Manitoba Hansard — 5 February 1960 (Sitting 14, 26th Legislature, 2nd Session)

26-2-14

Manitoba — Debates (Hansard)

Legislative Assembly Of Manitoba , 'bEBATES . and PRQ,C::EE PIN(}S' _i.: Speaker The Honourable A. W. Harrison February 5, 1960. 2nd Session, 26th· Legi.slature Printed by R. S. Evans. Queen's Printer for the Province of Manitoba. Winnipeg

DAILY INDEX Friday, February 5, 1960, 2:30 p.m. Introduction, of Bills: ,Nos. 9, ·;as ... · .. ... , .. . . , ..•................. _ . .. ,......... 299 Resolution re Discrimination (Mr. Lyon), Mr. Paulley • • . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • • • . . • . . 299. Mr. Gray, Mr. Hillhouse, Mr. Lyon . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . • . 300 Orders for Returns: Mr. Prefontaine, Mr. Molgat • . . . . . . • • . . . . . . . . ..• • . • . . . • • • • . . 301 Motion re Agricultural Credit (Mr. Shoemaker) Mr. Schreyer .....• �.............. 301 Mr.

Hutton . . . • . • . . . • . . • . . . . . • • . . • . . . . • • . • . . . • . • .. • . . • . • . . . . . • • . • . • . . . • 303 Motion re School Construction (Mr. Dow) Amendment (Mr. Paulley) Mr. Hillhouse, Arilendnient to Amendment . . . • • • . . . . . . . • • . • • • • • • . • • . • • . • • .. • . • . • • . . • . • . 305 · Mr. Paulley . • . . • • • . • . • . . . • . . • • . • • • . • • . • • • • • . . • . . • • . . . . . • • . . . . • • . . • • • 306 Motion re Pensions (Mr. Gray) Mr. Wright .... .....••. ..•.•••••..• , . • • . . • • . • . • . 307 Motion re Pulpwood (Mr.

Roberts) .. ...... .. .. . ... ....... .. ... .... .. , . . . . . • . . • . • • 310 Committee of Supply: Mr. Roblin •.•.•.•..• ••.. .••••• ••.•••.•...... ,. . . . . . . . • . . . 311 Mr. Paulley, Mr. Froese .......... .... .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. 314 Address in French, Mr. Molgat . • . • . . • . • • . • . . . • • • • . • • • . . • • . • . . • . . . . . . . • . • . . • • • • 315 The Progressive Index of Votes and Proceedings will be published on Tuesdays on the last page.

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MAN ITOBA 2:30 o'clock, Friday, February 5th, 1960 Opening Prayer by Mr. Speaker. " MR. SPEAKER: Presenting Petitions Reading and Receiving Petitions Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees Notice of Motion Introduction of Bills. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable MemberJor River Heights. MR. W. B. SCARTH , Q.C . (River Heights) intr<>duced Bill No. 9,

an Act to amend the Greater Winnipeg Water District Act. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and followfug a voice vote declared the motion carried.. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for Ethelbert Plains. MR. E. PREFONTAINE (Carillon), in the absence of the honourable member for Ethelbert Plains. introduced Bill No. 65,

an Act to amend the Law Society Act. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and following a voice vote declaredthe motion carried. MR. SPEAKER: Committee of the Whole HOuse. HON. STER.LING R. LYON (Attorney-General)( Fort Garry): Mr. Speaker, I beg to move� seconded by the Hon(!urable theMinister of Public Works, that Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair and the House resolve •itself into a Committee of the Whole to consider .the pro- psed resolution standing in my name on the Order Paper. , · · Mr. Speaker presented the motion and fi>Uowing a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR.

SPEAKER: Wollld the Honourable Member for St. Matthews please take the chair? MR. LYON: His. H�.. nour the Lieutenant-Governor, having been inforni.ed of the subject matter of the proposed reoolution, recomme nds it to the House, Sir. MR.

CHAIRMAN: Resolved that it is expedient to bring in a measure to prevent discri mination against any person with respect to the provision of accominodation, by reason of race, religion, religious creed, colour, ancestry, ethnic or national origin, and to provide, among other matters, for the appointment of commissioners to enquire into complaints of such dis crimination and for the payment from the Consolidated Fund of remuneration to, and the expen ses of, any such commissioners. ·MR. LYON: Mr.

Chairman, without attempting, as I am not allowed under the Rules to do at this stage, without attempting to get into the whole principle of this Bill I think I can expand very slightly upon the information given in the resolution; namely, the Act itself will follow very generally upon the lines of the Acts now inexistence in other provinces i n Canada.

One of the provisions of this Act will be that the first step in the investigation of a complaint alleging racial discrimination or discrimination of a sort which is outlawed by the Act -- by the Bill, one of the first steps will be the appointment of an officer designated by the minister under whose responsibility the Bill will come. If this officer fails to arrive at a solution of the com plaint, the authority is then given to the minister to appoint a commission composed of one or more members to make an investigation and to make recommendation to the minister.

Natur ally, when these commissioners are appointed and invested with powers pursuant to

part 5 of the Evidence Act, the further power is given under the Act that they should be paid certain travelling allowances and any other emolument that may accrue to them on the order of the Lieutenant-Go<rernor-in-council. MR. R. PAULLEY (Leader of the CCF)(Radisson}: Mr. Chairman, I'd like. to say that we of our group here welcome the proposed resolution. It is one of those things that, in the past, the former House Leader of our party, Mr. Lloyd Stlnson, and others of our group had introduced into this Legislature without success.

There has been from time to time various differences of opinion as to whether or not there did exi st in the Prov ince of Manitoba any dis crimination. I think that our party must have established a prima facie case that there was; and as the result, the government has accepted our proposal and now at this stage are intro ducing a resolution. We will await with interest the details in the Bill itself. Suff icient for me to say, Mr.

ChaLrman, at this time, we of the CCF group welcome this resolution and it is another step forward in the progress of Manitoba that has been initiated by the efforts·ofe>UJ;" l!tbruary 5th, 1960. Page 299.

{Mr. Paulley, cont'd.) •• , .. party. MR. M. A. GRAY (Inkster): May I ask the Attorney-General a question, Mr. Chairman? Will this include all classes, all fields of accommodation? What I have in mind is whether it's a rental, or hotels or motels, and so on. In other words, it's not confined to one class of ac commodation, because I've noticed there is a Bill that's to be introduced on the hotel accommo dations. My question is, will this Bill that you are going to propose include all kinds of accommodati ons? MR. T. P. IDLLHOUSE, Q. C. {Selkirk): Mr.

Chairman, I only rise to say this, that I subscribe wholeheartedly to the principle of this resolution. I think we. have a similar pro vision in our Employment Practices Act and I certainly see no reason why this House should not adopt this resolution unanimously. MR. LYON .••••• wishes. to speak, Mr. Chairman. While ---you could anyway.

While the question asked by the honourable member for Inkster certainly gets into the principle be hind the Bill and so on, I think with your permission, Sir, I might answer him to this extent and say that the general phrase that is used in the Bill is "a .place to which the public customarily has access." Now I'm not going to attempt at this stage to give a definite legal

interpretation of what that means, but my own offhand opinion would be that probably not rental accommodation at this stage, but certainly we can come to that. We can come to that at the proper stage of the .Bill. MR. CHAIRMAN: Shall the resolution be adopted? Will the Committee rise and report. Call iil the Speaker. MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Speaker, the Committee of the Whole House have adopted a cer- tain resolution, have directed me to report the .same, and ask leave to sit again. . MR. W. G •. MARTIN {St. Matthews): Mr. Speaker, I beg to move seconded by the Honourable Member for St.

Vital, that thE;� report of the committee be received. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and following a voice vote ·declared the motion carried. Mr. Lyon introduced Bill No. 48,

an Act to prevent discrimination against ariy person with respect to the provision of accommodation by reason of race, religion, religious creed, colour, ancestry, ethnic or national origin. Mr. Speakeqresented the motion and following a voice vote declaredthe motion: carried. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. HON. G. JOHNSON {Minister of Health and Public Welfare){Gimli): Mr. Speaker, be fore the Orders of the Day I would like to table the annual report of the Manitoba Cancer Treat ment :jnd Research Foundation for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 1959. MR. G. MOLGAT {Ste. Rose): Mr.

