April 10, 2006 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY

PROCEEDINGS Vol XLV No. 10

The House met at 1:30. p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Hodder): Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Statements by Members

MR. SPEAKER: This afternoon we have members' statements as follows: the

hon. the Member for the District of Grand Falls-Buchans; the hon. the Member for

the District of Trinity-Bay de Verde; the hon. the Member for the District of

Carbonear-Harbour Grace; the hon. the Member for the District of Terra Nova; the

hon. the Member for the District of Labrador West; and, the hon. the Member for

the District of Trinity North.

The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for the District of Grand Falls-Buchans.

MS THISTLE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to congratulate St. Matthew's

Presbyterian Church which was recently declared Grand Falls-Windsor's first

municipal heritage site.

For almost 100 years, St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church has been a landmark

of the community from its prominent location on Church Road. Constructed in

1910, St. Matthew's was Grand Falls first church.

Presbyterians began holding services in 1905 in the home of the assistant

mill manager, Mr. A.U. Woods. By 1908, it was decided that a church was needed

so construction began with completion in the fall of 1910. Application was then

made to the Presbytery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to organize the mission station

in Grand Falls, which was ultimately approved. The name St. Matthew's was

chosen in December, 1910, and the first resident minister was Reverend William

MacPherson who arrived in 1911.

Mr. Speaker, the church is still a quaint, unobtrusive white wooden

structure. The church's facade has changed little since St. Matthew's was

first constructed more than ninety-six years ago. It is for this reason that the

Town of Grand Falls-Windsor chose St. Matthew's as its first municipal

heritage site.

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

congratulating St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church, which has been designated as

Grand Falls-Windsor's first municipal heritage site.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this weekend the first ever girls' aged fifteen and under

hockey championships for the Province were held at S.W. Moores Memorial Stadium

in Harbour Grace. There were four teams competing: the Conception Bay Regionals,

Conception Bay North, St. John's and Avalon.

Mr. Speaker, this is indeed a landmark event for our area and I wish to

congratulate Zoe Anderson, the host convener, and the organizing committee. The

tremendous competition that we experienced this weekend would not have been

possible without their commitment.

Mr. Speaker, I was very honoured to be the one to drop the puck at the

opening ceremonies held on Friday, April 7. These young women have proven that

they certainly are quite capable of following in the footsteps of role models

such as Cassie Campbell and Hayley Wickenheiser of the 2006 Olympic Canadian

Hockey Team.

The championship game was held on Sunday and went into overtime with the

Conception Bay Regionals winning the gold medal over St. John's in a 2-1

victory. St. John's won silver and

Avalon defeated the C.B.'s in the bronze medal game.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate all those who participated in the games over this

weekend. Each one of them has helped to make it a reality that women's

competitions are an integral part of our sporting community.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Carbonear-Harbour Grace.

MR. SWEENEY: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to congratulate Mark

Ryan, Sean Kennedy, Andrew Rose, Daniel MacKenzie, Laura Jenkins, Bethany

Randell, David Archibald, Ruben DuPlessis, Amanda Serrick and coaches Norman

Littlejohn and Randy Dobbin of St. Francis Robotics Team who are going to

Atlanta, Georgia, next month to participate in the FIRST - which stands for: For

Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - LEGO League World

Festival.

The Harbour Grace school will compete with over eighty teams from thirty

countries, April 27 through April 29. This year's team consists of nine

students, ages thirteen and fourteen, and two coaches.

The robotics program at St. Francis began in 2004 and students competed in

the provincial competition, earning them first place in three out of four

categories. The team then went on to Atlanta in 2004 after winning the

provincials. There they recorded a personal best score and placed eighth in the

teamwork category out of forty-four teams from eight countries.

This past December, they won the Skills Canada Competition in the robotics

category. Just one week later, on December 10, they brought home first place

awards in robot performance, research presentation, and second place in robot

design and programming at the provincial competition.

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

congratulating the St. Francis Robotics Team on their accomplishments and wish

them luck with the upcoming world competition in Atlanta, Georgia, in April.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of Terra Nova.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. ORAM: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Glovertown Tornadoes Female

Hockey Team. This past weekend, the girl's team won the provincial

championship E division.

The Tornadoes went through the six team tournament undefeated, with a record

of four wins and one tie.

In the championship game, Glovertown played against the Gander Flyers. The

game was tied zero-zero at the end of regulation time. This set the stage for

what would prove to be an exciting conclusion. It took until 7:28 of the third

overtime period before the Tornadoes were able to break the tie and win the

championship.

Mr. Speaker, I would like for all hon. members to join with me in

congratulating the Glovertown Tornadoes on winning the title, and also

compliment the Gander team, as well as the other four teams who competed in the

tournament. Last, but certainly not least, the volunteers that made this

tournament a success should be commended as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

MR. R. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

On March 31, the annual Provincial Airlines Great Labrador Loppet took place

in Labrador West for the thirty-first consecutive year.

This year's event was again a tremendous success with more than 200 skiers,

men, women and children taking

part in the ten, twenty-five and fifty kilometre

race. Mr. Speaker, this event is very popular with local residents and draws

people from the Island portion of our Province, as well as skiers from Quebec

and other regions of Labrador.

It is no surprise, Mr. Speaker, that the top two to finish the fifty

kilometre race was Alf Parsons with a time of two hours and twenty-five minutes.

Just get that, Mr. Speaker, and put it into perspective, that is averaging over

twenty kilometres an hour for fifty kilometres.

The second place finisher was Rhonda Lawrence. Again, an avid skier, with a

time of two hours and forty-two minutes. Both of them are from Labrador West.

Incredible times, Mr. Speaker, by incredible skiers.

In the twenty-five kilometre, awards went to Kyle Power and Cathy Jong. Kyle

also won the Thelma Piercey Award for being the fastest youth in a twenty-five

kilometre race.

This years loppet was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Barry May, a pulmonary

specialist who used to come to Labrador West for the loppet and bring his whole

family. Dr. May's wife, Judy, was the provincial coach for Cross Country

Newfoundland and Labrador and she attended this years loppet.

Also, Mr. Speaker, I might add, the Minister of Tourism was also present for

the event and I am sure he can attest to the success of the event -

AN HON. MEMBER: Did he ski?

MR. R. COLLINS: No, I understand - if I could by leave, I know it will

soon be up. I understand that many people offered him the use of their equipment

but he did not want to -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Does the member have leave?

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Leave is granted.

MR. R. COLLINS: Many people offered him the use of their equipment, but

he did not want to deny anyone the opportunity of taking

part in the race so he

turned them down.

This event concluded later that day with a steak dinner.

I ask all members to join me in thanking Gerry Rideout, President of the

Menihek Nordic Ski Club and the many other volunteers who contribute to make the

Great Labrador Loppet a continued success.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Trinity North.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to congratulate the Lions Club of the Southwest Arm. Mr.

Speaker, this year they will be celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. They

were chartered some thirty years ago and they served some seven communities, in

the communities ranging from Long Beach to Southport.

Mr. Speaker, what is particularly amazing about this particular group of

individuals, they represent a lodge organization in a small area, but they have

had some tremendous success in the last three or four years in recruiting a

large number of people to their club. They have been very successful in

recruiting new young members to their club, unlike many other organizations

throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, where it is a real challenge to recruit

new blood to their organizations.

I think, Mr. Speaker, this is a tribute to the tremendous amount of work that

the Lions Club in Southwest Arm has done over the last thirty years. They have

touched the lives of many people, both young and old. There are not very many

groups or organizations in that area that they have not contributed something

to. I think this is a group of individuals who truly live up to the motto of

Lions International, which is very simply: we serve. This organization, through

their example, have demonstrated their service to seven communities and the many

young people who live in that area.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Statements by Ministers.

Statements by Ministers

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Government House Leader.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. E. BYRNE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to inform the House and the people of the Province of our

ongoing efforts to protect the endangered Woodland Caribou herd in Southern

Labrador, and an investigation currently being conducted into the possible

illegal hunting of the herd by Innu hunters from Pakua Shipi, Quebec.

So far this year, one snowmobile has been seized and charges are pending in

relation to the killing of twenty or twenty-one Woodland Caribou from the Birchy

Lake area during a weekend hunt in February.

Just last week in an incident, another two Quebec hunters were apprehended

and three caribou seized in a zone closed to hunting in Southern Labrador. One

of the animals was collared, which is important, Mr. Speaker, because it is

evidence that, as a result of being collared, that animal was part of the

protected herd. Charges are pending in this most recent case as well.

In total, thirty-four animals are believed to have been killed from the

protected Southern Labrador Woodland herd this year. Our conservation officers

have concluded and conducted thirteen aerial patrols of the area since the end

of January.

Mr. Speaker, the Woodland Caribou herd of Southern Labrador are protected by

endangered species legislation and their core range is closed to hunting. A

broad-based coalition, including provincial wildlife officials and

representative from the Quebec Innu, have been working together over several

years to develop and implement a Woodland Caribou Recovery Strategy.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador respects the fact that hunting of

caribou is integral to the Innu way of life. There are healthy caribou herd

populations in Labrador that can sustain harvesting activity. This is not the

case with this particular herd. The Joir River herd group, for example, is

numbered at less than fifty animals.

Mr. Speaker, in February officials from the Department of Natural Resources

and Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs went to Pakua Shipi to meet with Innu

leaders and citizens to outline our conservation concerns. Our officials

reinforced the need to respect conservation measures established to protect the

Woodland Caribou of Labrador. The meeting was attended by about fifty people

from the community and, by all reports, was well received.

On March 8, another meeting was held with representatives of the Pakua Shipi

and officials from the provincial departments of Environment and Conservation,

Natural Resources, Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs. Since that point, a letter

was received from the Chief of the Pakua Shipi Innu indicating their intention

to not engage in the harvesting of this endangered Woodland Caribou herd, but to

instead hunt the George River herd in an open zone near Churchill Falls.

Mr. Speaker, conservation officers have been directly involved and monitoring

the situation. We will continue to work with all groups to ensure that

conservation measures to protect this caribou herd are respected and enforced.

Thank you very much.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the hon. minister for an advanced copy of his

statement.

Mr. Speaker, if there are people out there who are violating the laws of the

land, when it comes to hunting of any species, they need to be prosecuted and

they need to be brought to terms with the crime that they have committed.

