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April 16, 2025 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS Vol. L No. 112

The

House met at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER

(Bennett): Order,

please!

Admit

visitors.

Government Business

SPEAKER:

The hon. the

Opposition House Leader.

PETTEN: Thank

you, Speaker.

Speaker,

I rise today on a point of order. It was only upon review this morning – I

actually went back and reviewed the tape – of yesterday’s Question Period that

I discovered or was told after the fact but I wanted to confirm myself, during

Question Period yesterday, in debate between the Minister of Finance and the

Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay – and I quote from Hansard – the

minister, after a question from my colleague, responded by saying, “Speaker, I

know his mother would be ashamed of him,” how ridiculous his comment or what

have you was.

When

I heard it repeated to me, and this is no joke, I’m totally being as sincere as

I can, I went home last night and I started thinking: Just imagine if that lady

is not alive, not with us now. I did not know.

Upon

further investigation, the Member’s mom is deceased. I personally felt it was

distasteful and uncalled for. It was intended to be hurtful but the problem

with it is this lady is no longer with us, which makes it that much more

distasteful, just to make that comment in general about anybody’s mother is

crossing the line into personalities. It’s very personal. We can debate here

all day long but you need to keep clear of the personal attacks. If you do so

you should apologize for personal attacks.

my opinion, that attack, that comment, and there were other comments made as

well, directed at the Member was meant to be hurtful. It was not a thought-out

comment – it was not thought out. It was distasteful. It was not what should be

coming out of this House. It’s not what you should expect from your Deputy

Premier of this province. I think the Deputy Premier should stand in her place

and apologize for that comment that was made to my colleague, the Member for

Baie Verte - Green Bay, yesterday, during Question Period.

Thank

you very much.

SPEAKER:

The hon. the

Deputy Premier.

COADY: Thank

you very much, Speaker.

Often

in the intensity of debate emotions do come out. I was quite concerned

yesterday because I felt that there was a member of our civil service under

attack. I will say to the Member opposite it was never my intent to personally

hurt anyone. That’s not in my personality. So I do withdraw that comment but I

agree with the Member opposite, we should keep personalities and we should keep

it to a higher level in this House.

Thank

you.

SPEAKER:

Thank you.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

SPEAKER:

Orders of

the Day.

Orders of the Day

SPEAKER:

We’re going

to move into the budget debate of the amendment.

The

hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.

COADY: Thank

you very much, Speaker.

Thank

you for the time again this morning as part of this budget debate to continue

to talk about some of the things that are in this budget. I note when we left

off yesterday afternoon, we were talking about a non-confidence amendment that

the Members opposite had put forward – the Members of the Progressive

Conservatives.

I’m

going to continue on with the discussions we were having at the time as part of

the amendment to

the Budget Speech on this non-confidence amendment. I will say, Speaker, we

spent a fair amount of time yesterday speaking about colours, and the Member

opposite for Conception Bay South was talking about red versus blue and he said

red are back. So I took out my red jacket this morning and made sure that I

followed through and, you know, here we are, red is back.

So I

will say to the Member for Conception Bay South that the non-confidence

amendment, it says – the budget and literally the Liberal Government – that

basically the House faults the Liberal Government for failure to lower the cost

of living in this province for seniors and families.

Now,

Speaker, I think that’s where I left off yesterday. I was talking about all the

things that we have done to support families in this province and to support

seniors in this province. I will say and I will remind Members of this House,

that we have provided $750 million back in the pockets of the people of this

province and we’re continuing to add to putting money back in people’s pockets.

will use an example, Speaker – as I get a drink. Sorry, my mouth is dry. I will

remind the Members of the House that we have increased the Seniors’ Benefit,

that 50,000 seniors in our province – 50,000 seniors – it’s a stipend that we

provide during the year to assist with cost of living, to assist with

affordability and we’ve increased that over the last number of years by 15 per

cent. That’s a big increase, Speaker, certainly outpacing what we think is

inflation over the last couple of years.

will say that we would always like to do more. In this budget, we are doing

more. We’ve actually, for the first time, indexed both the amount that is

received as well as the threshold by which you qualify for that to inflation to

the cost of living. Very important; very called for. I can tell you that the

Seniors’ Advocate has been calling for that. So it’s very important – we think

it is – that we support our seniors in this province. It is unfortunate that we

understand the Progressive Conservatives will not be supporting the budget and

will, therefore, not be supporting that initiative.

can tell you that we also put in place, last year, a $10 million Well-Being

Plan for seniors to help with things like snow clearing and to help with things

like mowing their grass. So seniors can now access a pot of funding to help

them with those kinds of things so that they can remain in their houses longer.

also provided, and I know that it’s very important to the people of Labrador, a

stipend for those who live on the Coast of Labrador. We provide them with a

stipend to assist with the additional costs of living in these remote

communities. That is something that I know we were able to get out the door

right around – I think it was just before or around Christmastime – I can’t

remember when it went out but sometime in that time frame – and it’s very

important for the people who live in that region that do have extra expenses.

providing those kinds of things to the people of Labrador was very important

and I know that the Members opposite, again, didn’t vote for those types of

things because they didn’t vote for the budget. They’re failing to vote for the

budget again this year so, therefore, they’re not supporting the initiatives

that I’m speaking of.

will also say that we talked a little bit yesterday about the failure – again,

quoting from the non-confidence amendment that the Member for Conception Bay

South brought to the floor of the House of Assembly, said: This House faults

the Liberal government for its failure to stimulate a robust diversified

economy, and I reminded Members opposite that we have the highest nominal gross

domestic product in the province’s history. The highest gross domestic product

in the province’s history.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

COADY: I

will also say that we have the highest employment rate in the province’s

history; the highest retail sales in the province’s history.

Now,

Speaker, allow me to say some of the things that are included in this budget

that will support industry, which I can tell you is very, very well received

and well recognized by the business community. We’ve had accolades on this

budget from the business community, from the restaurant association, from the

Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, from the St. John’s Board of Trade – I can keep

going, Speaker – from the oil and gas industry, Energy NL, for example. They’re

very supportive of the initiatives that we’re taking to continue to build and

to continue to ensure that we have that robust and diversified economy.

this particular budget, the budget that we’re debating today, we have over $35

million to support business and economic development. We have provided $16.5

million to ensure that we work with our community and industry partners on

connectivity. How important that is to everybody in this House? Very, very

important. We’re on track to achieve the objective set by the Universal

Broadband Fund to have over 400 communities receive high-speed internet access

by the end of 2027. That’s imminent. I can tell you, the way time is passing so

quickly, that will be upon us tomorrow and we’ll be here in this House debating

more.

also say, in recognition of our restaurants and the contributions they make to

our communities, all of us in almost every community in this province has a

local restaurant, that they’re very, very important. We are making available up

to $10 million for a restaurant loan guarantee program to assist locally owned

restaurants. How important is that?

can tell you the restaurant industry is very pleased to see that in this year’s

budget and thankful to see that in this year’s budget. This also supports

restaurants during a very particular period of time. Sometimes leading into the

summer and leading into the tourist season it’s a little bit of a downtime for

the restaurant industry, so making sure that they are supported. They also

asked us during – I think it was during COVID, we last did something on the

wholesale discount for bars, restaurants and lounges so we’ve doubled it from 5

per cent to 10 per cent. It’s costing about $1 million but, again, that is a

very fragile, important industry that is getting some supports, getting some

additional funding.

if you’re looking for a robust, diversified economy, those are the types of

things that you do to make sure that you’re able to grow your industry. Now all

of this, of course, we’re talking about tourism, today, because tourists do

help to drive the restaurant industry and having a good restaurant seen in the

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador certainly is important. Having

restaurants to support tourists – very, very important. We’ve also increased

the tourism budget.

Imagine,

we’ve increased the tourism budget? We want to attract more people. What an

opportunity now in a period of global disruption; making sure that we bring

more people to Newfoundland and Labrador to introduce them to, I’m going to

say, the tranquility and peace that Newfoundland and Labrador enjoys. Let alone

our culture and our incredible vistas and the restaurants that we have and the

entertainment that we have, but the peace and prosperity, I think, is so

important.

we’ve increased the tourism budget. We increased the money that we put towards

air access. Again, we have, for the first time, flights seven days a week going

to Europe. I’d like to congratulate the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and

Recreation for being able to attract three different flights: one going to

Ireland, one going to the United Kingdom and one going to France. How wonderful

is it going to be for us as travellers going overseas. We’re looking at other

expanded opportunities of other places to go visit but also for the people of

Ireland and the United Kingdom and France and anywhere in the surrounding

communities and surrounding countries to come visit us here in Newfoundland and

Labrador. Again, growing a strong, robust economy.

When

you’re talking about that, I’ll also say we want to continue to encourage oil

and gas development. So in this year’s budget, we put forward a very important

program to ensure we have a continued robust oil and gas industry. We want to

continue to grow our opportunities offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. We have

650 leads and prospects offshore that could be developed. We just need the

exploration, so we’ve put in place a program worth $90 million, $30 million for

the next three years.

Now,

that sounds like a lot of money, Speaker, I know that does, but I will say to

you that to do exploration now, I don’t know if my colleague is here, but it’s

roughly $200 million. So that industry is spending a tremendous amount but the

people of the province supporting them, they’re likely to choose to come here

versus some other place to do their oil and gas development.

again, if you are truly sincere that you wanted “to stimulate a robust

diversified economy,” and I’m reading now from the non-confidence amendment,

you would vote in favour of this budget but that’s not what the Progressive

Conservatives on the opposite side of the House are choosing to do.

Allow

me to also say there’s a tremendous amount of things that we, as a Furey

government, as a Liberal government, have done over the last number of years to

support the business community. We’ve also put in another million dollars for

phase two of the natural gas resource assessment. We have natural gas offshore

and we all talk about LNG in this House of Assembly across this country –

making sure we develop it to lower our carbon impact to supply the world with

energy.

Supporting

the continued development of that opportunity and putting the million dollars

in phase two of the natural gas resource assessment builds our inventory of

proven and prospective gas resources. So think of it this way: This is an

investment in the future diversification and prosperity of our economy. It’s in

this year’s budget that the Progressive Conservatives have decided to vote

against.

Now,

I will say, Speaker, I’m a little confused by the fact that they’re saying that

they want to – again, I’m quoting from their non-confidence amendment –

stimulate a robust diversified economy and yet, they’re not supporting these

initiatives.

I’ll

also say that we have critical minerals. If you’re listening to the news around

the world today, you’re hearing a lot about critical minerals. You’re hearing a

lot about them in the Ukraine. You’re hearing a lot about them in Canada.

You’re hearing a lot about them from Greenland, because the United States does

recognize how important critical minerals are, especially when you look at some

of the green technology and the green industry. That’s $2.6 million, increasing

to $4.3 million next year, to support the implementation of the critical

minerals strategy – an incredibly important as we move forward towards

diversifying and increasing our mining activity in Newfoundland and Labrador,

again, not being supported.

It's

a little perplexing that we have a non-confidence amendment before us that

talks about – I’ve already spoken at length about how much we’re doing to

recruit and retain nurses, doctors and other health care professionals. I’ve

already spoken about how we’re helping to ensure primary health care for all by

making sure – for example, we already have 23 Family Care Teams with 75,000

people attached to them and we’re expanding that. We’re growing that. We’re

encouraging that. That also helps with recruitment and retention, but that’s

not being supported.