Speaker, before the Orders of the Day I would like to introduce to you, Sir, and to the members of the House, the students in the second gallery on your right, Sir. They are the students from Grade 9 High School at Glenella. They are ac companied by their teacher, Mrs. Marge M •••••• They've come 140 miles and are taking in, among their other activities in town, this session of the Legislature. · MR. M. E. PREFONT AINE {Carillon): Monsieur l'orateur puis-je vous presenter aussi les religieuses at les eleves de l'ecole de St-Ignace.

Je le fais dans la langue francaise, la deuxieme langue officielle de cette chambre et je desire vous dire monsieur l'orateur lorsque je vois des soeurs de la communaute des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie Cela me fair quelque chose puisque j'ai une soeur dans cette congregation. Qu'ils scient done les bienvenus dans cette enceinte . · English Translation of Above. Mr. Speaker, may I also present the Sisters and pupils of St. Ignatius School. I do so in the French tongue, the second official language in this House, and I wish to tell you, Mr.

Speaker, that when I see Nuns of the Order of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary it does some thing to me, as I have a sister in that Order. May they be welcomed in this House. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. MR. PAULLEY: Before the Orders of the Day , and I am sorry I didn't inform him of this question, but I'd like to direct a question to the Honourable the Minister of Health and Welfare·. When may the members of the Legislature be able to receive or obtain copies of the regulations under the Social Securities Act? MR. JOHNSON (Gimli) Social Allowances Act. Page 300. February 5th, 1960.,;

MR. PAULLEY: Social Allowances Act, excuse me. MR. JOHNSON (Gimli): Mr. Speaker, I'll take that as notice and look into it. I think we should be able to distribute them before too long. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. Orders for Return. The Honourable Member for Carillon. MR. PREFONTAINE: Mr. Speaker, I wish to move,· seconded by the honourable mem ber for St. George, that an Order of the House do issue for a Return showing:

(1) The number of boys and girls in Manitoba (

a) attending high schools in rural areas, (

b) attending high schools in urban areas, in the years 1951 to 1959, both inclusive.

(2) The yearly percentage of increase, or decrease, in the number of boys and girls in Manitoba attending high schools in rural areas and attending high schools in urban areas for the years 1951 to 1959, both inclu sive. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and following a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for Ste. Rose. MR. MOLGAT: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, seconded by the honourable member for Selkirk, that an Order of the House do issue for a Return showing: No. 1. How many people are employed to administer and operate the Business Development Fund Act? No. 2.

How mlUlY applications have been re.ceived for loans under the above Act up to December 31st, 1959? No .a. How many ()f these applications have been approved? No. 4. What is the total value of the loans approved?_ No.5. H;ow many of these applications have received their money? I be lieve �t shoUld re<J.d "of these �J.Pplicants".

No. 6, ·What is the total value of the lams actually p:ifd out? · ·· RON.GURNEY ;EVANS (Minister of Mines and NatUral Resources)(Fort Rouge): Th�. only commen.t I would make here is that i assume the honourable member refers to the Manitoba Deve!opment Fund, under the title that has been printed. in the Order Paper be re, Bu.Siness · · DeVelopment Fund. . . . MR. MOLGAT: If I may, Mr. Minister, the Act, I understand, is the Business Devel opment Fund Act, which set up the Manitoba Development Fund. ·Is that not--1 went back to the Ad to get the terminqlogy. · · · · MR.

EVANS: · Well we're talking about the same thing and that's the important thing. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and following a voice vote declared the motion carrie d. MR. SPEAKER: Adjourned debate on the proposed motion of the Honourable Mlinber for Gladstone. The Honourable Member for Brokenhead. MR. E. R.

SCHREYER (Brokenhead): Mr • Speaker, there has been Considerable debate and discussion on this resolution in the past few days and I rise, not so much to take issue or to speak at any great length on this resolution, but I do rise to present the views, the stand of this group on this matter of Agricultural Credit. I think that honourable members opposite are well aware that when this, the Act respecting Agricultural Credit was presented in this Legis lature, we did do our level best to assure our support.

I do not intend to criticize the adminis tration for the way in which this Agricultural Credit Act has been administered, but I do wish to point out to them that while there is a very great deal which is good about the Act, there are also some points which could· very well be improved upon. When one considers that only 23% up to date --only 23% of the applications have been approved, one would at first glance come to the conclusion that the Act, the administration of it must be a little too restrictive.

When one also notices that only 50% , or slightly under, of the applications have been appraised, then one can not help but come to the conclusion that the processing of the applications is too slow. And this seems quite obvious, and it therefore seems quite in order for us to support the resolution as sponsored by the member for Neepawa- or Gladstone. Those of us who sat in this legislature when the Act was on the Order Paper well remember the then Minister of Agriculture stating that, among other things, this Act was to provide a means by which farmers could consolidate their debts.

Now I am quite surprised -- I was surprised to hear the members of the government side try to deny that this was not one of the intentions of the Act at the time of introduction. Well of course the members supporting the administration have gone to great pains to try and justify the way in which the Act is now opera ting; and I have: to say that they have been slightly guilty of trying to cloud the issue by bringing, into discussion such aspects or such matters as whether or not the m�ager of the credit February 5th, 1960. Page 301.

(Mr. Schreyer, co�t'd. ) ••••• corporation is acting with political bias. I do not believe that the member for Gladstonehad it inmind that the manager of the corporationwasactingwithpolitical bias. It seemed more to be implied that way by the members of the government who rose in defence, or rose to rebut this resolution. I don 't know the manager of the Agricultural Credit Corporation. I am quite prepared, from what I have heard, to think that he is a man above reproach; a man of integrity. I think perhaps what the Honourable Member for Gladstone meantwas that he perhaps that some pressure has been put on him.

That is not to say that he has submitted to it. One of the reasons why I do rise to speak on this resolution has to do with the general atmosphere in which the government introduced this Bill on Agricultural Credit. They made a great deal of to do about how wide in scope the scheme would be; how quickly people would be able to take advantage of the opportunity of acquiring farm credit; and generally speaking, Mr. Speaker, they succeeded in conveying the impression to farmers in this province that here was a very convenient source of credit.

Now that's all very well, but I would like to point out to members of the government that while succeeding in conveying this impression, they also suc ceeded in causing a great deal of confusion; a great deal of embariasment among thos.e who did make application for credit. I know of several cas.es, Mr. Speaker, several cases in which applicants for farm credit, led to believe ·that farm credit would be forthcoming rather quickly, began ·to make commitments and did make com.mitments. on the basis of their receiving a loan.

Now of course you might think of this as rather rash on their part and perb,aps itis, but it is not so rash when c;>ne considers that in the .cases. whei."e this happened the applicant applied for loans which were.far below the limit which they could borr�w on the basis. of their security and chattels arid so on.

So they were fairly sure that they had the neces.sary security and they were therefore sure .that they would get the loan, and they began to make commitments on the basis of it.·· Mr; Speaker, one mo:q.th passed, two months, three months, folir and even five months. r:lassed before some of these �pplications were appraised, approved, and money paid to thEim, or forWa�ded 'to them.· No� the point of critici;;Jm here, and it is a point of cdticism, i8 simply this, that the government, shall we say, misled s.ome of the farm population to thinking that here 'Was gbi:D.g to be a very convenient and a very smooth functioning s.ource of credit, and then this 1s not the case.

As a matter of fact, after the election of last spring the spontaneity of the scheme seemed to grind to as uddens.low rate of speed. Well, this, Mr. Speaker, was quite obvious out iD. the country, and although this is not a major criticis.m, it is. something which the government should not be proud of.

We are often asked by the government, especially by the front bench, to forward con s.tructive criticism and ideas as regards legislation, and in the case of this resolution I might say th at perhaps it would not be too feasible to accept this resolution completely as is, but I would urge the government to take into consideration the speeding up of processing of applications where the applicant makes application for a loan which is obviously much below his security and chattels.

I can see the corporation taking special care in forwarding money on loans where the limit, or where the loan is for an amount very close to the maximum allowed under the legislation, but surely where the loan is for an amount which is not even close to the security and chattels possessed by the applicant, then there is no need for this long roundabout process. It would seem then that the administration could revert to the assessment ba..-�ed on the assessors' reports, and this would help considerably in speeding up the applications.

