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March 5, 2025 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS Vol. L No. 103

The House met at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER (Bennett): Order, please!

Admit visitors.

Government Business

SPEAKER: The hon. the Deputy Government House Leader.

L. DEMPSTER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I call from the Order Paper, Motion 3.

I move, seconded by the Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs, that notwithstanding Standing Order 9, this House shall not adjourn at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5 , 2025, but shall continue to sit to conduct Government Business and if not earlier adjourned, the Speaker shall adjourn the House at midnight.

SPEAKER: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

All those in favour, 'aye.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Nay.

SPEAKER: Motion defeated.

The hon. the Deputy Government House Leader.

L. DEMPSTER: Speaker, I call from the Order Paper, Order 13, second reading of Bill 106,

An Act to Amend the Revenue Administration Act No. 7.

SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.

S. COADY: Thank you very much, Speaker.

I move, seconded by the Deputy Government House Leader, that Bill 106 be read a second time.

SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that Bill 106,

An Act to Amend the Revenue Administration Act No. 7, be now read a second time.

Motion, second reading of a bill, "An Act to Amend the Revenue Administration Act No. 7." (Bill 106)

SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.

S. COADY: Thank you, Speaker.

This is a rather straightforward bill. Today we are introducing amendments to the Revenue Administration Act . You'll recall, we do regular amendments to the Revenue Administration Act to extend the tax reduction on gasoline and diesel of seven cents per litre for the next year. That's until March 31, 2026.

This maintains the lower price at the pumps. It lowers the price at the pumps by 8.05 cents per litre. That includes HST and I think it is the lowest provincial tax on gasoline among all provinces. I'm going to repeat that, Speaker, for those who always say that we are the highest: This is the lowest gasoline tax in the country.

The cost of doing this, Speaker, would be $70.4 million this year. So by reducing it, that's how much the cost is to the coffers of the government and I just want to make a note here that if we were collecting the full amount of the gasoline tax, it would be $162.6 million.

Now, Speaker, we spend on roads in this province each year about $265 million. That's how much we're spending this year: $265 million on roads. As a matter of fact, next year it's going to $340 million.

The tax reduction for gasoline and diesel was initially set until January 1 of 2023, but we've extended it each subsequent year. This affordability measure is in addition to the more than $750 million in targeted short- and long-term measures announced since March of 2022. I think this is incredibly important to note that while inflation has come down, cost of living is still very, very expensive, and I'd say that there are a lot of people in our province that are still finding impacts on their pocketbook.

Now with tariffs, they're going to find it even more. The tariff situation is not only going to impact people of the United States; it's going to impact the people of our communities. So keeping this gas tax again for another year, I think it's prudent and responsible, even though it is impacting the revenues of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Look, we recognize that affordability remains a concern for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and maintaining this, that we first introduced in 2022, is one of many that we're helping residents with daily expenses.

Again, Speaker, $750 million is a lot of money to put back in the people's pockets. I wish we could do even more than that, but this is one way that we're keeping the lowest gas tax in the country, ensuring that people are keeping that eight cents per litre in their pockets, especially as we move through with these tariffs now impacting all of us as well.

I hope everyone in this House expeditiously approves this bill.

Thank you.

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Baie Verte - Green Bay.

L. PADDOCK: Speaker, it is a privilege to be able to get up here this morning and talk about the gas tax, because it is one tax – and really if you look at it, it's an internal tariff by government on our citizens. It is an impact right across every one of our districts, so it is great to see that the government actually listened to us, the Opposition, for a little bit and support the removal of the tax.

We've been lobbying for it. We've been lobbying for it continuously and, in fact, our leader was out mid-February on it and asking for a permanent deletion of that gas tax. We understand the impact on every Newfoundlander and Labradorian. It impacts citizens going to work. It impacts citizens going for medical appointments. It impacts their daily life in so many ways. It also impacts the cost of living because so much of what is purchased here in Newfoundland and Labrador is brought into the province.

Transportation costs are a major issue, and we have to look at ways to not just reduce it in the short term but to reduce it for the long term. It also has a significant impact on our productivity across our resource sectors: fishing, mining, forestry, agriculture and something that's near and dear to all of us in the province, as well, our tourism sector.

Mr. Speaker, we applaud the government's efforts to listening to us to reduce this gas tax. Unfortunately, they have not listened to us and have made this a permanent decision. This, as I highlighted, is an action that must be taken to be permanent to ensure we look at the long-term viability of a number of our business activities and impact across our province on our residents.

We are dispersed across this province. Transportation is a major impact, and we have to always keep that in mind. The GDP of this province is not generated here, in the House of Assembly. It is generated across the province and, particularly, in a number of our small communities. It is that impact of the tax that we have to consider in how our GDP is generated.

The reduction of this gas tax and the taxation, like I said, an internal tariff on our residents is similar to where we are with the carbon tax, and we have voiced a concern with the carbon tax for the last three to four years. It was the government side that brought in a carbon tax and then reversed course when their masters in Ottawa decided that they wanted the carbon tax for themselves.

We have to always keep in mind the impact on Newfoundland and Labrador of taxing our transportation because of the impact on goods across the province, internal trade and stuff that's brought in and exported out.

Why do we want this permanent? We want this permanent for the future of Newfoundland and Labrador. I think the tariffs now in the US and the uncertainty in the US has awakened a lot of people, not just in Newfoundland and Labrador but across Canada as well, of being both competitive and increasing productivity across our industries. Taking control of our own destiny. As we take control of our own destiny, it is important that we look continuously at opportunities to reduce taxes. Not just for the short term, but for the long term.

I would like to highlight some specific examples of transportation cost impact on a number of businesses that I have visited over the last few months. For example, in my district there is a great small business called Coastal-Vokey boats. A huge impact on them is the resin for that fibreglass that's brought in from the United States, mostly. Significant impact on them is that transportation cost. So both the carbon tax and the gas tax, really if you look at it overall, the tax on transportation has a huge impact on the end price for which they can sell their boats.

They're selling their boats, not just in Newfoundland and Labrador, but in the rest of Canada as well. They have a great product. What is impacting their product is transportation cost. They can sell more boats nationally and internationally if the transportation cost on them was reduced. And that's where we have to look at opportunities to help a number of our small businesses across the province.

It also has a huge impact on our residents. Now out in my district, if someone is going, say from LaScie to Grand Falls, to the hospital, because quite often the hospital in Baie Verte is on temporary diversion, as similar to the one in Springdale. So if they're going for services in Grand Falls that they can't get at either Baie Verte or Springdale, they're looking at a three-hour trip. A significant transportation cost impact on them.

Now the Medical Transportation Assistance Program will only cover a portion of that. They're still going to be out-of-pocket, but that out-of-pocket could be significantly reduced if we here in this House of Assembly, particularly on the government side, looked to keep any tax on transportation as low as possible. As low as possible and to do it for the long term. We have to protect our communities. We have to protect our residents.

As well, we have across Newfoundland and Labrador, a lot of workers coming from one community to work in another, so getting to work. Getting to work, is a huge impact on them for the transportation costs. This is not just in one district, this is across all our 40 districts where the impact of that tax on transportation that they are feeling every day is having a significant impact on them, on what is left over that they can spend on groceries, on what they can spend on discretional opportunities. Probably that is why we're seeing in downtown St.

John's right now, I think, since the start of the year, five to six restaurants that have closed, because regular Newfoundlanders and Labradorians don't have that discretional funding available because too much of it, of their hard-earned money, is being eaten up in transportation costs. We must continue to look at every opportunity to reduce the tax on transportation, not just for the short term but for the long term.

Across my district right now, there's a significant opportunity in mining, and that is going to lead to two demands that I foresee. We're going to have some labour challenges and, with labour, we're going to have some housing challenges. In fact, those housing challenges are already there.

To build housing, you need a variety of supplies, and that is where transportation costs have a huge impact on that. Whether it's moving lumber from across Newfoundland and Labrador, our internal sawmills, or whether it is bringing supplies in from outside, those costs are passed on to the end builder, a resident themselves, or if they hire a builder, those costs then are reflected in the end sale price.

That is why, as the Opposition here has voiced vociferously over the last three to four years of why items like the carbon tax, the gas tax, must be kept as low as possible to ensure productivity and to ensure we reduce the cost of living on Newfoundlanders and Labradorians right across this province.

The gas tax – and I will highlight what my fellow MHA from Northern Labrador has repeatedly highlighted, and that is the cost of living in the North, the cost of bringing in supplies to the North, the cost of those groceries in the North. The significant underlying factor in all of that is the transportation costs. We have a responsibility to keep those transportation costs as low as possible. Again, as I highlighted, not just for the short term but for the long term.

Right across our province whether you're in Port aux Basques, up in Nain or here in St. John's, every one of our residents every day when they're shopping, they're seeing the impact of the gas tax, the carbon tax, on the end products that they buy. Whether that is a significant milestone product in their life, like a vehicle or a house; or a daily need, like groceries or the gas in their vehicle for themselves to get back and forth to work. Again, we have a responsibility to them.

A lot of them are struggling now. We've had people across this province that have given up home insurance – they've given up home insurance. They've taken that risk so that they could have additional money to spend on groceries, on the basic needs of life, because the transportation costs that they are incurring are eating up so much more of their daily budget.

So when we look at this – and we support the removal of the gas tax, but we want it for an extended time period. We want to make this permanent. There's no need, I guess, to continue to come back here and waste time administratively in doing this every year. Let's just look to do this now on a permanent basis.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

L. PADDOCK: Let's do this now for what is in the best interests of every Newfoundlander and Labradorian. We owe it to them and we owe it to ourselves.

Like I said, one of the biggest challenges that we have in the province right now is housing. Housing, the situation is acute, and I believe it's going to become even more acute, particularly across Central Newfoundland, as economic opportunities continue to percolate and expand.

A significant impact on housing, as I highlighted, is the transportation cost. That impacts builders. That impacts builders' decisions. That impacts builders hiring people locally. That impacts economic opportunities then across all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

We must look to be more competitive and more productive across the province, and one way to do this is to look at the taxation. In looking at that taxation, not just for the short term but for the long term, reducing the gas tax for an additional year out to the end of March 2026 is a start, but we need an expanded opportunity for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians by making this a permanent reduction.

So here we are in a situation of uncertainty, with tariffs being brought in, where we can control our own destiny and reduce some of the tariff burden on every Newfoundlander and Labradorian for the foreseeable future by making this a permanent reduction – making this a permanent reduction.

As I've highlighted here, with some examples across daily living with impact on driving for medical opportunities, with impact on driving just to get to work, with impact on small business, with impact on addressing some of the major crises in the province like housing, it all comes back to the impact on the taxation on transportation.

So let's look where we can to make this a permanent impact.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

J. BROWN: Thank you, Speaker.

Once again, we're coming in here now for another short-term pause on the reduction of the gasoline tax. This is, I think, the third year now in a row that we're just temporarily pausing it. I remember even asking the first time we did this, why isn't this a permanent fixture? If we're going year by year, it leaves a lot of uncertainty to residents of the province on what's going to happen here and then if it does not become a permanent pause and we quickly put this back on to residents, that will also have a negative impact on the residents. We've seen how things are quickly skyrocketing and increasing, the costs and stuff like this.

