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June 9, 2021

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS

Vol. L No. 13

The House met at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER (Bennett):

Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Orders of the Day

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Government House Leader.

CROCKER:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I call from the Order Paper, Motion 11.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Government House Leader.

CROCKER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move, seconded by the Minister of Municipal and

Provincial Affairs, that pursuant to Standing Order 11(1) that this House not

adjourn at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 10, 2021.

SPEAKER:

The

motion is that the House do not adjourn at 5:30 p.m.

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

All those in favour, 'aye.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

SPEAKER:

All

those against, 'nay.'

Carried.

The hon. the Government House Leader.

CROCKER:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I call from the Order Paper, Motion 1.

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Terra Nova.

PARROTT:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's always an honour to speak in the House of Assembly

for the people that I represent in the beautiful District of Terra Nova.

Mr. Speaker, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up

something that we missed as a House, I guess, and as a Legislature and that's

June 6. It just passed and there was no mention of it in the House of Assembly.

It's sad to say I missed it as probably the only veteran here in the House. June

6 was the 77th anniversary of D-Day.

The first thing I'd like to say is that, not only did

we lose a lot of allies but there were an incredible amount of men and women

from Newfoundland that died on that day. I think it's our duty as Members of

this Legislature to always honour our veterans and remember days like that. I

apologize.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PARROTT:

It's a very important day. There is a few more coming up. We need to go out of

our way to make sure we recognize our veterans.

The first thing I would like to talk about is

volunteers. We all look at volunteers on different levels throughout our own

communities, districts and, certainly, the province, but I would just like to

touch on something with volunteers that gets overlooked sometimes, and that's

what they contribute to the entire province as a whole with regard to health

care and providing help to people in need. There are lots of different

organizations that come to mind: Daffodil Place, Hope Air, Power to Hope and the

Salvation Army. I think this is Red Shield Week, actually, so we should

recognize that also. Where would we be without all of these volunteer

organizations? I think we always overlook that.

When we look at Newfoundland and Labrador and we

consider the geography, there's one thing that is very apparent, the hon. Member

for Labrador West spoke about it very eloquently yesterday, and that is it

doesn't cost the same to get sick in Newfoundland. If you live outside of St.

John's your cost of care can be substantially higher. I don't think we, as a

government, do enough to help people.

I'll also go on to say imagine where we would be if we

didn't have organizations, or provincial leaders, in my mind, like Daffodil

Place, as an example. Imagine if you had come to St. John's, Gander or Corner

Brook for cancer treatment from Labrador, the Northern Peninsula, Port aux

Basques or areas where there is no ability to get these treatments and you have

to stay somewhere other than Daffodil Place or other places that are set up to

help people.

We went through it with my mom. My mom had breast

cancer, I guess, about 13 years ago, and she was in Labrador West. At the time,

I was living in Gander. She was told that she had to come to St. John's to get

her treatment. Now, I have to be honest, I don't know if they could have

afforded to do it if they didn't have somewhere to go. So after many weeks of

fighting to get the care transferred from Eastern to Central, we managed to get

her to Gander and she came and stayed with myself, my wife and my children. She

was six months, like six full months, where if she had to go anywhere else or if

she didn't have the supports that she would have had to pay out of her own

pocket, and it's a substantial amount of money.

We really need to understand how far health care

doesn't go with regard to people who need help, because if you live outside of

St. John's and you get any kind of an illness and you have to travel to St.

John's to get treatment, or you have to travel Gander, or you have to travel to

Corner Brook or Grand Falls, any of the major centres, there's an extreme cost

associated with it. It's not just as simple as getting on board a vehicle and

driving there for some. Some don't have vehicles, some don't have cellphones to

communicate and some certainly don't have the ability to buy food or rent

hotels. But there's another thing, too. When people are sick there are a good

many of them that don't have the ability to even look after themselves.

I'd really like to give a hats off to all the volunteer

organizations throughout the province that go out of their way to help the men

and women of this province every single day. I shutter to think of where we'd be

without them. I mean, all you have to do is look to the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy

Cancer Care Foundation and the money that they've raised in order to do the

upgrades for cancer treatment, something we should all very proud of. Many

businesses and men and women contributed. I'm not saying government doesn't

contribute. But what I am saying is that if we didn't have the support of these

volunteer organizations, this province would be an awful bad state. It would be

an awful bad place to get sick. We need to recognize that every single day.

The fact that there are two levels of health care in

this province, to me, it's very sad. Because, like I say, you're not on an equal

playing field.

I used to be involved in a fundraiser with Power 2

Hope. All of our money actually used to go towards travel for cancer patients.

It's shocking to find out that there are actually cancer patients inside the

metro area who can't afford to get to the Health Sciences to get treatment. Just

think of that, they live here in St. John's and they can't afford to get a cab

to go get treatment. That's pretty scary. It's a very scary situation.

Anyhow, I just wanted to recognize the volunteer

organizations that raise all the money for the health care corporations and

different things they do. I think it's a very important part of how we survive

here in the province.

The next thing I'd like to talk about is first

responders. When we talk about first responders we generally think about police

officers, ambulance drivers and firefighters. But we also have to think about –

there are two separate levels of policing in the province, or three really with

municipal. There are also air ambulance drivers or attendants and water bombers.

I question all the time how we're failing these people

on many levels. The reality of it is we are. All you have to do look to the

current labour dispute with the ambulances. The ambulances were ready to go on

strike. We legislated them back to work. But it's not that long ago we were in

this House of Assembly and instead of talking about legislating ambulances back

to work, we were asking government to consider an essential services contract.

Anyone who can look at me and tell me that an ambulance

driver isn't an essential service in this province, I'm bewildered by that. The

fact that they go into a negotiation is fine. We'll hear that this is private

business. We've gone out to contract and this is a part of it, but they're still

an essential service. We, as a government, ought to be looking at it in that

way.

There are two separate levels of ambulance care in this

province. If you live in St. John's or if you live in rural Newfoundland, it's

entirely different. Wait times are different. The level of standards for people

on the ambulance is different. The level of pay is different. There's a whole

lot that's different about it. We're letting our first responders down on that

fact.

We look at the RNC and we're hearing that training has

been cancelled. We need police officers. Last year during COVID, we sent a full

class over to PEI, I believe, for training and now all of a sudden we don't need

to do it anymore. Why are we doing that?

RCMP: I met with the superintendent out of Gander

during the election. He told me flat out the RCMP will lose services in this

province if they don't get more money. Very, very open and honest about it. They

can't afford cruisers, they have police stations that need replacing and

staffing is a huge issue.

I didn't hear one thing about RCMP service in the

budget. They're very bullish on it. They went around and they met with everyone

they could to tell them the situation that they were in. I'm certain the Justice

Minister has heard the same from the RCMP. They are severely underfunded and

it's a big issue. All you have to do is go into rural Newfoundland and look at

the issue with policing and the amount of overtime that they're having to work

and different things because the RCMP are underfunded. It's a big deal.

If we talk about our firefighters, we know – I come

from a family where I was a volunteer firefighter, my dad was a fire chief in

Wabush, my brother is a fire captain at the Ottawa airport and my other brother

was a volunteer firefighter. They volunteer; they're the first people to show

up. It's not just fires anymore. If there is an accident on the highway or

there's a first aid call and an ambulance isn't available, it's the fire halls

that respond. These people put their lives on the line every single day. It's

not just what they put on the line during the day to respond to these things,

it's what they deal with after they respond to it. We don't ever consider that.

They see the worst things in the world. They need more help and again this year,

we've lowered their budget. It just doesn't make sense to me with those guys.

Air ambulance: We hear all the time another story that

an air ambulance was late. It wasn't called. It didn't get there in time. They

couldn't get staffing. It was after hours. It was weather; they couldn't land in

a VFR situation, IFR only. Again, it just shows the level of care between St.

John's and the rest of the Island: there are two different tiers.

The other one that really stands out to me is water

bombers. We look at our water bombers and in 2013, I believe, there were five. I

heard the Member for Labrador West talk about no water bomber stationed in

Labrador West. It's not about a water bomber being stationed in Labrador West or

Goose Bay or wherever, the bottom line is that we have three and we used to have

five.

We had one that crashed in 2013 and I believe another

one that was in an incident in 2018 with a major repair. We have a college out

in Gander that could probably do some of these repairs. The question has been

asked of the deputy minister last year in Estimates and they didn't know if they

were going to check into it. Here we are a year later and the water bomber is

still grounded.

If we have a major fire – and I've lived through and

seen major fires in Labrador and they're much different than the forest fires

that we get here in Newfoundland. I can tell you we've seen fires up there where

it is incredible the amount of forest that is devastated and how close it comes

to the communities. You have to think, when it goes to a community in Labrador,

escape is not as simple as other places in every instance. It's a big deal.

Why do we only have three and what's the plan? These

two aircraft have been missing for –

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

PARROTT:

have a fourth one now?

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

PARROTT:

Yeah, one is busted. One doesn't work.

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

PARROTT:

Yeah, no doubt. Anyhow, the water bomber situation is dire and we do need to

have a look at where we're putting them and how we're utilizing them.

The Member for Humber - Bay of Islands mentioned

yesterday something that's huge in my district and I'm sure it's huge to other

districts; it was very evident during COVID. During COVID, when there was a

return to play – or we're still going through COVID – for sports, there were

provincial sports teams and provincial organizations that could have sports

events in St. John's because of the private buildings and different things.

Every kid that lived outside of St. John's was at a disadvantage because there

was nowhere for them to go.

It bewilders me why schools aren't utilized the way

they used to be for sporting and cubs, scouts and different things. It only

benefits our health, it benefits our kids' mental health and it benefits

communities. Not every community can afford a megaplex or a sportsplex. Instead

of embracing what we already have there, we've gotten away from it. Or in some

instances, we've funded these types of buildings when they didn't even need to

be funded; a lot of the infrastructure was already there.

I look to one of the schools in Clarenville; it has a

full gym. The teachers aren't allowed to utilize it after hours which makes no

sense to me. By gym, I mean a weight room. It's a school board policy, but

they're just not allowed to utilize it. It makes no sense. It's there. We should

be promoting them to go in and use this type of stuff after school.

Potable drinking water: I'm not sure what the number is

today, but I looked at it a couple of weeks ago and I believe we had about 181

boil orders in Newfoundland at the time. It's 2021 – 181 drinking water boil

orders. During the last federal election, one of their main pillars was potable

water for northern communities. We had 181 boil orders in our province. It just

bewilders me.

I think about Crown land and I'll echo with the Member

for Botwood said – Bishop Falls, sorry.

HON. MEMBER:

Exploits.

PARROTT:

Exploits, Bishop Falls.

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

PARROTT:

Yeah.

While it may not be the number one issue in my

district, it is certainly one of the things we receive the most phone calls

about: the delays, the process. We have an office out there where one person

works. They haven't been there since the beginning of COVID and they were only

there for half a day a week prior to that.

It's really pathetic. If you put in an application for

Crown land, it's never 90 days. I'm not talking about the tangly ones; I'm

talking about the easy ones also. If we don't step in with application numbers

trying to get things expedited, it just doesn't happen. We hear it every day.

So we have people that are trying to spend money to get

land, most likely build a cabin, which is going to spend more money and generate

revenue in the province, a province that is desperate for revenue, and we can't

seem to get it right. We can't seem to help those people. We should be

encouraging Crown land as much as we can. Not just encouraging but we need to

make sure that it happens, that this lands gets out.

