March 19, 2008            HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS              Vol. XLVI   No. 5


The House met at 2:00 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): Order please!

Admit Strangers.

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Before we proceed with the regular business of the day I would like to draw to your attention, Your Honour, the fact that normally today, Wednesday, would be Private Members' Day and it would be the government day but with concurrence of the Opposition, we have agreed that this will not be Private Members' Day but be a government business day. After we get through the routine orders of the day we will be calling government business.

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair understands, by looking at the members opposite, that consent has been reached. So we will do government members' business today.

Today I would like to welcome representatives sitting in the gallery from the Grand Bank Town Council, obviously from the District of Grand Bank. The representatives present here today include Mayor, Rex Matthews; Councillors, Mr. George Cooper, Mr. Howard Bonnell; and the Town Manager, Mr. Wayne Bolt.

Welcome to the House of Assembly.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

Statements by Members

MR. SPEAKER: Members' statements today are from: the hon. the Member for the District of Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair; the hon. the Member for the District of Lewisporte; the hon. the Member for the District of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi; the hon. the Member for the District of Port au Port; the hon. the Member for the District of Port de Grave, and the hon. the Member for the District of Labrador West.

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this House today to congratulate the Junior Canadian Rangers of the Community of Cartwright. Mr. Speaker, they were recently selected as the top Junior Canadian Ranger Patrol for the 2007 training year. This represented the second consecutive year the patrol has earned this accomplishment.

The Cartwright patrol of the Junior Rangers was established in 2003 and is sponsored by the local Canadian Ranger Patrol and the community. It is open to membership by all youth between the ages of twelve and eighteen, both male and female, and its mandate is to provide structured activities in remote isolated communities across Canada where no other cadet organization exists.

Mr. Speaker, the Cartwright Patrol is one of twelve Junior Ranger Patrols in our Province, nine of which are based in Labrador and three on the Island who compete in a variety of activities, including: setting up a prospector tent, air rifle marksmanship and military drill. Attendance records and support from the community are also factors in determining the winner.

Mr. Speaker, I would like, for the record, to congratulate the twenty-one members and the three patrol leaders of the Cartwright Junior Canadian Rangers on their accomplishments and I would like to read their names into the record. They include: Samantha Anthony, Nicki Brown, Daniel Clark, Kellie Ann Clark, Shannon Clark Holwell, Marcus Curl, Jonathan Davis, Shannon Davis, Cody Dyson, Devon Dyson, Lindsey Jane Dyson, Victoria Gatehouse, Dylan Green, Cheryl Greenleaves, Jacob Knee, Hillary Learning, Brandon Morris, Brittney Morris, Chelsea Morris, Brandon Sainsbury and Roy Sainsbury. Their patrol leaders also include Master Corporal Anthony Elson, Corporal Monica Williams, and Ranger Scott Turnbull.

I ask the Members of this House of Assembly to join with me, not just in recognizing, but also extending our congratulations to the Cartwright Canadian Junior Rangersteam on this milestone, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of Lewisporte.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. VERGE: Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to recognize the great accomplishments of a Grade 5 student, from Lewisporte Academy in my district. The young man I am referring to is Dante Hiscock.

Many of you may have read about his accomplishments as he was recently featured on the front page of The Telegram in an article called Dante's Peak.

Dante has released two albums to date. He received an ECMA nomination for his debut album I'm Free, and he received another ECMA nomination this year for his second album Calvary's Cross - The Only Bridge to Eternal Life.

Dante performs at many public events, including church events, summer festivals and sporting events.

He is currently planning a benefit concert in support of an endowment fund for a young child in our area who recently lost his mother due to tragic circumstances.

Despite the demands on his time, Dante still performs exceptionally well in school.

Members of the House of Assembly, please join with me and Dante's family in recognizing this remarkable young man, Dante Hiscock.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to let the members of the House know about an exceptional young woman in the District of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

Cailee Carroll is a fourteen-year-old Grade 9 student at St. Paul's Jr. High School. Cailee is also an author. She has received a great deal of support from her mom, Gail Carroll, and the fantastic teachers and principal at St. Paul's who have all encouraged Cailee's literary aspirations.

Original Girl is her first novel, written when she was twelve. It is an insightful journey into the teen world of school friends, frienemies, teen fashion, teen romance, and the inner workings of the teenage mind. It challenges the young reader to think about today's issues, such as school bullying, peer pressure, and the world of modern teens.

The launch of Original Girl took place at St. Paul's Jr. High on last November 23. Cailee has also had a book launch at Chapters. She has been on the CBC Morning Show, on Out of the Fog and in Newfoundland Herald. She also appeared on the NTV Evening News during Bullying Prevention Week in 2007.

Cailee has been invited to present and read for the junior and senior high school students on Bell Island, and she will be doing a formal presentation to the Bell Island Library in her Great-Grandfather Caroll's memory.

Cailee is creative and self-determined. It is so vital to support young people like her to live their dreams. She has the potential to have an exceptional career as a writer.

The first printing of Original Girl was a sellout, and there are many requests still coming in for the book.

I ask the members of the House to congratulate Ms Cailee Carroll on her magnificent accomplishment.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. CORNECT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.


I rise today in this hon. House to pay tribute to Ms Jackie Deaves, née Simon, of Cape St. George on the beautiful Port au Port Peninsula.

Mr. Speaker, Jackie joined the RCMP in 1982 and has been posted in the communities of Gaspé, Montréal, Ottawa, Vanier, Port aux Basques and Stephenville.

She has worked in the Drug, VIP, Spousal Assault, Fraud and Child Protection Sections of the RCMP. Mr. Speaker, she was often a bodyguard or driver for former Governor General Jeanne Sauvé, former Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney. She was involved in the security section of the visits to our country by Pope John Paul the Second, Prince Philip and Princess Sarah Ferguson.

In 2006, she did a six month tour of duty in Jordan, a Multinational operation, as a Police Instructor, training Iraqi Police Cadets.

Mr. Speaker, in February of this year, Jackie retired from the RCMP after twenty-six years of service. I ask all members of this hon. House to join with me in wishing Jackie and her family happy retirement and to thank her for years of service to our Province and Country.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to extend belated birthday greetings to two very special constituents, both former residents of Coley's Point, Mrs. Mary Dawe and Mr. Cecil Llewellyn Greenland.

Mrs. Mary Dawe of Clarke's Beach celebrated her birthday on July 19, 2007. Mr. Cecil Greenland of Spaniard's Bay celebrated his birthday on October 4, 2007.

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Dawe and Mr. Greenland celebrated their 101 birthdays. Both enjoy very good health and are able to carry out their daily routines on a regular basis, a blessing I am sure we would all like to achieve at the age of 101.

I ask all hon. members to join with me in extending belated birthday greetings to Mary and Cecil and I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, I look forward to being a part of their 102 birthday celebrations later this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BAKER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in this House today to recognize a young athlete from Labrador City, Kyle Power.

Kyle, a seventeen-year-old high school student, emerged as the number one cross-country skier for this Province in the junior boys division after a great showing at the eastern championships in Quebec earlier this month. This standing earned him the chance to represent our Province at the national championships being held in British Columbia at the Whistler Olympic site from March 14-23.

This season has also seen Kyle place first at the Labrador Open, the Atlantic Championships and the Provincial Championships.

In addition to being a top notch athlete, Kyle is a high achiever at the academic level, having consistently placed on the principal's honour roll during his high school years.

Mr. Speaker, I invite all hon. members to join me in congratulating Kyle Power for his outstanding accomplishments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Statements by Ministers.

Statements by Ministers

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to inform hon. colleagues and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador of a new opportunity for Grand Bank Seafoods that bodes extremely well for that facility and, indeed, the Grand Bank region of our Province.

A new licence for the secondary processing of masago, or capelin roe, has been approved by my department for the Grand Bank operation. The company has been involved in the processing of masago for over seven years outside of Newfoundland and Labrador and this operation is now moving to Grand Bank.

Product for processing will be shipped to Grand Bank from Iceland. At the outset, this new segment of the operation will provide jobs for approximately twenty individuals. These individuals will benefit from six months of work each year at competitive wages. Indeed, this new product line will provide increased stability for an already stable workforce.

