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April 26, 2016

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. XLVIII No. 17

The

House met at 1:30 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Osborne):

Order, please!

Admit

strangers.

Statements by

Members

MR. SPEAKER:

Today for Members' statements

we have the Members for the Districts of Harbour Grace Port de Grave, Fogo

Island Cape Freels, Conception Bay South, Placentia West Bellevue, Virginia

Waters Pleasantville and Topsail Paradise.

recognize the hon. the Member for Harbour Grace Port de Grave.

MS. P. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is

with great pride that I stand to recognize the seniors of Harbour Grace Port

de Grave District.

There

are several volunteer organizations throughout our communities such as the

Fifty-Plus Club of Bay Roberts, the Goodwill Seniors Club of Spaniard's

Bay-Tilton, the New Horizons 50-Plus Club of Bishop's Cove, St. Peter's Seniors

of Upper Island Cove, St. Paul's Fun and Fitness in Harbour Grace and St. Luke's

group of Port de Grave.

Each of

these volunteer organizations promotes healthy living, vitality, community

spirit and camaraderie. These clubs maintain active programs that serve the

needs of the membership and surrounding communities. Our fun-loving seniors

participate in activities from bowling, water aerobics, afternoon tea parties to

keeping fit with vigorous workouts and much more.

Seniors

are role models, our first teachers and pioneers. They are to be commended on

their dedication to community, their health and each other. They are special

residents who are respected and loved by all.

Please

join me in thanking all seniors of Harbour Grace Port de Grave, and across our

province, for building a strong Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Fogo

Island Cape Freels.

MR. BRAGG:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise

in this hon. House today to recognize the achievements of a high school drama

troupe and a high school drama teacher from my district.

At the

Regional Theatre Festival in Gander, which was held on April 5 and 6, Pearson

Academy performed Van Gogh's Ear . This

play, written by Craig Loder and Michael Rogers, captivated audiences at the

festival. Craig Loder is a triple threat, also serving as Pearson's drama

teacher and director of the play.

The

adjudicator of the competition was well-known actress Berni Stapleton, who had

strong words of encouragement for all participants in the regional competition.

She also had high praise for Pearson Academy.

The

school's drama team ended up receiving 12 awards at the festival, including Best

Overall Performance. For winning the competition, Pearson Academy will perform

Van Gogh's Ear on behalf of the

Central Region at the provincial drama competition which will be held in Gander

later this week.

I ask

all Members of this hon. House to join me in celebrating the accomplishments of

Pearson Academy's drama team and the multiple talents of their teacher, Craig

Loder.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Conception Bay South.

MR. PETTEN:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, the Town of Conception Bay South is home to many of this province's

finest athletes. On February 25, my colleague, the MHA for Topsail Paradise,

and I attended the 2015 Athletic Awards Ceremony to recognize the achievements

of the town's athletes.

During

the evening, all nominees for the five award categories were honoured, and the

following athletes were recipients of the 2015 awards: Coach of the Year, Mr.

Robin Brown; Junior Male Athlete of the Year, Alex Wiscombe; Junior Female

Athlete of the Year, Jessica Davis; Senior Male Athlete of the Year, Tony

Pomroy; and Senior Female Athlete of the Year, Keira Eavis.

Mr.

Speaker, I would also like to congratulate Sports Hall of Fame inductees Ms.

Colleen Wade Noseworthy, Ms. Linda Lane Olden (Greeley), Mr. Ron Smith and Mr.

Carl Morgan who have all contributed tremendously to our sporting community.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask all Members of this House to join me in congratulating all

recipients and nominees of the 2015 Conception Bay South Athletic Awards.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Placentia West Bellevue.

MR. BROWNE:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this

hon. House today to recognize

an act of kindness from a stranger that touched

the lives of a team of young soccer players from Newfoundland and Labrador.

While

route to Montreal, our province's Canada Summer Games boys' soccer team

experienced a four-hour delay at Pearson Airport in Toronto. During this

prolonged layover, the team's manager chatted with another traveller who was

also awaiting departure.

As it

turns out, that traveller was Mark Smith, a resident of Montreal who is well

known in that city's financial community. He was so impressed by our soccer

players that he asked if he could do something special for them. In Montreal, he

surprised them with tickets to a game at the Bell Centre between the Canadiens

and the Detroit Red Wings.

The boys

were also treated to a meet and great with hockey superstar P.K. Subban. This

unforgettable experience, provided to the team by a complete stranger, is a

testament to the soccer players' good conduct as ambassadors of our province.

I'm proud to say the roster of players included 16-year-old Ryan Dunphy of

Marystown.

I ask

all Members to join me in thanking Mark Smith for his incredible generosity and

congratulations to our athletes on continued success.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Virginia Waters Pleasantville.

MR. B. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise

in this hon. House to recognize an outstanding student and volunteer from the

District of Virginia Waters Pleasantville. Gabrielle Murphy, who lives in

Virginia Park, was the recipient of the Harrison McCain Scholarship at Memorial

University. The scholarship, open to students from across the country, is valued

at $16,000 and is awarded for high academic achievement, financial need,

leadership ability and recognized initiative in funding their own education.

As a

volunteer, Gabrielle participates in the Best Buddies program, which promotes

friendship between university students and individuals in the community with

intellectual disabilities. She also is an avid baseball coach for young members

in her community and she is an avid basketball and baseball player as well. She

is currently studying police studies and psychology at Memorial University and

one day hopes to become an officer with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and

continue to serve the people of this province and act as an example for all to

follow.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Topsail Paradise.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, recently I had the pleasure of attending the Newfoundland and Labrador

Law Enforcement Torch Run's Meet & Greet, held at the Rotary Paradise Youth and

Community Centre which is located in Paradise, as they hosted the National Final

Leg here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Now the Final Leg is a long-standing

tradition where law enforcement officers carry the Flame of Hope to the opening

ceremonies in the Special Olympic Games. The Flame of Hope is used to light the

cauldron signalling the start of the games competition.

The Law

Enforcement Torch Run is the largest grassroots fundraiser and public awareness

vehicle for Special Olympics in the world. Now past its 25th year here in

Newfoundland and Labrador, law enforcement is responsible for making a

tremendous impact on Special Olympics and more importantly Special Olympians

throughout our province.

Over 400

officers, civilian employees, their families and friends raise funds in their

local communities. It is managed by volunteer group of committed law enforcement

individuals, many of whom have been members since its inception. The mission of

the committee is simple: to raise funds to help sustain Special Olympics

programs and their needs.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask all Members to extend their appreciation to the Law Enforcement

Torch Run on their dedication and commitment to Special Olympics and Special

Olympians here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Thank

you.

The Commemoration

of the First World War and the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel

MR. SPEAKER:

For Honour 100 today, we have

the Member for the District of Corner Brook.

MR. BYRNE:

Mr. Speaker, it would be an

honour to read into the record the following 40 names of those who lost their

lives in the First World War in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Royal

Newfoundland Naval Reserve or the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine. This will be

followed by a moment of silence.

Lest we

forget: Clarence Valentine Harris, Eugene Harris, George William Harris, Harvey

Newman Harris, William George Harris, Charles Hart, John Hart, Jonas Hart,

Sidney Harttree, Henry Harvey, Nathaniel Harvey, Henry Thomas Hatcher, John

Hatcher, George Bernard Hatfield, Mortimer Leopold Hawker, Eli Hawkins, George

Hawkins, Patrick Joseph Hayes, Arthur Hayward, Robert William Heale, John Joseph

Healey, William James Healey, James Patrick Heaney, Augustine Hearn, James

Hearn, Patrick Hearn, Adolphus Garrett Heath, Thomas Burkley Hefford, Patrick

Joseph Hennessey, Arthur J. Herder, Hubert Clinton Herder, Wallace Herder,

Armenius Hewlett, John Hibbs, John Leslie Hibbs, Edward Hickey, Robert Hickey,

William Hickey, Chester Hickman, Philip Seymour Hicks.

We will

remember them.

(Moment

of silence.)

MR. SPEAKER:

Please be seated.

Statements by Ministers.

Statements by

Ministers

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Justice and Public Safety.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, I rise today to offer condolences to the families, friends and

colleagues of two exceptional educators who were recently taken from us much too

soon.

Principal Randy Ralph and teacher Shannon Pittman were commuting together from

the Newfoundland and Labrador Youth Centre on April 19 when they were involved

in a tragic automobile accident that claimed both their lives. Another teacher

is still in hospital in serious condition and we wish him the best during his

recovery.

Randy

and Shannon loved teaching and working with youth and the outpouring of support

that has been displayed since their passing has been remarkable. Randy was well

known for the extracurricular time he spent as a coach for a variety of sports

and was also quite active with the St. John's Native Friendship Centre. Shannon

had a passion for music, body building and motorcycles. Both were husbands and

fathers.

Mr.

Speaker, Randy and Shannon were respected and adored by their colleagues and

their students. Their loss is a significant blow to the education and justice

systems in this province.

behalf of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, I offer my deepest

condolences to Randy and Shannon's loved ones as they deal with this terrible

ordeal. I hope they find some solace in the fact that both men had such positive

impacts on the lives of those they came into contact with over the years.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First of

all, I'd like to thank the minister for providing me with a copy of his

statement before coming to the House today. We, in the Official Opposition,

share with all Members in the House I'm sure in our heartfelt condolences to

families, friends and loved ones that have been impacted by this terrible

tragedy. Our thoughts go out to all of them and also our thoughts with those who

continue to be impacted, including the hospitalized teacher that the minister

referenced.

I know

that these things cause great hardship and difficulty for families. Families go

beyond your immediate family and your loved ones and, quite often, your family

in your workplace. These were dedicated public servants as well, Mr. Speaker.

happened to be at the hospital last Tuesday night when this unfolded. I know

some of the family, met with them there. I can speak first-hand on the impact

that it's had on all of them. Our thoughts remain with the families and friends.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I, too,

thank the minister for an advance copy of his statement. I, too, offer our

condolences to the unimaginable loss of Randy Ralph and Shannon Pittman, to

their families, friends and colleagues. Randy Ralph had a deep commitment to the

young people who found themselves in this Youth Centre, especially to Aboriginal

youth. He and I spoke about this several times as he so courageously advocated

on their behalf. The strength and beauty Randy and Shannon brought into our

world lives on in the young people they empowered, and we carry them in our

hearts.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Health and Community Services.

MR. HAGGIE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This

week, April 24 to 30, is National Immunization Awareness Week in Newfoundland

and Labrador.

National

Immunization Awareness Week is an opportunity to raise awareness of the value of

being immunized. Getting vaccinated not only prevents us and our children from

getting sick; it also reduces the risk to those with weaker immune systems, such

as infants or individuals with chronic diseases.