I listened to the Premier yesterday spouting facts

about all the money that we've received from Ottawa. I guess it is plain to see

that the Premier is here to defend Ottawa instead of talking about what we don't

get now. He's not alone, because I haven't heard much from any of the federal

MPs or any of the ministers with regard to oil and gas or the fishery. The

numbers that come out are simply that, they're numbers. That type of money was

given to every province; it was COVID relief. It had nothing to do with

equalization. It had nothing to do with anything as a matter of need in this

province and it wasn't anything special that was done for Newfoundland.

As a matter of fact, one of the numbers that was

spouted was the $320 million that was given to oil and gas, a complete industry

that generates revenue not just for this province but the entire country. There

was $200 million given to a casino in Ontario, one of their friends. It is not

comparable; I don't know why those numbers would even be brought to the floor.

It makes no sense to me.

Rotational workers: Again, we talk about rotational

workers on a regular basis. I read an

article last night. Nova Scotia is now –

if rotational workers have two vaccines, they are now welcome to come home

without quarantine because they value the people that they have. They value

their rotational workers. They see what they bring to their province and they

understand that they need to find a way to keep them there. Now, in our

instance, there's only maybe 20 days left before we go to July 1 and things

change for them, but why not have a look at what we can do in the next 20 days

instead of waiting 20 days.

These people have been away from their families far too

long over the last 18 months – far too long – and not just 18 months, certainly

for their whole careers if they're gone away for three weeks or two weeks,

whatever they go for. We should be doing what we can for them. Instead, we raise

taxes on them because they make over $135,000 and we still make them quarantine

and do things that we ought to be looking at different ways around.

To me, we've totally alienated, not just the workers

but the families, specifically, their children. In my district, we get it all

the time. A child of a rotational worker goes to school; we get parents calling

our office complaining that the children are in school. We get parents

complaining that they seen the wife out shopping. All the meanwhile, the

rotational workers are following the rules, entirely following the rules.

Staying there in their basements by themselves, away from their family, doing

their quarantine when they've already had two vaccinations. They're tested

multiple times. The likelihood of them having it is very slim.

It's good to see our mining industry is picking up. I

said to the minister last week during Estimates that there's lots of good stuff

happening. The one thing that always bothers me though – I look at Vale as an

example of where we can do better. There is no road into Vale. There is no power

line. The cost is astronomical, we know that, but part of the deal before they

went underground was that we'd get rid of the turbines and there'd be a power

line in there. What a place to sell our power. Instead of selling power to

Voisey's Bay, we watch them get their fuel from Quebec. They power their

diesel-generation plants from fuel that comes from Quebec; an astronomical

amount of fuel, too, if you think about it.

Not just that, I encourage anyone to go visit Voisey's

Bay and you'll quickly see that every vehicle up there has a Quebec licence

plate on it. On the Coast of Labrador, in the Province of Newfoundland and

Labrador, a company that operates in our province has all the vehicles

registered in Quebec, most likely insured in Quebec. All the supplies come from

Quebec and we don't say a word about it. It's a huge revenue that we lose out on

– massive.

The ship comes from Voisey's Bay, it goes to Long

Harbour and then it leaves and goes to Quebec to get refilled with goods and

supplies and we don't say a word. Just imagine, if all the fuel and all the

licence and registration and everything that was done was done through

Newfoundland, how much money that would generate. It just doesn't make sense.

I always talk about Bull Arm and our glorified Walmart

parking lot we have out there. We have the Henry Goodrich, the West Aquarius

and the Terra Nova out there

parked. It's a sad state of affairs. There for a while the government was

bullish on cold stack, that it was the greatest word in the world. Oh, look,

we're cold stacking these rigs; look at how good we are.

Cold stacking a rig is the death of a rig. It means

that it's probably not going back into service. It's out there parked. They're

getting minimal rent; if they're getting anything, I don't know. It's probably

costing us money knowing our past blunders. All the while our industry is dying.

Make no mistake about it, it's dying. Bull Arm should be utilized. There should

be a long-term plan for that facility. There ought to have been a long-term plan

in place in 2016. It should have happened in 2017. It should have happened in

'18. It should have happened in '19. It should have happened in '20. Here we are

in '21 and it still hasn't happened.

We can talk about the global pandemic and the oil

crisis, but all of this stuff happened long before that. There should have been

a long-term plan. There was no plan. There was no work done. There was EOIs that

came in. There were people that had great plans, in my opinion. Maybe not ideal,

but certainly better than what we've been doing with it.

A site like that has to grow. It's not going to happen

overnight. There has to be people allowed to come in, set-up and make a future.

There is no future.

Then we have Argentia West White Rose out there. We

gave them a pile of money out of the $320 million and they laid people off. We

still don't know what the future of that holds. Make no mistake about it, that

rig is critical to that oil field. If that goes, so does the oil field.

The Barents: Our exploration is doing great now.

There's very little going on. Stena Forth is out there doing one hole and one

hole only, and they're moving on. It's great that we have seismic going on but

seismic is not the type of exploration we need going on out there.

I've said time and time again, we need to make it

easier for oil companies to come here and we need to make it harder for them to

leave. That applies to all of our natural resources. We have to find a way to

take advantage of it.

Anyhow, Mr. Speaker, this won't be the last time I

speak on the budget.

I thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Cape St. Francis.

WALL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's indeed a privilege to be able to speak in this

hon. House. I do appreciate the opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very proud of where I live. I

appreciate the responsibility that has been put on me by the constituents of

Cape St. Francis. It is indeed an honour. I will speak and represent them to the

best of my ability whenever I can.

Mr. Speaker, we all realize that we are surviving

through this COVID pandemic. It is nice to see some of the easing of

restrictions that are coming forward. We need to ensure, of course, that we all

keep ourselves safe in all the actions that we do as we stay here in our

province for now.

I had the privilege of sitting in Estimates last night

with my colleague from Topsail - Paradise. I have to say it was a good

Estimates. It was very engaging and I compliment Minister Haggie and, of course,

his staff for the great job that they done. It was recognized last night, as I

said, by my colleague from Topsail – Paradise; I wanted to say that again to the

minister with respect to his staff who he quoted was working around the clock

for quite a long period of time. I just want to say that we do appreciate all

the work that's being done. We all are looking forward to, again, the easing of

restrictions but keeping in mind, first and foremost, keeping everyone safe.

It's going to be interesting going forward as we start

to open travel. I'm hearing from residents in my district – I'm sure everyone

else is – with respect to that happening. Everyone has mixed feelings about it.

We all know the purpose of opening and lifting restrictions. We have tourism and

business that needs to be supported as well. But we all have to, first and

foremost, keep everyone safe and doing what we have to do as we go forward.

I saw a Tweet earlier from the hon. Minister of Health

with respect to the totals of vaccinations by age. According to the minister, we

are at 66.3 per cent. That's encouraging. I would encourage everyone to, of

course, be vaccinated, to keep everybody safe. We all have a part to do.

We have a lovely province here, Mr. Speaker. We have to

do what we can in order to keep everyone safe and do our part. I would encourage

everyone to get your shots, your vaccinations. Of course, we can all have the

opportunity to speed up that process as well. Go back online and book in your

new appointment dates, and keep everyone first and foremost.

Mr. Speaker, it's been said several times in this hon.

House this week about essential workers. I've spoken to many essential workers

during the election, since the election, as late as last evening, who worked

through the pandemic. They all need to be thanked. We need to personally thank

them whenever we see them for what they do. I won't list off everything that

everyone who are essential workers because I'll definitely miss somebody;

however, they do need to be recognized and thanked.

Mr. Speaker, before I entered into this hon. House, I

spent 27 years working in mental health. That was alluded to by my colleague

from Conception Bay South yesterday. I'm very proud to say that I worked with

mentally delayed and autistic adults for 27 years.

I didn't have the option of staying home during the

pandemic; I had to go to work. The care, welfare, safety and security of those

residents were my utmost responsibility. I didn't have the option of staying

home. At the time, my wife was a cancer patient. She was going through

treatment. All of that was on my mind as I went to work everyday for a 12-hour

shift, sometimes a 16-hour shift, because it wasn't cut and dry with respect to

hours of work at the group home.

I recognize my former colleagues and those that worked

on my team – I don't have it in my notes but I'd like to recognize them now. I

worked with a great team for over 10 years before I came to this House: Roger

Brinton, Mike Noftall and Christopher Smith. The four of us were as tight as you

can appreciate. We worked well together. We did an awesome job looking after and

caring for the residents in our care at the time.

We didn't have the option of staying home during the

pandemic. Of course, we all had family members at home that we had to be mindful

of as well. I'd like to salute all of the essential workers for what they have

done and what they're continuing to do. We're going to be living with COVID for

quite some time. The work is not going to stop. I would just like to publicly

say that I appreciate all that they do.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

WALL:

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as every district in the hon. House has, I

have quite a large numbers of seniors in my district and their main priority is

staying healthy and staying in their homes for as long as they possibly can. I

see that on a personal level as well. My parents and my in-laws, in their 70s,

who are looking at possibly downsizing; health is of the utmost importance at

all times. I see it first hand.

The many seniors that I spoke with throughout my

district were pleased, I have to say to the hon. Minister of Finance. I have

received messages and calls from them to see what was in the budget for seniors:

it is encouraging, no doubt; to say that they are committed to supporting

seniors and ensuring citizens remain healthy, active and engaged. Of course, the

budget outlines what's there for seniors.

It is optimistic, I do thank the minister for that and

I know I speak on behalf of all the seniors throughout my district. It is

important that we can support them in whatever way we can. I've said it here

before and I'll say it again: I do have a soft spot in my heart for seniors.

When you have the opportunity to drop by, to visit them, to send them a birthday

card or anything that would uplift them in their daily lives, I would encourage

everyone to do so.

Some seniors, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, don't have

what everyone else has with respect to the level of family engagement and

support that we sometimes take for granted. I know that we have to keep that in

mind. I've been doing that for years and just because I'm in this hon. House is

not going to change me going forward, I can assure you, Mr. Speaker; to keep

everyone included and keep everyone first in our minds is key.

My colleague from Terra Nova spoke shortly ago about

volunteers. I'm not going to try to top you, at all, but I'd just like to

recognize all of the volunteer groups in my district as well. They are essential

to the work that is being done in the district, in each municipality in the

district and throughout the province.

We would not be where we are today without the work of

volunteers. Some of the people in my district are school volunteers, church

boards, right down to the Girl Guides and the Boy Scouts. All the sports groups:

where would we be – it was said yesterday with respect the level of commitment

from volunteers with respect to sports groups. Personally, I know that as well.

My daughter Kristen played sports for her entire time in school with respect to

basketball, soccer, fast pitch softball and rowing down on the Lake in the

Regatta. So we would be in a very poor spot if it wasn't for all the volunteers

that we have that support our youth with respect to sports.

Then, of course, we have those in the heritage society

who are promoting and encouraging us to look back at our heritage and what we

have.

Yesterday, I spoke on the Lions Clubs and the important

role that they have in my district. I'm sure that there are many districts here

throughout this hon. House that have active Lions Clubs and work tirelessly for

the betterment of others. We have to keep that in mind at all times.

