Resource Committee — Department of Rural Renewal — 19 May 1998

1998-05-19

Newfoundland and Labrador — Committees

May 19, 1998

RESOURCE ESTIMATES COMMITTEE

Pursuant to Standing Order 87, Ralph Wiseman, MHA,

Topsail, substitutes for Rick Woodford, MHA, Humber Valley.

The Committee met at 7:00 p.m. in the House of

Assembly.

CHAIR (Canning): Order, please!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the final meeting

for the Department of Development and Rural Renewal for the Resource Estimates

Committee. Before we begin, I would like, with the department and the minister,

a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting.

On motion, minutes adopted as circulated.

Good evening, Minister. You might want to take a

couple of minutes to introduce yourself and your officials, but perhaps the

Committee members would want to introduce themselves to your officials.

MR. WISEMAN: Ralph Wiseman, District of

Topsail.

MR. BARRETT: Percy Barrett, District of

Bellevue.

MS THISTLE: Anna Thistle, District of Grand

Falls - Buchans.

MR. FITZGERALD: Roger Fitzgerald, District of

Bonavista South.

CHAIR: Perry Canning, District of Labrador

West.

Minister, it is all yours.

MR. TULK: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me first of all say, it is a pleasure to be

here and to introduce the officials. To my immediate left is John Scott, Deputy

Minister; the Assistant Deputy Minister of Field Operations is next to him,

William MacKenzie; this gentleman here with all the hair is Sam Kean, he is the

Assistant Deputy Minister of Regional Economic Development; the good looking

young fellow there is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Small Enterprise

Development, Bruce Saunders; and the fellow who tries to keep us all straight is

from down on the Southern Shore, Ken Curtis, Budget Officer with the Central

Administration Division. (Inaudible).

I think we just passed out - and I would like to

run through those, if I could, as an opening statement, and maybe give us a

kicking off point for questions and answers that you might want to put forward.

I do not know how those things run now. One time -

CHAIR: Minister, you can just go through your

statement. The only advice I would give you is that when your officials speak,

for the purpose of Hansard, that they identify themselves.

MR. TULK: Sure.

CHAIR: So the folks at Hansard will have an

easier time identifying who is speaking. Go ahead.

MR. TULK: First of all, I would like to cover

the mandate of the department. The Department of Development and Rural Renewal

was created in March of 1996 by the present Administration with a mandate to

foster economic growth and job creation throughout the Province, especially in

rural areas.

I might say, if I could, Mr. Chairman, just as a

aside here, that the Department of Development and Rural Renewal has somehow

come to be regarded by most people in the Province, in government, and I suspect

in the Legislature, as just the Department of Rural Renewal. In actual fact, it

is the Department of Development and Rural Renewal. I have forbidden anybody in

my department to say `D 2 R 2 ' any more because it is like a

pesticide; it does not say what the department is all about.

Our mandate is pursued through programs and

services delivered within two business lines:

a) promoting regional economic

development, focusing on the twenty economic zones that have been established;

and (

b) fostering the development of small and medium-sized business enterprises

throughout the Province. We deliver these business lines through Field

Operations, and that consists of five regional offices which hopefully provide

regional coordination and support to client services delivered by staff in each

of the twenty economic zones.

I might also say that, wherever possible, we are

co-locating with other government and community-based development agencies to

provide single-window business service delivery. I might say that some of you

have experienced some difficulty with that as people have moved from some rented

premises to some other rented premises because, as MHAs, you ultimately get the

question put in front of you: Well, why are they moving out of my situation, or

out of my building and into another building? In many case that is because we

would like to put, as much as we can, all of the services in one place.

The objective in our 1998-1999 budget process has

been to preserve and strengthen these core lines of business as a means of

stimulating new employment opportunities and economic growth, especially in

rural areas, in partnership with the twenty REDBs as well as the private sector.

Over $30 million is committed in this budget

towards government's economic growth agenda as expressed through the Department

of Development and Rural Renewal. In addition to our own budgetary resources, an

additional $10 million will be invested throughout the Province to support

strategic economic priorities through the federal government and SRDA, the

Strategic Regional Diversification Agreement.

The department fully achieved its targeted program

review savings in the 1997-1998 fiscal period, and will not have any staff

reductions or program cuts in 1998-1999. There are some fluctuations in our

budget this year over last year, and these are accounted for by an anticipated

drop in federal-provincial cost-shared agreements, and I note the expiry of the

Comprehensive Labrador Development Agreement and the SRDA Agreement, or the

Strategic Regional Diversification Agreement, as well as a drop in provincial

revenue - collections. That, of course, has to do with a drop in the overall

economic well-being of the past number of years, especially in the fishery.

There are a number of cases, to be frank with you, where in the last two or

three years the department has decided to take an equity position in companies

as opposed to increasing the loans. The amount invested is lower, in many cases,

and therefore the collections which bring in those revenues are down as well.

I would like, if I could, to take this opportunity

to briefly highlight for the Committee some of the more significant achievements

of the department since its establishment approximately two years ago.

The work of the Department of Development and Rural

Renewal, in partnership with the twenty Regional Economic Development Boards,

represents a fundamental shift in the way this Administration is tackling the

economic challenges confronting our Province. Previous efforts tended to be

centrally driven and were imposed by government itself. They did not always, as

all of us know, produce the desired results.

This government is interested in approaches that

will result in permanent long-term solutions to our problems, solutions that

also involve the active involvement of its citizens, not solutions that are

band-aid in nature.

I am pleased to tell you that, in this regard,

eighteen of the twenty Regional Economic Development Boards have now submitted

their strategic economic plans to the federal and provincial governments. The

Cabinet Committee on Rural Revitalization has met with seventeen of them in

their own zones to review the plans and jointly identify the five top priority

initiatives to advance the economic agenda in each region. That does not mean we

will not look at other parts of strategic economic plans, but we ask those

people so as to provide a focus. We asked if they would give us their top five

priority initiatives, and I am pleased to say that eighteen of them have done

that.

We have also partnered with the federal government

to support tangible economic opportunities throughout the Province over the past

two years by investing $22.4 million in eighty-seven community economic

development initiatives through the Canada-Newfoundland Strategic Regional

Diversification Agreement, otherwise known as SRDA.

We have invested $34.4 million in 112 economic

initiatives under the Transitional Jobs Fund, TJF, which levered an additional

$103.7 million from other sources and will create over 2,800 new jobs. An

additional $3.8 million has been approved for the coming year under the

Canada-Newfoundland Comprehensive Labrador Agreement for thirty-three economic

initiatives, which will lever another $5.3 million from other sources.

Our Strategic Enterprise Development Fund has

supported 341 projects at a cost of $14 million, which has levered an additional

$45 million from other sources to create and maintain over 2,000 jobs.

Government has committed $100 million under the

federal-provincial Economic Renewal Agreement, a large portion of which will

directly benefit rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Twenty million is being

directed toward new aquacultural opportunities and $22 million to expand and

diversify the tourism industry.

A new Canada-Newfoundland Comprehensive Economic

Development Agreement will bring $50 million in new economic development money

into the Province over the next five years.

The federal-provincial Labour Market Development

Agreement will bring $386 million in support of active employment programs into

the Province over the next three years, and will be invested in keeping with the

recent economic development priorities established in the economic zones. We are

presently negotiating an extension to this agreement for an additional two

years.

Through initiatives such as the Newfoundland and

Labrador Film Development Corporation, and the trade initiative with St. Pierre

and Miquelon, we are aggressively pursuing new economic and employment

opportunities in new emerging sectors of our economy. We will introduce a

Telefilm Tax Credit Program this year to further stimulate the film and video

industry in this Province. I might say to you that further along I hope we can

get into a discussion of this industry, because it seems to me there is a great

deal of potential there.

We are leading research and strategic business

development initiatives, in partnership with industry associations and

entrepreneurs, community organizations and other government departments and

agencies, in small-scale manufacturing, dimension stone... I might drop a note

here and say that in the dimension stone industry we have now engaged a

consultant. We asked for proposals some four months ago and we now have a

consultant, the name of which I do not know. There is a consultant engaged in

putting together a strategy for us, a development strategy for the dimension

stone industry in this Province. My initial understanding is that there is a

great deal of potential in terms of employment, and employment maybe for some of

the kinds of skills that our people have in this Province. From what I hear, it

is basically on a small-scale quarry with numerous quarries, and in that way

creating quite a few jobs.

