Newfoundland and Labrador Hansard — Members' Statements; Statements by Ministers — 10 June 2015 (47th General Assembly, 4th Session, Vol. XLVII No. 29)

2015-06-10

Newfoundland and Labrador — Debates (Hansard)

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June 10, 2015

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. XLVII No. 29

The House met at 2:00 p.m.

MR.

SPEAKER (Verge):

Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Statements by Members

MR.

SPEAKER:

Today we will hear members' statements from members representing the Districts

of St. John's South, Burgeo La Poile, Cape St. Francis, Bellevue, Fortune Bay

Cape La Hune, and Baie Verte Springdale.

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

MR.

OSBORNE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Today I had the pleasure of attending a D.A.R.E.

graduation ceremony at St. John Bosco School in Shea Heights.

D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is a

comprehensive prevention education program that covers the health, legal, and

social problems encountered when involved with drugs.

The program is designed to equip school children with

skills required to resist the social pressures to experiment with tobacco,

alcohol, drugs and violence. It is

the goal that these acquired skills will assist the students in taking a stand

against the illegal use of drugs and therefore giving these students the ability

to make healthy and wise choices.

This unique program utilizes uniformed law enforcement

officers to teach a formal curriculum to students in a classroom setting and is

presently being offered to Grade 6 students who attend school, in this case, by

the RNC.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate the following

students on their graduation from the D.A.R.E. program: Max Benson, Kaylee

Churchill, Abigale Coady, Bernie Delaney, Christopher Druken, Aaron Earle,

Hailey Earle, Christopher Hatcher-Bragg, Hayley Janes, Tyler Jordan, Patrick

Morris, Samantha Mullins, Samantha Noftall, Seamus O'Brien, Olivia Thomlyn,

Joshua Watson, Hailey Whitten, Mackenzie Yetman and Dylan Yetman-Sears.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.

MR.

A. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise to recognize and congratulate Leading Edge

Credit Union, of Port aux Basques, on being selected as the twelfth best place

to work in Atlantic Canada, their fifth time receiving this prestigious

recognition.

This honour was designed and bestowed by Progress

Magazine and partner, Best Companies Group, to recognize the best employers in

the region those who make it a priority to create better workplaces for their

employees. The employers are graded

by their own employees.

The Leading Edge Credit Union is led by CEO, Mr. Cory

Munden, and their head office is located in Port aux Basques.

They have other branches in Corner Brook, Doyles, Jeffrey's, and St.

George's. The Leading Edge Credit

Union celebrates employees' achievements by giving a Volunteer of the Year Award

and an Annual Training Award. Staff

receive time-management and financial education training.

Employees also enjoy a paid day off on their birthday and an annual

overnight staff party. It is great

to see a rural Newfoundland and Labrador company thriving and growing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of this House to join me

in congratulating Cory Munden and the staff of the Leading Edge Credit Union on

receipt of this prestigious award.

It is indeed an honour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Cape St. Francis.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House today to recognize a

councillor in the Town of Flatrock, Mr. Bob Schiedendorf, who is well known for

his environmental commitment and dedication to his community.

Bob is responsible for establishing an environmental

committee within the town. He also

holds monthly meetings about environmental protection and the value of wetlands

and the conservation of species; and he helps promote awareness within the town.

Bob played an important role in signing the Municipal

Habitat Stewardship Agreement between the Town of Flatrock and the provincial

government which focuses on the importance of wetlands and their habitat.

He also organized hikes while promoting the different vegetation and

water bodies and land formation in the area.

With his hard work and dedication, and environmental

commitment to the community, the town has preserved bodies of water, marsh areas

and is able to showcase its natural beauty.

The Town of Flatrock is a cleaner and healthier place to live because of

his efforts.

I ask all hon. members in this House to join me in

thanking Bob Schiedendorf for his contribution to protecting the environment and

to congratulate him for being recognized at the Environmental Awards Ceremony on

June 5 when he received a lifetime achievement award.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Bellevue.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

PEACH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House today to recognize the

Nested in the hills of the bottom of Fortune Bay is a small scenic town of

such as this show a lot of passion and pride.

Their stature, as a small town, is that of a larger town.

This town's Lions Club has twenty-two members.

This year they celebrated their 29th Annual Charter night and I had the

privilege of attending.

Lions Clubs do a lot of fundraising and volunteering.

The money they raise goes back to the community.

those battling cancer, to those in hospital, and other charities.

In the District of Bellevue, we also currently have Lions Clubs in Dildo,

Arnold's Cove, Come By Chance, Sunnyside, and Terrenceville.

Mr. Speaker, there is no other organization in these

communities that does as much to help others as the Lions Clubs, and I would

recommend anyone who wants to make a difference to join this organization.

I ask all members to join me in congratulating the

job they do.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PERRY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House today to deliver accolades to

Sommer MacDonald, a Level III student at John Watkins Academy in

Hermitage-Sandyville, for her fabulous success at the Lions Club Multi-Level

Speak-Off held in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia at the end of May.

Competing against students from New Brunswick, Prince

Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and three counties from Maine, Sommer made headlines

when she was named top speaker in Atlantic Canada.

Congratulations to this very bright and skilled young lady, whose poise

and natural speaking ability garnered her top honour.

We are so very proud of Sommer for her excellent speech delivery and

commend her for her courage to speak from the heart.

I ask all members of this House to join me in

congratulating Sommer for representing the Lions District N3, her school and

community, and our Province with such finesse.

Sommer's passion to promote global issues amongst teens helps us all be

more aware of social injustices, and I encourage her to continue to help build a

better world for everyone.

Well done, Sommer.

Congratulations and the best of luck with your plans to study naval

architecture at Marine Institute later this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Baie Verte Springdale.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

POLLARD:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this hon. House today to recognize three

gifted athletes. At the annual

School Sports Newfoundland and Labrador awards ceremony, Emily Edison, daughter

of Dave and Lisa Edison of Springdale, captured the Female Athlete of the Year

award.

Emily, a Level III Indian River High School student, is

an elite athlete who participated extensively in school and community sports.

The 1 st Female Runner Up was Brittany

Andrews, daughter of Boyd and Tammie Andrews of Kings Point.

Brittany, a Level III Valmont Academy student, is also a very dedicated

athlete who contributed immensely to her school program.

Christian Pelley, son of Paul and Sharon Pelley of

Springdale, another Indian River High School student, brought home the 2 nd

Runner Up title in the male division.

It is important to note that all three athletes, while

juggling their busy schedules, maintain a very high academic record.

Their parents, teacher coaches, and communities are to be commended for

the pivotal role each played in the success of Emily, Brittany, and Christian.

I am sure numerous sacrifices were made to accommodate their athletic

events.

I invite all members to join me in congratulating

Emily, Brittany, and Christian upon their achievements and wish them success in

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased to rise today to report on yesterday's

Trade Renewal Ministers' Meeting, which took place in conjunction with the full

round of internal trade negotiations ongoing this week in Toronto.

This was the first meeting of ministers responsible for

trade in four years and it was a productive meeting.

With nine provincial and territorial ministers in attendance, we were in

agreement on the need to aggressively pursue a revised and new Agreement on

Internal Trade, or AIT as it is referred.

At their 2014 summer meeting, Canada's Premiers agreed to undertake a

comprehensive renewal of the agreement, using the existing AIT and considering

the desire to ensure more consistency with modern international trade

agreements.

Mr. Speaker, Canada's economy is a healthy and

competitive one. As a Province, we

need to be at our best as well. AIT

is the most ambitious internal trade agreement that this country has ever seen.

The provincial government is pleased to be involved in

the renegotiation of the AIT and looks forward to continued collaboration with

other provinces and territories to reach a modernized AIT that has far-reaching

benefits for Newfoundland and Labrador and indeed the entire country.

The opportunity to address the long-standing barriers

to the interprovincial transmission of energy goods in Canada is a primary

motivating factor for Newfoundland and Labrador in these negotiations.

Fair and transparent access to markets is the primary

goal of trade agreements, and the AIT must be no different.

This principle must extend to energy markets as such resources must be

afforded free and transparent access to interprovincial transmission

infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, during our meeting we were joined by the

Business Alliance, representing the business community.

The alliance raised important issues facing businesses, specifically

regulatory barriers that impact the ability to efficiently carry out commerce

across the country. This was

valuable insight to the group, and rest assured, we will take a progressive and

comprehensive approach to internal trade.

Newfoundland and Labrador fully supports modernization

of the Agreement on Internal Trade so that it better aligns with Canada's

international trade agreement, and applies to all sectors of the economy for the

benefit of all provinces and territories.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Trinity Bay de Verde.

MR.

CROCKER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the minister for the advance copy of

his statement. We are delighted to

see the Province is getting back to the negotiating table when it comes to trade

agreements. It is interesting to

note that this is the first meeting in four years.

At this rate, the pace of progress will indeed be slow.

The Agreement on Internal Trade which focuses on relationships between

provinces and territories is a critical one, certainly as important as the CETA

deal.

Mr. Speaker, a modern-day economy, a first-world

economy cannot live in isolation and there is no way we can claim to be open for

business and invite the world to invest here when we are not able to come to

terms with our neighbouring provinces.

Mr. Speaker, the Business Alliance has long been

complaining about the barriers they face trying to do business province to

province. This is negatively

impacting on expansion opportunities for small- and medium-sized business in our

Province. Having them present at

this meeting is a good thing. I only

hope that the ideas that are presented are truly considered by the minister's

committee.

We applaud the ministers for finally getting together

and addressing the internal trade agreement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.

MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I, too, thank the minister for the advance copy of his

statement. I am very glad that

government is taking full

part in these trade talks.

It is good to know that the trade ministers are agreed on renegotiating

the agreement.

The minister's statement is a bit short on details.

I see no indication from him of whether or not they think they can reach

the goal of a new internal trade regime by March 2016.

I certainly hope they can.

I do urge the minister, as their talks continue, to

make sure that the AIT benefits well the workers of this Province and now just

the corporate sector.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

S. COLLINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation

Commission conducts an annual Safe Work Video/Radio Ad Contest which is open to

Grade 7-12 junior and senior high school students.