Mr. Speaker, the Northeast Avalon Food Bank is a food

bank in my district located in the Town of Torbay. I have to say, they are

getting more active each week. It's sad to hear and it's sad to say that, but

it's the reality. I will say that all the five towns in my district do support

the local food bank, the Northeast Avalon Food Bank. They have an awesome group

of volunteers as well who work tirelessly to support the food bank. If I wasn't

in this hon. House tomorrow afternoon, I would be in Torbay at the food bank

dispersing food hampers from 1 o'clock to 2:15. That's how I'd spend my

afternoon.

Like many others in this House, I've volunteered most

of my life. I see the good that the Northeast Avalon Food Bank does for those

who are in need. They also just need a hand, and we have to be there to provide

that hand up and to give them the support that's needed. I'd like to give a

shout out to all of the volunteers in my group. I'd like to recognize the

Northeast Avalon Food Bank as well for the good work that they do on a daily

basis to help those throughout my district.

As I said, Mr. Speaker, it's unfortunately becoming

more prevalent of people accessing the food bank. We have many groups who we're

supporting financially and by food donations. I would encourage everyone to keep

that up. Of course, that goes without saying in all districts.

I'd like to recognize one young volunteer from my

hometown of Pouch Cove. Her name is Harley Murray. Harley is seven years old. A

lovely young girl, a constituent of mine, and recently she had a fundraiser

where she made key chains. She had this initiative that she wanted to raise

money for the food bank. She didn't know what, at the age of seven, she could

do.

So she had this initiative that she wanted to make key

chains, and on the key chains she put key words. She had four different key

chains. On the first was “Courage,” the second was “Be Kind,” the third was

“Kindness” and the fourth was “Smile.” She made those key chains with the help

of her mom, Jessica, but it was Harley's intent to do this to sell them to

family, friends and neighbours. She donated the money to the Northeast Avalon

Food Bank.

At the age of seven, she took this on herself. The end

result was, Mr. Speaker, she donated $1,370 to the Northeast Avalon Food Bank

for her –

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

J. WALL :

through her efforts at a young age of seven.

I messaged Harley's mom last night. I got permission,

of course, to speak of her today. She said that Harley has a heart of gold. But

we are a product of what we see on a daily basis. I would like to not only give

a shout out to Harley but to her parents Jessica and Brian as well who are doing

a great job. We, as MHAs, enjoy working with residents who are willing to give

and to give of themselves. At the age of seven, I think Harley is on a great

path to providing a lifetime of service to others.

Mr. Speaker, in my district, we have a facility that's

regionally operated. I think it's the class act of regional co-operation: that's

the Jack Byrne Regional Sport & Entertainment Centre. It's a regional facility

owned by the four towns of Pouch Cove, Flatrock, Torbay and Logy Bay-Middle

Cove-Outer Cove.

Of course, we all know named after a well-respected

Member of this House, the late Jack Byrne. It was Jack's vision to have this

facility in the District of Cape St Francis.

All businesses and all groups had difficulty, of

course, during this pandemic when businesses were shut down. We had, of course,

the loss of income, but I do want to commend the administration, Lorne Tucker

and Cathy Green, at Jack Byrne Regional and, of course, all of the staff there

as well who worked tirelessly; who managed to obtain funding through federal

funding opportunities with respect to keeping the business going. Of course,

it's also supported by a volunteer board of municipal leaders and community

representatives.

I sat on that board for a little over seven years

before I entered into provincial life. I chaired the board for three years and

I, of course, was treasurer for two. I'm well familiar with what's going on at

Jack Byrne and the important role that they play in the district as a whole. Of

course, not only to the district but to the neighbouring City of St. John's and

surrounding areas – people who take

part in activities at Jack Byrne. Besides

the on-ice activities that happen, of course, there are many trade shows and

events that take place in off-ice season. That's encouraging to see going

forward with respect to the bookings that are coming up.

There are also many seniors and young parents who take

advantage of the walking track at Jack Byrne as well. They took advantage of

that during the winter months when you can't get outside for recreation and

exercise; they take

part in the walking track at Jack Byrne. I'd just like to

send a shout-out, as I said, to the administration, to the staff and to the

volunteer board at Jack Byrne Regional for what they do on a regular basis for

keeping the doors open at Jack Byrne.

As I said when I started off, with the easing of

restrictions, of course, more activities are going to be permitted going

forward. Please God, Mr. Speaker, by the fall, when we come back again, we won't

have to social distance and we won't have to wear the masks during the sitting.

I know we've all spoken about that here and the staff as well. It does get

cumbersome after a while but we know that it's for the greater good that we have

to do this. So the easing the restrictions is definitely going to make a

difference to Jack Byrne Regional and to all facilities throughout the province.

Mr. Speaker, this is the time of year when we have to

salute all the graduates from Level III, of course, throughout the whole

province. I'd like to take the opportunity today to congratulate all of them,

especially to those from Holy Trinity High in Torbay. My daughter Kristen is

graduating this year and it's an important time. It's an important time to see

from kindergarten to Grade 12, the advancement that's been taking place, the

work that's gone into it.

I have to say, the group that she started off in

kindergarten with, she's finishing Grade 12 with, that social circle and peer

support is key. We all know that it's difficult with respect to the pressures

that society has on young people. They do need that peer support. It's good to

see that my daughter's group does have that and, of course, I'm sure all groups

do. I'd just like to commend them on their achievements and good luck in all

your future endeavours.

I'd be remiss – and my colleague from Bonavista might

say something to me after – if I don't mention the teachers. Of course, I'd hear

it this evening when I got home around the supper table from my wife as well. So

I'd like just to thank the teachers throughout the province for their level of

commitment and dedication to our students.

I know that I sat in Estimates with the hon. Minister

of Education and I see what they're putting forward with respect to education

and keeping students and teachers first and foremost in mind, which is great to

see. But what the teachers have gone through to keep the classroom productive,

to keep the students educated and engaged. If you're not involved, if you don't

have that intimate relationship and behind the scenes look at what teachers do

on a daily basis, sometimes it's not appreciated. I can certainly tell you the

level of work that goes in to teachers' daily activities is far and above the

normal five, six, seven, eight hours that sometimes is quoted with respect to

teachers.

I'd just like to give a shout-out to all teachers

throughout my district and, of course, throughout the province for their

dedication to our students and for the high level of commitment that they have

shown during this very difficult school year. Again, we're looking forward to

less restrictions in September. I hope that the students in September, we have

less restrictions on them going forward.

Mr. Speaker, we have the municipal elections coming

this fall, 2021; something near and dear to my heart, as it is to many other of

my colleagues here in this hon. House. I'd like to speak to the importance of

municipal government. As we've said and the minister has quoted: It's boots on

the ground. That's the best way to describe it, Mr. Speaker, because municipal

government is the first line of defence for any issue that a constituent has in

any district across our province.

They go to a councillor; they go to the mayor. Most

times I've witnessed it, they've gone to the mayor with concerns. I would like

to encourage all of those who are interested in putting their names forward for

the municipal election this fall, to do so. It is an honour to do so, to serve

the representatives of our town at the local level. I would just like to

encourage everyone who has that inclination to do so.

Right now, I'd like thank all municipal leaders

throughout our province for their last, almost, four years of service to the

towns and cities that they represent. It's important to recognize the hard work

that's done. Mr. Speaker, at times it's not easy. It's not easy work, at times,

when you're representing your municipality and making decisions that affect your

town as a whole. I'd like to give a shout-out to all of the municipal leaders in

my district, in the five municipalities and, of course, throughout our beautiful

province for the work that they do on a municipal level.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

WALL:

Mr.

Speaker, I've only been in this House a short period of time and I haven't

spoken as often as my colleague from Stephenville - Port au Port on roadwork, I

can tell you that. I believe the word is Cold Brook?

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

WALL:

Cold Brook, thank you.

I would like to say to the hon. minister that work has

begun in my district with respect to the paving. I mentioned that before. I did

speak to the hon. minister in Estimates last evening. The road preparation was

done and there is paving underway. I look forward to that being completed, Mr.

Speaker.

I spoke to a gentleman this morning before I drove in

and he said: It's great to see a bit of new blacktop.

HON. MEMBER:

(Inaudible.)

WALL:

And

previous Member. That is correct and I've said that before.

I would like to recognize that going forward. It is

indeed –

SPEAKER:

Order please!

Your time has expired.

WALL:

apologies.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.

BRAZIL:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is indeed an honour, as it is for everyone, any time

they get to speak in this House of Assembly that represents the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador. It will be my first opportunity to directly speak to

the budget. I will speak in a roundabout way of where we are with the budget,

some of the discussions around the budget and the impact it will have, but I

would hope I'm going to try to set a tone where it is about Newfoundland and

Labrador is on the right path. The people are resilient in this province; a

collaborative approach to what we are doing; a tempered approach; and a balanced

approach will get us to the promise land – for want of a better phrase. There is

light at the end of the tunnel.

I say that based on an opportunity I had yesterday – I

had the privilege to – I left the House early yesterday afternoon to be invited

to a lady's gathering, who is in her 99th year. And you want to talk about an

active lady who demanded – when she put on music and she had a barbecue out on

here patio here in St. John's, in the heart of St. John's – that we all got up

and dance, and she was the first one to lead that dance.

I say this tongue-in-cheek with all respect, I was 30

years the junior of every other person who was there and I'm no spring chicken

at that, but what I will tell you, and why I tell you is if you want to see a

vibrant group of individuals who are so positive about this province, who see

the benefits. They may not get to reap all the benefits of the resources we

have, the talent we have in this province, the approach that we're going to use

as a collective group of leaders to direct where we go in the future, but there

was no cynicism. The glass was definitely half full with the people around there

yesterday.

That inspired me a little bit more when I thought

about: What am I going to speak about today when I talk about the budget? It

sort of enlightened it. Not only the fact that it is 28 degrees in June, sort or

perks you up naturally, but when you got a collective group of seniors who come

from every background, from 79 years of age to 99 years of age and they're all

on the same page.

Newfoundland and Labrador might have some struggles

right now. We may face some challenges that we probably haven't faced in the

past. We may have to change how we approach things but we will get through this

and Newfoundland and Labrador will be a much better place. This present

generation and the coming generations will see the benefits of Newfoundland and

Labrador and we will be – as we always have been and continue to be – world

leaders in a lot of areas in this great world of ours.

I also wanted to note – and I was thinking about what

do I say – it's a week ago and it was about 11 o'clock last Wednesday we were in

the House that I had to leave to go to a meeting. I was in the parking lot and

ran into our colleague, George Murphy – excuse me.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

BRAZIL:

Myself and George had a conversation. I said, George – I was being a bit

cynical. When you get into your second decade of sitting in the House of

Assembly, maybe you get a little more cynical on certain things when you're in

here and it's a beautiful day.

I ran into George in the parking lot. We talked and had

our pleasantries; we had a little chat about certain things. I said: George,

it's too nice a day to be in there. He said: You're right but isn't it a

privilege. That summed up a lot of things because he was so right –

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

BRAZIL:

sometimes we take it for granted. I know we banter here and I know sometimes our

personalities conflict with others. I know that sometimes we feel that what

we're proposing is the only thing that should be right and just without being

flexible and open, but I think we need to be a bit broader.

I keep echoing the second decade. There are a few

Members, my colleagues here, who've been around in that previous decade also.

