It’s not a new thing. These are places to
live, not what the report envisioned. That’s not what it envisioned. The
minister agreed with me on this last night.
Let me quote the
minister from a press release on August 23, 2019, announcing an RFP for a new
hospital: “… mental health crisis beds in all regions, as well as new
community-based programs and services …. We must ensure people can get the
services they need when and where they need them.”
Speaker, I could
not agree more. Why did the minister change his mind?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
There are mental
health beds across this province. To imply that it’s simply the new adult
mental health facility that is a source of mental health beds is inaccurate.
There are 24 in Central, 20 in Western and there are beds in Labrador. There
are community beds. They are not necessarily identified as health care
facilities. There are wraparound teams. We have two ACTT teams and 13 FACT
teams across the province, which we did not have four years ago prior to the
advent of Towards Recovery.
In addition to
that, we have mobile crisis response teams. We have over 80 Doorways walk-in
clinics. I could go on, but I see you’re telling me my time is up.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
B. PETTEN: Thank you, Speaker.
I’m referring to
the beds that was announced in the report that’s supposed to be keeping people
closer to their communities. I’m not getting down in every weed of the report.
I’m talking about an issue, but the minister alludes and moves off topic.
Speaker, let me
quote the Towards Recovery report: “Replace Waterford Hospital with
in-patient services closer to home.” That’s the point. “These inpatient and
community services should be identified in a plan within the first year of this
report’s release,” which was in 2017.
Speaker, why is
the minister deliberately ignoring this key recommendation?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: It depends on where you live whether it’s closer to
home. If you live in Gander, then beds in Central are closer to home. There are
24 of them. If you live in Corner Brook, 24 beds there is closer to home. If
you have community services, the regional mental health care team in Central
for example, the FACT teams that each look after around 20 to 30 individuals
with high needs, those are situated in the community, outside of the mental
health facility.
Mental health
care should be as close to home as possible. That’s where it’s gone, and the
Member seems not to be able to grasp that despite my explanation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
B. PETTEN: Oh yes, I grasp it, Speaker. It’s semantics. It’s not
what we’re asking. He knows what we’re asking. Since 2017, what new beds have been
put in those communities? And he’s come back over 20, 30, 40 years back. That’s
not what we’re asking. We’re asking since 2017.
Speaker, I’ll be
able to table the press release if the minister can’t remember. And let me read
from another press release on the new hospital dated July 28, 2020. “Expanded
community-based services for those wishing to receive support closer to home.”
Speaker, can the
Acting Minister of Mental Health and Addictions or the Acting Minister of
Health and Community Services list those services and what communities they are
based in?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
I can’t list off
80 communities in 45 seconds, that would just be unintelligible. The facts of
the case are these are beds in the community. These are beds in community
facilities. These are beds on Edinburgh street in Gander, on Brochen, on
Airport Boulevard, and I use those as examples because that’s one community
that I live in, and that I know.
Those are people
with mental health care needs, with addictions needs who are being looked after
at home – at home. Not close to home, at home. So I don’t know really where the
Member is getting his facts from. It’s contrary to the experience of people in
the health care system.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
B. PETTEN: I’m reading the report. I don’t know the last time the
minister read it. And we’re talking to people. These supports are not there.
Independent living arrangements and supports have been around for 50 years,
longer.
Speaker, what is
the point of the new hospital in St. John’s, it’s bricks and mortar, when we
are desperately trying to get people help in their own communities? How is this
new building going to help residents in Labrador and the Great Northern
Peninsula?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much.
It’s called a
hub-and-spoke model, which is also referenced in the report, which has not yet
been quoted. I look forward to hearing that in a bit.
Essentially,
those resources are disseminated across the province. We have supports in
communities. We have 13 ACT Teams – Assertive Community Treatment Teams. These
are scattered across the province; they’re not concentrated in St. John’s.
They gain their
expertise, their updating and their continued professional development by a
relationship with the tertiary care centre. It’s called clinical practice. It’s
what we did for 35 or maybe 40 years, and that’s how clinical practice works.
These are in the community where the people need them and they relate to a
centre of excellence.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.
PADDOCK: Speaker, the acting chairperson and CEO of the
Public Service Commission, a failed former Liberal candidate, has remained in
an acting role for seven years. Two years ago during Estimates –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PADDOCK: – it sounded like a permanent position was imminent.
This morning during –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
I can’t here the question.
The hon. the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.
PADDOCK: This morning during Estimates, still no change.
Speaker, I ask: Why is this Liberal Party insider still in an acting
position after seven years?
SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
COADY: Speaker, I know his mother would be ashamed of him.
This is ridiculous (inaudible) a 30-year civil servant that –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
COADY: A 30-year civil servant who has given mightily to
this province, who has been at the public service for seven years.
I can say the Leader of the Opposition certainly spoke highly of this
individual over the last number of years as he sat before him in Estimates. I
wish the Member opposite would do the same. This is a strong commissioner of
the Public Service of Newfoundland and Labrador who does incredible work.
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.
PADDOCK: Speaker, I agree, it is ridiculous that they’re not
following –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PADDOCK: – the public service process.
So let’s switch tack. Speaker, the Liberals –
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
I ask all Members, the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay has the floor.
PADDOCK:
Thank you, Speaker.
We’ll shift tack
here a bit. Speaker, the Liberals had a chance in Budget 2025 to scrap
the punishing sugar tax but they didn’t.
Can the Minister
of Finance explain why?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of
Treasury Board.
S. COADY: First, Speaker, I will refer to the
preamble and to
what the Member opposite just said. I think it’s embarrassing and shameful for
the Opposition to question the character of a person who gave 30 years to the
civil service of Newfoundland and Labrador, who has served as commissioner of
the public service and who’s been questioned by the Opposition in Estimates
over the past, well, six budgets because that’s how long I know he’s been
before them and to raise a question of his character and his capability in this
House is shameful.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
S. COADY: Allow me to say, I wonder if the Member opposite would
say the same question about tobacco tax that he’s raising about sugar tax?
SPEAKER: The minister’s time has expired.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER: Order, please!
The level of
conversation is getting a bit loud, I can’t hear the questions or the
responses.
The hon. the
Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.
L. PADDOCK: Speaker, I was never questioning the Member’s
integrity. What I was questioning and what I will continue to question is
process.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER: Order, please!
L. PADDOCK: Follow the process.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
L. PADDOCK: Now, let’s go back to the question I did ask. The
Liberals had a chance in Budget 2025 to scrap the punishing sugar tax,
but they didn’t.
Can the Minister
of Finance explain why?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of
Treasury Board.
S. COADY: When you raise on the floor of this House of Assembly,
question the commissioner of the public service, you certainly question whether or not he should be there and that’s shameful.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
S. COADY: That is shameful, Speaker.
Now, on to the
sugar-sweetened beverage tax. As the Member opposite well knows there are a
multitude of very learned – the Diabetes Association, the Cancer association,
the Paediatric association, the World Health association say this is the right
thing to do if you want to lessen the amount of sugar in people’s diets.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER: Order, please!
S. COADY: Just as with tobacco tax, we raise tax on tobacco. Is
the Member opposite suggesting that we lower tax on tobacco as well?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.
L. PADDOCK: Speaker, there was nothing
sweet about the minister’s response on the sugar tax.
SOME
HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
PADDOCK: Speaker, families are drowning in bills, food prices are up and
the Liberals still think the answer is more taxes.
Will the
minister stand up today and commit to amending the budget and finally scrap
this wasteful, regressive and punishing tax?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of
Treasury Board.
S. COADY: Seven hundred and fifty million dollars we put back in
the people’s pockets. Do you know what the Opposition done? They have caused
this government to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to overcome the
burden of Muskrat Falls – shame.
You talk about
shame, Speaker. Hundreds of millions of dollars that we could be spending, but
we have to mitigate rates because of what the
Progressive Conservatives did in building Muskrat Falls. It’s their legacy. It
is absolutely their legacy.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!
SPEAKER: Order, please!
The minister is
standing right in front of me. I can barely hear her speak. Can the Members
keep the noise down?
It’s on both
sides of the House. All Members on both sides of the House, please, keep the
level of conversation down a bit.
SPEAKER: The Minister of Finance and President of Treasury
Board, you have 12 more seconds.
S. COADY: Allow me to say that I know that we’re supporting
seniors, we’re supporting health care, we’re supporting children, we’re
supporting families in this budget and I know one thing. The Opposition, the
Progressive Conservatives, have voted against it.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Grand Falls-Windsor - Buchans.
C. TIBBS: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Speaker, it has been four years since we had two fatalities in Grand
Falls-Windsor on our divided highway. Ever since then, there have been near
misses. Ten days ago, there was a near miss. This weekend, there was a near
miss. It’s happening on a weekly basis now, Minister. Somebody else is going to
die.
I ask the minister – you’ve had this now for months. Your department,
your government has had it for four years. Minister, what specifically has been
done and assessed to address this problem, please?
SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
HUTTON: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member opposite for the question.
As he knows,
I’ve been texting back and forth with him multiple times in recent days and I
have told him that our department has reviewed the situation and now that the
weather has changed, we are planning to make some adjustments in that area of
the Trans-Canada Highway because safety is paramount at Transportation and
Infrastructure.
We have agreed
that there are changes that are necessary and we will be implementing them as
soon as possible.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Grand Falls-Windsor - Buchans.