The contest encourages students to develop a video or radio ad to create

awareness on preventing workplace injuries and illnesses.

I am delighted to rise today in this hon. House to

congratulate eight students from Holy Heart High School, Marystown Central High

School, and Appalachia High School who were recently honoured for their

creativity in developing young worker safety video and radio ads as part of the

2015 contest.

Ethan Bickford, Devin Kelly, and Michael Lawlor of Holy

Heart High School in St. John's captured top spot for the 2015 video ad.

Their video has been forwarded to the national

It's Your Job Youth Video Contest.

Marissa Walsh and Cole Inkpen of Marystown Central High School were given

top honours for the radio ad component.

Each winning entry received $1,000.

The top ten entries selected by the judges were entered

into a Viewer's Choice competition where the general public could vote via

Facebook for their favourite safety video.

The winning entry was created by Helen Pittman, Eric White, and Jacob

MacDonald of Appalachia High School, St. Georges, and they shared the $500

prize. The top ten video finalists

can be viewed on the Safe Work NL YouTube channel, and the winning video will

air on Rogers Television. The

winning radio ad will be re-recorded and aired on radio stations throughout the

Province.

Mr. Speaker, the 2014 injury rate among those aged

fifteen to twenty-four remained steady at 1.5 per 100 workers, which is lower

than the provincial injury rate. It

is a good indicator that our awareness efforts are having a positive impact, but

it is imperative that both government and employers continue the focus on

workplace safety for young workers in our Province.

The Safe Work Video/Radio Ad Contest, along with other initiatives such

as the trivia game show SAFE Work NL's

Who Wants to Save a Life? and the high school course Workplace Safety 3220,

are important components of our overall awareness campaign.

We remain focused on creating a culture of safety in

Newfoundland and Labrador, and we understand the importance of instilling these

values at an early age. It is our

continued hope that initiatives like the Safe Work Video/Ad Contest will help

our future workforce to understand and create safe work habits that will guide

them throughout their careers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.

MR.

LANE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for an advance copy of his

statement. We here in the Official

Opposition want to certainly recognize this initiative.

I think it is a great initiative, and we want to congratulate the winners

of the contest.

Anything you can do to promote health and safety is a

positive thing. We know that many of

the injuries we see in the workplaces are attributed to new workers, to young

workers, so it is important at a young age we establish health and safety as a

priority for young people.

Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not say,

though, that it is one thing to do this, and it is a great initiative, but if

the government is truly serious about health and safety in this Province, then

it would look at doing things as we have talked about before such as

ensuring we have OHS inspectors in Lab West, ensuring they get their silica dust

studies done on time; ensuring that we are doing inspections of fishing vessels,

the most dangerous industry in the world; ensuring we have the fish processor's

safety council up and running, that they announced three years ago.

When workers get injured, we would ensure that we have a system to

protect them, not the broken system we have at workers' comp right now, Mr.

Speaker.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

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

MR.

MURPHY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I, too, thank the minister for the advance copy of his

statement here today.

Congratulations to the young people who won this year's competition and

congratulations to everyone who participated.

That means a lot.

While I am pleased the injury rate for young workers is

lower than the provincial injury rate, they are both still too high, Mr.

Speaker, as I am sure the minister would agree.

Young people are more likely to not know the importance of worker safety

and are also less likely to know of their rights as workers.

We need to be doing more to fix these matters.

Whether in this hon. House or in a school, restaurant, a kitchen, Mr.

Speaker, we have to emphasize three things: worker health and safety, worker

health and safety, and finally, worker health and safety.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Approximately 800 Wabush Mines retirees were dealt a

severe blow with the cancellation of their medical benefits and life insurance

as a result of Cliffs, Eastern Canada, going into bankruptcy protection.

The future of their pension supplements may also be affected, and

government has been silent on this issue.

On top of that, the local union office closed two weeks ago.

I ask the Premier: What specifically is government

doing to help resolve the situation in Wabush?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Environment and Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CRUMMELL:

Mr.

Speaker, we are certainly aware of the situation in Wabush and certainly feel

for the retirees, the pensioners, and the workers who have been laid off, but

provincial law requires that pension funds be held in a separate trust.

So, Mr. Speaker, the money is safe in the pension

plans. They will still have to make

payments the company will still have to make payments to pensioners as time

goes on. We have retained legal

counsel in the Province of Quebec to make sure that the interests of the

Province and the interests of the pensioners and the workers are looked after,

Mr. Speaker.

Again, our responsibility within Service NL is to make

sure that we are taking care of business when it comes to this issue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, the union was in a Montreal court yesterday

requesting an order for Cliffs Resources to fulfill its obligations to Wabush

Mines retirees regarding not only their pension plan but the medical benefits as

well, which is a big part of this issue right now, and the issue of pension

supplements. These are people who

have worked very hard with that company and virtually gave their lives to the

Lab West area.

I ask the Premier: What discussions have you had with

the United Steelworkers and Cliffs Resources on this particular issue?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Service Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CRUMMELL:

Mr.

Speaker, benefits are negotiated by unions with companies that they work for.

Unfortunately, these types of benefits are not protected by legislation

or law. They are not incorporated

into that protected area.

Mr. Speaker, one of the areas that we should take some

comfort in is that the pension plans for the union plan is 92 per cent funded.

So that is not too bad a number.

The money that is in that fund is protected.

Also, the salary plan is about 89 per cent funded, and that was

registered with our Superintendent of Pensions just late last year.

Mr. Speaker, there is a bit of comfort in that.

It is not fully funded, but that money is protected.

The money is safe.

MR.

SPEAKER:

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are very difficult circumstances down in Labrador

West. I know the member opposite

shares in the concern and the seriousness of what is happening in Labrador West.

It is greatly impacted by worldwide commodity prices.

We know there are still ongoing challenges with the IOC operation down

there.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of AES has been on the

ground and working with workers and worker representatives on the ground there

as well. The Department of Business,

Tourism, Culture and Rural Development has been down there as well in working

with them. We have a ministerial

committee in place that is there to work and partner hand in hand with the

community to show support to the significant impact on their greater community.

We will stand by with the workers and do everything we can to assist that

community.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier talked a lot about co-operation and being

on the ground in Lab West.

So my question now is about this government has

admitted that they have accepted a closure plan for Wabush Mines, however, this

plan has still not been shared with the Town of Wabush.

That is not co-operation, I say to the Premier.

Two weeks ago, the minister said he would check and let the Town of

Wabush know.

I ask the Premier: Why have you not shared this plan

with the Town of Wabush, since you say to be co-operating with the people in Lab

West?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

DALLEY:

Mr.

Speaker, there is no question, in situations like this co-operation is

important, and we have seen that.

Certainly through my department, we have had contact with Cliffs Resources, we

have had contact with the unions, and we have had contact with the leadership in

the community of Wabush. I have been

working with them for a long time now through these issues.

With respect to the legislation and what is required

under legislation. Mr. Speaker,

Cliffs are meeting their obligations under the legislation, but within that, the

rehab and closure plan and what is involved particularly around the dust issue,

we are having discussions with the town.

There are contracts to address that, Mr. Speaker.

As I indicated before, what we can share with the town, we certainly plan

to do so.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To provide some clarification for the people in Wabush,

I would like for the minister or the Premier to explain: What is it really about

the closure plan of a mine in their backyard in the Town of Wabush that you

could not share with the Town of Wabush?

There must be something more than you are saying.

What is it you could not share, and why?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

DALLEY:

Mr.

Speaker, there is nothing any more than what I am saying.

There is nothing about hiding anything.

This is an agreement, and under the legislation there is only so much of

that information you are able to allow, whether it is commercially sensitive or

otherwise.

We have no issue, Mr. Speaker. What we are permitted

to, under the legislation, to share with the people of Wabush, to share with the

community leadership, we absolutely have no issue doing that.

What is important here, Mr. Speaker, is that there are

some issues on the ground in Wabush.

They are going to need government to support them.

As we have done since the beginning, we will continue to support with

them, share whatever information we can, and do all we can to support, whether

it is the pensioners, whether it is issues on rehab and closure, or whether it

Mr.

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, some ministers have no problem getting a date.

We heard about that just yesterday.

So, Mr. Speaker, our Province has the highest rate of

diabetes in Canada, and it continues to climb.

There are over 57,000 people with diabetes in the Province today, and

sadly, the numbers are expected to reach over 82,000 in the next ten years.

Diabetes is expected to cost this Province between $300 million and $400

million annually by 2020.

So I ask the Premier: We have been calling on a

diabetes registry, a diabetes database for years.

Recognizing this growing issue, why have you not established a diabetes

registry in Newfoundland and Labrador?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to my colleagues as well.

As I outlined to members opposite during Estimates, Mr.

Speaker, we have made great progress on this database since the last time the

issue came up in the House of Assembly.

We have been working closely with the regional health authorities and the

Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information.

We have formed a clinical working group.

We have some key outcome indicators to be monitored.

Data sources are linked and being drawn in, and we will have test reports

for the database later this month.

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, later this month it is June 2015, and this goes

back to the 2010 Auditor General's report when he warned that government was not

doing a good job in fulfilling its leadership role in preventing and managing

diabetes. They still are not, and

diabetes rates and costs continue to climb.

In their 2011 Blue Book, whether it was a commitment, a

promise, or some form of guideline, this government recognized the need to

capture acute diabetes data. In

2015, still no diabetes registry.

So I ask the Premier: Since you recognized it in 2011,

four years ago, why is this important piece of work taking so long?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KENT:

Mr.

Speaker, work began on the diabetes database back in 2012.

Western Health was actively involved in a pilot, in a model, that we

hoped to roll our across the Province.

We have since gotten the other regional health authorities involved.

We have the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information

involved. As I said, later this

month test reports from the database will be available.

We are making great progress.

We are going to be able to monitor trends related to the prevalence of

diabetes. We are going to be able to

monitor the quality of care for clients who have diabetes.

We are going to monitor outcomes for residents with diabetes.

We are making good progress.

I am pleased with the level of co-operation from the regions and the Centre for

Health Information.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

MR.

BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, some residents of Deer Lake have filed a class

action lawsuit claiming property damage by water seeping from the Deer Lake

Power canal. Government is named in

this lawsuit.

I ask the Premier: What responsibility does government

have in this situation?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Environment and Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CRUMMELL:

Mr.

Speaker, as the Leader of the Opposition alluded to the subject is an active

court case so there is only so much we can really say about it.

As a regulator we take responsibility for making sure

that the Deer Lake Power Company, making sure that the Town of Deer Lake, the

residents in the area, are aware of exactly what is going on.

In fact, we did a study ourselves, Mr. Speaker.

It is a technical report. It

is available online. It was prepared

by my department and that report recommends steps to be taken to help alleviate

the situation, certainly in the short term.

We are certainly looking for longer term solutions as well.

So in terms of taking responsibility, we will continue

to work with all the stakeholders and work with the Town of Deer Lake in

particular and Deer Lake Power.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for The Straits White Bay North.

MR.

MITCHELMORE:

Mr.

Speaker, on Monday when questioned on the leaking oil on the Port au Port

Peninsula the minister stated, Even though we did not receive a complaint

We heard about it on Thursday, June 4.

I ask the minister why he claimed to be unaware given

Environment Ministers, a former Premier, and numerous Cabinet ministers were

informed and aware about the leaking oil over the course of the last two years.

MR.

SPEAKER:

observances that our people have seen there in the past, Mr. Speaker, over the

last couple of years has been minimal.

There has been sheen on the water some days and other days not.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for The Straits White Bay North.

MR.

MITCHELMORE:

The

minister certainly has a different definition for proactivity than I.

It has been a week since the new minister clued in about the leaking oil

on the West Coast and said we are on top of this.

Fishers are certainly not convinced.

Given government continues to show gross negligence on

matters of environmental liability I ask the minister: Does the assessment

reveal the leak is natural or not?

How can you restore confidence in the residents of Port au Port after two years

of complete negligence?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Environment and Conservation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CRUMMELL:

Mr.

Speaker, our biologists and scientists who have been tasked to have a look at

this issue are dedicated employees of the Government of Newfoundland and

Labrador. As Environment Minister

myself, I am as dedicated as well to finding out exactly what is going on and

how to find a solution.

Mr. Speaker, only this morning we had a team meeting to

discuss what possibly could be happening.

We do not have that evidence yet.

If the two scenarios that we are looking at, whether it is leaking wells

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

CRUMMELL:

or if it natural seepage we are determining exactly the course of action we

are going to take if it is one or the other.

So when we find out exactly what is going on we will take that

responsibility, engage all the stakeholders, Environment Canada, the Department

of Fisheries and Oceans, and ourselves to find that solution.

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.

DEMPSTER:

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, government cut Employment Assistance

Services agencies back in 2013-2014 to save $14 million a year under the Labour

Market Development Agreement.

Hundreds of career counsellors lost their jobs when EAS offices were closed.

It turns out they saved the federal government $11.5 million.

The Province had to repay the surplus from closing EAS agencies because

they did not have a plan to use it.

I ask the minister: How do you justify having to repay

money to the feds because you did not have a plan in place?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

JACKMAN:

Mr.

Speaker, a wonderful program that provides support services to all people

looking to enter the workforce.

Mr. Speaker, the question she is talking about was a

transition year. All funds are back

to full status, the programs continue to roll out, and the people of the

Province benefit from them.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.

DEMPSTER:

Mr.

Speaker, last year the Province got $11.5 million less than expected because

they had no plan to reallocate the money from closing down the AES offices.

Actually, since the Province signed the Labour Market Development

Agreement in 2008, the Province has received $75 million less than expected.

I ask the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills:

How much of that $75 million was recovered by the feds because you did not have

a plan in place to spend it $75 million?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

JACKMAN:

Mr.

Speaker, the agreement that we signed with the federal government realizes us

$127 million a year $127 million a year that goes into apprentices, to support

programs, to support people coming new into the workforce.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

The year before it was underspent by $350,000.

Last year and this year, the Safe Harbour Outreach Project, or SHOP for

short, requested funding for outreach with sex workers but was denied funding

both years.

I ask the Premier: Why would you deny funding to SHOP,

knowing Women's Policy is underspending its budget considerably?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PREMIER DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are a number of reasons why the expenditures at

the Women's Policy Office were as they were in the last year.

There are a number of those, some of them were efforts by the Women's

Policy offices to use technology instead of travelling.

They used less time travelling than they did, Mr. Speaker.

There were overlapping programs.

There were also approval processes as well.

I can tell you, the Women's Policy Office continues to

make advancements and work with community partners throughout Newfoundland and

Labrador in the best interest of women to make sure that all women's matters and

issues are kept top in-line within government and the work that we do as a

government as well, Mr. Speaker. We

continue to support women throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Virginia Waters.

C. BENNETT:

Mr.

Speaker, I will remind the Premier that it was a million dollars that the office

underspent.

Government's secret sexual exploitation report

recommended a street nurse program, like British Columbia's.

SHOP had a nurse with experience working in Vancouver's Eastside, but

Eastern Health pulled the nurse.

Meanwhile, the Province is in the midst of a syphilis outbreak which can

increase the spread of HIV. SHOP

cannot get an answer from the minister on why they pulled the nurse.

I ask the Premier: Why would you actively take a step

backwards in the report's recommendations?

The

hon. the Member for St. Barbe.

MR.

J. BENNETT:

Mr.

Speaker, the first recommendation made in government's secret sexual

exploitation report was that the Cabinet develop and adopt a Cabinet mandate to

address the issues related to sexual exploitation, including prevention,

enforcement, interventions, and supports.

That was four years ago and, including the Premier, four ministers ago.

I ask the Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services:

Was this recommendation followed, and can he update the people of the Province

on what progress this government has made in combating sexual exploitation of

our youth?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

S. COLLINS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Actually, I can talk about the Violence Prevention

Initiative which was just brought up previously, because that addresses

violence, certainly sexual and otherwise.

That includes all ages of the population.

It is no differently for children and youth.

We have partnered with a number of community-based organizations, as well

as the RNC and the RCMP, and we have made great strides with that.

The Cybersafe Girl program, the awareness campaign, is

just one piece of that. If given

more opportunity, I would go into a little bit further detail about some of

those programs that we have initiated.

As I had said, certainly we are continuing to do even more.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for St. Barbe.

MR.

J. BENNETT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, if the minister is reading from his memo, updated

October 23, 2013, where he talked about the 2006 Violence Prevention, I would

point out to him that was nine years ago.

The secret report was four years ago.

Mr. Speaker, the second recommendation from the

four-year-old sexual exploitation report, this government was to establish a

cross-departmental committee Review policies, programs, services, and

legislation to assess the harm or the potential harm they may cause individuals

vulnerable to sexual exploitation, to Develop an integrated and collaborative

cross-departmental approach to identifying and responding to issues related to

sexual exploitation, and to Provide information to the Cabinet.

I ask the minister: Have any of the four ministers,

including the Premier, acted on this four-year-old recommendation?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

S. COLLINS:

Mr.

Speaker, when the member opposite brings up time frames and talking about this

was decades ago, I just brought up the fact that with regard to the Cybersafe

Girl Initiative, that was launched in 2012.

I had spoken about with regard to the Combined Forces Special Enforcement

Unit, that was launched in 2013.

Then you only have to look at as of December 2014, just last year, Mr. Speaker,

the work of the unit had resulted in more than forty charges laid with regard to

Internet Child Exploitation Newfoundland and Labrador.

The work continues.

Not only have we done much, we are certainly continuing

to do even more. Again, if given an

opportunity, I can stand and talk a little bit more if he wishes.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Humber East.

MR.

FLYNN:

Mr.

Speaker, in 2009 this government announced a new signage plan with great

fanfare. Private illegal signs were

torn down right across the Province, including the Bug outside of St. John's.

Operators lost money producing signs they could not use.

That was six years ago.

Today, the industry is still waiting to see new regulations and policies for the

TODS program.

I ask the minister: Is there any plan to complete this

project now or has the government decided after six long years that it is time

to abandon the idea?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

BRAZIL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This was a program brought in a number of years ago in

consultation with the industry to ensure that we had uniform signage on our

highways so that they were more attractive, and that it would open up better

tourism potential for people in the Province, Mr. Speaker.

We are continuing to move that forward.

We are now looking at better ways to impose that, Mr.

Speaker. We do have investments in

that to ensure that it continues to move forward.

We want to work continuously with the industry to ensure that signage is

exactly what the industry has outlined as we move forward on this.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.

MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

This government has blamed hard-working and dedicated

public sector health care workers for retention and staffing issues at the St.

John's long-term care facility.

I ask the Premier: Why hasn't his government, knowing

for seven years that this facility was scheduled to open, worked with Eastern

Health to create a pool of permanent, full-time workers to help address the

staffing shortages and decrease the reliance on temporary call-ins?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KENT:

Mr.

Speaker, contrary to what the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi would suggest,

Eastern Health and the Department of Health and Community Services have been

working on this challenge of LPN shortages and PCA shortages for quite some

time.

We have increased the number of seats in the Province

for these programs. We have

initiated international recruitment.

We have offered a program in Jamaica and we have successfully recruited LPNs

from the Jamaican program. As well,

we have opened up additional beds.

In recent years we have opened many new long-term care beds, and just recently

we announced plans to procure 360 new long-term care beds through a

public-private partnership as well.

We have a staffing plan.

We have had a staffing plan for some time.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

KENT:

is important work that has been ongoing for some time.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

KENT:

Thank you for your protection, Mr. Speaker.

There have been a number of recruitment initiatives

ongoing, and there is quite a comprehensive plan.

There have been cross-country recruitment drives initiated by Eastern

Health, as well there have been partnerships strengthened with the licensing

body. We are partnering with the

college. We are partnering with the

Centre for Nursing Studies. Private

colleges, which the member also opposes, have a prominent role to play.

There is work going on with the Department of Advanced Education and

Skills as well. Many initiatives,

Mr. Speaker.

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

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

ROGERS:

Mr.

