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April

9, 2014

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. XLVII No. 16

The House met at 2:00 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman):

Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Statements by Members

MR. SPEAKER:

Today we will have members' statements from the

Member for the District of Bonavista North; the Member for the District of

Cartwright L'Anse au Clair; the Member for the District of Lake Melville; the

Member for the District of Torngat Mountains; the Member for the District of

Bellevue; and the Member for the District of Humber West.

The hon. the Member for the

District of Bonavista North.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. CROSS:

All the world's a stage, Mr. Speaker.

It is with great pleasure I stand on my stage today and applaud the

dramatic performance of students from Pearson Academy, who recently earned the

award for best production in the Central Regional High School Drama Festival.

You have heard many a

compliment through my statements of the tremendous athletic prowess of Pearson

Academy students, from Deadman's Bay to Greenspond region of Bonavista North;

but they have truly taken to a new stage, quite literally, Mr. Speaker.

In recent years, theatre has

become a positive outlet for students to display their talents.

Unable to personally name the entire cast, I need to recognize Kirk

Blackwood, Best Male Performer; Kyla Stratton, Best Female Performer; Blake

Stratton, Kimberley Oram and Riley Gill for Exemplary Supporting Roles; and

their Theatre Arts teacher, Craig Loder, is an exceptional motivator, coach, and

a friend to all his students

Our collective hope is that

the students take positive memories from school experiences, recognizing the

devotion of staff members and parents alike to make for a diverse and positive

school life.

Mr. Speaker, hon.

colleagues, support me please in extending congratulations and best wishes for a

very special red carpet experience at the provincial competition in May.

As they say in the biz, Break a leg!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au

Clair.

MS DEMPSTER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

acknowledge the thirty years of outstanding service and dedication of the Eagle

River Credit Union.

Napoleon Hill once said,

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

The same can be said for the people of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair when

thirty years ago the Bank of Montreal decided to close and leave town, leaving

the people of the district without a financial institution.

The people of the Labrador

Straits rose to the challenge.

Having the support of the Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company and the

people of the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair, Eagle River Credit Union

was born.

Starting with one branch and

two employees the Eagle River Credit Union has flourished to seven branches and

fifty employees, with growth and assets of just over $102 million.

This was made possible by the competent staff, the valued members, and

the dedicated board of directors.

Their reputation and customer service continues to contribute to their success

year after year, bringing economic sustainability to the district.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all

members of this House to join me in commemorating the Eagle River Credit Union

on thirty years of service.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Lake Melville.

MR. RUSSELL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to recognize

the Ike Rich Players from Mealy Mountain Collegiate on winning the Labrador

Regional High School Drama Festival.

The Ike Rich Players won the

competition through hard work and dedication, Mr. Speaker.

They had been working together and practicing the play for over a month.

The week of the festival, drama students were expected to practice every

single day of the week until the big showcase of their play.

The group performed Don

Zolidius' play Crushed , and did it in

fine form, receiving several accolades from the festival.

Specifically, Emily Harris was recognized as the best overall actor of

the festival.

The Ike Rich Players' cast

for the festival included Jamie Felsberg, Heidi Applin, Rachel Goudie, Louna

Fezoui, Emily Harris, Becca Pike, Connor Crocker, Noah Taite, Bradley Baker,

Mitchell Eddy, and Quinten Taylor.

They will now go on to compete in the upcoming Provincial High School Drama

Festival at the LSPU Hall in St. John's this coming May.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all

members of this hon. House to join me in recognizing the Ike Rich Players from

Mealy Mountain Collegiate on winning the Labrador Regional High School Drama

Festival.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.

MR. EDMUNDS:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to

acknowledge the passing of a true son of Labrador, Mr. Ted Andersen,

affectionately known as Uncle Ted.

Uncle Ted was dedicated to

his community of Makkovik, the communities of the North Coast, and the people of

Labrador. He was the cofounder of

the Combined Councils of Labrador, served on the Makkovik community council for

more than twenty years, and was actively involved in the Labrador Inuit

Association.

Uncle Ted followed the

political world very closely and was very astute in the politics of his day.

His first words to me as a rookie politician were, They'll elect you,

but remember, you are at the mercy of the very people you represent.

As a successful entrepreneur

and fisherman, he believed that hard work and perseverance would always prevail.

He always told me to stand up for what you believe in.

His family tried on many

occasions to get Uncle Ted closer to them in his final years.

We can now take comfort in knowing that Uncle Ted has gone home.

I ask all hon. members to

join me in expressing condolences to his family.

Have a rest, my friend; you have earned it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bellevue.

MR. PEACH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House to

recognize the Community Five Lions Club of Dildo.

I had the great privilege of attending their annual forty-fifth Lions

Charter Night on March 29, 2014.

This club has been very active and still stands strong today with twenty-eight

members.

Mr. Speaker, the highlight

of the night was the honouring of a charter member.

With forty-five years of being a Lion member with the club, Mr. Cyril

Russell of Blaketown is a gentleman of great stature.

I would like to also take

this opportunity to recognize four other long-time members.

Mr. Walter Reid has been a member for forty-two years, Lemuel Reid who

has served for thirty-two years, Barry Peckham with thirty-two years, and

Rayfield Reid has been a member for thirty years.

One would say that the

survival of this club is attributed to the long-time dedication of such

individuals who gave up so many of their valuable hours to be a true Lion

member.

I ask all members of this

hon. House to join me and say thank you to the above mentioned long-time members

of the Community Five Lions Club and to congratulate Mr. Cyril Russell on being

a charter member for forty-five years with the club.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Humber West.

MR. GRANTER:

Mr. Speaker, I stand in this hon. House to

congratulate a trio of budding swimmers from the Corner Brook Rapids Swim Club

on their impressive achievements in competition recently held at the Canada

Games Aquatic Centre in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Megan Colbourne, Heidi

Perry, and Caleigh Edwards had personal best times in all of their events while

combining to smash a total of eight rapids records in the process.

The team of three finished

tenth, out of thirty-one teams that participated in the female category, up

against some of the elite young athletes in Atlantic Canada.

Colbourne's impressive

weekend included nailing down an age group National Time for her first place

finish in the 1,500 meter freestyle.

Edwards set a new rapids record in the 200 metre freestyle, and Perry was

impressive setting new records in fifty, 100 and 400 metre events.

Honourable members, please

join me in congratulating Megan Colbourne, Heidi Perry and Caleigh Edwards on

their achievements in the pool and wish them much more athletic achievements as

they continue their swimming pursuits.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Statements by Ministers.

Statements by Ministers

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Municipal and

Intergovernmental Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased to rise today

in this hon. House to inform all members of a new Municipal Council Handbook,

available through Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs to assist municipal

administrators and elected officials in the handling of day-to-day operations.

The Municipal Council

Handbook was officially launched last week, at the forty-second Professional

Municipal Administrators Convention in Gander.

A training session and overview was provided to delegates and hard copies

were available at the event for municipal administrators.

I am also pleased to note that we will be distributing copies for elected

officials at the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador Symposium which takes

place next month in Gander.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to

thank officials with the Professional Municipal Administrators and

Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador for partnering with the department to

bring this handbook to fruition.

The Municipal Council

Handbook was funded through the Department of Municipal and Intergovernmental

Affairs and developed in partnership with the Professional Municipal

Administrators and Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador.

This guide book is designed for use by municipal administrators and

elected officials as a resource to assist them in providing efficient and

effective services to residents. I

am happy to report that the handbook was well-received by all during the

convention last week.

Mr. Speaker, this new

handbook can be used as a quick reference guide to assist mayors, councillors,

and municipal administrators in the handling of day-to-day operations in their

municipalities. It contains

information on areas such as council budgeting and financial administration,

council communications and civic engagement, and council's role as a

policymaker, regulator and planner.

An electronic copy of this handbook is also available on the Department of

Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs' Web site.

The department is

continuously looking at ways to provide assistance to municipalities to ensure

that they have the information they need to operate efficiently and in

accordance with legislation.

Mr. Speaker, we will

continue to work with our stakeholders to ensure that residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador are represented by strong councils which will support sustainable

and vibrant communities.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for an

advance copy of the statement. I

agree that anything we can do to help out the municipalities, councils, and

administrators is a great thing. I

heard people who already availed of this service.

It is a great handbook, it will help councillors.

It will help a lot of people who administer their towns, town clerks, and

other people. Anything we can do,

Mr. Speaker, to help out our volunteers, the town councils, to make our towns

run smoother is better for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the

government and all the people who helped out to bring this book forward.

It is going to make a difference to a lot of towns for their quick use.

I did speak to somebody and what they said to me is they would rather

have a fiscal framework than a municipal handbook.

Once again, we see all this

gloss coming up, which is good. This

handbook is great, I have to admit.

What they are saying is great, we have a handbook, but we need the finances so

we can run our towns. I urge the

minister, I urge the government, that there is some way we start the fiscal

framework to ensure that what they committed six years ago is going to be filled

this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's East.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the

minister for the advance copy of his statement as well.

A big thank you as well, to the professional administrators who helped to

make up this manual for Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador, in their

assistance in making this book. It

is a great aid, especially when you are talking about the volunteers who are

running a lot of the smaller communities out there.

I would also like to add,

one of the administrators I was talking to pretty much echoed the same

sentiments as the Member for Bay of Islands as well.

They did not see a

chapter in the book called how to get more money out

of a minister. Hopefully in the next

little while we will see that

chapter coming up sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SHEA:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform this hon.

House that the deadline for nominations for the 2014 Environmental Awards is May

1. This annual awards program is an

opportunity to recognize environmental achievements in our Province and raise

awareness of the individuals, groups, and businesses who take action to protect

and sustain our environment.

Mr. Speaker, the Department

of Environment and Conservation partners annually with the Multi-Materials

Stewardship Board and the Newfoundland and Labrador Women's Institutes to

recognize environmental achievement in the following categories: Individual;

Community Group or Organization; Youth, Youth Group or School; Municipality or

Regional Waste Management Committee; and, Business or Industry Leader.

It is important to recognize

our Province's environmental leaders in this manner.

Each category winner will receive a $1,000 honorarium from the

Multi-Materials Stewardship Board and a trophy to be presented during an

Environment Week ceremony, which will take place this June.

Mr. Speaker, a healthy and

sustainable environment yields healthy people, a stronger economy, more vibrant

communities, and a legacy for which we can be proud.

Our commitment to our ecosystem will ensure we meet the social, physical,

cultural, and economic needs of present and future generations.