C. TIBBS: Thank you very much, Minister.
My wife and my kids
travel it every day. My constituents’ families travel it every day. They’re
waiting to know, today, specifically, what changes is your department going to
implement so I can assure them today that it’s coming, Sir?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation and
Infrastructure.
HUTTON:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member opposite again.
As I’ve
mentioned in text to him, and I will tell the other Members of the House of
Assembly, there is going to be signage changes. There are clearly signs there
that show you have to go to a certain side of the
divided highway. Not everybody sees that; we’ve recognized that. There will be
signs that will be moved to indicate you have to stay right or stay left if
you’re coming in the opposite direction.
Those signs will
be changing.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Harbour Main.
H. CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: Speaker, in 2020, the Premier directed the minister,
through his mandate letter, to establish an advocate for persons with
disabilities. The Premier is about to resign and this commitment is
unfulfilled.
I ask the
Minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development: Will you do the right
thing and table legislation creating a disability advocate before the House
closes this spring?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Children, Seniors and Social
Development.
PIKE:
Thank you, Speaker.
There are
community organizations and groups which play an important role in disability
advocacy for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. My staff and I have had
ongoing engagement with many of these organizations and we welcome the
opportunity to discuss issues that are important to persons with disabilities.
practices of government that we can improve.
There are a number of things that we’re doing, Mr. Speaker, in
communities to support persons with disabilities.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the
Third Party.
DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
Speaker, on March 11, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services gave a
formal presentation to pediatric staff on a plan – not a discussion starter –
to integrate adult gynecology into the Janeway with no prior consultation with
doctors nor consideration to the impact on services. Frustrated doctors were
scolded for contacting politicians and the media. Now the Minister of Health
accuses some of the doctors of being a little defensive.
So I have to ask the minister: Who is really
being defensive, pediatricians or the minister and the CEO of Newfoundland and
Labrador Health Services?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
Before we answer
the substance of the question, let me use this opportunity to state, again,
something which has not been quoted in the media, although I said it six times:
There is no intention to diminish or reduce services to children in this
province at the Janeway Hospital.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
J. HAGGIE: Having said that, my
understanding is that NLHS made a presentation as the initial phase of a
discussion about one option to deal with the fact that at one end of the
corridor, you have 110 per cent occupancy and, at the other end, you have an
empty floor. No patients, no beds, an empty floor and this was part and parcel
of that discussion.
The
consultations have started and will continue.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
J. DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
Obviously, the
minister is saying doctors imagined what they heard.
Both the
minister and the CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services have gone out
of their way to say children’s health services will not be affected, yet
they’re already experiencing impacts.
According to the
report: 15 patients were delayed transfers out of the PICU due to a lack of
beds; three critically ill children were transferred out of the province; 24
sleep studies were cancelled; perinatal clinic space has been lost due to adult
pre-op assessments; pediatric teaching and meeting rooms have been lost to
adult cardiology; sharing of the Janeway OR, MRI and CT scanner with adult
services; and, to add insult to injury, the Janeway parking garage has become
the new freezer storage facility for unclaimed bodies.
I ask the
minister: Will he table the presentation and the data NLHS used in developing
this plan?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you, Speaker.
We are at the
start of a process. There is no plan because the consultations are not yet
complete. Part of this exploration began the other week with the discussion
between Dr. Parfrey, Dr. Brown and the interested parties at the Janeway and in
obstetrics and in gynecology. Part of that, my understanding is, a trip to
sightsee at facilities where there are combined women’s health and children’s
hospital.
So there is no
plan.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
J. DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
The minister has
gone on to compliment the CEO of NL Health Services for his diligence and nerve
in addressing the alleged 40 per cent bed vacancy rate at the Janeway and the
lack of space at the Health Sciences.
I’m not
convinced about the diligence or nerve ensuring that failing to take the
concerns of pediatricians seriously, we risk compromising the health care of
our children.
I ask the
minister what he plans to do to ensure that the professional concerns in the Preserve.
Protect. Prioritize. document do not turn into an Auditor General’s report
on the deficiencies in children’s health care?
SPEAKER: The hon. the Acting Minister of Health and Community
Services.
J. HAGGIE: Thank you very much, Speaker.
I mean, the
numbers are what the numbers are. I think having a CEO that is prepared to look
at those numbers – and he went to some lengths last night at Estimates, for the
benefit of the Member, to explain some of the demographics and population
changes behind it.
The facts of the
case are that there is, as yet , no plan. This is all
up for discussion and the issues around resource utilization need to be
addressed to make sure that we use those resources to the best benefit for the
children and the adults of this province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The time for Oral Questions has expired.
Presenting
Reports by Standing and Select Committees.
Tabling of
Documents.
Tabling
of Documents
SPEAKER: I do have two.
In accordance
with subsection 18(9) of the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and
Administration Act , I’m advising the House that Members of the Management
Commission are: the Speaker, the Government House Leader, the Opposition House
Leader, the Acting Minister of Health and Community Services and Deputy
Government House Leader, the Member for Bonavista, the Member for Waterford
Valley, the Member for St. John’s Centre and the Clerk.
Secondly, I am
tabling the May 27, 2024, Baie Verte - Green Bay By-Election Report on Election
Finances.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: Any further tabling of documents?
Notices of
Motion.
Answers to
Questions for which Notice has been Given.
Petitions.
Petitions
SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Bonavista.
C. PARDY: Thank you, Speaker.
These are the
reasons for this petition:
The spring
repairing of destructive potholes in the roads within the District of Bonavista
has taken months to complete. Thousands of residents and tourists travel these
roads frequently and many have had their cars damaged. Not great for the
residents in the district, nor the school buses carrying their children, nor
for our economic development with bad roads serving as a deterrent to tourists.
The late Jim Brown, of J-1 Contracting, stated that he could repair every
pothole within the District of Bonavista in two weeks.
Therefore, we
petition the hon. House of Assembly as follows: We, the undersigned, call upon
the House of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to
establish a goal of having every pothole within the District of Bonavista
filled with hot asphalt within a six-week period and prior to the end of June.
Not that long
ago, I presented a petition in this House which talked about a screen in
Amherst Cove – the lower part of the district at which large rocks and clumps
of ice and salt were being put into the trucks and spread on the roads, leading
to a whole lot of cracked windshields. The residents
of the District of Bonavista got a right to be concerned, not only for the
windshields, but also for the tires and for the vehicles of which cost that
they have to endure.
We have a Discovery Geopark in our district. Many
points in our district and when the assessors for the UNESCO Discovery Geopark
came down, they stayed and commented, in the report, on the lack of maintenance
on our roads of which these attributes were being available to tourists.
Whether you enter our district on Route 233 from Port
Blandford or that you come down 230, either one will have damaging potholes
that would be evident. I mentioned the Discovery Geopark. If you went out to
Keels, Tickle Cove to see the sea arch, those roads are terrible. If you went
on Route 239 to see Random Passage, a main thoroughfare, off Route 230,
terrible. If you went to Spillars Cove to see the chimney, the geological
feature, terrible.
All we ask is that within a six-week period that the
roads would have hot asphalt, safer for the travelling public.
Thank you, Speaker.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Exploits.
P. FORSEY: Thank
you, Speaker.
In 2016, government cut the number of home care hours
for seniors and increased their contribution they would have to pay to obtain
and maintain home care workers.
We, the undersigned, call upon the House of Assembly
to urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to increase the amount of hours for seniors’ care at the previous low rate
so as to ensure seniors can remain in their homes for longer periods of time.
Speaker, I put this petition before the House of
Assembly a number of times and I’ll do it again
because I'm still hearing a lot of concerns from the seniors in my district.
Not only now with regard to the hours that they get,
but they can't even get someone to work with them in their own homes. Their
assessments are not being done. Reassessments are slow. By the time they get
that done and get the home care hours for them to stay in their own homes, it’s
being difficult and challenging for them to even stay in their own homes. We have to do better than that. We have to
do better.
I think that the government, in their Health Accord,
said care to community to keep people in their own homes. How are we going to
implement a plan of care to community when we can’t get the assessments done,
we can’t get people to work – and the CEO of NL Health Services has said that
the workers are not paid enough anyway, the home care workers.
So those examples have to be
adjusted. Home care hours have to be adjusted,
assessments that need to be done, and we need to get more help for seniors to
keep them in their own homes to address those problems.
Thank you, Speaker.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
J. DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
This petition regards
Livingstone Street Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation units. These
are the reasons for the petition:
Delayed renovations and
repairs to NLHC housing units on Livingstone Street have resulted in units
being in a state of disrepair and vacant for months. An increasing number of
unhoused people use the vacant building as a shelter.
The March 27, 2025, fire at
77-79 Livingstone Street and the fire at 112 Livingstone Street on December 25,
2024, started in vacant units.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Housing Corporation has failed to invest necessary funding to hire the human
resources to maintain the houses and make them available to people. The result
is a neighbourhood that fears for its safety and is demoralized by the number
of vacant and burnt-out buildings. Residents feel Newfoundland and Labrador
Housing Corporation has become a slum landlord rather than a housing provider
of choice.
Therefore we, the
undersigned, call upon the House of Assembly to urge the government of
Newfoundland and Labrador to immediately develop a plan and timeline to have
all vacant NLHC units on Livingstone Street and in the neighbouring streets
repaired and ready for occupancy within a year and develop a plan to complete
renovations and maintenance on all NLHC units within 18 months; and to invest
the necessary funding and hire the necessary workers to complete the
renovations within the above timelines and work with other government and
non-government agencies and organizations to support people who live there
remain safely housed.