Speaker, Her Majesty's Penitentiary is operating at full capacity, yet seriously

understaffed. Last month alone there

were over twenty-five, twenty-four hour shifts, forcing staff to work

back-to-back twelve-hour shifts; 115 overtime shifts; 211 double dinners,

forcing staff to go without dinner breaks.

This is within a month. This

is not a safe working environment.

I ask the minister: What is going on?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Justice and Public Safety.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KING:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the member's question.

I can say categorically I am not aware of any of those statistics, but I

would not be. As I have said many

times in this House, the Minister of Justice does not engage in the day-to-day

operations of facilities like Her Majesty's Penitentiary.

So unless there was something of an urgent nature

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

Mr.

Speaker, these are serious unsafe conditions for staff and for inmates.

First things to go when a prison is short-staffed are programs,

activities and recreation, leading to lockdown for inmates, starting a dangerous

downward spiral in tension and potential problems.

Summer holiday season is starting.

I ask the minister: What is he going to do to ensure

adequate staffing is in place?

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Minister of Justice and Public Safety.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

KING:

Mr.

Speaker, once again the member is on her feet making accusations and putting

information out into the public domain that is unsubstantiated.

There have been no programs cut no programs to support inmates at Her

Majesty's Penitentiary have been cut.

It is totally false to suggest that here on the floor of the House of

Assembly.

We will do like we do every single year.

The staff at Her Majesty's Penitentiary put a

schedule in place to ensure

that we have the proper number of workers in place to work with the inmates, and

we will do the same as we do every year.

If there are extenuating circumstances and challenges that need my

attention, I am certain that the good leadership at the penitentiary will bring

it to my attention and we will work with them on that.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The time for Question Period has expired.

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

Answers to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Trinity Bay de Verde.

MR.

CROCKER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of Assembly for the Province of

Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the

undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS the residents of Winterton feel the condition

of Main Road, Route 80, located in the Town of Winterton, is deplorable; and

WHEREAS residents of Winterton are frustrated with the

condition of the road; and

WHEREAS government has failed to address this problem

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

CROCKER:

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House

of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to make the

necessary road repairs to Route 80 through the community of Winterton.

As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity this

afternoon to enter this petition on behalf of the residents of Winterton and

surrounding areas. Route 80 through

the Town of Winterton, actually, and going pretty much entirely through the Town

of Hant's Harbour is actually in a very, very poor condition.

It is some of the worst roads you will find in the district.

The department has addressed it with some cold patch from time to time,

but it is certainly not a solution.

The residents from both Hant's Harbour and Winterton and surrounding areas are

calling upon the Department of Works, Services and Transportation to look at

this issue and to address it sooner rather than later.

These roads are travelled heavily, Mr. Speaker, more so

this time of the year with the vibrant fishing industry and processing industry

in the area, as well with the ever growing tourism industry in the District of

Trinity Bay de Verde.

Mr. Speaker, there are other issues around this

section

of road, in particular, than others throughout the district.

One of the issues with this

section of road also is brush cutting.

There was some brush cutting completed this past season in the area of

New Melbourne and New Chelsea, but there is a

section from Hant's Harbour into

Winterton that really requires attention when it comes to brush cutting.

I urge the minister to take a serious look at this brush cutting come

this fall when the department is able to do brush cutting again.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I call upon the minister, I call

upon the government to address this issue on Route 80 in Winterton and

continuing into Hant's Harbour with this

section of road in particular.

There are many other sections of road in the district that also require

attention. Anyway, Mr. Speaker, that

is a topic for another day.

I call upon the minister to have a serious look at this

section of Route 80.

Thank you very much.

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for St. Barbe.

MR.

J. BENNETT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A petition t o the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and

Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned humbly

sheweth:

WHEREAS there is no

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

Gros Morne National Park; and

WHEREAS visitors to

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

cellphone when they visit the park; and

WHEREAS cellphone

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

WHEREAS cellphone

service is an essential safety tool for visitors and residents; and

WHEREAS cellphone

service is essential for business development;

WHEREUPON the

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

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

sector to extend cellphone coverage throughout Gros Morne National Park, and the

enclave community of Trout River.

As in duty bound,

your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, a year ago Trout River was more or less

the centre of the universe if you consider a potentially exploding blue whale.

It is approximately a year ago that the blue whale issue was ongoing.

Another year has passed and there is no movement on cellphones.

Not only no movement on cellphones, no movement, no

initiative, no steps forward whatsoever by this government to engage any private

sector carrier to just have a look at the situation, just try to work with them

to see what are the possibilities.

Mr. Speaker, if we never ever attempt to try to figure out, (a), we know what

the problem is, (b), what is the solution, and can we price the solution, we

cannot possibly make any progress forward.

Even if we were to start today, it would still take considerable time to

move this forward.

In the course of the past year-and-a-half, two years

since I have been presenting copies of this petition, they just keep coming

forward all the time. I had an

opportunity to attempt to work with Bell Mobility in Ontario.

I was referred there. My

office did a search throughout the entire area of St. Barbe district to identify

potential towers that they could use to piggyback on top of those existing

towers.

Bell Mobility did not know that Bell Aliant had a tower

on Cow Head that was quite suitable.

They took enough steps forward that they were quite keen to have cellphone

service, even to the point of providing me with a map that would show the new

coverage and this new coverage would not actually cover Trout River, but it

would cover the northern half of Gros Morne National Park.

So the whole area where people take the crews in through the Western

Brook Pond, which is actually a fjord, they would have cellphone coverage.

The amount of additional benefit that this would have

provided was enormous. For some

reason after beginning to move forward, this government put on the brakes and

stopped.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour Grace.

MR.

SLADE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of Assembly in the Province of

Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the

undersigned humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS the speed limit is 100 kilometres an hour on

the Veteran's Memorial Highway; and

WHEREAS traffic entering and exiting Veteran's Memorial

Highway is often heavy at Jamie's Way intersection; and

WHEREAS because of heavy traffic turning left onto

Jamie's Way having to cross traffic that is travelling 100 kilometres an hour

and higher is creating potential for a serious accident;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly

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

and Labrador to reduce the speed limit on Veteran's Memorial Highway in the area

of Jamie's Way to seventy kilometres an hour.

As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, this is a petition that I have been

brought here quite often. I would

like to say, now more so than ever, the importance of it the stadium is going

to be built up on the intersection of that road.

I would suggest to the minister to act a little bit quicker on it now

because it is a major issue. You

will be having much higher traffic in that area now due to the building of the

new stadium.

Mr. Speaker, I am just hoping that

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MR.

SLADE:

The

minister is over there saying that he is already on top of it, and I certainly

hope he is. We certainly would not

want any fatality in that area. It

is not that it has not been brought up here.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I am going to leave it that.

I am going to sit and take my chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.

DEMPSTER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of

Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the

undersigned humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS most communities in the District of Cartwright

L'Anse au Clair do not have cellphone coverage; and

WHEREAS residents of coastal Labrador require cellphone

coverage to ensure their safety and communications abilities; and

WHEREAS the opening of the Trans-Labrador Highway has

increased their dependency on mobile communications;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly

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

and Labrador to work with the appropriate agencies to provide cellphone coverage

along the Trans-Labrador Highway and to communities in coastal Labrador.

As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, when you get off the ferry or you arrive

at the airport in Quebec and you head down through the Labrador Straits, there

are a couple of communities that have cell coverage.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

DEMPSTER:

When you leave Red Bay you have about a 600-kilometre stretch on some of the

most desolate road and area, I would say, in Newfoundland and Labrador,

certainly lots of inclement weather there, Mr. Speaker.

Yet for that 600 or 700-kilometre stretch there is not one place where

you can use your cellphone not one.

I know cell coverage is very, very costly, Mr. Speaker.

We are not talking about small communities.

We are talking about a main artery that goes right through Labrador.

Tourists are going down. We

have recently opened up.

Mr. Speaker, I am just wondering what is the plan.

An ATIPP review recently revealed that for the last year there was

absolutely no dialogue between the Province and the feds on cell coverage for

this Province.

Not everywhere can we have cellphone coverage, we

recognize that. Surely, Mr. Speaker,

there is a plan as we progress forward, it is 2015, that certain areas, tourists

and residents who live in the area will be able to go in and will be able to use

cellphone services, especially for emergencies.

I am happy to enter this petition on behalf of the

residents of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.

I will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

Orders of the Day

Private Members' Day

MR.

SPEAKER:

now being 3:00 p.m., Private Members' Day, I go to the Member for Labrador West

to begin debate on his private member's motion.

The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

MCGRATH:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be able to stand today and

introduce this private member's resolution.

I would just like to read the resolution into the minutes for Hansard. :

BE IT RESOLVED that this hon. House supports the

government's decision to invest in the Province's thriving tourism industry

through initiatives that include providing for a $2 million increase in the

tourism marketing budget, bringing the total budget for tourism marketing to $13

million.

Mr. Speaker, when I read this private member's

resolution, as I was preparing to speak to it, I thought back; my background in

tourism goes back to the early 1980s.

In 1985 in my district in Labrador West, I got very involved with the

local at that time Regional Tourism Association.

In 1986 I took over as President of that association and then moved up

through different organizations involved in tourism within the Province.

I think one of the most significant organizations that

I was involved with and started out as just a member and then became a director,

went up through the executive level, so I spent about twelve to fourteen years

with Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador.

I have nothing but good to say about that organization.

They are a strong organization that represents the majority of tourism

operators within our Province.

I remember back actually it was quite a while ago

because Julie Bettney was the Minister of Tourism at the time.

I remember sitting the board room with Minister Bettney at that time and

we were dealing with a marketing budget of $2 million at the time.

It was a struggle, certainly for Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador,

which was the larger part of the marketing agency for tourism within the

Province. For the government to just

have $2 million to put into marketing, it was very difficult to do justice.

Since 2004, we now see that the marketing dollars are

at $13 million. I was involved in

many of the trade shows going to Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax,

certainly here in the capital city of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador

and being on the floor selling tourism as a market, as a destination.

When you had limited dollars to work with, it was very

difficult. Back in mid-1980s or

early 1990s most of it was done through paper.

