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March

31, 2014

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. XLVII No. 10

The House met at 1:30 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman):

Order, please!

Admit strangers.

The hon. the Minister of

Finance, on a point of order.

MS JOHNSON:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a point of order,

this being my first opportunity to do so since Budget 2014 was delivered.

Mr. Speaker, the budget for

the Premier's office as contained in the Estimates document should have been the

same as the reduced budget amount for 2013-2014, the $1.865 million.

As a result, the Premier's office has directed they will operate from the

reduced 2013-2014 funding amount and that any amount over this will be frozen

during the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

MR. DALLEY:

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

On the same point of order?

Any response to the first

point of order?

The hon. the Minister of

Natural Resources, to a second point of order.

MR. DALLEY:

Mr. Speaker, last week in a speech here in the

House I referred to the hon. Leader of the Opposition, I made a comment that he

determined Nalcor to be negligent.

Mr. Speaker, it was determined that he did not make those comments and he does

not believe they are negligent. I

would like to apologize to the member and withdraw the comments.

Statements by Members

MR. SPEAKER:

Today we will have members' statements from the

Member for the District of Humber Valley; the Member for the District of St.

Barbe; the Member for the District of Lake Melville; the Member for the District

of Terra Nova; the Member for the District of Port au Port; and the Member for

the District of Bellevue.

The hon. the Member for the

District of Humber Valley.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House

today to congratulate Mr. Clarence Ford of Jackson's Arm on his recent

retirement from the town's ambulance service.

Clarence's decision to retire comes after twenty-six years of service

with the Jackson's Arm Ambulance Service.

Clarence started on the

ambulance back in 1988 and has been a consistent and a steady hand during those

many years of service. Clarence

spent the first fifteen years of his service as a dedicated volunteer and it was

not until 2003 that he began being compensated for his work.

Mr. Speaker, Jackson's Arm

is 163 kilometres from Western Memorial Hospital in Corner Brook.

During his tenure with the Jackson's Arm Ambulance Service, as with many

services across our Province, Clarence has made many late night and early

morning emergency trips to the regional hospital in some unfavourable road and

weather conditions. Clarence states

he recalls many days when he made two or three trips per day required by

patients seeking medical assistance in the hospital in Corner Brook.

I ask all members in this

House today to rise with me in honouring Clarence, a dedicated individual who is

respected by his family, friends, and colleagues, and I am sure those who he

transported. As he moves forward in

the next

chapter of his life, may he enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Lake Melville.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. RUSSELL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to recognize

the fortieth anniversary of the raising of the Labrador flag.

In 1974, Michael S. Martin,

who was a member of the House of Assembly for the District of Labrador South,

took the opportunity to do something significant to celebrate Labrador's

heritage as part of Newfoundland.

Martin and several others designed and created the Labrador flag and raised it

in all fifty-nine towns and villages of Labrador forty years ago today.

Every part of the flag has

meaning, Mr. Speaker; the white bar represents the snow, an important part of

life for Labradorians. The blue bar

represents the waters of Labrador, important for both travel and sustenance.

The green bar represents the land, and it is thinner than the other bars,

as much of Labrador has short summers.

The flag was made to

represent the people that live in the Big Land by distinguishing where we have

come from with where we are going.

Specifically, the three branches emerging from a single stalk represent the

unity of the distinct peoples in the brotherhood of mankind.

I ask all hon. members of

this House to join me in recognizing the fortieth anniversary of the Labrador

Flag.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Terra

Nova.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. S. COLLINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to recognize a

tremendous individual from my district, Mr. Kevin Stroud of Glovertown.

Mr. Stroud has dedicated almost his entire life to serving others both

professionally and personally.

He was a member of the Royal

Canadian Mounted Police for twenty-four years, serving in various roles.

Kevin has a long list of volunteer activities including being a member of

the Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron #727, Glovertown Lions Club, First

Alexander Bay Scout Troop, Eastport Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, Terra

Nova Trail Riders, and Freshwater Alexander Bays Ecosystem Corporation, but

perhaps his most notable volunteer role has been his forty-five years served on

the local fire department in Glovertown.

He still remains active to this day.

Mr. Speaker, even throughout

his busy life, Kevin has found the time to be an active blood donor with

eighty-five donations to date. Kevin

is an ideal example of an unselfish community-minded individual.

I am pleased to be able to showcase the tremendous contribution he has

made to my district and, certainly, the Province and country.

I ask all hon. members to

join with me in thanking Mr. Stroud for all that he has done and all that he

continues to do.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Port au Port.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. CORNECT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in

this hon. House to congratulate the Junior Women's and the Junior Men's teams

from the Caribou Curling Club in Stephenville on winning their respective Under

18 Provincial Championships in Gander during the weekend of February 28 through

to March 2.

Mr. Speaker, this is the

first year for these teams to compete in a championship.

This is the first time both junior teams from the Caribou Curling Club

have won the gold medal. I am

extremely proud of the fact that these athletes now have the honour of

representing Newfoundland and Labrador at the Atlantic Curling Championships

being held in New Brunswick in April.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all hon.

members to join with me in congratulating the Junior Women's team: Rebecca

Roberts, Chantal Newell, Danielle Wiseman, Jaime Lamswood, and their coach

Sherrie McNeil.

Congratulations as well to

the Junior Men's team: Craig Laing, Greg Smith, Ryan McNeil-Lamswood, Kyle

Barron, and their coach Scott Lamswood.

Mr. Speaker, best wishes and

best of luck are extended to these teams, and have fun curling.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St. Barbe.

MR. BENNETT:

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

congratulate the Junior Canadian Rangers, Port Saunders Patrol, on a successful

Cultural Exchange hosted in Plum Point, March 7-9, 2014.

The Cultural Exchange involved approximately 120 youth, ages twelve to

eighteen from Port Saunders, Buchans, Conne River and Gaultois Patrols; as well

as approximately twenty adult leaders and organizers.

The 5 th Canadian

Ranger Patrol Group operates out of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Junior Canadian Rangers Program, one of the 5 CRPG initiatives,

offers a variety of skill developing activities that promote traditional

cultures and lifestyles to youth living in remote and rural communities.

The Cultural Exchange provides opportunities for youth who do not travel

out of their communities often to experience other lifestyles, and to interact

and see that all people are equal.

I commend Captain Devine,

Sergeant Bourgeois, Master Corporal Macey, Adult Community President Vernice

Rose, the adult leaders, and the youth participants on delivering a true

experience.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all

members of the House to join me in congratulating the Junior Canadian Rangers,

Port Saunders Patrol, and commending all involved.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bellevue.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. PEACH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House

today to recognize the Tricentia Timberwolves male volleyball team of Arnold's

Cove who won a silver medal at the 2014 Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games

on March 8 in Clarenville.

The volleyball team

consisted of Cody Hollett, Jordan White, Lucas Goodwin, Richard Warren, Joshua

Smith, Jordan Baker, Ryan Pitcher, Marcus Berkshire, Cass Warren, Jason Hollett,

Donovan Warren, and Marcus Ralph.

Part of their success lies with their coaches: Dion Piercey, Nathan Ploughman,

and Kurt Goodwin.

The Timberwolves were

representing the Eastern Region at the Winter Games and their silver medal,

combined with the four other bronze medals that were captured in other

categories from the Eastern Region including female table tennis, female

individual table tennis, single male figure skating and badminton, gave the

region a total of five medals overall.

I all members to join me in

congratulating the Timberwolves on their silver medal and the four bronze medal

winners for the Eastern Region, and all athletes from their participation in the

Winter Games. I am sure they all had

fun and win or lose, the determination and dedication was something to be

valued.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Statements by Ministers.

Statements by Ministers

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Transportation and

Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MCGRATH:

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today in

this hon. House to highlight our commitment to advancing improvements in

transportation infrastructure such as roads, highways, and bridges throughout

Newfoundland and Labrador.

Since 2004, more than $1.6

billion has been invested in transportation-related infrastructure delivering

significant benefits in all areas of the Province.

With close to 10,000 kilometres of provincial roads and highways, we need

to take full advantage of our Province's short construction season.

In collaboration with the

Heavy Civil Association of Newfoundland and Labrador and private contractors, we

are delivering on a commitment to get an early start to roadwork this year with

the issue of early tenders and our investment of $81 million included in Budget

2014 for our Provincial Road Improvement Program.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MCGRATH:

This marks one of the largest investments ever in the Provincial Road

Improvement Program. Funding will be

used for upgrades and enhancements to the provincial highway network including

major trunk roads, community access roads, as well as routine maintenance on the

Trans-Canada Highway. Funding is

also allocated for the rehabilitation and replacement of bridges.

In the last couple of weeks,

we have already issued tenders for significant road improvements in Baie Verte

Springdale, Labrador West, Western Newfoundland, and on the Bay d'Espoir

Highway, with more on the horizon.

Our industry partners and

residents have warmly welcomed the early start to the road construction season.

Industry, in particular, has applauded the early tenders as an important

step in insuring they can recruit and retain their labour force and better plan

and mobilize their operations for roadwork in all regions of Newfoundland and

Labrador. Collectively, as a

Province, we will all benefit from being out of the gate sooner.

Mr. Speaker, it is going to

be a busy year as we prepare to upgrade many roads, highways, and bridges all

over our Province. The work we are

doing will support communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and will

help drive social and economic activity in both rural and urban areas.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MR. OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the

minister for an advance copy of his statement.

We agree with the early tenders, Mr. Speaker.

It is better for the construction industry.

It is better for residents in the Province.

It will give a greater amount of time to complete the work that is

needed.

I do want to talk about

bridges for a moment, Mr. Speaker, because the Auditor General points out in his

most recent report some glaring statistics.

Those statistics include the fact that since 2003, the overall poor

condition of bridges in this Province has increased by 93 per cent.

That is unbelievable.

One hundred and fifty-four bridges have an overall rating of poor in this

Province again, unbelievable. The

department has only completed 58 per cent of the planned 234 bridge projects it

committed to in their 2004-2011 plan to repair bridges unbelievable.

More than half of the bridges in this Province are over forty years old.

Mr. Speaker, we see the

deficit increasing in this Province.

The rate of debt in this Province is back to where it was when the PCs took

power in this Province. As well, now

we see an infrastructure deficit; something that they talked about on that side

of the House, Budget after Budget.