I’ll say that, in many ways,
Livingstone Street is emblematic of a lot of the other concerns in housing.
We’ve seen a decrease in the budget for Newfoundland housing at a time we need
to see more investment. Since I was first elected, I watched the steady decline
of the houses there, and I’m not just talking about the fact that boarded up
windows remain boarded up for months at a time and almost a year, but the fact
that the maintenance – the rotting clapboard, the retaining walls and so on and
so forth and the facing are rotting out and have not been replaced.
I spoke to one tenant who
could hear people coming into the vacant unit next door and was afraid that a fire
could start. This petition is signed by the residents of the Newfoundland and
Labrador Housing units. They want something done.
We’ve asked for a community centre there – not just
me, but other people within the community. A fire broke out, Speaker, at
106-108 Livingstone Street back in October of 2023. A year later, despite
requests that it be turned over to be used as a community centre, it was sold
to a private developer. What we do not want to see now – certainly what I do
not want to see, Speaker – is that this unit be sold to a private developer
when it needs more deeply affordable housing.
Thank you.
SPEAKER: A
response by the Acting Minister of Housing.
S. STOODLEY: Thank you,
Speaker.
We have to address this
petition. I think it’s certainly very disappointing that anyone refers to
Newfoundland and Labrador Housing in that way. There are hundreds of dedicated
public servants that work for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing who get up
every day and work extremely hard to maintain the properties and make sure that
some of our most vulnerable tenants in Newfoundland and Labrador have a safe
and comfortable place to live.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
S. STOODLEY: Newfoundland and
Labrador Housing supports over 5,500 units across the province, with 12,000
tenants in those units. In maintaining those units, they accomplished 14,000
work orders a year. So that could be anything from a cupboard coming off, it
could be a fire or it could be a broken window. I know as MHAs, I’m sure you
all have many examples where your constituents engage with you sometimes on
work orders that have been put in for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, and
those staff work very diligently to fix those issues, Speaker.
I will say that our government has maintained an extra
$8 million in the budget to go towards maintaining the Newfoundland and
Labrador Housing units. I know people talked about the vacancy, and I want to
clarify for anyone who’s watching, when we talk about the vacancy within
Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, that is really the time between when someone
moves out of a place, a unit, and that work is evaluated, work is completed,
it’s ready to move in, someone’s offered that position, they accept or deny it,
and then they move on.
So, Speaker, I could talk about this all day –
SPEAKER: The
minister’s time has expired.
S. STOODLEY: Okay, thank
you, Speaker.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Ferryland.
L. O’DRISCOLL: Thank you,
Speaker.
The background to this petition is as follows:
The Long Run is the main access road from the Goulds
to Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove. This piece of infrastructure is
in need of major repairs. This road is in a deplorable condition and is
relied upon by residents and visitors on a daily basis .
Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove is a well-known tourist attraction in the area.
Therefore, we petition the House of Assembly as
follows: We, the undersigned, urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
to complete the necessary repairs to the Long Run Road at Petty Harbour-Maddox
Cove to enhance and improve the flow of traffic to allow safer travel on this
important roadway.
Speaker, I’ve done this petition a
number of times as well. Most petitions I have done are mostly roads and
infrastructure in my district. This road serves various tourist attractions in the area of the Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove community. It
has Chafe’s Landing, Tinkers Ice Cream Shop, Petty Harbour Mini Aquarium, East
Coast Trail, Fishing For Success, North Atlantic Ziplines and many other
features in the area as well.
It serves as a vibrant fishing community. People come
from away, they drive in here and they look to go to a rural area, they jump in
a car and they go down to Petty Harbour, 15 minutes away from St. John’s, and
they’re in rural Newfoundland as it looks out in the rural areas – a fishing
community with lots of boats and lots of activity on the wharf.
Right now, this time of the year, the crab will be
coming in down there so this road is used by crab trucks. They’re picking up
their crab and bringing or transporting it to wherever, or they could be
processing it in Petty Harbour as well. But it’s known by many, I would say and
I’ve said this before, this area is more travelled than anywhere in
Newfoundland and Labrador when it comes to tourism. It’s just not recorded or
tracked. People drive through, you go down there in the summer and there’s not
a spot to park. That’s how busy it is.
This road, when it comes up in the roadwork when the
minister came out, it says “Paving section.” I’d like to know what
section
they’re paving and what the work is completed. We already called his office to
see what roadwork they’re doing and I’d love for the minister to be able to
come back and respond to me where they’re starting, where it’s finishing and
how much is getting done.
Thank you, Speaker.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: Orders
of the Day.
Orders of the Day
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Government House Leader.
L. DEMPSTER: Thank you, Speaker.
I call from the Order Paper,
Motion 1, budget debate.
SPEAKER: We are
now going to debate the main budget motion.
The hon. the Member for
Harbour Main.
H. CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: Thank you, Speaker.
First of all , I’d like to say it’s an honour to speak on Budget
2025 and to stand here and represent the people of the District of Harbour
Main. I want to say, as well with respect to Budget 2025, there remain
many issues that are of extreme concern for the people that I represent in the
District of Harbour Main. I’m going to speak about a couple of those issues for
the next 20 minutes, and I’m going to start with health care.
Speaker, one has to ask when we look at the current budget, Budget
2025 , and I think this is the question that I will start with and the
question that I will end with: Is our health care system any better today, 10
years after this Liberal government came into power? I ask that
question because I’ve heard many stories throughout the district of terrible,
horrible experiences that constituents and people have gone through. We have to ask ourselves, is this what our health care system
has come to?
I’m going to talk about a couple of examples. One of
the examples that I have to cite is an example that
occurred approximately a month ago and it happened at the Health Sciences
Centre. It’s probably one of the most difficult calls that I received as the
Member of the House of Assembly for Harbour Main District. It was a very sad and
disturbing story. It was about a senior, he was 85 years old, and what he
experienced while waiting in the emergency department to be seen, to access
health care.
This man felt abandoned because he was actually on a stretcher for approximately three nights and
four days waiting to be seen, Speaker. I heard from his family, in particular his daughters, who were basically aghast that
this was happening to their loved one – their beloved father. They talked about
the impact this had on their father, how he was depressed, how he was crying
and how confused and scared he was in this position in the hospital. He,
basically, was in a state of despair.
We’re seeing our seniors experiencing these kinds of
events at our emergency departments. We were told when we inquired from our
office that there was no available beds, or that was
the likely opinion that was given by the health official. So we got involved
and, I’m happy to say, the next day they were able to find a bed for him; but,
once again, this is unacceptable. We have normalized this kind of behaviour.
Our standards have come to a level that, really, it has become normal.
I heard from another constituent in
regard to this experience. He also offered experiences that his father
had had in an emergency department and his belief was – I’ll quote what he said
– my father and many more experienced neglect and
agism that contributed to the complications that eventually caused his death.
We’re talking about an individual, a senior, a father who, basically, according
to his son, was involved in these experiences that eventually, in his son’s
opinion, caused his death. The son further stated that this has become the norm
and it’s just not acceptable. How have we come to the point where we have
allowed this to become the standard that we’re accepting?
Speaker, we know when we look at health care in our
province, accessing health care is very difficult, and, yes, we know that
there’s approximately 163,000 residents in our province without a family
doctor. When people look at the state of our health care and the fact that this
is not acceptable, we can never allow this to become the norm and this has to change, these are horrible times in our health care
system.
I had the opportunity to listen to my colleagues, the
MHAs, yesterday who were speaking about their experiences, so I’m not the only
one in the District of Harbour Main. This is happening throughout our districts
everywhere in our province.
When I look at, for example, the Member for Exploits,
he talked about the difficulties that his constituents are having accessing
health care. He pointed out the fact that the emergency unit, the Dr. Hugh
Twomey Health Centre, had been cut – that was cut back in, I believe, 2016 –
and the disappointment his constituents would feel when they see again, in Budget
2025 , that this has not been addressed. These individuals, these people and
constituents, have to travel so far to access proper
health care. They do not have that in their reach and this is really what we’re
talking about, a rural issue.
This is about health in rural Newfoundland and
accessing health. When I look at Carbonear hospital, for example, I’ve been
hearing from patients in the District of Harbour Main, and these are other
patients outside in the neighbouring areas of Carbonear hospital. We’re hearing
that people are spending up to 17 hours waiting in the emergency department to
receive care. I mean, how has that become the norm? How has that become
acceptable to us? It cannot be. We cannot allow this to continue.
We know that the Member for Ferryland mentioned, as
well, some of the numbers. I think he talked about the fact that the wait times
at the Health Sciences Centre for urgent matters, urgent cases, went to 10 and
12 hours, and less urgent, 14 to 16 hours. So this is happening throughout our
province, Speaker. It’s not just in St. John’s. It is happening, as well, in
rural Newfoundland and, again, this cannot be accepted as our norm.
I have cases upon cases. We hear all the time about
our constituents. I had a lady, actually – lovely lady – 89 years of age. I met
with her at her house just recently. She went to Carbonear hospital and had to
wait 19 hours to see her doctor. She was left in the emergency and she waited
and waited that long. This is an 89-year-old lady who had to experience this.
She’s talked about the second visit to the hospital; she had to wait 12 hours.