There were many more volatile situations in this House, many more disagreements

and some personal attacks, unfortunately. At times, we probably didn't do the

best job that we could have, as the collective representatives for the people of

Newfoundland and Labrador.

I would hope, because of changes and new Members – I do

welcome the new Members here, particularly – you come with fresh ideas; you come

with a different perspective. You come, like everybody else in this House, with

the intent of improving the lives of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, not only

in your own district but having input that has a positive influence on

everybody: the present generation, the future generation.

I'm hopeful and I'm very optimistic – just in what I've

seen in the last couple of weeks here and the previous week that we spent here

since the election – that there's a willingness, an openness and an ability to

be very more collaborative, more engaging and more open and transparent. That

comes on both sides; I mean that's not only directed to government. Any Member

on the Opposition has a right to ask for information and to ensure that people

get the proper information, but they have a responsibility to do it in a manner

that is in the best interests of everybody in Newfoundland and Labrador, not

just the Opposition for the sake of opposing.

If there's information that can be gotten without it

having to be a confrontational process in the House of Assembly, why not reach

out to a fellow colleague across the House – if it's a minister or if it's

another colleague – in some way, shape or form to get that information? If it's

felt that the information is not as accurate as it could be, or if you can make

a suggestion on how that information can be disseminated or how it can be better

used in making decisions, well, that's what the House discussion process is all

about.

I do encourage that. We've had a multitude of

conversations in our own caucus about how we can better do that. There's not one

Member of the PC caucus who hasn't bought into doing whatever it takes to

improve the lives of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Sometimes it's even going

along with government when you know they're going to get credit for something

they've done, and rightfully so. Sometimes it's going to have to stand your

ground and be adverse to what's being proposed, but doing it in a diplomatic,

respectful manner that shows to the rest of the province that we can have

disagreements, we can have a difference of opinion, but at the end of the day,

the decisions made are based on the best principles to put forward to improving

people's lives.

We've bought into it. I'm hopeful and I'm seeing

evidence that the government have bought into doing the same thing. I know the

discussions I've had with the Premier have been about sharing information as

much as possible. I get – and we get – every piece of information can't be

shared all the time. There are reasons why there's confidentiality in Cabinet;

there are reasons why, even within line departments, things are not shared for a

period of time. We get that.

We do ask that there are pieces of information that

could be shared, because there's input from the general public that we may not

be aware of that would have pieces of information or some advice to give that

could actually dictate or change our approach to certain things. We've welcomed

that. I know that we've talked a lot about consultation and inclusion. That's

very important in whatever decision-making process we engage ourselves in.

I'm glad to see, and as I said at the beginning, I'm

very optimistic and hopeful that we're going to, over the next four years, have

a good working relationship in the House of Assembly so that we make sure our

financial situation is in play; we make sure that the next generation feels

hopeful and optimistic, and decisions to leave Newfoundland and Labrador are

based on wanting to see other things in the world, not because they don't think

there are opportunities in this great province of ours. I also want to see how

we grow our population here, how we engage expats to come back, how we make sure

that our retention continues to move forward; but how we also openly welcome new

immigrants to Newfoundland and Labrador, as an open, engaging community and

society that we are.

I think that can be achieved. We're very optimistic

over here. I'll keep using that word “optimistic” because I'm a very optimistic

individual. As I've said a number of times, I very seldom, if ever, have looked

at the glass half empty. I think there's a solution to every challenge. Once,

when I was minister of Transportation and Works, the only time I think – my

colleague, the House Leader, was working with me at the time – that I actually

lashed out at a civil servant in a manner that wouldn't be mine, but a little

more assertive than not, it was an engineer who was telling me: Minister, it

couldn't be done.

I give pure, 100 per cent respect to engineers because

I spent my first year at MUN doing pre-engineering and realized I don't have the

intelligence or the demeanour to be able to actually be a full-fledged engineer

and solve those types of problems. So I moved out before they kicked me out,

very quickly. I was smart enough to do that if nothing else.

I did remember saying, and my colleague would remember:

Don't take out your notebook and tell me again it can't be done. One, this is

Newfoundland and Labrador; two, we have the resolve to be able to do anything;

and three, you're a qualified and skilled individual. Tell me what needs to be

done to make it happen. I'll decide if it's financially viable, if it's timely

viable and if it's even politically viable. I said that because that still

becomes my philosophy. There's absolutely nothing in this province that we can't

achieve.

I think we need to set the template in this House of

Assembly to reassure the people out there, the business community, the social

community, the not-for-profit community and the municipal leaders that we have

that there's nothing collectively we can't address and solve. There are going to

challenges. You're going to take a punch that you didn't see coming at the time;

something is going to happen financially. Mother Nature may have an impact on

it. Global situations may have happened. Look at what we're facing now: a

pandemic.

You very seldom tie a health issue to an economic one,

but because of the health pandemic, look at the impact that had on other

industries, particularly the oil and gas industry, the tourism industry and a

number of other industries, and the impact that has had on the financial cost of

people just in the lumber, the cost of lumber and trying to find things. We

can't work in silos now. I think if nothing else, the pandemic has made us all

aware that we have to be cognizant and we have to be looking left, right, front

and back constantly because we have to try to prepare for the inevitable, what

may come. If you see one thing coming, plan five steps ahead.

I think we've become so creative. I've seen some

businesses, some municipalities and some not-for-profits be very creative on how

they couldn't do business the way they always did, but they're still providing

services. I've seen a multitude of not-for-profits offer more services now than

they did when they were going full fledged, they had a multitude of volunteers

coming and they had additional monies coming in. That talks to our creativity in

Newfoundland and Labrador and our resolve to actually want to be there for

people, particularly in their hour of need.

We've seen the positive things that are happening in

our industries here. The aerospace industry: I had a privilege of touring the

PAL Aerospace industry and what they're doing and it was amazing. You would

never have believed the contracts that they have with other countries in the Far

East. How they would get a contract where they're retrofitting pieces of

equipment, aircraft – they're purchasing aircraft here. All the maintenance is

being done here. All the engineering design is done here; the modification. They

they're flying them with their pilots there; training their people to do things

around surveillance; to do things around fire prevention, water bombers and all

these – it was amazing.

That's only one example. The same is happening in

Gander with EVAS Air. So it just tells you the industries we very seldom think

about. I think there are – between the collective two groups – 1,300 individuals

working, just in that one sector that we barely even think of. That's just

through two companies. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of

dollars. But they're putting Newfoundland and Labrador on the map from a global

perspective.

So when I hear we have a $20-million contract with the

Malaysian government, I mean, just think of it, if that opens up one door for 10

other companies that could go meet with the Malaysian government. They have

multi-billion dollar budgets to play with. The potential there is amazing.

I also had the privilege, with the Premier and the

Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology, to travel to the Hibernia platform

and see the amazing work done by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. I was

fortunate enough as a civil servant many decades ago to see parts as the

Hibernia rig when it was being built. But to see it first-hand, to see it

operational and to see the commitment by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians that,

not only want to make it work from a financial point of view but to show their

pride in the fact that we're world leaders.

Now, did we all agree? It's an aged piece of equipment.

It's 24 years of age. It's been put out in the North Atlantic. It's taken hits

on every potential worst scenario that Mother Nature could throw at it and it

survived totally because of the ingenuity, the creativity and the construction

ability of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Does it need a few upgrades? One hundred per cent.

Would I be totally supportive if we supported that in some manner? Without a

doubt. Because I see the value from a financial point of view. But it's our

cornerstone to our oil and gas industry. It solidified us as actually being

trendsetters and being people who should be looked at from a global perspective

on how we develop our oil and gas industry and what we're capable of doing. When

they talked about technology 15 or 20 years ago about drilling wells directly

down was the only way, to now being able to go out kilometres, laterally, to be

able to access more oil and gas.

Again, that was a great eye-opener. Particularly, when

we're talking there is more than a billion barrels still left on that rig. That

rig is stationary. It's basically paid for. It's there. It's owned by the

companies involved and basically by the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. So

let's use that, let's develop our oil and gas industry. Particularly, when you

look at we have some of the cleanest oil production processes in the world.

Let's improve on that and let's make that another part of how we move beyond the

challenges we have now, financially.

We all know the oil industry will come back and I know

there are all kinds of pro and con issues around: Do we move totally off of oil

because we're into greener energies? We're all supportive of greener energies.

We know that is coming and we know we're all moving towards that, but right now

there's a need for the oil and gas industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. It's a

valuable asset for us, it's a skill set that we have and it provides a very

valuable service to the whole global network when it comes to the needs for

people.

People forget – and it was made very clear to me

talking to a number of the people out on the rig – that the oil industry is not

just about the carbons that come off of cars and vehicles and this type of thing

and the pollutants that they may have; a lot of the other things that we use,

from our cellphones to everything we use for medical procedures to all kinds of

other positive interventions and things that you must have for life-saving and

life interventions and supportive are, in most cases, petroleum based.

While we sometimes get too caught up or certain groups

get too caught up on the negativity of the oil and gas industry, we have to look

at some of the big positives they have, outside of the financial things, and the

particular need and are we supportive. Yes, one day we will move to finding ways

to do greener energy. Maybe the oil industry becomes a greener production

process that has minimal or no impact on our environment and the ozone so we

would look towards that.

I wanted to reiterate before I make some other points

here, the positive attitude of the workers on that rig: it was amazing. From the

helicopter pilots going out, to the safety trainers, but when you see the

riggers, as I call them, the actual people who do the drilling – the pride on

their faces and the role that they're playing. Are they well paid? Yes. Do they

work hard for their money? One hundred per cent, yes. Do they contribute a lot

to our society? Beyond what you can imagine by the general public here.

The fact is what they sacrifice when they go out there,

it was very apprehensive for me, just getting ready to go out there; spending

that day preparing, putting the suit on, suit off, all these things to go out

there. That's fine, we knew we were going to be back in our bed that night, but

these people are then out there weeks at a time; sometimes months at a time

depending on the weather and that, and continue to work.

It's a camaraderie but it's a vocation that people take

very seriously. What I want to exemplify here is the fact of what this means to

the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

When you add that in to all the other potential we have

in that industry, we have a very bright future. When I hear seniors – like I did

yesterday – talk about can't wait for our oil industry to get back because then

they can feel that we're on more stable ground. We know it will turn around. We

know the price of oil is in the $70-plus a barrel. We know things are trending

in the right direction.

We need it to be stable enough so it doesn't have a

major impact on the other costs for people heating their homes, businesses

driving their vehicles and the average person going and coming. There's a

balance there. The monies that get generated through royalties and the

employment tax and all these things become a benefit for government to be able

to support those who may have some challenges, financially, in other ways, shape

or form, to make it that there's an even balance across, generating money and

ensuring that the impact of how that money is generated doesn't have a negative

on certain parts of society.

That was a very positive opportunity. I do thank the

premier, the minister, ExxonMobil, Cougar Helicopters for the invitation and,

particularly, the 158 members who were on that rig that day for engaging us and

being so open to explain it, explain it in layman's terms for somebody who

doesn't understand the oil industry. Now I have a better appreciation; I have a

100 per cent better appreciation. I do have a little bit of an understanding of

the complexity of what goes on, but the commitment to make it work.