The peat industry, agrifoods secondary processing -

there is a great potential there - commercial craft development and

entrepreneurship development, which will contribute to business development this

year.

In

summary, I feel we have made significant

progress in advancing small business and regional economical development

initiatives, as well as creating the infrastructure and environment for

sustained economic growth.

The economic indicators reveal that our efforts are

starting to yield real dividends. April represented the ninth consecutive month

of year-over-year employment gains in Newfoundland and Labrador. The number of

people employed has increased 5.3 per cent over the past twelve months. Nine

thousand three hundred new jobs have been created across all sectors of the

economy. This represents the strongest growth in employment we have see in the

nineties thus far. Alberta was the only Province to report stronger

year-over-year employment gains in April on a percentage basis than Newfoundland

and Labrador. This increased employment accounted for a two point decline in the

unemployment rate in the first four months of 1998. It is significant to point

out as well that these employment gains are not confined to one region of the

Province but are evident across the Province.

We, of course - you would be blind not to say

otherwise - continue to face significant challenges, particularly in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador; however, it is clear that we have turned the corner.

The building blocks are now solidly in place. With continued progress based on

our economic development efforts in large-scale resource industries, small

enterprise development and regional development, we are well positioned to

maximize our opportunities. We are moving aggressively to advance the economic

growth agenda, and we look forward to the continued achievements in the year

ahead.

Thank you.

CHAIR: Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Fitzgerald, would you like to begin with an

opening comment and a line of questions?

MR. FITZGERALD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister, I listened as you read out your statement

there and this figure of 9,300 jobs, I think, was echoed by the Premier here in

the House some time ago as well. Are you talking about 9,300 new jobs or are you

talking about 9,300 jobs this time of the year over this time last year? Are you

talking about jobs created due to those make-work projects that the Minister of

Municipal and Provincial Affairs put forward, ordinary seasonal jobs that would

kick in at this time when people would go back to work?

I do not mean to be negative, but I cannot see

where we have created 9,300 jobs. Just prior to that you talked about 2,800 and

another 2,000 jobs, and on page 4 you talked about 4,800 jobs there in two

paragraphs: 2,800 jobs, and another 2,000 jobs just a little bit further down in

the next paragraph. Are those accurate figures or are they seasonal jobs that

would ordinarily kick in at this time, rather than new jobs?

MR. TULK: I think if you look at the figures,

and I can supply you... Actually, you can get them yourself out of - I think it

is the Cabinet Secretariat that delivers them to us.

WITNESS: Statistics Canada.

MR. TULK: Statistics Canada. If you look at the

year-over-year growth... I never compare, to be frank with you, one month as

compared to last month. This morning, for example, I went through - I think it

was the April figures that came across my desk this morning. I have them here in

this booklet, I guess. The truth of the matter is that if you look over April,

1998: In Newfoundland, the number of people employed in April, 1998, was 186 or

185.3 thousand. If you go to April, 1997 - so it is over twelve months. If the

jobs kicked in this April, they should have kicked in last April if they were

not new jobs.

You see, there is a difference. I am going to say

185,000 because the figures are blurred here - 185.3 thousand - this year in

April there were 185.3 thousand. Last year - in April, 1997 - there were 176,000

jobs. That indicates, depending on whether there were 185,000 or 186,000 - well,

say 185,000; the figures I just used - that indicates 9.3 or 9,300 more jobs

this April than last April. There must have been a significant improvement in

economic growth and employment this April as compared to last April. So if they

kicked in this April.

MR. FITZGERALD: Then they should not be showing

up as new jobs this April.

MR. TULK: No, no, that is what I am saying.

They are showing up as new jobs this April because there are that many more

people employed this April. There were 176,000 jobs last year; there are 185.3

thousand this year. That indicates there are 9,300 more people working this

April than last April.

MR. FITZGERALD: Still, our unemployment rate

reflects where we have only gone down approximately a percentage of 1 per cent.

MR. TULK: No. If you look at the change in our

employment rate for Newfoundland as a whole, April 1997 to April 1998, you will

see that we are down minus 1.9 per cent, almost 2 per cent. Those are Statistics

Canada figures; they are not mine. The change from March to April of this year

was 0.3, so there is a significant change in the overall employment rate from

last April to this April. It is down almost two percentage points.

Now I am not going around bragging about that, to

be frank with you, but the point is that it is a significant improvement. The

only thing I can say to you is, that significant improvement has gone on for the

past nine months and I would hope that it continues that way.

When you say, alright, if you look at the figures

we have passed out to you here on the -

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: Pardon me?

WITNESS: There are 160 new jobs (inaudible).

MR. TULK: Yes, we did that rather quickly last

August and September, to be frank with you, under TJF.

If the GDP goes up for this year we are predicted

to lead all of Canada this year in terms of GDP; there can be no doubt about

that. If you want to come back to the figures that I gave you on page 4, the

truth of the matter is that some of those figures are over the life of those

agreements. When you put those in, we are talking about what we have created, I

think, as a result since the agreements were signed. Those are not yearly

figures. Those are a result of those programs, what has been created. The point

I want to make to you is that the 9,300 more jobs in the economy this April than

last April are not necessarily going to match, because that is a longer period

of time under the agreements.

MR. FITZGERALD: I am kind of confused here

because I am wondering what figures they are using. I am wondering if they are

looking at the Hibernia platform and saying there are x number of new jobs

created there, but not taking into account that five times as many jobs

disappeared when the Hibernia platform was completed. It is the same thing -

MR. TULK: There is another labour force sheet

which will indicate to you just where the jobs are in the economy each year.

Again, that one is available from Statistics Canada (inaudible). Let me just say

to you that the greatest increase, if I recall correctly, was in the

manufacturing sector. Some of that obviously is tied to Hibernia and some more

of it is tied to other aspects of the economy, but the greatest overall increase

- I think I am correct when I say this - in terms of jobs in the Province, and

in terms of GDP in the Province, was in the manufacturing sector.

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: They break down the Island of

Newfoundland into four areas: the Avalon Peninsula, the Burin Peninsula and the

South Coast, the West Coast and the Northern Peninsula, Labrador, Central

Newfoundland and the Northeast Coast.

If you look at the Avalon Peninsula, you will see

that the rate for the Avalon Peninsula went down from 17.7 to 16.3 in terms of -

MR. FITZGERALD: The unemployment rate.

MR. TULK: Unemployment.

If you look at the Burin Peninsula and the South

Coast - and this is in large part attributable to Marystown - it went down from

27.5 in April 1997, down to 15.9, so there has been a substantial decrease. In

actual fact, everywhere in the Province there has been a decrease with the

exception of the West Coast, the Northern Peninsula and Labrador, and there has

been an increase of 2 per cent there. In Central Newfoundland -

MR. FITZGERALD: An increase of 2 per cent

unemployment or employment?

MR. TULK: Unemployment, in one part of the

Province. If you look at Central Newfoundland and the Northeast Coast, the

change has been 0.9 per cent to the good. In other words, it has gone down from

25.6 to 22.7.

MR. FITZGERALD: I find that hard to relate to

because I know what is happening in my district and pretty well mostly along the

Northeast Coast. I tell you, the number of calls that I get from people looking

for work certainly has not decreased. The one thing positive that has happened

there, and I am sure those figures reflect it, is the seal processing plant that

has opened up in the Catalina area. Other than that in my district, and I know

the Terra Nova district as well, and the bordering districts, they have not seen

any big increase in employment growth.

MR. TULK: Let me say to you that, as the

Minister responsible for development and I guess in some sense for what happens

with employment in the Province, I note that there are two areas in this

Province - when I have been looking at the TAGS program - that have, I think,

greater problems in terms of employment than any other parts of the Province. I

refer to Trepassey, the Southern Shore area, and the Bonavista Peninsula in

particular. I think you can attribute that to the fact that those two areas -

Catalina, Port Union, whichever one the plant was in - and Trepassey, were

largely dependent on the offshore fishery. Was the plant in Port Union or

Catalina? The two of them are there right together.

MR. FITZGERALD: Port Union.

MR. TULK: The plant there was put together by

some company - I think it was Fishery Products International - purely as a

deep-sea plant. In actual fact, I suppose, if you had to lay the blame on

somebody for fishing the Hamilton Banks, you would probably say it was the

people who fished out of Port Union and Catalina, although I am not into that; I

like to blame it on somebody else instead.