How

we lowered the cost of living in this province for seniors and families. Just

think about, for families alone, the child care investment. It’s well over $100

million that’s being spent on our child care. So how important it is – how

important it is – that we continue to do that, that we continue to expand and

grow and invest in the child care industry? I know the Minister of Education

has been seized with this, understanding and knowing how important it is.

would also say, I’ve talked about how we decrease crime in our communities and

the fact that we’re putting in more supports: adding new police officers,

spending more money, ensuring that we have joint task forces between the RCMP

and the RNC to make sure that we address the growing level of crime in our

communities. This is very much a global problem but we’re addressing it.

So,

Speaker, I’ll also say that they want it to stimulate a robust and diversified

economy. I think I’ve spoken a little bit about what we’ve been doing here.

That’s on top of, for example, what we’ve been able to do with lowering the

small business tax rate, raising the ceiling and ensuring that less businesses

have to pay the Health and Post Secondary Education Tax.

We’ve

introduced a 10 per cent Manufacturing and Processing Investment Tax Credit.

We’ve introduced a Green Technology Tax Credit. We’ve introduced an All-Spend

Film and Video Production Tax Credit. No wonder the business community is

supportive of this government, Speaker, I say to you, because they are

recognizing that we are building and growing a robust and diversified economy.

When

I note the non-confidence amendment, when I go through it word for word, when I

speak to all the issues that it contains, I have laid out, I think, a very

factual, very cogent argument as to why the support should be there for this

budget; why the support should be there for a diversified economy, for giving

supports to lower the cost of living, to support the recruitment and retention

of doctors and to support the primary health care for all residents.

say to the Members opposite, I think that the resolution really does fault the

Opposition for really not supporting the budget that provides the monies needed

to achieve all that they’re asking us to do. On that note, Speaker, I take my

seat. I know I still have time remaining but I’m anxious to get back to hearing

and listening to other people debating the budget.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

SPEAKER:

The hon. the

Member for Harbour Main.

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: Thank

you, Speaker.

It’s

a real honour to have the opportunity again today to speak on this important

non-confidence amendment that has been proposed by the Official Opposition in

the House of Assembly.

I’m

not going to sugar-coat anything, unlike the Minister of Finance who seems to

have sugar-coated the whole entire 2025 budget. What I find very interesting –

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Oh,

oh!

SPEAKER:

Order,

please!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER:

What I find very interesting, Speaker, is the fact that there are many things

omitted when we hear the Minister of Finance talk about Budget 2025. There

seems to be omission and lack of attention to the problems that the people in

this province are facing right now.

referenced yesterday in my speech, the difficult times that our constituents

and the people are experiencing in trying to access health care. I spent

considerable time talking about the experiences of some of my constituents and

others outside my district who are experiencing difficulties with accessing

health care. As well, I spoke about the cost of living and it seems to me that

the Liberals here have forgotten about the problems and the struggles that the

people of Newfoundland and Labrador are experiencing, the difficult times that

people are having and struggling to make ends meet in our province and how they

feel taxed to death and are leaving our province.

That

seems to have been ignored when we hear the commentary from the Minister of

Finance about Budget 2025 . So now I have the honour as well to speak

about some more very important issues – not more important than health care,

not more important than the cost of living, because these are all very

important issues that real people are facing today in our province – but when

the Minister of Finance condemns us because we’re not supporting and we have

this non-confidence amendment, well, surely, we cannot accept a budget that is

flawed and failed.

mean, we would not be able to in good conscience support that and we fault, in

our amendment –

HON. MEMBER:

You want more roadwork, don’t you?

SPEAKER:

Order,

please!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: –

we fault the Liberal government.

Oh,

I’m going to get to the roadwork. Don’t worry, Minister, I’m going to get to

that. I have lots of time. I’m looking forward to it too, Minister.

The

Liberal government has failed in so many ways.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Oh,

oh!

SPEAKER:

Order,

please!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: They

have failed, Speaker, and the people we hear from tell us about this failure

every single day.

They

talk about the fact that there’s no support, and recruitment and retention of

nurses and doctors and other health care professionals. We have heard from our

constituents – and you don’t want to hear this but you’re going to hear it

because these are the people that you represent as well. It’s not just us.

You’re supposed to govern.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: You

govern the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. You have the right to govern

them so you have to listen to the concerns that we are bringing forward.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: These

are legitimate concerns. You cannot dismiss these issues.

You’re

laughing, Sir. You’re laughing, Minister. This is not funny. The people of

Newfoundland and Labrador have serious concerns and we have the right to speak

about that.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER:

So do not try to dismiss or gaslight here, please.

have spoken about health care and real people who are hurting. I’ve spoken

about the cost of living. Real people are hurting. Our Members over here who

represent many districts throughout the province have talked about the

experiences of people in our province. This is happening real time, Speaker.

now I get the opportunity and I’d like to speak about another area that’s very

important, and that’s with respect to Justice. I am the shadow minister, the

critic responsible, for this important portfolio, and yesterday, when I talked

about health care and the cost of living, I asked the question – and this is

what all of our constituents have to ask after 10 years of Liberal government –

has your health care improved? Access to health care, has it gotten any better?

The cost of living, is it easier for you to make ends meet?

bring that same question to the issue of Justice. We do know that Budget

2025 has ignored the RCMP and their requests for additional police

officers, and I point to the National Police Federation who submitted

recommendations to the minister for 20 more RCMP police officers in the

province. We know that there have been some police officers but these are old

announcements, Speaker. There’s nothing new forthcoming to assure the people

who are fearful in their communities that crime is being adequately addressed.

find it very interesting when the Minister of Finance spoke – if I heard

correctly – but I can’t believe I actually heard her say that there’s a

decrease in crime. If that is the case –

COADY: I

never said that.

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: Well,

my colleague and I thought that is what you said.

that is the case we’d like to know where that decrease is and what Budget

2025 has done to do that, but I don’t –

COADY: No.

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: I’m

glad to hear that you didn’t say that because that would be very surprising.

know that is not the case, Speaker. In fact, crime has increased. The severity

of crime has increased. The complexity of crime has increased. There’s a higher

level of complex crimes. We see repeatedly illicit, dangerous drugs that are

increasing in all of our towns and communities. This is fact. This is not an

attempt to exaggerate. I am reporting and I am communicating what I’m hearing

and what I’m seeing.

know that 34 per cent in RCMP areas that crime has increased in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador so we are very concerned about that. We hear about

violent attacks in our communities. We’ve heard of the violent attacks in

schools. This is all documented. This is all recorded. This is happening today

and it has been happening. We’ve heard about the shelters in place. I mean,

these are serious issues which we need to acknowledge.

do know that the police services in RCMP and RNC are stretched thin. Speaker,

they’re stretched thin. When we look at the RCMP and the RNC, the calls for

service that they get are increasing all the time. That is a problem because it

means that they cannot focus on core policing. They’re not able to do the

proactive crime prevention that’s necessary.

argue that this is why we have difficulty in supporting a budget that neglects

and, really, essentially, ignores the concerns of our police forces and of the

people that they represent. We need additional funding. Police require proper

resourcing. They require proper resourcing to make our communities safer and

they have failed to do that. There’s a huge gap in rural areas. We know that

police presence is not where it needs to be so that people feel safer. A lot of

this is about perception. When people don’t feel safe, this is a very serious

problem and I would submit and argue that’s what is happening today.

This

budget, that has been sugar-coated by the Minister of Finance, does not address

the needs for mobile mental health crisis responses. We need to see more of

that. That will support the RCMP and the RNC. We know that last year, for

example, out in the Conception Bay North area, which impacts the District of

Harbour Main, we were promised a mobile health crisis unit. The former minister

of Health, at the time of the budget last year, actually promised that directly

and spoke to me personally, too, to assure that that would be happening. Well,

guess what, a year later, did it happen?

Never

happened, Speaker. It never happened; another promise broken. Yet, we know how

important it is to have these mobile mental health crisis units because we have

mental health professionals that then respond at the scene of these mental

health calls. This is important. We see that the police are often tied up with

taking mental health cases to St. John’s. They’re tied up and their limited

resources are not then available to deal with the proactive policing that is

necessary for the surveillance so that we can get at crime so that we can

actually prevent crime. That is what’s happening. The police are urging us and

government for more support and yet that has not happened in this budget.

This

is another valid reason why we cannot support a budget that’s failed and flawed

like this. We cannot. It doesn’t address the health care issues that are out

there. It doesn’t address the problems that people are experiencing accessing

health care, for example. We cannot support a budget that does nothing in terms

of cost of living to really put money back in people’s pockets. The sugar tax

is a perfect example. Why doesn’t the minister scrap that tax and put money

back in people’s pockets immediately.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: Speaker,

as well, the final point I want to make in the area of Justice is that it’s a

revolving door. When we look at the HMP, it’s a revolving door. When we look at

the catch-and-release, because that’s what it is, what we see in the plan by

the Justice and Public Safety is not effective. It’s unsuccessful. It doesn’t

hold people accountable for their crimes. It’s not working. The entire system

has so many issues with it that are not being addressed by this government. We

see the same people day after day repeat offenders, recidivists, going round

and round the revolving door and, basically, putting our society and public at

risk.

Speaker,

there are many options that we could propose. We need to advance, support and

enhance the bail supervision program that’s really not being utilized. It is

important to have that option. There are many things that we feel need to be

addressed that have not been in this budget.

I'm

going to move on now with respect to an important issue in the District of

Harbour Main and that has to do with the roadwork, as the minister just shouted

out about over there. This issue with the roads in the District of Harbour Main

– let me just say, since getting elected in 2019, I presented a total of 22

road petitions. Today, I will be presenting another one and that will be number

have had five different Ministers of the Crown since 2019 that I have lobbied

and talked to and, you know, tried to get support for the roads, specifically

with respect to Holyrood out to part of Kelligrews. I can say that I did have

and I'm thankful to the two ministers that did visit the district by my

invitation to come and see first-hand. They did do that. The Member for Fortune

Bay - Cape La Hune, actually, was one of them – the first. The Member for St.

John’s East was another minister that did take the time to come out and see

first-hand what was going on in the District of Harbour Main.

They

know how bad these roads are and, I must say, I really appreciated the Member

for Conception Bay South who talked in his budget speech about the concerns

that we have. All of us have concerns, pretty much, over here about the

roadwork in our districts and how we’re fighting to get a scrap of roadwork

done and that’s what the Member for Conception Bay South said. He said,

basically, we’re fighting to get roadwork.

mean, we’re looking at in the District of Harbour Main. There are thousands of

people who go on this highway, this road, Route 60 from Holyrood, yet we’re

begging for pavement year after year. Year after year begging for pavement and

I’m at the point where I don’t even understand how this decision is made. The

allocation of roadwork, the process, Speaker, is definitely flawed because, as

the Member for Conception Bay South said, we represent all the people in our

district – PCs, Liberals, NDP, all of them – every person no matter what they

represent or who they represent.

Government

has that same responsibility. Government has that same responsibility to

represent all of the people in the districts that they represent. Is this

happening? Is this the reality that we’re seeing in how this government has

governed and how they’ve allocated pavement in the past 10 years? I would

submit that the only conclusion that we can come to is that it’s not a fair

process. I argue that it’s not a fair process. I’m not sure what has to be

done.

Why

don’t we have a fair process where the worst roads get attention?