That in itself was a very worthwhile experience. When

people ask me down the road, when I'm out of politics: What were some of the

things that you remember and that you were grateful that you got in politics

that you probably wouldn't have got anywhere? That trip out there was one of

those because it gave me a real understanding that our society is in a good

place. Our economy is in a good place in the future. What we've developed here

says something about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador; that our

capabilities are limited by only our imagination as part of that process. I'm

very pleased with that.

I want to also talk about – I'll move back and forth

because there's a reason, there's a theme of what I want to talk about there –

the decorum in the House of Assembly. I think we've learned – I'll go a step

further, first.

We've heard the will of the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador. Outside of issues around a winter election, a pandemic election, the

challenges and all that; the challenges were equal for everybody. I understand

that. I accept that. The will of the people put the government in play and it

put the Opposition in play. We want to build on that.

Through adversity we managed to keep the democratic

process going, even with challenges. Let's build on that. Let's make sure that

we don't let the people of Newfoundland and Labrador down. Those who went out of

their way to be able to cast their vote, who, in some cases, through anxiety and

thoughts they might be jeopardizing their health, still wanted to exercise that

right. We know there were people who stayed on the phone for six hours to make

sure that their ballot was sent out to them.

Let's not let them down by not following decorum and

have an open, honest and upfront debate so that we ensure the best legislation

is put forward, that if it needs to be modified to reflect the needs of where

people are and that it reflects the actual views of the people of Newfoundland

and Labrador, let's put aside – sometimes we get too caught up, and we're all

guilty of it – petty politics. Sometimes our threshold for what may irk us or

what we may take personally seems lower with some individuals and higher with

others. That we need to be able to remember; we don't make it personal. Healthy

debate, maybe even a little bit of banter, adds a little bit of excitement to

the House when we go back and forth, but, at the end of the day, that we come to

an operational consensus that what we're doing is in the best interest.

I've seen more evidence that we're at a point that what

we put forward as an Opposition – and I think I can speak for my colleagues here

and the Third Party and the independents – is based on what we're hearing from

our constituents, what our knowledge is and what our experiences are. All we ask

government: Take that into account when you're making decisions around financial

accountability, when you're making it around how we best spend our money. I know

there's not enough money to take care of every need for everybody, but a

balanced approach to ensure we first prioritize where, who and what in society

needs to be the key thing that we need to do.

We know we need to take care of our most vulnerable.

That's a given. We know we have to keep our society healthy and educated. We

know we need to set the framework for encouraging businesses and the economy to

move forward. We need to know that we set the tone nationally and

internationally that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are open for business, but

we're open for business when it's a benefit for us also. We have no problem in

developing partnerships where everybody gains, but it can't be one-sided.

I would hope and would think that we would still be

open to the fact of saying: Look, let's not look at the past. You can learn from

the past; you can't ignore it, but let's not just harp on the past. Let's look

to the present and the future. The present is our reality; the future is where

we need to go and how we're going to get there. The ability in this House, the

ability by the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador to achieve any of those

goals is very obtainable. I know it's the one thing that most Newfoundlanders

and Labradorians want.

There was a sense of pessimism for a number of months.

I think it was because people had to change a whole lifestyle they had: when you

no longer can see your grandkids, when you no longer can have a family member

come visit you and when you no longer can pay your respects to somebody who has

passed away. That has a mental affect on everybody. It makes people feel: Do you

know what? Maybe I'm just going to stay in my own little hub, do my own little

thing and maybe I'll just give up on the normal things I would do. But the

feeling of the last couple of months is a little bit different.

While I have no illusions; the Greene report was an

awakening document for people to have a discussion around exactly where we are

and what are some of the situations; probably sold as a little bit more dire

than I would look at it and some other people. I'm glad people look at it. Maybe

it's the total optimist in me as the part there, but I have no qualms in

explaining to people that we have to be realistic and honest on where things

are.

Do I feel and do I think most people feel that's not a

death sentence? What is written in that Greene report is not a death sentence

for this province, by no stretch of the imagination. What it is, is an awareness

that there are certain things we have to do. Not everything in that report do I

think we need to do, would I support we do or do I believe would put us on the

right path, but there are a number of things there that should set the tone for

how we approach our present fiscal situation and how we even approach our

spending down the road.

Even if we had an abundance of money, there has to be a

certain accountability on what we do and a return on how we're investing. A

return doesn't have to be a financial return, it has to be that society is

better off, people feel better about themselves and there is more access to

certain things, or we've now opened up programs or services that people normally

didn't have in the past, and we talk about things like that.

I see our objective over here is to assure the people

of Newfoundland and Labrador, not just in our own districts but everyone out

there, that do you know what? We will get to where we need to go. I do realize

government has to take it to another step because they have to make the

decisions, they have to make the first decisions on what are the first steps,

and sometimes the first steps may have to be negative steps from people's

perspective. There's an old cliché in life: Maybe sometimes you take a step

backwards before you take two forward.

There are things there that we are willing to support.

I will say there will be times that we will probably be adamantly upset and

adamantly disagree with what's happening over there, and that may be based on a

policy, a program or a spending process. I will say, right now, that the budget

line there now, there are some challenges in it from our perspective, and we've

outlined some of those, but it's not so detrimental at this point that the

society will, that you're not at least starting to have that discussion around

where we need to go.

We're going to try to guide you in the right direction.

We're going to challenge you on some things that we don't agree with, without a

doubt. We're going to try to clarify exactly what you mean. There is some

discussion. You know the theme that we have over here is: We're still not quite

sure what direction you're going in. You may be in the right direction. I know,

I think through all sincerity that you want to put it in the right direction but

the cliché of the devils in the detail is key for us over here. We're still

trying to analyze it to know if we would 100 per cent agree; if we would be 75

per cent agree; if we'd 50 per cent; or we'd totally disagree on your approach.

I know it takes time to develop all the nuances of that

and the implementation processes. Everything here is a living entity in the

House of Assembly. I'm a former minister so I do know what you plan to do one

day and what changes the next has to do with 50 factors or you're waiting on

more information. I get that. We won't be cynical just for the sake of being

cynical on that. We do ask, and I implore, that you share as much information as

possible. So that when do ask questions, or we do challenge you, our challenges

are based on facts.

We may not always agree on the outcome. We may not

always agree that our approach is better than your approach or vice versa but we

will agree that we all have the same facts when we decided what our approach

would be or what stance we were going to take.

I wanted to set that tone on behalf of our caucus in

the House of Assembly. Because, again, we have a responsibility and an

obligation to the people of the province, that we need to have as much

information shared so they can tell us what it is they want us to vote on in the

House of Assembly – as I would suspect your constituents would say the same

thing. And/or, if you're a minister, the agencies and organizations that you

work with would tell you the same types of information that you want to do so

you're making an informed decision that best reflects the needs of the majority.

I keep saying that word majority because I've had to

have this explanation to somebody this weekend in my own district, that we can't

do everything for everybody at the same level. There are reasons why certain

programs are fitted for certain demographics, because there's a bigger need for

it. There may be a better return on our money so we can take that money to put

into some other program where there's no financial return but it does meet a

social need as part of that.

I get it, we're all human beings; we're self-serving

because, at the end of the day, the immediate things that we know are the things

that affect us.

Part of the responsibility we have in this House, too,

is to educate the general public and say: If you work with us on this side, you

may not get something immediately, but what we're doing here is going to help

your needs and your wants further down the road. I know that's hard to sell for

anybody because, at the end of the day, you don't know where things are going to

go from a financial point of view. You want to have as much stability as

possible.

We have a responsibility to do that and educate. The

best way we can educate people is with the right information. I do ask that we

share everything. I know – and I get it. We may banter back and forth because it

is part of what we do and it's part of Question Period that we need to be able

to expose, if we think that there's not enough information being shared, or

challenge. There are abilities to share information and there are

responsibilities on government's side to be able to hold back information until

it's pertinent to be able to share. We get that. Even when we may challenge it,

we get it, too.

I want to clarify that to everybody in this House of

Assembly, and those who may be watching at home, that there's a rationale behind

what we do on this side of the House as Opposition and what government does when

it comes to Question Period, back and forth. You'll know if both groups are

adamantly in favour of each other because it will be very complimentary. You'll

know if there's a total difference of opinion by how the debate goes as part of

that process.

I want to talk about a couple of other things. I'll be

very open on my support for certain things. I want to lighten it up a little

bit, but getting into a very serious discussion here, which sets the tone but it

also sets to, again, as I talked about, educating Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians that it's not doom and gloom in this province.

I'll reference a saying by one of the best actors who's

on television right now – and you may know him – Homer Simpson. Homer Simpson

has a saying, as you may know, where he says: Beer – the cause of and solution

to all of our problems. That's a philosophy I don't necessarily live by,

nonetheless I read into it, presently, the conversation – and I say that I lead

in tongue-in-cheek because I want to have a conversation about almost what's

being sometimes discussed and debated in the House of Assembly.

I reference Muskrat Falls, because sometimes it's

played up in this House as the cause of and solution of all our problems in

Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

BRAZIL:

want to talk a little bit about that. That's not in any way to diminish the

situation that we're facing, but I do want to talk a little bit about Muskrat

Falls.

I'm going to start it by saying that in my office

there's a framed

article that I gave three years ago when my colleagues, one of

the local papers, would be doing the year-end: What are your objectives? Are you

going to build a new school? You're going to get Route 60 done for the 15th time

this year. Paved again? What you're going to do to benefit your constituents.

My whole conversation wasn't about the ferry service

for Bell Island. It wasn't about a high school needed in Portugal Cove-St.

Philip's. It wasn't about the education system in Paradise. It was a discussion

around Muskrat Falls. They generated the questions but the

article came out.

Everybody else was talking about – my colleagues who live in the same region; I

think it was probably five and from different sides of the House. Mine read:

Brazil confident Muskrat Falls will be a benefit to the people of Newfoundland

and Labrador one day. I still wholeheartedly believe that.

I do want to say unequivocally right now, so that I

think we can move forward in the House of Assembly, so we can minimize the

banter and the debate: I, and I alone, am the only person in the Official

Opposition who was around during Muskrat Falls debate, who sat in Cabinet for a

period of time on the tail end of Muskrat Falls and who adamantly defended the

need for Muskrat Falls, the benefit for Muskrat Falls and the value for the

future of Newfoundland and Labrador by building Muskrat Falls.

Do I, like my colleague, the Member for Mount Pearl -

Southlands, say and echo that we based it, and I based it, on the information I

was given. I wholeheartedly hold my head up because I'm probably one of the few

people who asked questions, who in Cabinet asked pertinent questions; was given

answers from the professionals, the skilled people, the trained people who

reassured me. Even in a quasi-little bantering challenge, I was reassured. To

this day, their answers made all the sense in the world after I dug it out. I am

going on the premise that they believed they could achieve what they were

saying, even when there were some challenges.

How it got to the point that it cost much more than it

should have or we were led to believe is still up for debate. I know we've gone

through a whole commission and there were a number of issues and challenges as

part of the whole process. What I wanted to echo again is that I do feel – and

as Homer Simpson says, the cause of and solution; we've talked about it – the

Atlantic Loop could be a very positive thing for Newfoundland and Labrador, as

long as we develop the partnerships that benefit the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador. For that to happen, Muskrat Falls would be one of the cornerstones of

how we use hydroelectric power to not only generate financial support for

Newfoundland and Labrador, but support our regional partners in this great

Confederation of ours.