This is why I have to ask: Why aren't we doing this as a permanent fixture? If we're doing it year by year, this needs to be something that's permanent. It does help individuals, especially those who are in the gig economy, delivery drivers that are in the gig economy who are not making a living wage but who are required to pay for their fuel and pay for things like that to conduct their jobs. This is one thing that we worry about, especially on top of all the other, I guess, systemic issues with those working in the gig economy and some of those kinds of precarious jobs. There's a whole other thing we could get into with labour standards and that, but this is one thing like that.

You also have to look at the fact that this is one portion of the province, but there's also those who don't drive, who don't get the full benefit of this reduction as well, and that's where we keep asking about other options and things to help bring down the cost. We're in a very precarious time right now. We don't know what the American administration are feeling when they wake up in the morning and make rash decisions which are going to impact our economy.

So, once again, we're going to say we need to do multiple things over different sectors to put money back into Newfoundlander's and Labradorian's pockets. Because if we want people to buy local, if we want people to be able to participate in our local economy, we have to make sure they have money in their pocket to actually do so. If they're paying out the nose for – well, this is one thing, but paying out the nose for home heating or groceries or rent, there's nothing left in their pocket to contribute back into the local economy. So then we're back to square one.

Things like reducing the provincial portion of the HST on home heating – we see recently now a lot of people saying that the price of heating is gone up through the roof and there's no relief for them, especially those who have electric heat because they don't qualify for any of the rebates or anything that's going around, only those who are on fuel, so anyone with electric heat are not getting any relief from this. We're taxing them. We're taxing 15 per cent on their heat. If we can bring that down, that's more money back into their pockets as well.

We look at the cost of groceries, we look at the cost of things – we seen that the federal tax holiday was a big, significant help on a lot of people buying groceries. One of the things I quickly realized is how little actual groceries is protected under the tax exemption. There's a lot of stuff that are in grocery stores that's taxed that you'd look at it and go, this is taxed? It's not that it's chips or pop or anything like that; it's actually a lot of foods. If it's repackaged or anything in the grocery store, it's taxed, any sort of handling.

So there's a lot of stuff that I found out really quickly was taxed before and it's not taxed now, and now after February 15, it's taxed again. That was something that actually did help a lot of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, but it has to be permanent because we're now going into this time where our economy is going to be a little bit stretched and things like that. Like I said, we're all here in this House of Assembly asking Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to buy local, but they can't buy local if they've got no money in their pockets.

We think this is one thing that's good, it's fine, but there are other things that we should be doing and really taking a serious look at to make sure that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, one, would be able to make sure they have the necessities of life and, two, to be able to make sure that we can provide for our local economy and make sure that the small businesses and stuff in this province can continue to thrive in these uncertain times.

Yes, this is one thing. Once again, we'll support it. I really think it's time to actually make this permanent.

The second thing is we need to make sure that there are other measures in place to help people that actually help a broader swath of the population, make sure that people can heat their homes and make sure that people can go to the grocery store and be able to afford it and make sure that people have all the necessities they can; but, also at the same time, giving them the ability to participate in the economy, participate in the local economy, and make sure that we can do the absolute best we can for those people. We see all kinds of different measures and stuff that we look at and go, yeah, that's fine.

But it doesn't go far enough.

Once again, Speaker, I ask the minister, there has to be more broader things that we need to look at to make sure – because we're in a very precarious time in our economy. We know that our largest trading partner is not playing ball, and – well, in another sense, they're tanking their own economy, but at the same time, they're going to try to take us down with them.

But we have got to stand firm. We've got to stand strong that we're not going to be bullied or we're going to be intimidated or anything like that. But, in order to do that, we need to make sure that our people, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, have the ability to participate in our economy and make sure that they have adequate shelter, make sure that they can go to the grocery store and get their groceries that they need and make sure that they live to the fullest.

That should be a responsibility that we do because if we do those things, then we are helping our own economy. We're helping our own people. We can stand up and stand strong because we've done it before and we can do it again. I think this is something that – so, one, I agree with this; two, I think it should be permanent; and, three, I think we should be doing more for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Thank you, Speaker.

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Bonavista.

C. PARDY: Thank you, Speaker.

I ditto what my colleague before me stated. Any time that you can reduce the expenses and the money coming out of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, it's a good thing. Maintaining the reduction of seven cents, it's a good thing and, yes, I think we probably all agree on this side that we would wish for it to be a permanent but, nevertheless, we do have the seven-cent reduction and how can you not be in favour of that – how can you not be in favour of that?

I'm not a fan of redundancy, Mr. Speaker. You probably know that. I try not to repeat myself too many times. I know that one of your goals would be to make sure that redundancy doesn't occur. Under the gas tax, when we look at the gas tax and the seven-cent reduction, the gas tax is primarily received by the government to make sure that the maintenance of roads is up to a standard that would be acceptable. That's what the gas tax is earmarked for: Look after the roads in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I think the minister may have stated that we can't commit to a permanent one because we may need funds for road construction going forward, maybe, or hence. So anyway, that is what the Member for Bonavista had heard that that may be the situation where we couldn't commit to permanence because we may need some funds within for our roads.

The District of Bonavista has the worst roads in the province – the District of Bonavista has the worst roads in the province. That's redundant. I repeated it for effect to know that we pay our gas tax, but we find that we've got roads that it's unsafe to drive on. They're dangerous to drive on, especially with the conditions in nighttime. Daytime, you can avoid the roads and the craters that would be in them, but nighttime is a problem.

So what happens when someone damages a vehicle in the District of Bonavista and the gas tax that we have is for maintenance of our roads, the residents in the District of Bonavista pay. Well, they can make a claim. Take some pictures, send in your expense account into the Department of Transportation and you will send it into a very kind individual who is the insurance adjustor and claims administrator.

Unfortunately, since I've got in, in 2019, I've been directing my constituents and others to send in the claims to Transportation and Infrastructure. Residents in the District of Bonavista will say, with the expenditure of the gas tax and the maintenance of the roads, we would see Transportation and Infrastructure vehicles travelling over every square kilometre of our roads daily. We see the surveillance of our roads daily and the residents in Bonavista would ask, how can these large craters in the roads go so long and not be tended to? That's a fair question.

Residents in the District of Bonavista will say, well, you got the seven cents, your tax, and then the HST goes on top of that so you're taxing on top of tax, and the revenue that we get in, which I cannot recall now, from the gas tax, that would have been in the Estimates of last year, but a significant amount of money to maintain the roads we'd have.

I just want to share with you the latest submission into the insurance adjuster and the claims administrator. It comes from a young, working lady by the name of Terri Lynn Anderson. Terri Lynn Anderson submitted it on March 1, 2025, and if may enter into the record what she states, this has within the gas tax:

Hi there – and named the adjuster by name – just touching base to see what the depot had to say on the matter. I have further information on my vehicle. The mechanic replaced the CV shaft and the ball joint at a cost of $480, which I paid on February 27. Upon test driving, I drove the road next to nowhere from the garage and became unable to drive when hitting the gas. The vehicle was making a severe loud sound.

What started was she figures she was travelling 20 kilometres per hour and hit a crater, of which she submitted the picture on. She had to get a wrecker to tow the vehicle back to the garage to get it fixed. What she did is she utilized friends to bring her back and forth to work. She thinks that she's looking at, when it's all said and done, $1,000.

So I would ask the government and I would ask the minister, of all the submissions that I've sent in since 2019, and maybe province wide, how many of those claims have been settled? I am not aware of one. We pay our gas tax, we pay for our roads and, all of a sudden, it's a public safety issue that we have people with untold expenses that the roads are damaged.

I presented a petition last year and the petition that stated that a contractor, then with J-1 Contracting, the head of the company, then it stated that he could fix every pothole in the District of Bonavista within two weeks. Not one week, like the rumours and the talk in the district would be, but in two weeks.

The petition that I presented asked government if they could do it in six weeks. And we know that if we're not going to have potholes that are going to damage our vehicles, listen, that was better than what we have now.

And residents would ask, how can we travel over a road and know that a pothole exists when the grey Transportation and Infrastructure vehicle must note it that it's a significant damage potential to any vehicle that would hit that pothole? Why isn't it attended to in a more timely manner? If gas tax was destined for that, then I would say to you we are falling short of that.

I don't think a reduction in the amount we pay should mean that we're going to be worse off. A lot of these issues, I think, are operational issues. If that contractor can do the two weeks, we ought to be able to do it in six weeks. No doubt about it. Maybe there's a different process to make sure that if we got a cavernous hole on Route 230 and that's unattended for three weeks, it ought not to be. Have a plan to know that, listen, once it's identified, 24 to 48 hours, we know that's fixed. That would be more than reasonable.

In my time back, I want to pivot to another couple of issues that I had mentioned. I had mentioned in the House in a petition that in the large portion of the district, in the District of Bonavista, we have large rock on the road. We assume that there's a degree of salt within that stone that's put on that road, but we're not sure as to what the ratio would be. I asked on February 15 what the ratio was, but I haven't got a response. But I'm sure I'll get one. But we know we've got large rock.

I've only since found out, after many people reporting broken windshields, that the screen which filters out the large rocks and the frozen large chunks of salt that are there has not been maintained and there's large, cavernous holes in that too, of which when they do the filtering, it goes through, the truck picks it up, loads it aboard, they disperse it on the roads, and what happens? Someone loses a windshield, someone loses a headlight, paint chips over someone's new vehicle and now we're talking about the potholes – which is covered by the gas tax – then we're also talking about the large stone and clusters of salt that would be utilized on our roads.

I would say that's not good enough. That is an operational management issue. We ought to be doing better than what we do. I can see the evidence to know that that is not the case. Who is ultimately responsible? Who is ultimately responsible? I know many might look at the MHA would be, the MHA would pass it on to the department and ultimately, it's the government that would be responsible for making sure that the equipment is maintained, and these roads are affected.

I'll conclude with this one, at the end. We had asked the government to reinstate a piece of snow clearing equipment on Route 235, in the King's Cove area, like it has been for 50 to 60-plus years. The rationale for having it in King's Cove was that with no 24-hour snow clearing in case medical emergency occurred or the fire department needed to be deployed to some area on Route 235, that snow clearing equipment was strategically placed so that the plow could lead and clear the roads for the emergency equipment. That seemed and worked for over six decades.

The last two years, they don't have that piece of equipment in on Route 235. Now in the event of an emergency, some 60 kilometres away, the person has to come up and get the truck and come all the way in Route 235, the King's Cove area, free up the roads for the emergency response vehicles in order to be engaged.

Speaker, we all know in the District of Bonavista and government ought to know that that is unacceptable, that is an operational issue. I would ask that those are some outstanding issues, it's under the gas tax of which we pay. I would like to think that those are three issues that ought to be addressed and not costing a lot of money, work within the budget that they've got but have a better operational plan to make sure that those issues are taken care of.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Grand Falls-Windsor - Buchans.