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

CONWAY OTTENHEIMER: The

worst roads get paved first. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Why is it that

that’s not happening? We’re only asking for fairness here. No one will deny how

bad this road is from Holyrood out to part of Kelligrews. It’s probably, I

would submit, the worst road in the District of Harbour Main. I mean, we hear

this every day from our constituents about how bad these roads are.

Yet,

I’ve been told that we do apparently, in the Roads Plan – what is stated is:

Route 60 Conception Bay Highway paving sections near Topsail Beach and

Holyrood. That’s it. We don’t know what that means. I’ve reached out to the

minister, back and forth. I’m still as confused as I was on April the 3rd when

this came out. I really have no definitive answer.

This

is about transparency. It’s about fairness. How they determine who gets the

pavement, and my only conclusion is that it is political. That’s what we all

pretty much have concluded. It depends on what stripe you are, if you’ve got

the red or white stripe – whichever stripe they’re with today. Whatever stripe

you are will determine what pavement you get, but, Speaker, that’s not

acceptable. That’s an unfair process and, furthermore, we need transparency. I

heard the Member for Ferryland say yesterday, in his petition, he doesn’t know

how many kilometres; he doesn’t know where it’s located.

I’m

trying to find out, genuinely, for my constituents who are reaching out and

saying are we getting pavement in Holyrood. We know it’s near Topsail Beach and

Holyrood. Surely, there has to be a better process than this. Surely, we should

have transparency. This is the people’s money. This is taxpayers’ money. This

should not be secretive. This should not be secretive and it should be to at

least to give the people some idea of what amount of roadway we are getting

paved. I have no idea. Hopefully, it’s going to address the serious and, I

would argue, unsafe conditions that exist in this particular piece of Route 60.

that note, Speaker, we are very concerned. These petitions that I’ve raised

year after year, this is not me, These are the people of the District of

Harbour Main. When I stand here, that is who I am asking these questions on

behalf of. That’s who I am advocating for and the government has a

responsibility to address these serious issues with the roads, especially – and

there are other areas – in the area of Holyrood to part of Kelligrews.

Thank

you.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

SPEAKER

(Gambin-Walsh): The

hon. the Member for Grand Falls-Windsor - Buchans.

TIBBS: Thank

you very much, Madam Speaker.

It’s

a pleasure to speak again on Budget 2025 . Before I get started, I just

want to give a big shoutout to somebody that would be near and dear to all of

us. Those are people that would be extremely overworked and, in my opinion,

underpaid and that would be our constituency assistants that are in their

offices every single day, doing the work –

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

TIBBS: –

doing the work that they do. It’s absolutely phenomenal. The work that they do;

the commitment that they put into it. I’m just so proud of Brenda, who works in

my office, and I’m sure that everybody here is very proud of theirs. I don’t

know where we’d be without them and that’s the honest-to-God truth.

we get into budget here, the Finance Minister talks about the great things that

they’re doing, but one thing that I was very disappointed with in the budget –

I spoke about it before – was the Lionel Kelland Hospice and that’s the fact

that, this 2025 budget, there was no increase for the Lionel Kelland Hospice, our first

and only community hospice in Newfoundland and Labrador.

They

got the same amount of funding as they got last year and, as we know now, in

January, they ran out of money. They ran out and had to get some bridge

funding. We managed to get the bridge funding but, at that point, you would

think that the work that went into the budget, they would have been able to

find some more money there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. I hope that we come

up with it because that’s the hill I’m going to die on. That place isn’t going

to go anywhere, I can promise you that.

spoke about this before but I need to bring it up again, and I know the

minister is listening here today, and that would be the woodcutting permits

throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, especially in Central. We, again, have

had generations, a century of woodcutting in Central Newfoundland and Labrador.

When the mill shut down in Grand Falls-Windsor years ago, we still had wood out

there and, in my mind, we could have definitely done some sort of secondary

processing plant, but unfortunately we didn’t.

still have many processors out there. We have many harvesters out there, many

small harvesters, that have been doing this forever. A couple of them: of

course, John Shearing in Grand Falls-Windsor has been cutting wood. The man is

67 years old now. He still tries to cut, but he’s been cutting wood since he’s

been six years old. This is the first time in the history of his life where he

couldn’t get a wood permit. That’s shameful. That’s absolutely shameful. That

man grew up in Grand Falls-Windsor and spent his entire lifetime in the woods

right where he belongs and right where he loves it.

Another

one, up towards the Buchans area, of course, is Jonathan Brown. Jonathan Brown

is a second-generation woodcutter; his dad did it. He is First Nations; he’s

Aboriginal, and he was only too proud to cut wood his whole life. I talked to

him yesterday; he reached out to me. He is officially out of wood so his small

enterprise of eight or 10 people that have been around his entire lifetime, if

he doesn’t get wood in the next couple of months, he has to fold and probably

leave the province – probably leave the province.

you know what? In Newfoundland and Labrador, where we have just over 500,000

people, we have a lot of forest. The fact that the department can't find a way

to ensure that these smaller enterprises that have been around for a dog’s age

cannot get wood, it’s shameful and it’s not right. It’s a sin. There has to be

a way with these huge allotments that we have for the bigger companies that

come in – and again, this is not to downgrade any of the larger enterprises, of

course, because we want free enterprise in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I'm

happy that we have these bigger successful companies, but they should not be

able to take away from those smaller companies that are trying to make a living

that live right in the Central area as well. I can guarantee you, when we get

in government, I will be changing that. I will be changing that and that’s a

promise.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

TIBBS: Yup.

spoke to our leader of course, the Member for Stephenville - Port au Port, and

without hesitation he said that he would be there for the people of Central so

I really, really appreciate that.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

TIBBS: If I

can move on for a moment to a bit of a lighter topic, when you drive across the

Island, you come towards Bellevue and there’s a rock that everybody sees on the

right-hand side. That rock has Corey and Trina on it. A lot of people think

that it’s Corey and Trina, the wonderful musicians that we’ve had here, the

entertainers from Newfoundland and Labrador. In fact, it’s not.

There

was a Land and Sea special about it last year, and I’ll tell you the

story: Corey and Trina Sharpe, from Grand Falls-Windsor, their dad was taking their

daughter to school back in 1994. They got out, they had a can of paint and

paintbrush in the back and she wanted to do a little bit of something there for

her brother and that’s what she did. She painted Corey and Trina on that rock

in 1994. So what is that, 31 years ago. Absolutely phenomenal.

talked to Corey yesterday and he’s afraid that when the divided highway comes

in, that rock that’s a pinnacle for everybody seeing it or whatever – it’s sort

of a monument at this point – is going to be taken out. I assured him that I’ll

talk to the minister, I’ll talk to the minister’s department and if that rock

is to be taken out, I’m hoping that we can get it put somewhere else so, again,

everybody can see it and they can keep that memory alive. That’s something that

they enjoy. I promised Corey that I would talk to the minister, and I certainly

will, about that because we’d like to keep it there.

The Land

and Sea special, they brought Corey and Trina together with Corey Crewe and

it was quite the moment for him. Anyway, it means a lot to Corey and Trina from

Grand Falls-Windsor and I’m going to be sure that we talk to the department and

see what other circumstances we can get for that rock right there.

We’ll

move on to crime in Central. Of course, crime is up all over the province. It

is and, unfortunately, that’s the day and age that we live in. It can be

attributed to drugs and a lot of it can come back to drugs sort of thing. We

have a huge drug epidemic here in Newfoundland and Labrador. In Grand

Falls-Windsor, of course, we are not immune to that.

Grand Falls-Windsor just last weekend, we had a shelter-in-place of an active

shooter. It’s not something that you see very often but you do see it and,

again, it comes back to drugs. I’ve known some of the people that may have been

involved and it wasn’t great to see, because, again, we’re only as strong as

the weakest people within our communities or the most vulnerable.

appreciate the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers we have in Grand

Falls-Windsor. They do a phenomenal job.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

TIBBS: Some

of them are actually from Grand Falls-Windsor. We’re happy to have them there

but something that plagued me for years and years, long before I was a

politician, and I don’t know if I mentioned it to the minister but I definitely

will at some point, is the RNC, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

It’s

fantastic we have them in St. John’s, Corner Brook and Labrador City, as far as

I know. Why aren’t they in Central? I would like to talk to the minister some

day about, down the road, why don’t we have RNC, Royal Newfoundland

Constabulary, officers in Central, in Grand Falls-Windsor and possibly Gander,

and get some more boots on the ground.

Maybe

there’s a reason why they’re not. I’m not sure but I would like to see more

officers, obviously, in Grand Falls-Windsor. We have our municipal police in

Grand Falls-Windsor, of course. They’re absolutely phenomenal. They’re locals.

They do a great job for what they have to do and we’re pleased to have them

there.

spoke about the divided highway, yesterday, in Grand Falls-Windsor. Again, it’s

a huge topic in Grand Falls-Windsor and a lot of the comments that I get back,

and I want to address this now, are we need drivers to pay more attention on

the road – 100 per cent. I mean, that could be anywhere in Newfoundland and

Labrador.

That’s

fine enough to say but, of course, we’re all human and we make mistakes. So for

somebody to come and say we need to pay more attention, that’s not a fix. I’ll

tell you why that’s not a fix: At any given time, you could be driving the

absolute perfect conditions through Grand Falls-Windsor at 90 kilometres an

hour, hands at 10 and 2, and if you’re coming around the turn there by the

cemetery or by the hospital and somebody else is in that lane, doesn’t matter

how much attention you’re paying, the other driver may hit you and,

unfortunately, that’s the reality of it.

just spoke with the minister again, and his department has just reached out to

me, maybe, 10 minutes ago, so I’m going to meet with them, I think, at some

point today and we’re going to get that done. It took a long time. It took too

long to get it done but to the minister’s credit, he’s the first out of three

or four ministers over there to actually get some action on this. I thank you

very much for that, Minister. It’s much appreciated.

critic role, of course, is fire and emergency services. We thank all the

firefighters across the province. I was very fortunate to do it throughout a

portion of my life, and I really, really enjoyed it but the fact now is, with

the absence of ambulances within rural Newfoundland and Labrador, these

firefighters have to take on the calls. That’s fine and dandy. I’m sure that

they’re only too happy to do it but they shouldn’t have to pay the price to do

it.

talked about compensation, whether it be equipment, fuel and all these things,

there needs to be a model landed on here to get them some sort of compensation

if they’re going to be doing these medical calls.

Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s all hands on deck. Anybody would help anybody

else but we want to make sure that they’re prepared to do it. They have the

right equipment and they can do this because if it’s something that we’re going

to rely on, let’s come up with a model where we can rely on it and they can get

compensated because it’s not fair to them, it’s not fair to the municipalities

that may be having to foot some of these bills and that’s something, hopefully,

that the department looks into. I wouldn’t mind helping with that as well.

It’s

been said many times before, we talk about seniors throughout our communities

and we talk about that they’re supposed to be in their golden years. Well, it

doesn’t feel like the golden years for the seniors and, unfortunately, again,

that’s the reality that we live in. The seniors have to try and make it

through, cheque to cheque sort of thing, with that little bit that they have

coming in.

The

soaring food prices are phenomenal. I mean, seniors have to eat. Forget about

just trying to eat healthy, they just have to try to eat. It’s so expensive.

Yes, it’s expensive to eat healthy, but it's expensive to eat terrible as well.