Mr. Speaker, the company is hoping to expand the operation as the supply from Iceland increases, which would generate additional employment opportunities and benefits for the company, its workers and the community.

My department is pleased to provide funding of $40,000 to assist the company with the purchase of the equipment necessary to operate this new product line, as well as with the necessary refurbishing of the Grand Bank facility. This is another example of how the Newfoundland and Labrador fishing industry is benefiting from the Fisheries Technology and New Opportunities Program which was established under our Fishing Industry Renewal Initiative.

At present time, there is masago in storage at the Grand Bank plant and processing officially began on Monday past. The company has completed the necessary renovations and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved the facility's Quality Management Program for this species.

Indeed, this addition to the Grand Bank operation is certainly tremendous news for the company and for the community. At present, approximately 275 individuals are employed as a result of the Grand Bank operation, including those associated with processing, harvesting and administration. Furthermore, it speaks to the growth of secondary processing within the fishing industry in our Province.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members to join with me in wishing Grand Bank Seafoods well in this new endeavour.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I certainly want to thank the minister for an advanced copy of his statement today and pleased as well to welcome the mayor and the representatives of Grand Bank Seafoods who are here in the House of Assembly today.

It is always good news in this Province when you hear of new opportunities or new jobs being created in the fishing industry. God knows, we have had enough bad announcements in this industry of plants closing and workers being displaced and, certainly, the Burin Peninsula is one of those areas that have been hit hard over the last number of years when it comes to the fishery. So, any time you can create new jobs in this industry, whether it is ten jobs, twenty jobs or 200 jobs, whatever the case may be, it all has a positive impact. I am sure the impact of this commitment today by these processors will certainly be felt in the community of Grand Bank and be welcome news.

Mr. Speaker, I want to also take the opportunity to say to the minister that any time we have announcements of resource coming into the Province for production is good news as well. We have had lots of product in recent years, and I suppose throughout our history, that has been exported out of Newfoundland and Labrador without any processing and always with that goes a number of jobs and opportunities that is lost to our own people and our own communities. So, that is indeed a positive step. I certainly want to encourage the government to move forward with their strategy to establish a strong marketing arm in this Province. I think with the devolution of FPI we probably lost one of the greatest marketing arms we have had in the global community and with that absence, obviously, comes some difficult times for smaller processors. I think that a marketing arm would -

MR. SPEAKER: Order please!

I ask the hon. member to conclude her response.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think a marketing arm would certainly help strengthen the viability of a lot of those companies and allow them to move into different unique production of -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for the advanced copy of his statement. I, too, recognize the good news in this statement and I am very happy for the people in Grand Bank, both those who work in the plant itself and for the community of Grand Bank in general. I am very happy to see that there is a source from outside that can be brought in. I also, though, would encourage the minister that this is good, short-term news. In the long term I would like to see us investing as well in a recovery strategy.

The government has talked about more money from this Province, provincially, going into research. I would like to see more money going into research as part of a recovery strategy of our own marine ecosystem so that in a few years time it will be our own capelin roe that will be going to the plant, not from outside. It is good in the short term to supplement our own resource but research into how we can, in the long term, be using our own resource in our plants I think is called for.

Thank you.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

Mr. Speaker, as hon. members are aware, the Public Service Commission last year successfully hosted its first Career Expos to promote the provincial government as an employer of choice, and of course to attract new employees.

I am pleased to announce today that the Public Service Commission will hold Career Expos again this year: at Corner Brook on April 1; St. John's on April 3; Grand Falls-Windsor on April 9, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay on April 30.

Mr. Speaker, these Career Expos highlight the provincial public service as a preferred employer and this valuable initiative supports government's strategic human resources planning process. The Career Expos give us an opportunity to attract talented professionals to strengthen our already dynamic and skilled public service.

Thus far this fiscal year, Mr. Speaker, government has conducted in excess of 1,400 government competitions to fill various public service employment opportunities throughout the Province. We will continue to be proactive in promoting available positions.

These Career Expos will provide those who are interested in a career with the provincial public service with information on the Public Service Commission's hiring process, as well as on current and anticipated employment opportunities, departmental and occupational profiles, position qualifications, salary ranges and employee benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly would encourage our citizens to consider a career with the Newfoundland and Labrador Government and I would encourage all those who are interested in a career with the provincial public service to visit one of the Career Expos and discover the opportunities that are available, right here, at home.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the minister's advance copy of this statement. This certainly is a good initiative. The public sector jobs in this Province are some of the best jobs in this Province, and whatever we can do as a government to let people know what the opportunities are and what the skill sets that are required, the better. God knows, we have had enough people leaving this Province for employment opportunities. So, anything we can do to let the opportunities that exist here be known to these potential employees, we are certainly all in favour of it.

I guess of course, the minister, no doubt, is well aware that, besides just having the opportunities, we have to know what kind of wages and benefits go with these opportunities, because that is a big piece as well to making sure that we keep these individuals here within our Province.

Hopefully the government, of course, this time around in their bargaining process, will learn that lesson. Unfortunately, from what we see happening with the nurses' union already, that may not come to be.

In any case, we are pleased with the initiative and we hope that the Minister of Finance and the government will see it in their package, when it comes to the benefits and wages, to make sure there are enough incentives and enticements to not only have the opportunities but to make sure the people do, in fact, stay here.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for the advance copy of the statement.

I, too, am glad to see that we had over 1,400 job competitions. I remember when the Career Expos began, so I am delighted to see this. We do have, as we know, down the road, some mass retirements coming up, so these are essential things that are going on; these hirings are really important.

I would also encourage the minister - and I was not aware that the Minister of Finance was responsible for the Public Service Commission. I guess he is, so I speak to him in saying - encourage him to see what kind of a mentoring program is going on. I am hoping that many of these people coming in are young people. That would be something I would like to know: What is the age of those who are being hired? I would also like to know how many women are being hired, and is there a mentoring system going on so we do not lose our knowledge base in the public sector?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further statements by ministers.

The hon. the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS POTTLE: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform hon. members of the third Annual Aboriginal Women's Conference that took place last week in St. John's.

The Path to Economic Prosperity was the theme of this year's conference, which focused on economic opportunities. Forty Aboriginal women from across the Province gathered to hear from Aboriginal, government and business leaders, community groups and others on the growing opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. As well, information sessions were held on post-secondary education possibilities and current developments in several government sectors, including natural resources and tourism.

The first Province-wide Aboriginal Women's Conference, The Path to the Good Life, was held in March 2006 in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. It focused on education, youth, employment, violence and health care. The second conference, The Path to the Good Life: Moving Forward, Building Strength, was held in Stephenville in November 2006 and discussed issues relating to the justice system and poverty reduction.


Mr. Speaker, this government firmly believes in a Newfoundland and Labrador where everyone is treated as equal and all persons have the opportunity to advance the way of life for themselves and their communities. In that spirit of equality, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is committed to hearing directly from Aboriginal peoples on the issues and challenges that are important to them.

The provincial government recognizes the importance of the Aboriginal Women's Conference. It provides a venue for Aboriginal women to voice concerns, listen to ideas, and discuss options for a more prosperous future.

Mr. Speaker, the Williams' government has worked to advance a number of recommendations made at past conferences. For example, in Budget 2007, funding for violence prevention grants to Aboriginal communities was doubled to $200,000 annually and funding for the Aboriginal conference was increased from $30,000 to $60,000 annually.

The Aboriginal women of Newfoundland and Labrador are strong and proud. While their contributions may not always have been recognized, I am pleased to say that this is changing because of events such as the Aboriginal Women's Conference. Aboriginal women have long contributed and will continue to contribute to the success of all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for an advance copy of her statement today.

The movement of Aboriginal women, and drawing attention to their issues, is a very important part of any government's mandate. In our Province, it is probably even more significant when you look at the number of issues that face Aboriginal women in our communities.

I was actually part of the first conference that was held in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and was somewhat disappointed that - I don't think any of the women here attended the full session of the conference this weekend, but I certainly didn't get invited and I certainly would have loved the opportunity to hear from those women first-hand as to what their issues were.