C. TIBBS: Thank you very much, Speaker.

Again, it's a pleasure here to stand and talk about Newfoundland and Labrador and how gasoline taxes affect the people that reside here every single day and to speak on behalf of them.

The oil and gas sector, of course, worldwide – it's a Mafia of the world, make no mistake about it. They set oil prices, we have to abide by them, I mean, they could come out tomorrow and run up gas to $2 a litre and guess what? You're going to pay it because you have to. That's the thumb that we are all under. It's sort of a curse and a blessing at the same time because oil and gas, of course, we love it here in this province. We are only happy to have that sector in our province. It employs so many people and it's something that Newfoundland and Labrador stand proudly upon. We are an oil and gas province, 100 per cent, and we should be proud of it. I am extremely proud of it.

When it comes to global oil price, of course, that's not something that's in our control. Something that is in our control, of course, are the levers that we have as a government are the taxes, including gas tax. Our responsibilities and jobs as representatives of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador are to ensure that we use whatever levers we can, including taxation.

To keep as much money into the pockets of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians so they can go about their day-to-day living; they can do their small business; they can buy goods and services, and we want to ensure that that money keeps moving around. Savings are great but money is not meant to be stagnant. Money is meant to move around within our communities, within our province and that is how we get the economy up and running again and that's how we keep our economy stimulated. We want to ensure that we do everything we can to keep that going.

Some of the gas tax impacts, of course, lots of people have already talked about it today and I'll talk about a few of the similar things and a few different things. I think it was mentioned by my colleague to my left here, from Baie Verte - Green Bay, about tourism earlier. Not only are we an oil and gas province, I think that we are a legitimate tourism province as well.

People come from all over the world to Newfoundland and Labrador because of the scenery we have, because of where we are situated on the globe, because of the people that we surround ourselves with, the events that we have and we want to ensure that we have every incentive that we possibly can to let the world know that Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the greatest places on the planet to visit.

So tourism worldwide is great, but in Canada we see, of course, what's happening south of the border, here now, but we want to ensure that the message that we go out is for anybody in Canada or the US – if you want to come to Newfoundland and Labrador, please come, and we want to make sure that those incentives are there.

When they look at their travel costs, I mean, everybody is holding on to their money nowadays and it's just something that we have to do. There's not a whole lot of disposable cash moving around. We want to let them know when they look at their budget for a vacation next summer or next year or this summer, we want to let them know that, you know what, when you're going down line by line, accommodations, Newfoundland and Labrador, wow, that gas is a little bit cheaper than it was last year.

If this bill didn't pass today, well our gas is a little bit more expensive, so maybe that could alter my vacation plans, and we don't want that. We want them to come here. We want them to look at our gas tax. We want them to look at the cost it would be to travel across the Island part and the Big Land part and say, you know what, that's very reasonable for what I want to do this year and that's the direction I'm going to go. We want those incentives to be there for our tourism sector.

It's not just the international or the national tourism sector, of course, it's inside of our own province. It's inside of our own province. I can't imagine that there's too many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians that have seen every single part of our province and wherever you go in our province, it's one of the greatest things ever, there's every single different little sector. Every single little nook and cranny has something different to offer.

It's pretty cool, you know, you talk about – and I grew up in Bay Bulls and my colleague is doing a fantastic job for the District of Ferryland. You can drive 20 minutes up the shore, 25, 30 minutes and the Irish brogue and the accents, completely different from 20 minutes away to the next couple of towns up. The scenery is so much different on the Irish Loop. It's absolutely beautiful to see within our own province how many different places there are to see. We want to make sure that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, when they make their summer plans to travel, stay right here.

There's nothing wrong with staying right here in Newfoundland and Labrador, because we have so many different things to offer in such a small place and we want to get that message out there. If you want to travel, travel at home and we're going to help you do whatever you can, including cut the gas tax here today.

Staycation, absolutely. The staycation is absolutely impacted by gas tax because if we have a higher gasoline percentage, people are going to leave the Island. If they see a lower gasoline – to fill up their vehicle or their RV is cheaper to do it in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, they're going to go there, they just will. So we're happy to have them right here at home.

Another thing, and I haven't heard it spoken about yet today and my colleague for Bonavista will know this all too well, when it comes to children's activities in school, recreational activities, extracurricular activities. My youngest son, of course, he just finished a volleyball tournament here a couple of weeks ago, fantastic to see. Back in my day when I was growing up, you grow up and you'd go to a hockey tournament, basketball tournament whatever, you get billeted out, three or four youngsters inside a car with one family and that's the way we saved money back then.

Nowadays it's just doesn't seem to be that way. The societal pressures that are put on parents, to pay these fees, is extraordinary. Well now, you know, you need a special form to take another child. You need to get accommodations because they're not billeting kids anymore. To have a gas tax, lowered, cut permanently, hopefully one day, it's a huge, huge savings to somebody, huge.

There are parents out there, make no mistake, that will not put their gifted children into sports or any other recreational activities, because they can't afford to do so and that's a sin, that's terrible. Any relief that we can give, including relief at the pumps, that's going to help families. That's going to help families with these extracurricular activities that children definitely need. We are hoping, again, that this becomes a permanent thing in the future, and it will give parents that confidence to put their kids in extracurricular activities.

You talk about how much money you'd be saving, $6 on fill-up here and there with this gas tax, it adds up. It truly adds up. When somebody is living on a budget, day-to-day sort of thing, oh by God, you know what, $100 at the end of the month is a lot of money. It truly is a lot of money, and it could make the difference in the decisions that people are making right here at home.

Again, my colleague from Baie Verte - Green Bay talked about work and employment earlier. I mean, our geography in Newfoundland and Labrador, as beautiful as it is, sometimes handcuffs us; it does, it really, really does. There are people who are driving an hour, hour and twenty minutes back and forth to work every single day on our highways. We want to ensure that they get whatever breaks they can.

I talked to somebody recently who got a job with a furnace repair place. They offered him a job, it was a decent wage, but he had to drive 25 minutes back and forth to work and couldn't take the job. Could not take the job, so he had to go back and forth to the Mainland, like he was doing before, but he wanted to stay but that reduction in pay he had to walk that fine line, he could not take that job.

Eventually they offered him a company vehicle because they knew the talent that he had and that's what he took. So it really helped him out and a gas card, of course. That made the difference in him taking on that job and I'm very happy that he did. I just want to see as much relief as I possibly can for those who are travelling on our highways, back and forth, throughout the province, the good men and women. The industry and trade or wherever else; the medical, a lot or people, a lot of nurses, a lot of LPNs, home care workers, they have to travel and, in order to do that, they need to fill up their vehicles.

If they're going to fill up their vehicles, we want to give them as much relief at the pump as we possibly can and keep that money in their pockets where it belongs.

Small business here in Newfoundland and Labrador, I'm sure that they are going through gas like you wouldn't believe. They need to pick up their supplies, they need to make their deliveries, and we want them to benefit. We do. We want them to keep going. We don't want to kill small business. If anything, at the end of the day, we want to attract as much small business as we possibly can but, in order to that, we need to ensure that we give them all the breaks that we can. Again, as a government, that's what we're here to do, grow small business and ensure that people can afford to do their small business.

All those small business owners out there, we want to let you know that we are here for you, and we want to make sure that you can afford to do your business, and of course, attract more small business here. We can't do that if there are extraordinary gas prices. They just won't come here to do it if they see that there are cheaper gas prices in other provinces.

I've talked about it before, the young people and the next generation coming up, that's another group that can really benefit and it's impacted by gas. It truly is. I mean, I remember when I graduated high school, I bought my first car sort of thing – I think it was a Saturn; the old man sold them back in the day – and I remember filling up that car – it was 1995 – at $32 or $30 to fill it up from empty? It was extraordinary. It was absolutely extraordinary.

A small car today costs $80, $85 to fill up. It just doesn't coincide. But those young people that we want to keep here in Newfoundland and Labrador, well we want to give them the benefit as much as we possibly can. They're impacted, they are, and those young people coming up now, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, they're going to have a decision to make: Are they going to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador or are they going to go across the country?

What do we want to do? I want to keep them here, and I know all of you do as well. So we want to give them as many breaks as we possibly can and that's what we're here to do.

Municipalities: I know they get a lot of their money from the gas tax itself but, at the end of the day, they have a lot to do, too, and the municipalities have never ever felt the pressures like they have today. They need as much support as we possibly can.

I talked to different municipality groups every other day, of course, as my critic role and we want to create an atmosphere, an environment, where they can really, really stride; they can really, really take advantage of the business that municipalities do, whether it be their emergency vehicles, their town vehicles, whatever business they have to do. Municipalities, you can imagine, go through a ton of gas so this is going to impact them at the end of the day as well.

Our mining, forestry, fishery, all of our resources like that, we are a resource province, and we are very proud of our resources. You know, we got a Calibre Mining up in Central and I think they just changed –

AN HON. MEMBER: Equinox.

C. TIBBS: Equinox. Yes. Thank you very much.

Yes, so they're up there and they're doing great things. Throughout the whole province, mining is absolutely extraordinary.

So we want to make sure that, again, it attracts business here and every little bit counts and I'm sure this is all brought into contention when they are deciding which projects they are going to do. I mean, Valentine Lake, it took some time to get off the ground but we are still in the construction phase, but we'll be up and running very, very soon. We're only happy to do so but those costs to these companies, they add up and they want savings. They're a profit company. They want to make sure that they make their profits, of course.

So any break that we can give these companies; any break we can give the fishing industry; any break we can give the forestry industry, we want to ensure that people keep moving and doing business right here in Newfoundland and Labrador and in order to do that, we need to be a responsible government and do responsible things when it comes to taxation.

The Buchans Highway and it's going to be relevant; I'm just going to veer off just for a second. The Buchans Highway, it's absolutely destroyed by a lot of these big vehicles. I mean, we have big business come in, we have to expect it. That's fine enough but I've said this numerous times, I wish there was a calculation to take the gas tax or the revenue tax, whatever it is, that these big companies bring into the province, some sort of small calculation, where we can keep up the infrastructure of the towns that are being affected by these big industries.

Again, the Buchans Highway up around Millertown, it's being destroyed by logging trucks, by mining trucks and the residents are paying the price: busted up tires, busted up rims, windshields. II just really wish we could come up with a calculation for this gas tax or revenue just to put some money back into the infrastructure because the residents who have been there their entire lives and generations should not have to pay the price on that. They really shouldn't. When we get in government one day, that's something that I'm going to be working on diligently because I would truly like – and it may not be a lot.

You may not need a lot just for upkeep every single year just to keep those roads intact. Again, the residents shouldn't have to pay for that.

The transportation of goods and services, which we all know all too well. Gasoline prices affect it, carbon tax affect it, all of these things affect the transportation of goods and services and who's paying the price on that? It's not the owner of Loblaws. They're not paying the tax on it. They're not paying the price on it. What are they doing? They're passing it down the line until it gets where? Until it gets to that single mom that's got to buy groceries for her two kids for the week and just cannot afford to do it anymore. I watched bacon go – it's extraordinary, actually. This is no exaggeration.

