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November 28, 2016

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. XLVIII No. 49

The

House met at 1:30 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Osborne):

Order, please!

Admit

strangers.

welcome today to the Speaker's gallery Debbie, Phillip and Christopher Hibbs who

are the subject of a Ministerial Statement. I understand the raising of the

purple flag in front of Confederation Building would not have been possible

without their advocacy and the support of the Hibbs family.

Statements by

Members

For

Members' Statements today we have the Members for the Districts of Baie Verte

Green Bay, Terra Nova, Ferryland, Mount Pearl North, Bonavista and Mount Pearl

Southlands.

The hon.

the Member for the District of Baie Verte Green Bay.

MR. WARR:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise

in this hon. House today to recognize the outstanding efforts of Rich Wheeler to

bring awareness to a terrible disease.

Mr.

Wheeler, who's originally from Baie Verte, took up the fight against

Huntington's disease after his wife, Ruby, was diagnosed with the degenerative

condition in 2012. Instead of letting her condition get her down, Ruby refused

to give up and she has maintained a positive attitude in spite of the many

physical challenges she has had to endure.

Rich

Wheeler found inspiration in his wife's fight with the disease, and he has

become an outspoken advocate for those suffering from Huntington's. He has

helped to organize an annual walk and event in Coachman's Cove which has raised

approximately $60,000 in its four years of operation.

Recently, at the national convention in Halifax, Rich was honoured with the

Michael Wright Community Leadership Award from the Huntington's Society of

Canada which recognizes outstanding leadership and advocacy.

I ask

all Members of this hon. House to join me in congratulating Mr. Rich Wheeler on

receiving this award and thank him for his efforts to raise awareness in the

fight against Huntington's disease.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for the

District of Terra Nova.

MR. HOLLOWAY:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this

hon. House to recognize an invaluable community organization.

For 124

years, the Salvation Army of Clarenville has been supporting those in need by

providing food and emergency shelter to homeless and stranded individuals, as

well as operating the local food bank and thrift store and organizing the annual

VOCM Cares Happy Tree.

November 10, Salvation Army Captain Anthony LeDrew led another worthwhile

initiative by opening a soup kitchen in the community. During the official

launch, Deputy Mayor Ashling Avery commented that [the Soup Kitchen] is a great

opportunity for people who have the basic need for food as well as a need to

come out to socialize.

Captain

LeDrew has also added that volunteers, working at the soup kitchen, will come

from members of the broader church community with additional support from local

businesses.

There is

no doubt that the addition of the soup kitchen is among the long list of

resources in this organization's toolbox which will help the most vulnerable in

the community.

I ask

all hon. Members to join me in congratulating Captain LeDrew, the Salvation Army

Church and all volunteers in the Clarenville area for their vision and

compassion to those in need.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Ferryland.

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, I rise today in the hon. House to recognize the Goulds Volunteer Fire

Department. This year marked their 40th anniversary. I've had the pleasure over

the past years to attend a number of events to celebrate the work of the brigade

and see first-hand what they mean to the region.

I would

like to acknowledge and say thank you to the Goulds Volunteer Fire Department

members of today, as well to all volunteer members over the years who have

contributed greatly to the protection and the well-being of the region. In

addition, I would like to acknowledge the support of the members' spouses,

partners and family members for supporting them in their role as volunteers.

The

volunteers of the Goulds Fire Brigade give the residents of the surrounding

communities great comfort knowing they have someone to rely on in the event of a

fire or any type of emergency. People of the area are very thankful knowing they

would do so without hesitation and can rest easier knowing they are ready to

respond at any time.

I ask

all Members of this House to join me in congratulating all members of the Goulds

Volunteer Fire Department on their 40 years of service.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Mount Pearl North.

MR. KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise

in the hon. House today to congratulate Campia Gymnastics on the grand opening

of its new facility. After years of hard work, on September 19, Campia

Gymnastics held the ribbon-cutting ceremony to embark on its new adventure in a

new facility on Old Placentia Road in my district, which has new equipment and

better safety measures as well. Some of the new equipment includes a foam pit,

which is a lot of fun for the kids and, believe it or not, I also tried it

myself and had to be rescued.

I'm

proud of the volunteers, sponsors, parents and gymnasts who made this possible.

I'm also proud to have been an active supporter of this initiative. Thank you to

the City of Mount Pearl for supporting this effort as well.

Campia

Gymnastics currently serves over 1,200 gymnasts throughout our region and it

continues to grow. Campia is a wonderful sports organization. As a former Campia

coach believe it or not I can speak first-hand of the strength and

importance of Campia's work.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask all Members of this House to join me in welcoming Campia

Gymnastics to their new home and we wish them all the best.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Bonavista.

MR. KING:

Mr. Speaker, volunteers are

the heart of every community. That is certainly true for those who give their

time to work for their communities as members of municipal councils. Oftentimes,

this work goes unnoticed and unrecognized and is thankless.

Saturday night, I had the honour and privilege to attend the event in the Town

of King's Cove which recognized the hard work and long service of several

community leaders. With only a year-round population of 80, most of the

community packed the Knights of Columbus hall for a hot supper prepared by the

local firettes.

Mayor

Gary Monks, Councillor Hayward Dobbin and former Councillor Tom Maddox were

recognized by Municipalities NL for serving over 35 years with the King's Cove

council. Each recipient received $500 for their community, so they decided to

pool their money for a free community dinner and dance.

At the

dinner I presented volunteer service certificates Gary, Hayward and Tom. As

well, Councillors John Batterton and Bill Murphy received certificates for 16

and 12 years of service. These years add up to thousands of hours to which their

community has benefited.

Please

join me in extending sincere congratulations.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Mount Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my

privilege to stand in this hon. House to recognize the tremendous success which

was the 28th Annual Mount Pearl City Days Celebrations. Once again this year,

the festivities included various activities for citizens of all ages and

interests, including: a family outdoor movie night, a pig roast, a seniors' tea

time, family fun day, milk carton boat races, show and shine car show and a

princess and superhero pancake breakfast.

As in

past years, the festival culminated with the mega birthday blitz which saw

thousands of residents and visitors gather at the Ruth Avenue Sportsplex to

participate in fun activities, games of chance and take in some of the best live

entertainment that Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer.

Mr.

Speaker, as I'm sure you can appreciate, any festival of this magnitude would

not be possible were it not for the hard work and co-operation of a number of

community partners.

I would

therefore ask all Members of this hon. House to join me in congratulating the

City of Mount Pearl, the City Days Advisory Committee, the various community

groups and organizations, the corporate sponsors and all of the community-minded

volunteers who contributed to the great success story which was City Days 2016.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Statements by Ministers.

Statements by

Ministers

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to

rise in this hon. House today to encourage all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians

to participate in the 2016 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Project Red

Ribbon campaign.

For 29

years, Project Red Ribbon has been the flagship campaign of MADD and on

Saturday, I was honoured to attend the provincial launch in Corner Brook. The

Avalon

Chapter will launch their local campaign at the Avalon Mall this

Saturday, December 3, at 11 a.m.

Throughout November and December, MADD Canada will distribute millions of red

ribbons across the country as a powerful symbol of commitment to the fight

against impaired driving. The red ribbon also serves as a poignant tribute to

the hundreds of Canadians who are killed and thousands more who are injured in

impairment-related crashes every year.

Mr.

Speaker, I am proud to note that the national president of MADD, Ms. Patricia

Coates, is from Newfoundland and Labrador. Her stepson, Nicholas, was killed in

an impaired driving collision in 2013.

Mr.

Speaker, we all have a role to play in reducing these statistics. Never drive

impaired, or with an impaired driver. If you plan on drinking, arrange for a

designated driver, call a cab or use public transit. If you suspect someone is

driving impaired, call 911 and report it to the police. These are important

messages which we cannot repeat too often.

Mr.

Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that

impairment can also be caused by illegal drugs, prescription or over-the-counter

medication and even fatigue, which can impact the ability to safely operate a

motorized vehicle.

commend MADD for their valuable contribution to this important cause.

Project

Red Ribbon will continue until January 3 and I ask all Members in this hon.

House to join me in promoting this year's campaign.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

I want to thank the minister

for an advance copy of his statement. I would like to also extend our

appreciation to those volunteers and supporters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving

for their work organizing the Red Ribbon Campaign, which will last a full month

from December 3 until January 3.

Every

day an average of four Canadians are killed and more than 175 are injured due to

impaired-related crashes. MADD Canada and community leaders are doing everything

they can to stop these offences.

As the

holiday season is coming upon us, it's important that we all focus on the

festivities and everything else, but it's also important that we make sure

drinking and driving is not tolerated. This could include ensuring guests get a

run home from different parties, ensuring there is a designated driver and also

calling a cab. We all have a role to play and we all should play that role.

Thank

you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I thank

the minister for the advance copy of his statement. Surely, I, too, support

Project Red Ribbon, as I'm sure we all do in this House. Sadly, driving under

the influence is still a serious problem in this province. We recently passed

legislation tightening up punishments for those convicted of the offences. We

also need to strengthen enforcement and ensure that drivers convicted of

offences take rehabilitation programs. I urge the government to move quickly on

providing the much needed resources.

Thank

you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister

Responsible for the Status of Women.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to highlight that the Purple Ribbon

flag has been raised for the very first time at Confederation Building. This is

to mark the beginning of the seventh annual Purple Ribbon campaign to increase

awareness and responsiveness to violence against women. The flag will remain in

place until December 10, coinciding with the International 16 Days of Activism

Against Gender-Based Violence. I am very proud to say, Mr. Speaker, that

Newfoundland and Labrador is the first province in Canada to fly the Purple

Ribbon flag.

Today,

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the House to reflect on the continued struggle that

women face every day in our society. Violence is an issue that, unfortunately,

we have not yet successfully eradicated. Last Friday marked the beginning of a

remembrance period for women who have died at the hands of a violent

perpetrator. There are many faces to a violent perpetrator, but the victim is

most often a familiar female face, someone's mother, sister, daughter or friend.

Whether

women succumb to violence in their own home, at a social location or anywhere

else, we should never accept that somehow a woman got herself into an unsafe

situation. We all have the right to come home to a safe house, to socialize with

our friends, to attend a medical appointment, to ride in a taxi or to simply

walk down the street without fear of being attacked.