You had face-to-face meetings.

You carried many, many brochures with you.

The travel brochure for the Province itself was one of the main

components of how people planned their trips.

Since then, certainly our marketing campaign, through

this government, with the advertising that we are doing we are world renowned

right now. We have won many, many

awards through our marketing campaign.

One of the comments that I hear, I still travel a fair

bit, and you are constantly I guess once you get tourism in your blood it is

always there. People are always

approaching you when they our accents are fairly distinctive, and when people

find out you are from Newfoundland and Labrador they want to talk to you about

the Province. Quite often they talk

about the ads that we use worldwide now.

I was out last night, actually.

Myself and one of my colleagues went to a restaurant downtown last night.

When we were walking to the restaurant, we saw a group of tourists.

There were about maybe sixty or seventy of them.

They were all staying in a couple of the hotels in the downtown area.

You could see these people were going out.

They are staying in a hotel.

They are eating in the restaurants.

They are using the local facilities here.

So, everybody is benefitting.

If you look at the numbers I am not going to get into

heavy stats, but when you look at different numbers with the air travel, with

road travel, the tourists who are coming in, that is all new dollars that are

coming into the Province.

Through our advertising, one of the main things and

quite often comments I hear from tourists is that when they watch those ads,

destination. So those ads are

working, but it costs money. I was

very pleased when the government decided in this year's Budget to make that

investment of an extra $2 million into the marketing for tourism for the

Province. I think it is money well

spent.

Another thing we need to realize is that for every

dollar a non-resident tourist spends within our Province, every dollar is new

money coming into the Province.

Outside of our residential tourism, which is money that moves from one part of

the Province to the other, we have the non-resident revenue that is coming in.

That brings big dividends. It

creates jobs. It diversifies the

economy.

Tourism is growing in our Province.

When we see where tourism is today, it is over a billion-dollar industry.

I think that is very important, but in order to sustain that industry, in

order to market that industry, you have to invest money into it.

I think our government realizes that.

As I said, since we started in this Administration, we have gone from a

$2 million marketing budget, now to a $13 million budget.

That is huge numbers.

Everything has increased in cost, and I have seen it where it has been very

difficult for the marketers to get.

I have gone to some of these trade shows, I will

mention one, the Toronto Travel and Leisure Show.

Normally, when we went to the Toronto Travel and Leisure Show, there was

a contingent that went from the Province representing the Province as a whole.

When we would get there, Newfoundland and Labrador would very

strategically be set up right at the entrance of the trade show.

So that when people came in, it was the loud, boisterous music, it was

the friendly faces on the people.

We went there as a contingent, normally between twenty

and twenty-four people, and you would be marketing different parts of the

Province. What was important is that

we were marketing it as one Province.

I was not there just selling Labrador West.

Someone was not there just selling Gander.

Someone was not there just selling the West Coast or Gros Morne.

We were selling it as a destination.

One of the big things we always try to do and you

hear people talk about it. I heard

the Premier comment on it when he spoke the other night.

People come to the Province and they often think, well, I am going to

take a couple of days, or they drive to Nova Scotia, get up to Cape Breton, I

must pop over to Newfoundland and spend a couple of days there.

When they get here they realize, I cannot see all of that in a couple of

days. That is what our marketing

campaigns clarify.

Our marketing campaign lets them know that Newfoundland

and Labrador is a destination, but then it shows very epic reasons why you would

come and spend two or three weeks in Newfoundland and Labrador.

That is the positive sides that we are seeing now from the tourists who

are coming to Newfoundland and Labrador.

We are starting to see that they come, and they are not coming by chance.

No tourist comes to Newfoundland and Labrador because they made a wrong

left-hand or right-hand turn in Nova Scotia, or because they made a wrong turn

in Baie-Comeau and they ended up in Labrador City.

That does not happen.

So, when they are coming to Newfoundland and Labrador,

when the tourists are coming here, they are coming by choice.

Newfoundland and Labrador is not just selling when you look at our ads,

we are not just selling a particular season.

Newfoundland and Labrador right now is becoming a year-round destination.

I know in my district, we have very long winters.

Through events such as Cain's Quest which the Province certainly

invests in and is advertised throughout the world we get world-renowned,

serious snowmobilers, endurance sledders who come from all over the world.

We have had them from Norway.

We have had them from Britain. We

have had them from Greenland, down throughout the United States, who come to

participate in that.

I have seen tourists come in the middle of the winter,

in February, and stay until March, to the latter part of March, be there for six

and eight weeks at a time. When they

are coming, they are spending money in the hotels.

They are eating in the restaurants.

They are not bringing mechanics with them.

When they have their sleds with them, they go out in the winter and they

ride for probably 200, 300 kilometres a day.

When they come back, they want to have a mechanic from a local service

station come pick up their machine and service their machine overnight so that

when they get up the next morning, all they have to do is get on their machine

and start riding again.

That is all new money.

That is non-residential money.

I know when I was in the industry myself, I had a very difficult time

and I chuckle at it now, because some of those people still work in the

department and we joke about it at times.

I had a very difficult time convincing the Premier of the Day, and that

was Danny Williams, convincing him and people within the department that Quebec,

for example, was a market that we should be tapping in to.

I had a very difficult time getting funding to go to

Bienvenue Quebec, because they felt it was not a market that was interested in

Newfoundland and Labrador, but because of the diversification we have used in

our marketing campaigns, they now realize that Quebec is a neighbour to

Labrador, and they are spending an awful lot of money, the people from Quebec.

For example, in a twelve-hour drive you can leave Quebec City, one of the

major hubs on the East Coast of Quebec, and you can be in the heart of Labrador.

You can be in Labrador West in that twelve-hour drive.

When they are coming, they are coming with their sleds

in the wintertime. In the

summertime, they are coming for hunting and fishing.

Opening the Trans-Labrador Highway is another huge investment, a huge

investment that this government has made that relates to tourism.

Now we can market Labrador.

I know one of the marketing campaigns for Labrador was the Last Frontier

in North America. I have had people

come up to me afterwards and say the advertising ads is what attracted them to

it. They are coming into Labrador

now and they are saying do not change it.

Make sure you do not change it because you are coming in and you are

seeing the natural beauties. That is

something that this government is very, very careful of.

When we are building an infrastructure to bring those people in, we are

being very careful that we also sustain and maintain what we have, what it is we

are advertising.

I am really, really pleased that this $2 million has

gone into the marketing campaign again this year.

I know it will be money well spent.

As I said, I think it is very important that it is a collective

arrangement that the government is working with the industry.

We work very closely with organizations such as

Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador.

We work with organizations such as Destination Labrador, Destination St.

John's, and Destination Gander.

Those organizations work with the government, using that $13 million, we all

work together to make sure that we are out marketing our Province as a unique

destination.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that the

new dollars that come in for every non-resident tourist they are bringing new

money into the Province. We also

have a very large residential tourism campaign that we use.

That is money that moves from one part of the Province to the other.

It is not new money, but getting that non-resident and I remember about

five years ago we focused, they take the money, the marketing dollars, and they

decide where they are going to spend it.

About five, six years ago they decided that they needed to get into

Central Canada. We noticed our

numbers were low in Central Canada.

We took a certain amount of that money.

At that time I think $11 million was in the marketing budget.

They took a good chunk of it and they focused on Manitoba and Alberta.

It was absolutely amazing how the numbers moved in those two provinces

from Manitoba and Alberta of residents from that particular part of the country

who were coming into Newfoundland and Labrador.

They were coming here again bringing in new money, spending new dollars.

I am running out of time, but I think one of the most

important things we need to realize with the tourism industry and with the

marketing that we do is that it is the small businesses that really benefit.

It is the corner stores, it is the restaurants, the B & Bs, the hotels

throughout the whole Province, they are the ones that are benefitting through

these non-resident tourism dollars that are coming in here that is going into

help all of those small businesses.

It is diversifying an economy that is growing.

We have really focused on building our shoulder seasons

and that is working. The golf clubs

working with the hoteliers so that in the off-seasons, in the shoulder season,

you can get a good package. These

are the things that are working.

I am really pleased that the $2 million is being put

in. I am looking forward to hearing

the debate on this today.

Thank you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER (Cross):

The

hon. the Member for Humber East.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

FLYNN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I did not rise to correct the member from

Labrador on the Budget where it was when he came into office, but it was at $6

million, not $1 million.

To stand up today and not be happy that the Budget

increased by $2 million would be unfortunate, even for us as Opposition who are

here to criticize the things that are not done.

Mr. Speaker, the reality is we are only now at the level that we were

three years ago. That is unfortunate

that the government is trying to pat itself on the back for the great job we are

doing in tourism.

What I would really like to do here today is point out

some of the things that has not been done, some that the industry is putting

forward and if time permits, I will certainly go down through some of that.

There is no question that we have some of the greatest ads produced

anywhere in the world. We have some

of the greatest product that is produced anywhere in the world and we give the

people in the Department of Tourism credit for doing that.

I want to say that right up front, right off the top;

however, the industry lost two years of growth and investment in this area when

the Budget was cut in 2013. To

suggest it is a big increase, it is a miracle that we are working with this year

that we got $2 million, is absolutely ludicrous because we are still only at

2013 levels. Everyone knows that a

dollar in 2013 is going to buy more than it will in 2015-2016.

What I find so ironic is that here is an industry that

actually brings money to the provincial economy, because if you look at the

ratio that the government is using, for every dollar that we spend on tourism

ads, we get $10 back in taxes. I

have been in business for a long time and I can tell you, if I could spend $1

and get $10 back, I would consider that great return on my investment.

There is no question that the investment we make in tourism pays the

provincial revenues back tenfold.

The workforce in this Province, directly from the

tourism industry, is 8 per cent, and that is significant.

That is, I think, the third highest level of workers in the Province

working in the tourism field. This

two-year reduction in the marketing expenditure, in my view, has hurt the

industry and, indeed, it has hurt the Province.

Truly, it is total incompetence on behalf of this government in its

decision to cut the tourism budget by $2 million back in 2013.

The Tourism Vision 2020 called for doubling the value

of tourism in this Province by 2020.