Unfortunately, that’s where seniors are today and we have to try to help the

seniors as much as we possibly can.

you think about the different bills that seniors have today that they didn’t

have years ago. You have to buy a new cellphone – every person on this planet

needs a cell phone at some point, they need a cellphone plan and whether you’re

a parent trying to get them for your kids, it’s not something that you had 20

years ago but it’s needed now. That’s the world that we live in now. It's the

same thing with the oil and gas. Oil and gas built up this world to be reliant

on it. Well, now we have to rely on cellphones.

So a

senior living in their home, they have certain bills that they have that they

may not have had 20 years ago. That cuts into the little bit of money they get

so as these bills continue to soar, the money they have coming in stays pretty

stagnant with small increments. Again, I think that we promised – what – 20 per

cent of an increase? That’s something that we need to look at moving forward

for seniors as well.

When

you see the seniors at the grocery store of course – my God, it's a sin. You

don’t see many happy seniors anymore. You just don’t because you can see that

they’re struggling and you feel that struggle every single time. God bless any

kids out there or any grandkids that are helping their moms, that are helping

their grandparents. It’s not easy on them either but they’re still doing it,

whether it be financially or just being there for them to help out. Thank you

very much to anybody out there that’s helping a senior.

course, on the other end of that, we’ve got young people. We’ve got these young

men and women that are growing up through high school, graduating high school

and going to university and graduating university and college, and those that

may not be going to college or university but are finding themselves and that’s

okay, too.

I’ve

got two sons; Declan just turned 20 and Xander is 17. Being a dad, it’s

exciting to watch them succeed. It’s exciting to watch them fail because that’s

where real growth happens. It’s exciting to watch them take on a world that was

different than when I took it on. The challenges that are in the world today

for young people. They aren’t more, they aren’t less but they are different.

They are certainly different.

The

financial struggles that they have today, I think, are much more pressure on

young people than they were when I was growing up. You know, you watch the kids

come out and you’re going to go out and buy a new vehicle, new vehicles today

are $35,000, $40,000. I mean, you’re not going to go out and buy a new vehicle

just coming out of college with the debt that you may have. You’re going to

rent a place in St. John’s – $2,000 or $2,500 a month to rent a place. It just

doesn’t keep up.

think about our young people, our young men and women out there who are ready

to take on the world, you can imagine the amount of stress that’s on their

shoulders. The amount of uncertainty that’s on their shoulders. They would

expect government – and I’ve always said government is not here to save

anybody; that’s not government’s role. Government’s role should be to work hard

and provide an environment that people can flourish in.

That’s

as simple as I can put it. It’s government’s role to provide the environment

for people to have the opportunity to flourish. I want to see my children

flourish just like all children across Newfoundland and Labrador. I want to

keep them home as much as I can, as many of them as I possibly can, but it’s

tough. It’s very, very tough on young people today. I don’t envy them but I am

there to support them and I will continue to support them, just like all of us

will, because we want them here.

talk about the mental health. Whether it be with seniors or young people, the

mental health epidemic we have today is unreal. It’s a huge contribution to the

drug or alcohol problem that may be out there. Looking at it myself – I’m just

trying to step back and take a look at it – I think that the reason there is so

much depression or anxieties out there is, again, the uncertainty.

mean, when I was growing up, you were given the notion of the harder you work,

the further you were going to get ahead. That’s plain and simple. It was pretty

much, the harder you work, the further you were going to get ahead. I’ve always

been about hard work. I’ve never been given a thing in my life. I’ve worked for

everything I’ve ever had, but it gets frustrating for people to take that

notion on and to see it through. When that light at the end of the tunnel gets

smaller and smaller as things skyrocket and things get harder, well, my God

people are giving up. People are giving up, but I ask you not to give up.

Again,

I’m the least materialistic person I’ve ever met in my entire life. I made a

little home for myself on the corner of Newhook and Knight Street in Grand

Falls-Windsor. It’s a very modest house and it’s got chew marks in the

staircase where the dog did it and everything else. It’s my home and I filled

it with my beautiful wife and best friend, my two children and my dog, and at

the end of the day, you can get frustrated and there’s lots there to get

frustrated about but I have a roof over my head. I have people around me I love

and love me back. I have food in my belly and, by God, at the end of the day,

if you have that, you’re doing better than most, you truly are, in this world.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

TIBBS: Yeah.

It’s

great to have the ambition to want more and that’s fine, but don’t get caught

down in the bog. My son’s favourite saying, I told him this when he was a

little boy: Everything will be okay in the end and if it’s not okay, it’s not

the end so just hang on. My two sons grew up with that and it served them well,

just as it served me my whole life.

to all of you out there, we’re going to continue to work as hard as we possibly

can to create that environment where you can flourish, but again, if you have

love, if you have laughter, if you have shelter and you have food, you’re doing

better than most people on this planet. Take a moment and show just a little

bit of gratitude just for yourself, not anybody else, just feel a little bit of

gratitude and it might get you through those hard days as well; because, like I

say, the mental health pandemic here in Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s real.

It’s so real and it affects everything in your life: it affects your work life,

it affects your relationships, it affects your day-to-day activities.

I’m

going to stick with mental health for a little bit. My mom, little while ago

called and she was having a hard day. She was having a bad day and she said,

Chris, all the stuff that’s going on in the world, this and that, I can’t get

away from it. It’s got me down, here today. I’ll give everybody out there the

same advice that I gave her for that day, I said: Mom, turn off your TV, my

love, put down your phone and go outside because, you know what, when you’re

walking and there’s sunshine on your face, those problems don’t exist for an

hour or so. That’s what some people need sometimes.

That’ll

be my advice to anybody out there: put down the phone, turn off your TV and get

out because you can get bogged down. It can really take a lot of people down

and I think that’s the effect that it’s having here lately.

The

poverty we have within Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and throughout, it’s

hurting a lot of people. The food insecurity of course, I can’t imagine going

hungry. It’s terrible but it’s real. It’s really out there. The housing: when

we were growing up, it really wasn’t a thing – not that we really noticed

anyway – but nowadays, you have families and a lot more people. You don’t have

to be out in the street to not have housing. If you’re couch surfing, if you’re

staying with somebody else, that’s inadequate housing and, unfortunately, we

see more and more of that today than ever.

There’s

another thing, I don’t know if people really bring up a lot, the cars on the

road, the vehicles on the road. People can’t afford things like they used to so

if you have a decision between food, your mortgage or new tires, the tires are

at the back of the list.

This

is not to come down on anyone but I truly believe we have a lot of cars on the

road today that are inadequate – that aren’t up to par for safety standards.

That’s sad and, again, it’s not a knock on the people that are doing it because

I realize the struggles that you are in but it could cause a wreck on our roads

or cause an accident and, once again, to no fault of their own. I get it. I get

it but that’s something that we need to be aware of and be prepared to talk

about.

Anyway,

I see my time is coming to an end, Madam Speaker. I just want to say to

everybody in Grand Falls-Windsor - Buchans District and everybody across

Newfoundland and Labrador, I want you to have a very safe and Happy Easter

weekend coming up. Take that time and spend it with your family and let’s all

be grateful for what we have as we strive for more.

Thank

you very much.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

SPEAKER:

The hon. the

Leader of the Official Opposition.

WAKEHAM: Thank

you, Speaker.

I’m

glad to be able to stand here once again and start off my comments on the

budget by thanking the people of the District of Stephenville - Port au Port

who have given me the honour to represent them in this House of Assembly. It’s

something that I do not take lightly and I certainly know there are lots of

issues and lots of challenges.

is always a pleasure to speak with people in my district and in other districts

across this province and talk to them about their concerns and the things that

they would like to see us move ahead with and that’s what a budget is always

about. When we review the budget, we always look to see what’s in there that is

actually going to make a huge difference for the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador.

Before

I start my comments on the budget today, I want to reference the Budget Speech

and a comment that the minister made in her opening remarks in the Budget

Speech. That comment was something along the lines of, and I apologize if I

don’t have it 100 per cent accurate, welcoming the PC Party here to listen to

the budget.

believe that was a reference to the fact that last year we did not sit here in

the House of Assembly and listen to the Budget Speech. We stood with the fish

harvesters and plant workers and others in the fishing industry –

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: –

who were protesting because of the challenges they were facing in their

industry. I will say, I will never apologize for standing up for the people

that work in the fishing industry in Newfoundland and Labrador because they are

the ones that are the backbone of this province of ours and it certainly

impacts all of us in this House of Assembly. That’s why I'm glad to see that

the crab processors, the crab fisherpeople and others, the plant workers, are

actually on the water and processing crab. I think we all agree. We’re all

happy to see that that’s happening.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: Having

said that, I also think about the fact that the harvesters in 3K saw a

significant cut to their quotas this year by 25 per cent, and they talk about

it being based on science. I would argue there’s more to science than a bunch

of people sitting at a desk in Ottawa making decisions or doing these things.

They talk about two different ways that they did this, the pot surveys and the

net surveys, yet, right now, we are hearing from harvesters in 3K that their

pots are full.

when I think about that and I think about all the people that are involved in

the science, I think who are most likely to be the best scientists when it

comes to determining whether or not a stock is healthy? I would argue that it’s

not the people sitting at the desks. It’s the people in the wheelhouses of all

those fishing vessels that are on the water every single day harvesting. They

should have a lot more input into how decisions are being made when it affects

our industry, because it is our industry.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: So,

Speaker, I want to start off again today referencing Question Period from

yesterday, and I want to start off by saying, to set the record straight, that

all of us in this House of Assembly, I believe, value all of the work that is

done by our public servants in our province.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: Without

their support, things wouldn’t happen. We wouldn’t get our jobs done. So I want

to say that out loud, but the reference yesterday, to the seven years of an

acting position in the Public Service Commission, was brought up by my Member

for Baie Verte - Green Bay. I want to go back to the Estimates of April 11,

2022, and why we’re concerned about it.

The

Estimates of April 11, 2022, I was at that Estimates, as the minister alluded

to yesterday, and I asked questions about this particular position and why it

was still acting. We got great answers, so if I could just quote from those

answers: I asked the question, “So am I to understand that the position is

actually now being advertised and it's before the Independent Appointments

Commission?”

The

answer from the Acting Commissioner was, “My understanding is that the position

has been advertised. It has been recruited for. There have been interviews.

There has been a report generated by the Independent Appointments Commission,

and that report has been submitted to government in accordance with the act.”

That was 2022. Today, in 2025, the person is still acting.

Maybe

we’ll ask a question in the House later today about what happened because,

clearly, in 2022, from the Estimates, the position had been advertised and all

the process had taken place and a decision was imminent.

Then,

I went on to thank Mr. Joyce and I said, “I’m not going to ask you if you

applied or not, but I want to thank you for the work you’ve done for the last

three years in an acting capacity. Pretty soon you’ll be ready to step up to

the next career in acting but I want to thank you for – it’s a difficult

challenge to fill something on an acting basis for such a long time … and I’m

glad to hear that the position has been posted.”

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: So,

again, we’ll come back to that in Question Period and see if we can get an

answer as to what happened between 2022. The position was posted,

recommendations made and nothing has been done, and it’s now 2025. It’s such an

important position for the Public Service Commission. This is a significant

position and it needs to be filled. That’s why I want to go back to that.

We’ve

heard a lot of my colleagues talk about roads in their speeches so far. It

reminds me of the old days, which I thought were long past us, when you knew an

election was happening when the paving machine was rolling down your street.