Notwithstanding that, Mr. Speaker, the conference focused on a pathway to economic prosperity. While I know many Aboriginal women in this Province who have prospered both in business, in municipal leadership, in professional jobs, in non-traditional trades and so on, we all know that real self-reliance for these women will come with a strong social fabric in their community.

When many of these women no longer have to face the fact that they have the highest suicide rates in the country existing in their communities, when they no longer have to deal with extreme alcoholism and abuse, when they no longer, Mr. Speaker, have to look for the services to make themselves and their families healthy in order to welcome their children back into their home and into their communities, only then will full economic prosperity avail to these women and their families, and I ask the minister to keep that in mind as she moves forward in her portfolio.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for her advance copy.

I was pleased to be invited to the dinner, and was very happy to be there to meet women whom I have known for a long time and to make the acquaintance of new women. I did not consult with my colleague from the Official Opposition but I share a lot of what she said: that the women in Aboriginal communities work very strongly in community, and their efforts are community based, so I would be interested in seeing the government - and I encourage the minister, with her colleagues at the Cabinet table, to push for this - to put more money into this annual conference so that there can be a broader group of women.

I am aware of Aboriginal women who would have liked to have been at it but were not invited; they were not in a context where they got to be able to attend, so I think broadening the base of the women who are attending these conferences would be really good for the communal growth of the communities that they come out of.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KENNEDY: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the first graduating class of Aboriginal Legal Interpreters. This eight week course was recently completed in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and is a major step forward to further the understanding and engagement of Innu and Inuit people in the justice system.

This inaugural graduating class is proof positive of our commitment to enhance Aboriginal understanding of the justice system. The graduates, who are from Innu and Inuit communities, have just completed their work terms and are now available for employment in the justice system as legal interpreters.

Mr. Speaker, the seventeen students were given instruction on interpreting skills and key terms in Innu-aimun and Inuktitut used in legal matters so they can interpret these terms for Aboriginals during court proceedings. In conjunction with this course, handbooks containing a translated glossary of 500 key criminal justice terms have been published in both Innu-aimun and Labrador Inuktitut.

The last two weeks of the course involved a combination of on-the-job experiences within various sectors of justice, and on-going group learning activities. Students have been assigned to placements within Provincial Court, Corrections and Community Services, Crown Attorney's Office and the RCMP. These placements were in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu and circuit court in Natuashish.

Mr. Speaker, the interpreter's coarse was developed as part of a series of interpretative service improvements under our government's Northern Strategic Plan and has been a collaborative undertaking with the Department of Education, the Linguistics Department at Memorial University, the College of the North Atlantic, the Public Legal Information Association of Newfoundland and Labrador and interpreters from Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, these initiatives demonstrate our government's commitment to Labrador Aboriginal justice matters and I ask all members of this House to join me in congratulating the inaugural graduating class of the Aboriginal Legal Interpreters Course.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for an advanced copy of his statement. This certainly is a very positive initiative. It does not say how many graduates, by the way, but no matter what it is, even if it is one, it is certainly an improvement. Over time, of course, these types of initiatives are going to help the Aboriginal community. It started quite some time ago, I believe, before this minister came on watch, but it is good to see that it did happen and it does happen. The justice system is complicated enough as it is but when you do not understand the language, how can one ever decide what opinion is best for him or her and what your rights are? It is only when you have these types of interpretative services, of course, that you get rid of that complexity and that doubt.

I congratulate the department on this initiative. It certainly is needed. In fact, we would certainly hope, as an Opposition, that we would see a similar initiative when it comes to the health care system because many people in the Aboriginal community as well do not - they need to make informed decisions. There have been several instances where, in the health care system, Aboriginal peoples have not had the information and the proper understanding and the language in order to make these informed services.

So, we applaud this particular initiative in the justice system and we would hope to see it extended a bit further so that in the health care system they also have that type of interpretative services available to them.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the minister for his advanced copy. I, too, am delighted with this initiative and I was very happy when I heard that it was going to happen. I see there were seventeen students. I am hoping that all seventeen graduated. That would be great if that happened.

The government is doing a very good thing here because what it is doing is not just helping with interpretation, being sure that things that are going on in the court or in the health care system - if this were to be advanced, as has just been asked. It is not only important that we are helping things move more smoothly inside the systems, but we are also taking action to support the cultural heritage of Aboriginal peoples so that they can feel comfortable remaining in their own first languages and not feel forced to have to deal with the systems in English. I think that is probably the most important thing about this initiative.

Thank you very much.

MR. SPEAKER: Oral Questions.

Oral Questions

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today is the start of the judicial inquiry into what is the biggest tragedy to ever take place in our health care system, the faulty breast cancer testing that has affected so many women and their families in this Province. This inquiry, originally scheduled to start in January, was delayed because of a court application by Eastern Health to prevent the release of peer reviews, a case that they eventually lost in the courts.

I ask the Minister of Health today: Why he did not intervene as the lead government department to ask Eastern Health to withdraw their application to the courts which unnecessarily delayed this inquiry by almost two months?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.


I think what is important here today is that the inquiry has started today with its first witnesses. Justice Dymond made a ruling on an application before the court with respect to the information that has been referenced and some evaluations that were done of a laboratory at Eastern Health. I think today marks the beginning of a very revealing process, I say, Mr. Speaker. Today, as the member opposite has referenced, is a time when the inquiry will start to hear witnesses from individuals who have been impacted by, family members who have been impacted by, individuals who have been involved with ER/PR testing between 1997 and 2005 and the subsequent administration of that file since then. I look forward to Justice Cameron's report at the end of all of this because I think it will be a very revealing report and I think we will all learn something from that, I say, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, ten months ago in the House of Assembly we asked the Minister of Health why information regarding the number of people impacted by faulty testing was not released publicly and in a timely manner. On the eve of the judicial inquiry the minister finally released a statement acknowledging that 108 women who received inaccurate results are now deceased. This is a shocking and disturbing acknowledgement that should have been disclosed much earlier.

I ask the minister: Why did he wait until the start of this inquiry to make the startling information public?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I, too, would acknowledge, it is startling information. As I said last year, as information became available I would make it available to the public. I had a press conference in November where I announced the early findings of a special unit we had put together. We had brought in the Centre for Health and Information, a unit of individuals to put together, to reconstruct the data basis; to tell us exactly how many people we were dealing with. We realized last year, in May and June, that the information we had was inaccurate. So, in November I provided an update of information at that particular time. In February, I provided another update of the information. The concluding work of that group of people from the Centre for Health and Information, they were wrapping up their analysis and I provided an update at that time. At that time there were a couple of critical questions that we did not have the answers to, and I said then that when it became available I would release it. Last week we found out what that information was, and as true to my word, I released that when we knew it at that time.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Hundreds of women received inaccurate test results, many of whom are now deceased, as we know, and they will not get the answers to what went wrong with their tests. However, their families will be forced to relive memories and sit through testimony that will be very difficult and emotional in order to get the answers that they seek and to find closure in this travesty.

I ask the minister: What is his department or Eastern Health doing to provide support services and counselling to these families and victims as they go through this inquiry?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, the member opposite raised an interesting question and an important one, as she just identified individuals and their families will relive a period of their lives where many of them are trying to forget it and put it behind them. Many of those individuals who are providing evidence today and will be providing evidence in the future and witnessing the evidence being provided by others, will, in fact, be going through a very traumatic time in their lives. I would assume, Mr. Speaker, that those individuals currently being followed by a physician are being provided with the necessary support that they would need through this period. Those individuals who are currently being supported by the Cancer Treatment Centre would have a network of social workers and others available to provide counselling services to them, but I suspect, Mr. Speaker, and I suggest that if any individuals are finding themselves in this very precarious spot that they may find themselves in, a very challenging time, that working through each of their authorities - because many of them live in various parts of the Province, I say, Mr. Speaker, and as they find themselves having some difficulty coping with what they will be witnessing in the coming weeks, I suggest that they would deal directly through their family physician to work with the respective authorities to provide the necessary supports to help them work through this issue.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A very difficult issue for everyone involved, I say to the minister, and I will try to switch gears now to actually direct some questions to the Premier.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hebron consortium back in August 2007. At the time, the Premier said it would take several months to execute the final agreements. Then the date was pushed to March 2008. Just this past February, the Premier was quoted in the media that the final legal language would be completed by June.