Recognizing these types of

achievements continues to raise awareness of the tireless work being done by

those dedicated to making a difference and protecting our environment.

We all need to take responsibility for the protection of the environment.

Further information about

the Environment Awards and the criteria is available on our Web site for the

Department of Environment and Conservation.

Nomination forms can be accessed easily and printed from that site.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's South.

MR. OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is a good program.

I am familiar with the program and those who receive awards deserve to be

recognized. In fact, everyone who is

nominated for one of those awards deserves recognition because they lead by

example.

I want to talk a little bit,

Mr. Speaker, about the Energy Plan government released a few years ago.

They promised a detailed plan for efficiency and conservation in 2008.

That is over six years ago.

It did not happen it did not happen.

Government promised to

introduce targeted programs to help home owners reduce energy consumption.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker? It

did not happen. They promised

retrofit rebates. It did not happen.

They promised to switch to more energy-efficient lights and net metering.

Guess what? It did not

happen.

Our Province is lagging well

behind other provinces, provinces as close as Nova Scotia, in developing these

types of programs. Mr. Speaker,

wouldn't it be nice if the provincial government led by example?

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The member's time has

expired.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's East.

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the

minister for the advance copy of her statement here today in the House.

This is a very good project.

I have to commend government for this.

I am looking forward to hearing about some of the groups, for example, in

my area that will be participating.

I can think of a schoolyard

that is where environmental protection really starts, I think, and it is

integral to our young people. I can

think of Rennie's River school down there that literally changed a parking lot

into a playground, and I can think of other groups that are worthy of receiving

rewards.

I encourage all residents of

this Province to look at groups such as the salmonid association of Newfoundland

and Labrador; the Sandy Pond Alliance should also be included in that; the

Rennie's River foundation; and the Johnson Family Foundation.

This list is endless when it comes to the contribution that these groups

are making to (inaudible) in this Province.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you very much.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Tourism, Culture and

Recreation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. FRENCH:

Mr. Speaker, East Coast Music Week is a five-day,

non-stop musical celebration showcasing and recognizing the best of east coast

artists and music. It is promoted as

a premiere music event for the music industry in Canada, as well as the

conference of choice for artist and industry professionals.

The event is hosted on an annual basis throughout the Atlantic provinces,

and alternates within five regions Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, New

Brunswick, mainland Nova Scotia, and, of course, Newfoundland and Labrador.

This past weekend, Mr.

Speaker, I had the opportunity to attend a number of musical showcases and other

industry-centred events at East Coast Music Week in Prince Edward Island,

culminating in the awards show on Sunday evening.

A number of performers from our Province were nominated for awards,

including Amelia Curran, Matthew Hornell, Tonya Kennedy, Ennis, The Rolling

Kings, and Lady Cove Women's Choir, to name a few, and I offer my sincerest

congratulations to everyone who was nominated.

Some of the highlights of

the awards show included Jenn Grant for Song of the year, and Dave Gunning for

Solo Recording and Songwriter of the Year.

Our provincial winners were Duane Andrews and Craig Young who won in the

category of Traditional Instrumental Recording; Clark Winslow Ross who was

awarded Classical Composition of the Year; and choral director Kellie Walsh who

received the Stompin' Tom Award.

Along with the dynamic array

of musical showcases, seminars and industry-centred gatherings, East Coast Music

Week offers opportunities for musicians to be discovered and secure career

opportunities. Over the past several

years, the awards have resulted in more than a million dollars in local,

regional, and international contract opportunities for artists.

Mr. Speaker, East Coast

Music Week is not only a musical celebration which fosters and promotes the

careers of east coast artists, it also provides a significant economic benefit

to the host province. Depending on

the event location, the week historically generates between $3 million and $4

million in direct and indirect economic benefits to the host province.

It engages upwards of 500 volunteers in a number of key operational roles

for the host jurisdiction. I am

absolutely delighted, Mr. Speaker, that Newfoundland and Labrador will be the

host province in 2015 for this exciting week in the music industry, and our

government will proudly support this event.

Mr. Speaker, we are

certainly looking forward to hosting the East Coast Music Week in April of 2015,

and building on the momentum this event has created since its inception.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bay of

Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for the

advance copy.

I must commend the minister,

this is the first ministerial statement that I received in the number of years I

have been in the House that actually recognizes the volunteers and not trying to

promote government agenda. I commend

the minister for that because, Mr. Speaker, these volunteers I congratulate

all the winners, I congratulate all the hard work and all the volunteers that

makes this award.

I had the privilege of

attending this past, in the East Coast Music Award Week.

Mr. Speaker, it is a great showcase of our talent for all Atlantic

Canada. It is great for

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. It

is a great opportunity, as the minister stated, to get some contracts.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate

again the organizers and the 500 volunteers who are going to be working on this

next year. I congratulate the

minister once again for helping promote the arts in the Province, as we had in

Estimates this year. I welcome all

people to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador because when they come once

they will want to come again.

I just want to congratulate

the minister for promoting all the volunteers, promoting the event, as it should

be. I thank the organizers, and I

thank the minister and the government for the work they gave and they do give

our artists in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for an

advance copy of his statement.

Congratulations to all the

nominees from Newfoundland and Labrador, and bravo to all award winners: Duane

Andrews, Craig Young, Clark Winslow Ross, and Kellie Walsh.

You all make us so proud.

Our singer songwriters and

musicians are jewels in our crown.

Through their music they carry us through tough times, through celebrations.

They are there when we marry, they help us bury our dead.

They make music for our films and music we can tap our feet to or even

dance. Sometimes we even sing along.

They soothe our souls and help our hearts and minds soar.

Thank you to all those brave and determined enough to make music.

It is crucial that we ensure

our musicians have the support they need in order to be able to exceed because

we all benefit. It is a solid

investment. We all look forward to

East Coast Music Week on our shores next year, and bravo to all.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Oral Questions.

Oral Questions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

After almost two years

without a contract, talks with government and the teachers have broken off.

We know the teachers have made a formal request for government to appoint

a conciliation officer.

I ask the Premier: When will

the conciliation process begin?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Justice.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KING:

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am thumbing

through my mail because I have not received a formal request, unless it is in

this bunch. If it is in this bunch

of mail, I can tell you that it will be signed off this afternoon and it will

start immediately.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Sometime yesterday afternoon, I think, just after

3:00 o'clock, I say to the minister.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the

Minister of Finance tried to brush off the fact that talks have broken down with

the teachers. She said it is just

the next step in the bargaining process.

I ask the Premier: Why is

your government acting like it is a normal process, it is normal for teachers to

be without a contract for almost two years?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have been

elected by the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to ensure that we look after

their best interests, and one of the things we do is we negotiate contracts with

our valued employees. When we do

that, we negotiate. We try to arrive

at a collective agreement that is fair and reasonable; fair and reasonable to

our public employees and fair and reasonable to the taxpayers, and we do that.

We have experienced negotiators who negotiate on our behalf and we ask

them to negotiate at the table because that is where a deal can be gotten, not

in the media.

Mr. Speaker, these

negotiators and this government have negotiated collective agreements with NAPE,

the RNC, with CUPE, with health professionals, with correction officers, with

workers, health and corporate safety, and also with the dentists, and that

process will continue.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the things that the

teachers are saying is they do not really feel that this is a fair and a

meaningful process. They have openly

said in public and stated on many occasions that they really do not feel that

government negotiators have a mandate to be at the table.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in

the House the Premier finally admitted that patient numbers justify a radiation

unit at Western Memorial, in Western Newfoundland.

We have said as the Official Opposition that there are enough patients in

Western Newfoundland to make the radiation unit viable, but the Minister of

Health has said time and time again that the numbers do not justify a radiation

unit.

I ask the Premier: Why is

your Minister of Health ignoring the fact that the numbers justify a radiation

unit in Corner Brook, or ignoring the fact?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

In 2012-2013 of the patients

who received radiation treatment in the Province I think there were 172 who came

from the West Coast of the Province.

As I think the hon. member probably knows the 20 per cent it would be complex

and if the radiation treatment were offered in the new hospital in Corner Brook,

20 per cent would still have to go to St. John's or Halifax for complex

treatments or for brachytherapy.

We know that there are

certain professionals who indicate that the numbers are low.

We also know that there are also psychosocial benefits.

It is important that people be as close to home as possible and for

people to be able to go home at night and go home to their own beds, and we know

that is an important factor that has to be reviewed as well.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We also know that there are

many people, especially in palliative situations, who do not get treatment.

As a matter of fact that number in some provinces in our country right

now is as high as 20 per cent from the numbers that we have.

Mr. Speaker, our office made

an ATIPP, or an access to information request, for all documents that were used

to justify the decision not to place a radiation unit in the new hospital.

That was received on March 7 and it was 141 pages long.

Three weeks later in Budget 2014, government announced $500,000 to review

radiation therapy for the Western Region.

I ask the Premier: What

happened in those three weeks for you to change your mind?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, obviously we have professionals who have indicated and

this was in the Stantec report that the numbers in Western Newfoundland were

very low. We have also heard the

concerns of the people of the West Coast.

We have collectively reflected and after further discussion we also

heard from experts working in cancer care and other areas.

We see value in exploring what they are doing in other jurisdictions, in

exploring radiation therapy programs outside of the provincial care program.

As I said yesterday, we know

there are areas that have one machine.

We are looking at whether that model could work or whether there would

need to be a backup machine. We are

concerned about safety because if you do not have the right professionals, the

care may not be safe. We have to

make sure it is.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Quite clearly yesterday the

Premier stated that the numbers do justify.

That is exactly what we have been seeing as we have been reviewing this

situation across the country.

The safety is not an issue,

I say to the Premier. We are seeing this

happen in Ontario, in Nova Scotia, and as a matter of fact in other places in

the world.

We have been asking for

improved health services for the Western Region of our Province for years.

We have said and now the Premier agrees, the numbers justify a radiation

unit. The Minister of Health,

however, has disagreed and now the Premier is stating the opposite yesterday,

the numbers do justify it.

I ask the Premier: When did

you determine that your government's initial analysis was wrong?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member is trying to put words in my mouth.

I said we had numbers, we had low numbers, and we have looked at those

numbers and we are now in the process of exploring additional information.

There is nothing wrong in doing that.

You can get information from one source; you can get other information

from other sources.

The Minister of Health and

her department are going through a process now to help us get additional

information other than what was provided by Stantec, information coming out of

Cape Breton and information coming out of Prince Edward Island.