I go to the grocery store – it's a great place to talk to people as . When I go to the grocery store over the past month or two – bacon, I've watched bacon go from $7 to $8 and now $9 in the span of six weeks. It's absolutely crazy when you think about it.

And these are the staples, the food that we need to ensure that our families are there. These food prices will continue to rise when gas tax is put on or carbon tax or anything else. It's going to be passed on. It's just getting out of hand for people to really, really have small families here in Newfoundland and Labrador to make a go of it. And it makes a difference, it truly does.

I know the numbers sometimes show that there are more people going in to schools and stuff like that, at five and six years old and our schools are filling up. The percentage of students may be going up a little bit over the past couple of years. But I don't know, for me personally the people I'm talking to – and my wife just turned 40 years old, she has a lot of younger friends in their 30s and stuff. It doesn't seem like people are having kids like they used to. It just does not seem like people are having kids like they used to, because they can't afford to do it. And that is a huge factor, it is. We may not see it today, but we're going to see it down the road.

So whatever break we can give families, small families, single moms, anybody at the pump, it's absolutely crazy. I think I told this story last year, but I'm going to revisit it again for one quick moment, Mr. Speaker. I watched a mom walk into a gas station last year and she got $6 worth of gas because she needed $4 for bread. And that was it, that was the money that she had. But she needed $6 to get to work, to get her paycheque in order to pay for whatever she had to pay for and walk that very thin line.

When we talk about we want this gas tax off permanently, why do we want it off permanently? We want it off permanently because it will give people the confidence then to keep the money back in their pocket, to spend the money the way it needs to be spent, move it around a little bit, and who knows, maybe then as they spend more money, it would create revenue and it would fall back. I'm not an economist, but it just seems to make sense to me.

So a permanent removal? That's something that we've explored, we've talked about and we've supported. Again, we're going to support this as well. And it's a great step, it is. I mean who's going to stand there and say it's not, do you know what I mean? So I'm very happy that for the next year, of course – I'm sure that everybody is going to support this – we are going to have this gas tax break again. Because the fact of the matter is a lot of people need it. A lot of people truly need it. A lot of people need it.

I talked about our geography doesn't help us, especially – and again, my learned colleague, what a Member he is, talked about medical appointments across the province. It's so damaging on people. When you're suffering with an illness – I talked about it last night as well – I mean you could have a thousand problems, when you have a severe illness, you only have one.

When a family is dealing with an illness, that's enough to deal with as it is. That's enough to have on your mind to keep you up late at night. You can't function your life without it. It's always a stress on you. But to think about, am I going to have the money to get to my specialized appointment five hours away? How do I save up that money? My appointment is next Tuesday; I need to have the gas to afford to get out there, accommodations, all these things come into play.

If you have a severe illness, that's enough stress and pressure on you as it is. Again, this gas tax, taking it off, it's going to help people. It truly is and it's an extraordinary step. We're only too happy to support this here today because we know how important it is to everybody, to all families across the province. It's extremely, extremely important.

The taxis, the cabs, we have them in Grand Falls-Windsor as well, they feel the crunch. I mean, between the insurance prices it's absolutely extraordinary how cabs and taxis can still run. We are very happy to have our cabs and taxis throughout the province, especially in Grand Falls-Windsor. They help a lot of people, but again, they will see a break. That's a small business in Grand Falls-Windsor that will see and break and are able to continue to do business – their very important business – in Grand Falls-Windsor, as they continue to do.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, we have a lack of options when it comes to alternative transportation. We do. Part of it is because of our geography of course, and that's fine, but the lack of options we have for alternative transportation, it only hurts us at the end of the day. It really, really does. I wish we had more but I just – I can't even see that time. How much time do I have left?

AN HON. MEMBER: Nine seconds.

C. TIBBS: Nine seconds? Oh, perfect.

Anyway, we are supporting this. We appreciate the gas tax being taken off for this year and we hope to see it permanently in the future.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER (Trimper): Thank you.

I now call on the Member for Humber - Bay of Islands.

E. JOYCE: Mr. Speaker, I'm going to stand to have a few words on this again, the relief of the gas tax for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. I agree that we're all going to support this. We're all going to feel that it's going to benefit a lot of people in Newfoundland and Labrador, and I know I will be supporting this bill.

I just want to put it on the record also, the Official Opposition has stated a policy that they would make this permanent and I just wanted to make it quite clear that I would support that. I would definitely support making this here permanent.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

E. JOYCE: Coming back every year and making an announcement, here's what we're going to do, every year, to me it's a signal of politics. Because if we're going to do it every year, it's time to do it permanently. Instead of having a press conference and saying here's what we're doing, here's how we're going to do it, here's how we're helping the people and we're doing it year after year after year, let's make it permanent. That's what we should do.

I heard speaker after speaker here today talking about how it affects every household in the province who has a vehicle or got groceries – everybody. It affects everybody in the province.

I will support the Official Opposition's stand to make this permanent. I will support that.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

E. JOYCE: I think it's a great idea to do it, to have it done, to give the relief of the people of the province, are we going to get this relief again this year; are our prices going to go up this year? It's time to do it permanently and have it off the table so that we can inform the people and reassure the people that the government, which ever government it's going to be, is there for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador on a full-time, permanent basis, not on a photo-op basis just before we have to bring a budget in every year. This is just becoming too political, and you can see it.

Someone like myself who's been around so long, when you see something, announcement after announcement, same announcement every year, you realize that oh, here we go again, budget is coming up again, let's go have a few announcements before we bring in the Interim Supply and before we bring in the budget, let's go get some good mileage out of it and people are home stressing, wondering, are we going to have it? Let's do it. It's the proper thing to do. It's the right thing to do.

We always talk about – this is so funny. I think it was one of the Opposition Members brought up about a road being political and the minister saying no, it's not. But when you're not bringing in the gas tax, but you do it year after year to get a few photo-ops, what is that? It's political, because the gas tax is used to maintain the roads. We all said that. Gas tax, a lot of the money is used to maintain the roads in the province.

So what we're doing, we're keeping people on edge so we could have a press conference, so we can go out and have a media story, here's what we're doing, but we're saying it's not political. It is, definitely, and the only way to make it not political is make it permanent so that everybody in this House will vote for it.

I don't even know if we need a debate. If the government brought in that we're going to permanently put this tax relief in a bill and make it permanent, I don't even know if we'd need a debate. Everybody would just stand up, and I'm sure there's going to division because everybody in this House wants to say we support it, yet the government won't do it.

I have yet to hear an explanation why they won't. They go year after year after year after year. As the gas tax becomes so personal to so many people that have to drive to work, wants to go up for a doctor's appointment, wants to do some tourism in the summertime, can they afford it? Can they really afford it?

The big thing that we always lose on the gas tax where it is not permanent, and where we should make it permanent, is groceries – the transportation of groceries in this province. The cost of that is filtered down to the consumer, to the people.

I heard stories here today about where people really can't afford to put gas in their car, and it's true – it is true. I've seen people go to the gas station with $2, trying to get enough to get home. I've seen it. This is just a part of how government could put it in there. It would be a dead issue because everybody will see the relief year after year. We don't have to come into this House of Assembly and debate this gas tax again and we are going to give relief, which we're going to do every year anyway.

It's all politics. It is. I'm sure if there is anyone who wants to say it's not, stand up and say it's not. Here's an opportunity and let's debate it if you don't think it's politics, because I know it is.

But we have to give confidence to people out there in Newfoundland and Labrador. We got to say, we got your back. By doing this and having a full House of Assembly – how many times were we in this House of Assembly and we say let's show that we got unity in this House? Then we could come in with some issue, the fishery is one that I can remember and a few others that I can mention, that we got unity. Why don't we come in here and show that we got unity on this relief for the gas tax, that we're going to make it permanent for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador?

It would send a message to all the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that we hear you, we're with you, we understand what you're doing, we're a part of it and we want to give you some relief and we're going to make it permanent. This is a great chance for us to stand together.

We all know what's happening with the tariffs in Canada and across the world, we all know that, but it's a good time for us to show unity in the province. There's no better way to show unity in the province than to show the people that we heard you; we know you're hurting; we know that we can do this on a permanent basis so you don't have to worry next year if you can put $2 in your gas tank. Let's do it. Let's all of us do it.

That would make such a strong statement for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The headlines will be in the media that the House of Assembly came together and they all voted to keep the gas tax relief for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. That would be the statement: The whole House of Assembly united. We have the power to do that. We do have the power to do it, but we just won't do it.

So I'm asking the government here today and it's very easy to change this, very easy, to bring in an amendment to this resolution here today, to this bill. Bring it in today, bring it in tomorrow and I can assure you the minister will stand up, probably the Opposition Leader, the Third Party Leader will stand up, have a few words and we'll all vote. We'll have division to show the people that we're with you and it could be done so easy.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

E. JOYCE: I understand the people are saying, well, we got to go through the budget process but when you do it year after year, you know what's going to happen, but you mightn't get your picture taken because you're saying here's what we're doing for the province. That's exactly what it is.

P. LANE: Photo-op.

E. JOYCE: Photo-op, and everybody knows it. So let's show a bit of unity on that.

I'm going to get on a few things, Mr. Speaker, because gas tax is for the maintenance of the roads. I heard a lot of speakers talking about the road conditions. I can tell you one change that happened, Mr. Speaker, and I'm going back to '89. I'm going back to '99. I'm going back to 2011, 2015, we had it, and I know that some of the past ministers of Transportation and Works knows this.

You used to be able to do a rating system on the roads across the province. You bring them together and when you go out and you do a rating system on what need to be done, they come together and you do on the ranking. Whatever the ranking was, that's what you usually approve, but there's a change been made by this government. It's a change. Do you know what the change is, Mr. Speaker? It's sad –

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

E. JOYCE: No, the actual change is that now all the rankings go to Cabinet. So once it goes to Cabinet, the decision is made in Cabinet, you can't get the rankings because they use it for a Cabinet decision. That's exactly what happened.

I went through access to information; you can't get it. That's why people like me, who's been around for a while, who seen the transparency of it all, it goes for the ranking system in the government, it goes to Cabinet. When I put in access to information to get the rankings, they said, you can't; it was a Cabinet document. It was used for a Cabinet decision.

So that's why we see in this province, why we see the discrepancy. That's why you see the Premier with $29.8 million in one year, because their decisions are made in Cabinet, and it's wrong. If you want openness and transparency for the gas tax to be used for your roads, you would have no problem saying here's the ranking and we may make some changes into it because it may be some emergency or priority. That's normal. That happens. Or we may need an extra one year and we had to drop off the last four or five of the ranking because we want to finish this project because of necessity. That's all a part of it.

But for years – for years – you could always get the rankings, what the officials out in the department made. You always could get it. Can't get them anymore – can't get them anymore. The other thing that was changed and it changed in the last little while with this government – I don't know who else did it. I used to always go out with the, say, superintendent of Highways in the division and we used to go out and say, okay, let's look at the priorities of the road and pass on my concerns.