The CD

Howe Institute has recognized Newfoundland and Labrador as a national leader for

childhood vaccinations with a rate of 95 per cent. Provincial statistics also

indicate that we continue to excel in our childhood immunization programs. As an

example of this, the provincial average coverage for all recommended

immunizations for children at two years of age is between 98 and 99 per cent.

These numbers have a very real positive influence in terms of prevention of

communicable diseases into adulthood.

Residents can call the Newfoundland and Labrador HealthLine at 811 to speak with

a registered nurse about the immunization opportunities that may be available to

them, or consult with their primary care provider or public health nurse.

Further

information is also available at Immunize Canada's website at

www.immunize.ca .

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I again

thank the Minister of Health and Community Services for a copy of his statement

before coming to the House today. It's great to hear that Newfoundland and

Labrador has been recognized as a national leader as it relates to childhood

vaccinations.

As the

minister has suggested, we also encourage parents and families to reach out to

their family doctor or their primary caregiver, or also to contact 811 which we

know has been a huge success in Newfoundland and Labrador in providing

assistance, support and information to families on a number of health-related

issues.

We do

encourage this, we do support this, and we're glad to see the recognition has

come.

Thank

you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I, too,

thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement. We should be proud to

be nationally recognized as a leader in childhood immunization. I thank the many

health professionals who make this exemplary record possible for our children's

sake.

Immunization saves more lives than any other health measure. The World Health

Organization states that it averts up to 3 million deaths every year, but that

one in five children still don't have access to immunization. It is important

that we continue the education and support around immunization here and abroad.

Thank

you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Municipal Affairs.

MR. JOYCE:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

inform the Members of this House that Professional Municipal Administrators held

their 44th annual AGM, convention and trade show in St. John's last week and

took the opportunity to hand out a number of long service awards.

I was

unable to personally attend the awards banquet Friday night, but my colleague,

the MHA for Labrador West, was there to congratulate the long service honourees,

and to thank the approximately 200 professional administrators who attended the

convention for the work they do each day.

Mr.

Speaker, we recognize that services delivered at the local level can have the

greatest impact on residents' day-to-day lives. And I know many municipalities

were pleased to see that despite our financial challenges, Budget 2016 sees no

reduction in Municipal Operating Grants; and no change to provincial/municipal

cost-sharing ratios for municipal projects. Initiatives announced as part of the

Community Sustainability Partnership will also be maintained.

Municipal administrators will be busy over the next four years, Mr. Speaker,

with about approximately $625 million available for municipal infrastructure

from federal, provincial and municipal sources. But we know they are up to the

challenge.

Mr.

Speaker, I want to recognize the five recipients of the Department of Municipal

Affairs long service awards who were honoured Friday night: Cynthia Davis, Chief

Administrative Officer in Carbonear; Dianne Hudson, the Town Clerk in Norman's

Cove-Long Cove; Shelly Butt, the Town Clerk-Manager in Victoria; Melda Hann; the

Town Clerk-Manager in Daniel's Harbour; and Shelly Abbott, the Town Clerk in

Cottlesville.

Mr.

Speaker, I would also like to note my colleague, the MHA for Fogo Island Cape

Freels was a former president of this association, and he's well aware of the

work they do.

Meanwhile, Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues in this House to join me in

congratulating and thanking these individuals and all the professional

municipal administrators for the contributions they make to municipal

governments and to their communities.

Thank

you.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I thank

the minister for an advance copy of his statement. We in the Opposition, too,

recognize the professional municipal administrators and the work they do for

assisting the residents and assisting their town councils.

Many

communities in the province are very small and have a very small staff. When it

comes to organizing events such as Santa Claus parades, seniors' dinners or

whatever, they're always there to do it even services that are out there,

they're out there on the roads and everything else.

Mr.

Speaker, as a former mayor, I really do realize how important it is when

councils are not there all the time. These are the people who answer to the

constituents and they're there day in and day out, and they do a great job for

everybody in this province. It's so important that our councils and mayors and

I know do recognize who does the hard work in their towns. So this is a great

award.

I'd like

to extend congratulations to Cynthia Davis, Dianne Hudson, Shelly Butt, Melda

Hann, and Shelly Abbott. I too, as the minister already announced, said the

municipal grants and the sustainability program that this government brought in

place is still in place, because we as a government did realize how important

municipal and how important these people are to run our towns because they are

on the ground doing most of the work.

Thank

you very, very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I too

thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement. I commend these women,

this year's recipients of the long service awards. Around the province people

benefit from their dedicated service and their ability to work for them with

very tight budgets indeed. So I would point out to the minister that although

Budget 2016 sees no reduction in Municipal Operating Grants, the current amount

is too low, and the lack of a multi-year provision leaves municipalities still

wondering about their revenue future.

Thank

you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

Oral Questions.

Oral Questions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, the new CEO of Nalcor has stated he never agreed with Muskrat Falls and

is not against stopping it. The Minister of Natural Resources has stated it's

too far along to stop.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask the Premier: Can you clarify if your government remains committed

to the development of Muskrat Falls. Are you considering stopping that project?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The new

CEO, of course, which we announced last week is currently now, as he mentioned

in the press conference, reviewing the facts. When you put a new CEO in place, I

think in the benefit of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, you give the new

person in the job a chance to review the facts, review the information that's

available on the Muskrat Falls Project. That's what the CEO is doing. He's doing

what any new person in the position would do.

He then

said that he would give an opinion on where he thinks things are with this.

We'll certainly look to him and to expertise and the experience that he has in

these megaprojects to give his opinion when it's due.

appreciate and look forward to his opinion. The work is continuing on the site

right now employing Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. To restrict a new person

on the job, restrict his opinion would not be the proper due diligence of anyone

that you're appointing to that position.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's no

doubt that the new CEO has a long career in development and in major projects in

electricity. We know that, Mr. Speaker. I asked the Premier for what his

position was, not what the CEO's position was. I want to know what his position

is.

Mr.

Speaker, the new CEO of Nalcor is a public office holder as defined by the

Conflict of Interest Act . He's also a

significant shareholder of Fortis which is the main customer of Newfoundland

Hydro.

I ask

the Premier: Can you provide assurances to the people of the province that this

does not constitute a conflict of interest under the

Conflict of Interest Act .

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The new

CEO of Nalcor has made it quite clear, and it's obvious that he is a shareholder

like many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians I would suggest, and probably many

people that work within the Nalcor company themselves right now would hold

shares. He has vast experience building a company out of Newfoundland and

Labrador, a company like Fortis. I think it's world renowned, it's a world-class

project. We look to the new CEO of Nalcor to bring that experience.

When you

look at the reasons why he said he is doing this, he is concerned about his own

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador; he wants to bring that experience back. I

can assure you that conflict of interest he will disclose as he said he would.

Disclosure would be on where any potential conflicts will be.

I can

assure you this; in speaking to the new CEO, he is concerned about the future of

Newfoundland and Labrador. It is exactly why he accepted this job in the

beginning.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd

remind the Premier, he might want to have a look because the act goes a little

bit further than disclosing when it talks about conflicts of interest.

Mr.

Speaker, while the Alberta and Saskatchewan premiers are strongly pursuing

federal action to assist with their province's financial crises, our Premier has

remained silent in stating and I quote: It is what it is, when it comes to

federal help for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Now,

Premier Notley, the premier of Alberta, met this past weekend with the prime

minister. Premier Wall is meeting with the prime minister today.

I ask

our Premier: When will you get active? When will you become more engaged with

the federal government? When will you pursue opportunities for Newfoundlanders

and Labradorians to assist with this budget rather than something like a levy

which burdens many, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, I

can tell you there is hardly a day that goes by without contact with the federal

government on a number of issues affecting Newfoundland and Labrador. This

particular weekend, the Cabinet happened to be meeting in Alberta. I think if

the former premier was paying attention, just a few weeks ago there was a

scheduled trip to the West Coast which Prime Minister Trudeau and I were

supposed to meet. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions of the day, that

meeting had to be postponed.

I will

say there is an agenda of things that we are reaching out for, and I would say

Newfoundland and Labrador will get its fair share. Right now, the former premier

keeps talking about Alberta, keeps talking about Saskatchewan, but there have

been no initiatives by the federal government into Alberta or Saskatchewan.

I can

assure you that our colleagues in Ottawa right now, they are fighting for

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and so are we. Our office is very busy

actively engaged with our MPs, as we said, and there is a current list of things

that we would see in the future that would be of benefit to Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, at

least the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan are speaking up and making

efforts. Mr. Speaker, we know that the people of our province are dismayed and

are outraged by this Liberal budget that has been recently introduced. This

budget is simply mean spirited.

When the

Liberals went to the people in the fall last year, the then leader, now Premier,

stated, and I quote: What we've decided to do is not put our hands in the

pockets of taxpayers from day one. He went on to say: stay out of the pockets,

leave the money in their pockets where it belongs.

Mr.

Speaker, in less than six months this Liberal government has reached deeper into

the pockets of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians than has ever happened in the

history of our province.

I ask

the Premier: How can the people of the province trust you when you promised one

thing and a short time after do completely the opposite?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When the

Leader of the Opposition talks about putting their hands in the pockets of

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians I just want to remind him, we would not be in

the position, we would not be in this situation if it wasn't for the poor

management and the poor planning of the prior administration.

Just

last year at budget 2015-2016 they had predicted or they were forecasting a

deficit this year of just under $900 million; that projected deficit would have

been $2.7 billion if no action was taken. When you look at management, when you

look at planning for the future of our province, all you need to do is look back

at your budget, which was your five-year plan, which failed in year one.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, on

the budget, the Premier has stated people don't understand, and it's simply not

the way it's been portrayed. Now, we know the Finance Minister has said there is

nothing good in the budget, but we also know Liberal MHAs have remained quiet.

No one's explained to the people about their budget; no one's even laying out

the facts or talking to people or listening to their concerns.

I ask

the Premier: What is your government's plan to communicate this budget and let

people hear from your government about budget number one that was recently

introduced, and also budget number two that's going to come this fall?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When you

talk about making a plan to communicate this budget, I want to go back to a

communication that was done somewhere around mid-April 2007. The announcement in

2007 by the prior administration when it announced nearly a $200 million per

year tax decrease for the people of our province it was unsustainable; they

knew it at the time. It was based around an election, I would say, Mr. Speaker.

That

accumulated today to around $4 billion. So when you talk about planning for the

future, poor planning, that's an example right there back in April 2007 when you

did not prepare this province and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. You could

have done a better job preparing for where we are today, and as a result of that

mismanagement, this is the tough decisions we had to make. No one on this side

of the House, I would say backbenchers, Cabinet included we do not like the

decisions that had to be made either, I say to the former premier, but we were

left with no other choice.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The

question was simply when is he going to begin to communicate what it is people

don't understand. What the Premier said to reach back to 2007, that's a pretty

far reach.