The people who have been traditionally breaking the law, not just this year,

but in other years previous as it relates to the Southern Labrador caribou herd,

Mr. Speaker, need to be dealt with in some very tough times. I can say that

because I live in that area and the people of my district have long respected

the endangered legislation that is in place and have respected the laws of the

land. In fact, Mr. Speaker, people in my district travel hundreds of kilometres

to Western and Eastern Labrador, and Northern Labrador to hunt caribou just

because they protect the laws of the land and want to see this particular

species of caribou being able to grow and regenerate over the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I have no tolerance for the Innu of Quebec and the actions that

they have taken in this particular area. I want to encourage the minister to

continue with the work that he is doing in making sure that there is

surveillance, making sure that there are patrols and making sure that these

people are prosecuted when indeed they do break the laws.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

MR. R. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am glad to see that the minister is taking a determined approach on this

matter. I think we all agree on the necessity to have laws to protect endangered

species.

Mr. Speaker, I say to the minister - and I have talked to him about this

before - starting this year, and I noticed late last year, not only does it

apply to caribou but also to inland waters, where we have Innu from Quebec

coming to Labrador West netting the rivers and lakes, putting up cabins wherever

they desire, when the rest of us, as residents of the Province, have to go

through a procedure that is quite rigid in order to do so. I think things like

this need to be approached very firmly, and I am glad to see that this approach

is being taken in this case. I look forward to providing the minister with

evidence of the other incidents I used here today this coming summer, and I hope

the same approach is going to be taken then as well.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Further Statements by Ministers.

Oral Questions.

Oral Questions

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My questions are for the Premier.

Last week the Premier said he had a deal with the Hebron-Ben Nevis

proponents, but it ended up being scuttled at the last moment. Chevron and its

partners denied any such deal existed. This past weekend the Premier is quoted

in the media as saying that he had been in contact with Chevron officials since

negotiations broke down. However, a spokesperson from Chevron denies any

conversations taking place.

I ask the Premier if there have actually been discussions with Chevron and

its partners, and if so, with whom.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: The answer is yes, Mr. Speaker, with the lead

negotiator for Chevron.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier stated that he had sent a letter to ExxonMobil asking to purchase

their 38 per cent share in the Hebron-Ben Nevis project.

I ask the Premier if there has been any response to this request yet, and if

not, what legislative action might government be contemplating in order to move

this project forward.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: There has been no response yet, Mr. Speaker. This went

out last Thursday and we will wait to see if there is a response and then we

will contemplate legislative action.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier stated last week that he was willing to change the legislation

and even expropriate ExxonMobil's share of the Ben Nevis project if necessary.

However, any legislative changes would, I understand, require the approval of

the federal government as well.

I ask the Premier what, if any, discussions there have been to date with the

federal government regarding any legislative changes that might be, or might

have to be, contemplated.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: I had a discussion with the Prime Minister last Friday,

Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: I wonder if the Premier can tell us if the Prime Minister

is, in fact, on side with us, as a Province, should changes be required for our

legislation, that the federal government would, in fact, be supportive of any

such changes?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: The Prime Minister is coming to the Province, I

understand, tomorrow night, or Wednesday, and at that point in time I will be

having a discussion with him.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Should ExxonMobil decide to sell their 38 per cent share of the project to

the Province, or the Province changes the current legislation that will allow

them to expropriate or take control of that share, is government looking at a

public partnership to share in those purchase or expropriation costs?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have already said that our preference is that the partners would take out

ExxonMobil so that the existing three partners who want to do a deal would go

ahead and proceed with the project. In the event that they are not interested in

purchasing, then the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador would be interested

in purchasing on its own or with others.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: I wonder if the Premier could advise if government has, to

date, in fact, been approached by any local companies, or consortium of

companies, who have expressed an interest in sharing in the cost of buying out

ExxonMobil's piece of Hebron-Ben Nevis if that becomes necessary.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: No, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have been asking for seven days now, of this government, if we can receive

the details of the failed Hebron-Ben Nevis negotiations. We have asked for

agreements on many, many parts, including the so-called super royalty regime,

and asked that it be tabled in the House. The Premier said last week that he

would check and see if there was any issue in having this information released,

from a confidentiality perspective.

I ask the Premier: When can the people of the Province expect to see the

details in print, rather than just be talked about in the House and in the

media? When can we actually see any details in print?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, it was my understanding that the Leader of

the Liberal Party was having a meeting with Chevron and, at that point in time,

he was going to discuss the details of the arrangement. To date, I still do not

know if that meeting has taken place.

There was an indication, I think, on an open line show today that he still

has not met with Chevron. That was to have taken place, I think, last Wednesday

or last Thursday. He was then going to try and find out the details.

We have had a couple of discussions with Chevron since negotiations closed

last Friday. From my perspective the door is sill open, so we will not be in the

process of sort of releasing details of negotiations until we are satisfied that

the negotiation has been absolutely and completely concluded.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Community Services.

Mr. Speaker, today paramedics in the Province are demonstrating to draw

awareness to the working conditions they face and also the patient wait list

that often accompanies ambulatory care in the St. John's region. These

individuals are understaffed to Canadian standards and feel they have limited

resources to serve the 200,000-plus people in the St. John's region.

I ask the minister why they were not given any consideration for increased

services and human resources in the recent Budget.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In Budget 2006, there was $250,000, I believe, if the numbers are correct,

for dispatch services for the four regional health authorities. In addition to

that, there was $60 million provided to the four regional health authorities for

increased utilization costs as well as increased costs overall. These funds can

be utilized by the regional health authorities for this type of service if they

feel that the need is determined.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, these ambulance operators obviously feel that

their issue was not given full consideration. If the minister claims today that

there was money available to deal with this service, and to expand it, could he

please clarify where the money is, and who makes the decision when it gets into

the hands of these particular operators and paramedics? Because they are

obviously not aware of it.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: I have just outlined to the member opposite exactly where

the money was in the Budget. In addition to that, Eastern Health are in the

process of performing - and have been for the past couple of months - an

analysis of ambulatory needs in the region, and it is my understanding that they

are going to be ready to make a decision in the very near future on that.

In addition to the $250,000 for dispatch services, in addition to the $60

million that has been provided to the regional health authorities, if there is a

need that is demonstrated by Eastern Health Authority for ambulatory costs, I am

certainly prepared to sit down and look at them for needs over and above what

was provided in this year's Budget, which I believe was ample to satisfy the

needs of today's questions.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the minister if it is indeed

true that the extra money in the Budget will be given from the board to the St.

John's Fire Department for ambulatory care services that they provide?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: There was no money provided in Budget 2006 for additional

costs to the St. John's Fire Department for their services provided to Eastern

Health, no.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, I have to ask the minister: Under the present

circumstances, where there is such a long wait list for many patients who are

calling to use this service, where they are staffed below the national standards

in the country - and that is in comparison with places like Halifax, Sudbury,

Saint John, New Brunswick - will he now intervene with the boards, tell them

that this money must be allocated to increase the number of ambulances provided

through the St. John's area, and also to increase the dispatch services for

that office?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: Ambulance services are managed by Eastern Health, and

they will work within the allocations that were provided to them in Budget

2006-2007 to determine where those resources are needed.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, last Thursday, angry fish plant workers from New Harbour

of giving exemptions to companies shipping out redfish unprocessed.

On Thursday, the Premier told workers out in the hallway here that he did not

know that fish was going out unprocessed while there was a buyer, Woodman's in

New Harbour, willing to buy it and process it.

I ask the Premier: How is it that this issue was raised in the House of

Assembly on Monday - and you had all week to ask your minister who is

responsible for the Department of Fisheries - how is it that you did not know

that there was plant in this Province willing to purchase that fish and process

it here in the Province?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I think if one were to hear all of the comments

made by the Premier, the answer would be obvious. The Premier did not say he did

not know. He indicated - as I recall the conversation - that he would like to

have some information as to the price and the marketplace, and the company

undertook to provide that to him.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, on Friday, after managing to pick up his laundry

on Thursday night, the minister met with these plant workers. After the meeting,

he stated he was unaware it was a local company who had a market for filleted

redfish. Two weeks ago, this minister stated that he had just learned that FPI

was shipping fish out of the Province without permission of the government, and

thus breaking the law.

I ask the minister: As the individual responsible for fisheries in this

Province, how many other major issues are being overlooked or are going

unattended by you?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: None, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: I suggest to the minister that he might want to rephrase that

and say, none that I am aware of today.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries stated he is willing to amend the FPI

Act to protect the workers in this Province, especially those who work in places

like Fortune, Marystown, and Harbour Breton.

Mr. Speaker, could the minister provide an update of these potential

amendments and whether legislation is currently being drafted, and when it will

be brought to the House of Assembly?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I think I made it clear in this House on

previous occasions that if the government decides that the appropriate route to

go is to bring forward amendments to the FPI Act, we will do that at some point

during this legislative session which has several weeks to go yet.

In terms of legislation being drafted, yes, Mr. Speaker, legislative counsel

is involved and there are potential amendments that are being looked at.

Government will make a decision at some point whether or not it is necessary to

bring them forward to the House.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: I say to the minister, that we are now into the middle of

April. There are people who haven't been to work in Marystown since just after

Christmas, when they normally are. When you are saying, if and when, I say to

the minister that the people on the Burin Peninsula would certainly like to know

if and when you are going to bring some legislation to this House so they can go

back to work.

Mr. Speaker, last Wednesday night the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural

Development told us here in this House, when doing Estimates, that in all

discussions with FPI pertaining to their plants here in the Province, in every

one of these discussions FPI made it categorically clear that they would be

doing nothing in the Town of Fortune in the plant they have in that town. Now,

the minister has stated that he is prepared to change the legislation to force

FPI to cross-subsidize, take money from the more profitable organizations or

divisions - like Danvers, Massachusetts in the American division of that company

- and cross-subsidize the losing groundfish sector here in the Province.

I ask the minister: Will those cross subsidies be in place for Fortune and

Harbour Breton?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, let me make it clear, one thing I am not

prepared to do and that is to stand idly by and have the Leader of the

Opposition, or anybody else in the Opposition for that matter, put words in my

mouth. I never, ever said that we were - I said we were prepared to look at the

issue of cross-subsidization. I never, ever said that the government was

committed to enacting legislation to force cross-subsidization. That is an issue

that government has yet deliberated on and made a decision, but we are prepared

to look at it. I made that abundantly clear. I made it abundantly clear to

anybody who wanted to listen that we are prepared to look at other amendments to

the FPI Act that will strengthen the position of the government and the people

of Newfoundland and Labrador in relation to that company. But, Mr. Speaker, I am

never, ever going to acknowledge that the vision and the spin of the Leader of

the Opposition is anywhere close to reality.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, the minister can talk about spin all he wants. The

only thing that has been spun here is what he is spinning himself. He has been

talking about FPI now since last November when we brought it the attention of

the public that FPI may not be operating their groundfish plants on the Burin

Peninsula. You said, at that time, it was all fear mongering. What have you done

since then? You keep saying that you are prepared to do this and you are

prepared to do something else, but I say, minister, you have done nothing and I

think that is what you are prepared to do.