My question, Mr. Speaker, is to the Premier, and that is: What is the status of those negotiations, and will they be completed by June?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am happy to report that the negotiations are going very well, but they are complex negotiations, Mr. Speaker. We are very hopeful that we will have them done in the near future, and hopefully they will be done by June. I can only report that they are going well and we look to a positive announcement in the very near future.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Government's insistence on a 4.9 per cent equity stake has committed this Province to a payment to the Hebron-Ben Nevis consortium of a minimum of $110 million. Since that time, construction costs have ballooned and oil prices have climbed to record levels.

I ask the minister: Is the $110 million still a firm number, or has that sum changed since the MOU was announced?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Mr. Speaker, the number of $110 million for our 4.9 per cent equity is firm, and a good price by any standard anywhere in the world today.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, we all realize that $110 million is still a lot of money, good price or not, especially for a Province with many demands being placed on it, both in its health care, education and infrastructure programs.

My question to the minister is: What account will this money be charged against? Will it be coming from the new energy corporation that has been set up? Will it be drawn down from the surplus budget that we know exists in the government today, or will it be borrowed on the capital market?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Mr. Speaker, the money will be drawn down from the new energy corp. that will handle all of the provincial government's interests in oil and gas here in the Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, then, my next question would be: Does the energy corp. have the monies available or will they be borrowing it using their legislative borrowing power that was passed when the corporation was established?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The funds will be transferred from the government to the energy corp. to purchase the equity in Hebron as well as in the White Rose extension.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As the minister knows, when you are in business you are legally liable when things go wrong. In oil projects, when things go wrong, they go wrong in very expensive ways oftentimes.

For example, if you want to look at the Exxon Valdez accident, it spilled, I think, some 250,000 barrels of oil and it cost Exxon something like $6 billion to clean it up, plus the punitive, compensation and court charges and everything else that went with it.

If the Province had a 4.9 per cent of that particular deal, the people of the Province would have been liable for almost $300 million in expenditure.

My question to the minister is: Who will be ensuring the risk and responsibility associated with our 4.9 per cent equity position in the case of a spill, an accident, or another environmental catastrophe?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We will have all of the rights and responsibilities of other partners in these projects, and we will have all of the protections that are available to us that are provided by services to the industry. This is a very positive move for Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: We, for the first time, will sit at the table and have a voice in decision making with regard to our resources in oil and gas in this Province. The federal government has been there since Hibernia and it has been a very lucrative position for them, of which they have realized a great return to the people of Canada from their investment. We will do the same for Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, there is no need for the minister to get her knickers in a knot. We are not saying that this may not be a good thing.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS JONES: We are simply -

SOME HON MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We simply asked some questions to seek some answers and so far, Mr. Speaker, we are still looking for some answers.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS JONES: In a letter received by the Opposition, Mr. Speaker, on September 17, the Premier stated that government estimated that - and this is a direct quote - as much topsides work as fabrication yard facilities and workforce can reasonably accommodate will be completed here in the Province.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that when it comes to deals like this, the devil is always in the details.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. member to pose her question.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am getting to the question, and the question is: Who will be making the assessment, Minister, and what is reasonably accommodated? Will that be done by the oil companies or will it be done by government?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Mr. Speaker, we are on the cusp of such development in this Province that we have never seen before in our history. We have a number of potential projects lined up here. Any one of them, any one of those projects, will fill up just about every bit of capacity we have in this Province.

What a wonderful challenge we have to see how much work we can get in this Province, because it will be more than we ever dreamed of.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: We have been very careful in our negotiations, Mr. Speaker, and we are going to ensure that every piece of work that can be done here will be done here, and the government, as well as our energy corp., will be monitoring that very carefully.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A critical part of the economic benefits related to oil projects is the technology transfers, the minister knows. We want to ensure that the people of the Province not only do some of the detailed engineering work, but we want to ensure that they are the designers and the engineers of these projects, and that has certainly been expressed by local suppliers in the industry and the engineering community. In fact, Mr. Speaker, they took a position that all front-end engineering and design for oil projects should be done right here in this Province.

So, Mr. Speaker, I ask the minister today: Will you provide the details to the House on what front-end engineering work design will be completed in the Province and what will be outsourced to offshore engineering companies?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

All of that information is not available to us at the moment. As it becomes available, I will be happy to make it known.

We absolutely want every piece of work done here. We want technology transfers. As part of our negotiations, where work cannot possibility be done in the Province, we have made available a fund where businesses can travel to where the work is being done and can be mentored and taught in those places, how to do the work and where they can carve off pieces of the work for their own companies here in the Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Minister, I have obtained a copy of a letter dated February 29, this year, which you sent to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans federally, the hon. Loyola Hearn, regarding the approval of a transfer of 1,650 ton quota of OB turbot from Seafreeze Foods, which is Bill Barry, to Clearwater Seafoods, which is Mr. Risley.

Mr. Speaker, this quota in question was initially allocated to Mr. Barry with the rationalization that the resource would bring benefits to the people of Burgeo as part of an underutilized species allocation. The commitment was that at least 40 per cent of that allocation had to be landed and processed in Burgeo. That did not happen. Once again, the people of Burgeo were left in the cold, slapped in the face. The town suffers while Mr. Barry makes off with millions from the sale of the quota.

I ask the minister: What did you mean in your letter to Mr. Hearn when you said, and I quote: This transfer was done without adequately consulting the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador or the provincial fishing industry. What do you mean by adequately? Was there any consultation, and, if so, when and with whom?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank my hon. friend for his question. To be to the point, what did we mean by adequately in the letter that I wrote to Minister Hearn expressing our displeasure at this transaction was very simple. There had been none, N O N E; no consultation, none with the Province, with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the industry in Newfoundland and Labrador, as far as I know. We found out about the event and the transaction after the fact, and were made aware of it, I guess, by some due diligence and rumour that goes on in this industry, as everybody in this House is aware of.

So, there was absolutely no consultation, prior to the event happening, with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador; no discussions with us. Our advice was not sought. There was no transparency whatsoever.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. PARSONS: Thank you.

I appreciate the minister's very clear, unequivocal answer to that question because the letter left some room that there may have been some form of consultation but not proper.

I noticed, minister, that your letter of February 29 was not cc'd to the Town of Burgeo, even though I believe the Town of Burgeo was mentioned about six, seven times in that particular letter. The residents of Burgeo have suffered deeply over the past seventeen years, since 1991, mainly due to this injustice and the transfer of quotas to the benefit of someone else. First, it was the redfish quota, which was part of that deal which was taken by Mr. Barry from Burgeo to Canso, Nova Scotia, and now we have the turbot quota off to Nova Scotia.

I ask the minister: What can be done to reverse this process so that the people of Burgeo, who have been making their case for years for their survival and their historical attachment to the fishery, what can be done to get them their just rewards?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there was no malice, I suppose - if that is a good word - in not cc'ing the Town of Burgeo or the Mayor of Burgeo. The letter was written in a more general way, objecting and taking offence, really, and displeasure to the fact that the Government of Canada and the minister would transfer quota that had been assigned to a company in this Province for processing in Newfoundland and Labrador, 40 per cent of it happened to be assigned to Burgeo. All of that fish, with the exception of 250 tons - which I believe was sold to the Labrador Union Shrimp Company. All of that fish has now gone from Newfoundland and Labrador, Burgeo included, to no benefit to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, except to the financial coffers of a company in the Province. There is no benefit to the people of this Province and that is what we took objection to, that happening without our consent - not without our consent but without at least our involvement.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. member to conclude his answer.

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Without our involvement, at least without having the courtesy of making us aware of it, and having us find out about it through the back door rather than the front door.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. PARSONS: Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the relationship between the federal government and the provincial government has reached an all-time low.