If you look at Trepassey, the plant in Trepassey

which employed a large number of people, and the community in this Province that

I guess has suffered more as a result of the decline in the offshore cod stocks

and the groundfish stocks in general, it is Trepassey. You keep hearing about

Trepassey being cut down, I think it is from 1,300 people down to about 800

people. So I have no doubt that in your district, to be frank with you, you

would probably get far more calls than I would; because let me just say to you

that in Bonavista North, which stretches from Trinity to Gander Bay, if you look

at the Lumsden to Trinity area, employment is not that bad. If you look at the

northern part of the district it is terrible, and that is primarily due to the

fact that there is a fish plant in Valleyfield that employs some 1,200 people

and was founded on the inshore as opposed to the offshore.

What happened in Trepassey, when you tear down a

plant and send it out, Trepassey has just destroyed any capacity it had for

harvesting anyway. We would hope that in your area, with the investment by

Fishery Products International in the shrimp industry, and with the investment

by Barry's in the sealing industry, that there would be some regained

employment, but certainly not to the extent that it was and certainly not

stretching twelve months of the year. Well, it was close to twelve months when

the offshore fishery - you worked there - was in full swing.

I think the next hardest area hit is the Northern

Peninsula, and I would hope that with the opening of the shrimp plant in St.

Anthony, when that comes to fruition, there will be some 400 or 500 jobs created

there - at least provide the means to do that. I think you would experience

substantially more calls in that regard from people looking for work than I

would. My fish plant is now in operation.

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes.

Minister, you talked about the twenty economic

zones that make up the Province and Labrador. I don't know what you are hearing

about those things, but I have attended a couple of meetings in my area and it

seems to me that people still need to be convinced. They have seen the rural

development associations, and then they saw another new catchy name called

`Community Futures', and they saw very little employment happen. They saw

somebody put in place who was given a pot of money to look after a fax machine

and a telephone, and for the most part went out and looked to volunteers to

provide the expertise, to provide economic activity. It seems like they are

looking at the economic zones as not much different.

The two meetings I have attended, like I said,

people still need to be convinced that this is going to work and it is going to

function differently than the other two groups that were put in place prior to

now. I don't know how much money was put forward, or how those development

associations or economic zones are going to be able to function if we are going

to allow them to operate in the same way as the two former groups. I fail to see

how they are going to be successful. For the most

part it is the same people,

the same names, the same faces, that have been involved down through the years.

I suppose my question to you is: If those groups

identify some potential in the area for economic activity, will your department

supply the expertise and the money that is going to be needed to do the

marketing and to do what needs to be done in order to pursue that particular

venture to get it up and running?

MR. TULK: Let me just address the first part of

your question first, the mistrust and suspicion that you point to, that you

believe exists out there on behalf of the population in regards to a lot of

those REDBs, and which you say you somehow mirror yourself. I know there has

been a great deal of upheaval in regard to the rural development boards in the

Province, the rural development associations as they were called. There was also

a feeling among them some five or six years ago that they were the

administrators of make-work programs and that is where it ended. I think now you

have a situation where there are still some people in the Province who believe

that the old rural development associations should still exist.

In regard to the administration - and I guess some

of them would eat me alive if they heard me say this so you might want to report

it to them, Roger - I do not think there is a scarcity of money in regards to

administration that is going to put them under.

What we have basically done is to say to them:

Alright, you put forward your strategic economic plans and we will then sign a

performance contract with you and we will negotiate a budget with you, which I

think we have done with eighteen - seventeen or eighteen?

WITNESS: Eighteen.

MR. TULK: Eighteen. We have negotiated a budget

with eighteen of them. Under CEDA, under the new program that we just signed

with the federal government, there has been five-year funding provided for them,

to the tune of how much a year, Sam?

MR. KEAN: (Inaudible) $4.5 million.

MR. TULK: That is $4.5 million a year?

MR. KEAN: Roughly about that.

MR. TULK: Roughly about $4.5 million a year for

those twenty Regional Economic Development Boards to operate.

We have gone out, as I have said to you, sat down

and had discussions with them on the five top economic priorities they want us

to develop. The Cabinet Committee on Rural Revitalization has had one meeting to

date to go over those ninety, instead of 100 - we aimed for 100 and we got

ninety initiatives. We have had one meeting to start and we have now

`sectorialized' those to put them into various categories, and are going back to

those people and saying: Alright, here is how we think we can help you find the

funding.

Let me just say this to you: While this may seem

untrue to some people, if you look at the amount of funds that are available,

that we have listed off here that are available under the various programs, it

seems to me that there is a little money at least to help those people get their

projects off the ground.

I would be a fool if I sat here and said that the

REDBs are going to solve all of the economic problems in Newfoundland and

Labrador. It is not going to happen. Let me say to you that in the case of your

own, in the case of the Discovery Board which is yours, I believe - it covers

your district and I think part of the Member for Bellevue's district - you have

a very good advocacy group who are very focused, who know where they want to go,

who know what they want encouraged to be done, and I believe they will have

great progress. I would hope, to be frank with you, after the discussions we

have had with them, that in this particular case they become very good

facilitators of Information Technology in this Province. I believe they will. I

can tell you now that they are advocating to turn your vocational school into a

certain type of vocational school, into a certain type of excellence.

It is not going to happen overnight. Anybody who

sits at a table and tells you there are miracles about to happen in terms of

rural Newfoundland is a fool. That is not the case. I say that to you in all

seriousness and in all truthfulness, because if you look at what is happening in

Canada and North America generally, there is a movement away from rural Canada.

There is a movement away from rural North America. There is a movement towards

urban North America. I am not saying that I encourage it; I am not going to.

In Newfoundland, I think it has been exasperated by

the fact that we have seen the shutdown of the fishery. Let me say one other

thing to you. You went through this; you must have. You are not as old as I am,

maybe, but - I grew up in Ladle Cove.

MR. FITZGERALD: Not even close.

MR. TULK: No, okay. You just look older than

you are.

I grew up in Ladle Cove where there were some 200

people. The truth of the manner is, I was encouraged by everybody - and

everybody else in the community as well - to get an education, to get a good

job. My mother used to say to me night after night: Learn your books so you can

get a good job.

A good job meant what? It did not mean: Beaton,

will you stay home and try to diversify the fishing industry or the lumber

industry? It meant, in my particular case, either teach or preach. That was not

much of a choice for me, but that was the kind of thing, to get a job in a

school somewhere. So our education system has been geared in the past, and I

would hope we are getting away from that.

I remember saying to some of my students in

Carmanville, when I was principal and I used to take them back and forth to

school to play volleyball, I had a young fellow who was very good at volleyball,

and who is a very good friend of mine now, who said to me, "I want to drop out

of school." I said, "Why are you going to drop out of school?" He said, "I want

to go fishing." I said, "Can't you finish school and then go fishing?" He said,

"You are not supposed to do that."

The point I want to make is that I think our

education system, the years that I grew up in, and I think the years that my

family grew up in, to be frank with you - I have two daughters in Ontario. One

is a Clinical Pharmacist and the other an Electrical Engineer. I tell you, she

is not going to live in Ladle Cove. Neither one of those is going to live in

Ladle Cove.

As a result of that kind of movement, and as a

result of what has happened in the fishing industry with the shutdown of the

groundfish industry, with the destruction of the North Atlantic ecosystem, as I

keep saying, it has been exasperated; the problem has become particularly acute.

Ladle Cove is not going to survive unless something happens to it drastically

within the next two or three years, because there are only three families there

now under the age of forty.

MR. FITZGERALD: Like a lot of other

communities, Minister, but we grew up, I think, in an environment where it was

not bred into us to go out and create any economic opportunities yourself.

MR. TULK: Absolutely.

MR. FITZGERALD: You probably grew up in an

environment like I did, where you were expected to grow up and go out to work

for somebody else. That has not changed, I do not think, a whole lot in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador.

MR. TULK: If I could just carry that a little

further, let me say to you that one the programs we have in the department - and

I think there is something on the go somewhere tomorrow or the next day about it

- is called GMO, Getting the Message Out. It is a program whereby we use

students, I think primarily university students, to go around this Province to

discuss with the high school students and other people how they can perhaps stay

in the communities they are in and, as you say, create some work as opposed to

what I was told, to get a good job.