Mr. Speaker, on April 4, the Minister of Transportation and Works, the

previous Minister of Fisheries, said that Justice was investigating FPI and it

would be they, the Justice Department, who would make a decision as to whether

charges would be laid against that company.

I ask the Minister of Justice: How is the investigation progressing? When

will you be taking the advice from your colleague, the Minister of Fisheries,

and lay the charges that he said from the pan of a truck: They will be charged,

they will be charged, they will be charged? When will the charges be laid, I say

to the minister?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and

Aboriginal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, the only government that I am aware of in this

Province who ever, ever said publicly they never had the time of day to ask

questions of FPI was a government that the hon. Leader of the Opposition was a

member of.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: That is not this government. It is not this Premier. It is

not this minister.

Now, let me make it abundantly clear, Mr. Speaker, for the House. The

authority, once an investigation is completed into any allegation of

misreporting or shipping fish out of the Province unprocessed, rests with the

Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, not with the Minister of Justice.

The investigation report, I do not know if it is in my office today, I have

not been there yet today. I understand that when I asked questions on Friday

that the investigation was completed. What its recommendations to me are, I do

not know at this point in time, but I assume, from everything I know, that FPI

has broken the law of the land. If they have, and if that is what the

investigation shows, then I repeat again, they will be charged, and that

decision is mine, it is not a decision of the Minister of Justice.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We hear the minister talking about we over here not having had time to

discuss this or that. The only minister that I am aware of who has ever stated

publicly that he never had time to meet with a group of people was he himself,

when he told the people from Trinity Bay last week that he could not meet with

them - 150 plant workers out in this lobby - because he had to go down and pick

up his laundry down at the laundromat, I say to the minister. There are your

priorities! Make sure you had clean clothes for the next day and never mind the

people who might not have a job next week.

Now, Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries himself said that he was going to

lay charges. His predecessor, the Minister of Transportation and Works, said

last week that it would be up to the Minister of Justice who would lay this

charge. Today, he is saying that it is he, himself, who would be laying these

charges.

I ask the question: Who will be laying the charges and when will these

charges be laid?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and

Aboriginal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, some days the hon. Leader of the Opposition

gets up and talks about other people going into a rant and a rave in this House.

Well, he can do it most days as good as anybody. The fact of the matter is that

we had a meeting arranged with the people from New Harbour through the office of

my colleague, the Member for Trinity- Bay de Verde, around 2:00 or 3:00 in the

afternoon for 1:30 on Friday.

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, that I went out and spent, I don't

know, thirty-five, forty, forty-five minutes chatting with them in the lobby and

as it got up to something after 5:00 o'clock, yes, I did in fact need clean

clothes and I make no apologies for it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS THISTLE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My questions are for the Minister of Finance.

Mr. Speaker, just this past weekend gas prices increased by almost two cents

a litre. These increases are causing real hardship for consumers as well as for

business, including the tourism operators who reported a flat year in 2005 for

visitors who would normally travel by car to our Province.

I, once again, ask the minister: Will this government step in and do what was

expected in the Budget surplus and provide some relief of the gas taxes paid by

consumers in this Province?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, the increase in gas prices has resulted in

lower consumption in the Province. As hon. members know, the Gasoline Tax Act is

fixed at 16.5 cents a litre for both types of fuel. As a result of the decrease

in consumption, there has been a revenue reduction estimated at about $4.2

million.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS THISTLE: Well, that is a solid answer isn't it?

AN HON. MEMBER: Yes, it is.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS THISTLE: Mr. Speaker, gas prices are predicted to jump to $1.20 a

litre this summer and still the minister insists on taking every possible penny

from the pockets of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Your government is reaping

a huge profit from these increases. In fact, you left a surplus of $76 million

on the table at Budget time. Considering these two factors alone, Mr. Minister,

how can you honestly justify to the people of this Province - who, by the way,

account for 60 per cent of the tourism travel in our Province. How can you

justify that you cannot afford to provide gas tax relief to consumers who will,

in turn, keep tourism operators in business and grow our economy?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, the government will utilize the surplus

this year to pay down the debt and in that way every Newfoundlander and

Labradorian, those who drive cars and those who do not drive cars, will all

benefit from this prudent, fiscal action. This will benefit Newfoundlanders

today and it will benefit future generations of Newfoundlanders.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS THISTLE: Mr. Speaker, I think what we are interested in is more money

in our pockets today so we can grow our economy today, not pay off our mortgage

today.

The Finance Minister keeps insisting that rising fuel costs are impacting

revenues, arguing that there is actually a decrease in consumption and therefore

less revenues for government. Can the minister confirm that if he used his own

logic, that if gas taxes were lowered consumer consumption would rebound and

government would be no worse off? In fact, consumers, and certainly our tourism

industry, would benefit?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: I am sorry, I did not hear the question. I wonder if the

hon. member would repeat the question? I did not hear it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The request from the minister is that the question be repeated.

The Chair recognizes the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MS THISTLE: Never you mind! I have the floor.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair recognizes the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans.

MS THISTLE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is clear that the Minister of Finance, or the alternate minister, does not

agree with his own logic.

The question I am asking is: If the gas taxes were lower, consumer

consumption would increase, and therefore there would be more money in the

Province's coffers and business would succeed because of it. Why don't you

lower the gas taxes and give people a break?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

will be spending close to $5 billion this year for services that will be of

benefit to the people of this Province, in Education, Health and in Justice, and

obviously the government needs revenue to do that. With the help from the oil

revenues and with the help resulting from the actions of the Premier enabling us

to keep these oil revenues, the Government of Newfoundland will have more money

to provide more services to the people of this Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

MR. R. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My question is for the Minister of Justice, and it concerns the threatening

letters that people in this Province are receiving from the Canadian Firearms

Registry informing them that their firearm licenses have expired even though

their guns are still registered. Many of these letters, Mr. Speaker, as I said,

are very threatening.

Let me read the minister an excerpt: If you do not take action within thirty

days from the date of this letter, we will proceed to revoke your registration

certificate without further notice, and we will advise your local police

department for their followup directly with you. Mr. Speaker, these people didn't

receive any notification that their license had expired. This letter came to

them after it expired.

I want to ask the minister: What is his government proposing to do, or what

actions will he take, to ensure that law abiding citizens of our Province are

protected from the firearms that are using our police officers to turn them into

criminals?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course, the gun legislation is federal legislation, and non-compliance, of

course, is directed by the government in Ottawa, but I thank the hon. member for

bringing this to my attention. I have contacted the RCMP and they have advised

that they were not aware that these letters had been received by residents of

this Province. They were aware that letters had been forwarded in other

jurisdictions. The RCMP is now checking to see if there is a stated federal

policy for the RCMP. They did assure me that responding to non-registration will

be dealt with by the RCMP in accordance with all of their priorities, and I don't

think this will be considered a major priority for them.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

MR. R. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The people of the Province who have called the minister's office, and

called the RCMP personally, did not get that assurance, as far as I could

gather. It is good to hear that from the minister, it is low on their priority

list; however, if someone is bored some day they may very well walk up, if they

are going to be answerable to the Firearms Centre.

Would the minister again intervene with the Firearms Centre and tell them to

back off from the people of this Province? Further to that, Mr. Speaker, will

the minister meet with his federal counterparts - because this government that

is in power now campaigned on a promise to abolish the gun registry - and find

out what the latest status is, of that, for the residents of this Province to

judge themselves by?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

MR. T. MARSHALL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have asked for a meeting with my federal counterpart, Minister Day,

concerning matters, out of concern to both the Province and the federal

government, and I am certainly prepared to ask that this matter be added to the

agenda so that we can discuss this.

I do know, and I have confirmed, that it was part of the policy of the

federal Conservative Party that they would repeal Canada's costly gun registry

legislation and work with the Province for cost-effective programs designed to

keep guns out of the hands of criminals while respecting the rights of

law-abiding citizens.

I would be very happy to take this up with Minister Day when I have this

meeting, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape le Hune.

MR. LANGDON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My questions are for the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

The problem of insufficient revenues, debt-servicing charges and lack of

funding for infrastructure encountered by small rural communities is, indeed,

serious. The Newfoundland Federation of Municipalities says that government now

plans to off-load responsibility of the residential appeal boards to the

municipalities. Minister, these small rural councils do not have the resources

to cope with the download.

I ask the Minister: Is government indeed going to add this burden to the

rural communities that are already strapped for cash?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. J. BYRNE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have had some discussions within the department along the

lines of taking away the Municipal Affairs representative on the appeal board.

We want to make it more independent. We want to have it at arm's-length, the

appeal board, for all the municipalities in the Province of Newfoundland and

Labrador. We have had some discussions with the federation on that. As I speak

today, that is the plan, that we would take the Municipal Affairs representative

off that board.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune.

MR. LANGDON: Mr. Speaker, my follow-up to the minister as a result of

that particular answer: Do you indeed plan to have that financial responsibility

placed to the municipalities rather than the provincial Department of Municipal

Affairs, as it is now?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. J. BYRNE: Mr. Speaker, the way it works at this point in time is that

the representative from the department would attend the hearings, the meetings,

the appeal board hearings, and the representative would give some advice to the

towns; but oftentimes, Mr. Speaker, the towns themselves do have their engineers

and their planners at the hearings and those people give the advice,

professional advice, that is required. Sometimes there is duplication of effort,

so we are trying again, Mr. Speaker, to make it a more independent appeal

process.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune.

MR. LANGDON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the municipal ticketing program was introduced a few years ago

for larger communities on the Northeast Avalon. I ask the minister if that

program has expanded, and how many communities now avail of that particular

program?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. J. BYRNE: Mr. Speaker, as we speak in the House today, the municipal

ticketing process has been implemented to a certain degree. We are still waiting

to hear back from the City of St. John's on implementing their program to deal

with the Department of Justice to see what ticketing would be permitted. Once

they get their process in place we will then determine from that, from their

experiences, if we can expand it on to other municipalities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The time allocated for Question Period has expired.