I do want to go back to some people. I know we've spent

$13 billion on Muskrat Falls, an exorbitant amount of money and nearly double

what was projected. I'll be honest, as a minister who was responsible for

infrastructure, I had a number of $8.32 billion because I could gauge, through

the staff I had, what overruns would be and the projected needed that you would

on a project of that magnitude, and you were dealing with the terrain in

Labrador and these types of things. It went beyond that from my perspective,

which, no doubt, was of concern.

I want to echo it's our asset. It's there now. It's

paid for. We talk about it equates, if you go by the Greene report, to 20 per

cent of our debt load and that's not exactly accurate; you can spin numbers any

way because we had an equity share. There are monies in that which we already

paid for, that the government put in, us, as an administration. I suspect so did

Nalcor and the Liberal administration because they inherited the project, they

moved it to the next level and the development went from there.

But the benefits – people forget too. We talk about

what it costs but people can't dismiss the fact that nearly $10 billion of that

money came back to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in some way, shape or form.

It came back in employment tax. It came back in cars being purchased in our HST.

It came back in purchases in other ways, shapes or forms. There was a multitude

of monies that came there.

Is it a concern because the costing went further than

it would and there has to be money made up when we talk about the interest that

has to be paid on it? Now, we're fortunate. Having the federal government sign

on for the loan guarantee gave us an exorbitant, small, lowest interest rate

that we could have ever gotten in our history when we borrowed.

I remember some economist saying at the time – and I

asked the question – about going to the market. They said if you're ever going

to do it, this is your window to do it because the interest rates are so low.

Getting the federal government to get us that exorbitantly low – exorbitantly

low and I have to emphasize that – very small interest rate to be able to make

sure that we weren't paying extra debt as we are now paying an exorbitant amount

of debt, just to handle our debt load to our creditors. I get that, in trying to

pay that down.

This amount of money – plus I've talked to trades

unions; I've talked to other agencies. There was over $150 million from that

project donated to charities in Newfoundland and Labrador. That's major input in

helping people health-wise, youth organizations, things like the lunch program:

all the things that still benefit our society.

I want to dismiss people thinking we threw $13 billion

out the door and it's gone – when I say we, collectively, all of us in the House

of Assembly. Whether you voted for it or not, if you've been here the last

period of time, we all get labelled with it. I'll be honest; I do want to put

this out. I ask if there's any blame that anybody on that side wants to give

about Muskrat Falls or responsibility, I solely take it from our perspective in

caucus – because nobody here had the opportunity to ask a question, nobody had

the opportunity to voice their opinion, nobody had the opportunity to vote on

it; I'm the only one.

If you want to direct a question or challenge or blame

– which I would hope we don't get into the blame game on anything we do, because

I would think, and I'm confident, we all make decisions based on what we think

is the best way forward. That's part of it.

I had the opportunity in 1981 to interview Joey

Smallwood for a history course I was doing at MUN. He was actually over on

Portugal Cove Road doing the Encyclopedia

of Newfoundland and Labrador . He was finalizing them there. Anyway, we sat

and had a good conversation. I asked him about Churchill Falls; that was what I

was actually interviewing him on. And I think Joey, like all of us on any

decision we make, if it's an infrastructure thing – but the two things that I

remember now are the two massive things that have happened: Obviously, the Upper

Churchill and the Lower Churchill and the development.

He said the advice he was given, the expert advice from

all over the world, was that, do you know what? Maximize what you can get from

an employment perspective now with Churchill Falls because hydroelectric will

not be the mode that will get the heating for their homes or run businesses. The

big world then was nuclear was going to be the big salvation of everything. The

CANDU reactors out in Winnipeg and Montreal, billions of dollars going into it

all over the world.

So he took the advice that he thought would be in the

best interest of the people of Newfoundland. You can't fault anybody for that.

But too often we blame Joey for what went on with the Upper Churchill. We'll

blame Danny Williams or the PCs for the Lower Churchill. We'll blame the

Liberals for something else. I think we need to move beyond that because I don't

think, at the end of the day, any one individual or group of individuals

deliberately did anything that benefited them more than what they were entitled

to.

No matter what decisions were made, sometimes you would

hope that people making those decisions or giving you the advice are doing their

homework enough that what they're suggesting and proposing has exactly been

thought out and it's been looked at five and six steps down the road.

Unfortunately, maybe people don't put the same due diligence into it that I

would hope.

If nothing else, we've learned that from now on

anything we do – unfortunately, it took 40 years and maybe 40 years between the

two or almost 50 years – a bit of complacency, people forgot history. I said at

the beginning here, you don't have to live in the past, but you have to learn

from it.

We, hopefully, now have learned from the Upper

Churchill and the Lower Churchill to be able to move to any other project. I

think there's great potential in our hydroelectric energy in Labrador and being

able to move it so that it benefits the people of Newfoundland and Labrador with

the proper development as we do things forward.

I want to talk a little bit, too – and I want to dispel

something; I'm taking my opportunity now. I'll get a chance to speak a couple of

more times on the budget itself. But I wanted to use this to talk about three

main themes. One, the decorum in the House of Assembly and the ability we have

to actually achieve our goals here and do the right things for the people, and

give people hope that, collectively, the leadership in this room, working with

the leaders out in our society, can find the solutions to get us over the hump.

The second was to inform the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador about some of the misnomers that they've heard, partial information,

how we spin it – I can take a number six and make it a big number; somebody else

can make it a small number – to try to get as accurate as possible so people

understand that there isn't a conspiracy theory here that we're going to falter

because somebody bigger than the people of Newfoundland and Labrador is

controlling our destiny.

I want to talk a little bit about – we've heard it a

number of times and it's been said in the House here – the PCs. I know it's when

we banter, the monies that we had generated through the heydays of the costing

of oil or the major hundred-dollar-a-barrel oil, which was very lucrative for us

and very welcomed, obviously, and very beneficial to the people of Newfoundland

and Labrador.

When we get labelled – and it came up more with the

Greene report. It gave some of the proponents and, I guess, the cynics or the

critics to say: We spent like drunken sailors. We spent, but I will guarantee

you – and I was there for part of it – it wasn't like drunken sailors. It was

actually temperate based on what the needs were. Our consultations on the yearly

basis on the budget – and the Minister of Finance knows, there are a hundred

billion dollars' worth of asks coming in. It's unbelievable.

I had one consultation one time in Transportation and

Works: $195 million, just to address bridges in one district – one district.

It's phenomenal when you're talking $70 million or $80 million to do roads,

ferries, bridges, everything that you would have to do as part of that process.

I want to talk about the monies that were, at the time,

moved forward. There's been a debate; I've done my research. We were in the

vicinity of about $23 billion or $24 billion generated through our oil costing

or the additional monies that we would have received from the oil industry above

and beyond and where that went.

I have to first clarify. People think that's a lot.

Once before in the House a number of years ago I tried to outline some of the

expenditures that were there that benefited the people of Newfoundland and

Labrador. There were programs and services given back to the people based on

what they had outlined to us were necessities to improve their lives and

generate and support other industries, foster development around creating

employment.

People forget; everybody talks in numbers and can never

get the numbers to add up – they missed the point. When we did hit that

threshold where we were no longer entitled to equalization, the monies that we

always had in our budgets for the years – every year we were getting a billion

dollars; we were getting $900 million, $1.3 billion. There were substantial

amounts of money coming from Ottawa. Regardless of what political party was

there, the formula dictated based on our revenues and our demographics how much

money we were getting.

The first thing that had to be taken into account, for

those 10 years of not getting, say, a round number of a billion, but we still

had our basic expenditures, there was $10 billion that had to be made up. Out of

that $23 billion, there's $10 billion automatically that came off our coffers,

that had to be made up. People forget that when they look at the numbers,

revenues that we would've had to be able to maintain our budget lines that no

longer existed. So that had to come directly – that was a part of what we had to

do.

We then looked at all kinds of other things. We

increased our infrastructure strategy by $6 billion because, as we know and the

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure would know, there is still

billions on the books that would need to be done around bridges, roads and

buildings that need to be done, and the former minister would attest to the

same. It was a time to try to catch up, so there was a lot of money put into

infrastructure. A lot of things were buildings that needed to be done up. The

road network was to be done up. We started on the Trans-Labrador Highway and we

made great inroads, and it's still continuing to go. In my day, there were even

discussions about the North Coast roads and some of the planning for those types

of things. So there was billions put into that part of the infrastructure.

At the same time, we were – and we probably still are –

the highest taxed regime in this country. We had to find ways to relieve taxes

on people so that we could help stimulate certain parts of the economy, people's

spending, tax relief for businesses and new types of entities that would be

set-up. So $4 billion of that went into tax relief.

Public service sector wage benefits and growth in the

public sector: There was always a waiting times for people to get access to

services because there was only X number of civil servants; yet, there was such

a demand on the services that people wanted. Plus, civil servants had gone nine

years without an increase, and were the staple of what we do here.

I mean, let's be collectively supportive here – and

we've seen it in Estimates – people who run the departments, the people who make

sure we're doing what we're supposed to do, the people who account for it are

those professionals, the civil servants. Some are at a senior-management level,

some are front-line management, some you never hear or see, but the valuable

work they do is very important in ensuring services are provided, our

accountability is here and we get the best bang for the dollar.

They were rewarded for nine years of still diligently

working for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and putting them up on what

would be considered a decent wage for a civil servant who has all kinds of skill

sets. That became another part of the $1.5 billion that we invested.

Pension plan liability: One of the things that I am

very proud of that I had a small role in was getting – the unfunded pension

liability was a major issue. The former premier sent a letter to Ottawa at one

point saying that he didn't think that he could make the payroll. I understand

that because I was in Cabinet conversations where we felt we weren't going to be

able to pay pensioners money. We don't have enough money to do it based on the

uptake on it now. If we don't change something, in five or six years only the

senior pensioners will be able to get the money. It was going to be a challenge.

We sat down and looked at how we do that.

The collective approach: We brought in all the

collective unions because we sat back and said: What skill set do we have that

we could solve these issues? We knew we had minimal skill set to be able to do

that, but we knew the union leaders, their rank and file, could come up with

what would be the best approach that may put it on stable ground, put some

security for the funded pension process for a long-term thing. We looked at a

30-year process.

They looked at what their members would be willing to

absorb and changes they would make and even some sacrifices over a collective

period of time. I give credit. We came up with a plan that would, in principle,

secure the pension plan over a period of time. Part of that was it was a

collective. It was between the union members, rank and file. The government,

which is the taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador, would have to put in X

number of dollars to start the process every year to get it to a stable process.

My understanding now is it is much more stable than it

was before. It seems to have some longevity. There were a lot of changes made

around access to health insurance, when you could pull down on a pension, that

you had to work some extra years to do it so that so no one group of civil

servants was so affected that it just wasn't workable for them to stay employed

or that there was no hope for a pension down the road. It was spread out over

everybody and the taxpayers took a bit of a hit to ensure every year X number of

dollars would be invested to get it to a stable point. That was important to get

done and that is where some of this money went.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy: We came up with a

strategy at the time because we had some extra money. I say we had the extra

money; we had the ability to do what we've talked about, not only the PC

administration, but the former Liberal administration and back and forth wanted

to do for people on low income, people with challenges, to stimulate the economy

by helping eliminate poverty and give people opportunities for a hand up versus

a handout.