That was stopped. You are not allowed to do that any more. So you'd go out with the superintendent and say, look, the people are complaining that this

section of the road always washes out because the culvert is dropped. They'd come out and do the inspection. My God, yes, the culvert did drop. That's why we're having it. So we've got to put that on the priority list. It mightn't get done, but at least it's on the list.

Now you don't even know what's on the list – don't even know what's on the list. The director, you can't even get information off anything that the division from out in Deer Lake put in for the District of Humber - Bay of Islands. You can't get it.

I remember I had the media talking about the roads in the Bay of Islands and you want to talk about political. I put in that there was this certain

section not being done. That was fine. It was a dangerous situation. It was a gabion basket part. Transportation and Works, at the time, had a tractor parked there for the rocks coming down just to remove them. People were out in the middle of the road removing the rocks. Cars were hit, yet they said no, we're going to work on it.

So I went out and did a media story and they called Transportation and Works. Transportation and Works, in the media story, said, no, we're waiting for the other infrastructure projects to be finished before we go ahead and release the tender.

I put in an access to information for all the work that's being done in infrastructure – zero, none. They used to put some mix in on the road but the actual infrastructure, none. Four years, none. That's in the access to information.

So you want to talk about politics being played. Those gabion baskets, the tender was released in November. Middle of the winter and couldn't do the work. Still down there and not done; two years. And for the minister's department to say to the media that they're waiting for the infrastructure work to be done, (inaudible) for the gas tax, waiting for the infrastructure work to be done when there's nothing to be done and you're telling me it's not politics? Anybody in this room want to tell me it's not politics, stand up. Anybody? You can't do it. You just can't do it.

The problem I have with it is we're coming in here with the gas tax, the gas tax money used to fix the roads, and it's so political; you're putting people's lives in danger. We heard a lot of cases here this morning about putting cars and the people with the accidents in the cars, hitting potholes that you know that should've been fixed, that were brought to the attention. And people are saying over there, oh well, it's just a pothole.

I'll give you a good example, of course, sometimes when I get a little issue on my mind, I don't usually give it up too easy. I wrote about a lady, same thing, hit a pothole in Mount Moriah and that was fine. I said you have to go through the insurance, write the transportation department and they did, and they came back and said, no, the department wasn't aware of the issue. She couldn't get it done.

What do I do? I send the minister off seven – seven – pictures of where they had, I think it was nine signs there in the area and they weren't aware of it. Nine. It's: Be careful of potholes. There was a sign right on it. And what happened to the lady is that when she hauled out around, there was another car hauled out coming towards her, had to haul in the middle to get rid of the pothole, she went down into it. The sign was there, but she had to avoid an accident.

But there's nothing done – nothing done. The point I say about this with the minister, with the gas tax for the roads, if you're right and you have nothing to hide, produce the rankings. Produce them.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

E. JOYCE: I can tell you if it's the Liberal government or if it's the PC gets in government, I will be asking to have the rankings –

P. LANE: Transparency.

E. JOYCE: – transparent, have it transparent.

So at least you know, okay, I have bad roads, but there are a lot worse than me and here's why we made that decision.

If there's one thing I ask the government, and I've seen it so many times, that when you stand up and say all this money is being spent, but how is it being spent? If we're here debating the gas tax money, there's no one can tell me – there's absolutely no one can tell me, I've been around too long for anybody to try to even try to convince me, let alone try to tell me. Even stand up and convince me that the Premier's roads are $28.9 million and there's not one piece of roadwork in Route 450 or Route 440 for four years that needed to be done, can't do it. Just can't do it, it's impossible.

When the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board stands up and talks about the gas tax and wants to talk about how some of that money is used for the roads, you're in Cabinet. You may not be affected because you live in the St. John's area, but I can tell you anybody who lives in rural districts will know that when you're hiding the road money, because you want it among your Cabinet, who do we need to get elected, going to help to get road money. When you have roads that people can't afford to fix their cars because of the damage on the roads, there's something fundamentally wrong with the decision that government is making.

The Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board is bringing in this, states that we're going to have a gas relief again, which I agree with, but it's for the roads of the people of the province, so that we can have safe driving roads and stand in Cabinet and bring up a document that says, okay b'ys let's throw that out, who needs what? That's exactly how it's happening.

I challenge any minister, stand up right now and produce the ranking system; I challenge them, can't do it. It's wrong, it's wrong.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

E. JOYCE: Pardon me? I don't know; I can't hear you.

You're agreeing with me, I knew that. She was trying to get it changed.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

E. JOYCE: I say there's a certain minister over there agreeing with it.

AN HON. MEMBER: Can't hear you.

E. JOYCE: Well, you can hear me now.

Stand up for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and get it changed. You can hear me now.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

E. JOYCE: For God's sake there's people who can't drive on good roads and yet we don't know how the decisions are being made.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

SPEAKER: Order, please!

E. JOYCE: I don't know how the decisions are being made.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

SPEAKER: Order, please!

E. JOYCE: I can tell you that.

Thank you.

I say to the government Members, anybody can stand up and speak on this. Any of the ministers over there that wants to stand up and say what I'm saying is not true, stand up, simple; they can't because it's sad the way it's happening. It is really sad the way it's happening.

I'm urging the government and if the PC government gets in also, be open and transparent to the people, that's all.

I can tell you right now, any town or anybody that I've ever met with, if you walked in and said face to face, here's why this can't be done and you gave a logical reason, they'll understand. But when you hear the situations around the province that the gas tax is used for roads and when I produce it to a town, $29.8 million, and they got rocks falling off the cliff and the government is ignoring it, there's something fundamentally wrong.

I urge the minister, if you're really going to bring in this relief for the gas tax which is going to help to maintain the roads, be the leader in Cabinet, as the Deputy Premier, and then bring out the ranking system so people can know how the money is being spent.

I see my time is up, Mr. Speaker, and I thank you very much. I just hope the government, or the PCs, will have open and transparency if they get in the government for this.

SPEAKER: Thank you.

The Member's time has expired.

E. JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: I now call on the Member for Torngat Mountains.

L. EVANS: Speaker, I just want to speak a little bit on Bill 106, the amendment to the Revenue Administration Act .

This amendment is about extending the seven cents per litre tax reduction on gasoline, and for me to speak on this issue is really important because I can tie gasoline to practically everything in my district.

To food: most of the tractor trailers that bring food into Labrador uses diesel but for us in Northern Labrador, we use gasoline for hunting. The cost of the food is really high. I've stood many times in this House of Assembly and spoke to the ministers opposite me to talk about the price of food and how it undermines not only food security in my communities; it undermines our health, our mental health; it undermines opportunities for our youth, for our senior citizens, our elders, for young and growing families, so the price of gasoline is tied to everything in my communities.

Also, heating our homes: For us, the price of oil is so expensive that people have to go out and cut and haul wood to try and heat their homes.

Speaker, that would be okay if everyone had access to a really good snowmobile, a komatik and had the physical ability to haul wood, we would be in wonderful shape – no pun intended. But for us to be able to haul wood, first off, you have to have a good machine and you have to have the physical ability. So that puts our seniors at a disadvantage.

It also puts people with disabilities and medical conditions at a disadvantage and also for people on low income at a disadvantage. So, for us, if we have the ability to haul wood, then we also have to have the ability to afford the gasoline to go into our snowmobiles.

A lot of these things we talk about, like carbon tax, for me, I'm sort of caught between issues. One is global warming and being able to afford gasoline that contributes to global warming. For me, Speaker, everything is relevant and preparing to talk on this bill today, I really didn't even know where to start.

Usually when I speak on something, I always want to talk in the House of Assembly, mostly for the people in my district so they understand what's going on, because what goes on in this House of Assembly can be pretty distracting and also a lot of times it's hard to follow things.

But we're looking at the price of gasoline to go out and haul wood. In Hopedale and Nain, the two largest Inuit communities in Northern Labrador, there's another issue, Speaker, and that issue is the distance they have to travel to get wood. Talking to people in Nain, sometimes they have to travel four hours.

I was over visiting a friend of mine; he is a gentleman and he is starting to get a little bit older. When he got up to go and make me some tea, his wife told me he has to get up early in the morning because he has to travel so far and he wants to be coming back into the community with his load of wood while it's still daylight. Sometimes he has to get up at 4 in the morning because he needs to travel that distance.

Speaker, when we talk about reducing the tax on gasoline, for us, for me as the MHA, I have to be grateful for a little bit of something – just a little bit of something. Having the seven, eight cents tax reduction on gasoline, that's not much but, for me, I'm glad that my people can access that.

Just like I told the Minister of Finance, when she came up with this $500 – well, the government proposed this $500 rebate for people who purchased – what was it, the stove oil, $500. I said, $500 – that was first when she introduced it – that wouldn't even buy you a drum of oil. People in Northern Labrador were burning two to four drums a month but, for me, I was grateful to get that $500 cheque.

The problem in Northern Labrador, the gas stations that sells the oil wasn't producing proper receipts. Speaker, you're aware of some of these situations. People went in and bought 500, 1,000 litres, 500, another 1,000 litres and the receipts that they had was being rejected when they sent them in, because the gas station attendant was handing out the receipts he was given. They were actually photocopies that weren't accepted. So many people in my district actually gave up trying to get that rebate. They really did.

I mean, the Minister of Finance, I respect the fact that this was being made available to us and the circumstances that prevented people in my district from accessing that rebate that everyone else in the province was able to access was because the gas stations weren't producing proper receipts. That's not fair, and we raised that issue time after time.

I spoke to the manager this year of the program and people have given up because they ran into the same problem again: Oh, photocopies. Handwritten receipts that were being rejected.

But for me, looking at the price of gasoline now, in Northern Labrador, we pay $2.03 a litre for gasoline. That's actually 31.3 cents a litre more than they pay on the Avalon. So Northern Labrador versus the Avalon. But I want to draw attention in this House of Assembly to the difference between how Labradorians are treated and people on the Island.

Looking at this, in Southern Labrador, they're paying, for self-serve, $1.999 cents; that's $2 a litre. Just across the Straits, you could almost throw a rock, they're paying $1.755. So the difference between the southern tip of Labrador and the Northern Peninsula is 24.4 cents a litre. That's the difference.

So the thing about it is for us to be able to access gas to put in our vehicles, to put in our cars, to put in our trucks, to put in our snowmobiles, it's another barrier. It's another cost, because I know in Southern Labrador they've got Elders. I know in Southern Labrador they've got people who are vulnerable. I know in Southern Labrador they've got people on low income. That's a significant cost to living in Labrador and then when you look at what Labrador produces: Muskrat Falls, Upper Churchill, Lab West with the iron ore mines, Northern Labrador with the nickel and all the cobalt.

There's been years when Voisey's Bay nickel contributed more to the revenue of the province than the offshore.

When you look at Lab West, the iron ore and the future markets for iron ore, you're looking at another 100 years. I mean, you're looking at hydroelectricity and you're looking at, not only the benefit to the people of the province, but the benefit globally when it comes to hydroelectricity as opposed to the diesel power plants and Holyrood and all these things, you talk about global warming. So there are many issues, Speaker, and I talk about everything because everything is relative to the price of gasoline in my district.