Just some examples are two

bridges in this Province, both on the Trans-Canada Highway, both with speeds

reduced, leading up to those bridges, to thirty kilometres per hour because the

bridges are unsafe. The surfaces of

those bridges are unsafe to travel over.

It is unbelievable, Mr. Speaker.

There needs to be more done in this Province to repairs the bridges.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. member's time is

expired.

MR. OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would also like to thank

the minister for the advance copy of his statement; but when you see something

like this, you have to ask yourself some questions because this is something

that our party pushed for last April, in a private member's motion, that this

government defeated. One of the

things that we talked about at that particular time, when it came to a plan for

roads and bridges in this Province, was about early releasing of tenders.

Government voted us down, Mr. Speaker, on that particular day that we did

that.

We are thankful that they

are finally doing it. We also have

to note, too, that municipalities are doing the same thing and it is going to do

a lot to promote, of course, the early advancement of roadwork in this Province.

This government has to remember, Mr. Speaker, that we are $800 million in

the hole according to the Auditor General.

When it comes to roads and

bridges, we need long-term plans for roads and bridges and it is about time that

this government paid attention.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The member's time has

expired.

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to

rise today in this hon. House to highlight our newly implemented fly-in, fly-out

model, which we refer to as CONSEP the Community of Natuashish Service

Enhancement Program.

Our government continues to

make significant efforts to improve service delivery in Labrador, with a key

focus on the community of Natuashish.

It has been four months since the Department of Child, Youth and Family

Services implemented the Community of Natuashish Service Enhancement Program.

This new fly-in, fly-out approach is helping to provide more supports and

greater consistency on the ground for the children, youth, and families in that

community.

The Community of Natuashish

Service Enhancement Program, which is in addition to permanent staff already

located in the community, comprises two separate fly-in teams with each having a

clinical supervisor and two social workers.

These teams travel to Natuashish on a two-week rotational basis, working

twelve-hours shifts each day.

Mr. Speaker, in February I

had the opportunity to visit Natuashish for my first time.

During this visit, I met with community leaders, elders, members of the

Mushuau Innu First Nation, as well as departmental staff working in the

community. Each of these meetings

provided a clear indication that, in a relatively short period of time, the

newly implemented CONSEP model was already having a positive effect on the

community.

It is essential that we

build on the momentum of this new model, and through Budget 2014: Shared

Prosperity, Fair Society, Balanced Outlook, our government will do just that by

investing an additional $200,000 for travel to continue to the community of

Natuashish Service Enhancement Program.

By continuing to work with

the Mushuau Innu First Nation and other partners such as the Department of

Health and Community Services, and the Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health

Authority, we will be able to further strengthen clinical social work practice

as well as enhance the quality of service delivery for children, youth and

families in Natuashish.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.

MR. EDMUNDS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for the

advance copy of his notice.

Before I begin, Mr. Speaker,

I would just like to take this opportunity to remember those Newfoundland

sealers who perished on the ice floes off our Province over 100 years ago.

I would also like to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Labrador

Flag and its creation, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to call upon the minister responsible, for his pledge, to look into

having the Labrador flag flying at both entry points into our Province.

Mr. Speaker, we are also

encouraged with this new fly-in, fly-out program that has been implemented.

I have spoken to several of the band council members in Natuashish and

they are also encouraged by the progress that is coming with this new program.

This is a much needed program for a community that was in crisis.

Time and time again, review

of CYFS cases reveal staff turnover and poor documentation were the key factors

in our young people falling through the cracks.

These challenges were amplified in Natuashish until now.

We hope the fly-in, fly-out program helps improve the situation for the

families in that community.

Mr. Speaker, I have asked in

this House several times about the shortcomings

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

I remind the member his time

has expired.

MR. EDMUNDS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.

Finally, it is about time

government stepped up to its moral obligation in this community finally.

I am sad to say that this only happened after community leaders had to

come here demanding assistance and only after media exposed the I seem to have

a technical problem here, Mr. Speaker.

It is sad to say that only

after community leaders had come here demanding assistance and only after media

exposed the devastating problems this community faces.

This government has been in power over a decade and still has not been

able to provide adequate services to this community in need.

The people of Natuashish

have a right to full comprehensive social services, especially in the area of

child protection. I thank the social

workers who will be providing their services.

I commend the leaders of Natuashish and the Mushuau Innu First Nation for

working so diligently for the well-being of the people of their community.

Thank you very much, 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.

Government's annual Budget

mail out, this one that I have right here, includes Five Things to Know About

Budget 2014. However, it does not

say anything about $1 billion they will borrow, the increased debt, or the weak

economic outlook.

I ask the Premier: Why don't

you want the people of the Province to know about the $1 billion in borrowing?

Why is borrowing $1 billion not one of the things that people know about

in Budget 2014?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We want the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador to know everything that is in this Budget, including

every cent we spend and any money we borrow.

Since 2004, we have had a remarkable record of no borrowing for either

operational or capital purposes.

This year we will not be

borrowing for operational purposes.

We will not be putting money on the credit card to pay groceries.

We will not be borrowing to pay the light bill.

We will in fact have a surplus of $400 million on operations this year.

We will be borrowing there

are two bond issues coming due that were taken out many, many years ago.

The money was taken then and spent then.

We are not spending it now but we have to pay the principle.

We are going to be borrowing that at a much lower interest rate.

We are going to invest $551

million in infrastructure for water bombers.

We are going to invest in Nalcor's oil and gas and Nalcor's Muskrat Falls

to provide future profits for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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.

The Premier did mention the

great work of the legacy projects from the past Administration that gave him the

revenue to do all those great things.

While this government made deep cuts throughout the government last year,

the Premier's office was overspent by $400,000.

The minister pointed out before Question Period today that this would

change.

The $400,000 that was spent

last year, Mr. Premier, can you explain where that money was spent?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, I am advised that the extra money spent over last year was

all for severance. It was for people

who left the Premier's office. There

were a number of people in the previous Administration who are taking the

severance monthly instead of all at once.

That is what the money was for, it was for severance.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To pay for the election-type

Budget, government is borrowing, as I said earlier, $1 billion and projecting a

half billion deficit. It is one

thing to borrow when the economic forecast is good, but unfortunately the key

economic indicators as your own Budget document states are trending down.

I ask the Premier: Why are

you borrowing a billion dollars to pay for an election-type Budget against a

backdrop of weak economic growth?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Finance.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As the Premier has said, we

have not had to borrow for operational or capital purposes since 2004.

No other government can say that.

We have posted six surpluses in the last ten years.

No other government can say that.

Mr. Speaker, we have to

borrow this year. It is short term.

It is not for operational purposes.

It is for an investment into our future in Nalcor.

It is for debt coming due, and it is for much needed infrastructure.

It is short term. We are

going to be back in surplus next year and the year after, and this is a Budget

we are very proud of, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, six out of ten years

in surplus, obviously, you were the government and you did inherit the legacy of

the great projects that have brought in that oil royalty.

You cannot dispute that.

The labour force in our

Province is expected to shrink by 2.5 per cent by 2016 and our population will

shrink by over 2,000 between now and 2017.

Over a year ago government announced a Population Growth Strategy, but

their own documents admit there was no growth in population in 2013, and there

is nothing in the Budget on how this government expects to grow our population.

I ask the Premier: Why have

you not seen any results from the Population Growth Strategy, and why was it

forgotten about in this Budget?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Finance.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Population Growth Strategy

is something that we take very seriously, and so seriously, Mr. Speaker, that we

put full-day kindergarten in our Budget.

There is no better thing we can do for Population Growth Strategy.

Mr. Speaker, when you look

at GDP, GDP last year was 5.9 per cent.

We led the country in GDP. It

is going up again half a percent this year, Mr. Speaker.

When you compare GDP in 2003 to where we are today with GDP, we are up

10.2 per cent over the last eleven years, Mr. Speaker, a record that we are very

proud of.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ironically, the Minister of

Finance did not mention about the GDP in the next three years.

I find it alarming that you would not do that.

Mr. Speaker, according to

the Health Minister, it appears there is money in the Budget for the demolition

of the former Abitibi mill. With

remediation costs estimated to be around $100 million, the total cost to

taxpayers for this government's botched expropriation is now close to $400

million.

I ask the Premier: How much

money is in this year's Budget that is allocated for the demolition and the

remediation of the Abitibi site?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Transportation and

Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. MCGRATH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have several

properties throughout the Province, the Abitibi site being one of them.

We have the hospital site in Grand Bank.

We have several sites here in the capital city that needs to be

demolished or looked at. There is an

amount of money this year allocated in the Budget that there is no specific

amount for a specific project. What

we will do is look at the projects, prioritize them, and then we will decide

which money of that allocated money will be spent on those projects.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Interesting enough, you are creating a budget and

you have no idea what it is going to cost on that particular project.

Mr. Speaker, our caucus has

been researching the possibility of radiation services on the West Coast of

Newfoundland.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. BALL:

We have had meetings with officials from

Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and they have been very open and forthcoming

with the information. We were

supposed to meet with our own Eastern Health officials tomorrow but the Minister

of Health and Community Services cancelled our meeting.

I ask the Premier: Why is

your minister blocking our meeting with Eastern Health?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have no

knowledge of what the hon. member on the opposite side of the House is speaking

of. I have no knowledge that there

has been a meeting cancelled at my order because I did not give any such order,

Mr. Speaker. I have no idea when a

meeting was scheduled. So I really

and truly do not know what the hon. member is talking about.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

I want to very clear here.

Is the minister saying that you did not know our meeting was cancelled

for tomorrow morning?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN:

Yes, Mr. Speaker, that is precisely what I am

saying. I had no idea there was a

meeting cancelled for tomorrow, or did I have any idea that a meeting was

scheduled for tomorrow. I did know

that a meeting was being sought. I

had no idea if it had been set up, I certainly had no idea of it being

cancelled. So it was not directed by

me, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

To be very clear, your EA made a call on Friday

saying that this meeting was cancelled with us.

As a matter of fact, what they wanted to do was that your officials

involved in our meeting this was a meeting we had set up to get information

about radiation services in Western Newfoundland.

It was scheduled for tomorrow morning, to happen right here in

Confederation Building. Your EA

phoned and said that meeting would not go ahead tomorrow.

Can you please explain that?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will

certainly investigate. As I have

stated twice now, I had no idea that any meeting with an outside organization,

for example, Eastern Health, was either scheduled or cancelled.

I have no knowledge of that.