We look forward to seeing that information because what we want to do is

ensure that if radiation therapy can be offered in the new hospital in Western

Newfoundland, we are sure it has to offer the highest-quality care, it has to be

done safely, and we have to be able to get the right people.

That is what we are looking

at. When we get that information

that will inform the decision this government is going to make.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This government has made a

significant decision on behalf of the people of Western Newfoundland and

Labrador. The information you relied

on prior to March 7 was clearly wrong.

I ask the Premier: Why did

you ignore the current information that is available in the country easily

available in the country before you made the decision on March 7?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, the information that was provided to me by the minister and

by the Department of Health was information provided by Stantec.

You have a copy of that. The

hon. Member for Bay of Islands ATIPPed' that and got a copy.

As a matter of fact, the Minister of Health was out and readily shared

that information with the people of Western Newfoundland.

What we have done is we have

looked at those numbers and we said that is one person, that is one company, and

we are exploring others. To me, that

is a wise decision. We are looking

at other areas. We looked at

Sudbury. We looked at Peterborough.

We are now looking at Cape Breton and PEI.

We are looking at: Can we get medical physicists?

Can we get the radiation oncologists?

Can we offer one machine or do we have to have a backup machine?

We are exploring that and that information will, again, inform our

decision.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Information that was readily

available, one phone call and the Opposition set up a call with leaders in

Ontario who are actually delivering this service right now.

Why didn't government

actually make the simple call to Ontario to get the information that was readily

available?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, we obviously have to rely on experts, health professionals,

to help guide us in making our decisions.

What we have asked them to do is to provide us with the evidence, and

that is what they have been doing.

As they gather the evidence, they present it to us.

We will make the policy decision.

We will make the decision, and when we have this additional information

we will be very happy to do so.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bay of

Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

I will just let the Premier know, if he is not

aware, that Stantec Report, I had to apply under the Freedom of Information

because your Department of Health would not release it.

Just for the record.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was

pleased that the Premier stood and talked about the different radiation models

that are being looked at for our Province.

What he said was very different from the Minister of Health, who has said

there would be no radiation unit in the new Corner Brook hospital.

I ask the Minister of

Health: Can you explain to the people of the Province why you think there should

not be a radiation unit in the new hospital?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member just indicated he had to ATIPP it.

The information was given out by the minister and her officials when they

were there announcing what the plan would be and what the timelines would be for

building a new health care campus and a new hospital in Corner Brook over the

next few years. So, you did not have

to ATIPP the information. It was

released by the minister.

Mr. Speaker, a decision like

this is a serious decision, and we have to ensure that we gather all possible

information. It is very simple, the

information came from Stantec. The

number there is 172; 20 per cent will have to go somewhere else because it is

complex and because of brachytherapy.

We are now exploring other areas in Atlantic Canada, two machines.

We looked at the model across the country.

In St. John's it is

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for the

District of Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I say to the Premier again,

I will show you the ATIPP request that I had to put in when I received the

information sixty days later. I will

show it to you.

Also, Mr. Speaker, in the

past two months the Minister of Health has written several letters to

communities, organizations on the West Coast saying that the addition of

radiation therapy in the new hospital was not recommended.

For example, she wrote the Town of Burgeo on February 17 and the Gateway

Status of Women on February 27, just to name two.

Yesterday, the Premier said a radiation unit was justified.

I ask the minister: Will you

now admit that you did not provide the proper due diligence before you made such

a huge decision affecting so many people in the Province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, once again the information was given out by the minister in

the deck that you have had for some time.

Mr. Speaker, the information

that was provided to the minister was provided by the company that is doing the

master program and the functional program for the West Coast hospital.

That particular group did not recommend radiation therapy because of the

low numbers.

So we looked at that, and we

wanted to consult with others as well.

We wanted to see what other people have to do.

The officials of the Department of Health are gathering that evidence,

because they want to make sure that they offer and provide to the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador the best health services that are possible.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bay of

Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, I ask the Premier, will you provide

details of if you are saying that you have the information, your department is

collecting it: Can you explain what the $500,000 will be used for?

Is there a consulting firm hired?

Because you mentioned yesterday that officials are gathering the

information. Can you explain what

the $500,000 and are you now admitting that the Stantec report was inaccurate,

or is it just that you are not following the recommendations of the Stantec

report?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, the Stantec report provided information, provided facts.

It provided the number of people in Newfoundland and Labrador who were

seeing a radiation oncologist, and those from the West Coast.

It provided the number of people from Newfoundland and Labrador who were

getting radiation therapy, including those from the West Coast.

The information that Stantec

provided, 172 they are the numbers from 2012-2013.

It was for one year. We

decided to look for more information to be thorough and to look elsewhere.

The information provided by the minister, provided by the Department of

Health is accurate. They are

providing evidence, and from the evidence we will make the decision.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's South.

MR. OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday it

was Bay d'Espoir, today it is Baie Verte.

The original tender for roadwork in Baie Verte called for 12.5 kilometres

of work to be completed by September 30 of this year.

Government later released an addendum

limiting the amount of roadwork to $2.2 million this year.

That is roughly four kilometres, 30 per cent of the original tender.

I ask the minister: Will you

tell the people of Baie Verte why you reduced the amount of roadwork that was

supposed to be completed this year?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Transportation and

Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MCGRATH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, what we have

done this year, through the Heavy Civil Association and consultation with them,

they came to us and asked us could we stop piecemealing', doing a kilometre

here, a kilometre there? So the

department, working with the Heavy Civil Association, decided that we would get

together and we would put large projects together.

The information that the

member across the House is giving out is misinformation.

He accused me the other day of political posturing.

If someone is politically posturing, it is him trying to give misleading

information to the people in Baie Verte and the other day in Bay d'Espoir.

What we have done is put larger projects together and we have put out

tenders for large projects. We can

guarantee to keep the work, and I will comment on this after his next question.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's South.

MR. OSBORNE:

Mr. Speaker, the tender documents do not lie.

The proof is in the pavement or the lack thereof.

There was supposed to be 12.5 kilometres clearly outlined in the original

tender document, Mr. Speaker. That

was reduced to $2.2 million, which will only complete 30 per cent of the work.

I ask the minister: Why are

you continuing to play politics with provincial roadwork in this Province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Transportation and

Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MCGRATH:

Thank you again, Mr. Speaker.

I will pick up where I left

off on the last question. What we

have done is put these projects together.

Through the Heavy Civil Association, we are guaranteeing that work can be

done. These large tenders and I

will use Bay d'Espoir as an example.

There is a maximum there, so in two seasons the work has to be completed,

thirty-three kilometres that have to be completed in two years the guarantees

and commitments from this government that the work will be done.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for

Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.

MS DEMPSTER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in

Estimates when I asked whether the minister responsible for violence prevention

tried to save the family violence court by offering to cost share, she simply

replied: It was a Justice initiative.

I ask the minister: Why

won't you work with the Minister of Justice to protect women and children in our

Province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SHEA:

Mr. Speaker, it seems somewhat as if the member

does not understand the Budget process.

As the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women and the Women's

Policy Office, we just cannot take money from one budget head and assign it to a

project in another department. I

just cannot take money, say, from the Violence Prevention Initiative and not

give it to the Regional Coordinating Committees and transfer it to another

department.

Mr. Speaker, there is a

process that you follow and this government has supported the Violence

Prevention Initiative for many years.

We are about to release the second phase of that initiative.

Mr. Speaker, we are firmly committed to advancing the issues of women in

this Province and we are committed to the prevention of violence.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au

Clair.

MS DEMPSTER:

Mr. Speaker, I think we would all benefit if

departments could work together more.

Yesterday, in Estimates I

asked the minister responsible for violence prevention whether programs for

offenders were being funded by the Violence Prevention Initiative.

The minister again responded that this was a Justice issue.

I ask the minister: Can you

confirm that you are not willing to help fund violence prevention programs to

help women and children in the Province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SHEA:

Mr. Speaker, the Violence Prevention Initiative

works with many community groups throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, and they

certainly put forward the projects or the initiatives that they feel are most

appropriate for their communities.

Historically, violence

treatment programs are typically offered in settings that would be more

appropriate to the Justice setting.

Oftentimes they are cost shared or provided by the Correctional Service of

Canada, as opposed to the provincial government, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we will

continue to work with our community groups, our Regional Coordinating

Committees, and we will give the people who have the expertise from their local

areas to be able to determine their priorities and work within that fund to

ensure that they meet the priorities of their local communities.

We will not dictate to them what they have to do for these committees.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.

MR. LANE:

Mr. Speaker, the number of Occupational Health

and Safety inspectors in our Province cannot keep up with the demand.

Even the minister told the media: There are just a total of twenty-two

inspectors to keep tabs on every single industry in the Province, including the

fishery.

I ask the minister: When

will you admit there is a critical shortage of Occupational Health and Safety

Officers and what are you going to do to address it?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Service NL.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. CRUMMELL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am just going to put a few

facts out here, Mr. Speaker, to refute what the hon. member said on the opposite

side. Certainly, the Occupational

Health and Safety branch of government at Service NL has a very strong record in

safety in our workplaces, Mr. Speaker.

We are a leader in the country.

So let's look at some facts

here. We have the third highest

workplace inspection rates in Canada, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. CRUMMELL:

That includes Ontario, British Columbia, and

Alberta. We have the lowest

incidence rates in our history: 1.6 per cent for 100 employees, 50 per cent

lower than ten years ago, Mr. Speaker.

When we look at the fish harvesting sector, the incidence rates are 2.2

percent, the lowest since 2008.

We are doing good work.

The work is getting done. The

inspections are getting done, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.

MR. LANE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I say to the minister, he

should tell that to all the injured workers and their families trying to survive

on workers' comp.

Mr. Speaker, in the past

three years this government carried out just thirty-eight safety inspections on

commercial fishing vessels that are over forty feet long.

That works out to just over twelve a year.

Given that injury rates in

the fishery are almost double the provincial average for workers, I ask the

minister: Why have you not committed to providing dock-side safety inspections

for all fishing vessels over forty feet long?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Service NL.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. CRUMMELL:

Mr. Speaker, we do recognize that there are

significant challenges when it comes to inspecting fish harvesters, but we are

doing the good work around the prevention piece.

We have twenty-two inspectors out there who are doing their jobs day in,

day out. We have added two new

inspectors in the Budget this year.

We know that the rates are going to go up in terms of our inspections rates.

Certainly in the fishing sector, the harvesting sector, we are going to

be out there on the ground at dockside monitoring the situation as best we can.