As the

Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, I hear from women all the time on

this issue. This month, our government introduced legislation to ensure there is

a safe zone near medical clinics to ensure a woman's right to safe access to

medical procedures. I wish there was a way we could legislate safety and

respect. I wish we could legislate a guarantee to women that they could live in

a safe and non-violent society. Unfortunately, we cannot do that.

But we

can and we will ensure there is a focus on the issue of a woman's right to live

without violence. We must teach our children what is right and what is wrong. We

must teach our daughters to be brave and feel empowered to live the best life

they can live. We must teach all of our children that tolerance and kindness are

much more powerful than the cowardice of a violent act. There are many people in

our province who have felt the pain of losing someone to a violent act. The pain

they live with is never ending.

I would

like to challenge my hon. colleagues that as long as we sit in this House and we

represent the people of this province, let us never stop working towards making

our lives safer. To the families of those women who have died at the hand of a

violent perpetrator, please know we support you. We believe we can make things

better if we continue to place the focus on this issue in memory of your mother,

your sister, your daughter and your friend.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would

like to thank the minister for an advance copy of her statement. The Purple

Ribbon campaign is one of the most important initiatives, I believe, that we

have underway. All of us here in this province certainly know someone who has

been directly impacted by violence towards women.

Newfoundland and Labrador's Purple Ribbon campaign was initially launched in

2009. It illustrates how analysis of gender-based violence can be incorporated

into government-sponsored anti-violence campaigns. I'm very pleased to see that

the Liberal government has continued with this most important initiative. We all

know that there's still so much more we need to do.

What

saddens me, though, is that the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women

does not recognize the fact that her government's budgetary choices are pushing

the vulnerable into poverty and also places women and children at an even

greater risk. I commend the groups behind the Purple Ribbon campaign and I look

forward to a day when gender-based violence will be a distant memory for all

members of our society.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for the

District of St. John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I thank the

minister for an advance copy of her statement. I, too, thank the minister. I

thank Debbie and Phillip Hibbs for their courage, for their leadership, for

their passion and compassion and all those women and men who work with courage

and commitment and violence against women.

Transition houses across the province are seeing more demand as the economic

downturn causes more financial stress and increases the likelihood of violence

against women in the home. Transition houses need more support during these hard

times. Corner Brook itself desperately needs a new transition house. We need

more violence prevention in the schools; we need to teach our children to have

healthy relationships as they do in other provinces and starting in the early

grades.

simply must act. Raising dialogue and awareness is not enough. Women and

children's lives depend on it.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Further statements by

ministers?

Oral

Questions.

Oral Questions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Conception Bay East Bell Island.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. BRAZIL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Vaughn

Hammond, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, has stated that

small business owners do not support minimum wage increases during an economic

downturn.

I ask

the minister: Did you engage the federation to discuss the wage increases and

consider impacts on small business?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources.

MS. COADY:

Thank you very much, and

thank you for the question.

understand that the Minister of Labour did engage a number of groups, including

the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and talked with a number of

stakeholders.

Mr.

Speaker, it was important to give notice to the business community that the

increase was coming both in April and in October, and as the minister has said,

he is going to be going out talking to various stakeholders about tying the

increases in minimum wage to some inflationary factors so that we can have an

ongoing and committed increase in minimum wage.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Conception Bay East Bell Island.

MR. BRAZIL:

I ask the minister: Can you

table your evidence-based approach, the analysis which supported the decision to

increase the minimum wage at the levels announced last week?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources.

MS. COADY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members of the House are indeed likely aware, Newfoundland and Labrador has as

of October of this year the lowest minimum wage in the country, Mr. Speaker.

We could not allow that to continue while we were undergoing a review of the

minimum wage and how we can tie it to some inflationary measures so that we can

have ongoing increases in the minimum wage.

It was

very important, Mr. Speaker, that we increase minimum wage. We gave maximum

notice to the business community so they could take it on piece by piece and

have that information as they go into budget. Mr. Speaker, it was evidence

based, it's important to do so, and I'm sure Members of this House are

supportive of an increase in the minimum wage for this province.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Conception Bay East Bell Island.

MR. BRAZIL:

Mr. Speaker, we on this side

are very supportive of a fair wage for the workers of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I ask

the minister: Have you done an analysis on how your budget tax increases have

impacted small business in this province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources.

MS. COADY:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I'm glad

to hear the Member opposite say he's pleased with the increase. It is something

that we felt was very important to do and very important to give maximum amount

of time to businesses so they can plan and budget accordingly.

Mr.

Speaker, the small business rate in Newfoundland and Labrador from a taxation

perspective is still one of the lowest in the country. While we all are

respective and responsible for any tax increases, we do know that we still have

one of the lowest in the country and we're hoping to maintain that, Mr. Speaker.

We would like to continue to grow our small business sector but we also want to

make sure there is a wage that is appropriate for those that are on minimum

wage.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay East Bell Island.

MR. BRAZIL:

I ask the minister: Was

consideration given to tax incentives to put additional monies in the pockets of

the working poor?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources.

MS. COADY:

Mr. Speaker, there is an

ongoing effort to ensure that we have as small an impact as possible on those

that are on minimum wage. We think it's very important that we have an ongoing

process, and that's why we'll be going out and consulting. The minister, I know,

will be going out and consulting as we move forward on tying it to inflationary

factors. So finding a way that we will not have to that we have a way to

ensure the minimum wage goes up on a regular and timely basis, Mr. Speaker,

that's very important.

We do

know, and I'll speak to the issue of females who make up about 60 or 65 per cent

of those that earn minimum wage. We thought it was very important to do this on

a timely basis. We want to make sure we minimize the impacts, obviously, and

encourage as much as possible the minimum wage earners in this province.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay East Bell Island.

MR. BRAZIL:

Mr. Speaker, an increase in

the tax threshold would have been another effective way of putting extra money

back into those low-income earners.

I ask

the minister: Why did you not hold public consultations on your decision to

raise the minimum wage?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources.

MS. COADY:

Thank you very much.

believe the Minister of Labour has informed the House that he had multiple

consultations. I'm sure the Member opposite would not want us to continue to be

the lowest in the country. While we are having a consultative process tying it

to an inflationary factor so that we have an ongoing and persistent, inclusive

way of increasing minimum wage, we wanted to make sure that we were not the

lowest in the country, Mr. Speaker. We wanted to make sure that we gave the

business community a maximum amount of time so they could plan and budget

accordingly. That is what we've done, Mr. Speaker. We will be consulting on what

is the mechanism on the go forward.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The Member for the District

of Conception Bay East Bell Island.

MR. BRAZIL:

What I am suggesting is that

an open and engaging process by all stakeholders would have been much more

effective to address the needs of the working poor.

I ask

the minister: Are you concerned that the increase on top of the Liberal tax

hikes from the budget may have a significant impact on small business and to

owners in this province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Minister of Natural

Resources.

MS. COADY:

As I have indicated, Mr.

Speaker, we will be going out for public consultations on tying the minimum wage

to an inflationary factor. We will be doing extensive consultations on that. The

Minister of Labour has done a number of consultations, including with the CFIB

and small businesses as well as the labour organizations, on this minimum wage

increase and we'll continue to do that.

This is

a very important topic for minimum-wage earners, very important for business;

give them maximum length of time. I'm sure, as he's indicated he is supportive

of these increases. I'm starting to hear that perhaps he's not as supportive of

these increases at this point in time.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for the

District of Cape St. Francis.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

Parents

are concerned about school bus safety in the province.

I ask

the minister: What specific actions are you undertaking to ensure inspections

are taking place and buses are safe?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Minister of Service

NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank

the Member for the question. It's a chance to speak about bus safety. As we

know, the Department of Service NL does their inspections. Before every bus also

gets on the road they have to go through the inspection stations. Inspection

stations have to be certified stations, a certified mechanic. Come September,

from September to December, all buses are inspected by Service NL.

What we

found is that there are some gaps in the regulations. We will be bringing

forward some regulations to strengthen that gap to ensure that anybody who's

caught will have a greater penalty.

Also,

Mr. Speaker, we're looking at next year, before the school opens, we'll be doing

audits on many buses across the province before it even comes into effect in

September. So that's part of the initiatives that we'll be taking.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for the

District of Cape St. Francis.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A lot of

parents are concerned about this year. On November 15, the minister said that

school bus regulations will be reported online.

I'm

wondering, when can we expect to see this information?

MR. SPEAKER:

The Minister of Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, I don't want to

make this political, but the Member is saying that a lot of parents are

concerned. Why weren't they concerned in 2014 when the Member right here from

Bell Island the highest number of infractions were in 2014 when he was the

minister. There wasn't one regulation strengthened at that time.

What we

agreed to and that's part of the regulations we agreed to is that we will

put all bus inspections online. We will start that process as soon as we can get

it. That is part of strengthening the regulations.

So if

you're asking us why parents are concerned; they were concerned back in 2012.

They were concerned in 2014, but we will make positive changes to make this

enforcement stronger, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, I'm going to ask

the question again.

Minister, when will we see the inspections online? Parents want to see these

inspections online. You promised they'd be in by November 15. When should we see

them?

MR. SPEAKER:

The Minister of Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, at no time did I

say it was going to be in by November 15. What I said is that we're hoping to

have those regulations strengthened and brought to the House of Assembly before

the House of Assembly closes. That's what I said. We're working on those

regulations as we speak. As soon as we can get OCI to help us put it online,

they will be online.

That is

a new initiative that was never done before. Instead of criticizing and asking

us a certain day, they should say it's about time they're put online. Because

they had 12 or 14 years, they didn't put them online. We're going to put them

online. We're going to strengthen the regulations. We're going to increase the

enforcement because we and I'm sure Members opposite agree, any bus on the

road unsafe shouldn't be there and we're going to do what we can to protect the

kids of this province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Again, Mr. Speaker, the

minister promised to put the inspections online. Parents want to be able to see

their children are driving on safe buses so they can go have a look at it.

Obviously, they're not going to get that done.

I'd like

to ask the minister: What are you doing to ensure inspectors are doing their

jobs?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, am I hearing it

correct, that the inspectors for Service NL are being criticized for the work

they're doing? Am I hearing this correct, that the hard-working civil servants

in this province who go out and inspect the buses in this province are being

criticized to ensure I have confidence. They are professionals.

I just

find it insulting. I have to pick up for the staff of Service NL. You give the

impression they are not doing their work. What am I going to do to make sure

these professionals they are doing their job, Mr. Speaker. The problem with it

is that when you had the opportunity back in 2012, when the Member for

Conception Bay East Bell Island was the minister, he did nothing, and the

Leader of the Opposition did nothing.