This is happening everywhere. We cannot allow this to
continue. In fact, my constituent, the 89-year-old lady, she ended up picking
up an infection while at the hospital and now is fighting an infection and, at
her age, that could not end, potentially, very well. Speaker, this is what’s
happening. This is reality. I mean, we hear stories about how things are great
and all the investments that are going into our health care. With all of these investments, why are we not seeing progress.
The Member for Cape St. Francis, yesterday, compared Budget
2025 to previous budgets and identified the same issues that are occurring
year over year over year, yet no progress. This is what we’re seeing with this
government. This is what we’re seeing with Budget 2025 . It’s seriously
flawed. It fails to provide the relief that people urgently need, specifically
with respect to health care.
I have to say when we look at the fact that the
Members that I’ve referred to, for example, in the PC Opposition, the service
that they have been providing, and as well with the District of Harbour Main.
We are providing service for our constituents. We lobby for them when they
can’t access health care. We are the ones that they come to. We are the go-to
but, as one of my constituents said, the one that had the father who was in on
a stretcher for three nights, we should not have to go to our MHAs in the Opposition
to access health care services.
That’s what each one of these Members in the
Opposition, in the PC Opposition, are doing for their constituents. They
represent committed, compassionate representatives for their people. They are
concerned about what’s happening, and yet, we see that health care is not
progressing. So, Speaker, on that, I’m going to just move to cost of living,
because we are hearing, as well, people are suffering with respect to the cost
of living.
These are legitimate issues that my colleagues are
bringing. These are legitimate issues that we’re bringing forward to garner the
attention of our government so that they will listen, because we listen. We are
responsible. We work hard for the people that we represent and make sure that
we action their requests. This is what’s become of us. It almost seems like we,
in the Opposition, have become another department of government. It’s the
Opposition department because we are accessing government services for our
constituents because they can't get the service they need from the government
that governs them.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
H. CONWAY
OTTENHEIMER: Speaker, I’ll tell you of the cost of living. I’ll
tell you about how difficult this is for constituents and all over our
province. We see the skyrocketing cost of living. These are difficult times;
there’s no question about it. We see it with health care; we see it with the
cost of living. Families are struggling to survive; seniors are struggling to
survive. They’re struggling with their bills. They’re struggling with food
prices that are going up. They can barely make ends meet.
The Liberal government, in Budget 2025, had a
chance. They had an opportunity to actually help
people who feel so burdened with the taxes that they have to pay. We heard from
our Finance critic, the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay, that we have to advocate for the scrapping of the sugar tax.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
H. CONWAY
OTTENHEIMER: And, yes, Speaker, every dollar matters, every cent
matters. When you’re struggling to make ends meet, every cent matters and yet,
this budget is flawed. It is not providing the relief necessary. We need to see
that sugar tax scrapped. Scrap the sugar tax; it’s senseless.
It’s a senseless tax and yet we didn’t see anything in
the Budget 2025 to help create a healthier population, because that’s
supposedly what this tax does. But, I will say to you, that is a fallacy. That
is a fallacy. No one believes it. It doesn’t happen. It’s not addressing the
issues that it claims to address. I want to tell you of a case of a person who
has been experiencing many difficulties with respect to the cost of living. I actually have had a number of conversations with her, and
she’s a 42-year-old single woman.
She’s a hard-working woman, Speaker. She is hard
working; she’s worked so hard for the last 15 years as a chef in the offshore
industry. She’s worked all her life, pretty much, but for the last 15 years,
she does 21 days on and 12 hours a day. She works hard. She earns a good
salary. She earns a good wage. She’s a chef offshore but let me tell you her
story. This is not an isolated story. This is a story of many working people
throughout the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
She tells about how she has to
pay the provincial government a thousand dollars every month for her taxes –
approximately every two weeks, $480. Now, a thousand dollars every month,
that’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money even if you’re making a good
salary. That’s $12,000 a year. That’s not easy. Now let me say that this
person, she recognizes we need to have taxes. She’s not denying that. That’s
obvious. We need to have taxes for the services that are provided, but to be
taxed to this extent by the provincial government – she says 53 per cent is
taken out of her paycheque by the provincial government for taxes.
That’s just for the provincial Newfoundland and
Labrador tax. She doesn’t have a car; she says she can’t afford a car. She
can’t afford the payments. Now, perhaps if she didn’t have to pay that $1,000
every month, she might be able to afford a car payment but she’s not able to at
this time. She works hard; she says she’s having difficulty paying the light
and power bills because they’re so high, and yet, she’s very, very selective in
how much heat that she uses in the winter, she said.
She feels for everyone in her position. That’s why she
wanted to bring her case to the House of Assembly. She wanted to make sure that
we know and that government knows that the working class are hurting. They’re
hurting, Speaker. She said she almost feels punished that she’s working so
hard. She feels like she may have to take in two or three roommates. That would
be her, perhaps, retirement benefit or she’s looking at trying to secure a
second job because she can’t do it. It’s very, very difficult.
She’s looking at securing a second job but, she said,
well why would I do that because, if I do that, the provincial government will
just take that in taxes. She’s so discouraged, Speaker. She’s so discouraged.
She’s a hard-working individual, part of our working class. She says the price
of food has gone through the roof when you go to a supermarket and she, being a
chef, said you can’t really afford to buy healthy food.
She feels discouraged and pessimistic. She’s actually thinking of leaving to go to Alberta. She said
she’d probably save money and be able to have that rainy day fund that she so
desperately wants to have but is not able to. She’s not alone. This is one
example of a real person who’s living this reality of not being able to sustain
with the taxes that exist in this province.
So let’s start with the sugar tax; at least get that
out of the way. Scrap the sugar tax.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
H. CONWAY
OTTENHEIMER: We know that carbon tax is another example where we
know that most of the Members opposite, the government Members, supported that
tax and voted for it. They voted for that carbon tax. That is not something
that we support and we want that gone. We want it scrapped. We always wanted it
scrapped. We never flip-flopped. That has been part of the PC Opposition’s
position and the PC Party’s position.
So, Speaker, cost of living: This is very difficult
times for many, many people who are struggling and we know that something has to change. It is my view that when we look at what we
have, the Members of the House of Assembly for the Opposition have a strong
position. We have a strong leader who will guide us through these difficult
times, who is calm, who is confident and who represents that stability which is
what we need in this province today.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
H. CONWAY
OTTENHEIMER: We have a strong caucus who are dedicated to put
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians first. They will not neglect and ignore rural
Newfoundland like the current Liberal government has done.
Speaker, on that note, I have covered two of the
issues. There are many more issues that I’d like to examine and to discuss in
the coming days when we have other opportunities to speak on budget.
Thank you very much.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Labrador West.
J. BROWN: Thank
you, Speaker.
It’s always a pleasure to get up and talk about the
wonderful things that go on in Labrador West, but also some of the things that
are continuing to be issues that we’ve yet to see resolved and we continue to
advocate for and try to rectify.
One is that, once again, in this budget, we haven’t
seen any commitment to seniors’ housing. We’ve seen a blurb saying that they’ll
look at it but they haven’t actually made any full
commitment to it. Once again, they’re waiting around for the federal government
to do something. We’ve tried to get the federal government to do that through
five applications. Five applications denied and now, once again, we’re just
going to sit around and wait for the same group of people to deny it again.
That’s what is very disheartening.
This has been a project that Labrador West has been
asking for since 2018 and, once again, we’re going to see another construction
season without any houses being built in Lab West, especially for seniors’
housing. Once again, in the 2023 budget, they announced that they would replace
the units that burned. In 2024 budget, they announced the budget would replace,
and now, in 2025, once again it’s in the same line item that they’re going to
try to replace these units. It’s not anything additional, it’s just replacing
what was burned and yet, we still have seen long wait-lists of people looking
for housing in Labrador West.
Time and time again, through my office, we have
seniors who are working minimum wage jobs trying to get by coming and looking
for applications for a rental supplement or even trying to get into
Newfoundland and Labrador Housing to get their names on the wait-list, but
there are people that have been waiting on the wait-list for years. There are
individuals that continue to call and say: Well, I’m still homeless. I’m
staying on my friend’s couch. I’m staying here. Still, no movement, nothing.
The solution, replace the two houses that burned and add two one-bedroom
apartments with that. You still have a wait-list of 30 applicants and you’re
only going to go and build two new units?
So, you know, we’re really doing a disservice to the
people that are up there. Just because we’re up in Labrador, just because we’re
up and out of the way you can't see us from the Overpass, doesn’t mean we don’t
exist. We do exist; we’re people. We deserve services just like the rest of the
province; and in talking about that, we have no home care in Labrador West. We
have no personal care homes in Labrador West.
We barely have a functioning emergency room half the
time now up there. We continue to have strain and pull trying to get resources,
trying to get jobs filled and we continue to fall on deaf ears. Yet, when it
comes to our mining industry and the extraction of minerals in Labrador, the
talk of the town; but when it comes to asking for something back, it’s almost
like we don’t exist. We’re ghosts. That’s what I has
to talk about, this disservice that we’ve seen.
In the budget, they talked about seven transitional
units for the Hope Haven, the women’s shelter and their transitional housing.
Seven units, great – great project. That was completed over a year ago but it’s
in this budget for some reason as a line item, as this thing that they’re going
to do. It’s already done; people live in there.