Another thing I want to point out, too, in Northern Labrador we are all stuck on diesel. I talked about it in the House of Assembly and most of my speech today is for the benefit of the residents in Northern Labrador, my constituents who have elected me twice now. When we talk about the cost of electricity in Northern Labrador, there's a life block of 1,000 kilowatt hours, but Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro doesn't want anyone in my district to be using electric heat.

So what happens is when you go above that life block, the cost per kilowatt hour is 21.3 cents a kilowatt hour. Now everybody here on the Island and in other parts of Labrador – well, on the Island – are really upset because all of a sudden their light bills have gone up and they're wondering how they're going to heat their houses. But for the constituents in my district, the barriers to accessing wood to heat their houses, the huge cost of stove oil to heat their houses. Electricity is not affordable: 21.3 cents a kilowatt hour.

So for us, we've been living the problems that the people on the Island are starting to face. How are you going to heat your house? That's our reality and it impacts not only adults, it impacts our children, it impacts our elders and it cuts through the heart.

To be quite honest, being an MHA for my district, I have two emotions. One is a mixture of pain and despair for what my people are doing through, and the other one is anger because I know the situations could have been fixed years ago.

Even something as positive as the incentive to transition off oil made available to the whole province. We're going to transition you off your furnace now; we're going to give you – I think first it was $17,000, now it's up to $22,000 per household; you're going to have access to mini splits, to heat pumps, very energy efficient. The cost of heating your house is going to go down. But in Northern Labrador, we were not allowed to have access to that incentive, that rebate.

Now there are some people in my communities that actually took on that cost and it was much more than $20,000 because the cost of getting the technicians in, but we didn't have access to that rebate.

Do you know something? I can stand up any time and speak about the petitions I bring forward. A petition is to bring awareness to the House of Assembly to ask our leaders to advocate on our behalf.

So to have the seven cents off of gasoline is a positive thing and the reason why is because we use gas for everything. We use gas to heat our houses because we burn gasoline in our snowmobiles to haul our wood. We use gasoline to feed ourselves. We put gasoline in our speedboats, our outboard engines, we put it in our snowmobiles so we can go off and hunt. Because in actual fact, we have to live off the land.

Most of the people in Northern Labrador eat more wild game and fish than we do from store-bought.

I have six minutes left. I'll just talk a little bit about the postal strike. The postal strike is relevant to the price of gasoline, it is. In Northern Labrador when we're looking at what we could do in terms of Christmas, Christmas was coming up. The postal strike happened. And then people were saying, well what are we going to give our kids, what are we going to use as presents, because for us in Northern Labrador everything that comes from, say, SportChek, Amazon, Canadian Tire, anything you order, goes into Goose Bay and then is transferred to Canada Post.

But I still have time, I still have time to talk, Speaker. Do you know what some people in Rigolet were upset about that, they were a little bit upset with me because I didn't clarify. The price of the chocolates wasn't because of the postal strike. That was the price anyway. And in Rigolet that's the price anyway.

For me when you look at it, last year APTN and CBC did an investigation into Northern stores, NorthMart – I think it's called the North West Company is the parent company across the North. And it was found that there was a lot of gouging. But also, they found that the Nutrition North subsidy that's out there that's put on the cost of shipping nutritious food to the northern communities was being stolen. What it was being is that it wasn't being passed on to the consumers. And they found that the North West Company, Northern and NorthMart was actually pocketing the monies.

Yup, I got it written here. What they found was that Northern stores and NorthMart were only passing on 67 cents out of every dollar for the Nutrition North subsidy.

If they were not passing on the subsidy but they were pocketing, for their own profit, that's call stealing, Speaker, and that's wrong. The reason why I'm bringing it up now is we've known that for about a year. First, it was in the media, people were talking about it. Then like what happens here in the House of Assembly, things get old, and once the news gets old, nobody seems to care. The problem is still there. It's not fixed, Speaker, but because it's old news now, no one is going to be talking about it, we don't have to do anything about it.

That's about price gouging, robbing Nutrition North subsidies; that's about housing in Northern Labrador. The federal housing advocate came to my district and went and looked at some of the houses and she said that she has nightmares. Join the team, right? Welcome to my world. Also, she used the word – and I like trying to pronounce it because I do have problems with it – she said the conditions were abominable.

AN HON. MEMBER: That's right.

L. EVANS: Right. Pretty good, abominable. So where's the big rush now to fix that? That's old news.

When I bring forward my petitions, the ministers have already heard about it so it's old new. The media has heard about it, it's old news. So the problem, with me to stand here day after day to raise the issues, is it's old news and that's relevant to the price of gas so I'm going to say in actual fact, any reduction in the price of gasoline across the province is greatly appreciated, especially in my district, Speaker.

But, at the end of the day, when I ran to be MHA to represent the people in my district, I thought that if I could just get in there and raise attention so that ministers would understand what was going on, the tremendous hardships, the barriers – and not even talking about the hardships that were forced upon us years ago through colonialism.

SPEAKER (Bennett): Order, please!

The hon. Member's time has expired.

L. EVANS: Thank you, Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Ferryland.

L. O'DRISCOLL: Thank you, Speaker.

It's certainly a pleasure to get up and speak on Bill 106 for gas tax. It's something I wasn't sure today, when I came in here first, if I'd be speaking on it but just listening when the minister spoke about the maintenance of roads, I certainly had to get up and represent my district in that area for sure.

I'll start with petitions that I've read in this House over the last six years that I've done. Most of mine are from roads, ambulances, breakwater and doctors, but roads being the number one issue for sure. When I first started in here, I had the Member for Carbonear - Trinity - Bay de Verde as the minister of Transportation; then I had the Member for Fortune Bay - Cape La Hune that's been Transportation minister twice, I think; then the Member for St. John's East - Quidi Vidi was the minister; and now we got the Member for Conception Bay East - Bell Island and another Member that has passed on since was the minister.

Some of these issues, I've brought up over the years since I've been here and I'll start with Witless Bay Line, which has been completed. It was that bad that somebody had to get out and get it done. That's how bad it was. It made it off the list.

The first minister when I came in here was from Carbonear - Trinity - Bay de Verde, he had a five-year roads plan and you sort of had a little bit of expectation that you were going to get something done because it was on a plan, as the Member for – where is he to here?

L. EVANS: It changes so much.

L. O'DRISCOLL: Yeah, it changes – well, the Member from up in –

AN HON. MEMBER: Humber - Bay of Islands.

L. O'DRISCOLL: Yeah, Humber - Bay of Islands, he had spoke about a list.

When you first came in here, you could sort of look at that list. Okay, here's a list; here's where you are. The budget would come out and it would be on the list of where you're to, so hopefully next year it will come off or if you're in here six years, some of it will come off.

Then when a different minister came in, he never went with the five-year road plan; he changed it to something else. He was going to do it differently.

AN HON. MEMBER: What about the Witless Bay Line?

L. O'DRISCOLL: Now I just said that it was that bad, you had to do it. That is why I said it was that bad, you had to take it off the list. That's why it's done.

Anyway, the last minister then said he was going to change it and now it's done in Cabinet. Now we don't know where it sits. We don't know where it's going to be.

I'll start with the petition I've done many times in the St. Shott's area that the road is deplorable. It's on Route 10. It's the main road. It's where tourism is at its best in the summer, no doubt about it. They're going around the Irish Loop, the one thing you hear about and you will hear about it again when June rolls around and July rolls around, they'll be up in St. Vincent's watching the whales and, hopefully, they come from the Placentia West area because their pavement is all done over there. It must have made the list.

They won't come my way. It's not on the main route, but do you know what? It's getting done, and hopefully we can get it done in St. Shott's area. The road is absolutely deplorable. People that are driving motorcycles, the people that got campers, they will come from the Salmonier Line side to go to St. Vincent's to look at the whales. And tourism, that's where it's to up there, for sure, and the road is deplorable.

I can remember two or three years ago I went to Central, out to Exploits, and I stayed for a couple of days. We drove down to a Member's district and I'm looking at him now and I thought I was going to have to take over driving. There was that much pavement down there – he's putting his hands over his eyes. There was that much pavement in the Liberal district, he had to put his hands over his eyes. I thought I was going to have to drive. All in Liberal districts.

Now it's all decided in Cabinet. No one gets to see where it's happening or what kind of rotation it's on. That's just where it's to. It's terrible that it has happened that way – terrible – and we shouldn't be accepting that. That shouldn't be acceptable that it's in there in Cabinet and then they decide where it's going to go. It's not acceptable.

Back to the St. Shott's road, like I said, I've been doing petitions on this for a long time, as you know. The road is not fit to drive on. It's absolutely not fit to drive on, and I dare you to drive up there in the summer to go there. You're on the opposite side of the road more than you're on the right side of the road. That's how bad it is. I am not lying to you. You have to drive it; you have to experience it.

If that's not the worst road in this province, I'd like to see one because that got to be one of the worst. If that's not in the top 10 – it should be done. I'd say they're after spending enough on cold patch up there in the last 10 years to have it paved, and that's a fact. It's unbelievable. Then the plows go in in the winter, it rises up, the plows hits it and it's all full of holes again.

That's just one petition that I've done. That was on the St. Shott's road. Then I got another area close to St. John's down in Petty Harbour, a big tourist area. I would say, and I've said this before, that there are many tourists that travel to Petty Harbour area than any place on this Island. I'd be shocked if it's not. It's just not recorded and I bet you any money. I get so many calls from the people in Petty Harbour - Maddox Cove on this road going from Crocker's Bridge down into Petty Harbour – like, this is gas tax money. This is where, in these areas, you have to go experience it.

I know everybody got roads in their district that are bad, but I am doing petitions on this for five or six years. Last year, they said they were going to do it. The minister was over there now, that's now sitting in the back row, that was going to be done. They were going to have two kilometres road done, not done again.

The problem is I don't know if it's going to be on the list this year or not. We don't know where it sits on the list. That's our problem. I'm trying to report to the people that are asking me. They're sending me emails, finding out where the road is done – can you get something done with this road? Same thing, you drive down to the community, if you drive down there today I bet you any money you're on the opposite side of the road for 0.1 or 0.2 of a kilometre to go around a bad patch of road. These people will tell you. They've been there and they send me emails. The town itself has sent me a letter.

I sent it to a former minister who's sitting across here. Sent it to the minister that was over on the back row now. Still nothing done with it.

We'll go down and do cold patch on it. And cold patch doesn't work. It's a temporary fix and that's what it should be, a temporary fix, until we do the report. But it's not done.

That was another one now. I mean, I've done that petition numerous times. There's a stretch of run that the former minister that's on the back row now drives over every day, and he knows the road from Bay Bulls to the turnaround in St. John's is gouged. The plow goes over it and the plow hits the middle of the road, and where their tires are, the plow is not going to get down there because it's grooved. And it's a big safety issue. It hasn't been touched, and it needs to be done. It's a main route. These are on the main routes. This is the Irish Loop, it's on the main route and it's not done.