Mr.

Speaker, this past Saturday, one of the many planned throughout the province, a

rally was organized by a local group of concerned citizens in Gambo in protest

of this budget and it has negative impacts on their town and surrounding

communities.

AN HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible).

MR. P. DAVIS:

At least I went there, I say

to the Member opposite.

All

three local MHAs for Gander, Terra Nova and Fogo Cape Freels were invited to

attend and address the people concerning the budget, but not a single one showed

up.

Now, the

Premier has been quoted as saying Newfoundlanders and Labradorians simply don't

understand the budget.

So I'll

ask the Premier again: When are you going to begin to communicate the budget?

When are you going to allow your MHAs to also communicate the budget?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well,

there have been a number of communiques that have been done. As a matter of

fact, the Minister of Finance spoke to the Board of Trade just last week in

Corner Brook, and I have been certainly very busy engaged with Newfoundlanders

and Labradorians. All our MHAs have been engaged.

As a

matter of fact, this Thursday morning we'll be doing an open line show in our

province when people around the province will be asking questions, I would

suggest. So there are a number of initiatives that have been planned to

communicate this budget. It is an $8.48 billion budget that will be used to

benefit Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Unfortunately, I would say, like most people in our province, these are tough,

tough times. There were tough decisions that had to be made, all to protect the

future of our province. The path that we were going on, based on your poor

planning, was really unsustainable.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

doesn't seem to matter what questions we ask, we're going to get the same answer

anyway. Mr. Speaker, the citizens of our province are left reeling from these

very mean-spirited choices that the Liberal government has made. The public is

crying out to their Liberal representatives to halt the direction that the

government is taking our province.

We know

from her own words that the Minister of Finance will not make decisions based on

who cries the loudest, but I'll ask the Premier: Will you allow the Members of

your party to address the concerns and to fight for the people that they serve?

Will you listen to the people and your own caucus? Will you sit back down with

your Cabinet, have a second look at your budget and deliver one that's more

responsible and responsive, that the people are looking for?

People

are looking for a better budget, I say to the Premier. It doesn't have to be

this way.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We're

engaged with all MHAs and even the Members of the Opposition, if you should see

fit to come and ask the questions around technical briefings. As I said, this is

an $8.48 billion budget. There are certainly many budget lines in this.

All

Members of Cabinet and all Members of this caucus speak on a regular basis about

the issues that affect Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Over the summer months

and in the weeks leading into that, there will be certainly lots more engagement

with the people of this province.

understand the difficult decisions and the impacts on Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians. We are not happy about that, I would say to you, Mr. Speaker. They

are tough decisions. Without making those decisions today, it would have led to

debt servicing, which now surpasses education in our system. In just five, six

years we would have seen that number over $2 billion.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

understand the impacts on the province by the decisions you make. I'm really

concerned as well about the impacts on the people of the province.

Mr.

Speaker, the Liberals have increased HST which has an impact to people of the

province. They've increased personal income taxes, insurance on vehicles,

increased the gas tax, about 300 or more fee increases, just to name a few.

I know

the Premier and his government likes to use an evidence-based approach so I ask

the Premier: When you did your evidence-based approach can you tell us what the

full implications are of all those increases on items that people buy every day,

for example, groceries? What will be the impact on the cost of groceries for

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We all

know that in Newfoundland and Labrador these budget decisions that we had to

make are tough and they will impact Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. We are not

distancing ourselves from that. We understand that, but what we also understand

is if you look at we've had 66 years, as I said last week, in Confederation

where we got to a net debt of somewhere around $12 billion.

In the

next five years, if no action had been taken, this would have doubled to an

astounding number, over $24 billion. Just think about that, I say to the former

premier of this province. That as a result of the poor planning and let's not

forget, there was over $25 billion in oil royalties and money that you had

access to, to plan for this. There was another $4 billion in tax decreases that

were given that were unsustainable at the time. This is why we are in the

difficult situation that we're in today.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I

said earlier, it doesn't matter sometimes the questions we ask, the answer we'll

get.

I am

going to ask the Premier once again. You've always said you're using an

evidence-based approach, so I'm sure you've done the analysis. When you include

all the increases and cost to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, to businesses,

to transportation of goods and so on, HST, personal income taxes, insurance on

vehicles, gas tax and so on and all the 300 fee increases, what will be the

impact for food? The purchase of food that every Newfoundlander and Labradorian

purchases, what will be the impact on the cost of food for Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The

majority of food products in our province really does not have HST. I think most

people know that. That is not to say other things will not impact that but it

certainly would not be from the increase in HST.

What I

do know, though, the evidence-base tells me this, if this situation had remained

unchecked, debt servicing would have replaced critical services in our province.

Financial institutions would have reaped the benefit of the mountains and the

burden of debt that would have been placed on this province. That is what we are

trying to avoid here. That's the evidence. Deal with it now because if not, it

will deal with you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The

Premier won't tell us what the impact will be on food. He does know that HST

costs go on repairs to vehicles and maintenance and equipment and buildings and

all the things that happen to create the delivery of food. There is HST that

goes on that and that will drive the cost of food up. Obviously, Mr. Speaker,

they don't have the evidence base, decision-making analysis done to tell us what

the impacts will be or I'm sure the Premier would have already told us.

Mr.

Speaker, the people of the province have clearly stated that they can't afford

many aspects of this budget. Of course the Liberal levy is one that's discussed

on a regular basis. Liberal insiders, even their former leader, former Premier

Roger Grimes has criticized this very tax that the levy will cause hardship to

people.

I ask

the Premier: Will you listen to your own insiders, your own people? Will you

scrap this budget? Will you go back to the drawing board and create a new budget

that is responsible and reasonable for the people of the province?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER BALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

recognize the impact of all the taxes, including the levy, that it would have on

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. That is the very reason why we said this had

to be a temporary measure. Plans are in place, it is temporary. It is important

for us that gets removed as quickly as possible.

Related

to the advice of a former Liberal premier, as the former premier just mentioned,

that same former premier also gave advice to your administration at the time,

back in 2012, about the Muskrat Falls Project. As a matter of fact, one of your

own former premiers, Premier Peckford, spoke out loudly against the project at

the time.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

PREMIER BALL:

These are people that have a

role to play in all this. We appreciate the work they've done in the past. The

temporary levy that was mentioned is, indeed, temporary and one that will be

removed as quickly as possible.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, we know that this levy is going to hit people hard, but they're really

not sure how. The Minister of Finance on NTV's

Issues and Answers has stated that at the end of the year when you

file your income tax, they're going to collect the levy at that point in time.

Now we're hearing media reports that it's going to be taken out of people's

paycheques starting in July.

I ask

the Premier: Can you end the confusion on this, when and how will people be

impacted by this Liberal levy?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, the amount we're

asking people in the province to pay as part of the Deficit Reduction Levy

which is certainly something, as the Premier has already indicated and we've

been consistently indicating since the budget was announced is a temporary

measure to ensure that we are able to afford and invest in the critical services

and infrastructures that we need to invest in.

The

process for paying that is driven based on the taxable income an individual

makes. Filing taxes provides an opportunity to do that. Also, employers who

update their tax tables based on taxes would also have an opportunity to provide

information to their employees around that.

There

are a variety of ways that people can influence when they pay this tax. We look

forward to providing information to all the MHAs so that they can continue to

answer questions on this.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I ask

the minister to clarify that because we haven't heard how this is going to be.

We've heard a couple of different versions.

Are you

saying that employers are now being directed to change the tax tables to collect

this from their employees? When will that start? When should employees expect to

see that coming out of their paycheques? When can they start to plan for this

impact that it's going to have on them? Can you explain that to us?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, as is normal

when there are any tax changes, new tax tables will be provided to employers as

part of those tax changes which will be implemented July 1. Employers then have

the responsibility and employees have the choice as to how they want their

remittances and their tax withholdings to be held. Those are discussions that

would happen between employees and employers once employers have the tax tables.

For

those individuals who are not employees who are receiving income through other

sources, if they're applicable to the levy and certainly it's important to

note anybody making less than $20,000 is not applicable to the levy, and

certainly anybody who is making less than $40,000 is eligible for the

Newfoundland Income Supplement. I look forward to the Member asking me more

questions so I can provide more details.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Leader of the

Opposition.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I've got

to ask the Minister of Finance once again, because she was quite clear on

Issues & Answers when she said it will

be collected at tax time next year. She also said if employees want to, they can

submit the form to ask their employers to collect a higher level of tax. Now

she's giving a different piece of information.

I ask

the Premier: Was there a plan on how this levy will be collected, or is this

something you're making up as you go along?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, as is the

practice with all taxes that are collected by government, there are

administrative functions that happen through the normal tax process. I certainly

welcome the Member opposite and I can certainly brief him on what a TD1 form

looks like. I can brief him on what a tax table looks like. If he would like to

sit, we can certainly provide that information to himself and the Members

opposite.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

One of the most important

messages I certainly want to get out is for those individuals in our province

who are making less than $40,000

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

they would qualify for the

Newfoundland and Labrador Income Supplement, and many of those would qualify for

amounts between $200 and $300, and I look forward to providing that information

to the people of the province, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

The

coalition of pensioners', retirees', and seniors' organizations are speaking out

against the health care cuts. They see it as a devastating effect on seniors and

pensioners. In particular, they're troubled with cuts to the long-term care

beds, such as those eliminated in Masonic Park.

I ask

the Minister of Seniors and Wellness: Do you too simply brush off their concerns

as nonsense, as your colleague did, the Minister of Education, or are you

willing to listen to their concerns and recognize these actions are devastating

to seniors in our province?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Health and Community Services.

MR. HAGGIE:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think

long-term beds falls under Health and Community Services rather than my

colleague's mandate.

There is

a plan for long-term care beds in the province being worked on. We do have

pressure points for long-term care demand; Central being the most acute,

followed by Western. The situation in Lab-Grenfell and on the Avalon is

different.

We have

allocated in the budget money for Central and Western to assist in long-term

care planning that is integrated with placement issues throughout the spectrum

of care and not just as an ad hoc arrangement as has been the case in the past.

I look forward to being able to present those over the course of the next year.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, because of the

decisions of this Liberal budget a senior citizen who currently lives alone and

at a low fixed income will now have to pay higher taxes. Their Home Heating

Rebate removed, the fees increased, and because of a high fuel tax there will be

a higher cost to groceries. In addition, they will have to pay the Liberal levy.