Now I am quite prepared to have someone say that this is not feasible but I would like to know why this isn't feasible. Surely assessors' reports are not that much out of line, and as a matter of fact, the honourable member for Gladstone the other day did give some rather concrete information as to the relationship of assessed value by assessors to actual market value, and the administration would do well to take all this into consideration. I heard the honourable member for Roblin speak of the necessity of high standards in the administration of this Act, and surely we can all sympathize with him.

It is basically necessary to maintain at all times the highest possible standard of adminis.tration, but let us never lose sight of the fact that this Act was passed with the idea of providing a service to the population -- the rural population of this province; and let us not emphasize standards to the point where service is suppressed or left in the background. I maL'ltained at the time when this Act was introduced that the government was emphasi�ing service and not standards. Mem bers of the administration here no doubt received a report or brief from the Manitoba Page 302. February 5th, 1960

(Mr. Schreyer, cont'd. ) ••••• Fa,rmer'sUnion and the Manitoba Federation of Agriculture, and in the brief there were some mention made of Agricultural Credit. We shall be watching the government to see what action, if any, that it will take with regard to the possibility of improv ing certain aspects of farm credit in this province. And I would point out to the government members that one of the recommendations submitted by the Manitoba Farmer's Union was that the maximum time limit that should elapse between application and forwarding of money be 60 days.

This seems like rather unapproachable limits in view of the present processing of applications, however, if the government-- the corporation investigates means of taking at least the more obvious loans on the basis of assessors• evaluation, then perhaps the 60 day maximum time limit could be met; and this is something to work for. Mr. S_�:eaker, this resolution, with modifications perhaps, but certainly the spirit of it should be accepted because it is one way in which this government can follow up its promise to make farm credit available as quickly and efficiently as possible. Therefore we shall support it.

MR • . R. 0., LISSAMAN (Brandon): Mr. S_�:eaker, I have no wish to make a speech at this time although I may do later in this debate. I would like, however, to ask the preceding speaker a question if he would permit it. You mention that some people actually made corn mitments in anticipation of a loan. I would just like to ask you, that as a general characteri zation of these people, do you think the people of that class basing commitments on an assumption woUld be-- interjection --l'm asking a question-- would be a good business risk? MR. SCHREYER: Well, Mr.

SPeaker, I can answer that because I'm well aware of the circumstances under which this transpired and these people had made application for a loan which was nowhere near the maximum that they would be eligible for under the terms of the Act. In other words their security chattels and so on were far in excess of what the Act calls for for a loan of the amount for which they applied and they make .commitments simply because they were led to believe so well by conservative propaganda that these loans would be forthcoming so easily that they went and made the applications. HON.

GEORGE HUTTON (Minister of Agriculture) (Rockwood-Iberville): Mr. Speaker, may I speak on this subject? I would first, Mr. Speaker, _like to thank my colleagues for the wonderful job that they have done on this particular subject and really they have left very little for me to say and I want to assure you, Mr. Speaker, in the House that it's a wonderful feeling for a Minister to have so many il.ble lieutenants and assistants, especially when they have a thorough understanding of the programs and the policies and the goals of his department.

I feel that there is some confusion connected with the connotation of the term "purpose of the loan". I believe the honourable members of the Opposition are talking about means to an end. The purpose of the corporation is to make long term loans to farmers to assist them in the estab lishment and development of family farms as economic farm units and in the transfer of family farms from one generation to members of a later generation and to assist in the en:largement or conversion of family farms that are uneconomic units into economic farm units.

Section 7 of the Agricultural Credit Act lists the purposes for which a farmer may qualify for a loan. If the purpose for which he is requesting the loan will achieve the ultimate purpose which is to strengthen and improve his position in the farming community, he will qualify. If, however, in the opinion of the Agricultural Credit Corporation the purpose for which the loan is requested will fail to achieve the ultimate purpose of the agency and this program then the application will be rejected.

I would like to summarize for you the distribution of the monies that have been loaned for the various purposes outlined in the Act. Various amounts of money have been paid out on loans for every single purpose as listed under

Section 7 of the Agricultural Credit Act. In the case of purchase of land by the borrower there has been $2, 232, 440 approved for loans. For permanent improvements to be affected to buildings for homes, for new barns, for milk ing sheds and so forth, $2 51, 736. For permanent improvements to be effected on land itself $13, 017.

For the removal of encumbrances, people who had mortgages on their land -- in some cases these encumbrances were removed so that the individual farmer applying for the loan might have better terms of payments and interest in order that he could carry out some very needed improvements or changes in his production on his particular farm. And for this they approved loans of $1.,158,883. For the consolidation of debts that we've haard so much .about; for people who owed money for this purpose, for this reason and that around the country February 5th , 1960. Page 303.

(Mr. Hutton, cont'd.) .•••• and who found themselves in a position where they could not meet their current obligations and carry out programs on the farm there was a system to improve their position for the consolidation of debts, the Agricultural Credit Corporation approved $290, 223 worth of loans. For the purchase of livestock $40,244. For the purchase of equip ment $47,410 and for other purposes $1,350. So that there has been money loaned by the Agricultural Credit Act for every purpose as outlined in

Section 7 of that Act but in every case that money was loaned for the particular purpose under

Section 7 if it would accomplish, if it would accomplish what we were endeavouring to accomplish and I would hope that the honourable members opposite knew what they were doing when they voted in favour of this Bill - - I hope they knew what the ultimate purpose of the Bill was. This money was lent as I say for the various purposes under

Section 7 to accomplish the final and the real purpose of agricultural credit in the Manitoba farm community. And I think it's a pretty good record. I would like to outline the difference in the aims and the activities of the present Credit Corporation with .that of conventional credit facilities and especially the diffe rence in the philosophy of modern day farm credit exponents as those of yesteryears. In years gone by if any man approached a credit agency there was one"' consideration only, the one that we have been accused. That was the security on the money to be loaned.

This could be insured by the amount of security that the man or the applicant was prepared and able to put up.

If he were a poor operator and if it were kliown to the credit agency that be was a poor operator, if the extent of sec-urity was _ample to allow the lending institution involved not only ample security for the loan that was to be .made but offer a prospect of profit if the borrower failed to meet his commitments they were' sometimes happy to accept his application.provided their loan was eritiie ly secure., The question of whether a man showed some indication of possessing the managerial. ability that is needed, production know how and. whether those other factors such as equipm�t and working capital were available, were of minor consideration because of this fact, the experience for the farmer was quite often an unfortunate one. · ·I believe it is fair today to say that the sense of responsibility to the farm community on the part of the Agricultural Credit Corporation is far ke ener and greater in scope than that of any previous lending institution in the history of the province.

These men are dedicated to the proposition that money wisely made available to farmers who have the ability, the native skill, the enthusiasm and the integ:[-ity and who have the minimum -- the minimum security requirements will afford to them the farmers an oppor tunity to establish themsleves and improve their position. in the farm community. The men in the Agricultural Credit Corporation are not in busim ss primarily to lend money to make money; they are in business to lend money to help the farmers do a better job, to help the farmer help himself.

The responsibility of the Agricultural Credit Corporation is not finished or fulfilled when they have granted a loan to a farmer in Manitoba. On the contrary, their responsibility has just been assumed. Their responsibility does not rest alone in seeing that the farmer meets .his annual commitments. They have a real responsibility to do -everything in their power to assist the farmer not only to repay the loan but to reap the benefits that we anticipate and trust this loan should afford to the farmer.

If the Agricultural Credit Corporation is merely an agency which lends money and collections they will have failed in this important work in the re-habilitation of the farm communities. They have a major role to play in assisting the farmer to adjust to 1960 farming conditions. My predecessor in this House did a far more capable job than I can do in outlining to this House the opportunity through our Agricultural Credit program of assisting and guiding and advising our farmers in this most important work of adjusting to present day conditions.

The eight farm agents that we have who are trained in agriculture and members of the appraisal institute will have a wonderful opportunity in the coming years to make available to farmers who have taken advantage of the Credit Corporation information of a practical value in making adjustments in their individual enterprise. Here we have men going from farm to farm interviewing the farmers with an opportunity to see their success or failure in various programs in terms of dollars and cents.