I ask the minister: Is Burgeo, a hard-working, rural Newfoundland and Labrador town, suffering due to the consequences of this intergovernmental feud? Can other communities in rural Newfoundland and Labrador also expect to be causalities in this dispute between your government and the feds?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to answer that question, but let me attempt an answer by saying this. The people who were adjacent to that resource - we had historic presence and usage in it then there had been an assignment to Newfoundland and Labrador. The people who were adjacent to that resource, the inhabitants of Nunavut, were not consulted. They had no knowledge that this was happening.

They, Mr. Speaker, the people of Nunavut - I do not know if the Government of Nunavut has the same battles with the Government of Canada that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has, but you would think they do, the way they were dealt with in this particular instance.

I would have to say, Mr. Speaker, no, I do not think that is the case, but the Government of Canada that we have today makes no privilege of anybody in Canada. They do not care where you are, what you do, whether you fight with them, whether you do not fight with them, they are going to deal with you in the way that they want to deal with you anyway.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Mr. Speaker, in May of last year the government received a client services officer's report in relation to the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission.

I ask the minister: In light of this government's commitment on the timely release of reports and transparency in government, can he tell the House when this report will be released to the public?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Government Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. O'BRIEN: Yes, Mr. Speaker, as a matter of fact, I did a media interview on Friday. I made a commitment to release such reports as expeditiously as we possibly can, taking into account that we have to treat each request separately. It depends on the scope of the actual request. It depends on the number of requests that is made to our department.

We are in the process of having a look at enhancing our data system, but right now we are dealing with paper and that takes time and resources. So, yes, we will certainly release them in an expeditious manner.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I say so much for the thirty day turnaround. This is going on close to a year now since this report was released and the public has yet to know what is in it.

Mr. Speaker, another issue being raised by injured workers is the need for a client fairness officer. Such a position already exists in other provinces, and while in Opposition, the current Premier called for the appointment of a public defender for injured workers.

I ask the minister: What is government's view on the need for such a position, and will government be moving forward with anything like this to protect injured workers in this Province?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as this House is aware there are a number of recommendations before the government through the Statutory Review process which is the formal process we have in place to look at issues regarding injured workers and the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission. That report will be spoken on in the near future by this government, and at that time members opposite will see the recommendations that come forward.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Mr. Speaker, it has come to our attention that injured workers are experiencing delays in the review process at Workers Health, Safety and Compensation Commission because there has only been one of the three review commissioners in place recently.

I ask the minister: Can he tell us how many cases have been delayed and when are you going to address this problem by putting more commissioners in place?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister Responsible for Persons with Disabilities.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have a number of commissioners who sit on the review commission, we have a number who have recently expired and we have a number of recommendations that we will be making, bringing forward, to put people on this. In some cases we have to make sure that we contact the individuals for some information that we need from them, but in the very near future the number of positions that have expired will be filled and we will have a full complement of review commissioners.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, my question relates to the hormone receptor testing. On Tuesday, the Minister of Health and Community Services released the information that 108 of the 322 deceased announced on February 22 had changed ER/PR test results. That is 33 per cent of patients with changed results.

In the minister's release on Tuesday past he was downplaying the fact that these patients may have died of cancer. He also said that some of the patients may actually have received the correct treatment in spite of having false negative test results. He has not presented proof to backup either of these statements. Surely there are records indicating why people died and what treatment the patients received.

I ask the minister why he didn't dig further and investigate this issue fully instead of giving us half answers.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have never, in this House or outside this House, downplayed the significance of the issues in and around ER/PR, nor would I ever dismiss the significance of having to report that 322 people are dead.

What I did this week was I provided an update on those individuals who had their tests changed. Now, to take from that - and this is the point I was making: we cannot conclude that because 108 people had their test changed, or because 275 people had their test changed, that caused their death.

The issue that I reported on was a statistic. I didn't deal with the cause of death of 108 people, nor the cause of death of 320. Nor did I say the 275 who had their tests changed, that their course of treatment would have changed had something else happened.

I was providing an update on a set of statistics, I say, Mr. Speaker. The cause of death - and if the member opposite wants to jump to a conclusion, that is somewhat irresponsible. What I was trying to do -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. minister to conclude his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What I was trying to do, Mr. Speaker, in my commentary, was to be responsible, to responsibly report the information that we had available to us; not to jump to conclusions, not to make assumptions.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The minister is getting at the heart of what it is I am looking for. It is not sufficient for databases to only have pure statistics. They also can include the reasons and causes for, and this is what I am asking: why the database is not including it.

So, I am asking the minister: If such information - because this information is important to the families in the present and in future - if such information is not yet part of the database, will steps be taken to ensure that such important information is included?

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

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What I have said before, and I will repeat it again in this House today, the individual families of those 322 people should make contact with Eastern Health to find out exactly what happened with their respective family member. That information would be available to the individuals and their family – the family members of those individuals - if they make contact with Eastern Health. Officials of Eastern Health will be available to have that kind of conversation on an individual basis, I say, Mr. Speaker. So, the individual family members of those deceased individuals need to make contact with Eastern Health, through their family physicians or through the contact number provided by Eastern Health, to discuss what happened with their family member, I say, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: A quick supplementary, Mr. Speaker.

The public deserves to know how many people died, may have died, because of cancer, and how many did or did not get tamoxifin. We are not asking for the personal information, but the public deserves to know those numbers.

Is the minister willing to give those numbers to the public?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi needs to take a lesson from the page of the Leader of the Opposition when she acknowledged that this is an extremely sensitive issue. Trying to play politics with it in the House of Assembly or in any other forum is totally inappropriate.

We have a commission of inquiry that started hearings today. That commission of inquiry has a mandate to look at what happened with ER-PR testing between the period of 1997 and 2005. They have a mandate to look at what went wrong, what happened. They have a mandate to consider what took place with respect to how people got advised of what happened, the communication process between patients, their families and the health authorities, who knew what when, and what should have happened, so that we will learn some things from this, Mr. Speaker, so that in the future what we witnessed between 1997 and 2005 should never, ever happen again in this Province.

The 1,013 women who were impacted by this particular event should never, ever - the lesson we should learn: we should never, ever have any other women who have to go through what they went through, as a result of the recent work that we are now doing. This commission should lead us to some conclusions. This commission should give us some sound advice.

MR. SPEAKER: Order please!

I ask the minister to conclude his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This commission, we are looking to it to provide us with some sound advice and some direction for the future so we do not have to have this discussion ever again in this House.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The time allotted for Oral Questions has expired.

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

Answers to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

Petitions

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

MR. BUTLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to rise again today with a petition similar to what I had last week, but different signatures. That is the petition on doctor shortages, not only in our Province but I speak specifically to the district that I represent, and the Conception Bay North area.

Mr. Speaker, quite a few of our local clinics out there have a shortage of doctors. We know that is being experienced right throughout this Province, but I just want to make a note of it because it was mentioned in the Throne Speech that the retention of doctors and other professionals would be possibly looked at this year, in this year's Budget, and we are looking forward to that, Mr. Speaker.

For clarification I want to bring to the public's attention, and to government's attention, some of the issues that people encounter and the system encounters by there being a shortage of doctors.

We know what burden it places upon the emergency units in the various hospitals, and I speak for the Carbonear General Hospital. When someone has an incident happen, they cannot get a general practitioner; or, if they do not have one, they head immediately to the emergency unit, and that is understandable. They have to go there, it is an emergency to those people, but the people then are stretched to the limit in those units at emergency in Carbonear Hospital, and are unable to look after - like I said, they are stretched to the limits and unable to carry out their duties probably like they should, Mr. Speaker.

Some people do not even have a doctor. People have called and they have seen a specialist in St. John's and they do not have a general practitioner to send their reports to, so someone can advise them what is going on and so on.

Only recently we hear more about it in the media. I believe it was Dr. Ritter - I could be wrong - from the Newfoundland Medical Association, who this week spoke out on the same issue. He made it very clear that not all the time is it the issue of finances or wages. Many of those people are stretched to the limits in the rural areas as well as the urban areas and they just move on. They cannot carry the caseloads that they have, and it is becoming a major problem, Mr. Speaker.