Fundamentally, Mr. Speaker,

we will know that occupational health and safety is everybody's responsibility.

We have labour, we have industry, we have employers, we have employees,

and we have government. It is

everybody's responsibility, Mr. Speaker.

We are working together to educate, to train, to make sure our workplaces

are as safe as they possibly can be.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour Grace

for a quick question.

MR. SLADE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This morning, Mr. Speaker, I

stood shoulder to shoulder with our fishers protesting against the shrimp quota

cuts. We have always said the

solution is for more provincial say

MR. SPEAKER:

I ask the member to get to his question quickly,

please.

MR. SLADE:

in the management of our fisheries.

It seems this government is finally agreeing.

I ask the minister: After

the federal Tories promised joint fisheries management in 2006, why has it taken

you eight years to finally warm up to the idea?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture for a quick response.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Mr. Speaker, I was down this morning to the

demonstration, too, and stood shoulder to shoulder along with the Member for

Lewisporte, the Minister of Justice, and the Members for Placentia St. Mary's,

Bonavista South, and Bonavista North.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Mr. Speaker, we have stood shoulder to shoulder

to this issue since 2004 in LIFO. We

have been quite clear that we did not think it was efficient for the industry,

it had to change. We said it needs

to change. We have supported the

industry; we certainly continue to support it.

I do not know where the hon.

member is. Last week I did a

member's statement. The Leader of

the NDP supported it. This member

stood up, he did not support what we said about LIFO.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

The loss of 900 metric tons

to the inshore shrimp harvesters is going to have far-reaching and devastating

implications to our already struggling rural economy, a major concern of the

protesters I spoke to this morning at DFO.

I ask the Premier: Will he

stand up for the 2,200 plant workers and more than 250 small boat enterprises

affected and get on the phone to the Prime Minister to get this decision

reversed, Mr. Speaker?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will bring

the hon. member up to date in terms of our reference over the past number of

years in terms of dealing with this issue last in, first out and how devastating

it is and will be in terms of these proposed cuts.

That is why we demanded the federal government have these cuts changed.

They are devastating to rural Newfoundland and Labrador, to our coastal

communities.

Since 2010, we have lobbied.

We continuously lobby the former minister.

Certainly I, as the Minister of DFA, have been in touch with various

ministers in Ottawa and said quite clearly, this is not good for the inshore

fishery of Newfoundland and Labrador.

We met with industry.

We met with the shrimp inshore fleet.

We were down this morning, and over the past number of months.

We have lobbied to have this changed.

It must be changed. We

believe there are great opportunities in the fisheries.

That is why we believe joint management, the inventory of science, the

$400 million fund we built, and all we have built with the industry, we can move

it forward, but the federal government needs to be there to work with us.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

DFO's last in, first out

so-called policy does not exist on paper and it is not mentioned in any federal

legislation.

I ask the Premier: Will he

get on the phone and explain clearly to the Prime Minister the disastrous

ramifications last in, first out has to the inshore fishers and plant workers

and this Province's economy?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the last in,

first out policy, we need to go back and look at it in 1996 when the inshore

fleet got access to this resource on a temporary basis.

Then in 2007, the federal government decided to give permanent licence to

these licence holders. At that point

in time, these individuals, these 240 harvesters and enterprises became

stakeholders in this fishery.

That is our point today in

regard to LIFO. They have invested.

We have invested through the Fisheries Loan Guarantee Program a couple of

years ago. We made tremendous

investment. We opened it up to allow them

to get access to capital to drive the industry, to rationalize.

We have done a number of

programs. There is FTNOP driving

technology in terms of the fishing industry.

Again we are investing $120 million in the fishery with CETA when that is

signed. Our contribution to the

fishery has been second to none of any government in this Province.

We are proud of it, and we believe in the fishery.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Government's CETA deal with

the EU includes a $400 million fund to help protect Newfoundland and Labrador

fish plant workers affected by government's abandoning its policy of minimum

processing requirements.

I ask the Premier: Will any

of this money be available to help harvesters and plant workers who may get hurt

by this unfair federal government practice that is happening?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Mr. Speaker, we negotiated $400 million with the

federal government for CETA. When

they came to the table first, they were very limited in what they wanted to

spend the money on but we negotiated.

We said we want a program for technology utilization, for research and

science, which they backed out on.

We continue to build on the

$13 million and the $5 million I announced yesterday at the Marine Institute.

We can build our industry based on the opportunities we have in free

trade and other opportunities around the world, whether that is the EU, South

Korea, or trade deals that have recently been established or will be signed in

the coming years.

In regard to that fund, we

have funds now in regard to wage adjustment for workers, but we are not letting

the federal government off the hook.

If they want to come and do rationalization in regard to this, they can come and

we will sit with them, but we have decided how that $400 million will be used.

We are not letting them off the hook now

and say we are going to use that. If

they want to come with more money, bring it on.

We are willing to talk.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Women's Policy Office is

who government turns to for direction on policy and program decisions affecting

women. Their primary focus is

violence prevention and addressing the needs of women who are victims of

violence.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the

minister: Did he consult the Women's Policy Office before closing the Family

Violence Intervention Court?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SHEA:

Mr. Speaker, the Women's Policy Office has

individuals who are able to provide a gender analysis to all the policies of the

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and they do their job very effectively.

Any time there is a decision that may or may not even affect women, we

ask for their opinion on that particular policy or policy move of government to

ensure we do not miss that piece of work, Mr. Speaker.

As has been said by my

colleague, the Minister of Justice, sometimes decisions are made for budgetary

reasons and not necessarily because we disagree with the particular policy.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I ask the minister: Why did he not

consult these experts that are part of the Executive Council?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SHEA:

Mr. Speaker, this government has said that the

Family Violence Court was an initiative that was brought in by this government

and discontinued for budgetary reasons.

At no point did this government say we disagreed with that particular

policy, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre for a

quick question.

MS ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I ask the minster: Did he consult

with the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women before closing the

Family Violence Intervention Court?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

MS SHEA:

Again, Mr. Speaker, unless the member does not

understand what I am saying, the Family Violence Intervention Court was a

budgetary decision as opposed to a reversal of policy for this particular

government.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, did the minister consult with his

Justice Minister's Committee on Violence Against Women who helped plan the

Family Violence Intervention Court before closing the court?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Environment and

Conservation.

MS SHEA:

Again, Mr. Speaker, this government looked at the

Family Violence Court from a policy perspective and agreed with that policy.

The decision to eliminate it or not continue it was a budgetary decision,

Mr. Speaker, not because this government disagrees with the concept of a Family

Violence Intervention Court.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The time for Question Period has expired.

Presenting Reports by

Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

Answers to Questions for

which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. Barbe.

MR. BENNETT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,

the petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS there is no

cellphone service in the Town of Trout River, which is an enclave community in

Gros Morne National Park; and

WHEREAS visitors to Gros

Morne National Park, more than 100,000 annually, expect to communicate by

cellphone when they visit the park; and

WHEREAS cellphone service

has become a very important aspect of everyday living for residents; and

WHEREAS cellphone service is

an essential safety tool for visitors and residents; and

WHEREAS cellphone service is

essential for business development;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to partner with the private sector to

extend cellphone coverage throughout Gros Morne National Park and the enclave

community of Trout River.

As in duty bound, your

petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, Trout River is

a thriving community, a very traditional community; but it is a thriving

community, as has been evidenced by awards having been won by students at

Jakeman All Grade school in Trout River.

Last year they won the Indigo award.

I think it was in the order of $30,000 worth of books for the library.

Yesterday I did a member's

statement for a Grade 2 student who was a Province-wide winner.

So clearly, the townspeople and the school are doing well, but it seems

eminently unfair and short sighted that this government not that it does not

take any money, but it refuses to partner with the private sector in order to

extend cellphone coverage to the Town of Trout River.

The Town of Trout River should be as entitled to have cellphone coverage

as any other similarly situated town.

Clearly, many visitors go there every single year through Gros Morne

National Park.

Without any doubt, the

private sector partner, if there were a partnership to go forward, would

generate significant revenue from cellphone usage with people who are travelling

in Gros Morne National Park in the area of Trout River.

So, Mr. Speaker, once again

I call upon the House of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland and

Labrador to partner with the private sector and extend cellphone coverage to

Trout River.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Signal

Hill Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,

the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly

sheweth:

WHEREAS the US Centers for

Disease Control now estimates that autism spectrum disorder affects one in

sixty-eight children, which represents a 30 per cent increase from the estimate

two years ago; and

WHEREAS early diagnosis of

ASD is essential because there is a critical developmental period when early

intervention is vital for future success of children with ASD; and

WHEREAS there are

approximately 380 children on a two-year wait-list for an ASD diagnosis, which

in this Province can only be made by a developmental pediatrician, and there is

only one available at the Janeway Children's Hospital; and

WHEREAS although Budget 2014

announced that another developmental pediatrician will be recruited, more must

be done to reduce the wait-list for a diagnosis so that children can get the

early treatment they need; and

WHEREAS in other provinces

an ASD diagnosis can be made by specialists certified and trained in ADOS;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge

government to allow other specialists trained and certified with ADOS to make

the autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

And as in duty bound, your

petitioners will ever pray.

I am very happy once again,

Mr. Speaker, to present this petition which hundreds of people around the

Province have signed. I understand

from people concerned that more people are signing this petition.

Any time they are put in my hand, I will be very happy and honoured to

stand and present on behalf of the families, the friends, and the supporters of

children with autism spectrum disorder.

We have a pressing issue

here in the Province. One of the

concerns of the signers of the petition is that once again we have a Budget and

a year ahead of us which is not meeting the needs of the children in this

Province who have ASD. Once again

the government made a piecemeal decision instead of making a policy decision

with regard to the need for timely diagnosis of children ending the wait-list

that we have.

The government did once

again a piecemeal thing by putting in place in the Budget one more developmental

pediatrician. They did not deal with

the policy issue that needs to be dealt with, that we could have a broader group

of people who are trained in the Province and qualified to do the diagnosis.

There should not be a

wait-list, Mr. Speaker. We no longer

have a wait-list for treatment because of a Supreme Court decision that after a

diagnosis is made, treatment has to happen within thirty days.