We invested $1.2 billion over a period of time, and we

became the epitome of being the lowest when it came to programs and services for

those in financial need to the best in the country. I remember going to other

jurisdictions on their dime to speak about some of things in the poverty

reduction when I was a civil servant. I was so proud to be able to boast that

Newfoundland and Labrador was a trend leader. We did that.

Part of that was also about immigration strategy. Being

able to tout that we have programs and services that were engaging. That costs

money to do it right. The rate of return is tenfold. You get a more engaged

society. You get people contributing more. You get people from other

jurisdictions wanting to come here. And it becomes very much a sense of pride

when Newfoundland and Labrador is looked at as an equal and actually are asked

for their input.

I used to go to meetings years ago as a volunteer in

different groups, and I do remember it and it was a bit demeaning. If the flight

was 20 minutes delayed, nobody cared if the Newfoundland delegation didn't get

there. They went on. I will tell you in the late 1990s, 2000s, but by the

mid-2000s and the late 2010s, meetings didn't go ahead. They waited until the

Newfoundland delegation got in there, because we had proven what we had done in

this province, what our volunteers had done. Our professionals in every sector.

If it was the health profession, if it was the infrastructure profession, if it

was the education profession, they all waited. Now we're on national boards and

agencies. People want to know what Newfoundland and Labrador thinks. They want

to know how we're doing certain things. They want to know how we can suggest the

rest of the country do it.

That's a testament. I still think that the support and

respect is there. I do think we need to get back to being able to ensure that we

get more creative; we think a little bit more outside the box, as we did in

those days and we've been trying to in the last period of time.

I know some of that takes financial means. Sometimes

maybe we need to find another way to be more creative with the same amount of

money. One of the themes I did hear and I do appreciate and do like and I do

support is that we need to find a way to do more with less. That's appreciative.

I think it's a reality. I don't think there's one Newfoundlander and Labradorian

– and I know us over here – who wouldn't aspire to that, wouldn't support that,

and wouldn't want to work to find creative ways to be able to achieve those

types of things, as long as it doesn't detrimentally affect supports and

services that people need.

My colleague always keeps saying we need to get to a

point – and I think Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are ready for that – where

we need to start being able to find a way to give all Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians what they need versus what they want. That's a realistic thing.

We're all individuals. We would all love to drive in the best car ever made, but

you know what? We need a car that can get us to point A, get us to our

employment, get us to our education institutes to pick up our kids, get us to

our hospital for our appointments, get us to wherever we need to go for our

social engagement.

We're at a point there where that became a very

important approach. I think it changed the mindset of Newfoundlanders and

Labradorians. It had nothing to do with one administration over the other. I'm

explaining this so when people think that we spent like drunken sailors, we

spent and we spent in areas where the electorate, the taxpayers, the average

citizen had told us was their priorities.

I think at the time it was a good job because it still

resonates. Unfortunately sometimes to keep programs going, you need the same

amount of money. When that financial pot dries up, to no fault of anybody in

this House of Assembly – the oil industry goes down; COVID pops up; the mining

industry changes; tourism changes, whatever it was – it changed. It changed

under our administration. We had all kinds of plans.

In 2013-2014, so did the oil industry drop then,

dramatically. Much less than it is now. At one time $33.50 a barrel. I cringed

sitting in Cabinet. What do you do when I've got $8 billion worth of asks in

infrastructure and I'm calling in every minister and saying: I'm sorry, this

health clinic can't be built; this school has to be put on hold. We can't do

this. This is not even on the queue and you've got your colleagues who

adamantly, two years before, said these were slam dunks because they were

needed.

At one point, I read out in this House of Assembly when

I was minister the 35 schools that we built in Newfoundland and Labrador. Not

one school was built in an area that it wasn't detrimentally needed of all those

new schools. They still exist. They're still occupied. What they gave was that

there was no losing five or six days because of mould in schools. There wasn't

spending hundreds of thousands of dollars doing renovations to leaky windows and

that. They were state-of-the-art schools that gave every Newfoundland and

Labrador student access to at least a certain level of quality of education. If

it meant labs or a gymnasium or it meant an area where they could go out and

socialize out in a little garden area, a lot of the money was spent there.

One of the other big things that we did under our reign

– and it's up for debate now; it's probably going to one of the biggest debates

for post-secondary – was the tuition freeze. We spent $350 million on the

tuition freeze. Times may be different then. That's a decade ago. But as part of

that, that stimulated the growth of our post-secondary education. It ensured

that young students from any part of Newfoundland and Labrador could come in

here and, financially, they shouldn't be burdened or that shouldn't be a reason

why they make a decision on where they're going, as part of that.

With the evolution of time, everything needs to be

reviewed and looked at. We're not beyond having those discussions. At the time,

the benefit for that has been seen ever since. Every one of our institutions

grew in enrolment when we were having a decline in the number of graduates

coming out of high school. That tells you about the incentives. It tells you

about our education system preparing people to go on to post-secondary. It tells

you about the priority, that we made sure that our students were qualified and

trained so they could drive the economy. They're the ones who are going to take

care of the next level of society. We've done that.

Look what we've achieved over the last decade or so

with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians being all over this world and being the

best at everything that they're engaged in – second to none. We've seen it from

civil servants who have gone on to do great things in other jurisdictions. We've

seen civil servants come back to Newfoundland and Labrador who we had forgotten

had excelled in other jurisdictions. Now, we're so privileged to be able to have

them back on their home turf, being able to bring their expertise here.

Again, I talked about being on the Hibernia rig and I

saw 25 years ago what our ability was. We've skyrocketed because now we're on a

global market. We now, because of technology, have access to training. It

doesn't necessarily have to take you away from your homeland. It can be done

here.

The benefit that we've had and the thing that I want to

emphasize the most: We, in this House, must find a way – I encourage

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to spread your wings. Your skill set, you want

to learn stuff; go wherever you want to go. But go based on the fact that it's

your choice, not that you're forced out of here because our economy doesn't

offer you anything, our social programs don't offer you anything or you feel

it's doom and gloom.

That's not beneficial to anybody. It's definitely not

beneficial to a younger generation. It's not beneficial to the present

generation. I guarantee you it won't be beneficial to all of us when we get

older, down the road. We're going to want people to be able to provide the same

services that our parents had and, I would hope, even improved services.

I grew up in a society where every aspect – your

grandmother, your great-grandmother, your mother all aspired to ensure whatever

they had to do was beneficial and that you were going to have a better lifestyle

than they did. I think that's still true. I'm hoping our society doesn't get so

complacent that we say: Look, do you know what? Give me what I want right now;

I'll let our kids and grandkids figure out their quality of life and how they

pay for their bills.

I'm hoping, and I think we have a role and

responsibility here in this House, to set that tone, to sort of say: We're a

partnership, collectively, every generation. From those who are in elementary

school to those who are challenging in post-secondary about costing and living

arrangements and employment afterwards; to those employed right now in our

society; those most vulnerable; but seniors, too, who are on fixed incomes,

worrying about how they're going to deal with certain other expenditures that

may be out of their control.

We need to set the tone in this House of Assembly; we

as leaders. We're elected as leaders. Do you know what? People took faith in us.

When they marked that X, they didn't just mark it because they liked the colour

of your suit or the colour of your sweater or your hat. They marked an X based

on the principle that they felt you, collectively, would be the best person to

represent them and address the issues in Newfoundland and Labrador to ensure

that they, their kids, their grandkids and everybody in society would have a

better life.

We have the ability to do that, I'm looking forward to

the next number of weeks in our debate, but I'm also looking forward to the next

number of years when we, collectively, find ways to make Newfoundland and

Labrador the best place it can be for everybody who's here and anybody who wants

to come here.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

SPEAKER:

Seeing no other speakers, shall the subamendment carry?

All those in favour, 'aye.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Aye.

SPEAKER:

All

those against, 'nay.'

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Nay.

SPEAKER:

Defeated.

HON. MEMBER:

Division.

SPEAKER:

Division has been called.

Call in the Members.

Division

SPEAKER:

Are

the House Leaders ready?

All those in favour of the motion, please rise.

CLERK (Barnes):

Mr. Brazil, Mr. Petten, Mr. Wakeham, Mr. Wall, Mr. O'Driscoll, Mr. Tibbs, Ms.

Evans, Ms. Conway Ottenheimer, Mr. Parrott, Mr. Pardy, Mr. Paul Dinn, Mr.

Forsey, Mr. James Dinn, Mr. Brown, Mr. Trimper, Mr. Lane.

SPEAKER:

All

those against the motion, please rise.

CLERK:

Mr.

Furey, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Haggie, Ms. Coady, Ms. Howell, Mr. Byrne,

Mr. Bragg, Mr. Loveless, Mr. Davis, Mr. Abbott, Ms. Dempster, Ms. Pam Parsons,

Mr. Andrew Parsons, Mr. Hogan, Ms. Stoodley, Mr. Reid, Mr. Warr, Mr. Pike, Ms.

Stoyles, Ms. Gambin-Walsh.

CLERK:

Mr.

Speaker, the ayes: 16; the nays: 21.

SPEAKER:

Thank you.

The subamendment has been defeated.

We will now move to the main amendment.

The hon. the Member for Bonavista.

PARDY:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have many things I'd like to speak on today but I

want to circle back to our leader, his commentary, when he had the phrase about

spending back in time like drunken sailors. It brought to mind the story, a

conversation that we had in my living with, then, NDP Member Gerry Rogers.

I had a call from a mutual friend, very close friends,

they wondered if our council in George's Brook-Milton could meet with Ms.

Rogers, which we did. I remember the wonderful conversation that we had. I have

the utmost respect for her. One of the things she did mention was we, at that

time, spent like drunken sailors.

I just want to qualify one thing, which I had said to

Ms. Rogers in the living room with other council members present, is that I was

the administrator at that time of Clarenville Middle School. In education, we

were part of an administrative council that took in, then, the Bonavista

Peninsula, Clarenville, as well as the Burin Peninsula. We couldn't afford to

repair any computers that we had because our allocation we had was around $26

per student. That's what we were supplied in order to operationalize our school,

and we just couldn't do it.

When I say about the investment that came in education

was greatly needed because we had such a deficit. When the money came to

education, we then could repair computers and we could provide resources for

students with exceptionalities that we could only wish on. At that point in

time, we had parents who paid a school fee that we were harnessed with trying to

get money from people that really couldn't afford it. We knew sometimes we would

waive it, but we needed the dollars in order to operationalize. We didn't after

we received the money on this government's watch back in that time in education.

I know my time is going to be relatively short. I want

to circle back, again, before our leader to the Member for Cape St. Francis. He

sent out accolades for essential workers and teachers, and rightfully so. But

one thing comes to mind with essential workers – and the assistance program that

we had rolled out is commendable. Any time we assist, we honour and we support

those that are out there on the front lines, it is highly commendable.

The only thing in the District of Bonavista, we had

essential workers who made a marginal amount above the $3,500 wage that was

permitted within that particular month of gross earnings. The marginal amount

was sometimes less than $100 and they weren't entitled to the support. One would

say that if we look at it totally linearly or on a linear basis and say they did

make above the $3,500, the reason for them making above the $3,500 was that in

Golden Heights Manor in Bonavista they never had employees to come in to do the

shift; therefore, they really had to ask those who were willing, the essential

workers, to come in during the pandemic and work extra time because they never

had the staffing.