I will

make recommendations to make this stronger to protect the children of this

province, not (inaudible).

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

A lot of rhetoric there, Mr.

Speaker.

We're

hearing from parents who are concerned about their children that are travelling

on buses today.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. K. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, the minister

mentioned that he will have regulations coming in. It's toward the end of

November now.

I'm just

wondering, when are you going to bring in those regulations?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

I'm glad now he has stepped

off from trying to assassinate the workers at Service NL. I'm glad you stepped

away from that.

Mr.

Speaker, what I said outside the House of Assembly, and it's on tape by many

media outlets what I said, I'm trying to bring in and strengthen those

regulations before the House of Assembly closes. It was never ever said that I

would have it in by November 14.

Mr.

Speaker, it wasn't even brought up until after November 15. So whoever is doing

your research I just want to let the parents know around the Province of

Newfoundland and Labrador, one bus on the roads of Newfoundland and Labrador

that's unsafe is one too many. We will strengthen those regulations. We will put

this online as we committed. We will not sit down like you did in 2012 and 2014

and did absolutely nothing. It won't happen, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Twenty-four-hour snow clearing has been eliminated.

I ask

the Minister of TW: What arrangements have been made for plows should someone

with a cardiac condition have to be transported to St. John's from rural parts

of the province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank

you for that question. The answer, quite frankly, is no different than before.

We certainly are aware of the fact that we have to provide safety on our

highways, which we continually do on a daily basis. There will be targets; there

will be trigger points we will be looking at forecasting and we can guarantee

that we are looking after the safety of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador,

and we will do that on our highways.

Mr.

Speaker, as I mentioned, I think it was probably last week, when you talk about

24-hour snow clearing, it seems like the Opposition is under the understanding

that every place in the province had 24-hour snow clearing. They didn't.

Certainly, we will ensure the safety of the people that are on our highways, Mr.

Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I remind

the minister, it was the highest traffic volume roads. The Outer Ring Road has

40,000 vehicles per day. It was based on the traffic volume of the most used

roads. So I want to remind the minister of that; that was the reason.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask the minister: When will the plows come off the road? What time

will the plows operate now under these new rules?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm

surprised that the Member opposite doesn't know when the plows are coming off

the roads, because obviously there were times in place such as 9:30 at night and

4:30, starting in the mornings, which has been in place for quite some time.

The only

difference is that up to this point in time in previous years, the fact that

there were 11 areas in Newfoundland and Labrador that had 24-hour snow clearing,

but actually in those 11 areas, it was only five days a week for 24 hours. The

other two areas which, of course, were on the Avalon Peninsula, we had 7-24. So

it was not like it was entirely across the province.

So what

we are doing, we are fully understanding every single day, I get a weather

report, and we are top of it. And if there are areas of concern in forecasting,

we will make sure we have the plows out.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The

effort of 24-hour snow clearing is to make our roads safer not all of them,

but most as could be done.

Many

first responders are concerned for the well-being of patients and accident

victims for this upcoming winter.

Have you

met with first responders and what actions have you taken to address their

concerns?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Mr. Speaker, as I said

before, 24-hour snow clearing is not something that has been throughout the

province. So, in other words, is the Member opposite saying that people who are

outside of those areas of 24-hour snow clearing are not important? There are

first responders for the Member opposite throughout the entire province.

We, as a

government, are putting measures in place so that we will make sure the highways

are safe and that we have provisions there. As I said before, there are trigger

points and we have forecasting that we can actually deploy the resources we have

in a more cost-efficient manner. And it's not out there to save dollars; it's

making sure that we have our highways safe. I am very, very confident in the

people that we have working for us that that will continue this winter, Mr.

Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously, he hasn't met with them.

The

Minister of Transportation and Works indicated the road crews will be available

on-call, should they be needed.

I ask

the minister: Who will monitor road conditions and how often will they monitored

overnight?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank

the Member again; it gets a little bit tiresome in repeating the same answer

over and over again. As I have said

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

MR. HAWKINS:

You got the right answer. The

right answer is that we are on top of it. We know what's happening. As a matter

of fact, Mr. Speaker, if the Member opposite would like, every single day I get

this copy this is a forecast of what's happening when the snow is coming up.

If you'd like to have a copy of that, we can provide that every single day.

So we

have people in places he's saying that our regional directors are incompetent,

because I'm getting a lot of incompetence coming from that side. We are

continually we know what's happening, and of course for the Members opposite,

forecasting today is a lot more accurate than it was probably 10 or 15 years

ago. So if the Member would like to have those, I can certainly provide that

every day, as I get them, for the Member opposite as well.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

obviously, it used to be a supervisor who used to travel the roads during the

nighttime and call people in as needed; now we're going with the forecast. If

he's following in Newfoundland and Labrador, our forecasts are off at the best

of times.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. PETTEN:

Mr. Speaker,

Budget 2016 increases costs for snow clearing in small

municipalities.

I ask

the minister: What is the status of the implementation of this new Liberal

program?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank

the Member opposite for the question. Obviously, we've had many, many years we

actually had 72 communities that we were providing snow clearing, whether it was

some contracting out or whether we were doing some of it with our own resources.

We found that in our budget, when we started to look at our budget, there were a

significant number of areas within our province that we were highly subsidizing.

There are 72 communities that were included in that. So we decided to put in, as

part of the budget, that the communities would look at contracting out

themselves.

obviously, if we could contract out some of the areas, certainly the towns could

contract them out. As a result of that, Mr. Speaker, we were able to find there

were 12 communities that came back and were successful. The other 60

communities, we accepted the fact that they could not get a tender that was

considered to be reasonable

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. HAWKINS:

and we were doing the snow

clearing for them.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So is

the fee increase of $1,600 a kilometre still in effect for those small

municipalities?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Transportation and Works.

MR. HAWKINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, it

is to a certain degree and not necessarily depending on a number of kilometres

that the particular town is clearing; some of them are less than that. If, in

fact, it was over the amount that was allocated, we are charging out the $6,600

hundred plus the HST. And we are also making provisions within that to extend

that for another year to give municipalities an opportunity to get a fair

contracting price.

And

that's what we're encouraging them to do, Mr. Speaker. The onus is not on us, or

should not be on us to do snow clearing for a select number of communities when

many other communities are actually doing their own snow clearing. So we're

trying to improve the efficiencies of doing that and that's why we're looking at

that as an opportunity for communities to do their own contracting.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

I ask the Minister

Responsible for the Status of Persons with Disabilities to update this hon.

House with progress made on the Provincial Strategy for the Inclusion of Persons

with Disabilities during the last 12 months.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Mr. Speaker, I thank the

Member for Fortune Bay Cape La Hune for the question. It actually gives me the

opportunity to speak about disabilities in this House.

Let's

talk about disabilities. Let's talk about the individual who is number 68 on the

wait-list at Vera Perlin, Mr. Speaker. Let's talk about why that individual is

there and why that individual has been there for two years. Because this

previous administration froze the funding to Vera Perlin, that's why.

That's

what we need to talk about. We need to talk about the resources that are not

there for persons with disabilities, Mr. Speaker, because this previous

administration decided they were going to freeze funding for persons with

disabilities.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for Fortune

Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

I guess similar to last week,

Mr. Speaker, she can't answer the question.

So how

about this one, I'll ask the minister: How many hires were made this year via

the Opening Doors Program?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

I thank the Member for the

question again, Mr. Speaker, to give me the opportunity to speak about

disabilities in this House.

What's

important to remember here is this government is supporting the Opening Doors

Program. We're supporting the employment of persons with disabilities.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

We're investing in the

employment of persons with disabilities. That's what's important to remember

here.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for Fortune

Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

Again, no concrete answers.

Let's

try this; I ask the minister: What specific actions have been undertaken in the

past year under your leadership with regard to assistive technology for persons

with disabilities?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Thank you very much for the

question.

Mr.

Speaker, I'm very familiar with assistive technology for persons with

disabilities. In actual fact, Mr. Speaker, my son uses the program Proloquo2Go.

He was introduced with that program through the Department of Education.

He uses

an iPad in school and many children with disabilities use iPhones and iPads in

school. We support the use of assistive technology in the school system and we

support the use of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in the

community.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for Fortune

Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

Budget 2016 , significant reductions

were made to Newfoundland and Labrador Housing.

What

specific program changes have been made as a result of these funding cuts?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Mr. Speaker, $3.3 million is

about to be invested in transition houses. I spoke on this topic just recently

in this House. When we started to review the Rent Supplement Program at

Newfoundland and Labrador Housing, it was evident that every single program and

service needed to be reviewed.

Right

now, there is a process of review undergoing. That process will bring

information to the government in March, with an action plan to be put in place

by June, Mr. Speaker. So we are working diligently at Newfoundland and Labrador

Housing to ensure that the individuals who need the supports and services are

going to get those supports and services as well.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.

MS. PERRY:

I ask the minister: How many

people are currently on the wait-list for housing in this province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Mr. Speaker, that's a really

good question; how many people are on the wait-list? We're addressing that

wait-list every single day. Mr. Speaker, we're also addressing the numerous

maintenance issues that we have at Newfoundland and Labrador Housing that were

left over by this previous administration.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Mr. Speaker, we are

investing. We support Newfoundland and Labrador Housing. We support the

investment. We have a partnership with the federal government, and we plan on

ensuring that individuals can get a roof over their head.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Fortune Bay Cape La Hune, for a quick question.

MS. PERRY:

Mr. Speaker, a whole lot of

non-answers.

With the

growing demand for programs and services from Newfoundland and Labrador Housing

and I can assure you we all are receiving calls of people who are impacted by

the slashes and cuts that your government has made how do you justify slashing

over $15 million from Newfoundland and Labrador Housing this year?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Children, Seniors and Social Development, for a quick response.

MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:

Mr. Speaker, the last time I

was briefed by my staff, we're investing in Newfoundland and Labrador Housing.

We have a really good relationship with the federal government. I'm not sure how

connected the Member for Fortune Bay Cape La Hune really is with Newfoundland

and Labrador Housing because there are not a significant number of clients in

her district receiving the services.

This

government supports Newfoundland and Labrador Housing. We support the people

that need a roof over their head, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

Before I

recognize the Member for St. John's East Quidi Vidi, I remind all hon. Members

that it's important for the Speaker to hear the individual that has been

recognized to speak. The level of noise in the House is starting to get a little

higher than I'd like to hear.