I did know that a meeting

was being sought, I thought, with members of my department, but it was not

anything I even asked a question about.

We have many meeting requests that come to our department, so I had no

idea of that. I can assure the

member opposite that we can have a conversation after Question Period today to

clarify this. Absolutely no meeting

was cancelled under my direction.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Mr. Speaker, it even went a step further than

that. Because to set a meeting in

the future, which would include the officials from the Department of Health and

Community Services, they wanted us to submit questions that would be asked in

that meeting. What we were doing was

going in and seeking information just like we did from Saskatchewan, just like

we did from Ontario, just like we did from Nova Scotia.

I ask the minister: Will you

speak to your officials so that we can have our private meeting with the people

from Eastern Health? You said to the

AG just recently that you would not interfere with regional health authorities

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

I ask the member to direct

his comments to the Chair.

MR. BALL:

Will you allow the meeting to happen?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly

what I said in the last answer, that I will certainly go back and I will speak

with the people in my department. I

will get clarification as to what has happened.

Again, I stress I cancelled no meeting.

I had no knowledge of when a meeting was even scheduled, but I am happy

to discuss this with the hon. member after Question Period and we will certainly

get this clarified.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.

MR. EDMUNDS:

Mr. Speaker, in the Legal Aid Commission, one

Labrador judge claimed that the justice system in Labrador is in a state of

crisis and has been for far too long, yet the Attorney General in this House

stated recently that he is happy with the system.

I ask the Attorney General:

Given this government's reluctance in accepting the situation as a crisis, will

you now accept the fact that we do have a crisis in the justice system in

Labrador?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. F. COLLINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we recognize

the fact that we have challenges in delivering legal services in Labrador.

That is not unique to Labrador; it is unique to the North of Canada in

general.

We are quite willing to work

with stakeholders in Labrador to look at innovative ways.

We have challenges there, and not necessarily challenges with money,

resources, or personnel. We have

geographical challenges. We have

cultural challenges. We are willing

to work with our stakeholders to try to find innovative means of delivering

services in coastal communities. We

are also willing to work with, and we have been working with, community leaders

to look at ways to help residents navigate the justice system through

interpretation services, translation services, and so on

Mr. Speaker, we are

investing in these services and we continue to do so.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for

Torngat Mountains.

MR. EDMUNDS:

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the facts say a

different story.

Mr. Speaker, we have always

maintained the victims of crime are the people who suffer most because of delays

in the court system. Aboriginal

victims should not be the exception.

The fact is that the number of Aboriginal accused held for bail hearings in

Labrador equals or exceeds the number of non-Aboriginal held for bail hearings

throughout the rest of the Province.

I ask the Attorney General:

Why is it taking so long for bail hearings to be processed in Labrador as

compared to the rest of the Province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. F. COLLINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the criminal

litigation process is the responsibility of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Things like sentencing, bail, and releases are all determined by the

court according to the law of Canada, the Criminal Code of Canada, according to

case law, and according to the parameters set out in the discussion by both

sides. That is not something the

Attorney General interferes in; that is something that is protocol for the

Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, the government has promised a new

fiscal framework with municipalities since 2008.

After seeing the Budget, the Mayor of St. John's, our capital city, is

questioning this government's commitment to the process.

I ask the minister: Why did

you fail once again to address this important issue in Budget 2014?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Municipal and

Intergovernmental Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KENT:

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question.

We have been saying all along the fiscal framework review process that is

ongoing will take time. We still

have about another twelve months of work to do.

We are engaged with Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador.

We are engaged with municipalities across the Province and local service

districts across the Province.

Any resident of the Province

who wants to have a say in this process can have a say in this process.

It was just this weekend I met with the Chair of a local service district

in Bay St. George South who had just participated in a consultation over the

past week. There is lots of progress

being made across the Province, and we welcome the input from the City of St.

John's as the process proceeds.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, the candidate for Virginia Waters,

Danny Breen, said it is one of the most important issues.

I can see why now he is signing up to vote in the Liberal leadership; at

least they have a commitment.

Mr. Speaker, seven of our

biggest towns and cities have been stripped of their Municipal Operating Grants,

but have not seen any new source of revenue in the Budget to compensate for the

loss. There are other sources of

revenues that could have been tapped while they wait for the new fiscal

framework.

I ask the minister: Why have

you abandoned the largest towns and cities in our Province without providing

compensation for the loss of their Municipal Operating Grants?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Municipal and

Intergovernmental Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hope that the mayors of

our seven largest communities in Newfoundland and Labrador will be very pleased

with what is in store in this Budget for them.

In fact, over $100 million of the $200 million commitment to municipal

capital works funding will go to our largest communities.

The member opposite refers

to the City of St. John's; $40.9 million is being provided to the City of St.

John's to address important infrastructure needs.

That shows how serious we are about meeting the needs of our largest

communities. In allocating those

amounts, Mr. Speaker, we certainly took into consideration the previous amounts

that were received through Municipal Operating Grants and the budget is being

allocated accordingly.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour

Grace.

MR. SLADE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Budget 2014

exposed that the Department of Fisheries failed to spend its full budget.

In fact, it left a massive 47 per cent of its budget on the table.

I ask the minister: How does

he expect to strengthen the fishing industry when he is only spending 50 per

cent of the budget? Why does this

government continue to overpromise and underspend?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

We have a number of programs, our equity program

with regard to aquaculture, our infrastructure program that we flow funds at the

point where tenders are rendered, our projects are ready to proceed.

Within a couple of those funds over the past year, we went through the

process with industry; those projects are going to follow through over next

year. Wharf infrastructure is one.

Our equity program dealing with the aquaculture industry, we have new

projects coming, and that money will be flowed over to the next year.

We are keen in terms of

growing the industry, growing the fishing industry.

I am not sure if the hon. member understands or not but we are putting

$120 million in the fishing industry.

We are leveraging another $280 million from the federal government for

$400 million in the fishery and he is standing and talking about we are not

investing in the fishery of Newfoundland and Labrador.

It is shameful, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour

Grace.

MR. SLADE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, one of the

critical areas where the department has failed to invest is seafood marketing.

The department has managed to only spend 30 per cent of its allocation.

I ask the minister: Why has

he not used the full budget to implement all the marketing recommendations of

the Fisheries MOU, which this government committed to nearly three years ago?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, in our

MOU this government stepped up and put almost $10 million there for industry,

for marketing, and for a consortium to a marketing board.

We have lobbied and tried to work with industry to take advantage of

that. To date, they have not.

We had a couple of offers last year in terms of working and to build a

consortium. To date, that has not

happened, but we will certainly have funds in the budget as we move forward.

I met with the small

industry, the small producers a little while back and said to them, if they are

willing to come together as a group and want to do marketing we are certainly

willing to play, but this is an industry issue.

Industry needs to drive that.

We are there to play. When they are

ready, we will be there to market.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MR. OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Last week I asked the

Minister Responsible for Housing about the need for more accessible housing

units. I brought up concerns that an

individual has with her apartment not being accessible and injuries she has had

as a result of that. The minister

said if that person had contacted him directly, she would not have to wait on

the list for years to get an accessible unit.

I ask the minister: Does he

really believe he is solving the lack of accessible housing by helping just one

person?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and

Skills.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. O'BRIEN:

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member likes to play with

words. What I said in this House is

to have that particular person phone me directly to see what I could do for that

particular person. That person has

phoned me today.

As a matter of fact, I was

not in my office at the time and I called her right back, as soon as I got back

in my office, which I do with all constituents, Mr. Speaker, who have an issue

really important and a foundation of our government since 2003, and we will

continue to invest in people with disabilities, making homes more accessible,

making buildings more accessible, Mr. Speaker, under various programs that we

have under Advanced Education and Skills, along with Newfoundland and Labrador

Housing.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MR. OSBORNE:

Mr. Speaker, within minutes of speaking to the

minister today, I got an e-mail from Housing saying that she had better look in

the private market because there is nothing available and there is a lack of

accessible housing in this Province.

If the only chance a person

has to get an accessible unit, without waiting for years, is to contact the

minister, I have another person that I ask the minister to intervene on their

behalf. This family had to install

their own ramp at their own cost because Housing said they would not install a

ramp in a housing unit with stairs that are inaccessible.

They have the same issues with their bathtub not being accessible, yet

the family could not get a transfer to an accessible unit.

I ask the minister: Will he

intervene for this family and resolve their issue?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and

Skills.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. O'BRIEN:

Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the hon. member wants

me to do his job for him because he keeps referring all of his constituents to

the minister, which he should, Mr. Speaker, because I will deal with each and

every one of them individually as I do with my own constituents in the District

of Gander, along with any other constituents who want to phone me.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. O'BRIEN:

There is $9 million in this Budget, Mr. Speaker,

in regard to home modification, repairs to homes in Newfoundland and Labrador,

making them more accessible to people; along with $600,000 in Advanced Education

and Skills that will enable people to make their vehicles more accessible; along

with not for profits can also apply under that program to make their buildings

accessible to people with disabilities, Mr. Speaker.

That is called good work for the Newfoundland and Labrador people.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MR. KIRBY:

Mr. Speaker, the government says that full-day

kindergarten will be implemented for all students by 2016.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. KIRBY:

I ask the Minister of Education: Does that

election promise include maintaining the class size cap for students in

kindergarten?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Education.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. JACKMAN:

A wonderful, wonderful announcement, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. JACKMAN:

The answer to his question, Mr. Speaker, is yes.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

quick question.

MR. KIRBY:

Mr. Speaker, our kids are already being jammed

into overcrowded schools like sardines.

Will the minister now table your plan for school development to prevent

these planning blunders from happening into the future?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Education.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. JACKMAN:

Mr. Speaker, I am always amazed at some of the

member's choice of vocabulary.

Mr. Speaker, I can stand

here and you can rule me to sit down because I can go on with a list of

infrastructure that we are building in schools from the Northern part, in

Charlottetown, to the West Coast, to this particular area.

All the member has to do is look at the list of infrastructure projects

that we have ongoing, Mr. Speaker, recognizing the population growth, but

recognizing we want top-notch facilities for our students.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Since Thursday, I have heard

from public service pensioners who fear they could lose their pensions based on

what they are hearing in the media from government and its apologists.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS MICHAEL:

I ask the Premier: Can he assure our pensioners

that their pensions are safe?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

Mr. Speaker, I have said on a number of occasions that our government

supports defined benefits pensions.