I might say that is one of the best government

programs I have seen in a long, long time. I do not say this because I created

it, because it was there when I got there. It is one of the better programs and

we are looking forward to expanding that with the hope that we teach our people

- because, you see, the one thing that we have now that we did not have fifteen

or twenty years ago is the information highway.

You can carry on research as well now in Fogo or

Ladle Cove or Bonavista. If you want to talk about marine research, you can

carry that on now as well in either one of those three places I just mentioned

as you can at Nagles Hill or Memorial University. We have to get to that place

where we look outward as opposed to inward. We have to push the kind of

lifestyles that is in rural Newfoundland, because many of our educated young

people believe they have to move into a city.

MR. FITZGERALD: Sometimes I think we should

look at ourselves and look at our own government to provide some of those

initiatives, Minister. I think of many things that can happen in rural

Newfoundland concerning government that we seem to be reluctant to make the

move.

Maybe we could talk about the Motor Registration

Division that made the giant move from St. John's to Mount Pearl. The Motor

Registration Division can operate just as well out of Bonavista as it can out of

Mount Pearl, but if government themselves are not willing to have the initiative

to make that commitment and show that they believe in rural Newfoundland, then

sometimes other people, private enterprise, are reluctant as well. Maybe we

should start looking at some of those things because you do not need today, as

you said, and I am only repeating your comments, to drive to a business, or to

be there and do your business over the counter. That do not need to happen any

more. Maybe those are some of the things we can look at that might mean the

survival of a town or a whole area.

MR. TULK: Let me say that the discussion has

not been intense at this point in government along the lines that you are

suggesting. It has not been as intense as I suspect it is going to be in the

next few months about where services are located and where they can be located.

That will cause some problems in the sense that, if you remember, I remember

that some time ago I believe the former Leader of the Opposition, Ms Verge -

maybe it was during the tenure of Len Simms, when he was in Treasury Board, but

it was certainly under a Progressive Conservative government - decided to move

the forestry centre. I think they got some encouragement from the federal member

of the day, who happens to be sitting in this chair now during regular hours -

not now, but during regular hours - to move the forestry department, or a large

part of the forestry department, to Corner Brook, where, I suppose, you could

say either Corner Brook or Grand Falls was then the centre of the universe when

it comes to forestry operations in the Province.

The pressure that came about, as I recall, sitting

on the Opposition side of the House at that point in time, came from the

employees of the Department of Forestry who obviously did not want to have to

pick up and move house and family to Corner Brook. It came about not to the

extent I think most people would have liked it to come about, but it did come

about to some extent, with the result that you now have... I remember when I was

the Minister of Forestry; I think I had eight employees in St. John's in

forestry. The rest of them were in Corner Brook.

MR. FITZGERALD: Where they should be.

MR. TULK: There is no doubt that you can move

some of those things today, and particularly today, from being centrally located

to be decentralized. Just take your time now, John, you are not going to live

(inaudible).

MR. FITZGERALD: (Inaudible) provide the same

level of service.

MR. TULK: One of the things we have to start

using - the Minister of Finance used it very, very well this spring - we should

increase, and I think you will see an increase by governments in the use of that

technology, and that is the use of Information Technology, the use of the

information highway, to consult, to send messages, to have meetings and so on.

Like I said, I think the Minister of Finance used it very well this year.

Everything I heard from people who participated in those budgetary discussions,

consultations, with Paul Dicks this year was very complimentary, and I have no

doubt you will see an increase in that kind of thing over the next few years. I

would hope, to be frank with you, that you see a movement, on a reasonable

basis, to other parts of this Province of some government services. I think that

is going to be a policy of government.

MR. FITZGERALD: There is no reason why it

cannot work.

Minister, moving on, page 93, Client Support

Services, 2.1.01, Business and Economic Development Services, Transportation and

Communications.

MR. TULK: 2.1.01?

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes, 2.1.01.03, Transportation

and Communications. You budgeted for $391,900 and the revision went to $472,000.

What is the difference of the $80,000-plus there? Why?

MR. TULK: Well, to be frank with you, I think

there was a serious under-budgeting. I think we previously under-budgeted for

the Labrador regional office, and as a result of the costs - and they are

tremendous, as the Member for Torngat can tell you; they are tremendous in

Labrador when it comes to travel - for the Labrador regional office people there

was a serious under-budgeting that took place in 1997-1998 and that is the

larger part, by far, of that increase.

MR. FITZGERALD: Grants and Subsidies, the same

heading, under 10, $135,000 in the budget, $135,000 under the revision, and this

year reduced by $100,000. What is being done away with there?

MR. TULK: Some years ago, under

federal-provincial agreements, there were two incubator malls built, one in Port

aux Basques and one in Pasadena. We have now taken the step - because we do not

believe they ever paid off under, shall we say, government administration - we

have now passed over the Pasadena one to the Town of Pasadena. The Port aux

Basques one is in the process of being passed over either to the Town of Port

aux Basques or a group which I do not want to name at this point because it

would be unfair to them because they have not yet accepted the offer.

We had to support those. Those are operating on

support that we had to put in place for those incubator malls, as well as an

operating grant to the Combined Councils of Labrador. That is the $35,000 you

see remaining, the operating grant that is given to the Combined Councils of

Labrador.

MR. FITZGERALD: Information Technology is the

same heading, 2.1.02. There was $40,500 budgeted, a revision of $12,000 to

$12,500.

MR. TULK: Where is that?

MR. FITZGERALD: 2.1.02.

MR. TULK: 2.1.02. What is the item?

MR. FITZGERALD: Item number 12.

MR. TULK: Item number 12. There was $40,500

budgeted and $12,500 spent. John, can you answer that?

MR. SCOTT: The primary explanation for that is

that the Industrial Outreach Program is a National Research Council administered

program and we deliver it through our offices. Last year there was a major

investment in new Information Technology above normal rates. It was less than

what was budgeted by the federal government through this cost-shared agreement.

That investment is now concluded, and the Information Technology support you see

for 1998-1999 is normal maintenance activity. There is a little bit of a bubble

over the last year, albeit less than what was originally budgeted.

MR. TULK: Mr. Fitzgerald, if you go up to

2.1.01.12, Information Technology, again you will see that we had an increase

there of some $97 million; $97,000, I am sorry.

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes, $97,000.

MR. TULK: That comes about as a result of the

fact that we purchased new computers for the zonal offices and we replaced the

computers for our regional offices. That is back down to $147,200 this year,

which is substantially lower.

MR. FITZGERALD: There has been a large amount

of money spent in every budget on Information Technology. Somebody must have

done well with selling computers, computer software, and everything else this

past year in government. There is a tremendous amount of money from each

department under Information Technology. One time it was all hidden under

Transportation and Communications. Now it seems there is another heading where

it is a good place to put (inaudible).

MR. TULK: A more open government.

MR. FITZGERALD: Under 3.1.01.10, Grants and

Subsidies, $121,500 was budgeted and it was reduced to $65,000. This year it is

up to the same as was budgeted last year. What grants were done away with last

year, grants or subsidies that were not provided? Almost half of it, or more

than half (inaudible).

MR. TULK: Let me just say that is block funding

so that the Province can participate as a full partner with the federal

government on IAS or IAC Committees - IAS Committees, I think they are called,

or Industrial Adjustment Services - and it covers approximately 10 per cent of

the cost of the committees. The level of activity - of course, the level of the

10 per cent therefore varies from year to year. While you budget $121,500, it

may not all be spent; but, depending on the level of activity, it could be

spent. It is one of those things that goes up or down; it may or may not,

depending on the necessity for industrial adjustment that goes on.

MR. FITZGERALD: Under 3.1.02.01, Minister,

there was $611,000 budgeted in 1997-1998 and $460,000 spent on salaries. How

many people were laid off there? How many people lost their job?

MR. TULK: How many people what?

MR. FITZGERALD: Or was it a program? Was that a

program that has been done away with, or was it people laid off?

MR. TULK: Well, I can tell you what they are.

If you take the whole head, the Strategic Regional Diversification Agreement,

SRDA, as I said to you earlier in my statement, this agreement is winding down

and is being replaced by the CEDA, Canada-Newfoundland Comprehensive Economic

Development Agreement, and 1998 is the final year to enter into commitments

under this agreement. All expenditures must be concluded by March 31, 2001.