Only last week we brought up about the audiologists at the Janeway Hospital. There are many cases, Mr. Speaker, and I have one in my area, there are audiologist there carrying out the work that they are compelled to do in the hospitals but the referrals that are put forward by the guidance counsellors from the various schools on problems that some young people are encountering cannot be done. It is the central auditory processing test that we are referring to. We were told that there are three positions vacant at the Janeway now and those tests cannot be done, Mr. Speaker.

So, on behalf of the constituents, I just want to say to the minister and to government that hopefully when the Budget comes down there will be some good news on the retention of doctors and this issue will be resolved sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I present a petition today on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and they are petitioning the government to look at a long-term drug and alcohol addictions treatment facility for the residents of this Province.

Mr. Speaker, there are some short-stay programs that do exist in Newfoundland and Labrador, but they are inadequate in meeting the bigger needs of addicts that we have out there in our society.

Mr. Speaker, this petition is being spearheaded by Ron Fitzpatrick and the group at Turnings. This is a group, Mr. Speaker, that has tried to draw attention and awareness to the drug problems that exist in our communities, especially here in the capital city, and they have done so with very limited funding. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I understand that they receive no funding from the provincial government at this particular time but they do get some grants from the federal government to carry out the work and the programs that they do.

Mr. Speaker, anyone who thinks that drug addiction is not a problem in Newfoundland and Labrador are not facing up to the real problems that exist. We have seen that not only are addictions on the rise but as a result of these addictions we have seen more violence in our communities, we have seen more break and enters, we have seen more vandalism. All of these things will continue if the problem and the source of the problem are not treated. Not only does it cause havoc in families and homes and in communities, but it also causes a tremendous amount of expenditure for the provincial government when these particular drug addicts are continued to be out there and not be treated in the community. Not only do we see convictions and the cost of these convictions, but we see the cost of the courts, the cost of holding them in penitentiaries, and as we know, those costs are escalating on an annual basis. I think incarceration now in this Province can cost you anywhere from $65,000 to well over $100,000 a year. I do not think that we need to be continuing to see the rise of the cost of treating addictions in our health care sector and in our court system and in our penitentiaries when we should be out there taking action to prevent the use of drugs and to educate people.

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that is becoming alarming to me is the amount of drugs that are appearing in our schools throughout the Province and the number of children who are engaging in drugs. It seems to be happening at a younger age. It seems to be more available. In fact, one of the RNC reports, and I think it was the chief of the RNC who made the statement, that getting drugs on the street in this city today is easier than getting a cup of coffee. When you have the chief of police out making those kinds of statements, I think it should give you some idea of how this problem has escalated in our society, how it deserves to have the attention of government and people who make laws and make decisions and facing the reality that if these people are not treated their addictions will continue. At the present time we do not have adequate addiction facilities to treat those long-term needs of people who are in the Province that require those kinds of in-depth interventions and long-term stays.

I support this petition. We have a number of names. We will be bringing forward a number of more petitions as we come back to the House after Easter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

Orders of the Day.

Orders of the Day

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Motion 1, that the Minister of Health and Community Services have leave to introduce a bill, An Act To Provide For The Protection Of Personal Health Information. (Bill 7)

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

It is moved and seconded that the hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services shall have leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Provide For The Protection Of Personal Health Information.

Shall the hon. minister have leave to introduce the said bill?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

Motion, the hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services to introduce a bill, "An Act To Provide For the Protection Of Personal Health Information", carried. (Bill 7)

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, is it now appropriate that we would have first reading of Bill 7?

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that Bill 7 be now read a first time.

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

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: A bill, An Act To Provide For The Protection Of Personal Health Information. (Bill 7)

MR. SPEAKER: This bill has now been read a first time, when shall the said bill be read a second time?

MR. RIDEOUT: Tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER: Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 7 read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, Order 1, Committee of Supply.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

It is moved and seconded that I do now leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into a Committee of Supply to consider the said bill.

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

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speaker left the Chair.

Committee of the Whole

CHAIR (T. Osborne): The hon. the Member for Grand Bank.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: Good afternoon, and thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is, indeed, a tremendous privilege to rise in the House this afternoon and have the opportunity to address hon. colleagues. Before I begin, I would like to recognize, as the Speaker did, the delegation from my home community of Grand Bank, Mayor Rex Matthews and Town Manager Wayne Bolt are here with us this evening. I certainly want to say welcome to them.

I also want to start out, first of all, by congratulating all of the newly elected members who I have joined here today to sit in the House. As well, certainly, I pass along my congratulations to those returning from the last session. As well, I would like to acknowledge the first-time speakers, like myself, thus far. Some tremendous words of wisdom have been conveyed and I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done. There is something a little intimidating about standing for the first time in the House here, I think, for all of us. So, hopefully I will do as well as my previous colleagues.

First, I would like to say how appreciative I am to my constituents for supporting and entrusting me with the opportunity to represent them here in the House of Assembly. There are certainly many exciting things happening in the Province in the last number of years and the last number of days even. I think my constituents, like many in the Province, recognize there has been much accomplished but certainly much more work needs to be done and we need to build on our successes.

Particularly to the constituents that I represent, I want to say thank you. For those of you who I have known for some time, you will remember that this is not my first time running to try and gain a seat in the House. I ran in 2003 and lost by forty-three votes. Unfortunately, at that time some of my colleagues - who have in excess of four years - got to come and join some exciting times in government and to make some tough decisions, but some very good decisions for the future of the Province.

While I missed out on that, Mr. Chairman, I did have a great opportunity myself to take part in the consolidation of school boards in the Province. I spent four years, one year with the Burin board and three years with the new Eastern School District, and had the opportunity in a different manner to influence significantly, I hope, government policy and direction through my role as CEO with the school district.

It was certainly a good time for me, and a good learning experience, and hopefully some of the skills and experiences I had in education will assist me in representing my constituents here; but, of course, in 2007 I was humbled, really, Mr. Chairman, that I won the seat with 83 per cent of the popular vote in the Grand Bank district. I am told by those in authority, who know, that the Grand Bank seat was actually the highest margin of victory in turnaround seats - that is seats that we did not hold prior to the last election - we had the highest margin of victory. Certainly I am pleased with that, but I also recognize with that comes great expectations for me, as their representative, and I will certainly do my best.

I want to acknowledge the many volunteers as well who worked so hard on my behalf. Many of them, of course, worked with me through two elections. I heard one hon. colleague - Ms Marshall, the Member for Topsail, I believe - who said there is nothing like getting elected the second time to appreciate it.

There is nothing like getting defeated and then elected to appreciate it.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: I look around the room here. There are many colleagues here - including the Speaker, who is not here right not, and my colleague from Twillingate - many of us here have faced defeat and then went on to victory, so it is indeed great.

I want to offer thanks as well to, of course, my family: my mom and dad and my sister, Denise - I have one sister - who have been tremendously supportive of me in my career over the years. They were heavily involved, of course, in the election campaign, everything from cutting pickets and putting up lawn signs to driving me around, to taking a lot of heat when the time came because it was their son who was being insulted.

I especially want to say thanks to my wife, Colleen, and my two children. I have two children, one in Grade 8 and one in Grade 4. All they have known in their life is public life with me; because, prior to getting elected, I served for nearly twelve years with the school boards, both the Eastern School District and the Burin Peninsula School Board. All they have ever known, really, is the life of somebody in the public eye, and that is not always for very favourable reasons, as you know, so I want to thank them.

I especially, though, want to say thanks to my wife, Colleen. She has been a tower of strength for me, and I know you will all appreciate this here: any of our successes is certainly limited only by the support we get from our spouses. My wife is a great teacher who has probably sacrificed a number of career opportunities for her own self to help me move forward in my career, so I want to say thanks to her today publicly.

As well, I want to say thanks to Premier Williams and all of you who are here today with caucus for everything that you have done to assist me in getting elected. As I said, it has been a long road; but many, including the Deputy Premier, assisted on a number of occasions to knock on doors, some of it in pouring rain conditions, and I am really grateful for that. It does take a team to get elected, there is no question about it.