We have also said that we are not going to take anything away from people.

Anything that has accrued, any benefits that have been earned, they will

be kept by people.

What we are doing, we are

talking about the fact that the pension promised right now is unsustainable

because conditions have changed. It

is all based on math. People are

retiring earlier. They are not

contributing as much. People, thank

God, are living longer. That means

they have to take out of the fund for a longer period of time.

Also, the returns have not been as great, but we are not going to take

away benefits that have accrued to people.

We are talking about the

future, and we said we will work with the unions.

We will work with the stakeholders to come up with a plan that will make

our pension plans sustainable for the benefit of our employees.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

MS MICHAEL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier knows that they

and the public sector unions will work out a solution to the unfunded pension

liability.

I ask the Premier: Will he

admit that the current scaremongering regarding the pension is just a ploy to

change the subject

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS MICHAEL:

from the far more serious economic situation,

the Muskrat Falls Project, which creates real debt, Mr. Speaker?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

I am sorry; I did not hear all of her question.

I did hear the last part of her comments.

The money going into Muskrat

Falls is an investment. It is an

investment that is going to be returned to the people.

In 2019, I expect the dividends that will come to the Province from

Muskrat Falls will be about half a billion dollars a year.

I expect that before the Upper Churchill comes back, I think those

dividends are going to amount to $3 billion a year, each and every year.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER MARSHALL:

That is a wonderful project for the people of the Province.

It will provide electricity at the lowest possible cost, and also the

surplus that we do not need will be sold and bring in revenues to benefit the

people of Newfoundland and Labrador as long as that river runs to the sea, Mr.

Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.

MS MICHAEL:

(Inaudible) to see all that.

The Harper government has

decided not to renew the Federal-Provincial Health Accord, which expires today.

This cut will mean a loss of $491 million to this Province over the next

decade.

I ask the Premier: Why is he

not speaking out and defending Newfoundland and Labrador people against this

deep and unfair cut in federal health care funding?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the member

for that question because that is a very important question, and it is a very

important concern of this government.

Mr. Speaker, previous

premiers have spoken about this, and spoken loudly about this at COF, at CAP,

and various other forums, because we all know that this was a unilateral

decision by the federal government.

Interestingly enough, we

have created a new working group, health innovation working group, to actually

see what we can do independent of the federal government, and as provinces and

territories we have been working on that particular issue.

In fact, I am leaving I am not sure if it is tomorrow or Wednesday

morning to go to meetings with regard to exactly that issue, Mr. Speaker.

MR. JOYCE:

(Inaudible).

MS SULLIVAN:

Mr. Speaker, if the Member for Bay of Islands has

a question, I would prefer that he asked it, as opposed to chirping across the

House.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hope the Minister of CYFS

is now up to speed on the fifty public sector jobs that he cut last week.

This is going to have a negative effect on the children at risk in their

care, who have been moved so often already.

I am receiving reports of children who are devastated and afraid, who do

not know exactly where and when they are being moved.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the

minister: How many of these children are being moved, once again, from their

current homes?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. DAVIS:

Mr. Speaker, it is most unfortunate that the

member opposite uses the time here in the House of Assembly to mislead the

people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. DAVIS:

Services provided to our most vulnerable youth

and children throughout Newfoundland and Labrador have been provided by private

entities for many, many years.

What we have done is we have

gone through a competitive process.

Four of those entities that have been providing service one has been providing

service for over a decade, one has been providing service for thirty-five years,

and one has been providing the service to children and youth for forty years,

Mr. Speaker. They have been

providing good service and, as a result of their ability to provide quality

programs, we have given them a contract to continue to do that work, Mr.

Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

MS ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I have the collective agreement for

the private sector workers. I asked:

How many children are being moved?

Mr. Speaker, I ask the

minister: After all these years of this supposed planning by his department, why

is he moving these very vulnerable children from their homes in May, before the

school year is over? Why?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family

Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To continue on with what I

was referring to. There are entities

throughout this Province that employ staff that provide staffed residential

placements for our most vulnerable children and youth.

Throughout the Province, there is a variety of different operators who

provide those services to the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services.

As directed by the Auditor

General, just a couple of years ago, Mr. Speaker, we went through a competitive

process. It was one that we

announced over a year ago. It is one

that has taken a considerable amount of work and effort to reach a conclusion

that we could enter into contracts with these service providers who can provide

the best services.

The union is fully aware of

it, Mr. Speaker. They were notified

of it when we entered into this process.

We have had discussions with them.

These operators have had discussions with them and they should be fully

aware of what is taking place.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

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

quick question without

preamble.

MS ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I ask the minister: What is his

detailed protocol for uprooting these children to ensure their safety, and will

he table it?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family

Services, for a quick response.

MR. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to point out

that many of the children and youth who rely on staffed residential placements

throughout Newfoundland and Labrador will stay in the communities where they are

currently located. In many cases,

they will stay with the service providers that are providing those services

before we have entered into these new contracts, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The time for Question Period

has expired.

I would ask the Minister of

Child, Youth and Family Services if he would withdraw his comment about the

Member for St. John's Centre misleading the House.

MR. DAVIS:

My apologies, Mr. Speaker.

I withdraw the comment.

MR. SPEAKER:

Thank you.

Presenting Reports by

Standing and Select Committees.

The hon. the Minister of

Finance.

MS JOHNSON:

I am tabling, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

Tabling of Documents.

Tabling of Documents

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Finance.

MS JOHNSON:

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the Transparency and

Accountability Act, it is my pleasure to table the 2014-2016 Activity Plans for

the following government entities: Government Money Purchase Pension Plan, and

Pensions Investment Committee.

Also, Mr. Speaker, pursuant

section 26.(5)(

a) of the Financial Administration Act

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS JOHNSON:

I am tabling two Orders in Council related to

funding pre-commitments for the 2014-2015 to 2016-2017 fiscal years.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and

Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. HUTCHINGS:

Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the Transparency

and Accountability Act, it is my pleasure to table the 2014-2016 Activity Plans

for the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board and the Appeal Board of

Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board.

In fulfilling government's

commitment of being accountable to the citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador, it

is also my pleasure to table the 2014-2016 Activity Plan for the Fish Processing

Licensing Board.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Municipal and

Intergovernmental Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The Speaker has acknowledged

the hon. the Minister of Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs.

MR. KENT:

Thank you for acknowledging me, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased to stand today

to table the 2014-2016 Business Plans for the following entities: the Eastern

Regional Service Board, the Western Regional Service Board, the Northern

Peninsula Regional Service Board, the Central Regional Service Board, the

Discovery Regional Service Board, and the Burin Peninsula Regional Service

Board.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. DALLEY:

Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the Transparency

and Accountability Act, it is my pleasure to table the 2014-2016 Strategic Plan

for Nalcor Energy and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and

Skills.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. O'BRIEN:

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand today in

accordance with the requirements of the Transparency and Accountability Act

2006 to table the new Private Training Corporation Activity Plan which

describes activities of the Private Training Corporation for the three calendar

years, 2014-2016. The corporation is

one of eleven public entities that reports through me to the House of Assembly.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Service Newfoundland and

Labrador.

MR. CRUMMELL:

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand today to table

the 2014-2016 Strategic Plan for the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation

Commission.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

In accordance with

subsection 20(7) of the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and

Administration Act, I am tabling amendments to the Members' Resources and

Allowances Rules approved by the Management Commission of the House of Assembly

on Thursday, March 13, 2014.

Also, pursuant to

section 8

and

section 10 of the Public Tender Act, I hereby table reports of the Public

Tender Act Exceptions for November and December, 2013 and January 2014 as

presented by the Chief Operating Officer of the Government Purchasing Agency.

Notices of Motion.

Notices of Motion

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of Municipal and

Intergovernmental Affairs.

MR. KENT:

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave

to introduce a bill entitled,

An Act To Establish And Implement A Province-Wide

911 Telephone Service For The Reporting of Emergencies, Bill 14.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Government

House Leader.

MR. KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I give notice that I will

ask leave to introduce the following resolution:

WHEREAS subsection 20(7) of

the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act provides

that a change to the level of amounts of allowances and resources provided to

members not be made except in accordance with a rule that has been first laid

before the House of Assembly and adopted by resolution of the House; and

WHEREAS an amendment to the

Members' Resources and Allowances Rules, which would change the level of the

amounts of allowances and resources has been laid before the House by the

Speaker;

THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED

that his hon. House of Assembly adopt the amendment to the Members' Resources

and Allowances Rules as approved by the Management Commission of this House on

March 13, 2014 and tabled by the Speaker of this House today, March 31, 2014.

MR. SPEAKER:

Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Opposition

House Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have the following private

member's resolution:

BE IT RESOLVED that this

hon. House of Assembly urge government to immediately repeal Bill 29.

Seconded by the Member for

St. Barbe and pursuant to Standing Order 63.(3), this is the private member's

resolution to be debated on Wednesday.

MR. SPEAKER:

Answers to Questions for which Notice has been

Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the District of Bay of

Islands.

MR. JOYCE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I present a petition today

again on the hospital in Corner Brook.

I will read it.

The petition of the

undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS we wish to raise

concerns regarding the recent delay of the construction of the new hospital in

Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to commit to the planning and

construction of a new hospital in Corner Brook as previously committed to and in

a timely manner as originally announced without further delay or changes.

Mr. Speaker, once again I

present this petition on behalf of the people.

There are some from Valley View Drive.

There are people here from Pasadena on the petition.

Once again, we are urging the government to go and finish a commitment

that they always made.

I heard the Premier's

comments out in Corner Brook this week.

From my understanding, they are going to be putting some bunkers in the

hospital, Mr. Speaker, just in case they may need them in the future.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that is a

change from what the Minister of Health has been saying, and said up until last

Friday, that there is no need, it will not be happening.

This is the kind of thing people in Western Newfoundland are finding kind

of odd. When you put a microphone in

front of the Premier's face out in Western Newfoundland he says one thing.

The Minister of Health in St. John's is saying something else.

It is getting kind of frustrating, I have to say.

I heard the Parliamentary

Assistant to the Minister of Health, the Member for Terra Nova, mentioned my

name again apparently on On Point .

Mr. Speaker, I stood up for the people of Western Newfoundland and

Labrador for this hospital. This

member who is speaking on behalf of the minister as parliament assistant, if he

has something to say on behalf of the committee, have the audacity, have the

courage to go out and face the people.