The hon.

the Member for St. John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, five days before the election the Premier tweeted: Cutting jobs is not

part of our plan. Under a new Liberal government, public sector jobs are safe.

We now know public sector jobs were not safe.

I ask

the Premier: Can he tell this House how many public sector jobs have been lost

in 2016?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes,

prior to the election campaign, that tweet was made, as the Member just

mentioned. There were a lot of things changed five days later, once the election

was over. The financial situation of the province has changed dramatically since

that time.

I will

say, however, though that we've engaged in a very meaningful discussion with our

public sector workers and we continue to have that. We look forward now in the

upcoming negotiations that we will work closely as many of our Members and

ministers and caucus Members, and I'm sure all Members of this House have openly

said on many occasions, we value the work of the public sector workers in this

province.

Mr.

Speaker, throughout the last year we continued to decrease the footprint,

primarily in the management area. We've taken nearly 20 per cent of the deputy

ministers out.

Mr.

Speaker, what taxpayers in our province want is to make sure we operate and

provide efficient services in our province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Mr. Speaker, what public

service sector workers want are jobs.

I ask

the Premier: What analysis has he showing the impact on our province's economy

of removing thousands of well-paying jobs?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

recognize that across the province right now we're seeing which is something

that's happening nationally, when you see provinces like Alberta and other

provinces that are experiencing difficult times because of the recent drop in

the price of oil.

Mr.

Speaker, I consider it a missed opportunity by the previous administration not

to plan for the situation that we're in today. That is the reason why, Mr.

Speaker, in the last budget, with nearly $570 million invested in

infrastructure, we've been able to leverage that money with some private sector,

with municipalities and with the federal government.

Mr.

Speaker, the impact of the infrastructure spending in our province will

primarily be felt in 2016-2017. So you'll see those infrastructure monies coming

back into our province, not only providing upgrades in infrastructure but also

providing jobs for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, the Labour

Market Observer at Memorial University reports the province's unemployment rate

for 15 to 24 year olds increased in September by a whopping 8.8 percentage

points for males and 5 percentage points for females. These are our young adults

with student debt, credit card debt because of school, losing their jobs or

unable to find a job, pushing them into poverty. We need our young people to

stay and help build our economy. This is a growing crisis.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask the Premier: What are his concrete plans to combat youth

unemployment and give our young people a chance to make a life for themselves in

our province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There

are many concrete plans we have in place, Mr. Speaker. Investment in education,

as an example, making sure that young people in our province, when they go

through a post-secondary education, as they come from the K to 12 system in our

province, when they make decisions based on what type of post-secondary

education they want. So we put in place really what the market needs will be for

the future. That is important right now so that young people in our province can

make informed decisions.

The

current situation that we're facing right now, Mr. Speaker, in many areas, as an

example of rural Newfoundland and Labrador, as part of our vision is we want to

make sure that we do the best that we can do, extracting wealth from fishery,

from forestry, from agriculture.

Mr.

Speaker, we're not only just laying this out there, but we are challenging

ourselves and putting targets in place.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, they need jobs,

not platitudes.

recently spoke with Melissa, who is finishing her master's degree program. She

said she's leaving because in the last budget

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. ROGERS:

She said she's leaving

because in the last budget government told her there is no future for her here.

She wants to stay, this is her home, and she has this huge student debt load.

I ask

the Premier: What concretely is he going to do to keep our well-educated young

people here once they've graduated? Where are the jobs for them? The jobs, Mr.

Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well,

first of all, I would suggest that Melissa give me a call and the Member for St.

John's Centre she's more than welcome to give me a call. I would look forward

to talking with her, Mr. Speaker.

Melissa,

like a lot of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians right now, as I just mentioned,

is that when you make informed decisions on what your next job, what your

profession should look like, Mr. Speaker, we will do a market development plan

to see what skills are required in our province.

Mr.

Speaker, just last week when we talked about how you work with our oceans, as an

example, the opportunities that we would have in the arctic. We're seeing right

now young, educated Newfoundlanders and Labradorians finding employment in our

province. So it's important we put that analysis out there so that young

Newfoundlanders, as the Member just said, like Melissa, can have a future in our

province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The time for Question Period

has expired.

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling

of Documents.

Notices

of Motion.

Notices of Motion

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, I give notice

that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled,

An Act To Amend The Consumer

Protection And Business Practices Act. (Bill 52)

MR. SPEAKER:

Further notices of motion?

The hon.

the Member for the District of Terra Nova.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HOLLOWAY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move

the following motion:

WHEREAS

Newfoundland and Labrador has a diverse and thriving social enterprise sector

which is actively meeting social, cultural, economic and environmental needs

throughout the province; and

WHEREAS

social enterprises can help communities control their own economic future, fill

critical gaps in the economy, and provide space for a new generation of

entrepreneurs to apply their skills; and

WHEREAS

social enterprise development is another innovation tool for advancing regional

growth opportunities to benefit the economy;

THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED that this hon. House supports the Government of

Newfoundland and Labrador's initiative to implement a social enterprise action

plan including long-term strategic goals supported by an annual work plan early

in 2017.

Mr.

Speaker, this motion is seconded by the hon. Member for St. George's Humber.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Further notices of motion?

The hon.

the Government House Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Pursuant

to Standing Order 63(3) the private Member's resolution just entered by the

Member shall be the one that is debated this Wednesday.

While

I'm up, Mr. Speaker, I would move, pursuant to Standing Order 11, that the House

not adjourn at 5:30 p.m. today, Monday, November 28, 2016.

Further,

I would move, pursuant to Standing Order 11, that the House not adjourn at 10

p.m. today, Monday, November 28.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Further notices of motion?

Answers

to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for Mount

Pearl North.

MR. KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm

pleased to present the following petition this afternoon:

To the

hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

provincial wait-lists for long-term care continue to grow; and

WHEREAS

hospital beds are increasingly being occupied by individuals who are in need of

long-term care; and

WHEREAS

this government cancelled the previous administration's plan to increase

capacity by 360 beds province wide;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House

of Assembly to urge government to immediately develop a plan to address the

shortage of long-term care beds in order to ensure people receive appropriate

care and are treated with dignity.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr.

Speaker, this is an issue I've spoken to in this hon. House in the past. I won't

speak at length about it today, but I do want to continue to bring these

concerns to the House of Assembly.

The

bottom line from where I sit is that we had a viable plan that would have

resulted in 360 additional long-term care beds opening in our province in 2017.

They would be under construction right now. The plan made sense. It was cost

effective. It was modelled after best practices in most other Canadian

provinces. It's a model that has had a lot of success, even in our own region of

Canada, in provinces like New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

In the

past year, we've seen nothing happen. If the government had concerns with our

plan, that's their right, but to not present any kind of alternative and to not

take any kind of action over the past year is rather concerning, Mr. Speaker.

We have

long wait-lists for long-term care in our province, and there's a ripple effect

throughout the health care system because of this present situation and

government's inaction. We have more surgeries being cancelled, we have people

lying on stretchers in hallways in our hospitals, we have people waiting for

even longer periods in emergency rooms because we have patients that are waiting

to move into long-term care and they can't. Some of them are in personal care

homes, some of them are in their own homes, some of them are waiting in

hospitals and they've already been medically discharged.

It's a

real concern, Mr. Speaker, and action is needed. We've seen none in the past

year and I'm pleased to present this petition to call upon government to finally

take some action.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

To the

hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

Newfoundland and Labrador has the greatest percentage of the workforce earning

the provincial minimum wage in Canada, with women, youth and those from rural

areas making up a disproportionate number of these workers;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House

of Assembly to urge government to legislate an immediate increase in the minimum

wage to restore the loss of purchasing power since 2010 and an annual adjustment

to the minimum wage beginning in 2016 to reflect the Consumer Price Index.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Well,

Mr. Speaker, I point out that the petitioners were duly disappointed last week

when the Minister for Advanced Education, Skills and Labour made an announcement

that indeed without any public consultations, and without publicly announcing a

review was taking place, that he was indeed making changes to the minimum wage.

But those changes did not reflect the concerns raised by these petitioners

because, number one, it is going to do nothing to restore the loss of purchasing

power since 2010. A 25-cent raise next April and again next October would go

nowhere near bringing us up to the purchasing power, which will be a year late

again another year added to the request of these people.

And

then, again the petitioners ask that the increase in the minimum wage begin in

2016 to reflect the Consumer Price Index. Some hope, Mr. Speaker; they now have

to wait until April 2017 to get any increase at all, the increase of 25 cents,

and that increase will go nowhere near reflecting the loss of purchasing power

and reflect the Consumer Price Index.

Even

though this petition is signed by thousands of people in this province, has been

presented over and over in this House, the minister paid no attention to the

petitions of people throughout the province. He paid no attention to their

concern of the loss of purchasing power in the last almost seven years now, not

six years. He paid no attention to the fact of what they were calling upon him

to do. He did not hold any kind of public hearings to hear people present why

they signed this petition, to hear the details I'd like to know his analysis

because we got no analysis of how he's going to deal with the loss of

purchasing power; 25 cents next April and another 25 cents next fall is not

going to cut it.

claimed here in this House of Assembly that this was going to take care of the

fact we are now the lowest minimum wage in the country. What does he think that

the other provinces are sitting still and that they're not going to raise theirs

next year? Of course they are, so we'll probably still be the lowest in the

country after these raises happen, Mr. Speaker.

Thank

you very much.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Mount

Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

petition to the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and

Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents

humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

many students within our province depend on school bussing for transportation to

and from school each day; and

WHEREAS

there have been a number of buses removed from service over the past few weeks

for safety reasons, calling into question the current inspection and enforcement

protocols for school buses in the province; and

WHEREAS

there have been concerns raised by members of the busing industry regarding

government tendering practices as it relates to the provision of school bus

services in this province; and

WHEREAS

there are many parents throughout our province who have raised both scheduling

policy, the courtesy-seating policy, the new double- bus-run schedule, as well

as overcrowding on school buses;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House

of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to strike an

all-party committee on school busing to consult with stakeholders and make

recommendations to government for the improvement to the school busing system in

our province.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr.

Speaker, I'm glad to be able to present this petition, once again. I will say

that it is encouraging, listening to the Minister of Service NL in Question

Period. It is encouraging to hear that there are going to be some amendments to

legislation, which is hopefully going to improve the safety on our school buses

in terms of how the inspections are done and when they're done and so on.