We wish the same for a diagnosis.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have a petition to the

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

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

WHEREAS the residents of

Burgeo, Ramea, Grey River, and Franois of the Province of Newfoundland and

Labrador must use Route 480 on a regular basis for work, medical, educational,

and social reasons; and

WHEREAS Route 480 is in

deplorable condition, such that the shoulders of the road continuously wash away

and there are huge potholes on the road; and

WHEREAS the condition of

Route 480 poses a safety hazard to residents and visitors to Burgeo, Ramea, Grey

River, and Franois; and

WHEREAS the Department of

Transportation and Works is responsible for the maintenance and repairs in the

Province; and

WHEREAS the local division

of the Department of Transportation and Works does make periodic repairs to this

route but these repairs are only temporary patchwork and this road needs to be

resurfaced;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House to urge the government to

support the users of Route 480 in their request to have Route 480 resurfaced.

As in duty bound, your

petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, I enter this

petition again today because the Burgeo road is always in a bad state of repair.

We have seen that over the years.

It is acknowledged by employees of the Department of Transportation and

Works. There is simply not enough

done to maintain it. It is in an

especially horrible condition, given the time of year and given the winter we

had.

What I am asking here today

is that steps are going to be taken to make sure this road is put into a shape

where people can drive back and forth without constantly damaging their

vehicles. Now, it is bad enough they

cannot drive along this road; God forbid, if something happens, they will not be

able to call anyone because there is no cellphone service.

That is a different petition.

I will put that in tomorrow.

The problem is I am getting

lots of e-mails from people who are showing me pictures of their vehicles that

are damaged. Their tires are gone,

they are beating up their vehicles, they are driving over a road, and they are

wondering: Why doesn't this road get resurfaced and get treated when it should?

I will give the minister

credit. I brought to his attention

last year, after he took the department over, a piece of the road that had

washed away and was just left there.

Nothing was done for months and months.

It was not in the right place, we will say.

The minister, I will give him credit, when I brought it to his attention,

made sure it was done.

That is why I am entering

this petition on behalf of my constituents.

I am putting it to the government's attention.

Hopefully they will get the right thing done again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

I remind the Member for St. John's North he only

has about half a minute to do this.

This is Private Members' Day.

Go ahead and proceed.

MR. KIRBY:

I will stand another time, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks for the warning.

Orders of the Day

Private Members' Day

MR. SPEAKER:

This being Wednesday, Private Members' Day, and

we are close to 3:00 o'clock, I will call upon the Member for Terra Nova to

introduce the motion that is on the Order Paper in his name.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. S. COLLINS:

I move, seconded by the Member for Port de Grave:

BE IT RESOLVED that this

hon. House supports the government's decision to introduce full-day

Kindergarten.

I will continue.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to stand today and speak on something I

know is very important and worthwhile to me personally and to a number of folks

in this House. I will start off by

talking about the Budget in general.

Of course, this has been a Budget that has been touted by a number of groups and

individuals throughout the Province.

It is a Budget that has been coined an education Budget.

I think that is so very true, if you look at the investments that were

made in this past Budget. It would

be hard to disagree with that statement.

This Budget has seen a huge

investment, if I may start with post-secondary education.

You only have to look to a couple of initiatives, whether it is the

continued tuition freeze which has been on the go now for a number of years.

A commitment that our government stands strong on, saving huge amounts of

money for students and for parents and whatnot.

It is wonderful.

The other part, of course,

is something new we have begun to implement, and we will be implementing.

It is from loans to grants.

We had a launch actually at a number of post-secondary institutions last week I

believe. The reaction was

overwhelming. I did not have the

opportunity to attend one of the functions myself but I was following along on

I know my colleague here

from Corner Brook was there, as well as the Minister of Natural Resources, and

others. The reaction was

overwhelming. It is not often a

government announces something that totally crosses over party lines.

You park politics because it is good for everyone.

It is good for society.

That was one of these

decisions, because I noted a number of individuals who were tied to other

parties that were big advocates as well of this.

They said it is time for this, it is great.

We are so happy the government is taking the initiative to introduce it.

Mr. Speaker, there is no

doubt that this is an education Budget for sure.

Like I said, those two pieces alone speak to the type of focus we put on

post-secondary education, and that is very well needed.

Now, obviously just as

important as post-secondary, Mr. Speaker, is the beginning years, the early

years. Of course, that sets the foundation and after that the rest is history.

We invested large and we invested big time in that.

The true side of any Budget

is when you see the Opposition parties, Mr. Speaker, falling over one another to

take credit for the Budget that we presented.

It was an amazing sight to see.

I equate it to almost I do not know if you have ever been sitting in

the parking lot of a McDonald's and you threw a French fry outside the window.

The gulls would just come, they would be fighting over that French fry.

That is what it was like, Mr. Speaker.

The day of the Budget, the

Opposition parties were falling over themselves to take credit.

That, Mr. Speaker, speaks volumes.

I think it is something we are all very proud of.

I am so glad that everybody in this House was so appreciative of the

great Budget that our Finance Minister tabled.

Early childhood education

and full-day Kindergarten, as I had said, Mr. Speaker, is something that is very

close to my heart. Not only as

someone who is a trained educator, but someone who is and probably more

importantly, obviously, as a parent of young children.

I have two young children myself.

One being three years old and the other about four months old.

So both of my children will avail of full-day Kindergarten.

I have not let my wife know, but I am going to try for some more kids as

well. I am hoping that there is

going to be quite a few kids going through.

You look around this House,

and I am not the only one. I am one

of the younger members of the House of Assembly, but I look across the way and I

see the Member for St. John's North has a young son.

The Member for Burgeo La Poile has a young son as well.

The Member for Mount Pearl North who has a farm load of kids.

Actually, his wife I believe is pregnant with their third one now, and

you are just getting started. It is

great to see that growth in the House of Assembly.

So not only are we talking

about our constituents, Mr. Speaker, we are talking about members who sit here

in the House of Assembly. There are

a number of others. The Minister of

Finance herself has young children, and many people continue to have more

children. This is something that

affects all of us, not only me personally, but many of the folks who sit around

the House of Assembly.

Like I said, my oldest child

which is now three will be, I guess, in the first class, if this is going to be

implemented in a couple of year. She

will be in the first class of full-day Kindergarten.

That is something that is so important, both on an educational level and

academically speaking, which, of course, we have to keep first and foremost at

the forefront. That is the most

important part, but also there is a socio-economic fact to it as well.

That is something I want to touch on in a little bit.

I would like to discuss

first, I guess, our first phase; the early childhood learning and how that has

paved the way to where we are today, where we are looking at implementing

full-day Kindergarten. Because you

cannot take one in isolation, they are very much connected.

That is something our Minister of Education has been talking about for

quite some time. It is something we

started a while back and it has been hugely successful.

Again, as a young parent, I have seen these things first-hand.

I will talk about that in a moment.

Early childhood learning

invests in the long-term Early Childhood Learning Strategy.

Learning from the Start it was entitled.

It began in 2011, with a primary focus on zero to three initiatives.

Budget 2014 provided $4.8

million over three years to continue and to enhance the commitment of zero to

three initiatives; while initiatives for children aged four and six are under

development right now. Of course,

the full-day Kindergarten is part of that.

The first three years of

Learning from the Start has been a tremendous success.

For example, parent resource kits for children aged two, four, six,

twelve and eighteen months are now being distributed Province-wide, and kits for

children aged twenty-four and thirty-six months are being developed.

I want to refer to these

parent resource kits because, again, Mr. Speaker, it is fun to stand in the

House and talk about things we are not overly familiar with, but this is

something I have seen first-hand. I

remember when my wife came home from getting I was not there at the time, but

when my wife came home from getting

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MR. S. COLLINS:

Well, I will tell you the reason why.

I do not like going to the doctor when my children have to get needles

because I hate needles myself. So I

stayed home and my wife went to the clinic.

AN HON. MEMBER:

Wimp.

MR. S. COLLINS:

I am a wimp when it comes to that, definitely.

She came home and she had

this kit with her, and it came in a nice bag.

It was a parent resource kit.

It had a bunch of different materials.

It had books. It had

instructional type things with regard to activities that would be very

beneficial to children that age. It

came with some sort of I will say a blanket/toy a sensory item in there as

well. I was thinking this is

fantastic. This is something that

she is going to get again when she goes in for her other checks.

Obviously, the parent resource kits develop as your child develops, and

the material that is in there is focused to that particular age group.

If I can talk about these

parent resource kits for just one moment.

I would like to remember back, the former Opposition critic for Education

mocked these kits, I believe. He was

talking about how foolish it is to provide toys and these types of things for

kids. I cannot speak to that

member's childhood but it must have been deprived.

That is all I can attribute it to.

I want to be part of a

government that looks again, we just do not put these items in the parent

resource kits haphazardly. These

have been developed. I want to talk

about that for a short time because it has been a great success.

I and my wife have greatly appreciated it, as others in this House as

well.

This partnership, as I said,

has been developed between the division of Early Childhood Learning, the

Department of Education, and child health clinics offered through the RHAs.

Parent resource kits have been developed and include a variety of

learning materials, Mr. Speaker, materials that have been selected or developed

through an interdepartmental committee.

Again, these are not put in there haphazardly.

These are all being developed by people who know; people obviously who

have quite a bit of experience in the field.

There is representation from

departments on the ministerial council, as well as the regional health

authorities. Again, all

professionals. Resources provided in

these kits are complimentary to those already provided by public health nurses

and will support the existing work of public health nurses through the provision

of take home resources, key messaging on child development topics, and early

learning materials that will help extend learning at home.

By the time children reach

Kindergarten age, Mr. Speaker, parents and caregivers will have been provided

with a range of early learning resources and developmentally appropriate

materials to extend their children's learning and development through everyday

activities that they do with their children at key intervals during the early

years. As I said, they focus on

different intervals, whether it is two months, four or six.

Language and literacy

development through play base learning is a priority focus in all parent

resource kits again, play base learning.

We are not talking about teaching adults.

We are talking about teaching very young infants.

So obviously it has to be tailored towards them.

These are very tailored, very specific, and developed by professionals.

For example, eighteen to

twenty items, including children's books, play items, CDs with music which I

might add, actually a number of local artists are included on those CDs as well

and nursery rhymes along with age developmentally appropriate information,

resources, tip sheets and activity guides will be provided focusing on all areas

of the child's development.

I speak for myself, and I am

sure others as well, when you become a parent for the first time everyone does

not know how to be a parent the first day, as soon as you have that child home.

So it is great to be able to have these resources that have been provided

by people who know. It is able to

give you some kind of an instructional, so you can help your child's

development. I think as parents we

are all very hopeful that we can play a

part in our child's development.

Distribution of resource

kits began March, 2012, in twenty pilot sites throughout the Province.