Stop getting in the Twitter world.

You are speaking on behalf of the minister.

The minister will not have a public meeting.

You are out on your Twitter world

MR. S. COLLINS:

(Inaudible).

MR. JOYCE:

The Member for Terra Nova, if you want to deny

these people

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, if he wants to deny these people,

have the courage, which I know he does not, because the last time he did

something like this was put the knife in Premier Dunderdale's back.

If you want to deny the people of Western Newfoundland this opportunity,

have the courage to do it. Stop

getting on the Twitter world saying these people do not deserve it; they do not

know what they are talking about.

The member does not have the courage.

He should stand with the

people, Mr. Speaker. I am sick and

tired from the members of the committee and members of Western Newfoundland.

They would love to see him and face him one on one, and say the things he

is saying.

There is a meeting on April

24, here is his opportunity again.

On April 24, come out and say what you are going to say on Twitter.

If you do not think they deserve it, tell them; have the courage.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The Speaker has recognized

the Member for St. John's East.

MR. MURPHY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

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

the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS the residents of the

Pynn's Brook area are facing dangers in turning their vehicles safely off the

TCH Route 1 Highway into their own driveways; and

WHEREAS it is common

practice along the Trans-Canada Highway Route 1 to impose speed reductions for

traffic travelling through communities such as Badger, Deer lake, Bishop's

Falls, Gander, Clarenville and Whitbourne; and

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. MURPHY:

WHEREAS highway traffic accidents along the

stretch of Trans-Canada Highway Route 1 through Pynn's Brook have caused deaths

and injuries;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

government to reduce the maximum speed limit on the Trans-Canada Highway Route 1

through Pynn's Brook area from the present 100 kilometres an hour to sixty

kilometres an hour;

As in duty bound your

petitions will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, this is not the

first time I have stood on this particular petition.

This is the second, I think, in this particular session of the House that

I have actually stood and commented on, and I am told there are going to be more

coming.

Mr. Speaker, people have

rights to safety. They have a very

good right to speak about the issues that are happening on the Trans-Canada

Highway in Pynn's Brook. We know, as

users of that highway, there have been untold numbers of accidents happening in

Pynn's Brook. The latest, I think,

that I can remember, causing a death to a young man from the Deer Lake area.

I am told these petitions

are going to keep on coming. There

is a failure here for government to address this.

A failure on the part of government, as it has done in other communities,

it has done it in Gander, it has done it in Whitbourne, and it has done it in

Badger, where they have reduced speeds.

The people of Pynn's Brook and not only the people of Pynn's Brook, Mr.

Speaker, but the people of Deer Lake are on this petition.

People in Corner Brook were on the last one as well.

There are users who frequent

this area of the highway who also want to know the reason why government will

not lower the speed limit. We all

recognize the dangers on the highway in that particular area.

Mr. Speaker, I will leave it to government to address the issue when it

comes to dropping the speed limit.

We all know that a drop in speed limits can lead to the safety of the users of

the highway there. We know lower

speeds means less likelihood of accidents.

It is a direct consideration

for government here it is almost a no-brainer for government to look at this

and say: Well, if we do reduce speeds, obviously there is going to be a

reduction in car accidents here. I

fail to see why the government has not addressed it before now.

Mr. Speaker, I will leave

this petition

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The time has expired.

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 we wish to raise

concern regarding the recent delay on the construction of the new hospital in

Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to commit to the planning and

construction of a new hospital in Corner Brook as previously committed to in a

timely manner as originally announced without further delay or changes.

Mr. Speaker, as everybody in

this House should know, this is a hospital that is based in Corner Brook but it

is going to service people all over the West and Southwest coast up into

Labrador. This is a promise that has

been made on numerous, numerous occasions by this government and never lived up

to. The latest Budget was a great

example of that.

One of the things the

government put a $500,000 study in place for was radiation.

If you listen to the minister, she has already made quite clear that she

wants nothing to do with that. In

fact, she plays a lot of politics with the situation.

One example was this past

week. We asked for a meeting with

Eastern Health to discuss radiology, to discuss radiation.

We put the request in to Eastern Health.

We put that request in and it came back to us, we are going to have a

number of people there. We had a

confirmation that the meeting was going to happen tomorrow here at Confederation

Building. That meeting was scheduled

until Friday. On Friday I received a

call from the minister's EA saying that the meeting is changed in scope.

The minister's EA called me and said the meeting is changed in scope,

therefore we need to reschedule and I want you to put all your questions in in

advance. Again, this is an open

government put your questions in in advance.

Mr. Speaker, I did not ask

for the scope of the meeting to be changed.

The leader never, we never, Eastern Health never, the minister did.

The minister's EA called my office and said we are going to reschedule.

We received confirmation again today.

They do not know where it is coming from.

The Auditor General has pointed out Eastern Health is not supposed to be

interfered with, but all of a sudden the EA is rescheduling the meeting because

the minister cannot be available for a meeting that she was never invited to in

the first place.

Mr. Speaker, this government

has promised a number of times to do this hospital.

We know it is not there. In

fact, now when we try to go out and get the information behind it, they get in

the way of the meetings. They

cancelled the meetings.

I will put it out again.

On April 24 there is a meeting with the Western Action Committee.

I invite the Member for Terra Nova to come out and have that chat on

April 24. The minister should come

out. I invite all the members to

come out and have a chat, or are you going to try to cancel that meeting as

well?

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

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

the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly

sheweth:

WHEREAS the Family Violence

Intervention Court provided a comprehensive approach to domestic violence in a

court setting that fully understood and dealt with the complex issues

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Family Violence

Intervention Court provided a comprehensive

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The Speaker has recognized

the Member for St. John's Centre.

Other members get the opportunity to stand and present their petitions in quiet.

I would ask the members to extend the same respect to the Member for St.

John's Centre.

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Family Violence

Intervention Court provided a comprehensive approach to domestic violence in a

court setting that fully understood and dealt with the complex issues of

domestic violence; and

WHEREAS domestic violence

continues to be one of the most serious issues facing our Province today, and

the cost of the impact of domestic violence is great both economically and in

human suffering; and

WHEREAS the Family Violence

Intervention Court was welcomed and endorsed by all aspects of the justice

system including the police, the courts, prosecutors, defence counsel, Child,

Youth and Family Services, as well as victims, offenders, community agencies,

and women's groups; and

WHEREAS the recidivism rate

for offenders going through the court was 10 per cent compared to 40 per cent

for those who did not; and

WHEREAS the budget for the

court was only 0.2 per cent of the entire budget of the Department of Justice;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

government to reinstate the Family Violence Intervention Court.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS ROGERS:

As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever

pray.

Mr. Speaker, I am happy I

guess it is an odd word to use in this context at least to have the

opportunity to stand once again in the House and present this petition on behalf

of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

There are people in the legal community who are shaking their heads,

scratching their heads, and saying: Why was this court cancelled?

These are people who were involved in the court.

These are people with expertise.

Your average citizen is

shaking their head, scratching their head, and wondering: Why was this court

cancelled? I am shaking my head,

scratching my head, and wondering: Why was this court cancelled?

It seems to be, Mr. Speaker, that nobody can think of a good reason why

this court was cancelled. It makes

no sense. That is sad.

Mr. Speaker, at this point

in our history when so much money, so much time, so much training was poured

into creating a program that was working so well that, in fact, saved the

government money, saved the regular court system money, that was more efficient,

and also was safer for women and children.

This government talks so much about prevention, it talks so much about

its commitment to violence prevention, yet it cut one of its most effective

tools.

It was only this past week,

Mr. Speaker and I hope the Minister of Justice knows this at the Law Society

of Newfoundland and Labrador that they had an ongoing educational luncheon

session where they talked about how effective the court was.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The member's time has

expired.

MS ROGERS:

Thank you very much.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for The Straits White Bay

North.

MR. MITCHELMORE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

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

the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly

sheweth:

WHEREAS Route 430, the

Viking Trail, is the primary highway on the Great Northern Peninsula; and

WHEREAS the current road

condition of approximately sixty kilometres between Plum Point and Eddies Cove

East have sections that are in dire need of resurfacing and/or repaving; and

WHEREAS it is the

government's obligation to provide basic infrastructure to all Newfoundlanders

and Labradorians; and

WHEREAS an improved road

network on this primary highway is needed to enhance road safety and help with

local commerce, as well as deal with increasing passenger traffic levels in this

section of highway;

We, the undersigned,

petition the House of Assembly to urge government to allocate funds under the

provincial roads program to pave this

section of Route 430.

As in duty bound, your

petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, it is highly

critical that when you have a primary highway that is very similar to the

Trans-Canada Highway, that this type of road be maintained and have good

infrastructure. All commerce that

flows north basically travels over this highway.

Also in this

section as well is the St. Barbe area, which is the port of

call for the Strait of Belle Isle ferry crossing which, between May and

October sees about 77,000 passengers crossing on that ferry service going into

Labrador. There are a lot of

commercial goods that are being transferred there.

Looking at what is happening

in the Shoal Cove area with the Muskrat Falls cable crossing, with the drilling,

and the heavy equipment that is going over that highway, there is a lot of

erosion, there are a lot of potholes, there are depths, and there are areas

where we need to look at making that improvement.

We have a UNESCO World Heritage Site in L'Anse aux Meadows, another in

Red Bay, Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. MITCHELMORE:

We need to look at making sure that we have quality infrastructure so

that the tourism market that is tapping into this area would have good

infrastructure so that they continue circulating money back into the economy.

It makes good sense, Mr.

Speaker, and that is what the petitioners are asking.

I look forward to having conversations with the Minister of

Transportation on this particular matter.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au

Clair.

MS DEMPSTER:

(Inaudible) 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 most communities in

the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair do not have cellphone coverage;

WHEREAS residents of coastal

Labrador require cell coverage to ensure their safety and communications

abilities;

WHEREAS the opening of the

Trans-Labrador Highway has increased their dependency on mobile communications;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to work with the appropriate agencies to

provide cellphone coverage along the Trans-Labrador Highway and to all

communities in coastal Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, I live in one

of the harshest, weather wise, parts of the Province although it has not been

very kind this year in any part, I have to admit.

We live in a very remote area.

I know there are some provisions in place.

Transportation and Works have some satellite phones they place around in

businesses, but every time I have gone since I have been travelling this year to

pick up a phone, it seems the stock is never replenished.

So that is not working.