So I'm

very glad to hear that. There does seem to be movement there. Anything we can do

to make school buses safe for our children, everybody in this House, I'm sure,

agrees we need to do it. I'm also glad to hear the minister say that they would

be doing some audits and so on prior to September. I think that's positive.

Personally, I would like to see all school bus inspections done by Service NL

prior to September so that before school buses go on the road, before school

starts, we would know they have been independently inspected and they're safe.

Certainly, this is a move in the right direction, if he does what he says

they're going to do, and I have no doubt that he will.

In terms

of the other issues around the 1.6-kilometre rule, the double-busing runs and so

on, this is something we have to look to the Minister of Education, as opposed

to the Minister of Service NL. It seems like he's doing his part, but we need to

look to the Minister of Education to stop hiding behind the school board.

MR. KIRBY:

The school district.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. LANE:

I hear him over there

chirping there now. To stop hiding behind the school board

MR. KIRBY:

The school district.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. LANE:

and to actually start

taking some ownership of these issues to address these issues. Because I know

when he was over on this side of the House, he raised these very same concerns.

Now, all of a sudden it's not a concern and it's the school district.

Hopefully, these issues around the 1.6-kilometre rule and around this new

double-busing

schedule I'm not sure where that ever came from, but that's

wreaking all kinds of havoc on children and families and I ask him to look into

it.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon.

the Member for Cape St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

To the

hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

fisheries policy regulations link harvesting quotas to vessel length for several

species; and

WHEREAS

many harvesters own fishing vessels of various sizes, but because of policy

regulations are restricted to using smaller vessels, often putting their crews

in danger; and

WHEREAS

the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of

Assembly to urge the government to make representation to the federal government

to encourage them to change policy, thus ensuring the safety of fish harvesters

in this province.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

This is

a petition that I brought before. This is the second time now I've brought this

to the House of Assembly and it's very important. It's very important to people

in my district.

I spoke

to a fisherman this weekend. As you know, this weekend, the winds were

unbelievable. And some of the conditions we see fish harvesters having to go out

in is unbelievable. We live in the North Atlantic, the roughest area in the

word, I would say, when it comes to wind conditions. To have regulations that

are putting our crew members and fish harvesters really in danger of losing

their lives every year, we hear tell of it.

Every

year in this province there are people who die fishing. One life is too much.

There are regulations that can be changed. All we have to do I understand when

it came in, when the crab first started that they had to make sure the inshore

sector was protected, that it wasn't just the larger boats that were getting the

majority of the crab. So they put an inshore sector where they went from 35'9

and under, and then they went over to 65 footers.

Mr.

Speaker, today most of the inshore harvesters have a number of licences. I know

people in my area that have six different boats that they go out and harvest

crab, and they're forced to use these boats. Again, like I said the last time I

was up, some of the boats they got are no problem at all, but when you have six,

I'm sure there are ones that are better on the water than there are others.

I'm just

asking the Minister of Fisheries, asking this government to protect our fisher

people, protect the people that are out on the water. It's important.

Newfoundlanders have lost too many lives in the past, and we don't need to lose

any in the future.

Thank

you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of St. John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the

hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

government has once again cut the libraries budget threatening the closure of 54

libraries; and

WHEREAS

already strapped municipalities are not in a position to take over the operation

and cost of libraries;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House

of Assembly to urge government to keep these libraries open and work on a

long-term plan to strengthen the library system.

As in

duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Again,

Mr. Speaker, people might feel how odd to stand up and present this petition

when government has reversed their decision. Well, they haven't really reversed

their decision; they've just postponed it. It's a little bit in suspended

animation right now around what they're going to do about these libraries that

came under the threat of closure. So they've hired a great big, old consulting

company, giving them almost $200,000 to tell us whether or not we need

libraries. And we know we do. Experts tell us we need them. Librarians tell us,

teachers tell us, community leaders tell us, mayors tell us. Everybody's telling

us we need our libraries.

As a

matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, there were people all over the country who were

astounded that this Minister of Education, who professes to be so concerned

about education, is undercutting some of the very significant foundations in our

communities that support literacy, that support education. It's odd, Mr.

Speaker. It's like falling down into a rabbit hole and the world has become

topsy-turvy.

So these

particular petitions have been signed by the good people of Lourdes, and Lourdes

is on the Port au Port Peninsula. It's another small community in the province

which was shocked to learn a few months ago that the library, a pillar of their

community, was on the chopping block.

Now

having already lost the services of the former Port au Port development

association, the people of Lourdes and surrounding communities, from Mainland to

Abraham's Cove, relied on their public library. The only place left in the area

where they could get practical supports such as job search and help writing a

rsum. It was housed in the local school.

The

Lourdes library is popular with children, seniors and tourists alike. In the

past year, the library get this, Mr. Speaker was mandated to offer the Every

Child Ready to Read program.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, imagine, they

were mandated to offer Every Child Ready to Read program. I guess if

government's Plan A goes through, every child will not be ready to read on the

Port au Port Peninsula or in many other areas for that matter.

Children

in the community are asking the librarian and their parents, why are they

closing our library? They want to know. It makes no sense. It makes no sense at

all, Mr. Speaker.

So I am

pleased to support this petition from the citizens of Lourdes and surrounding

communities. Once again, I call on the Minister of Education and Early Childhood

Development to say, sorry, I messed up. Sorry, we messed up; we'll reinstate the

adequate funding for our valuable public libraries.

Mr.

Speaker, he did mess up. Not only that, we're seeing a tax coming on January 1

on our books.

Thank

you very, very much.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House

Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Orders of the Day.

MR. SPEAKER:

Orders of the Day.

Orders of the Day

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, I call from the

Order Paper, Motion 2.

MR. SPEAKER:

WHEREAS

section 85 of the

Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 2015 provides

that the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner be filled by the

Lieutenant Governor in Council on a resolution of the House of Assembly; and

WHEREAS

section 85 further provides that the Speaker establish a selection committee for

that purpose; and

WHEREAS

that selection committee was established and that committee submitted a roster

of qualified candidates to the Speaker of the House of Assembly; and

WHEREAS

section 89 provides that the Lieutenant Governor may, on the recommendation of

the House of Assembly Management Commission, appoint an acting commissioner if

that office becomes vacant; and

WHEREAS

the office was vacated and Mr. Donovan Molloy was, on the recommendation of the

selection committee, appointed in an acting capacity on July 22, 2016;

NOW

THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED that Mr. Donovan Molloy be appointed as the Information

and Privacy Commissioner.

The hon.

the Government House Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm

happy to stand here and speak to this motion today, one that's quite significant

and will give some, perhaps, finality to a decision that was made a number of

months ago. But as you just stated in the motion, we have to make it official

here in the House of Assembly. I guess the crux of that motion is in the last

section which is that Donovan Molloy is to be appointed as the Information and

Privacy Commissioner.

What I'd

like to do is just take a few minutes at this time. I certainly won't be using

the hour that's been accorded to me, but I want to speak about the process. I

want to speak about the office, and to speak about Mr. Molloy himself who I've

had the good fortune in my time in this role to work with in his previous

position.

As we

all know, our Information and Privacy Commissioner is a very important role. It

is an independent office of this House of Assembly. The position itself has been

around for a number of years now, and had previously been served by a gentleman

named Mr. Ed Ring, who gave notice of his retirement. We thank Mr. Ring for his

service and wish him well in his retirement.

anybody has any interest in this topic, all they have to do the OIPC has a

great website that one can access. They talk about their mandate; they talk

about what they do. Most people know they basically deal with the act, the

ATIPP, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy, and as well as the

Personal Health Information Act. That concept has had a long history in this

province. It's one that the legislation brought back in the early 2000s.

We went

through changes to that legislation back in 2012, and a subsequent revision in

this House of Assembly not too long ago. It was in that most recent revision

that was done here in the House of Assembly that there was a new process created

which was applied and which led to the selection of Mr. Molloy as the Acting

Information and Privacy Commission.

If you

look at what this act does; it was first passed in 2002. It replaced the Freedom

of Information Act which came about back in the '80s. The Commissioner who, as I

said, is an independent officer of this House has a number of responsibilities

under the two pieces of legislation that I mentioned. Basically, it's providing

oversight, and oversight includes conducting reviews of decisions, investigating

and attempting to resolve complaints as it relates to Access to Information and

the Protection of Privacy involving public bodies.

I guess

when you look at what it does we talk about the concept as it relates to

information, there's the thought process that all information, especially as it

relates to public bodies, should be public information. And that's the process

there has been a mindset change over the years where there has been a tendency

to protect information, to hold that information and not release it, to more of

a mindset now where information is public but it is subject to limits. It is

subject to certain protections, especially as it relates to personal

information. It's finding that balance, and it has been laid out.

It is

our Commissioner who, in many cases, resolves disputes that may arise where

interested parties make application that they want access to certain

information. There, in many cases, may be a refusal to provide that information

and we have to interpret the legislation and make these decisions. It is an

extremely busy job. It's an extremely busy office, especially since the latest

revision of this legislation which made it one of the broadest pieces of

legislation of that nature really in this country. So it is an important

position and one that we take seriously.

People

must realize that when it comes to the independent nature of this office, this

statutory office of the House of Assembly, it certainly carries with it an

importance that can't be understated and one they don't answer to politicians.

It is not a case of, well, we're saying this is private; you need to keep it

private. No, no, that is not how this office like any statutory office of this

House works, it's offices of importance that answer to the House of Assembly but

they don't answer to elected officials, and that's needed for the benefits of

all citizens of this province.

So if

you were to go through whether it's our ATIPPA or whether it's the history I

don't think there's any real need to belabour the debate we're having here today

to talk about how it came about. There was a report done by Cummings some time

ago, it led the legislation. What we need to talk about is the importance of

this role and the importance, basically, of that office and the need to ensure

qualified individuals fill this. We've seen that in the past and certainly we

want to ensure that going forward.

I don't

need to talk about the debate we had here in this House just recently where we

talked about we had a review that was done by the hon. Clyde Wells. I think

that committee also involved Mr. Doug Letto and Jennifer Stoddart who also

carried a national role as it related to access to information. They reviewed

legislation. It was under the mandate of a previous premier who wanted a review

of the previous ATIPPA that he helped bring into place back in 2012.

This

committee looked at it; they took submissions from a number of people. It was a

pretty comprehensive review, one that was done over a period of time, brought to

this House and that we have voted on. It has a number of aspects to it, whether

it is the independent review mechanism.