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

Notices of Motion

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Pursuant to Standing Order 63.(3), we give notice of the private member's

motion for this Wednesday coming, the Opposition motion day, the private member's

motion of the Member for Port de Grave.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of Port de Grave.

MR. BUTLER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the marine resources on the Grand Banks of this Province are a

crucial element of the global ecosystem; and

WHEREAS these resources have the potential to provide tremendous economic

benefit on a sustainable basis; and

WHEREAS the protection and conservation measures provided by the

international community and organizations such as NAFO are not sufficient to

protect marine resources on the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks and off the

coast of this Province; and

WHEREAS the longer this ecosystem remains unprotected, increased and possibly

irreparable damage continues to occur;

THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly calls upon the

the Coast of Newfoundland and Labrador; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this House of Assembly renew its call for the

enforce conservation measures for the marine resources in this area; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Newfoundland and Labrador be an integral partner

in any management structure and conservation measures deemed necessary to

protect marine resources adjacent to our shores.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion.

Answers to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

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

MS THISTLE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I stand today to bring to the House's attention the letter that I received

from the Minister of Transportation and Works. I wrote him a letter asking for

upgrades and repairs to the Buchans Highway and he, in his wisdom, has decided

not to pave that road.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

We are now on petitions.

MS THISTLE: This is a petition.

MR. SPEAKER: Oh, I am sorry. You said you were talking about a letter. I

am sorry to interrupt.

MS THISTLE: Actually, the reason for my petition today is the fact that I

got this letter from the minister saying that he is not going to upgrade or do

any repairs on the Buchans Highway. As I stated during the Budget Speech, it is

oh, so important that government live up to their commitment to the rural

communities of our Province.

I heard the Finance Minister and others repeatedly say how committed

government was to the rural communities of our Province. Yet, when you have a

person travelling by ambulance from the Buchans hospital, who almost loses an

intravenous hookup from his arm, this minister then says it is not necessary to

upgrade the Buchans Highway.

We have a mine that is about to commence operations in the fall, with 200

permanent employees who are going to be paying income tax, and there are going

to be services purchased for that mine that is going to put money in the

government coffers, and still government has no commitment to rural Newfoundland

and Labrador.

I saw that same narrow commitment here on Thursday in this House of Assembly,

when the Minister of Education, the Minister Responsible for the Status of

Women, who should have her designation stripped, because she said to my

colleague, the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair - there were four

situations when she brought dishonour to the Status of Women. She has no

credibility for that designation. The Premier should do his job and take that

designation from her.

Now, the same commitment is lacking from this petition for rural Newfoundland

and Labrador, when we should have upgrades and pavement on the Buchans Highway.

Still, this government, who recorded a surplus of $76.5 million, scurried around

at the last minute, March 31, to see how they could hide away a surplus, are now

saying that for the people who live 100 kilometres off the Trans-Canada Highway

and have an industry, two industries going on, that are going to be putting

money into government coffers, that they do not see fit to pave or upgrade the

Buchans Highway. Now, Mr. Speaker, anyone with any common sense in this world,

who knows they have a revenue generating source in Buchans and Millertown, would

see the benefits of upgrading this highway.

I ask the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, who is dumping

millions -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The member's allotted time for her petition has expired.

MS THISTLE: By leave?

MR. SPEAKER: Leave has been requested.

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Leave has been granted.

MS THISTLE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I ask the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, who is dumping

millions into hair brain schemes in trying to develop the economy, here you have

a sure thing and you are turning your back on the people of Buchans, Millertown

and Central Newfoundland who want to develop the economy and they are trying to

travel over roads with ruts and potholes. Now, you are not doing your job. You

are not addressing this new economy, especially with a surplus on your books.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, thank you for your time. Hopefully, they will wake up.

MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

Orders of the Day.

Orders of the Day

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. E. BYRNE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think we are going to be back and enlightened by the last half hour of the

Leader of the Opposition, who closed the Budget Debate the other day. I think he

has thirty-one minutes left, if my timing is correct. I am looking forward to

each and every minute of it, I say, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I will move Motion 1, That This House Approves in General the

Budgetary Policy of the Government, commonly known as the Budget Speech.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Government House Leader is right, in that the Leader of the

Opposition was addressing the House when last we debated this motion, but his

time is twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds.

MR. REID: I thought so, Mr. Speaker. I have not even begun to speak yet

and you are already telling me that I have a couple of minutes lost. I hope, Mr.

Speaker, that this afternoon when the crowd opposite start to rise on their

points of order and try to disrupt me and take some of those twenty-nine

minutes, that you will at least protect me from them and keep their points of

order short, I say to the Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the Budget today. When I ended off last

week I was talking about the shell game that this government has played with the

people of this Province in the past two-and-a-half years. What I mean by shell

game, everyone has seen that game where you have the three shells and there is

supposed to be something underneath one of them and you keep moving them around

and you guess where it is, and then nobody ever wins on it.

Well, Mr. Speaker, if we remember back a few short years ago, two-and-a-half

to be exact, when this crowd opposite were campaigning to get elected as the

government, they went out and they made every promise there was that you could

even possibly think of, and even added a few more to those, I say, to get

elected. Shortly thereafter, the Premier went on provincial-wide television and

said that he could no longer honour the commitments that he made to the people

of the Province because of the dire financial situation that the Province found

itself it. I say, Mr. Speaker, we said at the time that the deficit that the

Premier and his Minister of Finance were talking about was inflated, and we

still believe that today - because they inflated their Budget, they wanted to

make cuts and that is an old trick. That is an old trick that Oppositions use.

They talk the talk when they are in Opposition, but when they form the

government, after making all the promises, they walk in and they say: I'm

sorry, we cannot honour our commitments because we did not know in how bad a

shape the books of the Province were in when we sat in Opposition.

I find it a bit strange that for this government, and this Premier, in

particular, to talk about that because he sat in the House a couple of years

before he became the Premier. Being an astute - or at least he claims he is -

businessperson, he should have well-known what the state of the provincial

finances were. He has a Minister of Finance who sat here since 1993 and every

single year he went through each Budget in detail and year after year after year

after year, he could stand in this House and tell us what we owed to the cent.

Then, along with the Premier being an astute businessman and the Minister of

Finance sitting here for ten years prior to the election in 2003 as critic for

Finance, we also had the Member for Topsail who was elected, who spent ten

years, I think, Mr. Speaker, as the Auditor General. The Auditor General for the

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and for her and the Premier and the

Minister of Finance not to know what the state of the finances in the Province

were, is a bit of stretch. I cannot use the word I would like to use to describe

it, but I will say it was a bit of a stretch. Because there is one individual,

who used to be the Minister of Health until she got flicked by the Premier, who

knew every single cent, for the last ten years, what was being taken in by

government and what was being spent. Then, shortly after becoming elected, they

all of a sudden discovered that there was a deficit and that they could not

honour their commitments. They pulled what we call a shell game on the people of

the Province. As a result, what did they do? The Premier went out that day and

said: There is not going to be any raise for the public service for two years.

He was going to freeze their wages. Not only that, but he was going to lay

thousands of them off. At one point during that debate, or shortly thereafter,

the Minister of Finance came out and said there should be as many as 4,000 civil

servants go. I don't know the exact number who have left the public service,

who have been fired or laid off in the public service, since the Premier's

great speech in January of 2004, but I know there must be thousands, Mr.

Speaker.

MR. T. OSBORNE: That is not true.

MR. REID: Oh yes, we have the Minister of Health over there now saying it

is not true. Maybe you can get up and tell us now, when I sit down, the exact

number, if you have them over there, I say to the Minister of Health. You are

saying it is not true, well you laid off 500 teachers alone, I say to the

minister; you laid off 500 teachers alone. You tell me the exact number. Besides

laying off numerous civil servants and teachers and nurses and everybody else in

the Province, what did they do then? They cancelled all of these projects that

were already in the Budget in 2003. They just didn't get started on time in

2003 because of the election. They came in and they cancelled a bunch of those,

like the cancer clinic in Grand Falls-Windsor. There was money in the budget

when we left government for that. There was money in the budget for the Grand

Bank health care facility when we left government. There was money in the budget

for the auditorium in Goose Bay. There was money in the budget for a school in L'Anse-au-Loup.

We haven't heard this government talk about it since. There was money in the

Budget, actually, for the Long Island ferry, the provincial government's

portion of it. What happened to that?

What did they do, Mr. Speaker, when they came to power? They cancelled all of

those projects, they laid off thousands of civil servants, and they said - the

old con game that they played, I say to the Speaker, and that is to limb the

public service, make all kinds of cuts, go around like the grim reaper, slash

everything you can for the first couple of years, and then try to buy the

taxpayers back in the last year or two of your term with their own money. Mr.

Speaker, it is the oldest political trick there ever way, unfortunately. Well,

fortunately, I should say. I was never part of anything like that, getting out

and yelling and screaming: We are going to spend, spend, spend, we are going to

fix, fix, fix, only to come in and say, we are not going to do it for the first

two and a half years of our mandate, and then we are going to buy back our

voters with their own money. This is what they have done, I say, Mr. Speaker, in

the last two and a half years.

What did we hear announced this year in the Budget, and this year so far?

They announced that the cancer clinic is going back in Grand Falls-Windsor, an

initiative that I would say would never have happened if not for the tenacity of

my colleague, the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans - the tenacity - because she is

like a pit bull, if you don't mind me saying that to you. She is like a pit

bull. When she gets hold of something, she is not giving up. Nobody in this

Province - nobody in this Province, I say to the Member for Windsor-Springdale -

nobody in this Province fought the fight like she did for the cancer clinic in

Grand Falls-Windsor, and I say today, Mr. Speaker, that it would never have

happened without her. Then to hear the Premier on provincial televison one

night, after seeing people throwing up in the hallways of the hospital in Grand

Falls-Windsor, he said: I didn't realize that it was in such bad shape out

there.

If the Member for Windsor-Springdale, who sits in the caucus with the Premier

day after day after day after day, did not tell him, maybe you did not tell him,

I say to the member opposite, because he did not know about the dire straits

they were in, in Grand Falls-Windsor. If he did not know it, then you did not do

your job, I say to the Member for Windsor-Springdale, because the Premier should

have known it. My colleague over here, the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans,

certainly made it known to him.

Anyway, they announced that. They also announced, because my colleague from

Grand Bank fought tenaciously for the health care facility in Grand Bank, they

announced that they were going to go ahead and move ahead on that, I say to the

members opposite.