They acquire a very practical type of information which is of inestimable value in helping one farmer to avoid . making the mistakes made by another. Never before have the representatives of a credit agency been so closely involved in the success or failure of the individual farmer with whom they are connected. For this reason I believe it is of the utmost importance that the Credit Corporation Page 304. ' ' February 5th, 1960.

(Mr. Hutton, cont'd.) •• ••• itself and not some uninterested party be given the responsibility to appraise the land in relationship to the native skill and human resources that are available and to determine how much that land is worth in terms o: the possible success of a particular farm er. May I point out how important a consideration it may be, in granting a loan to a farmer to be able to assess his farm practices, the condition of the soil, the freedom from weeds, the tilth of the soil and so on. These are factors of which no appraiser could distinguish by merely con sulting the assessment of the land.

Every farm, every piece of land has its own story to tell. Invariably that story is about the farmer. On the question of assessment from municipal taxa tion purposes as opposed to those to establish a value of land in regard to a particular proposed program submitted by a farmer I think you must agree there must be and is some difference. The Assessment Branch in carrying out its new assessment chose five different soil associa tions which are typical of Manitoba soils. On each one of these soils they worked up a typical farm budget based on data from 1926 to 1946.

While the basic standards for the assessment is grain productivity some consideration was given to a typical livestock and livestock complement on each of these soils. An attempt was made to get as close as possible to the tyiE of farming· being carried out on these soils during that period. In addition some c.onsideration is given to such factors as stoniness, erosion, roads, distame and market.· At best; these· data represent a 'type of farming which was prevalent before the post war changes Ln types of production, and is therefore 14 years out of date •.

There are upwards of 40 different soil· associations in the · ptaV ince which are now being combined into soil families· of which there ate 8. Each family cotpbines different soil associa tions which have similar fertUity and require:.similar manage ment, The municipal land assessor's. budget does not take into consideration the very highest land use for a particular parcel of land.

These. factors with other factors such as demand for · · land in-certain areas add up to pressures which force land prices up and could mean that farmers would be served less effectively if the appraisers were held to assessment value. I sincerely believe if we have a little. patience during the first few years of operation we will pass on to farmers in tre future years a most worthwhile program. One which will serve the farmers well. I believe that the resolution .mder consideration is unsound. It puts too much emJ.lhasis on quick action at all costs and ignores sound principles and practices.

A courl33 of action which could in the future work to the farmers' disadvantage. I would suggest in addition that some of the critics take the trouble to read

Section 13 in the Agricultural Credit Act where it states "no lo an shall be made at any time if at that time the arrears of principal and interest overdue and unpaid under loans previously paid, exceed $500, 000" -- and so if in yol!r anxiety to propose a policy and a course of action by the government which is going to be popular, entirely popular with everyone, I feel that you would prejudice the welfare of the farmer in the long run and nothing could be any clearer than

Section 13 in the Act that if the government policy were any other than to safe-guard the monies that are going into farm credit then we would be, in fact, jeopardizing the future welfare of the fa rmers, the very people that we are trying to assist. Thank you very much. MR. ELMAN GUTTORMSON (St. George): Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, seconded by the Member for Ste. Rose that the debate be adjourned. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and after a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR .

SPEAKER: Adjourned debate on the proposed motion of the Hmiourable Member for Turtle Mountain and the proposed motion-and amendment thereto the Honourable Leader of the CCF. The Honourable Member for Birtle-Russell. MR . K. ALEXANDER (Roblin): Mr. Speaker, in the absence of the Member for Birtle Russell I would ask that this matter be allowed to stand. MR . SPEAKER: Stand. MR. HILLHOUSE: Before you .•.•• I wonder if it would be possible to speak on this motion on the understanding that the honourable member for Russell be allowed to have his place on the order paper after I've finished? MR. SPEAKER: Agreed.

The Honourable Member for Selkirk. MR. HILLHOUSE: Mr. Speaker, I don't think anyone in this House can accuse me of being an enemy to the present portion of the Public Schools Act dealing with larger divisions. I think everyone realizes that even before the report of the Royal Commission on Education was tabled in this House -- I'm referring to the interim report -- that I was the only rural February 5th, 1960. Page 305.

(Mr. Hillhouse, cont1d.) .. member who stood up in this House and advocated the larger second ary area and suggested to the then-Minister of Education, means that he should adopt and take in order to sell that isea to the public. So therefore, Mr. Speaker, I don't think any member of this House can accuse me of being an enemy of what is called centralization. I believe in centra lization where centralization results in the betterment of education which is made available to the children of any division but I'm in sympathy with what the Honourable Member from Broken head has said in this House.

There are certain areas in Manitoba which are at present being discriminated against in respect of the larger grants through no fault of their own but due to geo graphic and population reasons. And I feel, inasmuch as I strongly believe in the larger second ary division that the honourable minister should take all steps that are necessary and essential to insure the proper working of this scheme and to also insure that no school division under that scheme will be discriminated against, simply because it's impracticable either for geographical or population or community reasons to construct the larger schools.

Now under the present for mula I believe, if an addition is made to a school and that addition added to the present number of rooms brings it up to a 12-room school, that school would qualify for a 75% gr:J,p.t. Now the point is this, that--take for instance my own school division--the Lord Selkirk School Division. We have a large high school in the town of Selkirk and that high school serv!3s the needs of the population of the division residing in the muni.cipality of St. Andrews and residing in.part of the municipality of St.

Clement in the constituency of my honourable friend the member for Broken head. ' Now we also have in our division the area known as the Victoria �aqh are.a. Now there is an area, Mr. Speaker, that for geographica(and papulation reasons, itls most unfeasi ble tp · have the children from that d�strict come to Selkirk. Now ijle practical ��rig tO dQ ijlere is to construct a: high school at Victoria Beach. Now the point tl;lat I want to m.akeis tb.js,.that at �t high school which i.f they decided to construcHt a:_t Victoria' Beach, wohliti;\.Qtually be an annex or an addition to the high school at ·Selkirk.

And why shouldn't that four��om se:hc;Jol qualify for the larger grant? Why should the district be discriminated against for sopje reason over which it has no control, and for some reason which you can't change? . Now, regarding the amendment of the Honourable Leader of the. CCf, I'm in syl;)lpathy with the object that he is trying to achieve but at the same time I feel that his amendment is so worded that it might perhaps bring about a divisiveness in a school.division.

In other wordS, rather than the trustees looking at the general welfare of the whole division, they are likely to consider the welfare of their respective wards which would be bad for this particular scheme. And I also feel too, Mr. Speaker, that placing the trustees in a position of being both judge and jury of the merits of their own case is bad and I do not say that in any derogatory sense concern ing any of the good people who have assumed the duties of that office.

Now I believe that we have set up, and the minister can correct me on this if I'm not right, a board of reference, which board has taken over the duties of the old boundary commission.

Now I don't know how wide the jurisdiction and powers of that board are but I do believe though that that board, if it does not already possess these powers, that it should be vested with the powers; and if that board feels that it is not practical or economic to construct a school of sufficient size to qualify for the maximum grant 75%, and the board so advises and recommends to the minister that that smal ler school become entitled to that larger grant--now if that procedure is adopted, I think it would remove this whole question from the realm and sphere of politics.

It would not place the school board division in the position of being judge and jury and it would also eliminate the ten dency toward divisiveness in that district. And for these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I wish to move, seconded by the Honourable Mem ber for Ste.

Rose that the amendment be further amended by striking out all the words after the word "justi.fy" in the first line thereof and substituting therefor, the following: "to the Board of Reference that it is not practical and economic to construct a school of sufficient size to qualify for the maximum grant of 75% and the board so advises and recommends to the minister a smal ler size school shall qualify for said maximum grant". Mr. Sp•3aker read the motion. MR. PAULLEY: I rise just to say a word or two in connection with the amendment to the amendment proposed.by the Hono:1rable Member for Selkirk.

When I proposed the amend ment to the resolution I see now that I did not -- MR. SPEAKER: Is the honourable member speaking to the motion or a point of order? Page 306. February 5th,. 1960.