Now it appears it’s a similar process. When I think about – excuse me for one

second. When I think about my daughter, she lives in England where they drive

on the left side of the road, I can tell you that the people in my district

drive on what’s left of the roads.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: That’s

what’s happening and it’s common.

We’re

hearing a common theme here from all of the people on this side of the House

about the challenges with roadwork and yet, we’ve also heard the comments that

there has been five Transportation ministers over there. It’s interesting to

hear them debate among themselves as to who got the most pavement in their own

districts while they were the ministers of Transportation, and it shows. I

mean, all we have to do is go back and look at where the actual paving work was

done, but there is a desperate need for road repairs in the District of

Stephenville - Port au Port.

I’m

happy to say that we got one allocation for a road despite the entire route

that’s over there – and I should point out that we often talk about the Irish

Loop. I would also suggest that all of us, or all of you if you haven’t visited

so far, should come to the West Coast and take a run around Route 460, which is

not only an historic route. It’s the Indigenous culture that’s there. It’s the

French culture that’s there and the French festivals that are there. It’s a

beautiful ride right around the whole entire area. Beautiful scenery, beautiful

people, beautiful festivals and, unfortunately, the only thing I can say that’s

not beautiful is our roads.

you are travelling, or plan on travelling and coming out this summer, then I

welcome you by all means, but make sure you have a spare tire in your vehicle

or one of those inflatable cans that you can blow it up if you need to because

there continues to be a number of people who have reached out to my office and

talked about their flat tires that they’ve incurred. I’ve driven around that

and there are significant potholes in that road that need to be repaired –

significant challenges with even the sides of the roads.

In a

community in Three Rock Cove, there’s a part of the road that’s completely

destroyed because the water builds up there constantly and it causes all kinds

of challenges, especially, in the winter. There are things that need to be

done. Maintenance is not just about putting a new surface on the roads, there’s

a lot of maintenance that needs to be done and that’s part of the challenge. We

find and hear that there are challenges with the equipment that the workers

have to use and we are hearing lots of challenges with the number of workers

that are actually available to do the work. All of those things are very

important.

little bit of tongue in cheek, there is something in the plan here called:

Slope stabilization Fox Island River and Paving

Section of Fox Island River.

It’s Route 462 but on the heading it’s called Mattis Point Road. So I’m

wondering if the reason I got it is because they thought it was in a Liberal

district; because Mattis Point Road is in a Liberal district. It’s actually

Point Au Mal Road that they’re referring to but I’m looking forward to the work

being done on the Fox Island River.

want to speak about the Fox Island River road because this is a road that runs

parallel to the ocean and it’s a road that I would suggest, over the last 15

years, we get storm surges every time and the road gets washed out. Then what

do we do? We come in; Transportation and Infrastructure comes in and they

turned around and cleared the debris off the road and we put some small stones

back over again and we fix it so it’s good to go. Then, we repeat the following

year, and then we repeat and repeat and repeat.

I’ve

heard my colleague from Ferryland talk about the breakwater down his way and

that’s what we get into. It’s a repeat cycle where we wind up, over the course

of a number of years, actually spending more money on repairs. If we had to

address the issue and get it fixed properly the first time, we wouldn’t have

that challenge. I think of the Speaker’s own district, where I grew up, in

Placentia. What a wonderful job they did out there in stabilizing Beach Road

and the beautiful boardwalk that sits on top of that now. It’s become an

attraction where people want to walk on that every day.

There

is the potential for that same type of thing to be done in Fox Island River but

what we have to do is not simply go out and spend all this money on repairing

this road. Let’s make sure we do it right and listen to the people who live in

the district. Listen to the people who live in Fox Island River and what

they’re suggesting on how we can get this repaired so we won’t be talking about

this every single year. It’s not about having to move the road over or anything

like that, they have solutions, but the solutions mean that we have to take our

time and do it right.

We’re

about to spend another bunch of money on stabilizing that road and I’m glad to

see that in the budget, but I want to make sure that it’s not simply a repeat

of everything we’ve done in the past. We continue to do that. Let’s make it so

that when we do these repairs this time, that we put the right armour stone

down there, that we listen to the people of the community and we get it done

right, because that’s what’s important here.

also want to talk briefly, when I talk about roads – we talked about erosion.

Good Friday is this week. A year ago, on Good Friday, there was a significant

rainfall – a storm. Part of that storm damaged property, roads and others in

the Town of Cape St. George significantly. One house has actually been torn

down because it was destroyed by that and there has been no assistance.

stood in this House of Assembly on two different occasions and asked the

Premier for assistance for the Town of Cape St. George to deal with the

challenges that the people in that particular town were having. Twice the

Premier committed to ensuring that his government would be there for the people

in that community; to date, there has been no commitment made. There has been

no funding. That commitment has not been honoured and that needs to be done. I

get calls constantly from people in that community asking when is it coming?

When can we expect it? It’s still not here. There’s still no response.

Maybe

it doesn’t fit under a federal program or anything like that, but when we make

commitments in this House of Assembly that we are going to help people, we

ought to follow through on them. All people think and want is somebody to say,

yes, you said that you were going to do it and, yes, you will do it and that’s

all they’re asking for. So I hope that before the Premier leaves that

commitment will get honoured and that promise will be made.

also want to talk a little bit about other erosion. The community of Mainland

is a beautiful scenic community along the coast that I just talked about. A lot

of French ancestry; an all-French school there and on the side facing the road,

I think of a gentleman, Mr. Oliver, who has a house that he built on that side

of the road 30-plus years ago, maybe. At one time he could play soccer in his

backyard. Now if he steps off his deck, he’ll fall into the ocean. That’s how

much coastal erosion has impacted his property and yet, we can’t find no way to

help that man.

the same time, I think about the other buildings along that strip. When I think

of the Tea by the Sea building, the historic schoolhouse and the other

historical buildings that the Mainland historical association has put so much

time and effort into developing and commemorating their history and I watch as

those banks erode year over year, we do not want to find ourselves in the

situation as what happened in Daniel’s Harbour. We cannot wait for the

properties to fall into the ocean before we actually decide that we’re going to

do something about them.

So,

again, that’s something that we need somebody from Transportation and

Infrastructure or engineers or someone to go down, take a serious look at this

and figure out how are we going to get this done. Those are issues that are

impacting people right now in my district that need to be looked after. That’s

another case.

When

I speak of Mainland and Three Rock Cove, Mainland and Three Rock Cove are two

Local Service Districts next to each other. Back in 2022, they applied to

become a municipality, which is something that we have talked about and

encouraged: Local Service Districts that want to become incorporated. So these

two Local Service Districts have applied, in 2022, to become a municipality.

The process started, and they started the process which is the correct way, and

they formally applied, and they went and they got a feasibility study

completed, done and submitted to the department. But since then, there’s been

nothing.

Every

question that was asked of the two LSDs by officials had been answered. I could

show you a string of emails that are written by the chair of Mainland and the

LSD of Three Rock Cove to department officials, to deputy ministers and others

asking for an update. Every time, the answer is the same: We’re still working

on it – we’re still working on it.

When

they ask exactly what it is, what information do you need to finally make your

decision, there is nothing. Most recently, after another request, the answer

back, once again, was, well, we’ve changed out assistant deputy ministers and

we are not familiar with the file; we’ll have to go back to look at the file

again.

it’s a delay and a delay and a delay. Three years they have been asking to be

incorporated as a municipality. Since 2022, the process started. We understand

the processes, that things had to be done, checklists had to be done,

feasibility studies had to be done; but now, for over a year, it’s been stall,

stall, stall. I think the people of Mainland and Three Rock Cove deserve an

answer. They deserve the right to know from their government what is holding up

their incorporation as a municipality. They need to hear that from the

officials in the department. They deserve that.

They’ve

put in a lot of work, they’ve done their homework, they’ve done all the

assessments and they went out and met with everyone in the community. All

they’re asking for is why do we continue to be delayed in getting an answer –

three years. So I would hope that that is something that will get addressed now

before the next election is called.

I’ve

talked about a lot of things in terms of my district, but I also want to talk

about health care or the lack of in my district as well. Once upon a time, I

was told there were 16 specialists at the Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital in

Stephenville. And now we’re down to one. Now, there are locums providing

service from time to time. But the erosion of services out of Stephenville and

out of that hospital has continued over the last 10 years.

When

I talk about that, it’s simply not to say that we’re advertising for positions

– we’re advertising. Putting an ad on your website is not going to get the job

done. As we know, recruitment and retention is hard work. It means you have to

get out there; you have to have people out scouring and doing it. It’s not

about simply going off for photo ops to this place or that place and saying,

oh, we’re on a mission to recruit. Recruiting is a full-time job. Retention is

a full-time job. It doesn’t stop and start. It has to be continuous.

There

are people out there, there are agencies out there, there are workers working

in our own hospitals and long-term care facilities and others that are great

recruiters that we ought to be talking to these people about who do they know,

who are their friends, who could they ask to come back, do they know of

somebody who might be interested. But we cannot allow rural Newfoundland and

Labrador to see our health care system simply flowing out of our communities

and all centralized. That’s what’s happening.

It’s

not just doctors. It’s also other positions, whether it’s wound care, whether

it’s mammography services. It’s all these other services that people are now

having to travel for. Services that were once available in their community, in

their hospital. That’s no longer there. We’re having to travel. Or if it’s

there, it’s intermittent and there’s no guarantee that it will be there.

these the are facts that are actually out there right now happening in our

hospitals. When I think of the opportunity we have to maximize the use of the

physical structures we have already in this province, Stephenville has an

acute-care hospital with two ORs. Those two ORs should be working, should be

maxed out.

When

we think about services for a region, it’s not just about what you have in one

building or another building; it has to be about the region and how do we turn

around and maximize the use of our OR space that we have there. Putting

approximately 16,000 people that are served by that particular hospital or have

had services from that hospital on the road is not what we ought to be doing

from a health care perspective. We ought to be making sure that we have people

in our own communities to be able to service them.

When

we have a facility there that can do this, we ought to be making sure that we

have the staff to run it. That has to be part of the system. Whether it’s

Carbonear, Clarenville, Stephenville or any of the other facilities that we

have in this province, we have to find a way to make sure that we do not give

up on them, that we maxed out the utilization of these facilities and we staff

them up. Because I believe that they can be utilized, should be utilized and I

certainly intend to utilize them. But that’s something that needs to happen.

It’s not happening. Rural Newfoundland and Labrador are seeing an erosion.

Recently,

I went to Central Newfoundland and spoke with a lady whose friend was a

dietician from that same community. Funny thing was there was a position open

for a dietician there in that community and there is a person from the

community who just finished their program who wanted to come back and work in

the community, but she wasn’t able to come back because the organization in

Central couldn’t afford or couldn’t find a way to allow her to have 10 hours of

supervised time in her community, which she needed apparently as part of her

training, her apprentice program, somebody needed to be with her for 10 hours

for so many weeks and they couldn’t do it. They said they couldn’t do it.

Here

this dietician wanted to go back home and is not able to go home because we

can’t find a way to have somebody provide that supervision that this student

needs to complete her internship so she can turn around and become a valuable

member of our health force in Central Newfoundland, in rural Newfoundland and

Labrador. That is a challenge; that is something that we should not be talking

about here.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: I’ve

also spoken a lot to other health care professional as well who have

experienced similar situations, and education. Again, most recently, a teacher

in a community who is working full-time temporary – from the community, moved

back to the community but was not offered a full-time job.