What else did they announce in this year's Budget? They announced in this

year's Budget that they were going to add an auditorium to the school in Goose

Bay. Well, I say, Mr. Speaker, when I left the Department o f Education in the

year 2003, during the election of 2003, there was money in the Budget, I say to

the members opposite, the Minister of Education and others. There was money,

three point something million dollars in the Budget for the auditorium, and had

this government opposite not cancelled that project it would have been built and

the children and the adults of Labrador would be performing in that auditorium

today, rather than have to wait for another two, three, four years and, who

knows, the Premier gets up on the wrong side of the bed one of these mornings he

might cancel that, or say he does not have the money to pay for it, and they

might have to postpone that, now that the Hebron-Ben Nevis well does not seem to

moving in a direction we thought it would be moving.

Mr. Speaker, then to get up on their high horses and the Member for Lake

Melville gets up and pats himself on the back because he was the one who secured

an auditorium for the Goose Bay high school, I find it almost laughable. I find

it almost laughable. He beating himself on the back saying that he is

responsible. Well, I say to the people of Goose Bay and all of Labrador, you

have to ask yourself the question: Who delayed it for two-and-a-half years? I

have to say that it was this government and maybe the inaction on behalf of the

Member for Lake Melville. Because, I will tell you one thing: Had my colleague,

the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair, or my colleague, the member who

represents Torngat Mountains, I tell you, if they sat in any Cabinet that tried

to postpone that decision for two-and-a-half years, I can honestly say that it

would never have happened, because these two individuals would never let it

happen.

Then they are out talking about Leary's Brook. There was $1 million in the

Budget for Leary's Brook in April of 2003, I say to the Member for St. John's

North. This government cancelled that project, or postponed it, in 2004, in the

spring of 2004, in your Budget, and now you are out today talking about, oh, it

is in the Budget. Well, I will tell you what, if I were the people in Leary's

Brook, I would have to say, let's wait and see. Let's wait and see if that

is going to be done, just like they thought it was going to be done before you

fellas got in government and you cancelled it.

Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that the government came in, they said they

had a far bigger deficit than they actually did. They cut services, they cut

jobs, and they cut all the proposals that were on the table that this government

had initiated when we were there, and now they are back, two-and-a-half years

later, announcing the programs that were announced two-and-a-half years ago by a

Liberal government, and they want everyone to stand up and applaud them and pat

them on the back.

Well, excuse me, Mr. Speaker, but here is one individual who will not be

applauding them. Here is one individual who will not be patting you on the back

because, I say to those opposite, if you were not so hypocritical, I guess,

these facilities would have been expanded and built long before now, instead of

just talking about them and talking about putting money in a budget for them.

MS THISTLE: (Inaudible) created a job.

MR. REID: My colleague, the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans, says here:

And they haven't created a job. Not only have they not created a job in this

Province since they came to power - and all of you can stand up later and tell

me about all the jobs that you have created - not only have they not created a

job, I say to my colleague, but they have eliminated thousands of them. They

have eliminated thousands of them. I always wonder, where are these 500 young

teachers who could not avail of a job because of the cuts on this side of the

floor over here? Where are they gone now?

They talk about what a great Budget this was for rural Newfoundland and

Labrador. I am still trying to find those areas that they are referring to. What

areas of rural Newfoundland and Labrador are the members opposite referring to,

when they say that this Budget was great for everybody and it was also great for

rural Newfoundland and Labrador, because -

MS THISTLE: Did they open up beds in your hospital?

MR. REID: I will get into that later, I say to my colleague.

I represent one of the more rural areas of the Province, thirty-nine

communities on four islands on the Northeast Coast of this Province. If you go

through my district, I certainly will tell you that you will not find anything

there for the rural areas in my district, or the rural areas of this Province;

because, as I said the other day, the only thing that I can find so far that was

in this Budget for my constituents was a raise of 5 per cent for social service

recipients. I talked last week about individuals, and the trying and the

desperate times that they are facing in that area. Some of them got a 5 per cent

increase in social services, and I think we may have saved one or two teachers.

I guess when you are saying we are not going to lay off one or two teachers and

the social service recipients are going to get a 5 per cent raise, then that is

something wonderful that is happening in your district; but, as I said last

week, I can tell you hardships about the people in my district, and the amount

of money that they are making, and how this government will not allow them to

have a drug card to pay for their drugs. Many of them are going without very

important drugs, such as heart medication and things like that, because they are

making $7,000 a year, one individual, or $7,700 - he and his wife, between them,

are making $7,700 - and, because he has a few dollars in the bank to bury them

when they die, this government will not help him with a drug card or ambulatory

fees to get him back and forth to the hospital here in St. John's.

I find that a very sad scenario, and one that a Liberal government certainly

would not tolerate. I guess it has always been the philosophy of the Liberal

Party that you always look after those who are in need. Obviously, this

government has no idea of what it means to be in need. Maybe that is probably

because of their backgrounds, at least some of them, especially the Premier.

When you come from a business background, and a very successful business person,

you find it difficult, I guess, to understand those among us who are less

fortunate and in need.

Mr. Speaker, they talked the other day - and I would just like to take you

through a few of the individuals who spoke and who think, for example, that

everything is fine in their districts and that there is no problem, they are all

going to be elected again, because they are out there trying to buy the

taxpayers with their own money.

I have been around long enough, Mr. Speaker, to know that, by putting down a

kilometre of pavement here or there, or promising this or that, you don't get

elected. I think those opposite think that, guaranteed, all thirty-odd of them,

are shoe-ins for the next election.

Well, let me tell you a few things. As the Government House Leader well

knows, in 1996, when Brian Tobin came back to this Province, the media had him

picked as the second coming, the saviour. He was supposed to lead the Liberals

to victory in all forty-eight seats at that time. You, Mr. Speaker, were one who

was elected there. You know as well as I do, that sometimes it is the individual

themselves and not the leader. Like the Premier, a lot of people on that side of

the House think that the Premier is going to get them re-elected. Regardless of

what they do for their constituents, the Premier is going to get them

re-elected, all they have to do is follow.

I was somewhat dismayed last week by the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde. I

think that is the name of the district, or is it Trinity South?

AN HON. MEMBER: Trinity-Bay de Verde.

MR. REID: Trinity-Bay de Verde. We sat here on Wednesday night doing

Estimates and she was seated right there behind me when I looked around and told

her that her constituents, two busloads of them, were coming to St. John's the

next day to protest against the policy that this government has of allowing fish

to go out unprocessed while constituents of hers, who work in the fish plant in

New Harbour, were going without work because of that very policy. I cannot

mention her name, but I said to the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde: You stand

with your constituents tomorrow because these are the individuals who sent you

here, and you will be looking for them to send you back here in 2007. So, you

make sure you stand with those people.

She looked at me and she gave me a bunch of different arguments of why she

could not because was thinking about what is best for the Province.

Well, Mr. Speaker, when they came here on Thursday I do not think that they

were very pleased with her performance. I can understand why she took the

position, but I think it had less to do with what was best for the Province as

what might happen to her if, indeed, she were to stand against the government

and say that the policy they had was wrong. Because we know a couple of

individuals who sat on that side of the floor, who took a stand against the

Premier, and even suggested, not that he was wrong, but that he might reconsider

the policy - like, I say, Fabian Manning, who is now the federal MP. When he

stood in the caucus meeting and spoke to the Premier about the fact that you

might need to revisit the policy of raw material sharing. What happened when he

as much as even said maybe we should look at the policy? Well, the Premier

flicked him out. Flicked him out. Threw him out of caucus and basically that led

him, in the end - luckily for him - to find a job in Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, I can see why the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde made that

stand, because she did not want to disagree with her Premier, because she might

be out of a job sooner than she will be in 2007. But, to say that you are going

to stand with the Premier while your own constituents go home without work, I

say, you should take some advice from those of us who are here longer than you

and who are somewhat older. You are not going to get it from the Premier and you

are not going to get it from your colleagues who sit next to you in the House of

Assembly, but you should take some advice from some people and do what is good

for your district.

MS JOHNSON: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

A point of order has been raised by the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde.

MS JOHNSON: Mr. Speaker, the member opposite turned around in Committee

and suggested he wanted to give me some advice when I speak to the minister. I

do not need to take advice from the Leader of the Opposition.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: In fact, he suggested that I ignore the media, and at no

point do I ignore the media. Mr. Speaker, I did stand up for my constituents.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: My issue was not between the district and the Province. My

issue is within the district between a plant in New Harbour and a plant in Old

Perlican. That is what I was talking to him about. So, I would not want him to

leave the wrong impression with my constituents.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

A point of order is not the place that we should use to engage in debate.

There is no point of order.

The Chair recognizes the Leader of the Opposition.

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is too bad you were not here last week when I had ten minutes to speak and

there were three points of order. So, I hope you stay in the Chair, Mr. Speaker,

to give me some protection.

I knew, Mr. Speaker, that the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde would not take

my advice, and she did not take my advice, but for some reason she thinks that

because we are over here we are the enemy. I gave freely of my advice but,

unfortunately, she did not want to take it, and that is entirely up to her.

When she talks about a conflict between two plants in her own district, I say

to the member, if you would look carefully at that you would not have a

conflict. Then, again, I can go into detail on that but you are not going to

take my advice. The fish that is going into Quinlan's is somewhat different

than the fish that is going into Woodman's. One is the competitive quota, the

other actually - if I am not mistaken - is fish that is being caught for St.

Pierre. That is what is going into Mr. Quinlan's plant in Bay de Verde. There

is an issue there that you could get around which would not cause you a problem,

but you can seek that advice somewhere else because it is no good for me to tell

you what to do with it because you do not believe me. So, that is fine.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of people opposite who might find themselves

in the fall of 2007 thinking that the Premier is going to lead them to victory

on his coattails, but I can tell you one thing, if you travel through some of

the districts like I have, you cannot see much of a benefit for having voted for

a Tory member in the last provincial election.

I can tell you one district, and that is Bonavista North, a district through

which I travel quite frequently, and to see the condition of the roads in that

district - go and ask the people of that district what is so great and what is

so rosy about the Budget that they just brought down that is going to make

people walk out in droves to elect a Member for Bonavista North the next time,

because I cannot see what is there. That member also lost a courthouse and, I

think, he lost his social services office. I will tell you, things were not rosy

in his district last summer as a result of the raw material sharing program that

this government foisted or forced upon the people of that area, the fish

harvesters of that area. As a result, a number of people have been forced to

leave that area in the past year to seek work elsewhere.