Reduced expenditures here, by the way, result from a number of the REDBs not

being established, and the operation as originally scheduled.

I guess what I am saying to you is that they were

slower - as is usually the case with governments anyway - being established than

was originally the case. The amount is down, but I can tell you that I think you

will see that picked up under the CEDA Agreement next year because those things

are now off the ground and operating well.

That really does not have to do with salaries - I

do not think, John - within the government department itself, direct salaries

within the government. It would be indirect salaries that would come about as a

result of agreements with the REDBs.

MR. FITZGERALD: That would probably be the same

explanation for the headings all the way down, because there is a vast

difference in each heading.

MR. TULK: The same explanation applies right

through.

MR. FITZGERALD: Minister, what would have

happened there to the federal revenue, where there is $4,900,000 budgeted? I

would assume that was money that you thought would be available federally, and

you actually received $3,214,100.

MR. TULK: I believe if you take what was

budgeted for 1997-1998 federal revenues - no, that is wrong. I was going to say

that if you combine that with the estimates for 1998-1999 I think it would come

up with to the $4.9 million but that is not the case. John, do you have an

explanation for that?

MR. SCOTT: No, essentially, the federal

revenues will flow directly in proportion to the gross amount of expenditure.

MR. TULK: That we spend.

MR. SCOTT: That we spend. So if you saw the

budget in 1997-1998, it was budgeted $7 million -

MR. TULK: That is right.

MR. SCOTT: - and $4.9 million of revenue.

MR. TULK: They pay 70 per cent of it, Roger.

MR. SCOTT: Seventy per cent. The actual

expenditure was $4.6 million rounded in 1997-1998; therefore, federal revenues

are down because of 70/30 cost-sharing.

MR. FITZGERALD: They would give you 70 per cent

of what you spent?

MR. SCOTT: Correct.

MR. FITZGERALD: Seventy-thirty.

MR. TULK: That will obviously carry over.

MR. FITZGERALD: Let us move on to the following

page, 3.1.06, Economic Renewal Agreement - Planning. Here again, under Revenue -

Federal, $560,000 was budgeted and we actually received $382,500.

MR. TULK: Well, I think if you look at both

expenditures and revenues you will find they are down for two reasons. I think a

number of the projects that were originally designed to go under the ERA where

undertaken directly by ACOA. There was also a delay in completing a number of

those projects; therefore, the change in the payout would be different. The only

difference is that the amount of revenue that you get from the federal

government here is 80 per cent of your expenditure as opposed to 70 per cent

under the SRDA, and the Province pays the 20 per cent. I believe that works out

to be - yes, 80 per cent of $700,000 would be $560,000. In actual fact, the

revised figure is $508,300 and 80 per cent of that would be $382,000.

You get that variance, and you will get it year

after year. The truth is that your expenditures never occur as you time-line

them during the initial part of the year what you expect, because you usually

carry over. It is the same explanation there as applied to the SRDA, isn't it? I

think I am right.

WITNESS: Yes.

MR. FITZGERALD: Is this amount of money

available to you? Is this an amount of money that the federal government makes

available for this particular agreement, that we do not spend that amount of

money?

MR. TULK: No, we will spend that amount of

money. As a matter of fact, we might very well take some of the projects -

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: I think what you get here is $2

million over five years that you can spend. We might very well, to save some of

our agreement money, to be frank with you, to perhaps lever some more cash here,

we could very well take some of the money that we had initially intended to

spend during the year and use it to lever ACOA funding or indeed to lever TJF

funding.

MR. FITZGERALD: What you are saying is that it

is not limited only to that particular agreement.

MR. TULK: No, you can sometimes use money from

one agreement to lever funding from another one. Take, for example, the TJF

funding which is basically a grant that gives to the proponent of a project up

to $20,000 per job created. That is in the form of a grant. John, you are going

to have to stop me if I am wrong, but obviously some person might decide to take

that $20,000 per job - which, if you have twenty jobs it could be $400,000 - and

use it more or less as their equity investments and lever some more money out of

ACOA. All of those things you use, if a project is sound.

I have said to my people, and I guess the people

before me have said but certainly it is a policy of ours, that if we do due

diligence on a program and we believe it to be sound, we will use the funding

mechanisms that we have to our best advantage to get that project off the

ground. Do I make myself muddily clear?

MR. FITZGERALD: Maybe I am not clear on it

because every time I see this money there I say: Ghee, this is money that we

have had access to and did not use.

MR. TULK: Oh, we use it.

MR. FITZGERALD: That is what is going through

my mind, and I turn over to 3.1.07 and see another -

MR. TULK: Let me just say to you that at the

end of the program - every program, as far as I know, that has ever come into

existence in this Province - the money was spent, or committed to programs.

Right now under the SRDA I think most of our funds, if we carried through on

them - not most of our funds, all of our funds, with the exception of about

$600,000 under that agreement - are committed. Now, you are not going to rush

the project. If the project needs some refining you are not going to rush the

project and endanger it in failing if you have to carry it forward from one year

to the next. Let me say to you that everything under the SRDA, everything under

the Economic Renewal Agreement, is committed.

MR. FITZGERALD: So this money does not

disappear after this budget year?

MR. TULK: No, no, you get it. It is just that

you do not pay out and you do not receive payment until it is done. We might

commit, for example, to the Cabot Corporation down in Bonavista South if they

put forward a proposal, which I think they did. We might commit to them a

certain amount of funds that might not be in this year's budget or might not get

spent in this year's budget but it is committed and you know where it is going.

I can assure you, if somebody could find some more for me I would love to have

it because I love spending it, especially if it is for the right stuff.

MR. FITZGERALD: So the federal budget must work

a lot differently than our own provincial budget works.

MR. TULK: Indeed it does.

MR. FITZGERALD: Because if we make commitments,

if we commit funding, and it is not spent in that fiscal year it automatically

disappears.

MR. TULK: Yes and no.

MR. FITZGERALD: It has to be shown again in the

following budget or it is not there.

MR. TULK: It could be carried forward.

MR. FITZGERALD: But it has to be shown again.

MR. TULK: Yes.

MR. FITZGERALD: The total amount.

MR. TULK: Yes, and I can tell you that the

federal government has this thing that they call booking whereby they book funds

for maybe three years down the road and it shows up in their outfit. I guess it

is somewhat akin to our contingency fund; somewhat akin to it but not exactly.

They book off funds for things they know are going to happen down the road and

they say, well, we want to book the funds in this year's budget. That booking

then becomes a budgetary item for them.

WITNESS: Roads for Rail Agreement.

MR. TULK: Roads for Rail Agreement is a prime

example, yes. The funds are booked but not necessarily shown.

MR. FITZGERALD: I will pass for now and let

somebody else ask some questions.

CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Fitzgerald.

Ms Thistle.

MS THISTLE: I think tonight I will pass, too.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIR: Thank you.

Mr. Barrett.

MR. BARRETT: I will just make one comment. A

lot of the jobs that is the minister is talking about were created in my

district but I will pass on any questions.

CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

Mr. Wiseman.

MR. WISEMAN: I am interested, Mr. Minister, in

the 1996 Statistics Canada Report. You started off with - the hon. Member for

Bonavista South had some concerns with the 9,300 jobs. You have the stats in

front of you; can you tell us what the job difference was, beginning in 1996?

MR. TULK: No, I cannot say that I have those

stats in front of me. I have received them for the past year, but for 1996 -

MR. WISEMAN: They should be there.

MR. TULK: Oh, I have them all. I keep a file. I

kept a file even when I was in Opposition - no, when I was in the back bench in

1993 onward. I used to get them then and keep them, but I do not have them in

front of me. Let me just say this to you: There has been, particularly in the

last year, an upswing in economic activity that is no doubt tied to Hibernia, is

no doubt tied to the oil industry; but also, if you look at the consumer

confidence (inaudible) that you see around, there has been a fairly big

increase, I say to the Member for Topsail and other members of the Committee, in

spite of all the doom and gloom that we experience from day to day; and there

are pockets of it, particularly among people who are the TAGS recipients. The

tremendous upheaval that those people have experienced is significant, and there

is not much optimism in the life those people are living.