MR. PAULL EY: I certainly am, Mr. Speaker, speaking to the amendment to the amend ment. When I proposed the amendment which has now been further amended, the main prin ciple that I expounded at that time was the justifying of the need as outlined by the Honourable Member for Selkirk in his amendment which he has clarified or at least put the onus on some body other than the school board itself whereby a recommendation may be made for the qualifi cation of the 75% grant.

I had at one time a thought that may have been to the Minister but I agree most heartily to the amendment to the amendment that we should in every case where possible, in all due respect to the Minister of Education, divorce from this important field any chances of political pressures on a member of the Cabinet in respect of education. (Inter jection). . No, I agree, Mr. Speaker, at least I am of the opinion that the present Minister of Education, as past Ministers of Education, have been men of high calibre that have not been swayed-- as far as we are aware.

However-- my honourable friend the Le ader of the Oppos ition interjected and asked for that -- however, Mr. Speaker, as far as the amendment to the amendment is concerned, I accept that. I think it is a good idea.

It basically does not alter the thought behind the amendment so that in these situations, of which the Honourable Member for Selkirk has spoken and in the past other members in this Hou se, that where due to economy, economics or geography it seems that the present regulation is altogether too restrictive, or in the alternative, school boards may be in a position where they feel that -- and in all due respects to school boards, Sir -- that they may feel inclined to .build a school larger than one which could adequately take care of. the present and immediate future situation and not receive the 75% grant.

As a matter of fact, Sir, to be fair, I should thankthe Honourable Member for Selkirk in submitting this amendment because now it is firmly established that someone will have an opportunity of considering the request of the division school board, and I believe that the Board of Reference, being an independent board, would be a very proper board to consider this. So again, Mr. Speaker, I say in speaking to the amendment to the amendment, we will accept it. · MR. PREFONTAINE: If nobody wants to speak, I would like to move ..... . MR.

ALEXANDER: I think the agreement was originally that the Honourable Member from Birtle-Russell would have the adjournment on the debate if the Honourable Member for Selkirk was permitted to speak. MR. PREFONT AINE: I wish to move, Mr-. Speaker, seconded by the Honourable Me mber for St. George, that the debate be adjourned. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and after a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR. SPEAKER: Adjourned debate on the proposed motion of the Honourable. Member for Inkster. The Honourable Member for Seven Oaks. MR. ARTHUR E. WRIGHT (Seven Oaks): Mr.

Speaker, the Honouraf;>le Member for Winnipeg Centre quoted me as saying when I was speaking of my party's principles last year, that assistance should be given to those who need it most, and I think many of us would agree on that, but I was not speaking at that time on Old Age Security pensions. In 1927, when Old Age pensions came into effect, the pension was $20 with a means test, and there was a lot of opposition to this suggestion at that time and many said it would break the country.

In 1951, when old age assistance legislation became law, the pension of $20 was raised to $40 and it was then called a security pension with no means test for those over 70. Now upon the intro duction of old age assistance, why was this pension not cancelled if we agree that a pension should be paid only in cases of need? Now the pension was given as a matter of right. A person reaching 70 years of age was given this as a recognition of his citizenship in helping to build this wonderful country of ours. I came upon a copy of Canadian vVelfare of November, 1959 and there is a special feature in this issue, Mr.

Speaker, on the economic security for Canada's aged; and although the Clark report is a large work of 800 foolscap pages or so, there was at the Canadian Welfare Council's an.. TJ.ual meeting in June a panel of speakers, and they presented different viev.s on the implications of this Cl ark report, which itself has made no recommendations by the way; And from this discussion I wish to quote some of the assumptions about welfare generally, and this, by the way, is by a Mr. Perry who is a Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Tax Foundation.

He is the author of •Taxation in Canada" and 'Taxes, Tariffs and Subsidies". He says this and I quote, "The welfare state is here to stay. Any suggestion cff turning back February 5th, 1960. Page 307.

(Mr. Wright, cont'd) ....... the clock is futile." And too, •'that the main question now is how much of the welfare state we need and can afford. The quantitative problems have shown a surprising refusal to be easily solved. They are turning out to be almost as challenging as the original issues of principle and program. That social welfare expenditu re, as such, have no speciai claim to priorities over competing expenditu res. Outlays for defenc e, educati on, highways, and so on, may in the future have a higher priority. That the financial and economic aspect of social welfare precedes th� social in importance.

If the latter assumption seems callous, then I can only say that the economist who is not working for the ultimate welfare of humanity is not worthy of the name, and though most of my fellow economists, and particular ly those of a later vintage would violently reject the ide a, economists might be described as welfare workers without tears. Well let us come to Old Age Security and see where it fits into this general prescription, and this is the way I see it . I regard Old Age Security payments as an ess ential part of the general program for sustaining aggregate income and consumption in the Canadian economy.

Old Age Security payments are mainly justified to my mind as a ful fillment of the obligation the Federal Government has assumed to maintain a buoyant economy." That is the end of quote, Mr. Speaker. Now I suggest that the economic recession of the .past few years - . we have heard much talk of the levelling-off process the last few years -- this sort of thing -- well I suggest that this economic recession of the last years could pos sibly have turned into a depression of . serious proportions had we not had such things as Old Age Security pensions, Unemployment Insurance, Family Allowances and the like.

I also came across Life magazine a few months back and this issue of Life devoted a whole -- almost a whole issue showing the good life of today with all its pleasures and tensions . And it says in the United States today they are spend ing $40 billion. annually on leisure· and pleasure: We now have things today that we didn't dream of, or my father didn' td ream of. We have power boats today ; we have skin diVing equipment; and we have all these things; and this figure of $40 billion is rather staggering.

Now that represents 8% of the gross national product of the United States and I would calculate that, on the basis of our population, the figure for Canada would be close to $4 billion annually. This

article describes, and I quote -- it is talking about supposing we all went back to •the good old day s" . We've been told a lot today of living beyond our means . Just suppose we all did and suppose that everyone buckled down to work without vacations and with few holidays ; with standard work days of 12 hours as we had before - the system that actually prevailed a few generations ago. Well, Detroit would turn out twice as many automobiles, but who would buy them? Indeed there would be no time for pleasure driving. How many people would even want a car?

And mountains of television sets would pile up, not to mention furniture and all the other things that are being turned out so prolifically today . Now the government could do one of two things as it hRs done with the farm surplus . The government could institute gigantic buying and storage programs for everything from clothes pins to bulldo zers in order to support the market and prevent universal bankruptcy, or it could impose a dictatorial system of en forced consumption mercilessly stuffing goods into our people . Now this is an exaggeration of course; nevertheless, the idea is based on economic truth.

In an age of automatic machinery and in a capitalistic society such as ours it is not productive capacity but popular dema nd that sets a limit to the amount of goods that are made , and practically speaking, the U .S. market for mos t of the necessities and even such basic lm,'Uries as cars and TV sets has for some years been near the saturation point with sales mainly dependent on replacement and the growth of population, and with mounting productive efficiency and militant unionism, wages have gone up and hours of work down so much so that the average wage earner now has about 3, 700 free hours, the equivalent of 230 full 16 -hour days off a year besides time for sleep .

And almost as much as anything else that has happened it is this growth of leisure time that has kept the American economy strong and growing. I do not know of a better way to get money into circulation more quickly than to give it to our senior citizens, and they spend it generally in the immedia te area in which they live, thereby bolstering the local economy. I have some interesting facts here from the Age and Opportunity study of 1956 of the Greater Winnipeg area, and in the Gr.eater Winnipeg area there are close to 40 , 000 people over 65 . That represents almost 10% of our population.

Fifty percent of them hJ.ve money incomes of less than $873; two-thirds of them have money incomes ·P age 308 February 5th, 1960

(Mr. Wright, cont'd) ...•. of less than $1,0 00 for a single person, $2,0 00 for couples . Fifty percent of Old Age Security is their primary source of income . Now 6, 500 of these people are living in households of other persons; 7, 400 without spouse are living apart from relatives; and 4, 200 are poorly housed . I thii:Jk these figures give a picture of the situation in our immed iate area. Now we have senior citizen housing today, and when my honourable friend from Winnipeg Centre spoke the other day I realized that when he spoke that he certainly has a lot of knowledge of this, and I give him credit for it.