The other thing that I find ironic, Mr. Speaker, in talking about people

going elsewhere, is this government talks about the need now to implement

programs in schools to deal with training more skilled workers for work in this

Province. I find that very, very ironic, Mr. Speaker, because every single day,

as we speak, there are more and more individuals hopping on a plane and heading

to Alberta, or driving to Alberta to find work in the tar sands and other parts

of Alberta. Yet, we have a government here that says things are so rosy that we

have to implement new programs now to train more highly-skilled people because

we are going to have a labour shortage. Now, how foolish! We are going to have

to train more people in this Province because we are going to have a skilled

labour shortage. What they cannot figure out, for the life of them, is that the

reason they have a skilled labour shortage here, is not because we haven't

trained enough over the years, it is just that everyone we are training is

forced to go elsewhere to find a job because this government has done absolutely

nothing to create employment in this Province. All you have to do is go from

peninsula to peninsula to peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador and you will

find people leaving the Province in numbers that we haven't seen since the

moratorium in the mid-1990s. Yet, we are talking about training more so that

they can leave as well.

I say, Mr. Speaker, that representing Bonavista South, you must have

experienced a fair bit of this in the past year in your own district, because I

am sure that the people who have prosecuted the fishery in your district are not

much different from those who prosecute the fishery in my district. I can tell

you, that a lot of those people have left and gone elsewhere in my district.

They have gone to the mainland to seek employment, and many of them, I say, will

never come back. For the gall of this government to say that the economy is so

great in this Province, that we do not have enough skilled workers, I tell you

is a little bit less than truthful, I say, but that is something we will get on

to.

If you look around this Province and what this government has been doing with

the fishery in the past two-and-a-half years, you will find that they are

probably the worst government when it comes to fisheries issues that we have

seen since 1949. I think the reason for that is that you see such a shift, by

this government, in attitude toward the fishery. I think that might have to be

attributed to the Premier; because, unlike any other premier since 1949, I do

not think this individual premier can really sense the significance of the

fishing industry in this Province. We know that he knows nothing about it; let's

face it. I don't think he spent too many summers fishing on the Labrador, or

anywhere else in this Province. As a result -

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, now we have another one getting a bit lippy over

there. The Member for St. John's Centre just woke up, I say, another

individual who knows a lot about the fishing industry. Now he is going to tell

me all about it. I say to him, if he wants to talk about the fishing industry in

the Province, I will gladly sit down so you may enlighten me. We will do that

later.

We have a government here led by an individual who knows nothing about the

fishery and cares nothing for it, I say to those opposite; because, if he did

care for it, he would not have done what he did last year in terms of forcing a

raw material sharing system upon fish harvesters in this Province after

promising, I say to the Member for St. John's Centre, those same harvesters

that he would never do anything without consultation with them.

I know that he did not consult with those individuals before he did that. He

went and dictated it. He went and forced that system upon them, and it was

definitely detrimental to the fishing industry last year to the point where we

saw an export value of over $1 billion in years prior to last year, and last

year we saw an export value of what for their fishery, I say to the Member for

St. John's Centre? What, $650,000?

I tell you, you and your government contributed to that decline in the fish

last year, simply because you kept the fish harvesters on the street here for

two full months when they should have been, on the water - where they wanted to

be, on the water - trying to support their families.

Mr. Speaker, let's look at what else they have done with the fishery in

this Province. FPI. As my colleague who represents Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi knows,

when they were over here, in Opposition, they railed against the Board of

Directors of FPI to the point where the Premier said, when he was Leader of the

Opposition, that they should not even be permitted to be on the Board of

Directors, and that FPI should not be permitted to pick their own Board of

Directors.

Now we have a Premier today, where FPI has gone in and wiped out Harbour

Breton, put 350 people out in the streets. With direct and indirect jobs, you

are probably talking 650 to 700 people who are impacted by that: families who

are being forced to split up, some of which go to the mainland to work, others

who stay in the Province, others who have gone and will never come back. What

did this government say and do about that? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Only the

Minister of Fisheries at the time, the member who represents The Straits &

White Bay North, was out there being their official spokesman, saying that the

reason that it had to happen is because of competition from China, the Canadian

dollar, and things like that. FPI did not even have to come out and tell why

they had to leave Harbour Breton, and close her down, because the minister did a

great job. If I didn't know the difference, if I didn't know who he was,

when he came on the air, I would be convinced that he was an employee of FPI

rather than the Minister of Fisheries. After he closed down Harbour Breton,

nothing happened. All of a sudden then, you know, FPI determines that they are

not going to stay in the groundfish any longer, because I heard Mr. Rowe say,

last spring, that in the future they would be getting out of groundfish and they

would become a shellfish only operation in this Province.

No one opposite said anything about that, and they let FPI continue because

Harbour Breton was closed down. They were not hearing much from those people

down there any longer, so what else are we going to do? This year, they

announced that they were closing Fortune and they are going to strip half the

work out of Marystown and leave the remaining 350 people with what? Fifteen

weeks a year. Fifteen weeks a year on which to make a living and feed their

family. What has this government done about it? Absolutely nothing.

They talked the talk, and they have been talking the talk since November of

this year, but, Mr. Speaker, what do we see happening in places like Fortune and

in Marystown today? We see absolutely nothing. We see every day, though, a

Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture jump up here and take a reverse stand from

the day previous in this House of Assembly. That is what we see. That is what we

hear. One day he talks about amending the legislation to force FPI to

cross-subsidize. Then, today, he jumps up and says he didn't know if he really

said that.

One day he says that FPI has broken the law, broken the law, broken the law;

they are going to be charged, charged, charged. The next day, his predecessor,

the Minister of Transportation and Works, jumps up and what does he say? Oh,

well, we don't really know about that. We are investigating, and it will be up

to the Department of Justice to determine if charges are going to be laid.

Now, the Minister of Fisheries himself comes back today and says that is not

true, because, if there are any charges going to be laid, and any investigations

going to be done, it is going to be done by the Minister of Fisheries.

MR. E. BYRNE: (Inaudible).

MR. REID: The Government House Leader, the Member for Kilbride, is over

there telling me what the minister said and what he did not. I heard him quite

well.

I say to the minister, we all heard him say, even from his speech that he

made from the pan of the truck on O'Leary Avenue, in front of the FPI

building, where the Chinese flag was flying that day, we all heard him say that

FPI broke the law and FPI is going to be charged. Now, if anyone who was there,

like I was that day, if a minister of the Crown says: You broke the law and you

are going to be charged - and he said he found out about this as a result of an

investigation he did, what would you assume? You would assume that the

investigation was over, that they did break the law and they were going to be

charged. Here it is three weeks later, and what do we hear today? The

investigation is still ongoing and there might be charges laid.

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): Order, please!

I remind the hon. Leader of the Opposition that his time for speaking has

expired.

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, give me a couple of seconds to clue up -

MR. SPEAKER: By leave?

MR. REID: (Inaudible) as a result of being rudely interrupted by the

Member for -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition, by leave.

MR. REID: Thank you.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, that is enough about the charges. We will wait and see,

but if I were a betting man, you will not see charges laid against FPI. If I

were a betting man, that is what I would say.

Let's talk about the legislation.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) clue it up.

MR. REID: I am only going to be about a minute or two, I say to the

minister.

We talk about the legislation. He says one day we are going to do it, the

next day we do not know. I say to the minister, that's another if. If I were a

betting man, we will not see any legislation forcing FPI to cross-subsidize.

That will never see the Table of this House of Assembly. We will not be standing

debating that particular amendment to the FPI Act, I can guarantee you that as

well, Mr. Speaker. If I were a betting man, and I am not. That is two things you

will not see before this House this year.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, to get back - and we will have another opportunity to go

further into the Budget, but those opposite can stand now and talk about what a

wonderful Budget it is, but I challenge any of them to stand and tell me how

great it is for the rural districts of this Province.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition, he will hear about all the great

things for rural Newfoundland from a member who represents rural Newfoundland

and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, I find it quite interesting that the Leader of the Opposition

had about an hour to talk about all the wonderful things in the Budget, about

health care and education and economic development, but instead of choosing to

do that, he chose to get up and attack members, such as myself, and it just goes

to show that -

AN HON. MEMBER: It is really shameful!

MS JOHNSON: The wonderful Budget, Mr. Speaker, but, yes, he chose to

attack us instead. While I am speaking on that, there are a lot of great things

I want to say about the Budget, but I would like to speak to the recent

situation this week with Woodman's.

The Leader of the Opposition stood up here a couple of days ago and said that

I said in an e-mail, I would not meet with my constituents. Well, my

constituents come first, Mr. Speaker, let me tell you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: What he failed to read out was the very first sentence of

that e-mail, where I said I have no problem meeting with my constituents. In

fact, I was receiving a lot of e-mails and phone calls from employees of the

plant who said that they could process a lot of fish there, but I also explained

in the e-mail that I would like to speak to the plant owner and hear that from

himself first as well, but I absolutely had no problem meeting with them. In

fact, I met with them that afternoon and followed up with the minister, who so

graciously agreed to meet with them the very next day and we had a very

informative member.

The Leader of the Opposition did, in fact, turn around and offer to give me

some advice. I find that quite amusing to take advice from a member who has been

part of a government that has stripped teachers' pensions, left teachers

wondering where their pensions were going to be when they finished; to take

advice from a member who was part of a government who stripped away at the

equity that was built up in hydro; to take advice from a member who would love

nothing more than this government to give away the Hebron-Ben Nevis deal. This

government will leave that oil in the ground if we do not get what we rightfully

deserve.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: The legacy that we want to leave to our children and our

grandchildren is one that we want them to be able to survive. We are not going

to give it away just for the sake of a good short-term deal. We have more

long-term thinking than that, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to read something here that the Leader of the Opposition said in

response to the Throne Speech. It just goes to show how they think differently

on that side of the House from this side of the House. He said, in response to

the Throne Speech: When you are in Opposition things are bad, they are terrible.

When you are in government they are good, they are great. When you are in

Opposition the future is bleak. When you sit on that side of the floor the

future is bright. We talk a lot. We make a lot of great speeches, but little

seems to change.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that a lot has changed in this Province. The

biggest change is the change in attitude and it is a result of this new

approach. There is a new attitude in this Province and it is directly a result

of the new approach of this government.