The disappointing thing is that we haven’t seen
anything new. We’ve just had re-announcements or talk about projects that will
never get off the ground without the actual stronger commitment from this
provincial government; the things that we actually truly
need and deserve. People deserve to be housed. People deserve to actually have somewhere safe to live. Since 2019, we
continue to see homelessness. We continue to see people struggling to get
housed. People struggling to pay rent. People struggling to find places to live
in my region.
At the same time, you turn around and you see the
massive amount of investment in the mining industry. One needs to understand,
when you live in a mining town, that prosperity doesn’t mean prosperity for all
because what happens is, especially in mining towns and remote mining towns,
when the mine wants something, they get it and it comes on the backs of the
community sometimes.
When they wanted fly-in, fly-out workers and they want
all of this stuff there, what ends up happening is
properties and everything that sells, that goes to what the mine wants. The
people that do not work in the mining industry, the people that work in the
service industry, the ones that actually make our
community tick, they’re the ones that suffer. That’s what’s happening now. It’s
been happening since 2019 and it’s only getting worse and worse and worse. If
the third mine comes onstream, it’s going to definitely get
even worse again.
This is why, since 2019, I’ve been asking for the same
thing over and over and over again . They need to put
investment into affordable housing because we will have no town left unless
people who work in jobs that are not related to the mining industry have a
place to live. Right now, we don’t have that. We’re slowly losing everything
that makes our town great because there are no volunteers anymore, there are no
people working in the service industry, there are no people working at the
dealerships or in the mall or anything like that. They’re all either gone to
work in the mine or left because they can’t afford Lab West anymore.
Then, we turn around and we have Newfoundland and
Labrador Housing there and, as units went into disrepair or burned, they were
never replaced. Then, when it comes to the point we go, oh, we have no
affordable housing left, what do we get? We get two additional units – two.
That’s all we get but yet we have a wait-list of over
30. This is where the math is not adding up. This is where you’re going to see
that, when it comes to the economic prosperity of the region, it’s going to
take a dive because we have nobody living there anymore. Then, when you go on
to say, oh, well, we’re trying to do this or that, you can’t because nobody
lives there.
It also creates a bad name for the community, too.
We’re finding it harder and harder and harder to recruit people to move into
the region because, when you talk to them, they go: Well, you have nowhere to
live. I applied for this job. I got the job. I tried to find a house. I
couldn’t find a house and there’s nothing there available.
So what we’re doing is we’re cutting our nose off to
spite our face and then we’re going around and just saying, well, that’s it.
That’s what we’re going to do, instead of actually putting the investment into
a region that you know you’ll get your investment back and you’ll probably get
your investment back tenfold because, right now, yes, despite all the troubles
going on in the world, there are still four trains a day heading down the line
with 240 cars, each car with 140 tons of iron ore and each ton is $110 a ton.
So trust me, we’re making some good money there.
The volume that comes out of Lab West is incredible.
Despite everything, people realize the largest export of this province is iron
ore. It’s the biggest thing we sell volume wise. As long as
we have a community in Lab West, as long as there are people in Labrador West
and as long as we’re doing what we’re doing, there will always be iron ore
coming out of the region.
It is the largest iron ore deposit in North America.
It is the highest grade iron ore in North America and,
actually, I would argue, in the world right now. It is the most sought after iron ore in the world right now, just as ask
the Japanese. They’re banging at our door for it but yet
we need to see some investment from this province into our community; because,
without our community, there is no more Lab West, there is no more iron ore
export and there is no more money to the provincial coffers.
So at the end of the day, the biggest thing that I
keep asking for is, we just want a return on our investment. The investment
that the people of Lab West put in is our time, our labour and our health.
That’s the investment that we put in and so what we’re asking is that you
respect our investment by making sure that there’s a roof overhead and make
sure that the services that everyone else in this province enjoys, we get to
enjoy.
We don’t have anywhere for our seniors; we have
nowhere for our people, especially those on low income, to live; and I can’t
get doctors, I can’t get nurses, I can’t get teachers, I can’t get sheriff’s
officers; I can’t get Occupational Health and Safety officers, because there’s
nowhere for them to live. They’re applying but when they realize, well, I have to go find an apartment and can’t find an apartment,
can’t do this, they turn down the offer and we’re back to square one once
again. We can have all the recruitment and retention things that we want, but
if there’s nowhere for them to stay at the end of the day, they’re not going to
come.
We have a great future, a fantastic future ahead of
us, as long as we make sure that a few things are in
place. Especially, making sure their adhering to benefits agreements and one of
the big ones that we keep rumbling on, because the lack of housing is one of
reasons that some of the companies want to do fly-in, fly-out operations. That
will kill the community instantly – stone dead, flat – because you just have to look across the border to our friends in Quebec who
gave up that in their thing when they went there and it completely decimated
their community.
They dropped in population by 27 per cent when they
went through fly-in, fly-out model. People said, well, why do I live here when
I can live in Montreal and fly in and work my two weeks and (inaudible.) It
completely killed their community. Now, they’re trying to rise from the ashes
and the only reason they’re doing it is because Lab West is basically using
them as an example of what not to do, and they got offended. So what do they
try to do? They pulled themselves up and they’re now fighting back to make sure
that they keep their community.
We want to make sure that all benefits agreements are
adhered to and if any new mine or anything goes up in Lab West, make sure that
it’s a community-first operation, make sure that we are the primary
beneficiaries about what happens there and to make sure that we, as Labrador
West, continue to benefit from it. We live there. We sacrificed our health, our
years and everything like that to make sure that those mines stay open.
You just have to look at the
old dust studies and look at the amount of people who passed away in Labrador
West from silicosis, asbestosis or industrial lung disease. There’s a wall in
the Union Hall for 5795. One of my close friends that I grew up with there, his
father’s picture is up on that wall. He died of silicosis and industrial lung
disease. He gave 30 years to the company.
So this is the thing, this is sacrifices that we made,
and all we ask for is to make sure that we’re considered for when it comes to
making sure that there’s a place for someone to live. Make sure that they’re
able to send their kids to a school. Make sure that their class has a teacher.
Make sure that if anything does happen and they may go up to the hospital,
there’s a health care professional there for them to see. That’s the only
things we’re asking for. It's not that hard; it’s not that much.
It’s just the same thing that everyone else gets to
deserve, but yet , because we’re up there, far away, up
in Lab West, it seems that we completely are ghosts; but the minute – the
minute – someone wants to talk about some economic prosperity, we’re the first
picture put on a slide in the budget or anything like that. You see the picture
of the train full of ore? Yeah, that’s us. We did that. That’s the people of
Labrador West that did that. We want to make sure that, at the end of the day,
we get back something of our investment.
Then, speaking of that, and I’ll go back to that
health care system, we have a brand new hospital.
Well, kind of not new now; it’s about 12 years old now but it’s newer than the
last one. I always like to say it’s a race car without wheels. A beautiful
building, great facade, murals, lots of open space and everything like that,
but there’s nobody in it. We can’t keep it staffed. We can’t make sure to,
basically, keep people retained there and then, you know, I don’t think there’s
a single actual family doctor left in Lab West now. They’re all gone, anyone
that had an actual family practice.
We have a partially working collaborative care team.
We have some kind of hybrid walk-in clinic thing, but most times, 99 per cent
of people, when they’re looking for health care, they’re sitting up in the
emergency room waiting 12 to 14 hours to go in to see a physician that’s on
call there, who’s also dealing with ambulances showing up and dealing with
what’s on the go up on the ward upstairs. So most times maybe five or six
people get seen a day.
It’s increasingly frustrating when there are people
that are looking for things that would normally be taken care of either by
family physician or the collaborative care clinic, if it was properly running
and everything like that, but there’s more and more people having to go up to
the emergency room, wait 12 and 14 hours a day for basic things that are there.
When you keep talking about it and trying to explain there has
to be some better way of doing it, it’s like they didn’t hear you. It’s
just in one ear and out the other, and so what. We’re completely just spinning
in circles, chasing our own tail, in the sense that there’s more work that
needs to be done.
We have to realize that we’re
in an isolated region. There’s Lab West hospital and the next closest one is
Labrador Health Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which is over 600 kilometres
away. So it's not like we can just go to the next town over or another clinic over
or anything like that. That’s it – Labrador West Health Centre, that is it for
that entire region. We also do some of the health stuff for Fermont, the Quebec
side of the thing too. So, you know, it’s not just us. We do some stuff for
Quebec, as well – for our neighbours there.
We’re an isolated region but we have a population that
we’re looking after of almost 13,000 people, if you count Fermont for some of
the stuff that we have to help them with, but yet, we
can’t retain nurses. We can’t retain doctors. We have a model that just seems
to be crashing on itself and people are falling farther and farther behind.
We just ask that the investment be made to make sure
this place is held to a standard to make sure we actually
have the people that we need to continue the prosperity that everyone in
the province enjoys from us, from the resources that is extracted from our
region. We want to share in that, but we’re not getting our just reward, I
guess, is the best way to say it, for the amount of
effort and the amount of sacrifice that the people of Lab West make.
Then we want to talk about air access. We spent years
and years and years having pretty good air access. We had three companies at
the height of it. There were three options to fly out of Lab West in 2017, or
2016, I should say. We had three options. Now we’re down to a monopoly. In that
time, in 2010, maybe 2009, I was able to fly from Lab City to St. John’s
return, $500. I thought that was expensive at the time, but, you know, that’s
it. I was just out of trade school, just getting out on my own, $500. Right
now, if I wanted to fly to St. John’s right now – so that is about 15 years
now, in a matter of 15 years – if I wanted a last-minute ticket, I’m looking at
$1,500. In 15 years, $1,500 if I want a last-minute ticket to fly out from St.