Resource kits are now available in all child health clinics located

throughout the Province.

Mr. Speaker, if I can talk

with regard to the time of implementation because that is something else we have

heard: Why can we not do it tomorrow?

I have researched quite a bit on this; I have looked at different

jurisdictions in Canada. I know in

Ontario I am pretty sure it took four years for implementation from the time

they announced it to the time they implemented it.

It is a huge piece of work

and obviously any time that you are dealing with a child's education, you want

to make sure it is done right. You

do not want to just throw something out and then try to fix the bugs after the

fact. When this full-day

Kindergarten is implemented, it is going to be implemented right and we are

going to do exactly what needs to be done.

It is going to be through hard work and it is going to be done through

consultation.

Why 2016 and why not this

coming September? First, as I have

stated, we wanted phase one of our Early Childhood Learning Strategy, Learning

from the Start, to begin at the beginning with a primary focus on birth to age

three the critical years of brain development.

I have heard the minister himself, who is a former educator, speak to the

importance of zero to three. We

needed to have that in place. We

need to have that program implemented and working, which it is with great

success. We need to do that before

we could move on to begin to implement full-day Kindergarten.

Secondly, of course, Mr.

Speaker, it is no secret that we have been challenged with a major population

shift in recent years. In some areas

of the Province, particularly just outside St. John's, it has been a challenge

for government and the construction industry to build the new schools and

extensions fast enough to accommodate current enrolments, let alone full-day

Kindergarten programming.

We are all very familiar I

know the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair is very familiar with the

investment we have made in education with schools going up everywhere it seems.

Not only are we building new schools, we are renovating existing ones a

huge amount of money. It is

important we recognize that there are limitations, and there are challenges with

regard to construction.

With the first three-year

phase of Learning from the Start up and running, we knew we wanted to make a

universal full-day Kindergarten program part of the second three-year phase.

There is a lot of work to do to determine a school by school plan, work

that requires significant investments in many areas.

It is something that we cannot just do overnight.

It is a big piece of work, but it is something that we are going to move

towards and with implementation in 2016.

That begins with

infrastructure as I had said. We are

already in the process of building new schools and/or extensions in St. John's,

Paradise, CBS, Portugal Cove-St. Phillips, Torbay, and Gander, which will help

alleviate enrolment pressures in these communities.

It is an unprecedented investment in schools and infrastructure, and

something so very important. We will

now embark on an intensive process to build, extend, redevelop, and renovate

existing school infrastructure, where necessary, to accommodate full-day

Kindergarten programming in schools which do not currently have the appropriate

space.

Let us talk about costs in

my last couple of moments of my first I will get another opportunity, but let

us talk about costs. At a cost of

$30.6 million almost $31 million, funding is allocated for infrastructure

which are extensions, redevelopments, renovations, modular classrooms, where

necessary, as well as furnishing and other required teaching and learning

resources. Those resources include

books, CDs, and all those types of things.

This is how it breaks

down:$1.5 million in 2014-2015 for primary instruction planning, the very early

stages; next we have $12.6 million in 2015-2016 for modulars and infrastructure

upgrades; then $16.5 million in 2016-2017 which is the first year of

implementation and that is for modulars, infrastructure upgrades, furniture

and equipment, and something else that is very important, teacher allocations

about 140 units. With those teacher

allocations, of course, comes student assistant support that is all included

in that as well. So that is a huge

piece as well.

The cost after is going to

be expected to be about $13 million annually.

So there is a huge cost on it, but actually I do have in my notes with

regard to return on investment, and it is something I think we can point to.

We are spending a lot of money, it is very important, it is very

necessary money to be spent, but on the back end we have a return on investment,

which is oh so crucial as well.

Mr. Speaker, we know we have

about seventy to seventy-five public schools which offer Kindergarten in the

Province that will require some minor renovations or significant infrastructure

improvements or additions. This

first year will be about firming up plans for individual schools, especially

those in areas where student enrolment has been unpredictable.

As we have learned, Kindergarten enrolment can be a moving target.

Sometimes over a summer holiday you can have ten kids enrolled; other

places, you can have fifteen come out of the system that you expected would be

there. So it is a moving target all

the time. It is not as easy as we

would hope it would be.

Something I want to touch on

in the last moments of my first time speaking here, something that was raised by

the critic as well, is with regard to cap spaces.

Something that we are all very proud of in this House is the caps, the

ratios, that we have in this Province, which are the best in the country.

The best in the entire country, which is something we should be very

proud of. Those same caps of twenty

students-one teacher are going to be extended to the full-day Kindergarten

program. So that is very important,

very important.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. S. COLLINS:

Again, if we are going to do a program we have to do it right.

We are not doing this just overnight.

We are not going to put something in that we have to fix the bugs then

after. The same process that we use

from Grade 1 to Grade 9, the cap, that is the same thing that is going to be

used for the Kindergarten students as well.

So that is something very important.

It is nothing that we have to worry about at this point.

It is something that will be done, and we have had the minister speak to

that.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I

only have a couple of moments left; I will take my seat.

I do look forward to having another opportunity to get up and talking

about not only my own personal experience with this and my hopes and whatnot,

but also to hear what the Opposition has to say as well.

Thank you so much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au

Clair.

MS DEMPSTER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased this afternoon

to be able to stand and speak to the full-day Kindergarten.

I had to smile at the resolution, Mr. Speaker, I could not help it:

IT RESOLVED that this Honourable House supports the Government's decision to

introduce full day Kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, who in this

House is not going to support the full-day Kindergarten, when the Opposition

members on this side have been lobbying and advocating for full-day Kindergarten

for some time? I find the timing of

it has lined up really, really nicely.

It was back on February 13 that our Liberal candidate, who is running

today in Virginia Waters, first raised full-day Kindergarten at a board of trade

luncheon. In that luncheon, Cathy

Bennett encouraged all parents everywhere to advocate for full-day Kindergarten.

I look forward to what that individual can do once she is here in the

House of Assembly, given what she is already doing right now and she is not even

here yet.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS DEMPSTER:

Mr. Speaker, Nelson Mandela once said and we

all know Nelson Mandela, that famous South African revolutionary.

He taught us much. There are

many, many quotes and things we can say about Nelson Mandela, but one of my

favourite quotes by Nelson Mandela is, Education is the most powerful weapon

which you can use to change the world.

Mr. Speaker, as a career and

employment counsellor for two-and-a-half decades, I have spent most of my adult

life working in an area helping unemployed people become employed, channeling

many through the channels and helping guide them to get a better education.

In my community, for fourteen years I served as a community

representative on our school council.

Now, as a mom who has a daughter enrolling in university, education is

very important to me on a personal level.

The current minister will

know that I, along with my community and everybody in that community, lobbied

very, very hard for a new school in our community.

The school the children were learning in, in that coastal community, Mr.

Speaker, was full of mould. It was

not an environment that was conducive to learning.

We were writing letters for fourteen years.

The previous minister did not even answer the letter.

We got real serious about it.

No, we are not getting a new school, but we are getting new classrooms.

I look forward to the day, and I hope they are going to be able to

accommodate the full-day Kindergarten.

It was April 26, 2013 when I

met with the Minister of Education face to face and I said to him at that time,

I believe the Minister of Education has the most important job in the Province

of Newfoundland and Labrador, no matter who sits in that seat.

Mr. Speaker, where would we be in oil and gas?

Where would we be in health care, when you look at the Health Sciences,

without education? It is extremely

important that we give our children that important first start.

Right now, Mr. Speaker, we

are just catching up with the rest of Canada.

I believe it is estimated that about 80 per cent of Kindergartens in our

country are already into full-day Kindergarten about 80 per cent so these

people are seeing the benefits they have experienced from full-day Kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, everybody was

pleased when government announced in Budget 2014 that they intend to introduce

full-day Kindergarten because it is something that many of us have been after

them to implement for quite some time.

On a little look in Hansard,

Mr. Speaker, I saw that our Leader, Mr. Ball, on March 13 he was asking the

minister: When are you going to implement full-day Kindergarten?

That is just one year ago, and the minister said: I am not going to

commit today. I am really happy that

he has had a change of heart because a lot of things have been changing on the

other side really fast with the beep, beep, beep, the backup and the flip-flop

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MS DEMPSTER:

No, you did not change my school; that is good,

because you clearly understood that more than half of the kids in the school

were sick from sitting and learning in a mouldy environment.

You give credit where credit is due.

I was very pleased that Charlottetown got the outcome that they had

hoped, and I hope that the minister will sit with the Member for Mount Pearl and

come to some resolution because I know they have a lot of issues certainly right

now that is concerning in their school.

Mr. Speaker, when we look at

a background into early childhood education we see that universal early learning

proponents say that the early learning can close the achievement gap between

children from immigrant and low-income families and their more advantaged peers,

providing payoffs to society many years down the road.

Just imagine, it is a

win-win; low-income families, immigrants it is not just those sometimes we

refer to as born with a silver spoon in their mouth and they get the best of

everything and they get the private schools.

We see that universal early learning can close that achievement gap

between the low incomes, between the immigrants.

Sometimes, Mr. Speaker, we

look at something and we might think that we cannot afford to implement but when

you see the payoffs, the research, the work that have already been done showing

the benefits of full-day Kindergarten, I say, Mr. Speaker, that we cannot not

afford to implement.

Mr. Speaker, I looked into

some work that Dr. David Philpott, a well-known professor at MUN, did.

He talked about Newfoundland and Labrador's model of early childhood

education being consistently rated as the poorest in the country, and that it

had ranked last among the ten provinces in early childhood education.

That, Mr. Speaker, is just a snapshot of provincial early learning

services here in our Province. I am

personally really delighted to see that we are now going to invest in full-day

Kindergarten.

We know that some places

around the Province already are into full-day Kindergarten.

My colleague here for Torngat, I know there are a number of communities

on the North Coast that they are into their second year at least, and it is

getting rave reviews, the full-day Kindergarten, from what I understand.

So I think it is wonderful,

Mr. Speaker, that after being pressured for years pressured for years that

government came forth with a 2016 initiative in their election promises Budget.

So right now, Mr. Speaker, I guess it is recommendation by them because

the electorate of Newfoundland and Labrador is going to decide before 2015 who

the government of the day is. So

while we see that this is a $30.6 million initiative over three years, we know

that only $1.5 million of this Budget have been allocated toward the planning of

full-day Kindergarten. We are happy

with the recommendation and who knows, maybe we will be sitting on that side and

we will be the people who will get to carry out this full-day Kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, a couple of

things; the cap size of twenty is very, very important.