I want to talk about a couple of the other wrongs that we had to right as a

government - taking advice from the member opposite. I want to tell you some of

the things that they did when they were in here that we had to turn around and

fix.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, this government had to put $2 billion into the

teachers' pension fund to replenish it because they stripped away at that,

leaving those teachers to wonder where their money will come from. In fact, we

had to put $3 million into workers' compensation spousal benefits for

fifty-eight women who were treated unfairly when the Opposition were there -

another wrong we had to right.

In fact, I think it was March 25, in The Telegram , an editorial said

there: This government used its healthy financial state to solve the wrongs done

by the past government. Something that they say, Mr. Speaker, is very unique in

Canadian politics. It is what we call the new approach.

One of the things I wanted to talk about today in the Budget is the

investment in education. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important that we

invest in our students. They are certainly the future of this Province, but it

is equally important that we invest in our teachers. Our teachers, they take on

many roles. They are just not a teacher, they are a parent, they are a nurse,

they are a guidance counsellor. So, it is very important that we invest in them

as well as our students.

Some of the things that we have looked at, as a government, first of all is

abolishing the school fees. Again, you talk about taking advice from the Leader

of the Opposition. He was a member of the government who brought in the Schools

Act in 1997, and this was a legislation that was brought in to permit schools to

charge fees. Now, some six years later, during an election in September of 2003,

they did commit, at that time, to abolish school fees; certainly, right during

the election campaign, along with many other promises, but we saw the result of

those many promises. But, they did have six years to get rid of the fees. This

government came in, we listened, and again, we righted another wrong and we

abolished those fees. So, it just goes to show that sometimes promises during

elections do not work.

Another thing that we did is we decreased the fee from $80 to $50 per student

in the schools. This is so very important so that students can take

part in

extracurricular activities and have all of the equipment that they need in the

labs and in art classes and so on. So, this, too, is very important.

I just want to respond to a piece in the paper by the Member for Port de

Grave, I believe it was - or maybe Carbonear-Harbour Grace - who said he did not

know what was included in these school fees, we have left it very vague. Well,

Mr. Speaker, I refer them to a press release that we put out and it clearly

points out what is included in school fees. It just requires a little bit of

research.

There are many other investments in education announced in the Budget. In

fact, there are about $100 million worth. Certainly, keeping 151 teachers in the

school system is something that I have heard many, many positive comments about

in the district. In fact, school principals who have been in the system for a

long time said: Finally, they have been asking for this for ten years to stop

taking much needed valuable teachers out of the system. Certainly, when taking

those teachers out of the system you are, in fact, increasing the workload for

those left behind. I am not sure of the number, maybe one of my colleagues here

can tell me, but there were something like 1,900 teachers taken out of the

system under their watch. Again, another reason not to take advise from the

members opposite.

Certainly, within education too there was a huge investment in physical

education in the schools, and this has some positive impacts on healthy living

for children again. When investing in education, we can see many spinoffs from

that as well.

One of the other things I was quite interested in was the investment in the

development of a history course. Certainly, it is very important, as a people,

to know where we have come from in order to know where we are going. I was very

pleased to see this investment.

Certainly, $4.3 million invested in skills development - when I was in high

school, some thirteen years ago, there was major pressure on me at that time to

go to university. In fact, there was even pressure to leave the Province, there

aren't opportunities here in the Province, but we certainly see that isn't

the case today. I would certainly recommend to anybody, if they wanted to take a

course in plumbing or pipefitting or crane operator or anything, the options are

endless today. I am certainly pleased to see that investment.

Mr. Speaker, we often hear the Opposition too questioning our commitment to

women. As a woman in this caucus, I am proud to say that we have a tremendous

caucus. We are very supportive of women and men alike, and I am very proud of

that.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: One of the things this Budget did was, again this year

increase funding for women's centres, and $270,000 put into a mentorship

program for women in apprenticeship to promote skills development.

We just heard recently this week about the pay equity. Some members already

spoke about that, but I feel it needs to be reemphasized. Yes, there was $24

million in a voluntary payment given to women who, as a result of the previous

government in 1991 bringing in the Public Sector Restraint Act - again, another

right that we had to wrong. Mr. Speaker, from what I am hearing from women, it

is not just about the $24 million, it is about the fact that we did the right

thing, and that meant more than money to them. Again, many, many rightings of

wrongs done by the past government, so many more reasons not to take advise from

the Leader of the Opposition or members opposite.

I would like to speak a little bit now, Mr. Speaker, about the Department of

Natural Resources. I know the Minister of Natural Resources did an excellent job

the other day of explaining some of the great investments in his department, but

it is an area, with my background, of some keen interests that I have. There are

some excellent developments in my district in the area of natural resources,

with fur farms, an excellent program going on with the schools. Baccalieu

Collegiate and Crescent Collegiate are developing a lot of skills, learning

about agriculture. In fact, they have formed two businesses, Superb Herbs and

Sensational Salsa, where they are learning to grow tomatoes and turn it into a

final product in terms of salsa. Those are just some of the things, again, that

I wanted to talk about in natural resources and agriculture.

One of the other keen interests of mine is forestry, and I was very pleased

to see that our government has put $800,000 to do a complete forest inventory.

This, Mr. Speaker, is very important. It is very important that we have solid

information so that we can make sound decisions for the future. You need an

accurate database, ensuring that we have enough resource, again, for our young

people in the future. We do not want to continuously strip away at these forest

resources and, again, leave nothing for the future.

Mr. Speaker, I also see that the minister and this government have committed

another $1 million into silviculture, and it is very important. Once you extract

trees, the only way - well, there is, certainly, natural regeneration, but we do

have to plant trees again in order to ensure that there is a resource there for

the future. In line with that, we have also increased funding for fire

suppression and pest control which, again, is very important to protect the

resource.

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak a moment about our fiscal position. It is very

important to speak about this because in order for us, as a Province, to be more

prosperous and self-reliant, we could not get there without having a much better

financial situation. Certainly, by increasing the self- reliance as a Province,

that will turn into increasing self-reliance of the people who live in that

Province. Certainly, that ties into our poverty reduction strategy.

As I just mentioned, it is very important that our financial position be

increased, improved, in order to improve the lives of the people who live within

the Province. Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to hear that, for the first time

in twenty-six years - that is right, twenty-six years - the prescription drug

plan has been changed. As a result, we have doubled the amount of people who can

now avail of a co-pay system for drugs in this Province, drugs that are so badly

needed; in fact, 97,000 more people, so we have doubled it.

Also, Mr. Speaker, we are, in fact, the only other province - there is one

other province in this country who does have a poverty reduction strategy, so we

are the only second one in the Province and, again, the only second one in the

Province who indexes the HRLE subsidy, so I am very proud to say that we have

done that as a Province.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure all of my colleagues on this side of the House, and

opposite, and many other people, have head that we are the richest Province in

Canada. We are so blessed, we are so rich with resources; however, we do not

always seem to reap the benefits of those resources. Mr. Speaker, under the

leadership of this Premier, and certainly this government, that is about to

change.

I just wanted to quote, Mr. Speaker, the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au

Clair. She spoke in the House last week and she said, "Mr. Speaker, I think

it was a great stroke of luck on our part as a Province, that we are fortunate

to have those kind of resources and to be able to benefit from them like we

have."

Mr. Speaker, I will agree with the first part of her statement that, yes, we

are fortunate to have these resources, but one of the things that I absolutely

do not agree with is that we are lucky to have benefitted from them. There is no

luck in the types of negotiating skills that you have seen from this Premier,

Mr. Speaker. It certainly was not luck. It is tough negotiating. It is long-term

strategic planning. I certainly do not agree with the fact that it is luck that

we have that.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) strategy.

MS JOHNSON: Certainly, strategy, long-term strategy. It is a different

way of thinking on this side.

Mr. Speaker, in speaking of resources, and benefitting from them, we just

heard recently in the news about the Hebron deal. It seems to me, from what I am

hearing, Mr. Speaker, that the members opposite - and, they are fulfilling their

role. An Opposition is to keep government in check, I certainly do agree. It is

not what the Leader of the Opposition said. It is not to believe that all things

are bad and bleak. It is their role to -

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) attack people personally.

MS JOHNSON: It is certainly not their job to attack people personally, as

my colleague has said. It is their job to ask questions; but, Mr. Speaker, we

see another example of how this Premier and this government will not settle for

less.

We have continuously said that we will not give away. I am sure the Leader of

the Opposition felt he was doing me a favour when he offered me advice, but we

are not going to take advice in terms of giving away resources, Mr. Speaker.

That oil will stay in the ground, as I said, and some day in the future, when my

grandchildren are around, maybe they will benefit from it then. As we know, as a

resource gets limited, the value of it is going to go up. The oil is not going

to rot in the ground. We will value more from it in the future, no doubt.

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition also mentioned that we have done

absolutely nothing in terms of jobs in this government. Going through the

Budget, I just want to highlight a few of the positions that we have created in

many different areas. Certainly in health care, we have committed to providing

thirty-nine new public health nurses over the next two years, which is very

important. We always hear of the stresses that are in the health care system,

and the overburden that these nurses have, so that is a significant investment.

We have committed to nine new addiction counsellors; again, very important in

terms of gambling and other types of addictions in the Province. In keeping with

the health aspect, and protecting our young people, we have created fifty-five

new positions for child, youth and family services positions.

Many jobs in the legal aid system, we will be hiring new lawyers and

administrative staff. That is to directly help people in rural Newfoundland who

could not avail of those services in the future. In fact, in Trinity Conception

we will be getting a new police officer this year, which is another benefit for

rural Newfoundland. In fact, there are going to be, I believe, eighteen new RCMP

officers, eight new RNC officers, and then, again, thirteen positions to help

support those RNC and RCMP officers -

AN HON. MEMBER: Twenty-eight of them are already hired.

MS JOHNSON: Absolutely, twenty-eight already hired, so a significant

investment.

We hear about the $2 billion we will be putting into infrastructure. There is

no question that, when you put $2 billion into infrastructure in order to build

the buildings and construct the roads and improve upon buildings, it takes

labour work to do those types of jobs. In fact, it is expected that there will

be 4,500 new jobs created as a result of this $2 billion investment.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: Mr. Speaker, where do you think a lot of these jobs are going

to go?

AN HON. MEMBER: Rural Newfoundland.

MS JOHNSON: Absolutely.