If they hadn't showed up to work, or if they declined

to do that extra time, they would have been eligible for the support package. I

know that many residents in the District of Bonavista look at that and say, that

doesn't seem quite fair. You never had the staff, but then these essential

workers had to step in and make a marginal amount above $3,500, but they then no

longer qualified.

On the teachers' side, before I move on to what I wish

to discuss, I have a lot of colleagues in the education fraternity that were

very anxious during COVID when they went in to work. One would say all essential

workers had to go into work, what would be different about the teachers? Well,

what was different about the teachers is that in many of those cases, especially

in metro schools, they had to go in when the distancing between each other was

at best one metre, when the public was stressed that we would have two metres.

I know that the educators went in and they did the best

they could in that environment, often with 34, 35 or 36 students per class in a

poorly ventilated classroom, and we wonder about their mental well-being and the

stress associated with that. I would think that was a unique experience for

teachers that other groups may not have experienced.

I tip my hat and commend all those who reported to work

under conditions of which they had quite an amount of stress and duress. So I do

celebrate the teachers.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

PARDY:

topic brings us up to the closing of this session, Mr. Speaker. I just want to

throw out two statistics: The World Health Organization would state that 795

million people in the world do not have enough food to live a healthy life.

Approximately nine million die of starvation each year.

That's a segue when I go now, with the remaining time

that I have, to look at the fishery. I'll spend the last eight minutes

discussing the fishery. If we look at the Premier's Greene report, I quote: “The

governance structure of the fisheries is not working for this province.

Newfoundland and Labrador has seen a grossly mismanaged resource by the federal

government, often with provincial participation, that resulted in the collapse

of the once great northern cod stock.”

When I asked a question to the Minister of Fisheries on

April 20, I think he was more than willing to champion the cause of us

rebuilding our fishery to the degree possible. The minister states in April 20

Hansard : “Whatever we can bring to the

floor of this House or the House of Commons to bring some knowledge to the

people of what the seals are causing to our environment and to our fishery, now

is the time to do it.”

The remaining limited amount of time I have, I'd like

to focus on seal predation and I'd like to focus on the fishery. If anybody read

the

article that came in The Telegram

yesterday – and it was written by Barbara Dean-Simmons of Trinity Bay, native of

Random Island, right next door to the District of Bonavista. The

article was:

Seal video going viral, prompting more debate.

The sealing vessel was

Gracie's Adventure . It was out of Winterton, which I think is in the

hon. Member's District of Carbonear - Trinity - Bay de Verde. Jason Branton

claims, and with video, that he had a five-mile-wide inundated herd of seals

that surrounded his vessel. They were going in the opposite direction towards

St. John's, but he looked at, he stated, five miles. His sonar detected that

they were many layers deep and they were underneath the vessel as well, but he

claimed that in the years he's been fishing he has never seen that. He has never

seen such a large herd of seals and a patch of about five-miles wide, just off

of Bay de Verde.

“Branton and his crew rely mainly on crab, capelin and

cod for their fishing income.” A Fisheries and Oceans report in 2012 “estimated

capelin consumption by harp seals on the province's north east coast” – and they

named the zones 2J3KL. That's basically taking up from the Coast of Labrador

right down the Eastern Coast of the Island of Newfoundland. They claimed that

they take 1.6 million tons of capelin; we harvest 24,000 tons.

In 2019, DFO set up a Seal Science Task Team. They

established it, but here are some of the reports or what comes out from the

chair of that task force. Just let me read a few statements from him: “…

'Previous studies have shown that predation by seals was not found to have a

significant impact on Northern cod stock levels' and 'scientific evidence does

not support that harp seal populations are impacting the abundance of capelin

populations….'

“The marine ecosystem and changes in capelin abundance

are primarily impacted by environmental conditions and ecosystem changes.”

The task force has not presented a final report yet,

but one member of that task force is a gentleman by the name of Bob Hardy. Bob

has filed, put out and released a report. He released a report titled: “What's

Wrong with the Fishery. The Impact of Seals.” He put that out in April of this

year and he deemed it to be a common sense model that he had put out there.

Bob talks about the pristine waters off the Coast of

Newfoundland, where we have the warm water of the Gulf Stream meeting the cold

water of Labrador and what a habitat for fish. We have the largest coastline in

the world, but we bring in $1 billion of revenue in the fishery for the largest

coastline and those two currents meeting with the pristine waters we have. I

would say the Premier's Greene report has it right.

We have $1 billion in the fishery. Canada brings in $33

billion in related to its Gross Domestic Product. Norway brings in $97 billion.

If you think of the difference from where we are – us built for the fishery – in

the Island of Newfoundland and Labrador and you think that we contribute $1

billion – Canada contributes $33 billion to the gross domestic product – I would

say to you, knowing of all the coastline we have in Newfoundland and Labrador

and the resources, that number is rather unsettling.

If we look at the species at risk, which is SARA, they

state that the Atlantic cod and the Atlantic salmon are at risk. Two fishermen

in Keels on the Bonavista Bay side of the District of Bonavista, Phonse Ducey

and John Ducey, back in 1990, when they were asked to give up their wild

Atlantic salmon licence, they opted not to do that, because as Phonse would say

– he was young at the time – once fishing stopped, the stock would rebuild. At

50 to 60 years of age, he figures he could go back fishing wild Atlantic salmon.

Today, he still has his licence. Today we say that the wild Atlantic salmon

stock has not rebounded. We stopped fishing it, but it has not rebounded.

I stated before in the House that we have 7.6 million

harp seal out there. They are sometimes deemed to be the sea wolf. I think my

hon. colleague from St. John's Centre had stated that when we look at the

ecosystem, there are always checks and balances that would occur in the

ecosystem to look after the species. He is correct. The only thing is that

humans were part of that chain. If you remove the humans from part of the chain,

sometimes we get a disproportionate representation of a species because the

humans have been removed from the fishery; in particular, the seal fishery.

I would say to you that we have 7.6 million, and one

would say that we have global warming occurring everywhere over the world, and

we know the reasons that we have, but we know that the Norway fishery is serving

them quite well – $97 billion. What they have, it is serving them quite well.

They are facing global warming, much the same as we would be, in the Barents

Sea.

Iceland is another that has a very productive fishery.

They face all the factors that we do with one significant difference – seals.

The difference between us here in Newfoundland and Labrador and Iceland, Russia,

the Barents Sea and Norway is our seal population that we have. That's a common

thread.

Keep in mind, again, when we look at the system, we

removed the humans from that flow chart. The hunt was removed. In 1970, we had

1.5 million harp seals – 1970. In 2019, according to DFO, 7.6 million, as was

stated. That's a fairly significant growth.

I shared with you the article. One thing that DFO would

say is that seals do not hunt up in freshwater bodies of water. That's one thing

that Bob Hardy had referenced there. He took numerous pictures in his study. One

that he had taken was the Codroy Valley. He used pictures by Larry Moore. He had

seals lined up on the bank five kilometres inland up to the salmon river. They

were lined up like in military position along the bank waiting for. I would say

to you it's because we don't have the science. We just don't have the science.

If we take the Norwegian science or if we take the

science that would come on the Icelandic, it's proven. As I stated before in the

House, in 2012 the Senate Committee that looked at – that was off Nova Scotia

they looked at the seal population, but it was a seal population. They brought

in 50 experts and 50 experts all concurred that seal predation is affecting the

rebounding of our stock.

What some would say is that if we do nothing – and we

think that we harvest now 200,000 metric tons, and I'm not sure exactly what we

harvest in cod – it's quite possible that may hit the extinction level, even if

we stop fishing it. I would say that is a concern for the District of Bonavista

and for the plants that would be in Newfoundland and Labrador that if we don't

act, then we have a serious issue that we may lose the valuable resource that we

can have. The valuable renewable resource, we could lose it. If we don't have a

plan, like the MP in Labrador, Yvonne Jones, has stated, if we don't have a plan

we have nothing.

I would say to you from the two years being in the

House, I've heard no plan, other than the minister stated that he was talking to

the federal minister on the telephone and looked forward to the next

conversation. What that conversation was about and where we're going, I have no

idea. The only thing is that we are onboard with any action plan that would

focus on the fisheries in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, because we

want to make sure that we do everything we can for that renewable industry; not

just to exist, but we want it to strive. We want it to strive.

In the short amount of time I've got left, I want to

give, from a Norwegian study – we don't have it as DFO, but a Norwegian study

stated that harp seals need about 20 pounds of fish food a day in order to

function. Every seal would need around 20 pounds. But they're fully aware that

when the seals feed, they don't feed on the whole cod. They're belly eaters.

They look for the fatty acids that would be in the cod. Usually they go for the

liver. That's why it's often and well known that you'll see that cod had the

belly removed from it from the seal, because that's what they're looking for to

give them the calories.

How many calories does a harp seal need daily? Between

11,500 to 13,600. How many calories does an adult male need? Two to three

thousand. So if you look at those numbers and multiply and extrapolate to 7.6,

and you think that we don't have an issue off our shores, and if the gentleman,

Mr. Branton, that saw the five-mile herd – anyway, I'll leave it for another

time, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Government House Leader.

CROCKER:

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I move, seconded by the Deputy Government House Leader,

that we do now recess.

SPEAKER:

accordance with paragraph 9(1)(

b) of the

Standing Orders , we do recess until 2 p.m. this afternoon.

Recess

The House resumed at 2 p.m.

SPEAKER (Bennett):

Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Statements by Members

SPEAKER:

Today we will hear statements from the hon. Members for the Districts of Baie

Verte - Green Bay, Torngat Mountains, Labrador West, Harbour Main and St. John's

Centre.

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

WARR:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to recognize the completion of the new

Green Bay Health Care Centre on May 10, 2021, and, yes, I am thrilled. The

hospital serves the entire Green Bay area, including 21 communities. This is an

exciting day as a 69-year-old facility is laid to rest. This transition is a

symbol of moving forward, one of positivity and new paths to better health care

for the entire Green Bay area.

The new facility is 50 per cent larger than the former

hospital and includes the same number of in-patient beds with individual

washrooms and showers. Upon entering, residents are screened as per COVID-19

regulations. Access includes regular appointments, walk-in for outpatients and

emergency department services.

The former Springdale cottage hospital opened in

November 1952; the last hospital built by the Government of Newfoundland. The

name was changed to Green Bay Community Health Centre in 1977 and was in

operation until May of this year.

I ask all my hon. colleagues to join me in thanking all

of our health care workers for their continued efforts to keep all

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians safe during this pandemic. We appreciate all

that you do each and every day.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS:

Hear, hear!

SPEAKER:

The

hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.

EVANS:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I pay tribute to the Nunatsiavut Health team who

delivered the COVID-19 vaccinations in Nunatsiavut. They graciously acknowledge

their success hinged on the tremendous collaboration and support of

Labrador-Grenfell, Air Borealis and the Nunatsiavut communities.

First in the province, painstakingly planned with

logistics of transporting and storing the vaccine. Nurses required to administer

in five remote, isolated communities. Priceless and selfless commitment given

from the director and nurses, right on down to each volunteer. Makeshift clinics

established in each community to accommodate the la