I have detected, to be frank with you, I think it

is fair to say, that among other groups in society that are not engaged in

occupations that are more of a semi-skilled or unskilled level, there has been a

growth of optimism in the manufacturing sector. There has been a growth of

optimism and the stats to show it month over month, and I follow them every

month. Month over month in the past two years there is an optimism in consumer

confidence in every year with the exception of one. I am at a loss to explain

why this is, because it has always been a notion of economics and people who

know anything about economic growth in a country, that as housing starts go, so

goes the economy.

I think there is a very good reason for that,

because we have had a large out-migration. In particular, as you go across

Atlantic Canada the housing starts are down. Yet, in this Province, all of the

other economic indicators, the manufacturing indicators, the iron ore shipments,

the paper shipments, the sale of cars and so on, just about every one of them is

up, with the exception of the housing starts.

WITNESS: Retail sales is up (inaudible).

MR. TULK: Retail sales is up. That, I suppose,

has to do with the fact that shops are open on Sunday.

WITNESS: No, it has nothing to do with it.

MR. TULK: I am only kidding.

MR. WISEMAN: I might say, though, that all of

the business people I talk to - and I have quite a few people out there in the

St. John's area who I am acquainted with - I make it a point of asking them how

their business is doing, and all I get are positive responses; they are doing

absolutely -

MR. TULK: Absolutely.

MR. WISEMAN: Sometimes I wonder if we are

living in a bubble, in the sense that we do not know what is happening in the

real world.

MR. TULK: Let me just say to you that in

compiling our budgetary figures this year - and I do not think I am revealing

any Cabinet secrets here - and I am taking a look at the budget as a whole, in

this department, in any case, I think we have taken conservative figures -

WITNESS: Liberal.

MR. TULK: I mean conservative in the small `c'

sense. We have taken a conservative figure in what we believe will be the GDP

growth for the coming year.

We had figures last February that came from some of

the banks. I believe one figure indicated 11.9 per cent growth rate or

something, that this Province was going to experience this year. I think the

budgetary figure we are using is something like 4.6, in that order.

In certain industries in the Province, in certain

sectors of the Province, there is an optimism. I think, to be frank with you, if

we can get a post-TAGS program of any stature at all, this year we will have

significant growth that will see a significant growth in employment figures. I

am hoping; it is only a hope. I do not read crystal balls, and in many cases

economics is crystal balls. The trend is there, it has been there for four or

five months, and you just keep all of your fingers and toes crossed that our

people are going to find that the employment figures are going to keep climbing

over the coming months.

Another industry that is going to add - well, it

may not add employment to the extent that the groundfish industry - another

industry that is going to add significantly to the GDP growth and the exploit

market of fish is going to be the shrimp industry, if it turns out the way we

think it will turn out. The Minister of Fisheries announced, was it 23,000 more

tons - something like that - of shrimp allocated this year for -

WITNESS: Double what it was last year.

MR. TULK: Yes, double what it was last year.

While, for example, that will see an increase in

the export market value of fish, the landed valued of our fish, it may not

create the number of jobs that you would get if you had that kind of export

value that we used to have in the groundfish industry.

One of the things it will do, basically, is

lengthen the season for some of our fishing crews which, God knows, we need. In

the good old days in the inshore fishery, basically what you had was glut and

poverty. You had six to eight weeks of top employment and then it tapered off

and there was nothing until the next year, or you got your unemployment

insurance.

What I think you are going to see with the shrimp

and crab industry combination - and you are going to see the people engaged in

one are going to be engaged in the other - is a lengthening of the season for

the fishing crews. You are probably going to see a lengthening of the season for

the processors, although I would hope that our processors use some good old

`Newfie' ingenuity here and maybe employ a few more people than they would if

they were in Ontario or something - or so they say up there; I do not believe

them, in the meantime.

What you will see is an extension of the season as

opposed to the numbers being employed in that industry. That promises to give us

- but it is more money in the economy; it is more money that will be spent.

Therefore, as a result of it, there should be an increase in consumer spending,

there should be an increase in purchases, new trucks, new pick-ups, and so on

and so forth. That essentially should help the rural economy, and we hope that

it will.

MR. WISEMAN: I had hoped, Minister, that your

answer would be shorter, but I guess you have so much to say that it is almost

impossible to shorten it up.

MR. TULK: I am from Bonavista North, remember.

MR. WISEMAN: I have no more questions.

CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Wiseman.

Mr. Fitzgerald.

MR. FITZGERALD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister, it irritates me a little bit, although I

do not blame the investors and I do not blame the towns because the more vibrant

those communities are in trying to attract industry and trying to attract

investors, I commend them for it.

When I see government coming out a few days ago and

announcing that this fellow, Mr. Lee, was looking at relocating to Newfoundland

with 1,000 new jobs, and you see a place like Clarenville with enough investors

to be able to put together a plan whereby they could come and put up a building

and give the investor ten years of free rent, or a ten-year rent-free facility,

I often wonder if we are going to fall into that kind of a scenario and allow

people to come here and give them EDGE status, and all of the other things that

we reward people with by relocating here in this Province, to move to a

particular area because that expertise or that money is there.

How do places like Port Union and Catalina and

Ladle Cove and Lumsden ever compete with that? Is it going to be a situation, if

we allow that to happen, where those places will die by the very fact of the

decisions that we make as a government?

MR. TULK: Let me address two points that I

think need to be addressed if I am going to answer your question. I remember

first when I got into this job last summer, sitting down in Cabinet and hearing

a person from Ireland... I do not know whether you are familiar with the Irish

model or not, but I would advise any member of the House and any member involved

in the development of this Province - and I am not always a fan of Dr. House at

Memorial University - to take a look at the

summary that he put in The

Evening Telegram of the Irish model.

I want to say to you, I forget the name of the

gentleman but I think he was the Chairman of the IDA. What is his name?

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: Kieran somebody. Is it McGowan? Mr.

Kieran McGowan, I believe his name was. When he started talking about how they

get jobs in Ireland, the Premier put the question to him: But you are buying

jobs. He looked back at him and said: Yes, but if I do not then somebody else

will.

I think what he was saying is that if you hope to

get jobs (inaudible) somewhere, you are going to have to compete with everybody

else. New Brunswick, in this country, has been famous for it. Sometimes you

succeed, and sometimes you do not succeed as well as you would like.

The other thing is, I think the development in this

Province, to be frank with you, is going to take place - and that is the reason

we have those boards - by region. Let me say to you that in the case of my own

district, and yours is a little bit different because you have a Bonavista

region and you have got a Clarenville region in your area, your peninsula - the

discovery zone is different. I guess it also has Arnold's Cove, so they have

three areas to contend with.

In my own case, for example, in zone 14, if I could

create, as the Minister of Development and Rural Renewal, some 300 or 400 jobs

in the Town of Gander, I would not be at all adverse to doing that. I think I

would be helping Ladle Cove; I think I would be helping Carmanville; I think I

would be helping Gander Bay; I believe I would be helping Dover, which happens

to be in the District of Terra Nova; I believe I would be helping Gambo; I

believe I would be helping Glovertown; and I would go so far as to venture to

say Eastport, down the Eastport Peninsula.

If you created those 300 or 400 jobs in Gander on a

regional basis, the people from Eastport or Ladle Cove or Carmanville would

drive to Gander to work, as they have done over the years. My father, and I

think your father, as a matter of fact, never spent very much time - I do not

think your father spent very much time - in Musgravetown, to be frank with you.

He spent a great deal of time, from what I hear, in the lumber woods. My father

did the same thing. Now we have the added convenience of having transportation

back and forth.

If we created 300 jobs in Gander, I think the

people of Carmanville, which is forty miles away, would drive to work in the

morning and go back and live the lifestyle that we want to keep in this

Province, that we hold dear in this Province. I think they would be very well

content to do that.

I am not overly concerned about the fact that you

create jobs in Clarenville, for example, for the people in Musgravetown. Do you

understand what I am saying?

MR. FITZGERALD: I am not saying it is going to

be a negative thing, but I am not so sure that I agree with the perception that

your former leader put forward, where he always talked about the five or six

economic centres across the Island.

MR. TULK: That is not my concept.

MR. FITZGERALD: I do not think that should be

allowed to happen.

MR. TULK: I think the regional development

approach is what you have to do.