John’s here. That’s just for one person.
So you expect people in this province to try to gain
access to services that are not available in Lab West and you have to come into the city here for things, well you’re
expecting them to spend this exorbitant price. The connectivity of Newfoundland
and Labrador is probably at its lowest right now because of cost barriers.
People used to easily move around the province, but now with these massive cost
barriers to just even get around, we’re seeing connectivity at an all-time low.
You’re seeing sports teams travelling less. You’re seeing people being less
interested in doing other things around because it’s just costing them so much
money.
That’s going to have a drain on even the internal
tourism of this province. So you expect the tourist to come here and get in
this province and then try to travel around this province to do any of the
things that we promote and want them to do, well you just created a barrier.
What, really, you’re doing is cutting your nose off to spite your face, again.
So this is where we have to
see some sensibility come in, some absolution on realizing that connectivity,
bringing people together and working together and making sure that services are
available throughout this entire province fairly, that’s how you make sure that
you have the ability to have a better society, to make sure that you have a
better place to live.
That’s what I expected to see in this budget but I
didn’t see as much of that as I wanted to. I see nothing for a region that
contributes so much to this province. I didn’t see much that would actually help with connectivity of the people of this
province. I didn’t see much that would actually help
people move about, people who want to do more and be able to expand their
horizons, instead what I see is select pockets of things that really do not
help the broader focus of what we really need to do.
Like I said, we need houses. We have homelessness. In
a region that is probably one of the most prosperous regions right now, that’s
doing so well, we have homelessness.
If you ever look up the median wage of a place like
Lab West, you’d be astonished to see they’re doing so great up there, but at
the end of the day, a region of just Lab West, not counting our Quebec friends,
we’re 10,000 people, yet we have homelessness, yet we have nothing invested to
help solve that situation. Instead, we got platitudes and promises that we’ve
had since Budget 2022, Budget 2023 , the same promises but nothing really
coming to fruition.
There’s a solution there right in front of us, just
waiting to be grasped but there’s no investment in it. There’s no real need
from this budget to actually do the things that need
to be done, instead we’re once again going to wait on a group that has denied
us five times – the federal government.
I can go on and on about my thoughts and feelings on
the rapid housing initiative that they had at the time, but ,
in reality, if they failed five times, why are we going back for a sixth
round, instead of actually doing the right thing and just investing and putting
the money down to get the project done now. Yet, we’re going to go another
construction season and we’re not going to see anything.
With that, Speaker, I’ll take my seat.
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Bonavista.
C. PARDY: Thank
you very much, Speaker.
I have a lesson plan before me and in my lesson plan
I’m going to discuss health care in the District of Bonavista. I’m then going
to talk about Saturday night attending the Fort Point Lions Club 46th Charter
Night event, then I’d like to talk about the George’s Brook - Milton War
Memorial initiative and then the budget. Even though I talked about starting
with the budget, but hopefully I’ll get to that in this first speaking
engagement.
I’ll continue with the theme because the Member for
Harbour Main, the Member for Labrador West, talked about health care. I’d like
to discuss the health care in the District of Bonavista.
I want to acknowledge, first of all ,
some people who are viewing from home today. Viewing in Elliston, we’ve got
Scott Martin. Scott is a retired harvester. He loves watching the House of
Assembly.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
C. PARDY: Yes,
very politically astute and with him today is Pam Fleming, who is not as
politically astute, but, at the same time, she’s learning from Scott. I’m sure
that they’re tuned in. I know they’re tuned in this afternoon to listen to the
addresses in the House.
I also want to shout-out to Sandra Cooper who’s
watching and, finally, on a more sombre note, Donna Linthorne. Donna Linthorne
was at the rally line in Bonavista for health care that I attended this
weekend. I think everyone in the House would have known her and her husband.
Her husband was Gerald, the Linthornes in Bonavista; we discussed them quite
often. Unfortunately, Gerald has passed away and Donna was at the health line,
the rally line the weekend, and I was talking with her.
I’ll have more to say about Gerald in a future
speaking engagement on the fishery because Gerald looked back with great
fondness on the seal harvest. That’s one that we’ll leave for the fishery.
On Saturday afternoon, Speaker, at 1 p.m. on Hospital
Road, just adjacent to the hospital in Bonavista, was the rally line. About 30
to 40 residents of the area, ranging in age from probably 30 to 83 years of
age. The rally line started three years ago because the hospital doors would be
locked at Bonavista hospital. People showed up in an emergent situation only to
find that the hospital doors were locked.
If anybody has seen it on Facebook this past weekend,
there’s a large four by four poster of a gentleman who had passed away, Charlie
Marsh. Charlie Marsh had asthma. Other than that he was a very active
individual. He was a master carpenter in the area. Seventy-two years of age, if
I recall correctly, and a large picture of Charlie there.
The story is told where Charlie found his asthma bad
so he left Elliston and drove to the hospital, only to find that it was on
diversion. Charlie went back home. He got through the night. The next morning,
he was much worse and called an ambulance. The hospital was still closed, the
emergency doors. He was transported by ambulance to Clarenville. One hour into
that trip, he passed away. He needed a nebulizer. He needed a mask, he needed
oxygen – something that could have been provided by a health care professional.
This is a story that is told in Bonavista and area and you could wonder why
they’re not more concerned than what they are.
They have an ask; I’ve asked it here in the house.
I’ve done a petition. I’ve asked the government to assure that the doors in
Bonavista hospital are open 24-7 for someone who needs it. Why I ask that is
that, in Central – and the Speaker may be able to relate to this – I think
you’ve got it pretty well achieved that they can
pivot. If there’s no doctor, to other health care professionals that work in
the facility to operationalize it with a virtual link to an emergency doctor.
The residents in Bonavista would ask, why isn’t that
happening in Eastern rural? Why not? Why isn’t that occurring in Bonavista? Let
me give you a couple of examples. I gave you that one which, unfortunately,
many in my area – maybe rightly or wrongly – would attribute the doors being
closed to this man losing his life. Let me give you two more situations that
have occurred within the last week. We’ve had more lockdowns or diversions in
Bonavista hospital in 2025 than we’ve had in all of 2024; only a drop in the
bucket to 2023 – 2023 was really an outlandish amount of time – so we’re doing
a little bit of regression in Bonavista.
Saturday, of this weekend, two gentlemen were, with a
chainsaw, sawing wood and one of those gentlemen cut his hand. I say his hand
or his arm but, anyway, it’s his extremity. His buddy quickly drove him to the
emergency in Bonavista. Some would say, well, why don’t people know that the
hospital is closed? Not everyone will go onto the site of Newfoundland and
Labrador Health Services to find out that the office is closed. The first
default is to head to emerg.
They head to the emerg only to find that we were on
diversion, doors locked to the emergency. He left at that time and went around
to the outpatient. Keep in mind, in this hospital, there are health care
professionals but I’m assuming it was the doctor or somebody was missing out of
the emerg for it to close. Luckily, they were brought in and went in through
the outpatient where they got triaged, dressing packed and they called an
ambulance. They sent him to Clarenville for emergency surgery on his arm. I say
that, Speaker, because that could’ve been another repeat situation.
My colleague from Labrador West stated: If we don’t
have housing, our community is dying. He’s losing the fabric of his community.
How can you expect the Bonavista Peninsula, if this is going to occur for
people, to have the comfort to stay or for people that will entertain coming to
the area? That is tough. If you know when the medical services are needed, you
know that you can’t depend on those doors being open.
Let me give you one more example – this gentleman
luckily, at Clarenville hospital, remains and the only thing being he’s had his
emergency surgery. Let me tell you another one that recently went through, that
is okay, too, and I would hope discharged yesterday – though I don’t know. I
know she was still in the hospital yesterday.
Last Saturday, this lady is 80 years old and she was
very sick, waited a long time to go to the hospital and her son – she has four
children: one in Alberta and others, but two at home – brought her to Bonavista
hospital. They got into Bonavista hospital, only to find that emerg had to
close because the doctor had to transport a critical patient to Clarenville. It
had to close. So the lady and her son decided they would drive to Clarenville.
They drove to Clarenville and got up 10 p.m. at night.
When it hit around 12:30 or quarter to one and people
in the waiting room, like the hon. Member for Harbour Main was saying about
Carbonear, that were there 10 that morning had not gotten in yet, she wasn’t
very hopeful that she was going to get in there soon. So she had went and asked
the clerk: Has the doctor returned to Bonavista. Of which, the answer was yes.
Well, what did they do? The lady, with her son, drove back to Bonavista
hospital.
They got in the wee hours of the morning. Arriving at
Bonavista hospital at 2 o’clock – she needed a wheelchair to be wheeled into
emerg at 10 a.m. that morning – she needed a wheelchair to be brought in to see
the doctor at 10 a.m. that next morning. They took an X-ray and what did they
find? She had a ruptured gallbladder. They called the emergency and they sent
that 80-year-old lady back to Clarenville again for emergency surgery.
Now, I would say to you, the Members of the House of
Assembly, by those two stories, would you understand that the people and the
residents in the District of Bonavista, right now, have reason for concern?