Many of you I have known for a long, long time, back to even when we were in government last, pre-1989, and I was involved with the party at that point in time.

With respect to the Grand Bank district, certainly I am very proud to be associated with the district. We have a proud history, one certainly associated with hard-working people and one attached significantly to the fishing industry, as anybody who knows the geography of the Burin Peninsula will certainly recognize. It has certainly been the more dominant area of employment, although we did have a significant attachment to the mining industry for many years in St. Lawrence.

Of course, I am from Fortune and, given our proximity to France, I believe there are some who even engaged in the import-export business, although more importing at times.

AN HON. MEMBER: I believe you are right.

MR. KING: I believe I am right - and some are still at it.

Mr. Speaker, certainly in the bigger picture of things, as we talk about government and, I guess, where I hope we are going to go, and my contribution, I want to recognize the era that we have really moved into.

Members who sat in the House during the last session had a lot of tough decisions to make, and I think all of us who have been elected for the first time recognize that the first four years in government were not easy but we did create a climate, I think, of a focus on prosperity for the Province, one of sustainability and, as the Premier and all of us hope to strive for, one of self-reliance where we no longer depend on the federal government and all those who might have handouts to give us.

The Grand Bank district and my constituents, I think, recognize that as well, and I think it is echoed in the margin of victory that we achieved in the election, and I think the message for me was very clear, that they wanted to be a part of government. They support the vision that we are trying to move forward, and they support the direction that we are trying to move in.

I would like to talk for a moment, Mr. Speaker, about some challenges in my district and also some, what I will term as, opportunities and successes. Certainly the biggest challenge for us for the last twenty years or so has probably been employment. My hon. colleague, Minister Jackman, as well as MHA Peach from the Bellevue district, of course, we share the Burin Peninsula, and it is difficult to talk about the Grand Bank district without talking about the Peninsula and the region as a whole.

Certainly, the downturn in the fishery has had a significant impact on the way of life for people on the Burin Peninsula and people in the Grand Bank district. We have seen a number of plant closures, traditionally in the Grand Bank district. The community of Grand Bank has had a strong attachment to Fishery Products over the years. The community of Fortune had a fish plant. St. Lawrence had a strong operation for many years, in addition to the mine. Of course, the mine closed out many years ago and took with it some 300-plus jobs, a significant amount of money to the local economy, but all of that, of course, along with the Marystown Shipyard – and, for anyone who has followed politics whatsoever, you will recognize the ups and downs we have had with the many operators in the Marystown Shipyard and the many efforts by many governments to try and get it on the straight and narrow, to put work in there and to get the yard up and running and create employment opportunities; however, I don't want to spend a lot of time on the challenges because I believe there are some good things happening and I want to highlight some of those.

As I talk briefly, Mr. Chairman, about the direction the Province is taking, and the investments that have been made in infrastructure in particular, there have been strategic investments on the social sector, in education and health, and expanding programs. It is my view, and the view of my constituents, that all of the decisions that government has made to date have certainly positioned us well to take advantage of the future that lies ahead.

Let me share with you some of the good things happening in the District of Grand Bank. Some of this will overlap, Mr. Chairman, with the Peninsula as a whole and my colleague Minister Jackman's district; because, while the districts are distinct, there are residents, for example, from my district, who attend school in Minister Jackman's district, and there is a lot of crossover there.

I want to highlight first the NeWind windmill project that is happening in St. Lawrence. That was a tremendous project. It started last year with the support of this particular government. The Minister of Natural Resources was on the Peninsula for the launch of the project. There are a number of jobs there in the construction season which, pending weather changing from what it is today, will hopefully get up and running again soon and see the continued construction of the many windmills that will be there. There will also be, Mr. Chairman, a number of permanent jobs at the site when the construction is completed.

In the aftermath of the closure of the mine and the closure of the fish plant in St. Lawrence we have seen, with Ocean Choice in particular in there, steady and increased employment levels for the community of St. Lawrence, and that has made a significant impact not only to St. Lawrence but to the surrounding area of Little St. Lawrence up through Lewin's Cove and back the other way in my district around to Lawn and Lord's Cove.

The mine at St. Lawrence, as well, in spite of the closure, Mr. Chairman, there is still continued optimism. There has been work ongoing for the last many, many years and government has continued to support that in a number of ways. Of late, there have been some discussions that hopefully lead me to believe we may see something a little better happening there over the next period of time, a lot of hoops to jump through and a lot of T's to be crossed and I's to be dotted, but certainly for the first time in a dozen years, there is a reason to sort of open your eyes and have a look at the St. Lawrence mine and what might be happening.

Marystown Shipyard, of course, we are all struggling and hoping for work there. Minister Jackman and I, on a regular basis, the two of us in particular, are dealing with constituents, (inaudible) crossover, but we are hopeful.

There is the JSS Project, the provincial ferries and where that contract may go, the Hebron project and many other initiatives alluded to in Question Period by the Minister of Natural Resources. So, we are extremely hopeful. As goes the Marystown Shipyard, goes the Burin Peninsula; there is no question about that. I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that close to 50 per cent of the workers employed there come from my district, from Grand Bank around the St. Lawrence and back through to Garnish. So, it is a significant industry that we are very hopeful on and we have seen some good things happening.

The Fortune fish plant, which is probably the biggest challenge we have been facing in my district at the present time, is still a challenge; although we are hopeful. There has been some interest expressed from a number of different sources. We are still hopeful that in the long term perhaps Ocean Choice might see a role for the Fortune plant, who knows, maybe in 2009. We continue to advocate, regular discussions with the Minister of Fisheries and Deputy Premier. I have regular contact with the municipal council and Ocean Choice. Certainly, that is going to be a challenge that will probably take most of our attention on the economic side, and we will continue to work on that.

Two others I wanted to mention here, very quickly, on economic development. Dynamic Air Shelters is a small to medium-sized company operating in Grand Bank, predominately owned and managed by an individual out of Calgary. Just as of today, I believe, Mr. Chairman, we hired just about twenty new employees to add to the complement of thirty-five that are there currently. I did attend and participate in meetings within the last two weeks which could see that number increase significantly over the next three to four months with, of course, some assistance and support from government and some good luck on our side. Certainly, there have been some good things happening there.

I want to, as well - of course, I talked about the Grand Bank seafood operation and the challenges there. The flip side, of course, is that we have had Clearwater in there and it has been a very stable and good operation for Grand Bank for some time now. I want to acknowledge the minister's announcement today that the investment will create another twenty jobs for the community. Twenty jobs, Mr. Chairman, for the Town of Grand Bank is extremely significant for a community like that in rural Newfoundland. I cannot underscore enough the importance of that, when we can take another twenty people, put them to work in a community like Grand Bank in my district. Certainly, that is tremendous news today, minister, and thank you for that.

I want to touch on a couple of other sectors, Mr. Chairman. First of all, the tourism sector continues to be a big one for us on the Burin peninsula. I hope I will not anger some of my colleagues here, but certainly soccer in St. Lawrence continues to be a mainstay for us. We continue to build upon our successes there, in spite of my colleagues who represent districts where Mount Pearl and other soccer teams compete with us.

As a matter of record, and not opinion, Mr. Chairman, we are the Provincial Challenge Cup Champions of 2007. We are the national bronze medal champions for 2007 and we are the Provincial and Eastern Canadian Masters champs for 2007.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: I am sure there will be a side conversation with Minister Denine after this speech.

I do want to recognize that on a serious note because that is a significant attraction for soccer fans. Many people come to the Burin Peninsula regularly to take in the soccer games and, of course, once we bring people to the Peninsula then we have the opportunity to entice them to take in other events.

We also have the Miners Museum in St. Lawrence, and we have two other things that are fairly significant for St. Lawrence. One is the 3L Training & Employment Board, where we have individuals employed on a seasonal basis making jewellery and other figurines from fluorspar from the mine there. As well, of course, many of you - hopefully all of you - are familiar with the disaster of the Truxton and the Pollux. As a result of that, there is the Echoes of Valor Remembrance Memorial and the Annual Remembrance Ceremony for all of the lives that were lost during that tragic event. That draws a lot of people to the Peninsula and to St. Lawrence as well.