The minister talked about

911 that they are implementing. I

thought they can spend all the money they want in 911, but if we are out on a

stretch of the Trans-Labrador Highway and we have an accident, 911 is not going

to be any good to us because we are not able to pick up the phone.

Mr. Speaker, I am just going

to reference what happened to me yesterday.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS DEMPSTER:

I was escorting a four-year-old child from

Labrador back here with me and driving over the highway in all of the mud.

Once it turned dark, the mud froze onto my vehicle.

When I arrived in Goose Bay, I could not get out of my vehicle.

Now, my phone was no good to me on the highway; I could not even get out

if I had a mishap there because of the thick ice that was on my vehicle.

I had to go to my uncle and after some effort, he managed to get me out.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard

many sad stories of differences that could have been made had someone been able

to pick up the phone and make that quick call.

With the connection of the highway now from Red Bay on down into Goose

Bay, we are seeing a huge increase in traffic.

Contrary to what people at Nalcor say, we are seeing a huge increase in

commercial traffic. All of this

increases your risk for accidents and things like that.

Mr. Speaker, tourism we

have tourists coming from all over the world into the district and through the

district right now visiting places like Red Bay.

We are expecting that to increase.

These people are used to using their phone everywhere they go, but when

they hit Cartwright L'Anse au Clair there are just a couple of places where

they are able to use their phone.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS DEMPSTER:

Mr. Speaker, my colleague has referenced many

times the very sad story of Burton Winters and finding him with a cellphone in

his pocket. I believe that should

drive home the important need for cellphone coverage in rural areas

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

Your time has expired.

The hon. the Member for

Mount Pearl South.

MR. LANE:

Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of

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

the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS there is a waste

recovery facility being proposed by Eastern Waste Management in the Peak

Pond-Reids Pond area; and

WHEREAS such a site will

drastically impact the pond and general area in a negative way from an

environmental perspective; and

WHEREAS there are many

species of wildlife that will be negatively impacted by such a site, such as

moose, rabbits, loons, ducks, and Canada geese; and

WHEREAS such a site will

result in litter and strong odours in the general area; and

WHEREAS there are

significant numbers of cabins and permanent homes in the Peak Pond-Reids Pond

area which will be negatively impacted by this site; and

WHEREAS Eastern Waste

Management has many sites available to them for such a facility, including

former dump sites in the areas;

WHEREUPON the undersigned,

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

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to intercede in the matter and advise

Eastern Waste Management to withdraw this proposal and find a more suitable

location for this waste recovery facility.

As in duty bound, your

petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, I presented

this now a number of times and I have numerous similar petitions here to

present. Of course, this is coming

from the cabin owners and permanent residents in the Peaks Pond-Reids Pond, but

we are also getting people from Blaketown, South Dildo, Old Shop, New Harbour,

Whitbourne, and so on.

I think everybody realizes

the need for this waste transfer facility.

There are eight other such sites throughout the Province and this would

be the ninth and final one, I understand.

We want to find a place which is convenient for people to bring their

bulk garbage; that makes sense. We

do not want garbage going out into the woods destroying our environment.

That being said, Mr.

Speaker, there are a number of potential sites in the area that were former dump

sites, former industrial sites, and would make all the sense in the world to put

this facility in one of those sites as opposed to destroying a beautiful,

pristine area such as Peak Pond area.

Mr. Speaker, I will continue

to present this until government is prepared to listen.

I realize there is an environmental assessment process taking place, but

what the residents are saying here is that we do not even need to go down that

road of environmental assessment, this is not the right place, move it somewhere

else.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. KING:

Orders of the Day, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

Orders of the Day.

Orders of the Day

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. KING:

Mr. Speaker, I move, second by the Minister of

Health and Community Services, to ask leave to introduce a bill entitled,

An Act

To Amend The Health Professions Act, Bill 7, and that the said bill be now read

a first time.

MR. SPEAKER:

It is moved and seconded that the hon. Minister

of Health and Community Services shall have leave to introduce a bill,

An Act To

Amend The Health Professions Act, Bill 7.

Is it the pleasure of the

House that the minister shall have leave to introduce Bill 7, and that the bill

be now read a first time?

All those in favour, aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

MR. SPEAKER:

All those against, nay'.

Motion carried.

Motion, the hon. the

Minister of Health and Community Services to introduce a bill,

An Act To Amend

The Health Professions Act, carried.

(Bill 7)

CLERK:

A bill,

An Act To Amend The Health Professions Act.

(Bill 7)

MR. SPEAKER:

This bill has now been read a first time.

When shall the bill be read

a second time?

MR. KING:

Tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 7 read a

first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move, seconded by the

Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, to ask leave to introduce a

bill entitled,

An Act To Amend The Revenue Administration Act, Bill 9, and that

the said bill be now read the first time.

MR. SPEAKER:

It is moved and seconded that the hon. Minister

of Finance shall have leave to introduce a bill,

An Act To Amend The Revenue

Administration Act, Bill 9, and that the said bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the

House that the minister shall have leave to introduce Bill 9, and that the said

bill be now read a first time?

All those in favour, aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

MR. SPEAKER:

All those against, nay'.

Motion carried.

Motion, the hon. the

Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board to introduce a bill,

An Act

To Amend The Revenue Administration Act, carried.

(Bill 9)

CLERK:

A bill,

An Act To Amend The Revenue Administration Act.

(Bill 9)

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

I ask members to take their

private conversations outside. We

are introducing some legislation in the House for debate.

This bill has now been read

a first time.

When shall the bill be read

a second time?

MR. KING:

Tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

On tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 9 read a

first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move, seconded by the

Minister of Service Newfoundland and Labrador, to ask leave to introduce a bill

said bill be now read the first time.

MR. SPEAKER:

It is moved and seconded that the hon. the

Minister of Service Newfoundland and Labrador shall have leave to introduce a

said bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the

House that the minister shall have leave to introduce Bill 10, and that the said

bill be now read a first time?

All those in favour, aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

MR. SPEAKER:

All those against, nay'.

Motion carried.

Motion, the hon. the

Minister of Service Newfoundland and Labrador to introduce a bill,

An Act To

(Bill 10)

CLERK:

(Bill 10)

MR. SPEAKER:

This bill has been now read a first time.

When shall the bill be read

a second time?

MR. KING:

Tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

On tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 10 read a

first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At this time I call from the

Order Paper, Motion 1, to move that this House approves in general the budgetary

policy of the government, the Budget Speech.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR. BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my privilege to stand

to respond to the Budget Speech that was delivered in this House on Thursday of

last week, March 27. For those

people who have been paying attention to Budget Speeches in the past, this is my

third opportunity to respond to a Budget Speech.

The first time was back, as I said, almost three years ago now.

In this particular case here for me, not as Leader of the Official

Opposition but as a critic for Finance, I get the opportunity to open debate now

on the Budget.

For those of you who are

watching at home, if you tune in in about two hours we will probably still be

standing. This is a lengthy response

and typically it takes upwards to about three hours in order to do this.

What I will do is I will

outline the number of things in the Budget.

For those of you who have watched me over the years if it is there and it

is positive, I will say it is. Then

through the response, we will also identify areas of concern for us, especially

as the Opposition.

Mr. Speaker, there are a lot

of things that goes into making a Budget the document that it is.

I want to, first of all, mention the minister, this being her first

speech on Thursday, and congratulate her on that delivery.

Included in this, there is a lot of staff over many, many months.

I know, based on my own experience in volunteering in health and in other

areas that affected departments over the years, that the Budget process requires

a lot of time. It takes up a lot of

staff time and it goes on for weeks and weeks in preparation to what happened on

Thursday, the Budget delivery. So I

want to thank the staff in advance for the great work that they have done in

preparing the document.

Also during Estimates, we

rely on staff in various departments as we, as Opposition, get together and go

over the Estimates document, and that in itself is a lengthy process.

The Estimates document is what I really find to be very interesting

because it is where you get your staff, your ministers, and the engagement is

basically to and fro, and you get a chance to ask any questions at all, based on

the Budget. So I would encourage

people as they watch and have been pouring through those documents that are

available online that if you see anything at all, to reach out to your MHA

either in the Opposition, or in government, for that matter; but reach out,

because it is during this period that you can actually get those questions

answered.

From why I understand, it

typically takes about seventy-five hours of debate time before the Budget could

get approved. Some of this has been

already done, as we have seen unanimous support in the House of Assembly on a

vote for Interim Supply. This time

will be factored into the Budget debate.

Of course, with Interim Supply what we get then is the allowances and

budgetary measures that will allow the activities of government to actually

continue while the Budget is being debated.

Mr. Speaker, the House of

Assembly staff obviously get quite busy during Estimates time and through the

Committee work themselves. We want

to mention them as well, because there are various committees that have been set

up as part of the Estimates. As I

said, people in their different ridings, if they have questions on the Budget,

please feel free to reach out. As a

matter of fact, just this morning in my inbox, I received a number of questions

and concerns that people were asking and looking for clarification.

All of this will come out as we delve deeper into the Estimates.

Mr. Speaker, before I get

too far into the Budget response, I just want to talk about a service that I had

the opportunity to attend on March 27.

That was the same day as the Budget, but it was a service that was

attended by the Minister of Transportation and Works and myself, as well as the

MHA for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair, the MHA for Mount Pearl South, and some

other MHAs, the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi as an example, they were

also in attendance. It was really a

proud moment in the House of Assembly, not on an issue that we are proud of, I

would say, Mr. Speaker, and that was a vigil to honour Loretta Saunders.

If you remember back a few

days ago, all members of the House of Assembly put a letter together requesting

Prime Minister Harper put together a national public inquiry into the death of

so many young Aboriginal women and young girls.

There was a service held in

Loretta's honour last Thursday night at St. Mary's Anglican Church in St.

John's. We were happy to be there

with other members of government, but what was really telling in that service

was the number of people who took time to actually attend, and the cultural

events that were a part of that service.

That service was held in conjunction with many other services that were

held, not only in our Province but in other areas and in other jurisdictions.

All of us in this House of

Assembly, I am very proud to say, we come with a common voice and a strong voice

that an inquiry be started because we need to figure out what the systemic

problems are within our Aboriginal community.

This has to stop, Mr. Speaker.

Truly, the only way for this to stop is to get a national inquiry in

place so that we can point out what the systemic problems are and put in the

preventative measures.