I've

been speaking to seniors all over this province and in my district. I ask the

Minister of Seniors and Wellness: The Minister of Finance may not listen to

those who cry the loudest, but how can you justify putting this level of

hardship on our seniors?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, this Minister of

Finance works with her colleagues to make sure that we put programs in place

that protect the most vulnerable. For people in our province on low income,

those people that are most impacted by this budget, our government is investing

$76.4 million to enhance the seniors' program that the former administration had

by some $13 million.

We're

investing new money in the form of the Newfoundland Income Supplement to ensure

that those individuals who are impacted by this budget, those impacts are

mitigated. There are seniors on low income in this province that are going to

receive cheques four times a year in order to help them with the cash management

in their homes.

Mr.

Speaker, this government has taken action to make sure that those low-income

individuals

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

particularly seniors are

taken care of. If the Opposition would like to support sharing those facts, I'll

be happy to provide even more detail to them.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Mr. Speaker, I, along with

all Members in this House of Assembly, over the last couple of weeks has

received calls from seniors. They are very concerned what effect this will have,

whether they'll have heat in their homes, whether they'll have groceries on

their table.

I ask

the minister: Seventy-six million dollars, how much did you cut and what will be

the cost to our seniors? That's the question.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, just for

clarity, the amount of money that low-income seniors would be eligible for under

this program is substantially higher than what was available to those low-income

seniors before

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

including all of the

consumption taxes those individuals would have to take.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

That's one of the reasons why

and I'm so glad he's asking this question today in the House, so we can get

the facts out that including the consumption tax, this program, the Newfoundland

Income Supplement program is designed to offset and mitigate those most

vulnerable in our society.

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MS. C. BENNETT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr.

Speaker, women, especially sole-support mothers, are more negatively affected in

downturns of the economy. Yet the minister took away the Parental Support

Benefit; applied a levy to low-income earners, most of whom are women; raised

the HST; did nothing for child care; no additional rent supplements; and fewer

home care hours. We already know the income supplement does not cover the extra

expenses of this budget.

I ask

the minister: Did she actually apply a gender analysis to her budget? If so, how

did she not see how her budget was going to affect the women of Newfoundland and

Labrador?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, I certainly

thank the Member opposite for the opportunity to speak again to the program that

this government announced as part of the budget last week, which is the

Newfoundland Income Supplement program, which not only provides mitigation for

the most vulnerable in our community as the impacts of the budget, whether

it's consumption tax or other taxes.

This

program is designed specifically not only for seniors, it's designed for those

people with disabilities and it's designed for single parents. The program we've

implemented is also supported by an additional $3 million that we're putting

into the Department of Advanced Education and Skills to offset any issues

related to those vulnerable families, vulnerable women who are trying to raise

children on income support, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, obviously the

Minister of Finance and the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women did not

apply a gender analysis to this budget as she is legislated to do.

I ask

the Minister of Finance: As the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women,

how could she develop a budget without applying a gender assessment lens?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, I just explained

in the previous question that as part of the analysis we did on the impacts of

the revenue actions that we undertook, we also undertook an exhaustive exercise

to make sure we were implementing a program that allowed us to mitigate the

impacts of the tax increases collectively on those that are most vulnerable,

including and most importantly, women.

Quite

frankly, I resent the insinuation from the Member opposite that my dual roles

and responsibilities of Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the

Status of Women are somehow separated. I don't consider them separated. I

consider them a great privilege to be able to serve both of those portfolios

simultaneously, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I ask

the minister to table the results of the actual tool of the gender analysis

process that she applied to the budget. Mr. Speaker, the majority of public

sector workers is women.

I ask

the minister: How many of the 600 direct government job losses are women, and

will she table that analysis?

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, as we discussed

as part of the budget process, the 600 number that the Member opposite refers to

is made up of two numbers. It is made up of the number from core government and

it is also made up of the number of individuals who will be impacted by the

changes in the agencies, boards and commissions.

At this

stage, because as the Member opposite would know, through regular bumping and

regular processes, retirements and others that would impact, it is almost

impossible to determine whether it would be a male or a female that would be

impacted by these positions. Certainly, as we get clarity in that information

and we know for certain, I'll be happy to share that with the Member opposite.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, I am seeing less

and less evidence of any kind of specific gender assessment, any kind of

specific tool used for gender analysis on this budget.

Mr.

Speaker, I ask the minister: How many jobs will be lost in the regional health

authorities and how many of those will be women? Could she please table this

analysis?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Health and Community Services.

MR. HAGGIE:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

pursue a theme that has already been developed, the positions that we know about

in the health authorities are summed as full-time equivalent, these could be

part-timers. It is difficult, if not impossible, once the process is started to

know quite where it will lead because of the issues that my colleague has just

mentioned around bumping and seniority and priority and those kinds of issues

from the union process.

Again,

until the process is unfolded and the union bargaining units have worked

through, we don't know actually how many heads, how many individuals will be

affected and whether they'll be men or women.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member has about 10

seconds for a question.

MS. ROGERS:

Mr. Speaker, people are

asking me why government is already enacting many of the cuts and extra fees

before the budget debate has been finished and before it has been voted on. We

know government can do so.

I ask

the minister: Please explain to the people of the province why she has already

chosen to enact these measures?

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Finance and President of Treasury Board for a quick response.

MS. C. BENNETT:

Mr. Speaker, we are faced

with unprecedented circumstances. The decisions that were made in this budget

were very difficult, not only for Members of this government, but most

importantly, people of the province understand the difficult situation we are

in.

Implementing these changes as they need to be is an operational decision.

Certainly, we'll continue to do that in the best interest of the operations of

government, and more importantly, the fiscal situation in respect of the people

of the province and what their expectations are.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

Presenting Reports by

Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling

of Documents.

Tabling of

Documents

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development.

MR. MITCHELMORE:

Mr. Speaker, in accordance

with the Transparency and Accountability

Act , and the Chicken Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador Regulations under

the Newfoundland and Labrador Chicken Marketing Scheme, it is my pleasure to

table the 2015 annual performance report for the chicken farmers of Newfoundland

and Labrador.

MR. SPEAKER:

Further tabling of documents?

Notices

of Motion.

Answers

to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Mr.

Speaker.

I'll

have to be kind someday to the Member for Mount Pearl North, or he's going to

have to learn how to move more quickly.

To the

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

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

WHEREAS

the Deficit Reduction Levy is an extremely regressive surtax placing a higher

tax burden on low- and middle-income taxpayers; and

WHEREAS

surtaxes are typically levied on the highest income earners only, as currently

demonstrated in other provinces, as well as Australia, Norway and other

countries; and

WHEREAS

government states in the 2016 provincial budget the personal income tax

schedule

needs to be revised and promises to do so;

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

of Assembly to urge government to ensure that the Deficit Reduction Levy be

eliminated and any replacement measure be based on progressive taxation

principles and that an independent review of the Newfoundland and Labrador

provincial income tax system begin immediately to make it fairer to

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

I jump

up quickly all the time, Mr. Speaker, when I have a petition like this because

of my concern for what is being presented by the many people who have signed

this petition.

We've

been listening to the Minister of Finance and the Premier talking about the

budget and talking about presenting facts. Well the people who signed this

petition, the facts they're presenting are the facts we need to listen to. They

understand, apparently more than the government does, that the Deficit Reduction

Levy is an extra burden among many other burdens that have been laid on them.

That if they are going to be able to make it economically, they have to have a

complete change in what's been done.

They

want the levy gone. They want to see it taken off the books and they want to see

government really do a complete analysis of what a fair, progressive taxation

system would look like. Tacking on a surtax and saying it's interim and implying

this is going to be one of the ways in which we're going to get to a balanced

budget in this province, actually getting to surplus is because you are going to

be paying extra tax, along with all the other taxes and burdens they're going to

have to carry.

This is

what the government will not do. It will not present the facts of when you add

on the change to HST, when you add on the fact the Home Heating Rebate is gone,

when you add on for seniors that they no longer will get dental care, when you

add all these things together, this levy is immoral and unethical.

Thank

you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Mount

Pearl North.

MR. KENT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm

pleased to have an opportunity to rise and present a petition in the House of

Assembly today.

To the

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

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

the seniors of our province deserve the greatest level of respect and care; and

WHEREAS

the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has a responsibility to act in the

best interest of our seniors; and

WHEREAS

the government has decided to shut down Masonic Park Nursing Home and reduce

long-term care beds in the region;

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

of Assembly to urge government to reverse its decision and not bring undue

hardship upon the residents of Masonic Park and find alternative measures that

will allow them to continue to stay at the place they call home.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr.

Eastern Health's planned closure of Masonic Park Nursing Home, and I will

continue to raise the issue. It's one that's affecting 40 families in my

community, in my district, and the impacts go much further than that, Mr.

Speaker. There have been several statements made in this House of Assembly that

are simply not true, and can't be supported by any evidence whatsoever.

The

minister has stood in this House and said the long-term care facility at Masonic

Park is in a state of disrepair. That is simply not true, and there's no

evidence to support that.

Mr.

Speaker, the minister certainly said in response to my questions in this House

that all residents would be moved down to the Veterans Pavilion at the Miller

Centre and all would be well. That's also not true. In fact, there aren't a

sufficient number of beds at the Veterans Pavilion to accommodate all of the

residents at the Masonic Park Nursing Home.

Mr.

Speaker, the minister has also said that there are no reductions in long-term

care beds as a result of these budget decisions, both at Masonic Park and the

Waterford. Again, it's simply not true.

The

minister said today that there's a higher need and demand for long-term care in

the Central Region and Western Region. I would acknowledge that to be true;

however, what he didn't say is that there are over 60 families today in the

Eastern Region 60 individuals who are in need of long-term care beds, in need

of placement in long-term care homes. So how can you possibly justify removing

50 beds from the system when there are 60 people today waiting, and the numbers

show that there's going to be increased demand for the next 20 years?

These

people are waiting. As a result of people waiting for long-term care beds,

they're occupying hospital beds that they shouldn't be. That's resulting in

people lying on stretchers in hallways. It's resulting in people sitting in

emergency rooms for longer hours. It's resulting in cancelled surgeries. It's

just not right. Closing long-term care beds and closing the Masonic Park Nursing

MR. SPEAKER:

Order, please!

MR. KENT:

is just not right, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for Cape

St. Francis.

MR. K. PARSONS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the

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

Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland

and Labrador humbly sheweth:

WHEREAS

the Deficit Reduction Levy, as introduced in Budget 2016, unfairly targets

middle class; and

WHEREAS

the Deficit Reduction Levy asks low-income earners to pay more than their fair

share instead of increasing taxes to the high-income earners;

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

of Assembly to urge the government to immediately stop the introduction of this

temporary Deficit Reduction Levy.

Mr.