By the way, let me say something else to you. Given

the information highway, and given the Information Technology, small- scale

manufacturing can occur almost anywhere. I think that is a concept that - I do

not know if it is a concept, but it is an idea that we have to get used to. For

example, Point Leamington; the guy in Point Leamington is making his gloves for

all of North America. He can make them as well in Point Leamington as he can

make them in Grand Falls or he could make them in Gander. The person in Indian

Bay, Indian Bay Frozen Foods, can make pie fillings and put together a product

as well in Indian Bay as he can in St. John's. Through the Internet, the world

markets are at their fingertips.

I think you are going to see, and we see in the

department some - not enough, but some - ideas flowing from people where that is

the case. I am not going to talk about any particular project that is on the

board because that would be unfair to the people who are putting it forward, but

I can tell you that there are a number of proposals coming forward to us from

people who are saying: Look, it is not because I live in Charleston that I

cannot manufacture some small part, a very specialized part, for a certain part

of the recreation industry in flying, in small planes, home-built planes and

that kind of stuff. It depends on where you have a number of things: the labour

force, not necessarily a cheap labour force. It depends on where you can get the

best breaks in your taxes.

As Kieran McGowan would say - I am not sure he

would say this, but that is exactly what he did say: It depends on how much you

are willing to pay for a job. How much are you willing to pay for a job? and

there is competition.

One of the things that the Irish do, for example,

is they have those independent organizations - not unlike the old ENL - that are

given a block of money that flows from the EU. It is not like our equalization

payments, where you can make a buck and then grab back eighty cents. A block of

money flows from the EU to Ireland, and that is farmed out to the IDA - the

Irish Development Authority - in this particular case, and they have complete

control of that money. As a matter of fact, governments have attempted to stop

some of the projects that they have recommended and they have been told where to

go by the IDA.

So I think we are going to see the establishment of

those kinds of semi-independent groups that are going to say: Alright, you can

do something here as well as you can anywhere else. It is going to depend on:

Can you access the market? You can access the market as well on the Funk

Islands, if you have electricity, as you can if you live in the Goulds, where I

live. The world is wide open for us but it has to be small scale. You have to

have the labour market, you have to have the expertise, and you have to be

willing to compete with other countries, other provinces and towns, to get the

jobs. It is that simple, and you have to do it in a very practical, very

targeted and very focused sense.

MR. FITZGERALD: Minister, just a couple of more

questions on the budget here, on 3.1.07.06, Purchased Services.

MR. TULK: 3.1 -

MR. FITZGERALD: Under 3.1.07, Purchased

Services, $718,500 was budgeted and the revision was for $253,500 this year. So

that was cut down to just about one-third. Next year it takes a jump up to

$1,015,000. What is that money to be spend on?

MR. TULK: Well, as I understand it, the

Purchased Services funding covers the completion of schools - this is under the

Labrador Agreement, you will notice.

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes.

MR. TULK: We are allowed to do schools in

Labrador under that, given the terms of that agreement. It covers the completion

of schools in Rigolet and Hopedale, and the completion of the Labrador

Interpretation Centre. The expenditures and revenues are down again for two

reasons: the 1996-1997 carryovers were less than expected, and the delays in

completing the Labrador

Interpretation Centre.

MR. FITZGERALD: So we would not be funding

schools here on the Island under an agreement such as that?

MR. TULK: No, this is the Labrador

Comprehensive Agreement. Under that, they are allowed to do -

MR. FITZGERALD: You are allowed to do schools?

MR. TULK: Yes, that is an infrastructure

agreement.

MR. FITZGERALD: Here again under 01, under

3.1.07, we are seeing another large amount of money left there under the federal

revenue portion of that particular heading.

MR. TULK: Just as a float because there has

been a delay primarily in completely the Labrador

Interpretation Centre.

MR. FITZGERALD: Portfolio Management, 4.1.01.

MR. TULK: 4.1.01?

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes, under Grants and

Subsidies, number 10, $1,073,000 was budgeted and $73,000 spent, $1 million

left.

MR. TULK: I think what you are seeing there...

This is the Strategic Enterprise Development Fund, and this is one of the things

that the gurus here are very good at, but primarily, as explained to me, a

reduction in interest rates resulted in a decrease in the loan subsidy payments

that were made. John, you are better at this than I am - you fellows are - so

would you give the member the explanation?

MR. SCOTT: Sure. The money in Grants and

Subsidies is for interest subsidy on historic fishing loans. Up until the past

three or four years, fishing loans administered through chartered banks and

guaranteed by the Province were subsidized at the rate of three points below

prime; prime being the time at which the loans were originally advanced.

When interest rates fluctuate over time, certain

interest subsidies kick in. Interest rates (inaudible) historic low, and were

lower than budgeted over a multi-year period. Therefore, the historical drawdown

on that program, which was about $1 million in the last year, was considerably

lower than that; in fact, almost zero because of the original interest rates

over the years have come down.

You see, in terms of the 1998-1999 estimates, the

number rising again because interest rates have come up again a bit, and in

terms of the budget forecast will come up a bit further. To give you a sense of

the impact, one point in interest rate translates into almost $300,000 in this

program; so it is very sensitive, the interest rate - a sudden shock or a sudden

drop that was not forecast a year and a half before the budget was prepared can

result in fairly significant fluctuations over time.

Historically, we were budgeting around $1 million -

almost $1.1 million - so that accounts for that. There has been no reduction in

programs, no reduction in services offered; it is just the interest rate policy

in this program.

MR. FITZGERALD: Did we pass that on to the

fishermen who are paying their loans sincerely?

MR. SCOTT: That would have been passed along in

the sense that interest accrues -

MR. TULK: It is added on to the account.

Interest accrues on the account.

MR. SCOTT: Right, interest would accrue on the

account.

MR. FITZGERALD: They would have been given the

credit as well to reflect the interest rate charge.

MR. SCOTT: Over the balance of the period, yes.

MR. FITZGERALD: Moving on now to 4.2.02, the

last appropriation, I think, for that department; Minister, what is the total

amount of federal money that is being brought forward for the Newfoundland and

Labrador Film Development Corporation? It shows $380,000; $200,000 spent;

$370,000 budgeted. Do you have any idea if it is over this two-year period?

MR. TULK: Where are you now?

MR. FITZGERALD: On 4.2.02.

MR. TULK: Yes.

MR. FITZGERALD: The Newfoundland and Labrador

Film Development Corporation.

MR. TULK: Let me just say to you in a general

sense - and I will ask the officials to get into the detail of it - I am glad

you asked that question because I will tell you something: I think the

Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and the possibilities in

this industry are tremendous for this Province.

Let me say that in 1996-1997 - and the Member for

Topsail might be interested in this because there is a lot of stuff happening

around this area in terms of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development

Corporation - there was no film development corporation; there was some $3.5

million worth of activity. I think it is interesting to note that in 1997-1998

there were some twenty-two productions undertaken in the Province with a total

production cost of $9,790,000, almost $10 million. That is up $6.5 million.

I want to point out something here that not a lot

of people realize. That is that the film industry is a very labour intensive

industry and can create a number of jobs. As I have said to you, in 1997-1998

there were twenty-two productions undertaken in the Province with a total

production cost of almost $10 million. We made some equity investments of

$1,028,000 in seven productions, and they received $3 million - three times as

much - from other sources. So far in 1998-1999 we have made an equity investment

of $640,476 in four productions, and there have been equity investments from

other sources of over $6 million.

We also have currently under review some eight

applications by the department which are seeking a total equity of investment

from the department of some $2,200,000, and there will be some $13 million that

will be from other sources.

There is approximately - on the books and approved

for this year - some $20 million of film production in the Province as compared

to just $3.5 million in 1996-1997. For that we are going to be required to put

in an equity investment of about $3 million. I tell you, it is amazing.

Every member of the House - I should have made a

Ministerial Statement on it and have you praise me up, Roger. If you were only

to got down to the sets - and I think they are finished shooting; I believe they

are -

WITNESS: They are still going.

MR. TULK: They are still going, Devine Ryans

- and see the amount of work, the amount of manual work, building sets...

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: What?

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: That could very well be.

I tell you, in 1997 the film corporation undertook

a successful scouting visit by senior official of TriStar Pictures for the

upcoming movie Shipping News , and that resulted in a second scouting

visit by TriStar for the upcoming movie Endurance . The Shipping News ,

John tells me, will bring some $15 million to the Province, all on the West

Coast of the Province. Of course, that is where the Shipping News is set.