The current trend indicates we are in real problems with meeting that goal.

In 2014, non-resident visitors were roughly 508,000.

While airline travel was up by 5.8 per cent in 2014, automobile travel

and cruise visitor travel were down significantly.

As a matter of fact, automobile dropped 7.3 per cent in

one year and if you spread that over ten years, the actual reality is that the

traffic has been down significantly by 35 per cent over ten years.

What is really striking about this is that most of these would have come

in on Marine Atlantic and you know the best that this government could produce

to me when I asked for it, is that they have sent two letters to Marine Atlantic

voicing their concern about the rate increases on Marine Atlantic.

I think that is unfortunate.

This has a big impact on rural Newfoundland and Labrador in developing that

industry there.

Cruise ships were down significantly by 13 per cent up

to last year. Air and automobile

combined is down another 2.2 per cent over 2014 so far this year.

It is important that we keep a perspective on this because our tourism to

the rural parts of this Province depends significantly on the use of Marine

Atlantic.

Non-resident automobile travel was down 7.6 per cent

alone last year on Marine Atlantic.

All of these numbers are important because we are talking initiatives that this

government has undertaken; but, certainly, we have failed to recognize, this

government has failed to recognize the importance of Marine Atlantic

transportation to this Province.

I think it is revealing that in a news release that was

issued on December 24, 2014 when actually no one was paying attention that day,

on Christmas Eve after all, and the minister put out a press release saying: We

are clearly in the best position we have ever been in as an industry.

Our brand is stronger than ever and our Find Yourself campaign has become

one of the most recognizable advertising campaigns in the country.

Tourism spending reached $1 billion for the first time in 2011, putting

us well ahead of

schedule for achieving our Vision 2020 goal.

This is just not so, and I challenge the government on

this information. We have to

question some of the statistics. I,

too, was a part of the tourism industry for forty years, Mr. Speaker, and we are

using statistics that are five years old.

It is one thing to say that we had 5,800 non-resident visitors last year,

but we really, really do not know who they are.

We do not know if they are really real tourists or not.

They could be people who have lost their jobs in this

Province and are going to Alberta to go to work.

It could be business travellers coming to St. John's.

So truthfully, because we have not done an air-auto exit in five years,

we really do not know because traffic patterns have changed.

We also have not done an annual update on these numbers. So for me to

stand and say oh, the great work that this government is doing, there is

certainly more that could be done.

Because we are really not given, I believe, the exact picture of what this

tourism industry is in the Province.

Our big problem is that we are advertising our Province

and making our citizens very proud and that is great; I hear that right

throughout the Province of the great ads that we have.

We hope that tourists who are coming here, the experiences that they get

will meet the expectations that they have once seeing these ads.

There are problems being created by the approach this

government is using. I would like to

point out one, the Minister of Environment, back some time ago: The adventure

tourism in hunting and fishing are primary areas for our tourism marketing.

Yet we just hit outfitters, the people who deliver the experience in this

Province to the tourist, we just hit them with a 50 per cent increase.

It is absolutely ridiculous, shameful.

HON. MEMBER:

With no warning.

MR.

FLYNN:

warning, no consultation. I

challenge the minister to produce on the table the paper where he discussed that

with the department of tourism. Not

only did they introduce it, they made it retroactive.

So there was no consultation with the outfitters.

There was nothing done before they moved on this plan.

So local outfitters now who were going to reinvest into better beds, or

new pillows, or whatever the case might be in their lodge, have had to pull back

on that. As a result, our tourism

industry will no doubt suffer as a result of it.

While it is nice to see that money being spent in

advertising, there is more to building an industry than painting a picture.

That is the reality of what this government is trying to do.

We have a number of our own provincial sites that the

government is responsible for. If I

was allowed to bring props into the House today I would put a prop up showing

the Bonavista Lighthouse where there is absolutely no paint left on that

building and it has been like it for some time.

Although there was money, I understand, in the Budget this year to do

that work. It still does not rule

out the fact that it has been neglected for far too long.

MR.

WISEMAN:

Ready in September.

MR.

FLYNN:

The

Minister of Finance said it will be ready in September.

Well that shows really the good planning of the government.

Once the tourists leave, we will paint the building.

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MR.

FLYNN:

Well, the horse is out of the barn at that point, I say to the Speaker.

The other big issue not that I have, this is an issue

that the operators have. The

government is violating their own regulations.

Inspections are required and they are being ignored.

Unlicensed properties are operating without proper oversight.

Listen, if it was just because of the credit card, I

could look over that. The Premier

stood in the House when I asked a question last week and he talked about if

there is an issue with a property, give the office a call.

Well, I say to the Premier in this speech today, there are issues.

His own inspection agency has identified over 150 properties across this

Province that are operating illegally and the department of tourism is turning a

blind eye to it.

It has been in the papers by the industry association,

yet we are turning a blind eye to it.

Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, do you know what the department

actually does to some of the outfitters out there?

It is too far to go in and see if you have a fire extinguisher or that we

have a smoke detector. They are

actually sending out licensing without any inspections at all.

We had a case in Marystown where three people nearly burnt to death

because the property was not inspected, and that is unfortunate that these

things are happening in our tourism industry today.

Today, I asked about the tourism directional signage

and still, Mr. Speaker, since 2009 when the government brought this in, they

have left it and it is an issue for the industry.

Let's talk about the staff the Member for Labrador

West got up and talked about the great effort in Labrador.

Well, guess what? What

happened to the tourism officers that were in Labrador?

Completely pulled out, no one there to help with the development of the

tourism industry. It is a frontier

and we should be respecting that it is a frontier and we do need support for its

development and growth.

Unfortunately again, we have lost this opportunity.

I could give you more statistics where the numbers are

showing that in 2014-2015 traffic is already coming down to this Province.

We recognize that there will be a need to really take a look at Marine

Atlantic, but let's talk about our own ferry system.

I know my colleague is going to speak on this motion as well, but let's

They are going to do another one just to waste more time.

I wish that my colleague for Labrador West would have remained Minister

of Transportation because at least he would have understood the challenges that

we have there.

Let's stop making assumptions on the tourism that we

are proudly saying we have here. It

is a great industry, but we really have to start planning for the long term, not

for tomorrow and then we plan tomorrow for the next day.

This has to be long planning.

We have to set a good foundation and if we are committed to the industry as this

government says they are, let's make some sound plans for the future.

In conclusion, because I have fifty seconds left, the

Vision 2020 plan fell short in meeting their strategic goals.

There were seven of them: private partner leadership, short; Sustainable

Transport Network, short; Marketing Intelligence & Research Strategy, short;

Product Development, short; Tourism Technology, short; brand marketing, short;

workforce development, short. They

have not met one, not one, of the objectives that was set out in the 2020 plan.

So how can we stand up today and pat ourselves on the

back saying, what a great industry we have, this government has built it, while

it is the hardworking people out in the community that has built this industry

on their tax dollars, and let's see that it is spent well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Port au Port.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CORNECT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It certainly is a delight to stand up today

representing the great and cultural District of Port au Port to speak to this

private member's resolution.

BE IT RESOLVED that this hon. House supports the

government's decision to invest in the Province's thriving tourism industry

through initiatives that include providing for a $2 million increase in the

tourism marketing budget, bringing the total budget for tourism marketing to $13

million.

That private member's resolution was brought forth by

my colleague, the hon. Member for Labrador West.

I was listening attentively to the Member for Humber

East moments ago who spoke about this motion, and it is so negative about the

impacts of tourism on our economy.

HON. MEMBER:

was an operator, that is why.

MR.

CORNECT:

Mr.

Speaker, he was an operator. So

obviously, and from my account of what people tell me, he was pretty successful.

If he was a successful operator in tourism, tourism must be working here

in the Province to be successful. I

say to the member, you cannot have it both ways.

I am also thrilled this afternoon to be seconding the

motion. As you know, the tourism

sector falls within the Department of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural

Development. This department is the

lead for the economic tourism, culture and innovative agenda of our government.

It is also responsible for strengthening and

diversifying the economy on a provincial and regional basis, supporting economic

growth and employment in the tourism industry, cultivating contemporary arts,

and preserving the Province's cultural heritage.

The department also establishes and operates historic sites, visitor

information centres, and the Arts and Culture Centres.

In the tourism, culture, and heritage sectors, Mr.

Speaker, Budget 2015: Balancing Choices

for a Promising Future has allocated a total of $52,216,300, according to

the Estimates and the Budget we just passed in the House of Assembly just a

couple of days ago.

Mr. Speaker, when we talk about tourism marketing, the

allocated money goes to the development and implementation of a fully integrated

marketing program targeted to potential non-resident and resident visitors and

designed to market the Province as a unique tourism destination for the purpose

of economic growth. Funding for the

culture and heritage sectors goes to support the preservation, management, and

development of our arts and heritage, to the operation of historic sites,

archeological programs, and programming support to the arts and heritage

sectors.

As I previously mentioned, Mr. Speaker, we support the

Arts and Culture Centres in our Province, and I am very proud to say there is

one in Stephenville, in my region.

It is a beautiful facility. The

exterior of the building was completely renovated just a couple of years ago.

Also, we saw some improvements and upgrades to the main stage of the Arts

and Culture Centre, the main theatre.

Also, Mr. Speaker, a few years ago a second stage was

added to the facility. There was

some space available within the building; that was converted to a second stage

to house smaller activities and shows.

I say this because the Arts and Culture Centre in Stephenville is very

actively involved in the promotion of the arts, the culture, and the music of

our Province and region. It promotes

the visiting artists, provincial artists, local artists, and emerging stars.

Mr. Speaker, one of the fascinating features of the

Arts and Culture Centre in Stephenville is that it is home to the Stephenville

Theatre Festival. The Stephenville

Theatre Festival is celebrating its thirty-seventh season this year.

It has dazzled audiences of all ages from every corner of the world for

many, many years. We are also very

proud as a government to be a funding partner of the Stephenville Theatre

Festival through the Cultural, Economic Development Program.

The partnership with the Stephenville Theatre Festival helps with the

marketing initiatives to bring tourists here to our Province and in our

communities.