There's

a whole number of things, but one of the fundamental concepts really is the

facilitation of democracy. That's done by ensuing that citizens have the

information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process,

increasing transparency in government public bodies and protecting privacy. A

lot of times the protecting privacy aspect sometimes gets left out, or it's

maybe not as well-known as the first part, but there is information out there

that should be kept private and that's as it relates to our personal

information.

So there

is that balance that the Commissioner and his office have to strive to uphold.

They have a number of anybody who gets access to these emails or looks at the

site and sees that there are reports filed on a very regular basis, there are

court decisions, there's a lot of information out there, more so than I can tell

you ever before I was elected to this House in 2011. It's not something that I

was aware of but certainly I am now.

I think

there is a greater awareness of this issue as it relates to the public. I think

a lot of that stems from the debates that we've had here in this House of

Assembly. We've had debates over access to information. I think these debates

have led to that broadness, that awareness that the public has as it relates to

information and the need to have that information.

One of

the things I want to talk about obviously, I think everybody understands the

role of the Commissioner, the role of that office. One of the things is this

piece of legislation that we debated just last year in 2015 created a process to

appoint the Information and Privacy Commissioner. That's set out in

section 85

of this legislation, the ATIPPA, 2015. It wasn't too long into 2016 that the

previous commissioner gave notice that they would be retiring, as I mentioned

earlier.

So in

May of 2016, a selection committee was established by the Speaker of the House

of Assembly in accordance with

section 85(3) of the act. Now I have to note

it's my recollection, I may be wrong this process was a part of a bill that

was brought to this House and was voted on and was agreed on unanimously by

Members of this House of Assembly, if I recall correctly. I look across at the

Member for St. John's East Quidi because they were a part of this debate too.

I think I was right in that it was unanimous in this House of Assembly when we

debated that.

So this

process is one that every Member agreed on. I can't recall if there was a

Division called. I think there probably was, but the fact is I need to note the

unanimity when it comes to selecting this new process.

I just

want to go to the side for just a second, because one of the things that we did

in our first session of the House was we brought forward the Independent

Appointments Commission. Part of that process was that we created new processes

to be used for a number of statutory offices. We tried to basically bring in

line a lot of these offices, their terms, their tenures and the selection

process.

But this

Commissioner position was specifically excluded from that process. The thought

process employed to make that decision was that we had just gone through a

session in this House where we voted on this legislation. This process was the

one that was selected by the committee and we didn't feel it the best move to

change a process that we hadn't already employed. So we wanted to exclude this

specifically from that and go through the process that was identified by Mr.

Wells and the committee and voted on in this House.

So in

May, 2016, a selection committee was established and this committee consisted of

the individual sitting right there in front me, you may not see her on the House

camera, anybody that's out there watching but it's a lady named Ms. Sandra

Barnes, who is the Clerk of the House of Assembly. She's here with us in the

House of Assembly every day. She's not often on camera except when she's doing

the long readings of the legislation, but she was a part of that committee.

There

was also Ms. Julia Mullaley, who is the former Clerk of the Executive Council

and was a part of this process; Chief Judge Pamela Goulding, who is the Chief

Judge of our Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador; and Mr. Kent Decker,

who is the Vice-President of Administration and Finance for Memorial University.

This was

the committee that undertook this process. The first thing they did was invite

expressions of interest for the position with support from the Public Service

Commission. If I recall correctly, I think there may have been ads put out in

the media, through the newspapers, it was put online. So it was wide-ranging and

it was public. Many people had the opportunity to apply for this. They had

notification and went through this process.

The

committee then, after going through this process and providing ample time,

developed a roster of candidates obviously, all qualified. That roster was

then submitted to the Speaker of the House of Assembly pursuant to

section 85(4)

of the legislation. The Speaker then in turn consulted with the Premier, the

Leader of the Official Opposition and the Leader of the Third Party to discuss

this process.

Following this consultation process, the Lieutenant Governor in Council, on the

recommendation of the House of Assembly Management Commission, then appointed

Mr. Donovan Molloy, QC as Information and Privacy Commissioner on an acting

basis pursuant to

section 89 of the act, which was effective July 22, 2016.

Going

back to the motion here, the fact is that the Management Commission and the

House has the ability to put somebody in place on an interim basis, but it

always has to come back to this House of Assembly for us, as Members

representing the citizens of this province, to have a vote on to make sure that

it becomes final and to have that say.

Mr.

Molloy has been in place on an acting basis since July. Again, I'd like to say,

this is just perhaps my opinion, I think this process seemed to work well from

my involvement in it. I think there were a wide number of people that applied

for the position. I'd like to thank the committee, the individuals that I just

named, Ms. Barnes, Ms. Mullaley, Chief Judge Goulding and Mr. Decker for their

work on this.

These

are all public servants that took the time away they all have busy roles. They

all have very busy positions. They carry out a number of tasks, but the fact

that they took the time to sit on this committee and do this work, we appreciate

that as well. It's time out of their lives. It's extra time they put in, because

we all realize the importance of this role and the importance of putting a good,

qualified individual in this position.

personal opinion and I think the opinion of many Members in this House

certainly I expect, after I sit, Mr. Speaker, that Members from the other side

will be able to stand and speak to this and provide their input on the process

itself and their thoughts on it. But I thought it seemed to work well. We're

very supportive of the process and I'd like to think the Members on this side

will be very supportive of this motion and will certainly be supporting it.

One of

the reasons is that (

a) we think that the process itself seemed to work. Again,

that's one of those things that I'm sure there will be consultations and

discussions on because you can always look at processes and look at can they be

done differently, can they be done better, can they be improved. There must be a

constant goal of change for the purpose of betterment. That's something we must

all strive for. The second reason: I think that when it came down to it, we

couldn't have appointed a better person with a very strong, specific skillset

for this.

I'd like

to talk for just a second, Mr. Speaker, about Donovan Molloy. Donovan, who is

from Marystown, has a Bachelor of Laws, with distinction, from the University of

New Brunswick. He graduated in 1992. He actually had a Bachelor of Science

degree from Memorial University, called to our bar 1993 and articled actually

down in Marystown. He practised in 1994 and then he made probably one of the

biggest moves and something that led to him being in a position where I got to

work side by side with him, work with him, and that's when he became a Crown

prosecutor.

He moved

in to Public Prosecution and he practised there in the Marystown area up until

he came to St. John's in 2002. Since that time, he left the office; he was the

director of Public Prosecutions right up until he left to make this change. It's

a significant change in many ways going from the director of Public

Prosecutions, from handling matters of that significance, that importance, to

moving to this which is obviously a very important matter, but one that has a

different nature.

Mr.

Molloy has appeared before all levels of court in this province. He also worked

as a prosecutor with Alberta Justice, with the Public Prosecution Service of

Canada. Mr. Molloy has also served in a number of roles outside of this

capacity, whether it be a bencher with the Law Society, the National Criminal

Law Program, the Rotary Club.

Being

the director of Public Prosecutions, it was assistant deputy minister level with

the Department of Justice and Public Safety. Again, stepping into my role, I was

so fortunate to have the Premier put me in the role as minister on December 14

of last year and it's since that time that I got to work with Donovan on very

much a day-to-day basis.

Now,

without talking too much about the Office of Public Prosecutions, the

independence of that office from the political side is one thing, but that

doesn't mean I got a real education working with Donovan on a day-to-day

basis. I had an understanding before appearing in the court system, but having a

chance to work with him and his staff, with other prosecutors, has given me an

even greater understanding of the importance of that job, how hard they work and

the good work that they do on behalf of the people of this province.

Again,

Donovan, being director, handled that for the entire province. It's a very

trying matter. You can think about the matters that you see in the news every

night, some very serious files; files that, in many cases, can be disturbing at

times. Again, he was in charge of all that and ran that for a number of years,

and did a great job.

I did

this during a previous debate, but I'd like to thank Mr. Molloy for his work on

behalf of the Department of Justice and Public Safety over all those years, for

his work as a prosecutor, for his work as the director of Public Prosecutions.

He did excellent work. We're very lucky that in this whole process that we've

had a very good transition from when Donovan left office, and we now have Ms.

Knickle, who is doing an excellent job in that role.

Donovan

really made the jump and he stepped into this role, and I think, in his acting

capacity, seems to be doing an excellent job. Again, I heard from him, as the

minister, in many cases, when he writes the reports, and some of them deal with

our department, as he deals with every department, and we hear about ways that

we can improve, ways that we can changed, ways that we can improve access to

information for the people of this province.

Something we have as one of our most important mandates is to ensure we are

transparent, to make sure we are accessible, to make sure we have information

out there. Because it's not just about having the information, it's about having

it on a timely basis.

Donovan,

I really think that it is his legal background and skills that he's acquired

through his education and through his work career that have allowed him to step

into this role and provide a methodical, intelligent and diligent approach to

this. There's certainly a lot of reading to this; that understates it. That

skill set that he had allowed him to, I think, to provide he's a very highly

qualified candidate and what I thought was an easy selection, having somebody of

that calibre put themselves forward with this position, we were certainly very

happy, and certainly very happy to stand here and support this motion in the

House of Assembly.

So, Mr.

Speaker, without belabouring it too much, and again, my colleagues would have an

opportunity to speak to this, there's no understating the value of access to

information and the protection of privacy and private information. We need

individuals who are independent and qualified, who can interpret that law, and

can provide decisions that are in the best interests of the people of this

province, and to do so as an independent Officer of this House.

I think

that the right choice was made in Mr. Molloy. I'm very happy to stand here and

speak to this today, to speak to his qualities, to speak to his capabilities, to

speak to his qualifications. I'm happy to stand here and speak to that.

behalf of the government, we'll certainly be supporting this motion. We wish Mr.

Molloy and his office all the best as he goes forward with an increased mandate

with the passage of the ATIPPA, 2015. There has been an increase in the

capacity, we'll say, since the previous incarnation, so he certainly has a lot

of work on his hands. We wish him well. We know he has a mandate there to do the

job and I'm sure we'll be in touch with him.

Actually, I'm looking forward I'll throw a shout out now that Mr. Molloy is

actually leading a conference. He'd be here right now but there is an access to

information conference going on here in St. John's. I think it's today, tomorrow

and, I believe, Wednesday. I'm looking forward to speaking at that conference

tomorrow. If anybody has any questions, I'm sure they can find the information

online. In fact, I tweeted it out today because we need more people that are

interested in this.