There are so many different roads. I've spoken to different ministers over time. There's a culvert in Long Pond, and I won't speak to the minister again on it. But the culvert going from in between Bay Bulls in Long Pond is dropped in the road. You drive out and there's a drop in the road. So a lot of people when they're driving out in the morning – and we know, we drive it and you've seen it. You haul out to go around that hump and I get a lot of complaints, there's a dip in the road.

Now, year over year that culvert in the main road is dropped.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Ferryland.

L. O'DRISCOLL: Thank you, Speaker.

So that culvert in the main road in Long Pond, we know it's dropped. There has after been people up and look at it. The culvert is collapsed in underneath. I'm going to tell you, at some point in time when we have one of these one-in-20-year floods or 25-year floods, that that road is going to be shut down. The road is going to be collapsed and we'll have no way to go back and you'll have to over Witless Bay Line to get to St. John's. That's going to happen if they don't do something with it. And they certainly have good road to drive over on Witless Bay Line now, I can tell you that.

But the problem is this is a main thoroughfare, and it's a drop in the road, a big dip. I'm telling you, people send me emails on it. There's a big dip in it and it should be done. The culvert is collapsed underneath. I don't know what more they need. It's not the department's fault. They got to get approval from the government.

One time, the department head or the superintendent of Highways, to a point, they didn't go do pavements, but they had permission to go fix culverts and fix roads without having to go through a department to do it. They had the permission to do it. I'm sure they had the budget. That's all changed. Probably all that's back in Cabinet now too before they get to fix a culvert even. It's impossible. I'm telling you that this road is going to be washed out over a period of time, that culvert is going to collapse and they're going to have to do it.

Now they did do one further up in my district, in La Manche area. That was the same kind of issue. You drive along, there was a big dip in the road. The group that was in Trepassey fixing roads fixed that on the way down and they did a good job on it. But these are serious issues that are main traffic areas that we've been asking about, and we're here talking about gas tax and this is where the money goes, and we certainly are going to approve this, no doubt. We're certainly going to be in favour of this. But we need to look at these areas.

I've made notes here while they were talking. I wasn't going to speak about it this long. There's a culvert in Brigus that is three-quarters full of stone, coming from the ocean and where the people are, and they're (inaudible) after me, and they'll send me a letter the last two or three years. I can only ask the government. They're the ones that are responsible. All I can tell them is that I'm not responsible.

I'll certainly pose it to them. I bought it to every minister that's been here, and I don't have it fixed yet. I'm going to keep after it and hopefully it'll get done, but they know that they can't do it with the Department of Highways equipment. They can't do it. They've got to tender it out to a contractor that can do it properly. But it should be done. I mean, it's a safety issue. The families down below could get blocked off, and it's going to happen. It's going to happen for sure.

We're talking about gas tax, again, as I've said, and bringing up 24-hour snow clearing. No doubt, we're struck right now with tariffs and we don't know where to go and you've got $200 million set aside for what could happen with that. Two million dollars is what was in the budget, or $1.6 million at the time, when they shut down the 24-hour snow clearing, and they can't have $2 million. You talk about money like it's nothing – $200 million now, that's what we laid aside for tariffs.

You've got $2 million for 24-hour snow clearing, for the safety of the people that are travelling to work, and that's very important. You've got doctors that are going in in the mornings; you've got nurses that are going in; you've got police officers that are trying to get to work as well. These are all for safety of all the general public of Newfoundland and Labrador, and we've shut down the 24-hour snow clearing.

We've had people who've drove across this Island, and ministers and MHAs have driven in here and saying that that they're not on the highways, they're not on the roads in certain hours of the night. That should not happen – that should not happen.

Okay, they don't have to work 24 hours today if there's no snow in the forecast. But they know if snow is coming and tomorrow night we're having a storm. Most times, they're pretty well on target with their forecast now and if it's going to start at 12, they're not very far off. So at 1, they should be out getting ready to clear those roads. These people have to get ready to go to work. I mean that's the logic in it, they have to get ready to go to work. They say, well, we come in at 5. They come in at 5. Well, they have 2½ half hours of roads to clean for the first trip around.

So there's a road that's there that's not going to be cleared in two to 2½ hours, so they're really not cleared until 7:30, if you're starting at 5. So there's the logic in 24-hour snow clearing.

Us as a PC government, when we form government, we're bringing that back in, I can guarantee you that.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

L. O'DRISCOLL: Speaker, there are some other issues, again, with roads. I said I'd touch on some of the petitions; brush cutting is the same thing. It is a safety issue. It's going to maintenance of roads, safety issue, no question about it. I have been at that for a long time. Again, somebody else spoke about a tender came out in October and it's still not done.

There are so many other petitions that I've had over the years. Again, I touched on brush cutting. I touched down in Petty Harbour. I touched in Bay Bulls. I've touched off in St. Shotts. There are other roads in the Local Service Districts, in the areas that they don't have councils to represent them. The government should be out looking at these. Where is the list to say where they sit on the list if they're going to be done?

I have places in Mobile. I have a place in Calvert the other night that somebody had mentioned to me that if they don't soon go down and fix the road in Calvert where the water comes in, where the fish plant is now going down there, there will be no road to go down to. There was armour stone along the front of that and he told me 30 or 40 years ago, there was a vegetable garden and that's all gone with coastal erosion, but the road is right there and that is going to be shut off is somebody don't do something about it.

You can go up there and you can mention to the Department of Highways. They still have to go back and see the department to get approval to do it. It's the same thing again; that's going to be shut off at some point in time.

I am certainly glad to be able to get up here and represent the district, and these are some of the issues that I've been at since 2019 and some of them have been accomplished, I'll certainly do say that, but there are so many more to do. Again, all we'd look for is to see where they stand to on the list. That's what we'd like to see.

He's not wrong. If you don't want to see that or if you don't want to produce it, that's incredible to not know where we stand here and where our roads stand and what position they're in. That was here when we first started. We knew that they were sort of on a list to when it's going to be done. Right now, we have no idea. It's time to take that out of Cabinet, put it back where people can see it so we can have a list and be able to get back to the people who we represent to let them know where they stand in their districts.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Placentia West - Bellevue.

J. DWYER: Thank you, Speaker.

It's always an honour, again, to stand in this hon. House and bring the concerns of the people of Placentia West - Bellevue forward. As the previous speaker, my colleague from Ferryland, had said about all the pavement in Placentia West, I'd be remiss if I didn't correct him to say that he's talking about Placentia - St. Mary's because they did get a lot of pavement.

But I have such a big district that I really can't complain because we have been getting some things done and a lot of it this year was due to the twinning of the highway, which I will commend that it's probably long overdue, but glad to see it finally show up. When we look at a gas tax, and that's what we're here to discuss and debate this morning, it's about the choices and the priorities that we have and making our roads good and driveable and safe is important.

We obviously have to take care of the trunk first, which is Route 1, Trans-Canada Highway. But also in my district, I have the lion's share of the Burin Peninsula Highway, which goes from Route 210, it goes from Goobies to Marystown. Consequently, myself and my colleague from the Burin - Grand Bank District have worked on a few things and a few initiatives together. We're dealing right now with something that was kind of thrown at us with the Red Harbour West bridge because we're down to one lane on it and if we go down to no lanes, then the whole Burin Peninsula is cut off and we're back to using coastal boats to get supplies down to the Burin Peninsula.

Like I said, when we make these priorities a part of our budgetary process, and we make it that we're drawing money from implementations of stuff like gas tax and stuff like that, well, that is important to have that money in the coffers. The impacts really are on our working class and our blue-collared workers. They're going to work every day. They're packing their lunch, which is impacted by, as my colleague from Baie Verte - Green Bay said, with the distribution and transportation costs.

So they get hit with the gas tax on several different implementations, but they're the ones that are keeping our economy going, Speaker. They're the ones that we relied on during COVID to get the essential services delivered and keep the lights on and stuff like that.

We need to look at when we implement a tax, who does it impact the most because, obviously, a gas tax wouldn't impact, necessarily, or very heavily, somebody that doesn't own a car that's a combustion engine. As my colleague from Torngat Mountains said, people lose sight of the fact that gasoline is very essential to many different cultures for the simple fact that lots of people in my district using chainsaws and hunting and doing subsistence life off the land and good on them because it's helping with their budget and stuff like that.

You know, there are a lot of people out there that, I guess, they're trying to keep the wolf from the door. So having that cache of meat, I guess, kind of thing during the winter or fish or what have you, it kind of helps that you only need then the things that go with those meals. So whether it's our root vegetables or anything like that.

Like I said, it's about decisions but the impacts that a gas tax has on our working class is astronomical because they get hit with it so many different times in so many different avenues.

I think it's unfortunate that we look at a gas tax as something being the lowest in the country because while that's something to pound your chest on or put our nose in the air at, the thing is that it's still money that's coming out of people's pockets. It's still like this hidden agenda type of thing.

For me the whole thing about having this gas tax, it should be relaxed to zero. That would be something to be proud of. I would let anybody beat their chest if they brought it back from seven cents to zero cents. I mean that would make sense.

With that being said, we're talking about the general coffers, or does it go to a dedicated file that we look at what the gas tax is supposed to impact the most. Is it brush cutting because when we sit up here and we talk about over $200 million in the budget for roads and we leave the brush cutting budget at $2 million. There's more than $2 million after being spent in my district on brush cutting this year just for the twinning of the highway. It is a great job. I mean, there was a couple of safety concerns with large chunks of wood flying onto the highway and hitting cars, but that's insurance stuff. That's got nothing to do with government.

I think it's important that we get that done because, like I said, that is going to help tremendously with the safety of the people that – everybody has to drive through my district. I always torment my colleagues when we're coming back to the House of Assembly, to make sure that they have their passports stamped when they get to Goobies and travel through to Whitbourne where my district ends, about seven kilometres outside of Whitbourne.

Yes, it's impacting everybody in my district but especially the working class. We're a very industrial district, so the impacts of seven cents on gas, is tremendous. Especially when it comes to our contractors that are working out of the refinery, when it comes to –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

SPEAKER: Order please,

It's becoming very difficult to hear the Member speaking. I ask Members to lower the volume.

The hon. the Member for Placentia West - Bellevue.

J. DWYER: Thank you, Speaker.

I appreciate that because anything that we talk about here in the House, I think that's the level of respect that we need to show each other that we're listening, because this is the people's House. What we need to do, first and foremost, is listen to the people. What I'm doing right now is bringing the people's voice of Placentia West - Bellevue forward. I think it would be incumbent on the government to pay attention because while we don't get invited to meetings to assist in the think tank kind of thing because they have all the answers over there and that's probably why they don't listen.

But with that being said, I think the thing is that we want to collaborate with our government because we want what's best for the province and the people that we all represent.

That's the whole point of it. There's no one person from the tip of Labrador to Port aux Basques and Cape Race, everybody's the same, everybody is equal, let's make it that way.

The people who are coming here and immigrating to Newfoundland and Labrador, they're loving the life that they found here; they didn't realize this diamond in the rough even existed. It's about making sure that the cost of living is reasonable so that we can attract people to come here. But if we're going to pay the same cost of living as you're paying in Toronto or Vancouver or anything like that, you may as well just live in Toronto or Vancouver, because that's where they're going to get the services. A lot of the services here in Newfoundland and Labrador are concentrated in the metro St. John's area, when it comes to hospitals and stuff like that.