Also, Mr. Speaker, over the next couple of years the

Bay St. George Region is gearing up to recognize the fiftieth anniversary of the

closure of the Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville.

The Stephenville Cultural Destination Committee has been set up in the

area with representatives from the community and various sectors.

Mr. Speaker, it is planning to mark this anniversary with a lot of

events.

As well, Mr. Speaker, they will also mark the 100

anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel next year.

In fact, I am very honoured and privileged to say that my great uncle

Eugene Cornect, Regimental 429, fought the battle, though wounded survived.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

CORNECT:

am proud to say, Mr. Speaker, that our government has partnered with the

Stephenville Cultural Destination Committee to a tune of over $63,000 so that

those events and those activities planned can take place.

Also, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about tourism and

driving forces behind the development and growth of tourism within the Province,

in my district as well, there is a Gravels Development Group which operates the

Our Lady of Mercy Complex and walking trail.

The complex is home to probably the largest wooden structure in

Newfoundland and Labrador, Our Lady of Mercy Heritage Church.

It is over 100 years old. It

proudly displays the creative and innovative local craftsmanship, the marble

Stations of the Cross, the original statutes and altars.

It is absolutely outstanding.

Even today, Mr. Speaker, its colourful, stained glass which makes the church

look magnificent.

Mr. Speaker, the museum, in the former parish rectory,

is a museum of literature and artifacts from right across the Port au Port

Peninsula. It tells the story of the

people and the communities that persevered and survived, and continue to share

their experiences and make us strong, proud, and vibrant.

Also, Mr. Speaker, in my district we have the French,

the Acadian, and the Mi'kmaq cultures that has made our region one of distinct

notoriety. Me, like so many others

in our Province, are so very proud of our culture, our language, and our

heritage.

We have opened our homes and our hearts to visitors

from all over who come to learn and to experience our resilience and our

survival. We do it through song and

dance, storytelling and theatre, education and learning, festivals and events,

through celebration and commemoration.

Knowing who we are and where we come from, defines our story that the

world awaits to hear.

In my district, Mr. Speaker, there are many festivals

and events that are held annually that attract many visitors.

[French spoken]

Again, Mr. Speaker, these events, activities, and

festivals draw residents, non-residents, and former residents to our Province to

explore and celebrate what we have to offer.

This means that there will be more tourists using our accommodations,

visiting our museums, and dining out.

It means that more people will spend their money here, bringing more

money to our Province, and growing our economy.

Mr. Speaker, in just a few short years, tourism in this

Province has grown to be a billion-dollar industry.

That is right, a billion with a B.

This motion this afternoon is about investing good money into sectors

that will grow the economy by creating jobs, short and long term, creating

opportunities for existing business to grow and to expand, to attracting new

businesses, and to showcasing our people, our culture, our heritage, and our

hospitality.

We provide funding, Mr. Speaker, to the Newfoundland

and Labrador Arts Council which supports the artistic development of visual and

performing artists. Our music, our

arts, and our celebrations have been a cornerstone to preserving and promoting

who we are and where we come from.

When we talk about tourism, Mr. Speaker, and ask how we

can attract tourists, there are a number of things we can do to improve our

destination as a place to visit as well.

We as a government have been doing this through investments to community

infrastructure such as water, sewer, recreation, fire and emergency services,

and health and community services.

We allocated monies, Mr. Speaker, in our Budget to

support Visitor Information Centres to better inform tourists of what our

Province and regions have to offer.

Some other initiatives our government has undertaken over the last number of

years to improve services for tourists who visit our Province is our investments

in the Rural Broadband Initiative or telecommunications.

Since 2003, Mr. Speaker, our government has invested

over $34 million and leveraged more than $121 million from other sources to

improve broadband access in Newfoundland and Labrador, for a total investment of

over $155 million. This investment

will bring the total population connected to 98 per cent, mostly in rural parts

of the Province so that it can be a benefit to the residents of the Province and

also a benefit to those who are visiting our Province as well.

In Transportation and Works, strategic investments are

being made on roads and highways across Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our government has invested $1.7 billion since 2004 in marine vessels,

the provincial roads program, the Trans-Labrador Highway, on ferry terminals and

wharves, and on airport and airstrip infrastructure.

Such investment, Mr. Speaker, not only ensures safe and reliable

transportation networks for families in communities across the Province, but

also for the many tourists who visit every year.

The new 911 system will ensure individuals who are

experiencing an emergency will now be able to access emergency services by

simply calling or dialing 911, another benefit for the residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador as well as tourists and businesses.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, from 2012 to 2014 the provincial

tourism website registered more than 963,000 referrals to tourism operators from

business listings and more 7,500 referrals from package listings.

From January to March of this year visits to

www.newfoundlandlabrador.com

reached more than 508,000 sessions an increase of 13.3 per cent compared to

the same period in 2014. These

indicators mean one thing and one thing important: The world is taking notice of

all that Newfoundland and Labrador has to offer and tourists are not only

visiting our web sites, but they are visiting Newfoundland and Labrador.

They are coming here to our Province; they are coming to our communities.

Our 2014 year-end reports tell us that the number of

non-resident, automobile, air, and cruise visitors travelling to the Province

reached an estimated 507,901 visitors, an increase of 2 per cent over 2013.

The number of non-resident air visitors travelling the Province reached

an estimated 388,436, an increase of 5.8 per cent since 2013.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot do it alone.

It takes partnerships, it takes investments, it takes participation, and

it takes commitment and determination to do it and to get it done.

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

CORNECT:

I know the Member for Labrador West and I have had our moments in the

House, but there is certainly something we can agree on here today and that is

the importance of our tourist industry in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I sat and watched he and my colleague here debate I

guess the high points, the dollars that have been spent, the dollars that have

not been spent. They are working at a

different level in tourism than I am.

They have been at this most of their lives; they have been in business in

tourism.

I want to take the opportunity today when I was a

child, my family vacationed at home.

We camped. We travelled

Newfoundland. We got to know the

Island. My son was here today; we

did the same thing when he was growing up.

I have coached throughout the Province so I have taken students

throughout our Island and always taken the opportunity to talk to them about the

significance of where they are, what they are seeing, what towns they are in,

and so on. As a teacher I taught

Newfoundland history. I taught

Newfoundland geography. So when I

retired, I found myself contracted by a local tour company to do tours

throughout this Province.

Mr. Speaker, that is where I want to speak from today.

While this motion talks about the marketing and more money into the

marketing of the tourist product, I want to talk a little bit about my

experiences on the ground after those tourists arrive, and talk about maybe some

of the details that we do not see, some of the details that need to be cleared

up to make the visits by people to our Province a little bit smoother in some

ways.

I am not here to lay blame.

I know some of the issues that I will talk about today are federal

issues. Most of them are provincial

issues. Some of them are issues that

private enterprise can solve. Maybe

some of them are issues that organizations such as the ones that my colleagues

have been Chairs of may be able to solve as well.

I want to take you on the tour that I do.

We will stop at some of the places and some of the very, very positive

things that I see, some of the things that I see as details that we have missed

here in the Province that we need to fix to make that experience a little bit

better.

My tour starts in Deer Lake.

I meet my tourists as they come in.

They fly into Deer Lake and then transfer to Corner Brook.

We stay at the Glynmill Inn in Corner Brook.

I fly into Deer Lake on a Wednesday, they fly in that same day, and we do

the transfers.

Mr. Speaker, they are all excited.

They have seen the ads that we have talked about.

They have read the literature.

They are ready to go. It is a

diverse group. Many of them are

world travellers. Many of them have

vacationed in Europe, many have vacationed in Alaska, many of them have

vacationed in Asia, and now they are ready to do Newfoundland.

Some of them have been saving up for a long time and now find themselves

doing this as either a retirement gift or an anniversary gift.

So we have a broad range of a socio-economic group, as well as a broad

range of experiences in terms of having travelled in the past.

Mr. Speaker, we all gather at the Glynmill Inn.

The first challenge that I have is when I get a note or an email saying I

have four people who could not get in this afternoon and they will not be able

to get a flight in until midnight tonight.

So my job at that point in time is to rearrange the schedule, find taxi

transportation to get them back into Corner Brook, meet them at maybe 1:30 a.m.

or 2:00 a.m., and then tell them that our alarm will go off at 6:00 tomorrow

morning so that we can get up on the road.

Trying to get that last group in, that is the first challenge.

I am not sure whose issue it is, but it is an issue that invariably

happens.

The first day we start at Cook Lookout in Corner Brook.

From there we are headed for Plum Point and take a side trip through Gros

Morne. The last trip I made, when we

went through Gros Morne it was all fog so we saw nothing.

On the way back a couple of days later, the comment was well, we kept it

in a shroud on the way up so that you could see it on the way back.

The first stop is Plum Point.

We are spending the first night in Plum Point.

I go back to a petition that my colleague for Trinity Bay de Verde has

been bringing forward about a burned-out building opposite Northern Bay Sands.

For three years there has been a burned-out building opposite the hotel

where we stayed in Plum Point.

Beautiful scenery on the back, looking out over the bay and so on, the sunset on

the West Coast, but on the front of the building we have a burned-out building.

The next day, Mr. Speaker, we are heading for St.

Anthony. We are going to go to St.

Anthony and come back the same day.

The biggest issue we have on that run and St. Anthony is a great show with

L'Anse aux Meadows and so on, but the issue is road conditions.

I have a professional driver with me, and he spends most of his day

driving down the middle of the road.

Shoulders are broken, the road is potholed.

I have thirty-five tourists and they are wondering why we are going down

the middle of the road.

That is the norm in many parts of this Province.

That is a norm that if we are going to have people coming, paying big

amounts of money, taking expensive equipment over those roads, those roads need

to be in better repair.

Mr. Speaker, obviously we are not going to finish my

tour today, but there are a couple of points I want to make.

One of the issues is crossing on the ferry my colleague mentioned.

We spend the day over in Labrador.

As you can imagine, most of my group is over seventy-five, between

seventy-five and ninety. So we have

to get across on the ferry. It means

a 5:00 a.m. rise for these people to get them on the ferry and get them across.