When we have the rally line – the rally line are ultra supportive of the doctors and the nurses within
the Bonavista health care system – we have the Town of Bonavista and the
council, which are ultra engaged in this, and we have the town council of
Trinity Bay North, which are lobbying for this. Three entities, plus yours
truly who spoke about it in this House several times, one would ask the
question: Why are the doors of Bonavista hospital still locked? With health
care professionals inside, still locked, when someone would have to travel one
hour and 40 minutes to Clarenville for the closest emerg. Neither one of these
people here, conceivably, may not have made it.
These are the things that we have to
deal with. We’ve got to have access to our hospital; we must have it in order to build a community and maintain what we have.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
C. PARDY: I
just want to add one more before I go on. I’m gone way over on this one and my
lesson plan is going to be totally – but I’ve been known to do that lots of
times. The best of lesson plans but I never got through it.
The government’s new plan had a Community Advisory
Council, CAC. They were going to set up a CAC in the area that they would be a
liaison between the public of which the health care system serves and the
decision-makers, NLHS, who looks after the system.
We had a public meeting back two years ago, three
years ago and it came up at the Garrick Theatre in Bonavista, not by me, but a
gentleman by the name of Reg Durdle had asked the audience, does anybody know
about the CAC, this Community Advisory Council?
The historic Garrick Theatre was blocked, some
standing, three people knew. One was on the committee, Reg knew himself and,
well, yours truly, I knew it existed. The rest of the population of the Garrick
Theatre didn’t have a sweet clue whether it was good enough to eat. They didn’t
know. I met with the minister, officials from NLHS, one of the topics we
discussed was that that is not working. That committee is not working.
I mention those examples here to you as examples that
one would think the committee ought to be aware of and they ought to be active
on making sure the doors aren’t closed. The rally line, 30 to 40 people on
Saturday – they call me by my first name. Has the CAC, Craig, started yet? Yes,
but nobody knows. How can we get in contact with this committee if we wanted to
pass on some information?
I would say to you if this is
truly a liaison between the population the health care are serving, then
whoever is responsible we ought to be able to approach that person to say, it
needs some tweaking; it’s not doing its job. It’s not doing its function.
We’ve got that link in between the people that are
being served and I would say this government has rolled in education. We had
decision-making in education closer to the peninsula. We had it for years. All
during my time, we had the decision-making close; it was on the peninsula. Then
it moved slightly off. Now it’s gone straight in here on the Avalon. There
seems to be no conduit or connectivity between them, it’s misfiring. Same thing
is happening with the health.
I would say with that, open the doors and my last
petition on that was that the doors ought never be locked in Bonavista
hospital.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
C. PARDY: In my
three remaining minutes, Speaker, Saturday afternoon I attended the rally line
on Hospital Road. Seven that night I had the pleasure of attending Fort Point
Lions Club who had their 46th Charter. Now, any time we talk about the work of
the Lions, I’m sitting by my colleague here from Exploits who is the lion of
this caucus over here.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
C. PARDY: Past
president, sold about upwards of five to six million tickets to us.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
C. PARDY: Some
of you over there might think I’m exaggerating, but I don’t think so.
Anyway, what a wonderful organization it was, and this
is not a large one. This organization was sponsored in, chartered in 1979 by
adjacent Port Rexton. Port Rexton was chartered in 1977, being chartered by
Bonavista, Bonavista was chartered by Port Union. All of them were there
present, but this Fort Point Lions Club is a very strong organization. They
might be short on numbers but the things of which they do.
I sat pretty close to and
listened to a very inspiring speech, which I’m not going to have time for, from
Bradley Moss, our Citizens’ Rep. He is the District Governor, probably from the
District of Ferryland?
AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
C. PARDY: Okay.
Anyway, he knows the hon. Member for Ferryland quite well.
He had a wonderful – and I asked him to send me, but I
know my time is going to run out, but just what the Fort Point does and some of
the things they’ve done. Local school, very active school in Bishop White
They’ve donated $1,000 to the breakfast program just recently. They gave
another $1,000 to the local food bank, which they jointly work and operate with
Port Rexton to look after the whole Trinity Bight area – a wonderful operation.
They had $1,000 to the school volleyball team they donated recently. They help
the sick and the needy, not only with a monetary donation, but they often help
them with transportation when needed.
Finally, this last one, which I’ll end, and that might
get me to that story that Bradley Moss told on Saturday night. They donate used
eyeglasses and they send them to Bishops Falls for processing. What they do
with those used glasses is phenomenal. That is a story for the next day.
Thank you.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER
(Gambin-Walsh): The hon. the Member for Topsail - Paradise.
P. DINN: Thank you, Speaker.
It’s always a pleasure to rise in this House and speak
on behalf of the residents of the wonderful District of Topsail - Paradise.
We’re going through, of course, the budget debate, and
concurrent to that, of course, we’re going through the Estimates process,
whereby we can get more specific details on the budget. Eventually, we’ll be
called to vote on the budget. I look at this as I have to
look at the whole picture. I have to look at the whole
picture. It would be careless for me not to, and I’d be contrary to the code I
signed in terms of helping residents of Topsail - Paradise. So it’s not all
about what’s in the budget, but it also includes what’s not in the budget. So
it’s a full picture you look at.
When I looked at the budget this year, of course we
saw the reannouncement again of a high school for Paradise, which is something
that’s been on the agenda for many years now. Again, no real details on when
that will be built or when the shovels will be in the ground. But I did find
out through Estimates, contrary to what ministers have said about high school,
in terms of it being able to accommodate all high school students in Paradise,
I’ve learned that that’s not actually the case. So I will be looking for more
definitive responses on that because the parents in the community and the
committee in the community have been told otherwise. So I’ll continue to deal
with that.
The other thing that applies to Topsail - Paradise in
the budget was the announcement of the rehabilitation of Route 60. Again,
another issue that I raised many, many times. I’ve sent pictures. I’ve sent
maps. I’ve sent diagrams, correspondence, media releases and the like. All I
can say from what’s announced in the Roads Plan and what’s included in the
budget for this coming year is very cryptic. It doesn’t give us full details.
Now, I will say I have had, since the budget day,
discussions with the responsible minister. He could not tell me right away what
it includes, but we will have further discussions. Judging by some of the
engineering markings on the road, it’s not taking in the stretch that’s in the
most need of repair. So on behalf of Topsail - Paradise residents, I will be
pushing on that, as well, to ensure that the areas that need repair are the
ones that will get repair.
Also noted in the budget was an alternative route in
and out of Paradise. Again, very much needed, and it’s briefly noted in the
budget. I think half a sentence to it, but it’s something that’s very important
to the community and, again, lacking details, which is something I’ll continue
to work towards getting more details on.
So, in terms of voting on for or against the budget,
I’m not there yet until I get some more information on these items that are
near and dear to the residents of Topsail - Paradise.
Related to other items on broader band, I look at
something I’ve advocated for a while has been continuous glucose monitoring
devices. We have some of the highest rates of diabetes in the country. We have
an aging population.
Diabetes Canada, which is a world-recognized research
hub for diabetes, they have told us that 30 per cent of strokes can be avoided
with the proper monitoring of diabetes; 40 per cent of heart attacks can be
avoided; 50 per cent of kidney failure requiring dialysis can be avoided; 70
per cent of non-traumatic leg and foot amputations can be avoided.
Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, and we
always hear from government, give us some solutions. This is a solution I’ve
offered many times and there’s been a little bit here, a little bit there.
Diabetes Canada, a couple of years ago, projected the savings to this province
in funding continuous glucose monitoring devices is $80 million-plus, and it’s
probably even more now. It’s an investment in health of our province.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
P. DINN: That
is a huge chunk of change, and it’s probably even greater now when you look at
individuals who can continue – I mean, this is the priceless part of it. You
have individuals who can continue healthy lives with these monitoring devices,
continue to be productive in society. Not being rushed somewhere in an
ambulance, not being rehabilitated because of a heart attack or stroke or an
amputation.
These are real things, and this is an investment that actually pays back and not in the budget. Eighty million
dollars to a hundred million dollars could be saved in the health care and open
that up for others who really need to be in there – $80 million dollars.
When we talk about children in schools, you talk about
these monitoring devices. Now, I’ve been in some of the schools and you see
parents coming in at odd hours of the day to make sure the child’s glucose
levels are fine and either giving them a needle or not. But these devices can
be used with insulin pumps. These devices, parents could monitor their child
and not be there. It’s a huge life-changing investment, and in many cases it
saves lives. So that’s not in the budget. That’s something that’s not in the
budget, which I’ve advocated for for a long, long
time.
What is in the budget, there’s one thing in the budget
that we’ve argued for, and it has not gone as far as we’d like it. It was
offering the shingles vaccine to residents 65 to 70 years of age,
immunocompromised residents. So there are special seniors, apparently. Not all
seniors are treated the same. Seniors are the people, the fathers and mothers,
the grandparents that built this province. We have all these lovely programs
that speak to aging at home and aging well, but words are shallow if you don’t
see the actions to accompany them.
Shingles vaccine should be available to any senior who
wants it.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
P. DINN: Any
senior who wants it.
For any of you who have not dealt with your seniors
and finding them a home or finding them long-term care, I can tell you, it’s
not a pretty picture for our seniors out there and those dealing with dementia.
When you listen to the report that’s just come out by the Nature journal
– and the Nature journal is a world-leading, multidisciplinary science
journal. This is not some ad hoc group. They’ve indicated that those who have
received the shingles vaccine were 20 per cent less likely to develop dementia.