Mr. Speaker, also in our

Province, 100 years ago today, we remember back in 1914 the experience of the

devastating tragedy of so many young men who lost their lives participating in

the seal fishery. Mr. Speaker, this

is a point in our history, and I guess one of the many occurrences we have seen

over the years where tragedy, especially with people losing their lives at sea.

Just a few weeks ago we had another memorial service about people of the

sea.

There was a service today in

memory of this particular event back in 1914.

Communities across our Province, communities across Newfoundland and

Labrador mourn the loss of those 254 men who died at sea.

It is important that we do that because it is an important piece of our

history.

Today, as people prepare to

take

part in this year's seal fishery, it is important that we look back to 1914

and remember what happened 100 years today and the loss of 254 lives.

Seventy-eight sealers perished on the ice after being stranded in what

was one of the worse winter storms at that time, while 176 men died from the

SS Southern Cross and sank in that

same winter storm.

What a tragedy that must

have been. Just imagine, as you are

waiting for the news and you hear there are 254 men who are lost.

Today we remember that. As I

now begin to speak to the Budget, you do this with this as a backdrop, as the

many tragic events we have had to face as a Province, Mr. Speaker, over our

history.

Mr. Speaker, we will start

the Budget response. Really, if you

go back to the Budget Speech itself, this is where the Minister of Finance

this being really the Budget Speech, there are many things that get listed into

this. It gives you a brief outline

of what indeed is entailed in the larger Budget document, being more around the

Estimates book, which clearly outlines where every single department and every

single salary would be spent. We did

ask about the salary document. The

indication we had from staff was that this would be something that is posted

online.

Coming out of the Budget

document on Thursday, what typically happens is you will get a mail-out.

The mail-out will go something like this.

It will tell you that in this year, Budget 2014: Five Things to Know

About Budget 2014. It goes on to

talk about the five things this government felt was important the people in

Newfoundland and Labrador would know about.

It goes on to talk about shared prosperity, fairness, and balance.

Under that particular category it talks about a return to surplus next

year.

Really, when you look at the

details of how you expect to return to surplus, there are not a lot of details

around that except for the fact you would see oil royalties increase.

Mr. Speaker, much of what has happened over our Budgets for the last ten

years well, less than that, because the royalties really did not start coming

in, in any significant sense until, I think, around 2005.

We will have more detail on that as we go through this.

When you talk about

returning to balance as part of a 10-Year Sustainability Plan that was discussed

last year in 2014, there is really no clear indication, except for the

dependency on oil, of how we will get there.

If something should happen, for instance, either with currency,

production, or whatever it is, all of this would change the ability to get the

surplus. The contingency plans with

this particular government when it comes to budgeting have just not been put in

place. Mr. Speaker, this is the

shared prosperity, the fairness, and the balance.

The second of the five

things you need to know about in this particular Budget is: Creating First-Rate

Education Opportunities. Mr.

Speaker, there is no question that members from all three parties in this House

of Assembly, and in particular, I know members of the Official Opposition have

openly spoken quite often about the need for full-day kindergarten.

In this particular Budget as a matter of fact, just as recently as a

week or so ago we were asking questions about full-day kindergarten.

Full-day kindergarten brings

quite a number of benefits to young families in this Province.

As a matter of fact, there are certain schools in our Province right now

where we already have full-day kindergarten.

As an example I have one school in my own district, because of the busing

situation, full-day kindergarten applies right now.

It was actually cheaper for the school to keep kids there, offer the

full-day kindergarten, than it was to bus the students back and forth.

Full-day kindergarten will

be an asset to young families. As a

matter of fact, my colleague, the candidate for Virginia Waters right now, she

openly spoke to the Board of Trade about a year or so ago, bringing the business

community on side, because it was important that everybody understood the value

of full-day kindergarten in our society.

It is not something new. Many

jurisdictions across the country already have full-day kindergarten.

Right now, this initiative that was announced will come into effect by

2016, the money being allocated. In

2016, people in the Province will be able to enjoy the benefits of full-day

kindergarten.

I would encourage the

government members opposite to make sure that this becomes an action item

because we know first-hand by looking at some of the budget items in the past,

that it is one thing to say something, one thing to announce something, yet not

always does it get delivered. You

need not look any further than last year's Estimates as an example, to see there

were millions and millions of dollars that were actually mentioned in the Budget

package but just never were implemented.

The action just was not there.

As a matter of fact, in the

midyear report this year we found the number I believe to be around $270 million

of things that were announced in the Budget, yet clearly did not get done.

That was the biggest line item that changed the Budget process this year,

where they actually saved money, where the revised number was put in place from

the budgeted number of last year to the revision this year.

It was simply because they had a problem spending the money they had

allocated for in Budget 2013. Now

that was on top of all the budget cuts that came with that.

Mr. Speaker, of the five

things, Providing Quality Health Care, that was the third item mentioned in the

five things to know about in this pamphlet, which I am sure you will all receive

in your mail. The third thing was

around quality health care, and $3 billion in total for the health care budget

always a big number, Mr. Speaker, in our Province when you look at that.

About 40 per cent of the Budget as a whole goes into health care, because

that is something that is first and foremost.

When you talk to people in the Province, they will tell you that health

care is extremely important to them.

Back in July of last year,

we met with a number of health care professionals around the Province.

They were very encouraged to have the opportunity to meet and to openly

discuss all the things that affected them, the things that affected their

associations, and the things that affected them and their families.

They were telling us that was the first time that they had a chance to

meet at a round table like that since the 1990s.

Mr. Speaker, this is

communication. In order to make a

decision, this is something that you would expect that should happen on a

regular basis. Improving health care

has to be a number one priority. It

is a number one priority for us as the Official Opposition, but you have to do

that and you have to make sure that when you make a decision to do it, it is

sustainable.

We found out last year with

the Adult Dental Program as an example that there needed to be cuts made at that

particular time by the Department of Health, simply because the planning was not

put in place from the beginning. The

people who got involved, the numbers were much higher than they anticipated; and

you would normally expect that because when you develop a new program, when you

put a new program in place, of course, the uptake is always higher in the early

years. You could expect that in a

program like that.

This year, we will see some

changes in the Adult Dental Program rising from $150 to $200 I believe the

number is changes for people who need dentures and all of that; but we are not

really seeing any change in the number, so there will be less people who would

be able to take advantage of that.

Mr. Speaker, it talks about

building stronger communities as number four of the five things to know about

Budget 2014; $200 million spent in the three-year municipal capital works.

One of the things when we talk to communities around the Province, and

one of the things I know we have done as a party is that we have made a

commitment to actually holding a Premier's forum and we would do that on an

annual basis. That is a commitment

that as a Premier we would make.

That would give certainty and assurances that the feedback, the communication,

is available to communities across the Province.

We have done that in

conjunction with Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador.

They see that as their opportunity to actually get their ideas brought

forward, because right now what we know is that there is a new fiscal framework

that has been sought by the municipalities.

Right now, they feel that at least around the schedules of meetings, the

number of meetings that are actually transpiring, that they really will not meet

their target. They need this to

happen in the fall of 2015.

The former Minister of

Municipal Affairs had made a commitment that this is something that would be

seen as a Budget item by 2015. In

order to get to that, there has to be a series of meetings, timelines, and

milestones that are put in place.

You will never meet your target if you do not make people accountable, do not

put those milestones in place, and do not put those targets in place.

That can only happen with communications with the people whose lives

would be affected. That is how you

build strong communities.

When you look at the AG's

report over the years you will see there are a number of our communities there

is the aging infrastructure that we have right now in terms of our water and

sewer, in terms of our fire protection, and in terms of our streets.

All of this is becoming older infrastructure.

They want to get involved because a fiscal framework for our

municipalities gives them the opportunity to be more involved in the decisions.

They even say that the legislation they have to work with is actually

standing in their way and prohibiting some of the decisions they have to make

today.

Even with the St. John's act

as an example, right now that piece of legislation is very old and very

outdated. We have been hearing from

the city that this is something they would see that needs to be updated.

Bring them into 2014, not just the Budget in 2014 but bring their cities

into 2014 with legislation that is relevant to where we are in our history.

Encouraging a Vibrant

Economy: This was the fifth. It goes

on to say that there will be over $1 billion to encourage economic growth and to

spur innovative innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mr. Speaker, there was one thing that we have not done a very good job

of, or this government has not done a very good job of, and that is diversifying

the economy. You need not to look

any further but just drive around the Province and you would see as an example

right now we have unemployment rates in the St. John's and the Northeast Avalon

somewhere around 6 per cent. When

you look at provincially an unemployment rate of around 12 per cent, it goes to

show that in many of our small communities people are just not working.

You could take that and

extrapolate that a little further.

When you go really off the Trans-Canada Highway and off our major centres, you

will see that unemployment rates are extremely high in those locations.

As a matter of fact in many, many locations you would see that they are

in the 20 per cent and the 25 per cent range of people who are unemployed.

Mr. Speaker, we need to be creative but we cannot wait too long because

people are not willing to stay when they cannot work.

What happens is we now find

ourselves with a new economy that has evolved and that, of course, being the

Alberta economy. I know in the area

where I come from many, many people are actually having their families who would

live in the communities that surround that area.

They then commute back and forth to Alberta.

I have been told that it is upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 people who are

doing that on a regular basis.

Mr. Speaker, that is

actually good for our economy, but it is an Alberta workplace that is actually

bringing money back to the Province.

That is not something we have had anything to do with.

The money, of course, is always good when you can spend that in your own

communities and you give people the freedom to go and find work no matter where

it is. You encourage that, but

seeking economic development and innovation in our own Province is what people

want. Everyone I talk to, the people

I talk to, want the option to return home to go to work.

That is what Newfoundlanders and Labradorians want to do.

Mr. Speaker, these were the

five things to know about Budget 2014.

Throughout all of this, there was not much said or anything at all said

about borrowing $1 billion. Now, a

borrowing of $1 billion, just think about that.

That is a big number, I would say.

In our Province right now, it just adds to our debt.

Here we are in a situation where we thought we could actually do quite

fine off our oil royalties, but in this particular case this is not what

happened. We go out and we borrow

this year and next year we will have to borrow again.

This was at a time we were

always told we were a have Province living in a golden age.

We were flush with money in some cases.

In this particular case, we now do not have enough money.

We had to go and borrow.

To the minister's credit,

$371 million will go to pay down debt and the rest will go to Nalcor, what they

say is an investment into Nalcor.