Our interest today in this elderly persons housing is greater than at any other time in the last -- I could say, in history. We're certain ly interested today in our senior citizens . And today we talk about the science of geriatrics or the study of old age; how to stave off old age with a view of making life more enjoyable in the sunset years. And what is the sense of prolonging life and then asking an elderly couple to live on $110 a month? Oh ye s, they can apply for assistance under the Social Allowances Act, but is that the way to show our appreciation for the years of toil in building this country?

Remember that elderly people live with memories of the past -- memories from the days of rugged individualism before such things as social welfare, and it is very difficult for them to apply for assistance . In fact, many of them never do . I would _l ike to quote again, Mr. Speaker, from this report on economic security for Canada's aged.

"The Ontario Welfare Council through a survey found that in Toronto_in 1958 it cost an older person living alone from $86 to $98 a month to maintain himself at a level consistent with health, decency and self�respect''• and I im aifne_ that the figures for Winnipeg would be certainly very close . Now the-argument is · advanced that any increase would be paid to millionaires and poor man alike, but no one has to apply for Old Age Security pension if he do.;Jsn•t want to •. I .think that is a point that is not too well understOod, Mr . Speaker.

We hear too ofte_n that they have to take this pension whether they need it or rtot. They don't have to · apply for it, and the. millionaire who applies, .·in my opinion, is just as gUilty of wrong ,-doing as .one who evades payment of his income tax. Let's go on trying to make life a little better for our old. folks • Let's not be sidetracked by talk of blue ruin as a result. As I said before, the country was going to go broke when we insti1;uted pensions of $2 0 a month, and now that. we assume that this is part of our economy, I suggest that we keep it up . And I would ask, Mr.

Speaker, that this government petition the Federal Government for an increase for all old age and blind pensioners in the Province of Manitoba from $55 to $75 per month. MR . SPEAKER: Are you ready for the question? MR . A. J. REID (Kildonan) : Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, seconded by the Honourable· Member for Elmwood, that the debate be adjourned. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and after a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR . SPEAKER: Adjourned debate on the proposed resolution of the Honourable Member for Fisher. The_ Honourable Member for Hamiota. MR . B. P.

STRICKLAND (Hamiota): I would ask the indulgence of the House to have this matter stand . MR . SPEAKER: Order stand . Adjourned debate on the proposed resolution of the Honourable Member for Turtle Mountain. The Honourable Minister of Education . MR . STEWART E. McLEAN (Minister of Education) (D auphin): Mr. Speaker, with the permission of the House, I would like to have this stand . MR . SPEAKER: Proposed resolution standing in the name of the Honourable Member for Gladstone. MR . N. SHOE MAKER (Gladstone) : Mr.

Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Turtle Mountain, resolved that the government be requested to consider the advis ability of fixing the age of the young farmer under the Agricultural Credit Act as the age at the date the application is received by the corporation, rather than at present when the loan is made . MR . SPEAKER: I beg to inform the House that this motion is considered out of order on the grounds of anticipation.

If you will look at the Orders of the Day you will see a bill is being introduced into the House to amend the Agricultural Credit Act and for that reason I am unable to accept this resol ution. It's in the Votes and Proceedings -- I said the Orders of the Day. MR . D. L. CAMPBELL (Leader of the Opposition) (Lakeside): Mr. Speaker, is it February 5th, 1960 Page 309

(Mr . Ca mpbell, con�'d) ...... understood that it deals with this particular subject? There is only one subject dealt with here . If it is stated that the bill that is coming forward deals with this subject then I would certainly agree that your ruling it out of order is correct, but if it's just a bill dealing with the Agricultural Credit Act and not touching the age -t he definition of age of the young farmer - then I would, with all respect, question that ruling. MR.

SPEAKER : I might say that I' m not familiar with what is in the bill , but it does open up the bill and gives a member the opportunity to discuss the matters contained in the bill . I might read Rule 31 -- ''No member shall revive a debate alre ady concluded during the session or anticipate a matter appointed for consideration or of which notice has been given." Notice has been given in this particular instance . MR. CAlVIPBELL: Mr .

Speaker, on the point of order, ma y I say with all due respect that no notice has been given to this House that the age -- the definition of age of young farmers is going to be changed. Now I have mentioned before there is a very simple way of the govern me nt dealing with this matter . If any minister -- any minister of the government stands in his place and says that there is such legislation coming in, then there is no question but that your ruling is correct. MR. HUTTON: Mr,. Speaker, I am gladto inf orm the Honourable Leader of the Opposition that we are going to deal with the question of age . MR.

CAM PBELL: That puts the matter completely in order. Jv.I1l:. SPEAKER: In my opinion it was in order pefore . Proposed �esolution standing in the n� me ofthe :Honourable Member for La Verendrye . · . MR. STAN ROBERTS (La Verendrye): Mr. Speaker, I beg to, moV'e, seconded by the Honourable Men:Jber for Cr u;illon,

whereas pulpwood is a heavy comm odity and in most areas is exClusi� ely moved to ma rket during,the winter months, and

whereas a great number of people depend on forest products and their ability to market them during the winter months for their livelihood, therefore

be it resolved that special permits to allow the hauling of lo ads heavier than· those normally allowed under their maximum load license be issued,. during the months when ·road beds are frozen, to truckers engaged in hauling pulp and lumber to market from Iorest locations. MR . SPEAKER: Are you ready for the question? MR. ROBERTS: Mr . Speaker, there are according to the lat est figures, I believe quite correct, some 20, 000 cords of pulpwood cut and piled in various areas of the southeast. Most of this product, or all of it I presume, is to be delivered to the Pine Falls mill .

Now this is a heavy commodity any time, this pulpwood, but particularly so this year because of the damp fall and the pulpwood as it is piled now in the forest areas weighs a total of betWeen 4 and 5 thousand pounds per cqrd. Now this product is normally hauled from forest locations to ma rket -- to Pine Falls m.ill by truckers who obtain a special permit, mainly to haul this cordwood to ma rket. They pay $10 per month I understand for the privilege of hauling this product -- to obt ain a license to do so.

However , there is a new set of scales been installed near Pine Falls -- seven miles out of Pine Falls , and the truckers are being scaled and are having a great deal of difficulty staying under the load limits hauling this product, because a very few cords and a very small value product amounts to more than they normally would like to haul . Truckers are refusing to haul .

They are having a great deal of difficulty, the local people are getting truckers to haul this product out of the forest loca tions because the truckers ma intain, and I believe rightly so, that they cannot economically haul the small loads that they are being forced to haul at the amount of money that is available to them for hauling this product. Now this 20, 000 cords that is still in the forest loc ations constitutes the year's work for ma ny, many local residents, and to them it is their livelihood.

If they have to pay to truckers most of the value of this wood in order to have it trucked to the Pine Falls mill, then there is no income for them for having cut it and piled it and for their winter' s work. The Pine Falls mill itsel.f feels the need of this pulpwood as it is their product; they intend to buy it, have contracted to do so, and they need it for their operations.

The loca l merchants of course, feel very strongly about this too, because to them this means income to the people of the commun ity, a gre'l.t deal of income, and it means that local people who have bills to pay and so forth will, when they have sold their product, be able to pay them . The truckers, too, must make a living. This is their source of livelihood in the wintertime . Page 310 February 5th, 1960

(Mr. Roberts, cont' d) •••• And then there is the subject that possibly is debatable, but to me at least I am perfect ly certain that this is true, that heavy frozen roads -- roads during the heavy fr ost period of the winter months can not be damaged by heavy loads. Certainly no one would suggest during the spring or during the summer months that anyone should be allowed to haul loads larger than those recommended by tbe Motor Carrier Board.

But during the heavy fr ost periods, when loads are coming out of bush areas onto highways for a short distance to the Pine Falls mill, then I think it is generally accepted that no damage can be done to the roads. These truckers that have been hauling this pulpwood have been doing so for many years and they are quite conscientious people. Naturally there would be a tendency for them to overload, but they know from experience themselves that having to haul this stuff, this pulpwood, out of for est locations, that they can not overload their trucks to a great extent and still make a profitable run of it.

Theref ore, I suggest that there is no danger of really great serious overloads, and I suggest that this should be watched and checked carefully that no great serious overloads are allowed. But I do also suggest with this resolution, Mr. Speaker, that permits be issued to truckers in this area, in the southeast of Manitoba, permits be issued to them to allow the· hauling of loads heavier than those normally allowed under their maximum load license and that in this way this pulpwood may be allowed to reach market. MR. ALEXANDER : Mr.