Speaker, as all MHAs go across this province, I'm sure every district because I

this weekend the talk of my whole district is the budget. People are looking

at this levy as being so unfair, especially the lower income and the middle

class. It's unfair because it's not done in proportion. It's not done to what

they make versus a person with a high income.

If a

person is making $60,000 a year they have to pay this much, probably 1 per cent

of what they're making, while somebody who's making $300,000 or $400,000 has to

pay a less percentage of what they're making. So they're looking at it as really

unfair.

Mr.

Speaker, every organization even the former premier, as was said today, is

looking and saying this levy is just unfair. A lot of people are looking at it

as too much too fast.

I ask

this government to reconsider this. It's too much of a burden on our people.

It's too much of a burden on the low- and middle-class income earners, the

hard-working people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Reconsider this levy. It's

just unfair.

Thank

you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for St.

John's Centre.

MS. ROGERS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To the

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

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

WHEREAS

the Deficit Reduction Levy is an extremely regressive surtax placing a higher

tax burden on low- and middle-income taxpayers; and

WHEREAS

surtaxes are typically levied on the highest income earners, as currently

demonstrated in other provinces, as well as Australia, Norway and other

countries; and

WHEREAS

government states in the 2016 provincial budget that the personal income tax

schedule needs to be revised and promises to do so;

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

of Assembly to urge government to ensure that the Deficit Reduction Levy be

eliminated and any replacement measure be based on progressive taxation

principles and that an independent review of the Newfoundland and Labrador

provincial income tax system begin immediately to make it fairer to

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

And as

in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr.

Speaker, earlier today in the House during Question Period the Premier said they

really had no choices, that the situation was so dire. The financial situation

of the province was so difficult.

Mr.

Speaker, we know that every bit of the budget is about choice. It is all about

choices, and the choices they made are not choices that propel our province

forward. As a matter of fact, what it does I see the Liberals already starting

their P3 program, and it's: Pick People's Pockets. That's their P3 program.

What

they're doing, they haven't generated a cent of new revenue. There's no new

revenue here. There's no new diversification here. All it is, is reaching deeply

into the pockets of people. Some people have deeper pockets than others and some

people have more money in their pockets, but there are a lot of people right now

in the province who don't.

We're

not even talking about people who we traditionally see as way below the poverty

line. We're talking about young working families. Young working families who

have a mortgage, who have a car payment, who have a student loan, who are maybe

making $50,000 a year. So, Mr. Speaker, if we have two income earners of $50,000

a year in one household, the levy will be $1,200 from that one small household.

Maybe they have a child in child care. That's $1,200 a month alone. There is no

fat, there is no give there. These are already people who are living paycheque

to paycheque.

We talk

about how important it is to save for your retirement, to save for your

children's education, there's hardly enough at this point with the cost of

housing, the cost of child care, with the extra levies, with the extra fees.

What I find interesting are the number of families who've actually sat down and

looked at it. They're going to be out about $7,000 per family. That's very

interesting, Mr. Speaker.

Thank

you very much. I look forward to standing and speaking to this issue again.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Government House

Leader.

MR. A. PARSONS:

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I call

Orders of the Day.

From the

Order Paper, I call Motion 1, the Budget Speech.

MR. SPEAKER:

Orders of the Day.

Orders of the Day

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Minister of

Environment and Conservation.

MR. TRIMPER:

Thank you very much.

Mr.

Speaker, it is, indeed, an honour to stand and speak. This is my first time

speaking to the budget. I look forward to sharing my own perspective as a new

MHA, a new minister as to what I've seen witnessed, and witnessing right now in

terms of how this budget is rolling out.

I've

just returned from my district just last weekend. Unfortunately, I was not able

to get there the weekend after the budget was announced. Departmental demands

are such that it's very difficult. You wish you could clone yourself because,

frankly, we need to be in each kitchen of this entire province right now to make

sure that we can be there to reassure people that we do have their best

interests in mind, that those most vulnerable in our society are indeed being

looked at.

Before I

go on I'm going to talk about two themes I do want to just acknowledge the

team around me in the various departments, the five that I'm responsible for,

how diligently they worked. There were a lot of late nights, long days. Wasted

weekends in terms of leisure time, not wasted in terms of the decisions that we

had to make. Everybody pulled up their sleeves and we did what we had to do.

I'd also

like to compliment the Minister of Finance and the amazing team in that

department. I have to say, there was time and again when several of us in the

Cabinet would listen to some of the presentations. The calibre and the corporate

memory that is possessed in that department is truly amazing. As somebody who's

been in the private sector most of their career, to see that calibre of folks

involved, is very impressive.

What I'd

like to talk about is a lot of my colleagues, of course, can reflect back on

commitments and statements that have gone on in this House prior to this

election. For myself, it's since the 14th of December when I was sworn into

Cabinet. So I'm going to talk about from that date forward.

I must

say it was a great honour to be invited to Cabinet and then to walk into that

room filled with ideas, enthusiasm and a mandate letter which charged me by the

Premier with a whole bunch of initiatives, each of which I looked eagerly

forward to addressing; but the reality and the cold, hard reality was that there

was a fiscal challenge well beyond what anybody's imagination ever could have

been, and certainly what we were informed it was going to be.

As has

been indicated, even in the House today, the scale of what we had anticipated to

be a $1.1 billion deficit, with the eventuality and understanding fully that

left unchecked would have been in the vicinity of $2.7 billion really meant that

other priorities besides what was in my mandate letter, what was on my mind,

what was in my department in terms of what we had wanted to do were checked

rather abruptly to the side.

Within

the various departments that I worked on, we collectively felt, as has been said

about the vulnerability, we took a similar approach to each of the mandates of

these departments, and I'll speak specifically around Environment and

Conservation. We felt that while everything we do is important, and I think it

can be argued to that effect, there are core services that we offer at

Environment and Conservation and those are what we focused on when we made our

decisions.

Namely,

those include such things as drinking water quality, species of conservation

status, endangered populations, protected areas and, of course, the

all-important and very important environmental assessment process, making sure

that resource development in this province, that undertakings are subjected to

the highest scrutiny of the land and that we ensure that we have wise decisions.

Compromises in these departments, frankly, were not available to us. We felt we

needed to protect them, and I would argue that is indeed what we've done.

That

said, we did have to make difficult decisions. I look forward to the Estimates.

Tomorrow will be my day in Estimates and I look forward to further explaining to

the Opposition and anyone else who's available sort of the intricacies and the

thinking behind that. But, as I said, we took the ask of the Minister of Finance

very seriously. She went to all departments and asked that we the number was

30 per cent. The intent really, though, was to ensure that all ministers and

their officials looked deep into how their departments are being run to ensure

that if there are efficiencies to identify them. If there are opportunities for

increasing revenues, let's avail.

There

was quite a combination of this exercise and, as I said, a lot of great long

nights and weekends, frankly full time, for a couple of months before we were

able to arrive at Cabinet with all of the proposals before us. It was a

difficult challenge. What I'd like to do is take a few minutes I'm going to

watch the clock because I'd like to spend the remainder of my time,

approximately 50/50 between talking about what's going on in my department, and

then I'd like to talk about what's going on in Lake Melville.

In terms

of the focus of Environment and Conservation, as I said, we are focusing on

species, the vulnerable populations, safe drinking water and environmental

protection. These are the key themes that we're making sure we'll be able to

provide.

We are

reorganizing our Pollution Prevention Division. We were able to find some

efficiency as we moved various sections of that department together.

Unfortunately, it also meant when you move things together, you don't always

need all of the administrative support. There were unfortunate decisions that

had to be made there regarding human impacts and people who have worked with the

department a long time. That's the nature of these kinds of exercises when

you're looking to find ways to save money and to provide better value for the

taxpayers.

We're

also changing the way that we conduct our research. Traditionally, wildlife

management in this province, as in many jurisdictions, involves posing of

questions, review of our own regulations and so on and completing an inventory

of what's in the field. We don't work in schools. We don't work, necessarily, in

accessible areas; we work in the wilder parts of this province. It costs money

to get there. It costs money to do that work. It's also very labour intensive as

to what you do with that information and how you use it in management decisions.

anticipate and we plan and we will be continuing that type of work. What we are

doing is actually starting to use more of that data for applications such as

modelling, using statistics and understanding of wildlife and habitat

relationships to make those decisions. Other jurisdictions are finding that they

need to do this, of course, as costs are increasing. They need to find ways to

do the same thing, but with perhaps less cost in the field.

The big

game management, safe and sustainable drinking water and so on, as I said, these

are all key priorities. I wanted to talk a little bit about I'm sorry

(inaudible). I'm going over to go over to parks, and there is certainly lots of

focus on parks. If I could just detract from my messaging here for a minute

people will notice that this morning we launched our camp reservation system,

and I'm pleased to say that within one minute of the system going live on the

Internet the complete seasonal inventory available for Barachois Park was

completely sold out in one minute. It was completely amazing. So there's huge

demand for our parks. They are indeed jewels of this province, and it's a great

honour to be associated with a department that's overseeing their operation.

We did

make some tough decisions, and one relates to three of the larger parks.

Barachois, Bay du Nord and Butter Pot, where we've moved back from a year-round

operation to a seasonal operation. That did result in a significant savings,

some $180,000, with a $43,000 saving alone to Butter Pot.

While

there are some effects unfortunately to entities such as the Avalon Nordic Ski

Club, we've been in discussion with those people and we're having a discussion

with them, I believe, later this week. So with them, as with other interest

groups that are affiliated with any of the departments, I've been keeping an

open-door policy both prior to, during, and now as we roll out the budget and

what it means and how we can work together to ensure that we continue to address

what's most important.

As I

said, in terms of wildlife management, we're moving more to a computer

modelling, computer simulation. It will allow us to evaluate the frequency in

which we go out and collect information. For example, moose management areas are

surveyed now on a period that we're going to actually have to pull back on, but

we will be supporting that in terms of the habitat relationship work and other

kinds of parameters that will help us make wise decisions when it comes to

setting hunting quotas, making management decisions, evaluating environmental

assessment-type information.

In terms

of drinking water, we are actually able to identify savings there because we've

actually come up with a much more efficient sampling approach for communities.

What's gone on in the past is there have been water sampling and analyses

completed of water systems that unfortunately have some chronic issues where the

water may naturally be higher in some parameters that we're concerned about.

Without

manipulation to those watersheds and to those systems it really behooves one to

ask, why would you continue to test if you haven't done anything to adjust the

water quality in the first place, Madam Speaker? Applying logic to the

situation, I mean some of the decisions were very tough but others were very

straightforward as we realized, why are we paying for something if we haven't

fixed it in terms of whether or not it's been changed in any way?