Therefore that would be an asset and it is really not borrowing.

Well, the truth is, indeed it can be seen as an asset, but it must be

valued to become that asset. We do

not know where it would go. All we

know is that people in Newfoundland and Labrador will be forced to pay for this

no matter what the cost, so to see that as the investment that gets often

trumpeted.

As a matter of fact, at the

federal loan guarantee, it was the reporter with the

National Post who said it was easy to line up the bond markets for

this simply because the federal loan guarantee was in place.

In their sense, that was actually sure money, Mr. Speaker, $1 billion at

a time in our Province when most people thought we were living in a golden age.

Mr. Speaker, I want to open

the Budget document up to where it really starts.

There is a table in the document that is called Statement of Operations.

It is the Statement of Operations that refers to 2013 and 2014, and it

talks about revenue. When you go

back about a year ago, the Budget was set to be at $6.8 billion in fiscal

revenue and net income, when you look at all government enterprises, it was just

over $7 billion. It was actually

$7,092.6 million , so just about $7.1 billion.

That was revised down at the end of the year, so far this, of course,

is subject to change again at $7,059.4 million, so that is a variance of some

$33 million. That was the Statement

of Operations for 2013-2014.

When you look at the

expenses, when you go back to Budget time last year, the net expenses were

anticipated to be $7,656.4 million; therefore a deficit of $563.8 million.

Based on program expenses is $6.8 billion; and debt servicing and I will

get back to this later at around $847.6 million.

That is $847.6 million in debt financing based on last year's Budget.

That did change a bit; that

has been revised. The deficit

budgeted to be at $563.8 million has been revised downward to $348 million, $349

million. Mr. Speaker, you ask

yourself: Why is this? Why was it

budgeted to be at $564 million and then budgeted down to be between $348 million

and $349 million. The reason, of

course, being that this government could not spend the money that they budgeted

for last year. They could not get

the infrastructure money out; it could not be done fast enough.

This was one of the reasons

that, through the course of the summer, I have often talked about multi-year

financing, multi-year funding for various projects so that people would not have

to worry about getting money out the door.

We all know how difficult it is when you have a project or some

infrastructure work that is tied up, waiting to go through the tender process,

waiting to get permitting, it becomes very difficult to get that done.

Therefore, multi-year commitments to projects is extremely important in

our Province. We have a short

construction season, as you know, and in this particular case in this winter of

2014, one being the worse in my recent memory, the construction season will be

short again, I can imagine, given the late spring in just about all areas of our

Province.

When you look at trying to

get the projects that you have made the commitment to, getting them done is very

difficult. One of the reasons around

having multi-year commitments and multi-year financing, what contractors are

telling me, is that it important because it lets them know with certainty that

they can tell their staff when they finish up a project the year before that we

will be there, we will have this particular job, and we can start at this

particular day. So, it is important

for staff to know that. That is a

great retention tool. It is a great

retention tool for companies so that when they send people home in the fall of

the year, they know when they will come back.

That was the reason why we have seen such a significant change in what

the Budget of 2013-14, to the revised number.

Now when you look at The

Budget Outlook, which is on the following page, and you look to 2014-15 which is

this year's fiscal year, the revenue this year would be around $7.3 billion and

that is up by around $300 million; so for 2014-15, around $7.29 billion.

Program expenses of $6,954.7 million and for debt servicing next year at

$874 million.

Mr. Speaker, I already said

just a few minutes ago that debt servicing this year would be $874 million and

debt servicing last year was $847 million.

That has been revised, by the way, to $840 million.

So the revision of our operations last year, debt servicing at $841

million, this year debt servicing will go to $874 million.

So you can see what is happening here when it comes to debt servicing in

our Province.

Mr. Speaker, for this year a

revenue of $7.29 billion, total net expenses of $7,828.7 million and that is a

deficit of $537.9 million. So we

borrowed money to make our commitment to Nalcor and to pay down one of our

outstanding loans that we had we borrowed money to do that, but on top of

that, Mr. Speaker, we are still going to have a deficit.

When you look at the change

here, you have to borrow $1 billion to meet your budget demands and you are

still going to have a deficit.

Really, when you look at it from a business sense, that is over $1.5 billion to

get you to balance, Mr. Speaker.

So what is the forecast?

What are they forecasting because we know that this government, last

year, adopted a 10-Year Sustainability Plan and we have heard quite often over

the last week or so that they are still committed to the 10-Year Sustainability

Plan, I say, Mr. Speaker. So what

does this mean?

This all means that in

2015-2016 this being the forecast this year is budgeted so for 2015-2016 would

be the forecast. In 2014-2015 we

have had about $7.3 billion in revenue.

In 2015-2016 the revenue is forecast to jump to $8 billion.

Details on how we get there, Mr. Speaker, we do not know them yet; we

will go looking for them.

What are the sources of

revenue that is going to bring in the extra $700 million next year?

Where will that be? In all

likelihood it is anticipated that it is oil again because really that is the

only source of revenue that we hear much of at all.

Mr. Speaker, when you look at the forecast for 2015-2016 you look at the

expenses of $7,126.8 million that is up from $6,954.7 million, so we are seeing

an increase in the expense line.

Mr. Speaker, I will raise

your attention to this one again, debt servicing expenses go up to $927 million.

It goes from $874 million this year to $927 million next year, so another

$50 million in debt servicing. You

can see the trend that is happening here right now with our debt and the cost to

manage that debt. When you look at

the total net expenses of being around $8 billion, in 2015-2016 it is really a

balanced Budget anticipated to be around $28.5 million in surplus.

Mr. Speaker, one more year

they go out three years or two years past this one with this Budget.

A revenue line anticipated to be around $8.2 billion.

This is all in the Budget document on page 7.

When you look at the revenue of $8.2 billion you look at program expenses

it is $7.2 billion, again I draw attention to the debt servicing.

The debt servicing in 2016-2017 is anticipated and forecast to be $970

million, so just shy of $1 billion, with $8.2 billion in revenue just shy of $1

billion in debt servicing.

This is in what we is

considered to be a golden age. An

age when we have had our oil royalties, by then it will be over ten years of

using oil royalties. The offshore

oil production will be decreasing as we know because those wells have a life.

At some point production is falling off.

We already know back in 2007, I think it was, we were just over 100

million barrels of oil, and this year it is anticipated to be 86 million.

So we are already falling off on production, I say, Mr. Speaker.

This is a given for us, and

we will have to wait. We do have, of

course, Hebron, which will come on and is expected to pump first oil in 2017,

but beyond that, it is still very much in the exploration stage.

That is what we until we get to the Flemish Pass and those areas.

Hopefully we are successful, Mr. Speaker.

We need to be successful, but any find that we find out there today in

terms of exploration, these are years away.

Now there would be hours in construction and getting ready for that to be

completed, but, Mr. Speaker, the oil royalty coming from that would still be

uncertain.

As a matter of fact, Mr.

Speaker, I have had meetings with many, many people over the last few years, and

even the pricing around Hebron and those sorts of things.

We are not even sure where the royalties will be in terms of super

royalties and the regular royalty regime, just because of the cost of that

project and where the cost has actually gone.

You have to reach payout before you reach the super royalty level.

That comes into question, if we can actually keep the project to the

point where we can recover the costs fast enough.

Of course, that depends on the price per barrel of oil.

Getting to payout will determine where the royalty is.

Mr. Speaker, when you look

at the Budget outlook, their own documents right now, we see revenue going from

$7.3 billion in 2014-2015 that actually rises to $8.2 billion, Mr. Speaker,

but in year 2016-2017 we still only find ourselves in a situation where we have

$32 million in a surplus. So it is

really a balanced Budget at best, when you go right out to 2016-2017.

All of this at a time when we have had significant revenues, and I will

get into this.

I will go back in a few

minutes to every single Budget that we have had, right back into the late 1990s,

just to give you the history of what oil has meant to our Province; what oil

royalties have meant to our Province.

In light of the fact we have these four wells that are pumping right now,

what happens and how do you replace this?

Because the creativity, the innovation has not been there to diversify

our Province. The opportunity to do

so, we must be very careful because we do not want to lose the next opportunity,

I say, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Budget

document itself tells us many different things when you look at where the

revenue comes from, how it is as a Province.

When I talk about oil royalties, and we all do in this Province, as you

know, we have become very dependent on that.

When you look at where it comes from and it is very enlightening when

you look at it. From the federal

government sources right now, it is about 9.1 per cent, and other federal

sources around 9.1 per cent, or $680 million.

Mr. Speaker, health and

social transfers is around $490 million, which is about 6.6 per cent of our

total revenue. These are our

transfers that come from the federal government, and we all become very

disillusioned when it comes to health transfers with the federal government.

As a matter of fact, even

earlier today there was a discussion on the floor of the House of Assembly about

the transfers from the federal government.

We know they are not doing their part when it comes to taking an active

role, not only in paying for the services or doing the part of paying services

and getting involved in our health care.

They want to go the other way.

They feel they should pay less.

Yet when you look at the Canada Health Act, they have a commitment they

have made to the people, not only of Newfoundland and Labrador but certainly

Canadians as a whole.

It is has been their

position as the Health Accord that was put in place by Prime Minister Martin at

the time in 2004, the ten-year Accord that expires in 2014, just in a day or

two. As this Accord expires, it is

the federal Conservative government that feel they need to be less involved in

health care with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and indeed Canada as a whole.

This has been a unilateral decision that has been made by the federal

government.

It is health and social

transfers at $489.6 million or $490 million.

Right now it is less than 7 per cent of our total income.

Between the two, with other federal sources and our health and social

transfers, it is about 16 per cent right now of our income.

Mr. Speaker, where else does

the revenue come from? Taxation, as

an example. I know the Minister of

Natural Resources is over there: Please talk about my department.

They produce the money.

Taxation is $3 billion, or 41.4 per cent, of our total revenue.

Of course, this is paid for by the residents of Newfoundland and

Labrador. It is paid by our

corporate citizens, many of which are medium and small businesses, I would say.

Investment income of $197

million; of course, this would be investments we would have in various companies

around the Province. I understand

that is really 2.6 per cent of the income.

Fees and fines are $470 million, 6.3 per cent of the income.

Of course, the big number is our offshore royalties, and those are 32.1

per cent of our total income. We are

staggering $3.4 billion of our income comes from offshore royalties.

When you look at total revenue of just under $7.5 billion, you look at

offshore royalties to be