So I'm

very grateful for the work that he has put into this. As the minister also

responsible for ATIPP in government, a new part of my mandate that was given to

me earlier this fall, it's something I take to be very important. I look forward

to working with him and his staff to make sure that we provide this very

important service on behalf of the people of this province.

Thank

you for the opportunity to speak to this. I'm very happy to support the motion.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's a

pleasure to join in with the Government House Leader in having a few comments on

this motion before the House this afternoon. This is a motion, as the Government

House Leader had indicated, to appoint Mr. Donovan Molloy as the Information and

Privacy Commissioner.

comments will be fairly brief this afternoon, Mr. Speaker. Before I speak to the

work he's done so far and my contact with him in his appointment, I just want to

take a moment to acknowledge the service of Mr. Ed Ring, the previous

Information and Privacy Commissioner, quite often known in short as the Privacy

Commissioner.

I want

to take a few minutes to thank Mr. Ed Ring for his service to the House of

Assembly, but also to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. I can tell you

that the Privacy Commissioner I know from my own experience in dealing with

privacy matters and dealing with people who have gone through or have had

questions or concerns about privacy matters or looking for information and so

on, that a lot of this lands squarely on the Privacy Commissioner's desk.

Sometimes it can be not an easy task to interpret the legislation, understand

the intent of the legislation and apply to the circumstances that exist at the

time.

As the

Government House Leader mentioned, Mr. Ring had given notice earlier in 2016 of

his intent to retire. Then, back in July of this year, the Members of the

Management Commission met and Mr. Molloy was appointed, I believe, on July 22 in

an acting capacity.

Now we

have a motion before the House to appoint him in a permanent capacity. I can

tell you, Mr. Speaker, again in my own experience, I know Mr. Molloy. I knew him

back in his days as a prosecutor. I knew him in the early days as prosecutor as

well. He was always been very, very professional in his handlings of his duties

and responsibilities. I know, from my experience and my knowledge of him, he has

always applied himself to the best of his ability.

I dealt

with him a little bit during my time in government, in Cabinet, and he spent

some time in the Department of Justice, under the Department of Justice and

worked there as well. From time to time over the years, I had instances to deal

with him. Since he became the interim Information and Privacy Commissioner,

Members of caucus and myself met with him one day and had a good discussion with

him. I've spoken to him on the phone once or twice as well, other than that,

over some questions asking his clarification or advice on.

He's

there to do that. My experience, thus far, is that he's been very helpful and

accommodating and also provides the information. When we ask for a clarification

or his position on something, he's willing to do that as well, and that's part

of what the Information and Privacy Commissioner does. He provides a greater

understanding. He has a position where he can make rulings and decisions.

Therefore when someone is trying to interpret the language or the circumstances,

sometimes he can lend some assistance to that as well.

Mr.

Speaker, we know that we're in an age where the demands on the position are

increasing and not only are they increasing, but they are also becoming more

complex. As time goes on,

interpretation of law and so on becomes more complex,

becomes more complex to the courts and then courts issue decisions when people

challenge decisions and you appeal them to higher level of court and you get

complexities, higher level of understanding. Then when a person is using the

act, they have to also include the decisions from the higher courts on matters

involving that particular act.

Mr.

Molloy is kind of in the centre of the driver's seat when it comes to all of

those happenings with information and privacy. We know with the significant

discussions that we've had here in the House in the past on privacy and the

Government House Leader commented on our legislation here in Newfoundland and

Labrador and I'd say the final result of what we landed on with privacy and

information legislation here, from what I know, is the best in the country. It

was at the time and I don't know if we changed, but that means that there's more

work for the Information and Privacy Commissioner to do as well and certainly

we've seen that. We anticipated there would be increases in requests. Our

government started a process of proactive releases, and providing information

proactively so people didn't actually have to apply for it.

And

we've had occasions where people pick up the phone and ask for something, and

the effort we made to provide it without having to go through the actual

application process. But the application process is online today, very simple to

follow. Anyone can log in online and through a fairly confidential process

there are requirements of confidentiality of who is asking for it, and they can

ask for that information. The practice that we started in government was to post

those answers online. So if someone was looking for something, they go online

and have a look for it or they could ask for it, use the online system to make a

request for it and wait for the results to come back.

So that

happens there and, quite often, people have questions about the process or they

don't like the answer they received from government. Government may write back

and say no response of records, which is a term sometimes used. Someone may ask:

What does that mean? Does that mean they have records, but for one reason or

another they are not going to provide it? So there's a process you can go

through to get the clarifications to that, and again, all of that will land on

Mr. Molloy's plate.

Mr.

Speaker, I can tell you, based on my own experience, background and experience

with Mr. Molloy and understanding Mr. Molloy's past, including the comments by

my colleague across the House who talked about him graduating in 1992, did very,

very well in his education, added to the Bar in 1993, and the experience he's

had over the last number of years, a very fitting person for this position.

I'm sure

he'll have his own challenges as he goes along with doing the job that he's

accepted; however, I'm sure he's going to do it to the best of his ability. I

congratulate him on his appointment.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I'm glad

to join with my colleagues from the government and the Official Opposition in

recognizing Mr. Donovan Molloy being newly confirmed as the Information and

Privacy Commissioner.

The

Minister of Justice and Government House Leader has very thoroughly explained

the process and also the Leader of the Official Opposition. So I won't go into

explaining all of that again. People who may have missed what the Minister of

Justice said can, of course, go into Hansard after today and check it out. But

the process that we are doing here today is making a final decision upon a

recommendation from the House Management Commission that Mr. Donovan replace Mr.

Ed Ring.

And

before going further I, too, want to recognize the tremendous work of Mr. Ed

Ring when he was the Information and Privacy Commissioner. He certainly set a

high standard and I'm sure that Mr. Molloy is ready to rise to that high

standard. Mr. Ring showed himself absolutely committed to making sure that

people of the province had full and open access to information and that privacy

was protected. He fully understood that role.

I note

that when Mr. Donovan was taking this on, he was being very, very modest. In

actual fact, he called himself a newcomer to access and privacy. He participated

in the federal Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

in October, and that was probably the first time that he played his role on the

level.

recognizing himself as a newcomer to access and privacy, he acknowledged the

fact that his background was not in this area but his background was a legal

background. As the Minister of Justice indicated that legal background which

went back to 1993 when he started as a prosecutor in our province, in what was

then the Marystown office, so the Department of Justice's Public Prosecution

Division, his background in law certainly has given him the ability to

understand the legal dimensions of access and privacy. It is really complex

dealing with the rules and regulations, dealing with legislation, being present

to represent the people of the province because that's what he has to do.

All of

that, I think, are things that he would fully understand because of his

background. When one looks at the work that he did, both here in Newfoundland

and Labrador and then Alberta and then back here again, he certainly has always

worked in the area for which he was trained.

So it

was not difficult, as a member of the House Management Commission, to come to

the conclusion to recommend Mr. Molloy. I don't know him myself, but I did speak

to people who knew him over the years in the work he has done in the province

and I was impressed by the things those people said.

course, I was also impressed by the fact that Mr. Molloy went through our new

process for the selecting of a position such as the Information and Privacy

Commissioner and that he was chosen by this selection committee that is part of

our new Appointments Commission. So I had no doubt when the Management

Commission was asked to look at this recommendation from the selection committee

that then went on to the Lieutenant Governor in Council, that I was secure in

saying yes to recommending him to be appointed. I'm glad that now we're finally

able here in the House of Assembly to make it not just an interim appointment,

but a permanent appointment.

I think

he has really shown, since July when he first took up the position July 22, I

think in some of the issues that he has spoken to publicly that he was either

being very modest when he said in October that he's a newcomer to access and

privacy or he's a very quick learner. I suspect it's both.

I've

been told he's not somebody who seeks the limelight for himself. People who have

observed him have told me that. He's not somebody who's doing something so that

he can be recognized. He's somebody that works very, very hard in the background

in the work that he does. I think that tells me he's a person who's very

judicious. If there's nothing else we want in this position, it's somebody who

is judicious. I think we have that in Mr. Donovan Molloy.

He has

been active since he's been appointed to the role, as I said; a few times

publicly being out there with regard to issues he's had to deal with. But doing

that because of the importance of what he was looking at, at those times, not

doing it so he could get coverage and be any kind of a public figure.

I have

no doubt that he is going to live up to and maybe surpass, who knows, what was

set by Mr. Ring when he was in that position because as I said, he set the bar

high. I think Mr. Molloy is up for that and has shown in his past, and even in

the work he's done since July, that we will be very pleased that he has taken on

this.

So I'm

happy to officially welcome him to the role. I look forward to his future

decisions that he will make with the excellent and experienced staff in the

office because that's been my experience when Mr. Ring was in the position. We

also, obviously, didn't work just with Mr. Ring over issues; we've had to deal

with the staff in that office. It's an excellent staff. I'm sure Mr. Molloy is

already finding that out and is enjoying being in his position.

Thank

you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member for Mount

Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm just

going to take a couple of moments, for the record, to say that I too wanted to

thank Mr. Ed Ring for his service over the last number of years. I know he has

done a stellar job and, of course, the Privacy Commissioner does have a very,

very important role to play. As I said, Mr. Ring certainly did a great job

there; I want to acknowledge that.

I, too,

want to congratulate Mr. Donovan Molloy on the appointment. I don't really know

him very well, as other Members might. I have met him on occasion, found him to

be a fine individual. I know he has all the qualifications in terms of education

and in terms of experience to do the job. He's been doing it since July, as has

been said, and he's done a good job. I'm sure he will continue to do so. So I

certainly support this appointment and I congratulate Mr. Molloy on it.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

Is the House ready for the

question?

All

those in favour of the motion?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

MR. SPEAKER:

All those against, 'nay.'

declare the motion passed.

The hon.

the Government House Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded

by the Minister of Service NL, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of

the Whole to consider Bill 46.

MR. SPEAKER:

The motion is that the House

resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole to debate Bill 46.

All

those in favour, 'aye.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

MR. SPEAKER:

All those against, 'nay.'

Carried.

motion, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speaker

left the Chair.

Committee of the

Whole

CHAIR (Dempster):

Order, please!

We are

now considering Bill 46,

An Act Respecting Procurement By Public Bodies.

A bill,

An Act Respecting Procurement By Public Bodies. (Bill 46)

CLERK (Barnes):

Clause 1.

CHAIR:

Shall clause 1 carry?