Speaker', I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Churchill, that the debate be adjourned. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and after a voice vote declared the motion carried. MR. SPEAKER: Second reading of Bill No. 26 . The Honourable Member for St. James. MR. D. M. STANES (St; .James) : Mr. Speaker, this is a very important and somewhat controversial bill. My colleague, the Honourable Member for Assiniboia and I have been closely associated with it and he is unfortunately absent from the House . I beg the indulgence of the House to let this matter stand. MR. SPEAKER: Order stand. HON.

DUFF BOBLIN (Premier)(Wolseley): I beg to move, seconded by the Honourable the Minister of Industry and Commerce, that Mr . Speaker do now leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into a Com mittee to consider of the Supply to bil granted to Her Majesty. Mr. Speaker presented the motion. • ••• ••••••• Continued on next page February 5th, 1960. Page 311.

MR. ROB LIN: Mr. Speaker , before the question is put, there is just a very few brief introductory remarks that I would like to make which I think cover a field of infor mation that will be obvious to the members who had a chance to glance at these estimates last night. The estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31 st, 1961, which have been placed be fore the House, total $95, 328, 970 exclusive of Capital Supp ly.

This compares with a total of $84, 601, 442 for the current fiscal year and re flects an increase in government spending of ap- proximately $10. 8_ gtillion. - The members of the House, Sir, are well aware of the many.new programs that have been put into effect for the benefit of the people of Manitpba since this government took office. There have. been many changes made in the educational system ; in agricult ural servic es; in water control and conservation; and administration of justice; and in health servic es.

A revolu tionary. change. has be.en made in the welfa:re program of the provinc e and we have also been pro ceeding at a very high rate of activity in connection with the road system of Manitoba. Industri al developmenUs also being increased by the promotional efforts of this government. Provisi on is being made, Sir, in these estimates, to continue. all these prog rams. Also included-in' the estimates are several new and expanded prog rams which will be explaineQ. in full; I trust, by the ministers, in charge .of the various departments .. as the. committee reaches the items in questi- on.

There are ; howeyer, just Qn� 0r two-highlights that perhaps I should. touch on. · l wo]lld like to point out, Sir, , that in the Department of Education, :there has been ·an in'-' crr.-a se iii the estimates of $6, 590 ,_ 632. That's raising -the-estimates for- th�'li department • from some $�5 .million five,approximately last year to $3·2 mHlion one 'and .:i -half hi: this· fiscal '6 1. The m�in r�ason for thls i�c rease is the rise i� school grants by $5, 453, OOD-- rc:iughly fro.m $18 mUlion eig:ht)as.t yeaJ;' to $24 mi.Uion three this year.

This-reflects tlie:implementation of the new schonl gloant poitcy f� r the fi:r.s.t full year of-its opera tion .. lb. addi#oli, Sir ; under the._ ed�caiii:in gra� ts you wiJl.iiote anotbe� large increase .in tqe amount propose4 for the UniversitY of Manitoba., ,This iD, ..

part coyers. their desi.r.e to incr. ease .their salary scalE�'to a competitive level. �ith �t1ler ,Canadian universities., ap.<;l._·,also. to enable them. to. en'large the services ·and fitcH;,. ities that they offer to the young people of Manitoba. You wm see; Sir, that the-government has ·. placed perhaps the gre atest emphasis of all on its effort to improve and expand the educational system of.the Prov.ince, of Manitoba .. ' ._ In.agriculture and conservation, Mr.

Spe_aker"I .point out that ther-e was a very substan tial ris.e in those ,estimates last year-,.- I think,by over _a million dollars on curr ent account; and there is another increase this year although not of nearly the same propor�on ..

I W�JUld like to point out to the House, Sir, that the amounts required to pay for the shared-c ost prog rams with the Federal Government, both in providing acre age payments for unharvested crops and also with respect to freight assistance, and also that freig ht assistance pollcy on grain which is being paid for entirely by the Provi nce of Manitoba, are not included in these estimates. They are being taken out of the reven ues of this year because that is when the expenses accrue except in sofar as late accounts which are provided for in fiscal 161 estimates.

The estimates for the coming year in the Departm ent of Agriculture show a moderate increase in expenditure enabling us to maintain the major improveme nts o:!' new prog rams we undertook last year and to expand some programs and offer new ones which the minister will discuss indue course. I would Hke to also draw attention, Sir, to the increase in the Department of Health and Public Welfare of about two and a half mUlion dollars.

Most of this, as the House wUl be well aware , is d!le to the implementation of the new social allowances system, but I would also like to say that arrangements have been made in these estimates to provide money for community de velopment among Manitobans of Indian ancestry. We are going to undertake an experiment in Indian and Metis settlements with a view to seeing what can be done to work with the people there in establishing better levels of life for them. The minister will be discussing this matter more fully in due cour se.

Also in the health estimates some increased provision i.s being made for a mental hospital to improve the standard of care there, and we are also proposing to extend the health unit and the laboratory and x-ray units to new parts of the provinc e where they have not been in effect hereto. There is also extension of some other programs in the departmen t-- den tal care prevention services being one. With respect to the other departments , Sir, I would like to draw atte�tion to the fact that provision is being made therein to carry on the en'larged and expanded pro grams which were Page 312 February 5th, 1960

(Mr. Roblin, cont'd. ) .. placed before the House a year ago; or rather six months ago, and which are now getting into thei.r full stride. I think, however, it would be right of me to draw attention to an item which, while not very great in its total amount, it is nevertheless of consid erable interest to members of the House, and I suspect also of considerable interest to mem bers of the general public. And that is , that you will note that sugge stion is made in these esti mates that the indemnity of members of the legislature should be in creased by the sum of $1, 000.

Now, Sir, you are aware that amendments need to be made to the Legislative Assembly Act to give eff ect to this , and if we find that the House seems disposed to approve it, those amending bills will be brought in. I hope when we come to this item in the estimates to give the House a fuller statement of this matter indicating how it compares with other legislative asse mblies and to give some reasons which I hope will justify the increases that have been made.

Suff ice it to say at the present time that they think that these adjustments reflect in part the increased per sonal costs of representation bere in the House, and also will compensate a little more fairly for what I think 1 can fairly describe as an important public service that members of this House render. I also would like to say, Sir, that certain increases are being recommended for the salary of the Premier of the Province, members of the Cabinet, and Leader of the Opposition.

Now I hope also when the time comes to give further comparisons with other provinces and in vite your full consideration of those matters. In referring -to these estimat es , I also would like to talk about one item whi.ch is not- doesn't requi.re to be voted--which is statutory, bUt nevertheless which I am sure will attract a great deal of attention and discussion· before the House rises, and that is in connection with servicing the public debt. This item is up.

Thex:e ls an increase of 1. 1 million in interest charges this year to bil provided for a:n4. �n increase of 1. 6 million for sinking fund , debt re demption; and amortization of debt discount. Those debt charges , as the House will know, are based largely on the additional expenditures for roads that are being made in the Province of Manitoba and they also reflect the very heavy burden which must frankly be faced that results from the revolutionary change in interest rates which has taken place in the last 12 months.

I'm not going to go into this matter in detail now because, as members will understand, this matter will receive the most thorough attention when the budget debate is before us, and per haps that would be the best time to deal with it. But I would just li.ke to say that we have been scrutinizing all our capital projects to make sure that when we come to that pohit in our esti mates, that what we are recommending is what we believe should be continued in the light of the diff icult capital market and in the light of the interest rates which we are obliged to pay to day.

Referring to the current estimates though in particular, Sir, I would Hke to say that very thorough consideration, in our view, has been given in the preparation of these estimat es.

Very thorough consideration and analysis has been given to the various programs that were pre sented, and while some new services have been provided for and others have been expanded, we have been doing our best to see to it that we are getting value for the money that we spend, and we believe, Si.r, that the plans for government sp.ending in fiscal '61 , that we place before the members, are designed to produce the greatest possible economic and social development of the Province of Manitoba in the coming year, and to im plement the undertakings which we have given to the people and to this House.