I sat in Estimates with my colleague the other day and he raised this

issue. It is very important that the

cap size of twenty remain in place.

We hope that does not mean twenty students to a teacher.

We hope it does not mean forty little Kindergartens in a class and two

teachers and just a divider between.

Mr. Speaker, anybody with

children under four years old will benefit from this.

There are many gone before who did not have the educational enhancement,

but we are very pleased to see it now coming on stream.

When we look at the 140

teachers that will be needed, Mr. Speaker, that speaks volumes to enhancing the

economy. We have been struggling.

I have been doing some research on the Population Growth Strategy and the

Board of Trade has been speaking out; I read about it a number of times in the

paper. If we want to grow our

economy and we want to help pay down the debt, we need more people working in

our Province. We need more people

paying taxes. When we see that 140

teachers will be needed, this is another positive thing with the implementation

of full-day Kindergarten.

We do see that government

says they will need to renovate seventy-five schools.

Mr. Speaker, I am hoping that in the spirit of openness and transparency,

government will share with us the list of the schools that need to be renovated

and the extent of the work that needs to be done.

Mr. Speaker, I want to

digress for a moment and say on a side note, that it is really concerning that

new schools are going up and classroom size is not big enough.

If we are talking about money and what we can afford and about spending

wisely, we have to try to nip this problem.

I know in Port Hope Simpson, a beautiful school, but every time I go into

the school they say the classrooms are not big enough.

Clearly there is a problem here.

Full-day Kindergarten

research: From the research I have done, it shows that it is a game changer for

children. We were talking about

yesterday how bright our children are and talking about youth sitting on

municipal councils now. Just imagine

where we are going to be. It is

really an exciting time, I think. I

just wonder why we waited so long before the announcement and why it is still a

couple of years off. As I said

earlier sometimes it is not about can you afford; it is about can you afford not

to wait.

I want to quote an economist

James Heckman who suggested that early intervention can improve school readiness

for disadvantaged children early intervention school readiness for

disadvantaged, so we have the immigrant, the low income, we have the

disadvantaged; we have many from all walks of life.

Why would anyone disagree?

Yet, the Member for Terra

Nova I saw a tweet that he sent out last night saying he was getting ready for

the PMR today and he hoped that he would have the support of the House.

That is just foolishness, Mr. Speaker, for someone to get on like that.

Why would we not support this wonderful initiative that we have been

lobbying for? We are actually

applauding this full-day Kindergarten.

We are pleased that the government has finally acted on this important

initiative.

I looked into some of the

reaction from some of the prominent groups, Mr. Speaker, and their reaction has

been very, very strong. I already

quoted the MUN professor connected with the Jimmy Pratt Foundation who said it

is a huge sigh of relief; John Dinn who said that has been our message since I

have taken office. Everything I have

looked at has supported the full-day Kindergarten initiative.

Mr. Speaker, I want to

mention back in 2012 the Liberals passed a resolution at its 2012 AGM on

full-day Kindergarten. It is

certainly something that has been on our radar for some time.

Numerous times members on this side and my colleague who will be speaking

shortly to the motion have been lobbying for full-day Kindergarten, have done

the research, and have seen the benefits.

Mr. Speaker, we know the

cost. We have 50,000 children in the

Province under the age of ten and only 8,000 regulated child care spaces.

Then we wonder why all our young people are choosing to go west and have

their families, Mr. Speaker. Now

with full-day Kindergarten, that is another plus that is going to help with that

situation. The burden will be less.

Many times when you have had one of the parents who are very skilled and

knowledgeable staying home to care for the child, now the child will be in

full-day Kindergarten and you will have a second person in that home who will be

able to go out and work and pay taxes and contribute and help to continue to

grow the economy.

Mr. Speaker, before I sit

down, I want to mention again the candidate in Virginia Waters.

It was the minister who said he was not persuaded by her arguments when

she talked about the economic benefits, but I am really happy that there has

been a change of heart in the Budget with the big heart I am glad there has

been a change of heart. I really

look forward and I think it is an exciting time for full-day Kindergarten to be

implemented.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER (Verge):

Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of

Justice.

MR. KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am indeed very pleased and

honoured to have a chance to speak to this motion here in the House of Assembly

today as well. As many of our

colleagues have said already, it is a very important motion, and one that

deserves an opportunity to be debated here and deserves an opportunity for

people to share their views on how they feel about full-day Kindergarten.

As a small bit of history, I

have always been an advocate for extending learning experiences for all of us,

whether it is extending from Grade 1 back to birth, between birth and the age of

five, or whether it is to extend lifelong learning opportunities, as I have had

an opportunity to be a part of both in my previous life and in my political

life.

As a number of members have

referenced, pulling in their past experience, I have had more than two decades

as well connected with education in this Province.

My very first job was teaching Kindergarten, so I understand exactly what

we are talking about when we talk about children in Kindergarten.

I held a variety of jobs in the education system, Mr. Speaker, starting

out, as I said, on the South Coast of Newfoundland where teaching Kindergarten

was part of my responsibility. I

worked through a number of positions, including school administrative positions

up to my last job, before getting elected in politics, which was the Chief

Executive Officer of Eastern School District.

I am very proud of a number

of things that we did during my tenure in the public system, including making

attempts wherever we could to open up schools, particularly in communities where

the schools were considered to be community schools, where they were the heart

of the community. Where they often

served not only as educational institutions, but they served as community

centres, community rec centres and local hockey leagues, and darts, and all

kinds of activities occurred.

One of the things that I

pushed hard for in my career while I was in education when I was in, I should

say, in a position to influence some of these decisions was to open up schools

to provide earlier learning opportunities before students entered school.

I remember fondly over the

years having to deal with Family Resource Centres and Brighter Futures, in

particular. These were organizations

that worked with families and worked with children prior to them becoming

full-time attendance at school. I

worked with them to bring them into a learning environment, and provide

opportunities for them to gain further development and further exposure, in

particular, to the formalized school setting, to the classroom setting,

formalized exposure to the rules and regulations and the structures of a

learning environment, and to help further assist in the adjustment from simply

being a little toddler and a two or a three year old at home, with all the

freedoms and flexibilities that go with that and as we recognize, there is

tremendous learning that goes with that.

There is an adjustment period, Mr. Speaker, that goes with moving

students from that kind of an environment into a school environment where it is

far more structured and far more detailed.

I had an opportunity during

my career to play a role in opening up the schools, particularly with the

Eastern School District. I started

on the Burin Peninsula with the Burin Peninsula School Board.

When I finished my teaching career with the Eastern District, we would

have pretty much taken all schools east of Port Blandford, I think was the

actual artificial cut-off at that point in time so all schools east of that.

We experienced, in my opinion, some great successes there, and we really

opened the doors to provide opportunities in communities that really had not

existed before.

Since my time in political

life, I have had, of course, like many members in this House, an opportunity to

try and influence policy and to advocate for policy and advocate for change.

I was very lucky in some respects some would say, perhaps unlucky, but

I consider it very lucky that the first Cabinet position I ever held was the

Minister of Education. As I said, it

was a great opportunity because it put me in a field that I had spent my entire

professional career being associated with and being exposed to.

I have to say that I have

smiled lots over the last year, in particular, but since the Budget in

particular I have smiled lots as I listened to some of the commentary,

particularly on Twitter while we were sitting here doing the Budget, some of the

commentary that was happening just outside this door here in the foyer of

Confederation Building; and I smiled as I listened to my colleague a few moments

who, like a lot of people would, I am sure, was offering up some credit because

the Virginia Waters Liberal candidate first started talking about this way back

in February 2013. I understand that.

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MR. KING:

I am sorry.

You asked what the name was.

It is the person Danny Breen is going to beat tonight.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that.

She also mentioned that even

the Leader of the Opposition and I have heard the Leader of the Opposition

talk about this on many occasions. I

have, indeed, and I have heard the member who I think is going to follow me talk

about it lots. The Leader of the

Opposition actually started talking about this way back in March 2013.

We have had a lot of advocates.

I listened to the Leader of

the NDP, who has referenced on any number of occasions that it has been part of

their policy platform for quite some time.

I am not sure how far back, but perhaps the Member for St. John's North

might enlighten us a little bit on that.

I smile, Mr. Speaker.

The reason I smile is because I was the Minister of Education who had the

good pleasure to announce on March 29 and I am even prepared to table this if

they would like. On March 29, 2010,

I was the Minister of Education who announced that this government is moving

forward with full-day Kindergarten.

That is 2010.

For those who are listening

at home and want to do the math, that would be four years ago that this

government went on record, and I can speak to it because I was the minister.

I will give you a timeline, Mr. Speaker, to help people understand I am

not just giving rhetoric that cannot be substantiated with any particular dates

or any particular information. I can

give you some dates.

On March 29, I, as the

Minister of Education, announced that this government was adopting a policy, and

the policy was called Learning from the Start.

I have it here for viewers at home.

Here it is. The policy had

three phases to it: there was birth to three years of age; there was a program

for four year olds; and then there was full-day Kindergarten.

That was on March 29, 2010.

When I introduced that on

behalf of my colleagues on this side of this on March 29, 2010, we also said to

the public, though, that we want to hear what you have to say.

Then we set out on consultations, and there are a whole pile of press

releases. I will table these as well

if people are very eager to see them, but there are a whole pile of them here.

We went across Newfoundland

and Labrador. We went into Grand

Falls-Windsor, Gander, Stephenville, Port aux Basques, Clarenville, St.

Lawrence, Corner Brook - and Stephenville was very interesting.

It was in Stephenville that a person by the name of Bernice Hackett, who

was an NDP candidate, stood up in one consultation and strongly opposed any move

toward full-day Kindergarten in this Province.

AN HON. MEMBER:

What?

MR. KING:

An NDP candidate, yes.

I just thought I would add that in there, Mr. Speaker, but I do not want

to get sidetracked. Members opposite

tend to want to sidetrack us when we are laying out facts that tend to refute

and tend to take away from any credit that they are all trying to claim.

By the way, I do acknowledge

and thank them for saluting us, because the Budget contains many good things,

Kindergarten is one of them. As the

Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair said, who would not support this?

I look forward to the day that we vote on the Budget which would

demonstrate whether you support full-day Kindergarten or not, I say to the

member.

We moved on with

consultations. We went all across

Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. Speaker.

St. Anthony, Port Hope Simpson, Labrador City, Old Perlican, Happy

Valley-Goose Bay, Hopedale, Carbonear, even Mount Pearl, Mr. Speaker.