The hon.

the Member for Cape St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Madam

Chair.

This is

a very important piece of legislation and it's very important to a lot of

municipalities in our province. Being a former municipal leader myself,

sometimes, especially when you become a new member, it's important that we have

proper training and people know the rules, especially when you're dealing with

small municipalities because a lot of times we talk about conflict of interest

and we talk about making sure the best value. It's a part of the legislation

that I really do like. I have a lot of questions on that part of it, the best

value part.

I just

have a couple of questions for the minister. Minister, the first one is going to

be a general question. For municipalities, like I said, this is going to be a

big change for a lot of them. I'm just wondering, is there going to be any

training or handbooks or some kind of support that will be given to

municipalities in the province?

CHAIR:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, it

was a great question and, yes, there will be training. There will be training.

For anybody who wants to apply for our fees, there will be training put out.

There will be templates put out also for people to use. There will be follow-up

after. If anybody has any questions about the RFP, you can rest assured there is

part of the component of bringing in this new Procurement Act

is that there will be training sessions for anybody who wants to partake in

it.

There

will be information sessions, education sessions all across the province for all

businesses and all municipalities that want to partake in the procurement; yes,

there will be. Also, there will be staff there to help councils to work through

the procurement if there are any as I mentioned earlier, there will be a

they're trying to set up a template for it. The rule of thumb with people who

are involved with the three pieces, the more information you can put out, the

better accuracy that you can have with it. So there will be, yes.

CHAIR:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much,

Minister.

I know

you understand the importance of letting the municipal leaders in most cases,

people that are running our municipalities are volunteers, and in a lot of cases

you'll see that in small communities. Again, it's the best value I spoke to

some municipal leaders the weekend and we talked about different things like

snow clearing, garbage collection and different services that they offer in

their towns. The question that came to me most times, Minister, is under the

best value, again. I guess they're asking me what would be the criteria.

I know

it's under the regulations that you're going to be bringing it in down the road,

but a lot of municipalities are wondering what kind of criteria are you going to

use for best value. Does it mean there will be reference letters? Or does it

mean it's on for example, if a town has snow clearing and they're not

satisfied with that snow clearing the year before, does that mean they can just

get rid of that person.

That's

what best value really does. People want to make sure that the services they

offer their communities. So questions like the criteria for best value, I'm

wondering what you could give us on that.

Thank

you.

CHAIR:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes,

best value is instead of buying something for the lowest price, the lowest-cost

option, the idea of the RFPs and best value is to look over the long-term cost

and the long-term I'll give you a good example. If, as we speak now, a town

council hires someone to do snow clearing, and if the snow clearing job is not

up to the standards, it's almost impossible not to bring that person back if

they put a bid in the following September.

Under

this here, the best value if you can show that this person is not getting the

best value by not cleaning the streets on time, not doing the number of runs a

day and not putting the proper salt and sand, they can be excluded from this.

This is the best value.

For

example, if you look at a truck and I'll just use this for an example. If some

department is buying a truck, you say, okay, the lowest truck is $50,000. But if

you can look at the 10-year maintenance free of another truck, that would be

best value in the long term. So you may buy the cheaper truck but the value

that's going to last longer would be the one with the 10-year maintenance that

would be a lot less cost. So it is the best value for all products, goods and

services. That is something that can be put into the RFPs, and will be put into

the RFPs.

I'll

give you a good example. A prime example is out on the West Coast where they

just did the six transfer stations. The lowest bid never got it. They said over

the life of the period of 25 years, the best value that we would have would be

the person who's a bit higher, but because of the value we'll take that person

because in the long run we'll save money. So that's the idea of looking at the

long term instead of just the lowest price on a regular basis.

CHAIR:

The hon. Member for Cape St.

Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Madam

Chair.

Just

another question on municipalities; Minister, most municipalities that have

services, a lot of times it's small towns that go out and sometimes they're

worried about conflict of interest, worrying about how their aunt or uncle or

relative who may have a service, and sometimes they get the opportunity to bid

like everybody else.

What

mechanism is going to be in place for a person who has the lowest bid that the

relative doesn't get that bid, because sometimes there's going to be a conflict

there? You're going to have a bidder saying I did my job; I have just as good

equipment as this person. Again, we want to keep all the conflict we want to

make sure the towns get the best bang for their buck.

I know a

lot of regulations are coming later, but what regulations are going to be in

place to make sure that incidents like this and it does happen in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador, we all know that. You're dealing with your friends,

your neighbours and everything else. I know people don't want to be put in that

position.

CHAIR:

The hon. the Minister of

Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you.

That is

a great question again, because that's happening today, as we speak, under

conflict of interest. There are conflict of interest guidelines in this. It's

pretty straightforward with father, son, spouse in the conflict of interest. A

lot of times, Madam Chair, with the conflict of interest is that if someone

feels they are in conflict, they can step aside from the vote.

Can you

say in this legislation there's going to be something that if your brother or

sister has an RFP that you shouldn't vote on it? There's always Municipal

Affairs who will give you help, who will give you assistance if you are in

conflict. But the thing about this, and I'll say to the Member, which is going

to be great, is now any RFP that is given out, awarded, will be posted online.

That's the other thing.

We're

setting up a system whereby it will be posted online. So anybody who feels they

are in a conflict or if any company feels a municipality didn't award it to them

because of conflict, or they have nieces or nephews or someone on it, they have

a right to come in, and under this legislation the chief procurement office has

to have a debriefing with that person who lost the contract and go through it

step by step. That's something that's new now that's going to be a part of this

act, is that you can come in for a debriefing to go through step by step why you

never got it and prepare for the next time, and that's for those issues.

As I

mentioned earlier about the conflict, there are conflict of interest rules in as

we speak, guidelines in now for municipalities. If people feel they may be in a

conflict we get a lot of letters asking us to clarify if they are or if they

aren't and we're more than willing to help them out. A process that's going to

improve here is that it will be posted online so every individual who applied,

or never applied, can look online and see who got the tender and they can come

in for a debriefing on why they never got the RFP.

CHAIR:

The hon. Member for Cape St.

Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

A last question on

municipalities, just a concern of mine.

Municipalities sometimes are usually like I said, they're volunteers and

everything else, and timelines are very important to them. What mechanism have

you put in place to make sure that if a person say, the bid for snow clearing

is opened in October and a person says, okay, I didn't get it, the third person

up the ladder got it. How are you going to do the timelines so the person who

didn't get the bid can have time enough to say okay, that's not fair that I

didn't get the bid and I was the lowest bidder. What timelines are you going to

put in place?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

CHAIR:

Order, please!

The hon.

the Minister of Service NL.

MR. JOYCE:

They can come in immediately

and ask to be debriefed on why they never got it. The timelines themselves on

the RFPs depends on the town and their consultants, when they want to put them

out, to have it out in time. So there's no timeline saying you got to have it

out. It's up to the town.

Most

towns, as we speak now, for the tendering for snow clearing do have it out prior

to, to give them time for the winter to make sure they have the proper tenders

out, make sure there's someone accepted, and make sure then that whoever got the

tender and in this case with the RFPs, to ensure they got the materials to

work and they have the staff in place to do the work and give them plenty of

time.

there's no timeline put on the town when they got to have it done, but most

towns in their own preparation has it done in time for any project that is

needed or any service that is needed in the town.

CHAIR:

The hon. Member for Mount

Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have,

I guess like everybody, a number of issues or concerns I suppose, but I want to

speak to

section 5 first of all.

Section 5(1) talks about the

CHAIR:

Order, please!

MR. JOYCE:

(Inaudible) I thought we were

going to go clause by clause.

MR. LANE:

I thought that happened. I

thought when she first reads it you can speak to everything and then you go

clause by clause. Is that right or wrong?

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

CHAIR:

Order, please!

Right

now the Chair is recognizing the Minister of Service NL, on a point of order.

MR. LANE:

Okay.

MR. JOYCE:

I just want to say what they

were going clause by clause and we're still at clause 1. So you're welcome to

ask any questions but once you go to

section 5, that means I'm assuming then

everybody is fine with the others, but we

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

MR. JOYCE:

Yes, so I'm saying we're only

at clause 1.

CHAIR:

Order, please!

The hon.

the Member for Mount Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Madam Chair, I have no

problem going by the clause. I was under the impression that when Committee of

the Whole started and you read out the first clause, then that was open to the

whole bill. Then after that, if you get beyond that, then it has to go into

individual clauses.

that's not the case, then I'll wait. It doesn't matter to me, one way or the

other.

CHAIR:

Order, please!

It is

the Chair's understanding that it can be wide ranging in clause 1. It depends on

what way we're going to go. I guess we can go clause by clause. Sometimes clause

1 can be wide ranging.

The hon.

the Member for Mount Pearl Southlands.

MR. LANE:

Okay, that's what I thought,

Madam Chair.

I guess

on clause 5 and it goes beyond that but it starts on clause 5(1). It says:

This act applies to procurement by public bodies with respect to the

Energy Corporation Act and

Research and Development Council Act .

I'm less concerned about the Research and

Development Council Act . I'm glad that it's going to be included.

The

Energy Corporation Act would be

referring to Nalcor and its subsidiaries, as I understand it. On the surface,

that sounds like a very good thing. I support that 1,000 per cent, to bring

Nalcor now under the auspices of the new

Public Procurement Act .

Where I

have a concern or a question, or both, whatever you might want to call it I

suppose, when we get towards the end here,

Part IV, Consequential Amendments and

Repeal, and

section 17

section 17.1 says: The corporation or a subsidiary

and of course it's referring to the Energy

Corporation Act and says it's repealed and the following substituted: The

corporation or a subsidiary is exempt from the

Public Procurement Act with respect to procurement in the following

areas and then it lists (

a) to (c) (

a) energy and energy products; (

b) where the corporation or a subsidiary is acting in a strategic partnership,

joint venture, or equity investment with other public bodies or private sector

entities; or (

c) for the purpose of meeting the requirements of a benefit

arrangement.

So the

way I read that

CHAIR:

Order, please!

I just

want to clarify when I talked about wide ranging in clause 1 it's like when

we're in second reading. But as the Chair is listening you are getting down into

the weeds more, and I think that's something that we can debate when we get to

that

section of the bill.

MR. LANE:

Okay. I'll try to keep the

comments a little more general, Madam Chair, if that's fine. But the problem

with going that way is where we are talking two linked pieces and if I go with

one, then I don't know if I can speak to the other one and vice versa because

they are tied together.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, o