And we also believe that the programs tha': we are engaged in operating now are realistic and are designed to come within the capacities and re sources of public revenues and funds that are available to us . Tha t's a very brief comment, Sir. I know we'll have much more to say about these as time goes by, but with those remarks I recommend the resolution to the House. MR. CAMPBELL: Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask two quest ions of the Honourable the First Minister if he is willing to answer them.

The first one is, inasmuch as the Hansard will not likely be available for some of us who would like to study the statement that the Hon ourable the Fi.rst Minister has just made, could we have copies of that statement?--At least copies for the Leader of the CCF and myself which we would make available to our respective groups. And the second question which the Honourable the First Minister can answer at the same time is, is there a�_-._i.tem in the estimate s dealing with the proposal for a technical edu cation in some underdeveloped country? Feb::."Uary 5th, 1960 Page 313

MR. ROBLIN: Mr. Speaker, regarding the first point, although I had a fistfull of notes here, and I must confess I did read a good deal of the material here, some of i� was extempor aneous, and what I would prefer, rather than give copies of this, is to ask my colleague to make special arrangements to take what I did say off the machine and hand it to my honourable friends as quickly as possible. We will undertake to have that done instanter.

On the other point, that will be a matter for discussion because the government wishes to present its policy on that matter and I would like to leave it until such time as the resolution which we have under consideration at the moment is before the Chamber. MR. CAMPBELL: I want to thank the Honourable the First Minister for the answer to the first. That is quite satisfactory and I am quite glad to await the second one in due course. These are questions, Mr. Speaker. MR. PAULLEY: Mr.

Speaker, I would like to thank the Honourable the First Minister for his statement on the presentation of the estimates to the House, and I also appreciate the fact that he will undertake to supply us with a copy of that statement, or the Honourable the Pro vincial�Secretary, as soon as possible. If there are any further discussions that I will make at the present time as a result of reading that statement, I have nine capable men in my group who will be able to reply to the Honourable the First Minister.

I would like to say just one or two brief words respecting the estimates that have been tabled before us and we look forward with anticipation and eagerness to a complete scrutiny of the estimates when we come to the various individual items.

I'd like first of all to say I am very disappointed in the government--in the presentation of these estimates, because I think for the first time in respect of the various items within the budget--or within thee stimates, the government has omitted to inform the members of the House in respect of the number of per sons concerned with salaries, and I think that that is a bad omission on the part of the govern ment because we on this side have raised questions pertaining to the increase or decrease, of which there hasn't been any, in the staffs, and I think the government has made a very grave omission in not following past procedures in laying that information before the me mbers of the House.

It may be that it will be a little bit of an embarrassment on occasion to the ministers when we on this side ask them for the total staff on each individual item. It would have been far better had it been printed as formerly; The Honourable the First Minister, Mr. Speaker, a moment or two ago drew our attenti- on to the--! think he said "revolutionary trend in interest rates". MR. ROBUN: I didn't say revolutionary. MR. PAULLEY: Well I thought you did. MR. ROBLIN: I was talking about social allowances. They're revolutionary. MR. PAULLEY: Well, it's immaterial.

That 's what I though my honourable friend- (interjection)--Well, some word of that--Mr. First Minister. And! am rather glad that he specifically mentioned that, and if he did use the word "revolutionary", and we usually figure out revolutionary as pertaining to actions of those far more to the left than I. I think that if he had used the word conservative trends rather than revolutionary, he would have been closer to the point because I feel, and there will be I know, Mr.

Speaker, a full airing of this particular matter when we come to it, but I do feel that herein, by just a brief glance at this particular item, the people of Manitoba will have brought before their eyes the price of high interest rates, the leaders of that revolutionary or conservative trend being the colleagues at Ottawa of the gov ernment of the Province of Manitoba. --(interjection)--Yes, if you call 6 3/4 a liberal rate, which is almost a minimum these days.

I've been informed on very good authority that if a builder of a home wishes to get a loan these days that the liberal conservative rate of interest which many loan companies are requesting is ten percent as a result of the conservative trend in interest rates, and if my honourable friend the Attorney-General calls that liberal, I can't even accept that as a CCFer. However, Mr. Speaker, as I said, I regret the omission of the staff item and look for ward to a full scrutiny of the estimates for the year 1960-1961.

I haven't had the opportunity of fully considering them, of course, in the brief time that we have had them before us. I'm sure that on many items contained within the estimates there will be questions raised by we in opposition that will tE)st even the high calibre and knowledge ofthe front row in this House. MR. J. M. FROESE (Rhineland): Mr. Speaker, I trust that the information requested Page 314 February 5th, 1960

(Mr. Froese, cont'd. ) .• by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition which is going to be made available to the JJther members of the opposition will also be made available to myself as well. MR. MOLGAT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Selkirk, that the debate be adjourned. Mr. Speaker presented the motion and after a voice vote declared the motio'!l. carried. MR. SPEAKER: Second reading of Bill No. 57,

an Act to amend the Watershed Conser- vation District Act. The Honourable Minister of Agriculture. MR. ROBLIN: Mr. Speaker, this item might stand. · MR. SPEAKER: Order stand. That brings us to the end of our Order Paper. MR. ROBLIN: Mr. Speaker, lb eg to move, seconded by the Honourable Minister of Industry and Commerce, that the House do now adjourn. 'Mr. Speaker presented the·motion. MR. MOLGAT: Mr. Speaker, before the question is put, is it the intention to sit at 2i30' Monday or 8: 00 o'clock on· Monday evening? MR. ROBLIN: 2;30 on Monday , 'Mr. :S peaker. Mr.

Speaker: put the :question and -after:a votce vote declared-the motion carried and the House adjourned until 2i30 :Monday afternoon. ·ADDRESS IN· FRENCH, February 4t h, 1960. •M. '.G. >MO LGAT(Ste. Rose) : :-Monsieur l'orateur, vous avez peut-etre remarque que dans.-mes commentaires:au debut' je n'ai pas mentionne dans mes felicitations 1 'honorable dep ·. ute <le• .llUpertsland. -Ce n'etait pas ,un-:oubli, 'au-coritraire je desirais faire .une eloge a· son su:... :j et.tout partl.cuUerementetcje· l'ai'reservee ,pour ce -moment.

Le depute de Rupertsland est un de -iDes -\Tieux>amis. ·-U.·a-·ete meme -a un -temps un de mes electeurs et j'oserais me me dire un de mes supporteurs en ce temps la'mais je dois dire en toute justice pour lui que tout en -me supportant. personnellement H m 'a sou vent dit "Re marque bien Gildas, si je te supporte ce n 'est pas ton parti que je supporte". Alors quand il a choisi de se presenter plus tard comme un representant et un candidat conservateur dans le comte de Rupertsland il ne changeait aucu nement ses opinions mats poursuivait une attitude .qu'il a .garde de puis longtemps.

Je le felicite pour' son discours, it 1 'a tres bien fait et je lui souhaite bonne chance dans l'avenir. Tout-en parlant en francais je dois dire a mon cher ami l'honorable le premier ministre que ses efforts et·ses ameliorations en francais sont apprecies . n va bien. English translation of above: MR. G. MOLGAT (Ste. Rose) : Mr. Speaker, you may have noticed that in my opening remarks I omitted to congratulate the Honourable Member for Rupertsland. This was n.ot an oversight. On the'contrary, I wished to make special mention of him particularly and I have kept it until this moment.

The member for Rupertsland is one of my old friends. He was even at one time one of my electors, and I would even go so far as to say one of my supporters at that time, but I must say in all fairness to him that whilst supporting me personally he often told me "Look here, GHdas, I may be supporting you personally, but not your party". So later when he chose to run as a representative and a Conservative candidate in the constituency of Rupertsland, he was in no way changing his opinioris but merely following an attitude which he has kept for a long time. I congratulate him on his speech.

He delivered it very well and I wish him luck in the future. While speaking French I must say to my dear friend the Honourable the First Minister that his efforts and improvements in French are appreciated. He is doing well. · February 5th, 1960 Page 315

Document details

Collection	Manitoba — Debates (Hansard)
Citation	26-2-14
Type	hansard
Volume / chapter	26th 2nd hansardpdf 14.pdf
Language	en
Format	pdf
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	5a3969a97a97f1a068e034fd44fa49b594c298ee

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