It is because of the neglect of the previous government that the roads are in

the state they are in. Out in Trinity-Bay de Verde, for one example, the roads

have potholes and it is just not a pretty state for bringing your car over,

absolutely, so that investment is going to create jobs right in rural

Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, some of the other investments in rural Newfoundland and

Labrador, as I have mentioned, are in the Department of Natural Resources.

Certainly, most of the farming that takes place, the agriculture that takes

place, there is a fur farm in my district, and fishing, all of these things are

in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. They do not take place here in the city.

I spoke about the fiscal position of this government, and how we have spent a

lot of money in areas such as health and education and economic development and

so on, and all of these numbers add up, Mr. Speaker. In fact, it adds up to one

of the biggest and best Budgets, I think, we have ever seen in the history of

Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS JOHNSON: Mr. Speaker, I just want to end by saying there is much more

to it, I think and I believe, than just numbers. It is about a change in

attitude, and we have seen a complete change in attitude in this Province. It is

a new attitude. It is a result of a new approach in this Province.

You know, I took an economic course last semester, I think it was, or maybe

last year, and one of the things that you learn in economics is that perception

is everything, and if your economy is perceived to be doing well then that, in

turn, benefits in actual terms of making your economy do well; because, if the

perception is there, the business will come. That perception alone is a very big

factor into the economics of this Province.

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I believe it is the role of the Opposition to

keep governments in check. It does not necessarily mean, as the Leader of the

Opposition said, that things are bad and bleak. The role is to keep us in check

and not to have that perception out there, because that perception does nothing

for the Province. It does nothing for rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

Many of my colleagues here have spoken about the Budget, and all of the good

things and all of the dollars that we spent in the Budget, but there is

something more than this money. One of the things from this Budget, and going

around the district and talking to people just Saturday night, in fact, in

Winterton, was the sense of hope that is created, and the sense of belief in

this Province, and the belief that, you know, if the oil companies do not want

to do business here, well, let them go to other places in the world. Let them go

to other places that maybe aren't as politically stable as this Province. Let

them go to places in Nigeria, and places like that, because this oil is here and

it is here for the future generations of this Province, and we are going to

ensure, under the leadership of this Premier, that we will get the maximum

benefit for all the people in the Province.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, there are many, many things in the Budget. Twenty

minutes is certainly some time to speak, but not long enough to talk about the

pages and pages of good things that we are doing, and it is because we have

turned around this Province. We have taken the $156 million that we have saved,

that we would have had to spend, certainly, on debt. We have turned that around

and we have put that into programs for the people of this Province.

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned about self-reliance. I have one figure here that we

have -

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): Order, please!

I remind the hon. Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde that her time for speaking

has expired.

MS JOHNSON: Just thirty seconds to conclude, Mr. Speaker?

MR. SPEAKER: By leave?

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. member, by leave.

MS JOHNSON: I just want to say that our debt ratio, our expenses, are

down from 23.3 per cent in 2003 down to 13.7 per cent. That is money that we

would have been basically throwing away to pay down our debt. We now have that

money to use for many programs.

I just wanted to end by saying that, in talking to many people, yes, it is

great and wonderful that we are doing all these things - we have a $5 billion

Budget - but hope is the biggest thing. That is one of the messages I wanted to

leave here today. You cannot put a price tag on hope. That is one of the biggest

things that we have done in this Province, is to bring in that hope.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Labrador West.

MR. R. COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to rise today and take

part in the debate over the Budget 2006 that is

taking place. Before I do that, I would just like to say a few words about

Labrador in general, and Labrador West in particular, and about the potential

for the future that exists here, and the amount of activity that is taking

place, particularly in the mineral sector and, of course, the Lower Churchill

negotiations that are ongoing.

I think all of these things, Mr. Speaker - I was saying the other day that,

if only 50 per cent of the things that are predicted to happen in Labrador in

the next two to three years take place, it is going to be an incredible

opportunity for people to get employment, particularly the people who live in

Labrador now who are unemployed or underemployed.

I want to say that, in order for that to happen, and for us to reap the

maximum benefits, things have to done for the right reasons, and we have to take

a firm approach in making sure that things that are developed in this Province

are developed first and foremost for the benefit of the people who live here,

and that applies to Labrador as well, Mr. Speaker. The developments in Labrador

have to, first of all, support and enhance the lives of the people who live in

that area.

I was happy, Mr. Speaker, to read the other day, there is a project that is

potentially on the horizon in Labrador, in Northern Labrador. It is going to be

operated by a company called LabMag. This LabMag project, Mr. Speaker, as it is

referred to, has the potential to hire about 700 people, according to their

figures, about forty miles from Labrador West, where they will be setting up.

I want to say, and I want to stress this, Mr. Speaker, what I was glad to

read was an excerpt in the local papers from the president of that company.

First, they were going to ship all of it by slurry from Schefferville out to

Quebec. Of course, obviously, that did not fly well with the minister - I give

him full points for that - so they renewed and reviewed their mining plan.

When he was asked by the media, by relocating to Ross Bay Junction, if that

solved any problems for him, his first response was: Yes, it solved a huge

political problem, because the project would not have gone ahead if they did not

do the processing in the Province.

That is what we need, Mr. Speaker. That is what we need. We need that each

and every time a development takes place in this Province. We need to tell the

people who are going to develop it, it is not good enough to dig things out, or

pump things up, and ship it anywhere else in the world. It has to be done in our

own backyards, providing meaningful jobs and employment opportunities for the

people who live there, not like -

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) 1998.

MR. R. COLLINS: Yes, exactly.

In 1998, in the Voisey's Bay thing, we know what happened there. That plant

MR. HARRIS: That is what got you into the House, wasn't it?

MR. R. COLLINS: That is what got me here. Some days I am glad of that.

Other days, well - but that is the type of thing that we need, Mr. Speaker.

Now, Mr. Speaker, talking about this Budget 2006, and what it has done for

the people, I will talk specifically about the people I represent. I have to

say, in all honesty, that I am very happy with this Budget and what it has done

for the people I represent.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. R. COLLINS: I am not, Mr. Speaker, going to stand up here in this

House and criticize the government day in and day out about what things needed

to be done, what the people's needs are in the area I represent, and then stay

quiet the day that they announce it is going to happen. That is not going to

happen, and the people of Labrador West do not expect me to do that. They expect

me to be critical of government when the need arises. They expect me to

highlight the problems that they are experiencing on their behalf, but they also

expect me to acknowledge when things are done. That is what I want to do here

today when I talk about some of the things that have been done, that have been

long-outstanding problems, long before I came to this House of Assembly, some of

the problems that I am going to talk about today that existed and continued to

exist.

The new health care centre, for an example, something that was desperately

needed, Mr. Speaker, for a long number of years now: we had difficulty

attracting health professionals, and who could blame them for not wanting to

come to a hospital where if they were bent over writing a prescription, a clump

of plaster may fall down and hit them in the back of the neck. Where, if you go

to one part of the hospital, it was like a steam bath. Yet, in another

section

of the hospital you needed a winter's jacket on in the summertime. These

things, Mr. Speaker, needed to be addressed. Each and every time that a cabinet

minister came to the District of Labrador West they were told about the hospital

and, indeed, many times they were taken and shown.

I want to thank the Mayors of Wabush and Labrador City, and many other

community leaders, who each and every opportunity that they had brought it to

the attention of government whenever they were in the area or whenever they were

travelling here and ran into government members. So, that health facility, Mr.

Speaker, is certainly appreciated. It is something we needed. It is something we

were entitled to, no question, and we are just glad to see now that action will

be taken to ensure that we have a proper and adequate medical facility so that

the people of Labrador West and Churchill Falls, when they need to be in

hospital, they are in surroundings that are conducive, that are bright and, Mr.

Speaker, one that is comfortable to be in.

We also, Mr. Speaker, had a long standing problem with education,

particularly as it applies to post-secondary and the facility that was being

used to deliver educational programs. Again, we are happy to hear that money is

allocated in this year's Budget to look at the possibilities for other sites

and that, Mr. Speaker, I believe will lead to a new facility for the College of

the North Atlantic campus in Labrador West. It will be a great improvement for

the delivery and will be a much improved environment for learning. Mr. Speaker,

the cost of providing such a facility makes sense because it can be done for a

lot less over a long period of time than what is being paid out now in rent. So,

it makes economic sense and it makes educational sense. Again, we are looking

forward to the day when that new facility will open and our students will be

able to learn in a good environment.

I have stood here many times, Mr. Speaker, over the past seven years and

talked about the transportation problems in Labrador, particularly as it relates

to road transportation. Again, Mr. Speaker, this year's Budget contains $15

million for chip seal, conditional upon the federal government matching the $15

million. I do not anticipate, and nobody I have talked to anticipates a problem

with getting that $15 million from the federal government because, indeed, it

was a commitment that they made to this Province during the recent federal

election. So that $15 million, plus the provincial share, will be $30 million.

That will be able to do quite a bit of road work in getting the road up to

scratch in certain areas, the laying of chip seal and then we will have a hard

service to drive on.

Now some people, Mr. Speaker, have said to me that chip seal is a version of

poor man's pavement. Well, if the people in Labrador that I have talked to

have a choice between waiting another fifty years probably, or twenty years, for

what we call traditional pavement, or have the choice of having chip seal laid

over that road today than everyone I know, practically, will take the chip seal

for a surface on that road. There is nothing wrong with that, Mr. Speaker. Chip

seal is used extensively in the Province of New Brunswick, it is used in

northern areas of Canada. Indeed, I think the Alaskan highway is heavily done

with chip seal.

So, we are looking forward to the day when we will not have a cracked

windshield each and every time we drive down over that road. We are looking

forward to the day when we do not bust up two tires by travelling from Labrador

West to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. We are looking forward to the day when people do

not have to take their lives in their hands and risk the lives of their

passengers by travelling over a dirt road that, many times, Mr. Speaker,

particularly after a rainfall, really is not fit to be on.

These are some of the things, Mr. Speaker, the three things: health care,

education and transportation that we have been harping on for a long time in

this Province. Now, with this Budget, there will be serious attempts to address

the immediate needs under these three topics.

It is more than that, too, Mr. Speaker. I am also happy to say that this

Budget provided money for the Hope Haven crisis shelter in Labrador West to be

operated seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, to be able to provide full

coverage for residents of Labrador West and Churchill Falls when the need

arises. We would much rather say, Mr. Speaker, that we wish we did not need such

a shelter. We wish our society was a place where these things were not needed.

However, that is not the realities that we live. It is not the realities that we

have to deal with and face. Such shelters are needed, unfortunately, and when

they are needed it is important th