We went all over Newfoundland and Labrador and we did consultations.

We concluded those on October 12, 2010.

Subsequence to that, on

April 19, during the Budget process, Mr. Speaker, I was still the Minister of

Education, and I had the opportunity again to announce formally that we were

adopting full-day Kindergarten as a policy statement for this government.

I also announced in that Budget an amount of money to move that

initiative forward. That document

was firmed up, with the support of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, as I

said a few moments ago for those at home, was called Learning from the Start.

Here it is, if anybody wants to see it.

It outlines three components.

The first component was

focused on children from birth to three.

The focus was to provide parental support.

It was recognized very clearly in the consultations, in what we heard

from parents and members of the public, that there were a lot of parents

struggling out there in trying to understand what they could do with their

children from the time they were born until they got to about three years of

age; trying to understand what they could do, what kinds of activities they

could engage in, whether they should be reading to their children, how much they

should be reading to their children, what kinds of material they should be

reading to their children, all sorts of things.

So, from birth to three we

set out as component one. We

developed resource kits, an information and awareness campaign.

We engaged the public health nurses and other health officials across the

Province to become engaged with parents and with families in Newfoundland and

Labrador.

The second component we

committed to was what we call enhanced learning opportunities for

four-year-olds. That included

changing and refining an initiative that our government also implemented several

years ago called KinderStart. I had

the pleasure of being a part of that when I was still in the K-12 system.

Under this new framework we

enhanced KinderStart and provided more opportunities for children to come into

school. For the benefit of those

paying attention through the television to this debate, KinderStart was the

first real formalized opportunity for students to come into the classroom

setting and to work with the Kindergarten teacher to give them an opportunity to

become acquainted with the school setting, to become acquainted with the rules

and the expectations.

For any of us who had

children and perhaps most in the House, I am not sure if everyone has, but for

any of us or have been around children, we all understand that children from a

very young age as they start to grow older, it is important to help teach them

about rules and expectations.

KinderStart provided a wonderful opportunity for us to formalize it and to

provide more opportunity for students to come into the school setting and to get

experience, to get access to these kinds of experience that we believed and

members of the public believed, based on the consultation and feedback we

received, that would significantly and further enhance students opportunities to

succeed in school.

The third component, Mr.

Speaker, which I am so proud that my colleague from the Burin Peninsula, the

Member for Burin Placentia West, has also himself been a lifelong educator, a

part of politics and also, for the record, worked with me when we were with the

old Burin Peninsula school board.

One of the focuses of his assignment at that time was around literacy and early

learning. He had tremendous

experience at that.

For me it is a real pleasure

because the minister and I worked closely together, as all of our colleagues

here know. It was a pleasure that I

had the opportunity to announce the document as the Minister of Education and to

announce our government's commitment to full-day Kindergarten back, as I said a

few moments ago I will double check that on March 29, 2010.

Then to see that my colleague for Burin Placentia West had the great

opportunity in this year's Budget to announce that we have secured funding to

move forward with full implementation of that third piece or third prong of the

policy announcement that our government has been following.

It was a great day.

There is a significant

investment put on the table here for this Budget.

It is disappointing when the member opposite refers to this as some kind

of an election Budget. Other than

the fact that we have known for three-and-a-half years there is an election next

year, money that is put in the Budget is not an empty promise, it is budgeted.

Members opposite have an

opportunity to talk to us in Estimates, to talk to us in the House of Assembly

in Question Period any time they want.

The fact of the matter is once it goes into the Budget it is a commitment

to the people of the Province. We

are moving forward with that. We are

moving forward with it because we are committed to families in Newfoundland and

Labrador, we are committed to children in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Most importantly, Mr.

Speaker, as we have said on any number of occasions, that our government, from

2003, the day we got elected, we have always been focused on the realization

that the better educated a population we have in Newfoundland and Labrador, the

more successful the population will be and the greater the opportunity for

people in this Province to take advantage of all of the opportunities that exist

here. I am not going to deviate on

that or digress, because we all know the number of jobs that are coming up.

We all know the state of the

economy. We all know the

opportunities that exist for the future, but those opportunities only exist if

we ensure that we have a population who has the education, the training, and the

background necessary to help them grab a hold of those opportunities, whichever

ones they choose. We have been

saying this, as I said, since 2010.

In the document we announced as our policy, we believe that the full-day

Kindergarten is the final prong of our early learning approach to supporting

children before they become regular attendants at the regular K-12 setting.

This is a great motion.

I thank my colleague from Terra Nova for bringing this motion forward,

who also has a young family. I know

it means a lot to him personally to be able to do that, and I congratulate him

for it.

This is a great opportunity

to have the debate, and I am pleased to be a part of it.

As I said before, I just wanted to make sure we set the record straight.

I am not looking for, by the way, any kudos for me personally, but I

think it is important for people to recognize that the Government of

Newfoundland and Labrador that was elected in 2003, is the government that

introduced that policy. It was not

somebody from Virginia Waters or some other district a year ago.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. John's North.

MR. KIRBY:

Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

I first have to say that I

am absolutely delighted, as someone who has been an advocate for public

education in this Province for over twenty years now, I am delighted to speak to

this motion and to support this initiative.

It is really interesting

that the minister talks about credit and all of that, because there is certainly

lots of that going around. There is

a saying: many hands make quick work.

I am not sure this is quick work, but there have been many hands working

at this for a long time.

We can go back as far as

1968, the Royal Commission on Education and Youth led by Dr. Phil Warren.

One of the major recommendations of the Royal Commission on Education and

Youth was the implementation of Kindergarten.

Unfortunately, it was really silent on whether it be a half or a full

day, and we ended up with a half day, but there has been debate under PC

governments and under Liberal governments, education for self-reliance.

All sorts of documents have been produced, task forces on education and

youth. All sorts of documents have

been produced talking about the state of the education system and the direction

we need to go in.

I want to put that out there

because there has been a lot of work done in this area.

Members ought not to forget, but the last time we had a Liberal

government in Newfoundland and Labrador there were a series of pilots for

full-day Kindergarten that were carried out.

I have been in touch with a number of those people and interviewed some

of the teachers who were involved in that.

Something happened in 1992

that really threw a monkey wrench into that.

Of course, anybody who is from a rural community and has been involved in

the fishery knows that the cod moratorium caused some serious problems in the

Province and threw off a lot of the planning that was going on toward full-day

Kindergarten. We have had full-day

Kindergarten in other quarters.

In Churchill Falls, there is

full-day Kindergarten program that has been run by the company there for years.

Nalcor is the operator of it now.

Ḗcole des Grands-Vents has a full-day Kindergarten here in the

Francophone school in the City of St. John's.

Whitbourne Elementary, there is a full-day Kindergarten program.

This all did not start in

2010. I am not here to claim any

credit myself. There are lots of

people I am glad my colleague from Cartwright L'Anse au Clair pointed out

Dr. Philpott. Before I was elected

and before I took my leave from Memorial University of Newfoundland, my office,

the wall right next to me, behind that wall was Dr. David Philpott.

We talked for years about the need for full-day Kindergarten and how that

was going to happen. He has been

involved with Kathy LeGrow, with the Jimmy Pratt Foundation.

They have been advocating this for a long time.

So there are certainly lots

of people who can claim some credit for what has gone on.

I have always said, since the Budget at least, that one of the turning

points was when Cathy Bennett, a successful businessperson who the Member for

Grand Bank, the Minister of Justice, kindly pointed out is seeking the seat in

Virginia Waters for the Liberal Party that the turning point was when she

rallied the St. John's business community behind the idea just about a year ago.

I want to commend the Leader

of the Official Opposition, the Member for Humber Valley, who, in addition to, I

guess, myself and the Member for St. Barbe, had been asking questions of

government since the 2011 election here in the House of Assembly.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KIRBY:

I have been asking the Minister of Education, I

have been asking the Premier questions here in Question Period about when we are

going to have a full-day Kindergarten program.

I would like to commend the Leader of the Official Opposition for his

leadership in that area and my colleague, the Member for St. Barbe, as well, for

being Johnny-on-the-spot and asking questions about this.

Of course, this is a promise

for 2016. As somebody said, this is

just a promise. A lot has to be

done. There is only $1.5 million

that is going to be spent out of that $30 million and change figure that gets

tossed around over the next year.

There is certainly a lot that will need to be done after that.

The Member for Terra Nova is

saying he hopes people will support it. Of

course we are going to support it. A

similar question could be: Do we love our children?

Do we love our kids? Of

course we love our kids. You could

say: Do we want our children to have the best education possible?

I think it is the same thing.

Of course we do. You could say: Do

we want our students to catch up with the rest of Canada and have an education

system that is just as good as the education system they have in Ontario,

British Columbia, or other provinces in Canada?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KIRBY:

Of course we do, Mr. Speaker of course we do.

There is a certain amount of

irony in this, too, here, Mr. Speaker, and I have to point this out.

I am glad I have the Minister of Justice on my side.

He is clearly on my side. I

am glad I have the Member for Terra Nova on my side.

He is clearly on my side.

Some of the other members over there, I am not so sure they support a full-day

Kindergarten program, and I will give you a couple of examples.

Back on October 6 of last

year, Mr. Speaker, not very long ago just October of last year the Minister

of Municipal Affairs, the Member for Mount Pearl North, tweeted through social

media and more or less gave an endorsement to a column that was written called

Full-day Kindergarten is no magic bullet, which was published in

The Globe and Mail last October.

This was published by a person who everybody will know because she is no

friend to Newfoundland and Labrador, one Margaret Wente.

There is no end of ink that has been written in

The Globe and Mail that has been

negative and nasty about Newfoundland and Labrador by that columnist.

In this column, which was

endorsed or at least circulated by the Minister of Municipal Affairs, she talks

about how the money could be used in a better way than wasting money on full-day

Kindergarten in the Province of Ontario.

That is what the implication is.

She questions the benefits of full-day Kindergarten.

It is interesting because

there was a letter in The Globe and Mail

in the past couple of weeks and the person said, Cherry-picking to create a

negative impression regarding positive research results is not helpful to the

public discourse about something as important as early childhood education.

That is what Margaret Wente does in the column that was circulated last

October by the Member for Mount Pearl North, the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

She cherry-picks research to somehow malign full-day Kindergarten as

something that is positive.

Another instance where a

member opposite was not exactly rallying around full-day Kindergarten and the

idea of implementing that

MR. KENT:

A point of order.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of