Now,

there may be all kinds of reasons around that and other things and excuses

given, as you know – it’s to do with the union; it has to with this or to do

with that – but think about the principle of what we’re trying to do here.

We’re trying to keep people in Newfoundland and Labrador. We’re trying to build

up. We want our younger people to stay here and work. When somebody moves back

to their home community and they’re not guaranteed their job, it’s very

challenging for them to be able to put down roots. It’s very challenging indeed

because at any time, they could be told no, sorry.

Then

we have examples, as we all know in all of our districts, of teachers who have

been on – quote – casual staff, who have never been offered a full-time

position, for years in our communities. Is it because we’re exploiting them? Is

it because we know if we make them permanent then we won’t have the casuals to

call in? Does that seem fair to people who have put in a lifetime of dedication

and want to stay in their home communities and work, that we are finding ways

of not being able to do something?

These

are the challenges that are there but these are things that we ought to be able

to overcome. We have the people right there who want to stay and work and we’re

not finding a way to keep them there. That’s the challenge I have with this.

Our challenge and our goal has to be to put people to work and to find people

who want to come back. They want to stay in rural Newfoundland and Labrador

and, b’y, we should be finding ways to make sure they do and I will continue to

lobby for that.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: There

are so many other positions and people out there that are having challenges.

Let

me go quickly to something that I’ve talked a lot about as I’ve travelled

around the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We all know we have community

organizations that do tremendous work for us and tremendous work all over

Newfoundland and Labrador; a lot of community organizations of volunteers and

others who have staff that take the work, take the jobs and do the jobs. I’ve

always said that these organizations will take a dollar and turn it into five.

That’s

what we ought to do, but many of these organizations don’t get the core funding

support from government. I’m not blaming any government. I’m suggesting that

it's something that ought to have been looked at. We ought to be talking about

it because they provide valuable service to the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador. When I think of an organization like the Coalition of Persons with

Disabilities who have no core funding and who, every year, don’t know if

they’re going to be able to survive to carry on for the next year or not. They

all have to depend on grants.

These

are challenges. These are great organizations and I'm not suggesting that we’re

automatically going to simply provide core funding to everyone, but we ought to

be sitting down with them. We ought to be sitting down and have that budget

discussion and it’s not going to be the same for all organizations. Every one

will be different but let’s have that discussion. They would welcome that.

They’d welcome an opportunity to sit down and debate and talk about how much

I’m going to provide as core funding or not provide.

These

are the things that we can do. It’s not about increasing the budget. It’s about

making better choices about how we want to spend our money, and I think there’s

lots of room to make better choices on how we want to spend our money.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: I

recently met with an organization, a rural development association, who have

employment for up to 100 people. They have no core funding; they rely on

grants. Every year they rely on grants and they try and apply for every grant

that’s available.

This

organization has done some remarkable things. I recently met with two young

people who had addiction issues. This organization was able to work with these

individuals to get them back so that they are now actually working members of

the community, working within this rural development association and the

projects they have. Two people taken off the streets that had struggles but are

now back working and productive. That’s because of organizations like that.

feel like I want to play the video. It’s amazing, this story, and I’m sure

there are others; but this organization, a few months ago, applied for a

funding proposal for a three-year project – three years – that would provide

stability. Not only have we not addressed that, but the sad reality of it is

that nobody responded to them. No government department actually wrote them

back or picked up the phone to say we’ve got your application, it’s on file and

we’re reviewing it. Not even the courtesy of a response.

What

kind of message are we sending to these community organizations, to these

people who are out there doing tremendous work in rural Newfoundland and

Labrador? We’re saying no to rural Newfoundland and Labrador; that’s what the

government is doing by not even responding to people. Whether it’s the people

that live in Cape St. George, who are still waiting for an answer on the

repairs caused by the flooding; whether it’s a rural development association,

right there, that can’t get a response; whether it’s that dietician, there are

so many other examples of where we’re failing the people in our rural

communities, people who are wanted.

The

Liberal government has had 10 years – 10 years in government – and we don’t see

this. So when the minister talks about the budget and why we’re not supporting

it and talks about all these great things, well, I can go on and on and on and

on about all the things that aren’t in the budget, and that’s where some of

this sings.

the principle of core funding, let me tell you, after the next election when

we’re sitting on that side of the House, core funding will be part of the

discussions for all these community organizations.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: Family

Care Teams: We’ve heard lots of discussions about Family Care Teams and lots of

talk about how many people are rostered or not rostered. I just want to quickly

bring up a little story because while we talk about 75,000 people that are

currently rostered, we all know there are many more that aren’t. We all know

there are 168,000 people who do not have a family physician. That’s not my

number. That’s a number that we’ve been talking about from the Medical

Association.

want to share a story because we stand up and say that all of these people that

are on the list are somehow looked after. Well, this is an email I had recently

and it says: It was interesting hearing the CEO of Newfoundland and Labrador

Health Services saying how they’re having success matching patients with Family

Care Teams.

goes on to say: I will tell you about my experience, and it’s not positive.

After registering with NL Connect, approximately two years ago, we had a call

about three weeks ago verifying our information; however, they couldn’t assign

us to a Family Care Team because they’re at capacity here in Grand

Falls-Windsor.

were told that since they called us, myself and my husband are no longer on the

list – they called us, so now they’re no longer on the list. I was given a

local telephone number so that I can call and see if they have spots available

for us. Oh yes, in that phone call, we were also given a number for Teladoc.

if other patients registered with NL Connect or called and given the same

information we were given, the CEO is misleading the public because people’s

names are removed but they still have not been assigned to a Family Care Team.

Now,

if that is happening, if that is factual – and I believe this person 100 per

cent, a former health care worker. If this is what’s going on right now in

rural Newfoundland and Labrador in our Family Care Teams, then we are failing

the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. We are failing people who believe that

their roster, that they’re going to get a call and they’re going to be able to

get to see a family physician or some other primary care provider.

This

has to be fixed and ought to be fixed. This is not how our health care system

should be working. You get a call and because they tell you we have no room for

you, you’re taken off the list. That cannot happen. That should not be

happening.

There

are more, I’m sure, and I’m sure after today, we’ll get a lot more calls. It’s

great to announce Family Care Teams. We’ve heard announcement after

announcement, another Family Care Team, another Family Care Team. We now have

17 Family Care Teams. How many of those Family Care Teams are fully staffed?

Where are the staff coming from?

I’ve

heard examples of nurses leaving the acute-care hospitals to go to work at a

family care clinic because they only have to work 9 to 5. So are we really just

shifting, or are we really improving? Because that’s a question that needs to

be asked. When we talk about this, it sounds great, but we ought to be focused

in on exactly what is going on, where are people coming from, where are people

going to. Do we really know?

Yet,

we know the statistics. We know how many people still don’t have a family care

provider. We know how many people are paying to see a primary care provider, a

nurse practitioner. Because after four years, this Liberal government still

hasn’t figured out a way to reimburse the patient for that expense or to find a

way to have nurse practitioners part of the system.

The

federal government has made it mandatory for next April of 2026. We should not

have to wait for that to be made mandatory. That should be happening right now

in our province.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: Speaker,

we also have, of course, all the challenges on the West Coast, not only with

Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital, but with the regional facility in Western

Memorial. A brand new hospital that was built, yet the challenges that we have

seen because we have failed to understand that when you reduce the number of

beds in an acute-care hospital and you open up a new one and you haven’t got

room for all of the ones that were in the old one, you ought to have a plan in

place as to how you’re going to make the difference.

But

again, a lack of planning resulted in a fact that we were in overcapacity at

the new hospital in Western Memorial and it was forever before government made

a decision to finally say, oh, we recognize now that we had no plan. The

Liberal government says we have no plans, so we’ll go – first of all, their

plan was to turn around and double up seniors in their rooms in long-term care.

That

was the plan until the Opposition stood up, all of us on this side of the

House, including my colleague from Western Newfoundland over there, Bay of

Islands, and others, and complained about. Finally, they reversed that decision

and now they’re going to reopen the old Western Memorial hospital, something

that was calling for from day one.

all goes back to planning. Because they built the new long-term care facility

before they built the new hospital. They built the long-term care facility with

102 beds when their own actual reports and forecasts that they would’ve had in

the department said, by 2025, you are going need 182 long-term care beds in the

Corner Brook region. So if we don’t start making decisions based on the

evidence, based on decisions that are sound in logic, we find ourselves in

situations where we’re coming up short.

That’s

happening in Western. We announced that we were constructing a brand new

hospital with oncology services going to be delivered in Western Newfoundland –

a great service for the residents of Western Newfoundland. Something they were

all looking forward too. But we realize now that the hospital opened up without

the service. As I stand here today, I’m not aware that there is that service

available in Western Newfoundland.

now have heard stories about concerns around the new Waterford hospital from

various groups of whether or not there’s actually enough beds in the new

Waterford hospital that’s built on campus – a beautiful facility, but concerns

around the number of beds in that facility.

When

we see and we talk about planning or lack of planning, and that’s what’s

happened here in this budget and this government, is the total lack of

planning. When I think about how this Liberal government went out and leased

the hotel for $7 million a year for three years, plus $6 million operating

cost, was that a plan, or was that simply a reaction to a Tent City across the

road? Because clearly planning would not say you go out and spend $21 million

on leasing a hotel that was worth four-point-something million on the books.

And now, as we know, the owners of that hotel have quickly turned around and

sold it, I would imagine, for a good price because they have guaranteed income

for another year and a half from the Liberal government opposite.

Yet,

as I stand here today, I have not heard of what will happen after that lease is

up. What is the plan? What is the future plan? That lease will expire in a year

and a half. What is the plan? We should have a plan now of what’s going to be

happening. You can’t wait until a lease expires before you decide what your

action plan will do. We ought to know what’s happening now. What’s going to

happen when that lease is up? Is the plan to renew it? We don’t know.

But

those are the things that we ought to be talking about. We ought to know what’s

going to happen. There are lots of discussions, but let’s know what is the

plan. Because we think back of all of the money that we’ve spent in reaction.

You know, when we talked about poverty reduction, big subject that everyone

likes to talk about the words “poverty reduction,” but we had a Poverty

Reduction Strategy. It was considered to be one of the best in the country. I

don’t understand why it wasn’t kept going but the Liberal government decided,

for whatever reason, to scrap it.

Then

when we asked the questions about poverty reduction, we get the answer that

we’re doing this and we’re doing that. Well, we know there was no plan. What

happened over the last four years has been nothing to do with planning but

simply to do with reacting. We have spent more money reacting that we probably

didn’t need to spend if we had to have plans in place.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: That’s

the challenge.

It’s

the same issue when I talk about housing. What was the plan for housing? What

was the housing strategy? We were told there was a housing strategy and then we

were told, of course, numerous times – and Hansard has it recorded, not

my words – about the number of times that different Members opposite stood up

and talked about all the houses that had been built. Then only to find out that

the numbers were completely exaggerated, were nowhere near the truth and that

the outcomes weren’t there.