The diversions from the Clarenville hospital are impacting my residents as well, big time. That's what we're trying to bring to light is that this needs to be a stronger focus so that any monies that we're collecting, like the gas tax, can impact the eventuality that people are getting the care that they deserve, where they deserve it and where they want it. That was the whole point of the Greene report, to have a look at our health and stuff like that in order to make better outcomes and to get better outcomes.

I agree with that but when we make our priorities such that it's about collecting money as opposed to improving services, then we've missed the boat. That's the whole point that I'm trying to make. We're missing the boat on what collecting taxes should be. Government only has two choices when collecting taxes. They can spend or save.

Right now, I mean, you know, I still think it's really funny and laughable and backward, as far as I'm concerned, that we're borrowing money for a Future Fund that we're paying interest on. I've said it in this House before and I'll say it again: I am not going to the bank this evening with my credit card and asking them to open me a savings account. I can't do that.

So when we collect the gas tax and we have decisions to make with the money that is collected from gas tax, these are the types of decisions that impact everybody so therefore we need to utilize the money that's being collected or get rid of it. It's seven cents that is impacting every Newfoundlander and Labradorian.

One of the other things that I think that when we talk about priorities and stuff like that, that seven cents is impacting our government as well and our public service. Look at all our vehicles that we have to gas up on a daily basis for snow clearing, for our police forces, for our ambulances, for everything that impacts each and every individual in Newfoundland and Labrador. If we take that seven cents off, that's money in the bank again.

So instead of spending, we're saving and then we have that eventuality to spend after that once we collect it. The whole point of everything we do has something to do with travelling or moving. As long as we're moving people, the gas tax is going to impact everything that they do because moving people, nine times out of 10, you're getting in a combustion vehicle, whether it's a bus, a truck, a car, even a boat for that matter, using chainsaws to get warmth for your family in the winter because you can't afford electricity or anything like that.

When we talk about going from oil to electric and we're going into a green economy and stuff like that, it's incumbent that we understand that this is not, like, a light-switch moment. We don't just go over and change the whole economy by flicking a light switch. It's about the transition into a green economy. We want to get there. We are going to get there.

But we think that we could have a bigger impact on the world by developing our oil and gas in order to – you know, I've talked to the Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology just yesterday and we were talking about different implementations. I said if we wanted to change the economy right now of Newfoundland and Labrador, we would switch everybody over to natural gas because we've got more cubic metres of natural gas off our shores than we've got oil. The fortunate part about oil is that we know how to capture it and we know how to resell it. That's been going on in the world for quite some time.

Our oil has 30 to 50 per cent less hydrocarbons, which I know it's a wrong way of saying it and saying that it's greener than anything else, because that's obviously a little bit of an oxymoron. But with that being said, if we have 30 to 50 per cent less hydrocarbons than anywhere else in the world – and we're talking about Saudi Arabia is leading the world with oil sales, Russia is leading the world with oil sales, even Alberta, here in our own country. But none of them have the product that we have and we need to utilize that to the benefit of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Maybe then we can get rid of gas tax for the simple fact that we have built our coffers; we have changed around our economy for the better. Because taxation, really, is an easy way out for government to garner money to make budgets and to be able to afford to keep the lights on, we'll say.

But, with all that being said, we need to turn around the economy. We need to get a full-time tenant or a sale of the Bull Arm site. I think that would be important. Upon understanding a little bit more about our Bull Arm site, I think that it would be a great investment for our government, or for whoever's making a proposal for Bull Arm, that they look into producing and implementing these locks. What the locks would do, is that they would cut off the ocean, I guess, kind of thing, and you pump out the water and you end up making a dry dock out of the facility that you have here.

Bull Arm was direct into the Jeanne d'Arc Basin; it's a very attractive site. I know that the minister is doing good work, and we've had some very fulsome conversations about Bull Arm and the impact that it has sitting idle and the impact that it would have by being developed or being sold to somebody who was planning on developing it.

It's a world-class facility that was built by the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. It needs to be considered an asset. It can't be looked at as a liability anymore and maybe that means that we need to do something else down there that makes it a world-class facility again that's being utilized.

Like I said, if we're going to collect gas tax, then that's one place that's really impacted by that. All of our tradespeople, that built Bull Arm and has built the West White Rose, hopefully we can get more work at Kiewit down in Marystown. With all that being said, it's our oil and gas that has kind of given us a new way of life but we can't overtax it so that it goes away.

Is this the reason why Equinor put a pause on their operations for three years? Hopefully this May is the time that they come back and they look at their exploration and development of the basins that they have explored off our coast and make it a benefit to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our gas tax impacts everybody in the province. There's nobody that's not impacted by the seven cents. I would talk about the five cents that was on for the sale at Braya, but that seems to be a moot point at this point. Nobody seems to be listening about that. The refinery has been bought and sold and you never know, it could be back up for sale again any time soon because of the subsidies not coming out of California.

In the meantime, the gas tax, federally, is something that's been helping communities and building extra infrastructure. But to say that it's a good implement at this time, it is certainly not a good implement. People are overburdened with taxes. People –

P. PARSONS: We have the lowest cost of living in Canada and the best province (inaudible).

J. DWYER: Well, we might have the lowest cost of living in Canada, I say to the Member opposite and you can get up –

SPEAKER: Order, please!

J. DWYER: You can get up and speak for 10 minutes or 20 minutes if you want because I haven't seen you get up this week at all, but you have a lot of chirping going on.

SPEAKER: Order, please!

J. DWYER: Anyway, if I could utilize your protection there, Speaker, from the chirp, I'd appreciate it.

When we look at gas tax and how it impacts our government vehicles, when we talk about our snow clearing and stuff like that, there have been times where I've gotten calls from communities, that it's 1 or 2 in the afternoon before they even seen a snow flyer.

I understand the whole point about the buses and stuff like that but, with all that being said, I don't understand how the

schedule got put off, because I wasn't getting those calls last year. There's been retired snow clearing operators that have come back to work after retirement because we're short of operators. We know that mechanics are a big issue. How is the seven cents on gas impacting all of that? Why are we not utilizing the things that we are capturing gas tax from – how come that money is not going back into those things?

We were promised all these flyers and came up very short on delivery. Again, that impacts every district and every person in the province. So, like I said, if were going to collect and capture a tax, then instead of putting it into general coffers, maybe it's time that we actually nail down what it's being utilized for so that the people understand why their pockets are being robbed.

Thank you, Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Deputy Government House Leader.

L. DEMPSTER: Thank you, Speaker.

I move, seconded by the Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs, that this House do now stand in recess until 2 p.m.

SPEAKER: You need to adjourn debate on the bill right now.

The hon. the Deputy Government House Leader.

L. DEMPSTER: Thank you, let's try again.

I move, seconded by the Deputy Premier and President of Treasury Board, that we now adjourn debate on Bill 106.

SPEAKER: Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

All those in favour, 'aye.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay.'

Motion carried.

The hon. the Deputy Government House Leader.

L. DEMPSTER: I move that this House do now stand in recess until 2 p.m., and that is seconded by the Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs.

SPEAKER: This House do stand recessed until 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Recess

The House resumed at 2 p.m.

SPEAKER (Bennett): Order, please!

Admit visitors.

Before we begin, I'd like to welcome a father-daughter team here today.

Sabrina, here to my right, is actually the daughter of our Sergeant-at-Arms, Robert Escott.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

Statements by Members

SPEAKER: Today we'll hear statements by the hon. Members for the Districts of Mount Pearl North, Placentia - St. Mary's, Placentia West - Bellevue and Exploits.

The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl North.

L. STOYLES: Thank you, Speaker.

Speaker, Colin Furlong grew up in my District of Mount Pearl North. Right from the early years, he performed in many high school productions, including musicals.

He is now a well-respected actor who has spent the last 20 years on stage and screen across our province and beyond. Colin has spent multiple seasons at the Rising Tide Theatre in Trinity, the Gros Morne Theatre Festival in Cow Head, the theatre in Conception Harbour , and he has appeared in countless shows at the LSPU Hall and the Arts and Culture Centre across the province over the last two decades.

He is well known for his performance of Joey Smallwood in the one-man show, The Only Living Father .

Colin's work has been on stage throughout Canada and the UK, as well as on screen all over the globe. His film and television appearance includes feature films such as Sweet Angel Baby , Merry Mystery Christmas , the Hudson & Rex show, Republic of Doyle and he can currently be seen delivering the news on the CBC's Son of a Critch .

What a talented and hard-working, young man we have right here in our community.

Speaker, I ask all Members to join me in congratulations to Colin and good luck in his new adventures.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Placentia - St. Mary's.

S. GAMBIN-WALSH: Thank you, Speaker.

Speaker, Anita O'Keefe of Great Barasway has been an outstanding volunteer for over 40 years. This lady has demonstrated dedication, compassion and commitment to the education of community about its rich heritage and culture.

Her passion for preserving and sharing history has touched countless lives. She has been a leader in organizing educational programs, guiding historical tours and ensuring that a connection to cultural roots is maintained. She has helped foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the traditions and values that define our community.

Approaching every task, no matter how large or small, with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose. Her ability to connect with people, engage them in learning and leave a lasting impression speaks volumes about her character and her passion for service. Her volunteerism will leave a legacy, as her efforts have protected our cultural history, and in doing so, she has ensured that future generations will have the opportunity to appreciate and understand the richness of heritage.

Speaker, as we approach International Women's Day, I would like to highlight this outstanding woman in the District of Placentia - St. Mary's. Please join me as I thank Anita O'Keefe for her contribution to the preservation of history.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Placentia West - Bellevue.

J. DWYER: Thank you, Speaker.

Speaker, today I rise in this hon. House to recognize a dedicated and decorated athlete who started her journey in Marystown, Newfoundland, in the District of Placentia West- Bellevue, Miss Kaetlyn Osmond.

She is Canada's most decorated female singles skater with three Olympic medals, two world championship medals, one Grand Prix final medal, six Canadian championship medals and one World Team trophy. S he has won gold at the national championships three times and the world championships once.

In 2018, she was honoured with the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as having a highway in my district, from Red Harbour to Marystown, renamed Osmond Way.

Since retiring from competitive skating in 2019, Kaetlyn has toured internationally with shows such as Stars on Ice, Rock the Rink and Art on Ice. She served as the official athlete ambassador for the national championships and, today, she is coaching in Alberta.

Most recently, Kaetlyn has been inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame, who celebrates the achievements of athletes who have shaped Canadian figure skating, and that is exactly what Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown has done.

Speaker, I ask all hon. Members to join me in congratulating Kaetlyn Osmond on this most prestigious achievement.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Exploits.

P. FORSEY: Thank you, Speaker.

Today I would like to recognize a fellow Lion, Harold Rideout, of the Bishop's Falls Lions Club. This fall, Harold received the Melvin Jones Award – the highest award bestowed upon a Lion's member.

Harold has been a member of the club for 48 years. In this time, he has served as president and been involv