We look at reports, consultations that have happened,
and we look at the dementia-care plan, the action plan that was put out, and I
look at the number one focus in that plan: “ Increase
Awareness, Reduce Risk of Dementia, and Address Stigma.” Reduce the incidence
of dementia.
So here we have the Nature journal, a
well-respected multidisciplinary science research organization, who is
reporting that the shingles vaccine would reduce by 20 per cent the possibility
of developing dementia. Now, much like what I’ve spoken to on the continuing
glucose monitoring devices, I suspect there’s huge dollars connected to
reducing dementia. And again, you do not want to go through it. You do not want
to have a loved one go through it. It’s a very sad state of
affairs .
But when I tried to find out the cost of what dementia
might cost society – so I looked at the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis.
They did a report on dementia and they looked at the long-term financial burden
for Canada in 2020. The financial burden in helping those with dementia in
Canada was $40.1 billion at an average of $67,200 per person. That figure comes
from hospital stays, emergency department calls, caregivers, home care,
out-of-pocket expenses, the loss of individuals who were otherwise productive
individuals and, not just those with dementia, those who have
to leave their jobs to assist.
So here we look at the shingles vaccine and our
seniors again, and this is, again, an investment that is very common or very
parallel to the continuous glucose monitoring devices in reducing hospital
stays and emergency calls and so on and so on. Don’t take it from me; I’m
quoting the experts here, but what this does for seniors, those who we want to
respect and be able to live their final years in dignity – lovely words, but
you have to act on it. You have to
act on it.
You can talk about the money that’s been invested in
long-term care and the like, but I can tell you, you cannot do it unless you
have the people there to do the work. That’s two, in my mind, very, very
commonsensical solutions or suggestions that would make our province much
healthier and, certainly, have our seniors realize they are respected and they
are dignified.
Again, I look at when I was dealing with seniors who
were displaced in their older years, one in one establishment and one in the
other and trying to get them together. We heard about other places where they
were putting two in the one room, and that. You know, think about, it’s your
father, your mother, your grandfather or your grandmother, in some cases your
great-grandmother or your great-grandfather because we are living longer. It’s
just all about respect and seeing some contribution, financially, in the
budget, that deals with this and that helps this.
It’s not easy. I dealt with an elderly couple who were
in very hard state. One was in one establishment and one in the other, and one actually was dealing with dementia. You had to be there; you
were lucky if you visited, you might catch the person on a good day,
whereas if
they were together there, they would have those good days. They would have
those good days.
I remember one couple, I had just gotten them together
and I’ll say with the help of the past Health minister, who’s no longer here –
I’ll give him credit too. I reached out to him and we worked it and we got
these two together. They were together for two days and one passed. I’ll never
forget the tears of joy and sadness mixed together
from their children that they were able to be together for those final moments.
When we look at the budget and we think about – we see
what’s in it, but we also have to look at the full
picture. We have to look at the full picture on what’s
in it and what’s not in it and balance that when it comes time to vote on the
budget. I know what my residents were hoping to see in the budget and I know
what their views are because many have called me and I know what seniors have
been looking for, and some of it would be what I’d call common sense but, my
late father would say, common sense is not that common. That’s probably true.
Another thing I learned in my government days from a
minister who I cannot recall now, but that minister had said policy should
never override common sense. Those are two great statements because umbrella
policies don’t catch everyone. It doesn’t catch everyone. We talk about the
education system and what’s been invested in the education system, but I know
I’ve gotten many letters since that are breaking down the numbers, telling me
the amount that’s there for the 400 teachers and teacher assistants and learning
assistants is not near enough to hire that many.
They broke it down very logically and that’s a great
thing. We all know from an education point of view that it’s not all about the
money thrown at it. It has to do with the class composition; it has to do with
the number of students that are in those classrooms. These are all items that
need to be looked at and inclusion is a big part of that.
I just attended a meeting with a school group, a
principal, counsellors, we had the doctor on Zoom to have a discussion with a
parent who is one of many who has a child with complexities. We sat down and we
went through and discussed what’s happening in the schools and what can be done
to help these individuals, these parents and these children, get the best
education they can. We worked through it and came up with some solutions that
could happen and the thing that’s very evident there is that teachers, administrators,
those in the classrooms, those in the schools, they want to do the best for the
kids they teach.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
P. DINN: They want – t here is
absolutely no debating that, but you have to have the
resources. I want to fix that flat tire but I don’t have a bar. I’ve been
wanting to fix that tire as much as I can, but if I don’t have the bar to take
the lug nuts off, it isn’t happening, and you can sense the frustration
sometimes with the teachers.
They want to help but they’re in a classroom – I heard
the other day that one class has 37 kids and some of those with complexities.
You cannot set them up to fail, you have to set them
up to succeed and they all want to do that. They all want to see the children
in their classrooms succeed. Again, it goes back to the budget. It goes back to
the Estimates.
Education had Estimates this past Friday, and we asked
some specific questions. Unfortunately, many questions – well not many – there
was a handful of some good questions we asked that were deferred and trying to
get you the additional information. But some of the questions I had asked, I
would think that you’ve got staff there, you’ve got the minister responsible,
and you would think that this would be something that they would have top of
the mind.
So my job, and I’m going to continue to do it, is to
ensure that the issues and concerns of the residents of Topsail - Paradise are
top at mind for this government.
SOME HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Conception Bay South.
B. PETTEN: Thank
you, Speaker.
It’s a pleasure to stand and speak in the House on the
budget. I’ve been there for ever so many budgets now, and through that time you
get the opportunity to speak a bit more freely, I guess, in the sense that
we’re not into legislation or sometimes you’re in the Question Period, and
you’re more focused on Members’ statements or what have you. But the budget is
a great opportunity to speak about a lot of things, as my colleagues have already
spoken and spoken well on issues of importance to them, to their districts, to
the people they represent and to the people of this province. It’s something I
guess we should never take lightly, and I don’t say that as cliché. I’ve always
said that.
I was going to talk a bit about my district, but I’m
just going to – I think a lot lately – me and the Speaker actually
were walking out last night, and on the way to drive home, we were
saying that this business has its moments, and it’s not an easy job. I remember
you know 11 years ago – this upcoming, whenever the election’s called, will be
my fifth election because the first one I was unsuccessful. So 2014, I started
out, and I was well known or well placed, I had a lot of connections in one
part of my district, not the other. I start knocking doors. We hear this all
the time when it’s election season – now it’s the federal election, and I see
people out knocking doors and engaging, and it’s good to see.
But I remember, I started knocking doors and I was
thinking – I went out before the nomination was called and started knocking
doors and knocking doors and knocking doors in this area that I was not
familiar with. I was trying to introduce myself, tell them who I was. But I
remember the energy and the passion that I had because I knew, at that time,
this is not an easy place to get. I spent a long time sitting in the bleachers
so to speak, sitting in the benches, watching this place. I used to always wonder
– my God, when I was approached to run I kind of chuckled at first because I
couldn’t envision my own self being here.
I remember, when I knocked – I kept knocking and
knocking. So anyway, the election was called, and I went back out and I knocked
a second time. So some people started smiling, it was about a few months later,
and unfortunately, it was a close call, but I lost and that was fair game. I
always say the electorate are never wrong.
Fast-forward a year later, and an election was called,
a general election – that was a by-election. Lo and behold, I went against –
most people questioned me going again, and I said no, I wasn’t satisfied. I
went down to this area again and I start knocking again. So when I come the
third time, people looked at me and they nodded and they smiled and they
acknowledged my determination.
But that was determination, there’s no doubt about it.
I was successful. That wasn’t my big margin. I pulled it out of the so-called
fire. But it made me appreciate just how difficult it is to get in here. We
take some time, we get up here – and I look at Members
opposite and a lot of us came in together. I think it was 20 of us at the one
time. There was 19 Liberals and one PC, so there you go, do the math. It wasn’t
a good election for this side of the House.
I do recall how hard it was to get here. As time has
gone on, there are times that we kind of get complacent, and we get tired and
you get frustrated and you get annoyed with a lot of things. But my reality
check has always been, it takes me back, and never forget – the saying goes you
should never forget where you came from, how you got to where you’re to. I’ve
never forgotten that. Probably in a sense of way, I always played – not played
the role. I think I always felt a bit of an underdog, like I was challenged.
But the worst thing you could do – and my colleague
from Ferryland, who are great sports followers and were competitors, and he’s a
much better hockey player than I am, but I always said you’d love to have me on
your team because I don’t like to lose. But I like to be challenged. If you
challenge me, it’s the worst. That’s the most challenge. If you tell me I can’t
do something, that makes me determined to do it. I’m not always successful, but
my determination, that gets my so-called juices flowing.
So I was there thinking, speaking on budget, speaking
in general, I told a few of our candidates – we got some candidates now that
agreed to run. They’re campaigning and they're trying to get known – the same
thing I done. There’s one person in particular, and I
said, I tip my hat to him, because that’s what they’re doing. I said, I’ve done
the exact same thing you’re doing and it was refreshing.
I see it on all sides, not just our candidates. When I
see that hunger and desire, because they appreciate how difficult it is to get
in here and stand in your place and to represent a district. Most all of us in
this House represent districts we live in and we love. That, to me, is my
driving force, and it’s a driving force every day.
I listened to my colleague from Harbour Main speak
earlier, and my c