Then

we got reactions. Every time we get reactions – is that the best way to spend

your money when you’re always reacting? We all know that there will be times

when we have to react to different situations but when we think about poverty

reduction, when we think about low-income housing, when we think about support

for our groups that are out there doing great work, those are planning

decisions that we ought to be able to make. We have talked a lot about that,

about the need for increased planning when it comes to our poverty reduction

strategy. We’ve talked about the need for a solid housing strategy.

have talked about all of those things, but if I go back over budget after

budget after budget, they’re great – the speeches have been great. They’ve been

great. The problem has been the delivery. That’s the challenge. The challenge

is the speeches are great. Every year, I can go back through four of them, five

of them, six of them, boom, boom, boom, but it’s what’s actually happening on

the ground that matters.

heard a lot of words about, again, the Health Accord – great document. It’s not

a great document unless it’s executed properly and the failure to execute has

become the legacy of this Liberal government. That is what they will be

remembered for, the failure to execute on issues around a human resource health

plan for health care professionals; failure of a solid poverty reduction

strategy in the last four years; failure on a low-income housing strategy. All

of these things – crime is another one. We’re adding more. We could have seen

this coming.

They

talk about now a task force. There was a task force. They closed it down in

2018 and now we’re going to start again another task force. Why did we close

the first one down? Why was that shut down? Those are the challenges that

people are asking. It’s great to make announcements, announcement after

announcement, but what we ought to be able to do is say, are we better off? Do

we have a plan?

While

I’m on the Health Accord, I want to speak a little bit about some of the social

determinants of health. We’ve just talked about one of them: housing. I want to

talk to one that impacts my district significantly and that is water. Access to

clean drinking water is considered one of the important social determinants of

health.

want to bring up the Local Service District of West Bay. West Bay has been

applying for help in setting up a water – actually becoming part of a large

water system at Lourdes. Lourdes has a water system that was developed as a

regional water system. The irony of the situation is that the actual water

supply is in the boundary of the Local Service District of West Bay, but it

does not provide service to the Local Service District of West Bay.

For

four years, whatever the number – I lost count – the people of West Bay, the

Local Service District of West Bay have gone through the process, have gone

through the forums, have raised their share and have asked to be hooked up to

the Lourdes water supply. The Town of Lourdes was willing to allow that to

happen. They have worked the semantics around how money would be collected, the

water fees and how it would be all done, but every year, for the last number of

years, this project has been not approved. Yet, the people in that Local

Service District have seen their wells dry up, have seen their wells become

contaminated.

It’s

not just the Local Service District of West Bay; it’s the next ones up, in

Piccadilly, in Abraham’s Cove. We have a real problem with access to water. A

lot of people years ago, yes, built their homes and had their wells, but the

well waters have become contaminated, so they need assistance.

Then

there are the other options. It’s not always about the need to have a big water

line or big systems. Sometimes there are opportunities to use artesian wells.

The community of Port au Port East have a water system that’s based on a well

being drilled, and they have a reservoir, so does the town of Kippens, so does

the Town of Stephenville. But in Port au Port East, they have applied for

funding to drill another well because they are at capacity when it comes to the

availability of water from the supply in this particular well.

There

have been housing developments turned down by the Town of Port au Port East

based on the lack of water, based on the fact that they will not be able to

provide water service to any new housing developments. A real opportunity,

again, in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, innovative in what they’re asking

for, innovative, in some ways, in terms of how they will get this by building

these larger artesian-type wells.

there’s a real need, and I’m sure it’s not just in the District of Stephenville

- Port au Port when it comes to the challenges with our water. Again, I go back

to one of the social determinants of health is clean drinking water. We still

have a significant number of municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador, and

in particular rural Newfoundland and Labrador, that are on boil-water orders

and have been for years. That needs to be addressed if we’re really going to

get serious about health. One of the social determinants of health is clean

drinking water and access to it.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: It’s

gotten so bad in my district that there’s a local water stream that comes out

of the ground – and we’ve seen these all over rural parts of Newfoundland and

Labrador where people go to get their drinking water and get it tested. It

comes out of the things. Well, there’s one of those in Stephenville right now.

The

lineup at that particular stream, that pipe, I would suggest the lineup is

larger than that at McDonald’s at lunchtime. That’s how many people line up

there to fill up to try to get enough water to bring it home, to cart it back

home in their containers back to their homes on the Port au Port Peninsula, and

others, because we don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s the

reality that needs to be looked at, that needs to be addressed and I would hope

that, again, the application from West Bay has gone in to get this started.

all recognize that this will not be done in one budget. It will take several

years for us to get to the end of the project but if we don’t start it, we will

never finish it. That’s why it’s so important for us to make a commitment.

Let’s start getting this stuff done. Let’s start getting back to making sure

that we have that water system available for the people of West Bay and for

others in my district who are reaching out to say: We need more water; we need

access to water. I think there’s a real opportunity for us to do that.

Again,

as I continue on, I mentioned crime. I asked a couple of questions on crime the

other day in terms of the number of police officers that are actually working

right now in our province. I know the minister is going to, I think, provide

that information to us, he’s committed to doing that and I look forward to

getting it, but crime has become a significant problem. I said it the other day

and I’ll say it again, once upon a time, we would watch crime on TV and go

visit a doctor in our community walking down the streets. Now what we see is

crime in our communities, and in order to see a doctor, we have to follow a TV

screen or call them on our phone.

think about what we’re celebrating. The Liberal government celebrates the

launch of virtual care and yet, I think about the number of hospitals in this

province that no longer have physicians working in them and we’re now

announcing virtual care. I think about the Northern Peninsula, 10 years ago

there were doctors in Roddickton, there were doctors in Flower’s Cove and it

wasn’t that long ago the Liberal government announced, hey everybody, we’re

going to have virtual care available – 10 years later.

talked to my colleague in Lab West. I heard him speak yesterday about Lab West

and about the hospital in Lab West, about the lack of family physicians in Lab

West and the significant challenges that is having on people – and all across

the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. My colleague from Bonavista stood up

yesterday in the House and talked about the hospital in Bonavista and talked

about the challenges that people in his district were having.

referenced a couple of examples of people in his district and he talked about

the people, they had to go online to see if the hospital doors were open for

business. I say, what have we come to when the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador have to go online to try to figure out whether a hospital is open or

not? That’s a sad state of affairs and nothing to be proud of – nothing at all

to be proud of.

Speaker,

we’ve talked that this is a budget that the minister says we ought to be

supporting. Like in the past, we have put forward many suggestions. The

minister mentioned the Seniors’ Advocate, the Seniors’ Benefit and, yes, it’s

good to see it’s being indexed but they had an opportunity to increase it. The

Seniors’ Advocate has recommended a 20 per cent increase plus indexing.

This

Liberal government has refused that recommendation and simply chosen to say

we’re going to index the Seniors’ Benefit. We’re not going to increase it by 20

per cent. Well, that’s something that I will tell you, after the next election,

we will guarantee that.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: I

also want to make reference to the comments from one of the candidates for the

leadership of the Liberal Party in a debate.

The

minister has talked about the $750 million that they have invested in

Newfoundland and Labrador to make life more affordable. One of the Liberal

candidates, in the recent debate, stood up and said $750 million is not enough,

and we agree with him.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: So

even her own ministers, her own colleagues in the House, the next Leader of the

Liberal Party could be saying and disagreeing that $750 million is not enough.

That’s something that we agree with. It is not enough. That’s why we need to

have plans in place and not just simply reactionary.

Finally,

before I sit down, I want to reference the comments of the Premier yesterday

when he was in Argentia. When he was asked for his comments on the budget and

the Premier said, this budget was necessary. It was a necessary budget that had

to be delivered – necessary, but not aggressive. In other words, it doesn’t go

far enough. Even the Premier has admitted that this is nothing more than a

caretaker budget; that this is a budget that is necessary but not aggressive

for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

It’s

not aggressive in dealing with the issues that they have with the cost of

living and with access to health care, not aggressive at all when it comes to

recognizing the challenges in rural Newfoundland and Labrador where people are

continually facing challenges –

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: –

where health care has eroded, where the cost of living has gone up and that’s

all people want access to. They want access to health care and they certainly

want to be able to afford to stay here. Let us be the province where people

come to, not come from.

Thank

you, Speaker.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

SPEAKER

(Bennett): The

hon. the Member for Humber - Bay of Islands.

JOYCE: Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m

going to stand and have a few words on the budget today. Always a pleasure to

be able to stand for the people of Humber - Bay of Islands and discuss the

budget and the issues concerning. One of the issues I’m going to bring up right

from the start, Mr. Speaker, is something concerning Lark Harbour; it’s the

ship that came aground. I think it was February 15 it came aground in the Cedar

Cove area.

know that we’ve all seen the dramatic rescue by search and rescue which was

great. They’re heroes for doing what they did to save the people that were on

the boat. I’d also like to recognize Ricky Crane, who is the president of the

Corner Brook Royals who got them to drop a puck in the Royals game to let them

know that they’re welcome in Corner Brook and we were appreciative that they

made it off the boat.

They’re

concerns that are happening now and I’ll be looking for answers to see what the

province can do. I will be saying, here now, that I’ll be asking the Premier

questions on this today – just what the province can do. The two questions that

I had today, my colleague, the Member for Mount Pearl - Southlands, said I

could ask the questions because of the issue. So I’ll just give the government

a heads-up to see what they can do about the shipwreck and I’ll explain the

seriousness of it.

The

two questions I’ll be asking today will be addressed to the Premier and the

province. I’ll give you time to try to find out what can be done by the

province, because we all know it’s a federal issue. We all know it’s a Coast

Guard issue. I don’t want to blindside anybody; I just want to try to help the

people out there to get this done.

What’s

happening now, as we’ve all seen, the shipwreck – I’ve viewed it several times.

Actually, I went out the weekend and looked at it again and I’m dealing with

the mayor on a regular basis, both mayors. I’m dealing with a lot of fishermen

in the area. Everything was moving along until it just stopped. They just got a

response just a little while back, the mayor, saying what the plan is to get

the Bunker C oil off. As we know, that’s very heavy oil.

Last

weekend, there was a couple of tar balls that were found in on the beach. Of

course, they’re saying now we’re going to bring it up and analyze it, see where

the tar balls came from. They do have the search and rescue boats out, small

boats around monitoring it. They do have some environmental protection buoys

outside, just in case it do – they’re saying that there’s no leak, but there

are concerns there.

The

biggest concern that the mayor, the fishermen – it is a big fishing area for

all Lark Harbour, York Harbour and many others. It is a big fishing area

outsider Cedar Cove, all along that whole coast and it would affect Port au

Port also, I say to the Leader of the Opposition. It does affect the whole

area.

The

big thing that they were going to do was to build a road out through Cedar Cove

to the boat so they could take off the oil. For some reason, that has stopped.

It was because of cost – some people had concerns about it may ruin Cedar Cove

but the overwhelming majority, especially people out there who make a living

from the sea, says the most efficient way and environmental way is to take it

out, build the road, unload the oil there and drive it in.

What’s

happening now is they’re putting it on little containers on top and they’re

waiting for the good weather to come so they can take so many of those little

containers, take it off and move off with it.

the email that the town received, they said weather depending. If anybody has

been out to Lark Harbour and York Harbour, the weather is usually bad with the

wind. In Cedar Cove, it’s very bad. So the question that the people are saying,

how long will it take to take it up, put it on some small containers and then

wait to ship them on a barge to get rid of them somehow?