I'd like

to speak a little bit about water rates as that also applies within my

department and I'll just grab a for instance. The concept of fees, and yes

government does apply and oversee some now 1,000-plus fees. Actually many of

them, I think there's I'm not sure of the exact percentage but it's a very

large percentage for a small department. Environment and Conservation is

actually responsible for a great number of them.

One of

them, for example, is in water power rental rates related to hydro developments.

It's quite interesting that the Muskrat Falls Project, when it comes online,

will be charged a megawatt hour rate of $2.50; yet, other hydroelectric

developments that are operating now in the province are only charged 80 cents.

That's just a prime example of the adjustments that were quite obvious to be

making. People say, well, you just raised fees everywhere. Well a lot of them,

frankly, we've been implementing them in a very unfair way. Some were paying

much less than others. So we've moved that in line

Further,

and I want to speak a few more minutes on fees. We also found a lot of the fees

that were out there had not been increased, some of them for almost 20 years.

Other fees that we've adjusted and moved upwards, frankly, were never there.

Environment and Conservation provides a lot of services. A lot of industrial

clients were going out and doing various kinds of testing for them and

recovering nothing for the service. So it was a very obvious opportunity to go

in there because of the good service we are providing to recoup some of that

cost. These are very logical decisions. On the face of it you say, well, you're

raising all these fees; but in actuality, it's a very fair adjustment for the

service that this department and government is providing.

They

will produce a great deal of revenue. I'm pleased to say that certainly with the

revenue increases it does help us because when you're implementing costs in a

department such as mine, or any of the other four I have, there are a lot of

good people there. So what we need to be most concerned about is how decisions

affect their lives, and stats such as an FTE well, actually that means a

person's job. It means their family. It means all the people who depend and rely

on them. All these kinds of things need to be considered.

Camping

fees have gone up, everything from laundromat services to what it's going to

cost you to camp. All of these are in line frankly and this is another

criterion that we used in our assessment of fees which was to increase in line

with how they relate to elsewhere in Atlantic Canada, how they relate to

elsewhere in Canada in general.

With

that, and because I don't want to run out of time, I want to speak back to my

district. It's an area I wish I could be there more often in. I did have a great

last few days. There are a lot of things happening in Labrador.

I'm very

pleased, on behalf of the District of Lake Melville, to sit at the Cabinet table

and to work with my colleagues, the four Liberal MHAs from Labrador. We have a

very strong team who we meet regularly with the Premier to discuss Labrador

issues. I can assure everyone in Lake Melville and throughout Labrador that we

are working very collaboratively. Issues important to them, each and every one

of them, are raised at the highest table in our province. I would say that it's

a great team atmosphere. That said, difficult decisions still have to be made

and I'd like to explain some of those details.

First of

all, I want to talk about the Trans-Labrador Highway. It's often a project that

I think a lot of people in the province don't fully appreciate. I think folks in

Labrador certainly get it. It's the way that we are going to pull ourselves

together.

Labrador

is 300,000 square kilometres, less than 30,000 people. We get together very

rarely. Situations such as the Labrador Winter Games and maybe a couple of other

events that are sort of pan-Labrador in nature, help us to come together. Some

basic services that many folks on the Island enjoy, whether it mean going to a

doctor, going for your groceries, just going to meet family and friends in the

adjacent community, these are completely unheard of for so many communities in

Labrador. So the completion of the Trans-Labrador Highway and all that it means

is absolutely essential for Labrador.

I must

add, in reflection to one of my colleague's statements last week, the

Trans-Labrador Highway is not a regional highway; it is the artery through which

this province will access goods and services in Central Canada. We're not in

competition with North Sydney-Port aux Basques route, but I will argue, and

certainly the information is out there, that once that road and all that it

means, including an efficient cost-effective way to get across the Strait of

Belle Isle, you will see tremendous improvement in goods and services, not just

to Labrador, but to throughout the Island. I think we'll start to fully

understand the role that Labrador and our geography can play to really assist

this province.

The

$63.7 million that our government was able to identify is a huge amount of

money. I don't say it to belittle it, I don't say it to exaggerate it, $63.7

million will go a long ways to supporting this project and the ongoing

construction, enhancements, widening and paving. I look forward to seeing what

our MP, Yvonne Jones, will be saying in terms of the federal commitment, but I

anticipate this will be a very robust, a very busy season this year, and look

forward to making continued progress on that very important project.

Another

very, very positive announcement was that we are continuing the travel subsidy

for Labrador teams and individuals to participate in athletic events on the

Island. That amounts to some $730,000. It's very important I don't know how

they do it. I actually am involved in coaching and officiating some of the

sports myself, and I am constantly amazed, particularly when I get to the

communities that are isolated. The calibre of the athleticism and their ability,

communities and small groups from Hopedale and Makkovik, for example, always are

dominant forces in the Labrador Winter Games and in provincial events.

It's

really something else. You can just imagine if we could better connect these

people, further enhance their facilities they're training in, they're competing

in, and where these people could go. There is an amazing natural ability to

really excel, despite their handicaps. As I say, I'm very pleased to see almost

three-quarters of a million continue to be allocated to that.

A very

important aspect of life in Labrador and I just lived it on the weekend. I

left Churchill Falls and meetings there with constituents on the weekend and I

drove through a wonderful snowstorm for some five hours from Churchill Falls to

Goose Bay. It was interesting. I got one-third of the way and then the snow

plough stopped. So there I am, mercifully, in a Jeep with a four-wheel drive

capability but able to keep going. No guard rails; frankly nothing out there

except just myself hanging on tight with my dog Zoey in the back, cheering me

on, but we did make it.

In the

wintertime and it's interesting that most western societies don't appreciate

it, but winter in Labrador is a time for people and their communities to get out

of their communities. So transportation by snowmobile is huge. It is the way we

all get to see each other and the Labrador Transportation Grooming Subsidy and

the $351,000 allocated there is a huge boost.

Finally,

I want to make a final comment about the remediation program in Hopedale. For

the last several years, this government has allocated some $12 million to the

cleanup of that former US military facility. I'm very pleased to say we are

continuing this year with $1.46 million to clean up the contaminated soil, and I

look forward to talking to all residents of Labrador.

Thank

you very much, Madam Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MADAM SPEAKER (Dempster):

The hon. the

Member for St. John's East Quidi Vidi.

MS. MICHAEL:

Thank you very much, Madam

Speaker.

I'm very

pleased to stand this afternoon and make my first formal presentation in the

budget debate. While I've used many opportunities over the last couple of weeks

to make points about the budget, both in Question Period and in reading

petitions and in responses to Ministerial Statements, and I think I have made a

lot of important points, this is the first time that I'm speaking directly to

the budget and I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to do that.

It's

been a pretty crazy intense time since this budget was brought down by the

Minister of Finance. I have said publicly, and I'm going to say it here in the

House of Assembly, that in the decades that I've been involved in work as a

community activist, as an educator, as a social justice activist and now as a

politician, I have never seen a budget as austere and difficult for the people

of the province as the one that was brought down this year.

I think,

unfortunately, that Budget 2016 is going to go down in history as one of the

most austere budgets that will have ever faced this province. I can't imagine

one being worse. I can't imagine anything coming after it that will be worse but

you never know what this government is going to surprise us with. They are

telling us already we have to expect more in the fall, and I'm really concerned

about what that more is going to be.

What I

find disturbing is that while the whole province seems to be upset by this

budget, while people are using the public airways in every way they can to voice

their concerns, while people are rallying around the province we had almost

400 people out on the doorstep of this Confederation Building last week and that

expressing themselves, while people are expressing themselves through emails I

have hundreds and hundreds of emails printed off where people are telling me why

this budget is bad for them that in spite of all of that, we had the Minister

of Finance stand in this House last week on Thursday and say she was tired of

listening to people like us on this side of the House spewing non-facts and that

she was going to get up and give the facts to the people.

Well, I

think it's about time that the Minister of Finance, the Premier and the

government side of this House listen to the facts that are being presented by

the people to them. I cannot believe the insult that's being made to the people

of this province when they're being told by the Minister of Finance, by the

Premier, by other ministers that they really don't understand what's there.

What I

want to do this afternoon is to present some facts back. Not facts that I've

made up, but facts that are being presented to me by people as they put together

all the pieces that make up this budget, all the pieces that are going to affect

their lives. These are the pieces that this government has put together.

We have

a list of four or five pages of all the pieces of the puzzle. They're all

spelled out by government itself. It's a document that we received when we were

given the budget for the first time and we were able to look at it. It's almost

like the government is proud of these five or six pages of all the different

cuts to services and cuts to programs, and additional taxations and additional

fees that are being laid on people that are affecting their lives.

I want

to take some of what the Minister of Finance is saying and put back on her the

facts that people are saying to us. We're not out there brainwashing people;

we're not out there telling them what to say. They saw it for themselves as the

budget was read on budget day. Their reaction was immediate. Nobody had to tell

people what was in the budget.

The

government said it itself on page 5 of the Budget Speech, the minister even

read: Several major economic indicators like employment and real compensation

of employees will be lower by 15 per cent and over 22 per cent respectively when

compared to 2015 levels. Provincial deficit reduction measures are estimated to

account for 40 to 50 per cent of predicted declines in these broad measures of

economic activity.

The

government itself told the people we've put a budget in your hands that's going

to cause our economy to weaken in two major areas, employment and the amount of

money in your hands. They actually said it themselves in the budget. They've set

people up for a budget that they say will weaken the economy. So what are they

expecting back from people? Oh, thank you very much, that sounds really lovely.

Especially when what's being laid on them is saying you are going to pay for

this and you're going to get nothing out of it, because the economy will be

weakened by this budget. Can't they even hear what they're saying themselves? It

just blows me away, Madam Speaker, just blows me away. I can't believe it.

They

keep saying they had a difficult choice. No, they made a decision, and rather

than sitting down and taking the time and putting the energy into trying to come

up with something positive, something that would help people have some hope,

something that would say, you know what, in two years' time we're going to have

more employment. You know what; in two years' time things are going to be a bit

better. Not in two years' time we may take off your back the levy we're putting

on now. That doesn't give people hope. You're going to carry this Deficit

Reduction Levy and you're going to carry it for two or three years, then we're

going to take it off your back and then you're going to feel better no.

People

wanted to see a plan that would give hope, a plan that could show how our

economy can grow in this province. how can it grow in the fishing industry, how

can it grow in agriculture, how can it grow the use of our natural resources.