We spent the day and go down as far as Red Bay and stop at L'Anse-Amour.

I keep saying to my colleague from

Cartwright L'Anse au Clair, what a great spot it is and probably the most

missed tourist spot in the Province.

It is beautiful, but it has a dirt road.

Let's go back to the ferry.

On the way back, we spend the night in L'Anse au Clair.

The next morning we are up at 5:00 a.m. to get on the ferry.

Mr. Speaker, I have just taken thirty-five senior citizens out of their

beds at 5:00 a.m. two mornings in a row.

HON. MEMBER:

Why?

MR.

HILLIER:

The

reason being is they will not give me a ticket to get on the ferry unless I

arrive, stop the bus, leave these people on the bus, go in, and go through the

process of purchasing a ticket. I

have offered to go down the night before and pick up the ticket so I could leave

my people in bed. No, not possible.

I cannot do it online. The

technology is not there to do it online, Mr. Speaker.

Those are the kinds of details that seem so easy to fix.

Mr. Speaker, we come back and we stop at the Arches

Provincial Park, a beautiful spot in this Province.

It is clean. It is

geologically significant. The issue

that is at the Arches is one I face for the whole of my trip.

I have thirty-five seniors and at the Arches you have one pit toilet.

Remember I have senior citizens and we do not have bathroom facilities.

That is a reality when you are travelling with seniors.

People ask me how I decide where to stop with seniors.

One of the biggest issues in stopping with seniors, and I guess with

anybody, is that you have to have bathroom facilities.

At the Arches you do not have that situation, Mr. Speaker.

We spend some time in Gros Morne, and then back across

the Province. We run down to

Twillingate. We go down to

Bonavista. Down in Bonavista we

talked about the lighthouse earlier.

We did not get to Elliston because the road was too bad.

Unfortunately, we have the cellar capital of the world and we have the

new monument down there, but we chose not to go.

We go to the Dungeon there.

We have lunch in Bonavista and invariably people would

look out the window of the restaurant and say: What is that big garage there?

The big garage is where they store the replica of the

Matthew that we have not seen in many summers.

It is there, but it is not being used.

Those are simple details, Mr. Speaker, that can be solved.

Mr. Speaker, as we come back across the isthmus, when I

get close to Heart's Content I start talking about communications

HON. MEMBER:

Hear, Hear 150 years.

MR.

HILLIER:

One

hundred and fifty years. We talk

about the laying of the Transatlantic cable.

Mr. Speaker, one of the other issues I have, my job as

a tour guide, as we travel I have to call ahead to make sure that my rooms are

set for tomorrow night. I have to

give my lunch orders for tomorrow, and if I am moving, pulling into a restaurant

for lunch, I have to let them know we are half-hour out or an hour out and we

will be there at such-and-such a time.

HON. MEMBER:

is not going to happen in Trinity Bay de Verde.

MR.

HILLIER:

is not going to happen in Trinity Bay de Verde.

I could have talked about this running up through Cartwright L'Anse au

Clair, but I did not. You are

totally out in the wilderness, and you have to have your bus if you can find

three bars, you say to the driver stop, I have to make my calls here.

It is an issue right across the Province.

Mr. Speaker, not only for me, it is for people who have

travelled to this Province and want to be able to contact relatives back home at

any given time. They cannot in many,

many locations throughout this Province, as various of my colleagues have

mentioned in their debate and in their petitions and so on.

It is not something they have just made up to bring forward.

It is a real issue, as we move right across the Province.

Mr. Speaker, as we come on to the Avalon, our next stop

is Witless Bay. We are going to go

whale watching with O'Brien's Tours, and out to the bird islands.

Because one of the things these people want to see, they want to see the

puffins. How many of you have gone

across Witless Bay Line on a bus?

Again, Mr. Speaker, we are running down the middle of the highway with the

yellow line going straight through under the bus.

Mr. Speaker, like I said, we will not finish my tour

today. It is a fabulous tour.

People see a fabulous product, as has been discussed here today, but

there are details we need to deal with.

I heard one of my colleagues as a tour guide say: Rex,

what do they see that we do not see?

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to see our Province through somebody else's

eyes. They see things in our

communities, they see the positive things in our communities that we do not see.

Not only that, they also see those details that sometimes we ignore.

Mr. Speaker, it has been an honour for me to be able to take people

throughout our Province to show them these pieces.

I will give you an example of the impact of tourism on

Newfoundland and Labrador. We go

down to a little place just outside Twillingate, called Little Harbour.

I am not sure how many people are there, but we have a tour bus that goes

in there every Thursday morning.

Thirty-five wealthy tourists get off that bus and go into the gift shop in

Little Harbour every Thursday morning.

Just imagine the impact on a place such as Little Harbour with, I do not

know, fifty people. Seventeen times

a summer, thirty-five people get off a bus and spend their money in Little

Harbour.

Unfortunately, the people of Little Harbour are aging.

Mr. Speaker, that is another issue these people say to me: Rex, where are

the children in these communities?

It is unfortunate to be able to say to them, these communities are dying and the

children are elsewhere.

Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to speak on this

topic.

Thank you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Bonavista South.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am delighted and honoured to be able to speak in this

House of Assembly today to represent the great people of the District of

Bonavista South, and in particular the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Today, I have prepared in my mind some notes in relation to how I was

going to respond to this very important private member's resolution that is

related to tourism.

While I listened very carefully to the Opposition

members who spoke the Member for Humber East and the Member for Conception Bay

South, I believe they highlighted some of what they mentioned were concerns in

the District of Bonavista South. I

would like to take my time to rebut.

I do not like to speak negatively.

Usually when I speak, I am speaking positively about my district, but I

have no other choice but to rebut some of the comments that were made in the

House of Assembly today by members opposite.

In particular, one, the Bonavista Lighthouse, that is actually positioned

on Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Actually, the Province of Newfoundland, and in particular this

government, invested substantially in relation to doing repairs to the Bonavista

Lighthouse.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

Anyone can visit that site and see clearly.

In actual fact, Mr. Speaker, there are a number of buildings on that

site, and we as a Province invest on a continued basis $1.2 million on a

multi-year plan that takes care of provincial historic sites.

I am going to give the facts here today, Mr. Speaker,

on what is happening in the District of Bonavista South in particular.

When you look at buildings that are adjacent to the Bonavista Lighthouse,

yes, there is a need to have some enhancement, some upgrades done there.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker? This

year, this government invested $75,000 to actually improve the enhancement of

the buildings adjacent to the Bonavista Lighthouse.

HON. MEMBER:

How

much?

relation to the road from Bonavista to Elliston that the Member for Conception

Bay South mentioned, there are repairs on that road, Mr. Speaker.

As the Member for Bonavista South, I actually sat down and met with

council officials in the Town of Elliston and the Town of Bonavista and there

will be continued improvements to the road from Bonavista to Elliston.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

do not know who you talked to, I do not know who you are talking to or who you

are getting your information from, but I will give the facts on the District of

Bonavista South, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

Now

that is not the road I wanted to go down, but I had no other choice but to rebut

and correct the members across the way who got up in this House today and made

some incorrect statements, Mr. Speaker.

Anyway, I got up on my feet here today and I corrected

some of the statements that were made on behalf of the great people of the

District of Bonavista South.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

We,

as a government, most recently invested $1.1 million in the Town of Bonavista,

Mr. Speaker. From the Department of

Business, Culture I always mix that department up Business, Tourism, Culture

and Rural Development. We made a big

announcement recently in the Town of Bonavista, an announcement that included

Phase III of the harbour front development.

I would like, and I will put an offer out to anyone on the opposite site

This government works very close with the players in the tourism industry very

close. We take the tourism industry

very seriously, Mr. Speaker. That is

not just words; we can give the facts and we can put out the numbers in relation

to what we do as a government.

We will continue to support the growing tourism

industry that we were a big part of actually creating, Mr. Speaker.

This government on this side of the House invested money in the tourism

industry over and over and over.

What are we doing as a Province?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

What are we doing? What we are doing

is working, Mr. Speaker. It is

working. Look at all that is

happening in the industry: innovation, creativity, a celebration of our culture,

an exploration of heritage, and great business opportunities.

This is what this government is all about, working in partnerships with

the communities all over the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

do have a track record of working in partnerships to make it work.

We will continue as a government to make it work, Mr. Speaker.

I am proud to share information.

Between 2009 and 2014, non-resident visitations increased by 22 per cent,

Mr. Speaker, while non-resident tourism spending increased by 36 per cent.

These are the facts that I am putting out to the people of Newfoundland

and Labrador today. These are the

facts that for some reason the Opposition does not want to listen to.

They do not pay attention.

Definitely, they do not pay attention to some of the programs and investments

that this government puts out there.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER (Littlejohn):

Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Bonavista South.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR.

LITTLE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me protection.

The other side is very outspoken.

They do not want to listen to some of the facts that I am putting out to

the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I will continue to put them out there, and I will continue to speak about

the positive things that this government does on behalf of the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador.

Actually, in 2014, $491 million has been spent in this

Province through tourism $491 million, what a substantial amount of money.

This is money that was spent in relation to people who actually visited

the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

You say where did it go? You

are not listening. Obviously, you

are not listening on the other side.

Mr. Speaker, I will continue to roll out and some of the members on this side of

the House will continue to roll out the facts as they relate to the tourism

industry.

In the past three years alone, our Province welcomed

more than 1.5 million visitors from outside of this Province, Mr. Speaker 1.5

million visitors from outside this Province.

Each and every visitor spent money in the communities in Newfoundland and

Labrador, in the businesses

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh,

oh!

MR.

SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR.

LITTLE:

Mr.

Speaker, they spent money in every community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

There are many, many good stories that we can discuss in this House of

Assembly about the economic business and how it relates to the tourism industry

and the co

Document details

Collection	Newfoundland and Labrador — Debates (Hansard)
Citation	2015-06-10
Type	hansard
Volume / chapter	2015-06-10
Language	en
Format	htm
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	b9abe48cbec634238df17423d6f4e577b4fba728

Source file is stored in the law ingest library (htm).