The

estimated amount of oil on that boat is 1.3 million litres. That’s a lot. This

is the concern of the people, if they have to wait until all this oil is taken

off bit by bit, with the ship embedded into the rock now, a strong wind could

either break the ship, which there are holes in the ship now – it is double

hulled. In the ship now, there are holes and if that moves back out or cracks,

we’ve got a catastrophe.

know they were dealing with the federal Coast Guard who is monitoring it on a

regular basis, but everybody’s concerned that because of the insurance company

and the MSC who’s overseeing it, that they’re saying that, okay, we’re working

with it, but they’ve been hearing that now for 2½ to 3 months. The road option

was done. They had the companies ready to start the process to build the road

out. The condition was they put it back, best they can, to the same natural

state, which would be hard, but it's much better than having a catastrophe out

on that West Coast, I can assure you.

will be asking the province now to help out. I know the Minister of Fisheries

and I know the Minister of Environment – because it will affect both

departments on that because if the oil is out, it is going to affect a lot. I

don’t know if the Minister of Environment, even if they put in permits for the

roads to get the roads built. I don’t even know if they reached that stage.

They did put them in?

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

JOYCE: So

the minister acknowledged that they did put the permits in to get the roads

done, but they stopped it. I would say it’s for the cost. That’s what I would

say is the reason why. It is because it’s going to cost so much to build the

road out.

This

is a big concern now. The issue that they have is that the insurance company or

MSC, themselves, are saying now we’ve got to try to do it the most

cost-efficient way, not the most environmentally efficient way.

I’ll

say it again. I know it’s a federal issue, but we need to step in now. The

province needs to step in to go after the Coast Guard and say here’s what we

want, give it a time period to get it off. We want the most efficient way to

have it done, environmentally efficient way, which everybody agreed, and they

agreed it’s the road, to build a road out.

Anybody

who has been in Cedar Cove, I don’t know if anybody has, it’s the big drop and

you can come in so far and there’s already an ATV trail. They have to expand

the ATV trail, of course, to bring in the heavy trucks and then build the road

out. It is a big drop when you get down, when you get to the beach.

save the fishery, to save the livelihood of the hundreds and hundreds of

people, everybody feels that’s the most efficient way. If MSC is waiting for

the weather and say we are working around the weather, we’ll be here the next

year or two trying to get 1.3 million litres of heavy oil off that boat, I can

assure you that right now.

The

people have a major concern and I’ll say once more before I go on to the other

issues that I have, that I will be asking questions today in the House of

Assembly to give the government plenty of time to try to get some answers and

see what they can do, as a province, to support the town and all the

fisherpeople out in Lark Harbour, York Harbour somehow to put pressure on the

Coast Guard to try to find some way to get this resolved ASAP.

LANE: How

many kilometres of road?

JOYCE: How

many kilometres of road? I’m not sure because I don’t know if they need – I

don’t know if the minister can speak after on it – four kilometres of road.

Cedar

Beach itself is the lower part where you’re going to have to build up, because

it is a big drop and when I walked it, you could see that it is a long way

down. There’s already a trail built out which would make it much more

convenient for them. So four kilometres that the minister – and I would say

that’s about it, when you walk, when you leave off the main trail into where

the cabins are, to get down to Cedar Cove, that is about the same distance.

As I

was out there on Sunday, I went down in the cove and I went up on top to look

down at it, you can see where the ship is into the rocks. I’ll just give people

an example. I was out there two years ago when a house blew off, the wind, 130-

and 140-kilometre winds you get in that area. Cedar Cove, it’s a cove, when you

get the high winds, it’s even multiplied when it’s coming in the cove.

just have to bring that up on behalf of both towns, York Harbour and Lark

Harbour. Both mayors have been looking at this and a lot of fisherpeople have

been calling me, and I got more emails this morning from the town saying here’s

the concern. They finally got a response from MSC concerning the Baltic .

I’ll leave that there until this afternoon.

I’m

going to speak on health care for a little while. The number one issue on the

West Coast that I hear on a regular basis is health care, bar none –

absolutely, bar none. We all knew this was going to happen. A year before, nine

months before, the government moved people from the old Western to the new

Western, I said, there are 50 or 60 long-term care patients I know personally

that are going to moving over, what are we going to do? Nothing done.

had the key. Turning over the key, 75 per cent, everybody knew then that there

were 55 to 62, I think it was at the time, patients going to move over in the

acute-care beds. What was done? Nothing. Then they had the grand opening and,

again, a few months later, four or five months later, what was done? Nothing.

Then they had the move, people moving over and that’s when the problem

started.

know, now, that the former minister went and started the move to the old

Western to get 45 beds there in the old Western, but 45 isn’t going to be

enough? I know, personally, it isn’t going to be enough. I know a lot of the

people that are there and I know a lot of the people on the wait-list trying to

get in. They’re trying to get into long-term care because they’re in acute-care

beds.

This

is the issue and I say it for both leaders. Whoever becomes the Leader of the

Liberal Party, I’m asking you to take the complete review of what’s happening

in Western Newfoundland.

The

latest: The rehab in the new Western, the patients in the rehab had to move the

equipment over. I know personally. They actually had to do that, move the

equipment around. I’ve got two or three complaints because people had to go to

rehab and they had to get a wheelchair for one piece of equipment to get out in

the other room where they moved the other piece of equipment because they

couldn’t walk it so far.

I’m

serious about this. I’ve seen it. I’ve been there. I’ve sat down with it. This

goes back to 2019 and 2020, so I’m not putting this on the shoulders of the

previous minister, I’m definitely not, but I know this goes back to 2019 and

2020 when we were supposed to build additional units for them. It is a major

problem – a major problem.

heard the Leader of the Opposition talking about the Family Care Teams. Three

years ago, there was one promised to Corner Brook – absolutely none. It’s not

there. Everybody talking about, well, you’ve got a Family Care Team. Yeah, I’m

sick of hearing that. They probably work somewhere else. I don’t know but I can

tell you, there are none in Corner Brook.

when you come out and make the big announcement that there’s a Family Care Team

and we’re going to have people come in. We’re going to have all the specialties

lined out and you can all go see them and you can get your diagnosis right and

it all just never happened in Corner Brook. It just never happened in Corner

Brook and now you’ve got people waiting 24 to 36 hours in emergency. Don’t

anybody try to tell me it's not happening because I know personally. I know

personally about it so don’t go – anybody here – saying, well, no, b’y, the

wait-list – I don’t even want to listen to it because I’m hearing so many

stories and I know personally about it.

know personally about the rehab; the equipment being moved to make room for

beds. I know about the number of patients that are on the wait-list. I know the

number of seniors that go in there and they can’t even get a bed. I know a

person who had to take their husband home from cancer treatment because he was

out in a hallway. I know it; I know the person personally. I was working on it.

She said, forget it; I took him home.

That’s

our health care, and for anybody in this House of Assembly to say that this is

not true, you got your head in the sand and this has been ongoing. I’ve been

saying it since 2019. Here’s what’s going to happen and it’s getting worse,

it’s getting worse, it’s getting worse. It’s actually beyond me when we know

that there are so many thousands of people, close to 100,000, that haven’t got

family doctors. When you look at it and you do a bit of research and you find

out that 63 businesses opened up in Alberta with nurse practitioners and we

won’t allow it in Newfoundland, there’s something fundamentally wrong with our

decision-making – something fundamentally wrong.

can tell you that if anybody in this House seen their mother or father not be

able to go to a doctor, call 811 and 92 per cent says go to outpatients which

is already blocked – which is already blocked – and you know you got to go to a

nurse practitioner to get your pills but you can’t go back, you would not allow

it. You would not allow it.

if we, in this House of Assembly, won’t allow it for ours, why are we allowing

it for the people out there who we’re supposed to represent? There’s just

something fundamentally wrong why we won’t just make that decision. We all get

older. I’m probably the oldest or the second oldest in this House of Assembly –

LANE: I’d

say you’re the oldest.

JOYCE: The

oldest.

I’m

probably the oldest one. I’m fairly healthy but I know people my age and

younger who have to go to the doctor for blood work every three or four weeks.

If you have to go to a nurse practitioner and you’re an older person on

Seniors’ Benefits, you can’t afford to go every month to get your blood work.

You

have to pay for it, and they feel bad doing it. I can tell you, some of the

nurse practitioners in Corner Brook that I spoke to, when they know they can’t

pay, they say come on in, and it's sad.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

JOYCE: It’s

sad for this government to stand and say, well, we’re waiting for a review from

the federal government. It’s sad. When you can look at Alberta – and I can give

it to you right here. I have it right here, where 63 opened up. I have it right

here but yet we can’t do it in Newfoundland and Labrador?

just got to remind people that the big intent, and I have it in writing, is

that we want to fill the hospital nurse practitioners first. We want a full

complement of nurse practitioners. I always said to the current and former

minister, and I’ll say it publicly, you’re missing the point. These people are

working full-time at Western Memorial Regional Hospital or in the Western

region. These people are doing this on the weekends and at nighttime because

they see the need.

This

idea that they’re going to leave their job and say: Okay, we’re going to be

short at Western Memorial Regional Hospital – I’ll just use that for an example

– because we’re going to allow them to bill MCP, is a fallacy. It’s an excuse.

That’s all it is. It’s a complete excuse for not allowing them to do it because

they’re not leaving their job, they’re doing it nighttime and weekends 3,000

and 4,000 patients; not saying how many more they can get if they’re allowed to

bill MCP because people can’t afford to go. You don’t understand it –

obviously, you don’t understand it.

The

government has just lost its way on it. I’m serious. If that was the Liberal

government years ago, the Liberal government who’s down for the common people,

that would be done. What can we do to take pressure off doctors? That would be

done. It would be done. I can see Brian Tobin over in that premier’s chair now

standing up and saying we could take care of 4,000 or 5,000 people if we billed

MCP. He’ll stand up and walk over to the Minister of Health: Have it done

today.

LANE: Tony

will do it for you, won’t you, Tony?

JOYCE: That’s

what I’m remembering from the Liberal Party. That’s what I remember. When

I see and, I said to the minister before, I would love to see before an

election, one party to come out and say, we’re going to allow nurse

practitioners to bill MCP. I’d love for the announcement to come out and

make that commitment.

SOME

HON. MEMBERS: Hear,

hear!

WAKEHAM: He

just said that I’ll do it for you.

JOYCE: Well,

like I said, whoever wants to come out and make an announcement in Corner

Brook, I’ll sit by you and I’ll support it and I’ll be with you if you want to

come out and have a press conference; because I can tell you, that’s thousands

of people that we could help, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and we won’t do

it.

Now,

if you look at Dr. Innes, give him credit unless you want to go line up at 6 in

the morning and then wait to see if you might get in. Once you do get in,

you’ve got to sit and wait all day to see when you’re going to be called. Yet,

we’ve got an opportunity here with this. It is sad, I can tell you. It is sad.

don’t know what’s happening in Cabinet now with all that but, I can tell you,

I’d like to see somebody with a voice and someone with the strength to start

banging the table and say we’ve got to get this done, because whoever gets that

done for me, I guarantee you, I’ll be on your side to make sure that everybody

in the province knows who made that decision.

SPEAKER:

Order,

please!

The

Member’s time has expired.

JOYCE: Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SPEAKER:

The hon. the

Government House Leader.

DEMPSTER: Thank

you, Speaker.

move that this House do now stand in recess until 2 p.m.

SPEAKER:

A seconder

for that?

DEMPSTER: Seconded

by my Deputy Government House Leader.

SPEAKER:

This House

do stand in recess until 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Recess

The House resumed at 2 p.m.

SPEAKER (Bennett): Order, please!

Admit visitors.

Before we beg