The only hope they're giving is that if you suffer this for four or five years,

we're going to bring you back to a balanced budget and we might be able to take

some of the taxes off and I guess they're hoping by then the price of oil will

have gone up. They have nothing creative in this budget. They put no energy

it's a lazy budget. It's a budget that's based on, we'll raise the taxes, we'll

do line-by-line reductions of expenditures and that's it. That's not a budget.

vision, no thought of the people, no thought of how are things going to get

better in this province. I mean the hope of a child care program, out the

window. They can't even think about how a child care program would be an

enhancement to our economy. More people would be employed. We would have a

stronger economy with a child care program. A stronger economy, like they have

in Quebec, like what happened there. Nothing, not one thing did they put in that

could be a sign of hope. I don't get it. I don't get how they can do this and

continue to say you're not seeing the truth; you're not seeing the reality.

They're not seeing the truth; they're not seeing the reality.

The

Minister of Finance, for example, when she spoke last week here in the House,

because she did take one of the speaking times and you were in the Chair,

Madam Speaker. She said: Madam Speaker, we've also invested in enhancing the

Seniors' Benefit so seniors will be able to get more money to offset the

implications of the consumption tax increase and also to offset implications of

the Home Heating Rebate reduction.

Well,

let me give a fact back to the minister if she thinks that's the fact, if she

thinks that will help. I have the permission of Wanda White to read what I'm

going to read next in an email that came from Wanda, an email that she sent to

many MHAs including her own MHA who sits on that side of the House. She allows

me to read from her email.

She says

in one part: Now, you might say what about that new Income Supplement, won't

that help? She is saying that to the Minister of Finance who said last Thursday

that's going to help. Let's listen to what Wanda says. What about that new

Income Supplement, won't that help? It might help some but when you look at and

weigh in other factors mentioned above and I'm going to read those in a minute

as well as the shutdown of other programs, I see very little to no change at

all.

In fact

this is her fact I estimate, based on other figures I've seen, that my

husband and I will see our buying ability drop about $1,000 to $1,500 annually.

The Liberal government budget will not see us merely falling through the cracks;

it will be the hand that pushes us through the cracks.

Now,

there's the fact. There's the fact from Wanda White. Wanda White, who is

disabled, both she and her husband are disabled, and as she says in her email,

they live on, or maybe subsist is the better word, less than $10,000 a year. We

do not smoke. We don't drink. I'm in a wheelchair. We live in a very modest

one-bedroom home and heat only one room in our home in winter in order to

survive. To do this, we rely on the GST-HST rebates as well as the annual home

heat rebate.

Since

the HST and home heat rebates have now been cancelled, we may not even have that

luxury some luxury next winter. Also affecting our ability to have heat next

winter will be the assorted array of raised fees and higher taxes and I can go

on and list them. They've been listed over and over in this House. There's the

fact. There's the reality. There's the fact.

I would

ask the Minister of Finance: How come she can't understand this fact? This is

what I don't understand.

Even the

16.5 cents per litre on gasoline, Wanda White refers to that as well in her

email. What she says is even though we don't have a car because obviously a

senior couple on disability with a subsistence income of just under $10,000 a

year doesn't have a car. However, they're smart enough to know that they have to

get taxis to go to their appointments, to go buy food, et cetera, et cetera, et

cetera, that will be affected by the 16.5 cents a litre.

There's

the downward effect of the 16.5 cents a litre cost for gas. Are taxi drivers

going to be able to pay that and not put the fees up? Of course they won't be

able to. It's going to be impossible. So once again whether you own a vehicle or

not, you will feel the impact.

What

about the effect of the 16.5 cents per litre on the cost of food when most of

our food is trucked around the Island and in Labrador? Most of our food comes on

ferries and then comes onto our roads and use gas. We all know that you cannot

have the cost of trucking the food around the province happen without the cost

of food going up. These are the things that Wanda writes that as they see it,

their buying ability is going to drop by $1,000 to $1,500 annually. They are

facts. They're the facts that I put to the Minister of Finance.

Let's

look at another fact, not using the name of this couple but a real couple, a

couple that live in my district who took time to sit down and put together some

of the realities of their lives. Two parents, they have a young toddler. The

husband is the main breadwinner, not in terms of the only one working but in

terms of earning a salary. He earns just under $25,000. They have an $1,100 a

month mortgage. You add to that the utilities, you add all the other expenses of

a home on top of the $1,100 a month mortgage. I don't have to tell you what

those are; we all know it.

Their

income tax will be $3,600. The levy they'll pay will be $600 because they'll

both be paying it. The 2 per cent HST will cause for them an increase of

expenditure of $1,800.

Then you

add to that, you eliminate the Home Heating Rebate program they would have

gotten. You eliminate the Labrador Building Material Rebate program, which is

important to them because they want to do some repairs to their home. You add to

that the elimination of the Parental Benefits program and you have a couple who,

as she says, in the next year I didn't write this, I didn't tell her what to

write in the next year we will have to choose again and again whether to feed

ourselves or to pay the bills. I am very fearful, but we intend to remain and

give our best to the community we have chosen.

These

are immigrants. A couple who are now both citizens of Canada. A couple who came

here separately, met here, have married here, have started their family and now

they don't know if they are going to be able to stay here. He has a job here in

the city in the retail sector and she's trying to start a home-based business;

yet, they don't know as I said, I didn't ask her to say this whether or not

they are going to be able to feed themselves or pay the bills.

I have

so many more of these emails upstairs and I am going to read more to you. I

won't read more today. I want to speak very directly to some of the points the

minister wrote. Why I'm reading this is to show you these are facts. My brothers

and sisters in this House, these are facts.

I really

take umbrage when the Minister of Finance says we are not presenting facts when

we talk about the budget. She has to do the mathematics. She prides herself on

being able to do line-by-line analysis. Well, do line-by-line analysis of the

list of cuts to services, the cuts to programs, the new fees and the new taxes

and you will find out that $250 doesn't cut it. It doesn't cut it at all.

When we

were in the lockup studying the budget we specifically said to the people who

were there from the Department of Finance, when you look at these supplements,

do these supplements balance out all the other losses that are going to happen?

They said no.

The

Finance Minister thinks it will balance out the Home Heating Rebate, but she's

not adding up everything else that's there besides the loss of the Home Heating

Rebate. I can't believe how this government, Mr. Speaker, can sit here in this

House and not realize that people fully understand that what Wanda White has

said and what this woman, this young parent from my district has said these

are the facts. They do not have the money; they will not have the money.

I had

another email that came to me last night, again, a mother from my district. A

man and a woman who have four children, two of whom are in university and two of

whom are much younger. What they're concerned about now is not only all of the

pressures on them and whether or not they are going to be able to feed their

children and heat their homes and do what they want to do as parents, but now

they have the added pressure that their daughter, who is getting ready, after

two years I think, to graduate from university she now is facing the fact that

she is probably not going to be able to get a grant. They're going to have to

look at trying to help her again because they don't want her to be burdened.

As this

constituent wrote to me last night, they themselves over the last year have just

finally managed to move from what they considered being low income to finally

moving above that slightly. I've been told by my constituent, the changes in the

budget mean that for them they are going to be dropping down again into a

low-income category. That's what this budget is doing to people. That's the

fact.

When the

minister says something like we're spending $570 million invested in

infrastructure that's going to create a thousand jobs a year for the next four

years, she's only talking about our normal economy. That $570 million is $138

million less in infrastructure than last year's budget. That's a fact.

She

tells a half-truth there, doesn't give the other side. That's what she's saying

that we're doing. We're not doing that. We're looking at the whole picture.

MR. SPEAKER (Osborne):

Order, please!

MS. MICHAEL:

Mr. Speaker, thank you very

much for the time. I promise my friends I will be back.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for the

District of Bonavista.

MR. KING:

Mr. Speaker, it's an honour

to speak here today on the budget for my first Budget Speech. To say that this

budget has been tough is an understatement.

None of

us like the situation that we're in, but we find ourselves in the situation that

we're in and we have to move forward. We have to protect the future of this

province and the future generations of this province.

Mr.

Speaker, like many other of my colleagues and the people around the province,

they're talking about it, they're talking about this budget, how it affects

them. I've been getting the emails, I've been getting the phone calls, and I

take pride in emailing everyone back, taking time to answer their questions on

the phone calls. You have to do that; you can't hide from it.

It's ten

years, $25 billion spent we can't blame them all the time. We own this budget,

so I have to go up and face the people in my district. I have to go to the

firemen's ball, I have to go to the Lion's charter night, I have to go to

Mifflin's to shop, Swyers to shop, go to the post office, and I sit down and I

take the time and I talk to the people about this budget.

Over

this past weekend I held two public meetings one in my hometown of Catalina,

and one in Lethbridge. People were pretty vocal, and I gave them a chance to

raise their concerns. I told them your concerns are relevant and I'm going to

bring them back to the caucus table, because that's what I'm here to do as MHA.

What I

also told them about, I gave them the backstory. I said here's where we are. We

have to make some difficult choices. Yesterday I attended a NAPE rally in

Bonavista. I was asked by Neil Fleming, the president of the local NAPE chapter,

to show up. Do you know what? I showed up, because an MHA has to show up to the

things they're invited to. I'm a representative for the District of Bonavista,

and I was there to hear their concerns. They're not happy about the AES office

closing in Bonavista; they're not happy about the cuts to the health care

facility in Bonavista. Neither am I.

I had a

meeting with the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills and the Mayor of

Bonavista last week in a delegation, so we raised our concerns then. I requested

a meeting with the Minister of Health on the health care facility in Bonavista,

and he's graciously accepted to have that meeting with me. I thank him for that,

because we have to listen.

So how'd

we get here? That's what everyone asks. They say: Neil, how'd we get here? Well,

I said: How'd we get here? So last year this is the Fisheries Minister who

pointed me to this. T his is Budget

2015: Balancing Choices for a Promising Future . Well, I don't know about

that. They had a deficit last year of $1.09 billion. In September we asked them:

Where are we at right now? They based their budget last year on a $71 barrel of

oil. That didn't last too long. So in September we asked them: Could you give us

an update? Where do we stand? No answer.

When we got in on the 22nd of December that deficit had creeped up to I

believe it was just shy of $2 billion.

Because

we came out and Minister Bennett and Premier Ball excuse me, the Premier and

the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board got up and said here's

where we're at. We're $2 billion in deficit for the fiscal year 2015-16. I shook

my head and I said wow, that's a lot of pavement and fire trucks going out in

the last few months. Anyway, I digress.

Because

of that, we took a hit in our credit rating. We dropped. The cost of borrowing

went up. For the fiscal year 2015-2016 we had a $2.2 billion deficit. Because of

that, our debt interest payments amount to 11.6 per cent of our spending. That

is $982 million dollars.

AN HON. MEMBER:

Almost a billion dollars.

MR. KING:

Almost a billion dollars.

Thank you.

What do

we pay for our children's education? Mr. Speaker, 10.5 per cent of our total

budget, $890 million. So we're paying roughly I'm not too bad at math. We're

paying almost $10 million more on our debt repayments than our education.