I think we have had some visits from some people

from Disney. As a matter of fact, I was supposed to take them down and show them

Greenspond. Hopefully, I can get them to go down there.

One of the problems we face, Roger, if I could say

this to you, in areas like yours and mine and in other rural areas in the

Province, is not that we do not have the background and the settings for it;

there is a problem, they tell me, with finding hotel accommodations close to the

sets. I do not know, but at some point maybe we should start using some of our

people to have... I do not know how this would work. It is just a fantasy that I

had one day, I suppose, when I should have been asleep, of having people - no

not that kind of fantasy, but a fantasy that I have had that maybe we could use

some of our private homes for people to stay in, like we used to do with

boarding houses. I do not know how well that would work.

One of the problems they tell me they would have

with using, for example, Greenspond, which is very historic and has a great

history, would be the fact that even in Gander - if they were to do a major

production, and Gander would be too far away, but - they would have some

difficulty finding the types of accommodations they would need.

I believe that the Newfoundland Hotel - was it the

Newfoundland Hotel, for Devine Ryans ? There was a large segment of those

rooms booked for that production. There is tremendous potential there, and one

of the things we have committee ourselves to - I believe we committed ourselves

in the Budget Speech - was to put in place a tax credit. I know myself and the

Minister for Finance or somebody - the Minister of Finance, I guess - will be

introducing a bill before the spring gets by to do exactly that so we can

attract the film industry in far greater numbers to the Province.

You may even become an actress, Elizabeth; you have

been acting all of your life in here.

MR. FITZGERALD: It goes on to say that these

expenditures are cost-shared by the federal government. What is the breakdown

percentage wise?

MR. SCOTT: In 1997-1998 they were 80/20 because

they were sourced under the Economic Renewal Agreement. In 1998-1999 -

MR. FITZGERALD: Eighty per cent federal?

MR. SCOTT: Eighty per cent federal. In

1998-1999, part of it is 80/20 and part of it is 70/30; so, say it breaks down

to seventy-five.

MR. FITZGERALD: It is a negotiated thing on an

annual basis?

MR. TULK: It depends on the agreement.

MR. SCOTT: Yes, the Economic Renewal Agreement

is funding of the $500,000; $200,000 for international marketing. The

Comprehensive Economic Development Agreement, which is 70/30, funds the

operating support for the corporation itself. It is a bit of a split in terms of

how the two agreements deal with it. That is a federal machination not a

provincial machination.

MR. FITZGERALD: Minister, is there anything new

on the slate mine? Is there anything new to report on that, or is that still

where it was the last time that the (inaudible).

MR. TULK: You are talking about the slate

power?

MR. FITZGERALD: Yes.

MR. TULK: Is there anything new? I would

prefer, to be frank with you, if you would ask me that question privately.

MR. FITZGERALD: Okay.

MR. TULK: Because it concerns your district and

it concerns a specific individual.

MR. FITZGERALD: Petlee Fisheries in Charleston,

has that particular company approached your department for funding?

MR. TULK: Not to my knowledge. I have not heard

of it. They may have approached the regional office, but I am not aware of it.

We can check.

MR. FITZGERALD: Those are the only questions I

have, Minister. The name of your department is Development and Rural Renewal,

and rural areas in this Province certainly need economic diversification and an

economic stimulus. I do not know what is coming down through TAGS, or if there

is going to be a work component put in there. Hopefully, if there is funding put

in there for economic diversification, it will be spent wisely, it will be done

through your department, and the people most affected will, I suppose, derive

the benefit from it.

There is a lot of need out there, especially for

fisheries infrastructure. We have reached a point in rural Newfoundland and

Labrador where we have had a five or six year moratorium on our fishery and the

whole fisheries infrastructure is falling down around our ears. I don't know

what would happen if the fishery were to start tomorrow.

In my district a lot of the wharves, a lot of the

slipways, a lot of the sheds, have all disappeared. They have not been kept up

and it is a shame, because I believe there is still a future in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador, and the fishery is still going to provide the

economic stimulus that will allow those communities to survive. Hopefully, maybe

you will look at doing this kind of work and directing money in that particular

direction if and when such funding becomes available to your department.

Thank you.

MR. TULK: I will just conclude, Mr. Chairman,

on the remarks he made. I have tremendous faith in rural Newfoundland as well. I

think it will be a different rural Newfoundland. I think the fishery will be

somewhat different even when it comes back. I do not know, at this point in

time, what the TAGS program is going to entail, and I say that to you honestly

and above board. I don't think anybody outside the federal Cabinet knows exactly

what is going on at this point in time. I would hope there is a significant

economic diversification package, and I would hope that it is tailored - as I

have said many times in this House - to the communities and to the people who

have been affected by the downturn in the fishing industry.

CHAIR: Thank you, Minister.

I just have one short question that I would like to

ask. I was thinking about it earlier when you were talking about a lot of these

small manufacturing type of businesses that might crop up around the Province. I

was wondering if we have a program to help individuals acquire patent protection

if they design some small product that might be manufactured locally? I know

that is an expensive proposition, and it is not one that many people understand

very well; but, if we design something, that might fit some need somewhere that

you are certainly going to have to look toward.

MR. TULK: Would we help people with the

protection of patents?

MR. SCOTT: Generally, we will support

financially what it takes to get a small business off the ground. If somebody

needs some support financially to establish a patent, with the backing of a

strong business plan, that can be considered. A stand-alone patent type of

registration program we do not have, but certainly our small business programs

could be availed of in their entirety to support that type of need. There is no

reason to preclude it, but on a stand-alone basis we do not have a program

called a patent registration program.

CHAIR: As a matter of fact, a small brochure

just outlining patent protection, how to acquire it, even that in and of itself

would be beneficial.

I appreciate the comments, Minister, from you and

your staff, and I appreciate all the participation between the members. This is

the last Estimates Committee for this particular Budget. I really do appreciate

all the efforts of all the members, the genuine dialogue that has occurred, and

the sound review that has occurred.

MR. TULK: Mr. Chairman, if I could just drop

one piece of information for the Member for Topsail. He asked me what the growth

rate was on the Avalon Peninsula, I think. The Avalon Peninsula region has the

largest employment gain with 5,400 new jobs, of which 3,600 went to the St.

John's metropolitan area; so Topsail must have benefited from the 5 per cent,

5.3 per cent recorded.

WITNESS: (Inaudible) definition of Avalon

Peninsula. How far (inaudible)?

MR. TULK: It is the Avalon Peninsula

metropolitan area we are talking about. I do not know where that goes.

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

MR. TULK: It would not include your district.

MR. WISEMAN: On the film industry, you had -

WITNESS: (Inaudible).

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. WISEMAN: You had mentioned the Member for

Topsail may be interested in your conversation with the Member for Bonavista

South. The Member from Topsail is always interested in development in his

district. I was wondering if the Minister had anything in mind for the

development of the film industry in the District of Topsail.

MR. TULK: The film industry? Did you say the

film industry?

MR. WISEMAN: Yes.

MR. TULK: I am sure, Mr. Chairman, if the

Member for Topsail were to go down to the Film Development Corporation and find

out the tremendous advantages that I know he believes, and all of us believe,

Topsail has, I would not be at all surprised if some scene or groups of scenes

were not set in Topsail; and it might even come to pass that the Member for

Topsail would be a leading star.

MR. WISEMAN: We could do better, Minister, if

we had Manuels River completed.

WITNESS: I understand, Minister, that since

they talked about a sequel to Grease, he has bought white shoes.

MR. TULK: Who?

CHAIR: Could I have a motion to accept the

heads for the Department of Development and Rural Renewal from 1.1.01 through

4.2.02 inclusive?

On motion, subheads 1.1.01 through 4.2.02, carried.

On motion, Department of Development and Rural

Renewal, total heads, carried.

CHAIR: Minister, thank you very much for

attending.

MR. TULK: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIR: I appreciate all of your comments.

On motion, the Committee adjourned.

Document details

Collection	Newfoundland and Labrador — Committees
Citation	1998-05-19
Type	committee
Volume / chapter	committees_standingcommittees_resource_ga43session3_1998-05-19_rc-drr_.htm
Language	en
Format	html
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	5662723c51b8004b4dcc31451bf80be7fb490768

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