We had

the good times, right? The good times rolled for a lot of years. A lot of people

did well for themselves. Let's talk about personal income taxes that went down.

The personal income taxes went down and I'll give the former government credit

under Premier Williams. The first bracket, the lowest earners, they went from

10.57 per cent in 2001 down to 7.7 per cent. Do you know what? They deserved it.

The middle class deserved it too, 16.16 per cent down to 12.5 per cent. That's

fine as well. The third bracket, the highest earners in this province dropped

from a period of 2001 well after 2007 I should mention, from 18 per cent to

13.3 per cent. I mean come on; you look at what's saving there.

What we

did with this budget we put it back up to 16.8 per cent. Next year it's going to

go back up to 18.3 per cent, so we rose it by 3 per cent. Let the ones who can

afford to pay it, pay it.

How does

this budget affect us in the District of Bonavista? What's in it for us? What's

in it for us, I tell people. I don't know if any of my colleagues have ever

driven from Georges Brook to the Bonavista Highway, 4.3 kilometres of bad road.

That's been like it for 25 years. We just got that infrastructure money put in

place. That will be done this summer. So that's good news in the budget

We're

also getting some pavement, some roadwork done in the back route in Elliston,

from Elliston to Bonavista. Now that's carry-over but we felt we had to do it,

and they deserve it. Those people travel that road day to day and they deserve a

good road to go over. Now we need to focus a little bit more on the other

Elliston road, which I took the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural

Development over twice this past weekend. After going over that road he said we

have to do something about that one.

We're

also doing some roadwork up around Route 235, which is the back half of the

Bonavista Bay side of the old Cabot Loop. A lot of work needs to be done there.

A lot of it was put in place by the previous government. We decided we needed to

invest more in it. So that's good news as well. Not all spending they did over

the past few years has been bad.

Infrastructure investment is needed. However, we have inappropriate spending,

Muskrat Falls. Everyone asks me: Neil, Muskrat Falls, can we stop it now? I said

we're at the point where we can't. We stood up and said I never did agree with

that. We're paying $1.3 billion out of this budget to honour Muskrat Falls.

Humber Valley Paving, $21 million went in that route.

What

else do we have in the District of Bonavista? The Minister of Environment and

Conservation talked about water and I appreciate the fact that he did speak on

water because we do have a lot of water issues in my district. My hometown of

Trinity Bay North, we've been on boil order for years. I think there's a

standing offer on Channel 6, where the local ad is on, to keep that boil order

up.

We're

getting phase four of our water improvement in the municipality of Trinity Bay

North. The Town of Bonavista is getting investments in the new water tower. Do

you know what? We're a growing area. We're an area where we're growing. We want

to see new people come in. So we need to have the infrastructure to get more

water to meet the demand for the people that are coming into Bonavista. Bunyan's

Cove has been having some water issues so we're continuing on with that project.

The

biggest piece of water infrastructure that we do have in this budget is going to

Milton in Georges Brook, the LSD of Georges Brook Milton. We are investing in

water infrastructure that is going to connect Milton. Everyone knows that Milton

has had water issues throughout the year and they've had to hook into

Clarenville. Clarenville has been gouging them on the water rates. What we said

is we're going to invest in that. We're going to give Milton the water they need

and move it up to Georges Lake because that's a good thing. I'm not saying

anything bad about the Member for Terra Nova. That's just the way it is. I'm

getting a little off track.

We just

had the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development visit the

District of Bonavista on Friday. I thank him for coming to the historic District

of Bonavista. We visited Sexton Lumber, the largest full-time employer in the

district. They employ roughly 120 full-time workers there. We sat down with

Kevin, his wife Susan, and Neil Greening who's their CFO, and we said, what can

we do to get you guys growing, to grow the economy in the Lethbridge area to the

bottom half of the Bonavista Peninsula?

It helps

my friend in Terra Nova as well. He's happy that we're getting the road from

Georges Brook to Route 230 done because his constituents use it as well and we

use it to bring some money into his district. There's nothing wrong with that.

We're close and we have people coming down from his district to ours. Anyway,

I'm digressing.

We said

how can we help you grow your business? We sat down this is my third meeting

that I've had with Mr. Sexton and his team over the past six months. What we're

going to do is try to get him better access to forest product, to lumber to

the forestry so that he can actually hire more people. He's actually looking at

investing in his company doing finger joining. He's got machinery coming down

from Quebec right now and he's getting that operational. All of that is going to

grow our economy in the area.

What did

we do after that? We left Sexton Lumber and we stayed in Lethbridge because

tourism, fishery, agriculture and forestry is important in my district. We met

with a group of dairy farmers. We didn't cut any money in forestry; we didn't

cut any money in agriculture because we know it's important to farmers to have

the ability to go purchase more Crown land to put their machinery there, to cut

it down to provide foliage for their cows so they could produce more milk and

put that into our local economy.

AN HON. MEMBER:

More diversification.

MR. KING:

More diversification, exactly

it.

So when

they say there's no diversification, I mean, come on. I got four things in my

district; we're a pretty diverse district.

From

there we met with the municipality of Trinity Bay North. That's my hometown,

born there, raised there. I saw the impact the closure of the cod fishery had in

the municipality of Trinity Bay North. We had a big FPI plant in Port Union that

employed 1,400 full-time employees year-round 1992, that all closed. We had

Fishery Products later come in with a shrimp plant that provided year-round work

for people. However, since Igor came that plant got flooded and OCI made the

choice that it wasn't viable for them to keep the plant open. That's fine.

So I'm

working with the municipality of Trinity Bay North and representatives of OCI so

the town can purchase that plant and bring an operation into that town that will

create jobs. We're a very short amount of time away from getting that

accomplished.

The cod

culinary project based on the tourism industry now, the tourism industry,

people loves the hands-on experience; how do you do it? The fishery has always

been big in my district. We're the District of Bonavista John Cabot through a

basket over the Matthew and hauled up

a basket of fish. I'd love to see it like that again, but it's not going to be

like that. So we have to get back to utilizing what we can.

The cod

culinary project is partnered with local fishermen. The College of the North

Atlantic in Bonavista which is a great resource for the District of Bonavista,

and it will be focused on the tourism sector. When the fishermen come in they're

going to come to this facility, they're going to fillet a fish and show them how

it's done. Local culinary students can then show them how to cook that fish, and

then will provide them a sample, give them a real-life experience. Newfoundland

is based on real experience, because we're a real people.

Then we

talked about a Geopark in Port Union. Now we just had the discovery a few years

ago of the oldest fossil here in the province, which is currently sitting in The

Rooms, and I've got to get down to visit sooner rather than later, I tell you.

So we're

looking at what we can do because it's a great area. People come to visit and

the geo-tourism industry is going wild right now, so we want to take advantage

of that. In my district we have some of the nicest hiking trails in the

province. You have the Skerwink Trail which you can't even park around there

because the lots are full and even though you're going to walk, you have to walk

a little bit further to get to the trail.

You have

the Murphy's pond loop in Port Union which brings you out around, shows you the

beautiful Green Island. You have the trail from Little Catalina to Maberly which

we are investing money in because after Igor, the trail is not safe so we're

going to invest money into that. We want to market our area in that manner.

Then we

met with the Bonavista area Chamber of Commerce before their AGM and election of

officers. We had a great meeting with the members. They had some concerns about

the budget, like everyone else does, but we look at opportunities. We didn't cut

back on any marketing. We didn't cut back on any of the historical excuse me,

(inaudible) but I'm getting off track and my time is getting short.

One

thing I wanted to talk about is the Income Supplement. This is what a lot of

people are asking me about; $74 million in support that we are giving those most

vulnerable citizens. Those include seniors, low-income families, low-income

singles and people with disabilities. So for a single senior with a family net

income of $16,000, do you know what? They are getting an annual quarterly

installment of $394; that's every quarter. They are going to get a double

payment in October.

A senior

couple with a net income of $26,000 their annual Income Supplement is $510 with

the seniors' annual benefit of thirteen, giving them an amount of quarterly

installment of $455.75, which will be doubled in October, because it takes place

July 1.

A single

parent with one child and I had someone message me from (inaudible) with this.

They said: I'm actually going to do better off. Family income $16,000, annual

Income Supplement $466, she is going to get an amount of quarterly installment

of $116. A single earner family with two adults and two children under six and

it varies if you have children a little bit older. You are still going to get

something, but you won't get as much. Two children under six, net family income

now net is not gross. Net is your taxable money.

So when

people say: All right, I make this amount. I said: What's your net? What do you

actually take home? What do you get taxed on? They say: Oh, well, that's not too

bad. So they're getting an annual Income Supplement of $910, which brings a

quarterly installment double this year, in October. So people relied on that

money to buy Christmas gifts, the grandmothers, all that sort of stuff, they're

getting that. So it's $227.50.

So I can

go on, I can go on and I can go on. I know it's a difficult budget and that's

not lost on me, and I talk to everyone. So I'm going to wind down here. I have

more to say, but I get another 20 minutes and then I get another 20 minutes

after that. I don't know after speaking here today if anyone wants to listen to

me for another 20 minutes.

I said

this initially, and I'll say it again, I said

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER (Dempster):

Order, please!

Order,

please!

MR. KING:

B'ys, if anyone has any

questions, if anyone has any concerns, call on my personal cellphone, email me,

stop me in Mifflin's, stop me in Robin's Donuts, stop me at J.T. Swyers Limited,

come to my office. I want to make myself accessible and answer as many questions

as I can.

Madam

Speaker, thank you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. the Member for

Topsail Paradise.

MR. P. DAVIS:

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

appreciate the chance to rise again in the House and discuss the budget, which

is by far the most frequently discussed topic in the province over the last

couple of weeks. I had someone say to me over the weekend I've had a couple of

people make this comment to me. They said: The government is waiting for the

discussion to stop and everything to cool off, and for it to all go away. I had

a couple of people mention I had one conversation with a person over the

weekend who said: I'm not going to let this happen. I'm not going to let them

forget. I'm not going to let the discussion stop, because it's too important.

Now, I

just heard from the Member for Bonavista, and I congratulate him on his time up

speaking. He comes from a beautiful area, and it's an area that I visit on a

regular basis. When I say regular, two or three times a year I'll find my way

down to Bonavista for my own personal pleasure, and the pleasure of my family.

We have family down there, and I have friends down there and so on, so we visit

there. No doubt, it's a beautiful part of the province and there are some great

people down there. I've gotten to know more of them as I've been going there

over the last number of years.

The

Member referred to a number of matters down there. Sexton Lumber, no doubt a

significant contributor to the region, to the area on the peninsula. I think he

said he's bringing some new equipment. I'm glad of that. The only thin