In Fortune we have a number of good things happening as well, particularly on the harbour side. In spite of my previous comments around the fish plant, we have a really strong harbour authority there. We have a project just finished up with floating docks installed for pleasure craft as well as marine traffic. In my view, Mr. Chairman, and it is shared by many, Fortune Harbour is second to none in the Province for what it offers to boat owners and sea goers.

As well, some of you may be aware of the Fortune Head Ecological Reserve and the fossil find. It is a significant attraction for the Burin Peninsula as a whole. We are working with a good committee there to build upon that find and to actually, Mr. Chairman, incorporate some of the activities occurring at the interpretation centre there as part of the local school curriculum to develop field trips, curriculum studies, units of studies and those kind of things.

As well, on the tourism side, of course, the Town of Grand Bank, we have a number of good things happening there. The Grand Bank Theatre Festival - my colleague, Minister Jackman, we met this morning on this particular issue - we have a strong theatre festival there that employs, Mr. Chairman, upwards of thirty people on a seasonal basis. Those individuals are not all from Grand Bank. They come from Marystown, they come from Burin and they come from other parts of the Province. It is really serving as a good training ground for those who go on to pursue further studies in the acting and artistic fields and it is a good economic generator for Grand Bank and the local area. We bring a lot of tourists in on an annual basis.

As well, the Grand Bank Summer Festival continues to be a strong annual event, but one I want to highlight for Grand Bank today is the Mariners Memorial Project. As many of you will recall, government contributed a lot of support to that in the past number of years. It was opened last year.

I just want to read this piece from text to you because this is very significant for us today. Two of the delegation who were here from the town have departed the galleries. As of 3 o'clock today, the Grand Bank Mariners Memorial Project, Mr. Chairman, was being awarded the Manning Award for excellence in the public presentation of historic places in recognition of the fine work being done across the Province by community-minded groups, and that is the Grand Bank Heritage Society, received today at 3 o'clock.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: The Greater Lamaline Area Development Association, Mr. Chairman, is the last group I want to mention on the tourism side for doing some great work to preserve the history of what we call the loop on the Burin Peninsula, when you leave Fortune and go around to St. Lawrence, and the great tidal wave of many years ago and those kinds of things.

I want to touch on health care as well because health care tends to get so much attention in the House, rightly so. I am going to take my few minutes to talk about it for a moment as well. Government has made significant investments, in my view, in health care over the past number of years since we have been in power. In spite of the many challenges we have faced, there are many good things happening. My district, no doubt, will have their share of challenges that I could talk about, but we also have our share of success stories.

The first one I am going to mention to you - hopefully, some of you saw the story in The Telegram last week. A constituent of mine, by the name of Gerald Alexander - who is a cancer patient from Frenchman's Cove - received clinical cancer care from the Burin Peninsula without travelling to St. John's. It was a story where we were availing of the technology and the video conferencing. I want to mention that one because - and this is the words of Mr. Alexander: not only does it save money but it saves travel time, it helps patients emotionally and it saves the wear and tear on their body from having to drive four hours down the peninsula, into the Health Sciences Complex. That is a tremendous investment for those of us who live in rural Newfoundland and it needs to be said. It needs to be celebrated publicly.

I want to also acknowledge the provincial Prescription Drug Program and the Minister of Health with the Assurance Plan, in particular, which is the newest piece of that. Many of my constituents have benefited from that program and many more, even today, are calling to avail of the service. The letters and calls I have had of thanks for that particular initiative are just too numerous to mention here, Mr. Chairman, but that is just a wonderful program.

 

As well, we have talked a lot about facilities and the state of facilities in the Province, and I want to do the same and talk about what we have in my district, Mr. Chair. We have invested significantly in the redevelopment of the Blue Crest Interfaith Home in Grand Bank. We hope to do a reopening of the home, if you will, sometime in the spring, perhaps early September. The Blue Crest Home is a sixty-bed facility that is being completely redone and it is going to be a fabulous facility. I have been there on a number of occasions to tour the facility and it is just going to make a significant difference not only to the residents but to the workers in the home as well. In addition to that in Grand Bank, we also have the new health care facility, the brand new facility to replace the old cottage hospital that will be ready for occupancy, I think and we are hopeful, sometime in late August or early September.

Finally, with long-term care we have reopened ten beds in St. Lawrence as a result of a number of these initiatives, and, of course, that is a significant investment for what we affectionately call the other side of my district, the Lewin's Cove-St. Lawrence area. In addition to that, Mr. Chair, we have two projects on the Burin Peninsula, two long-term care facilities, one in Minister Jackman's district and one in my district in Grand Bank as well, set to open some time again late summer.

I want to pay tribute to government for support on those projects.

Finally, the Regional Heath Centre - we have had a couple of significant investments there both with the CT scanner and the dialysis unit. I had the pleasure of joining Minister Jackman and Minister Wiseman in December to open that unit. That is a regional facility that is supported by all communities on the Burin Peninsula and one we want to work together with to improve upon.

As well, Mr. Chair, I want to touch on the roads budget for a few moments. It certainly has been a record budget this year, and, Minister Whalen, thank you for the $73 million, not for the Grand Bank District but for the Province, I might add. Our share is $2.5 million and that represents somewhere in excess of 150 per cent increase from previous years. There are four or five significant projects that are going to be done. The approach we have taken and I have taken with the minister is to look at four years. I said this morning I have four years because I am elected for four years. The minister says, you never know if you are going to wake up in the morning so be careful. The plan is going to be based on a four-year term of office that we have here. The intention is to look at all the projects in the district and to make sure we hit the priorities over the four-year mandate of this government as best we can.

I want to reiterate what a number of the releases have said and a number of my colleagues have said; anytime you invest $2.5 million into a district like Grand Bank, it has to affect the economy of the district, it has to assist with not only employment creation but the spin off that comes from that. Of course, we have commuters who travel from all parts of the Peninsula to Marystown every single day for work and we have school buses crisscrossing the Peninsula every single day, so it certainly is great to create safer driving conditions for those who use the roads so incredibly much.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: I am going to touch on a couple of general initiatives, Mr. Chair - I am conscious of the time - a couple of initiatives that I think are important to me personally, important to my constituents, but they are also initiatives that affect the entire Province.

In education, in particular, which is the field from which I come, I have to highlight of course the elimination of school fees and the introduction of free textbooks. That has had a significant impact on many families in my district, I can tell you. I recollect my days with the school board over the last seven or eight years - and I said this the other day to a local reporter when I was interviewed - school districts focused on four priorities over the last five or six years and that was the elimination of school fees, the provision of free textbooks, a review of resourcing of the system and an increase in capital and maintenance costs. This government has responded to all four of those priorities; all four.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: Specific to resourcing the system, Mr. Chair, three schools in my district, John Burke High School in Grand Bank, St. Lawrence Academy and Marystown Central High which the minister and I share, each combined about a quarter of million dollars in investment of new infrastructure and renovations to implement the Skilled Trades Program that the minister introduced several years ago.

I also want to touch briefly on the impact of the teacher allocation model that was introduced not long ago. That is going to have a significant impact on all schools in this Province. There are going to be quite a number of schools that will realize the benefits of the class size cap and there are going to be quite a number of other schools that are going to be able to level and strengthen the program offerings for students because of the allocation being based on needs of the school versus strictly numerical formulas. I certainly want to celebrate that.

As well, while we are with education, I want to highlight the many good things announced in previous budgets around post-secondary education and in particular student aid. I am going to highlight a couple because these continue to be highlighted to me. One is the freezing of tuition fees, Mr. Chair, by this government. It has been done for the past three years and we are now, as I understand it, about 41 per cent lower in tuition fees than the national average. The interest rate on student loans has been decreased by some 2.5 per cent, putting us at the lowest interest rate in the country. As well, the minister introduced a needs-based grant where previously students would receive $140 a week, on average, as a loan; now they continue to receive the $140, but the first $70 is non-repayable.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: Mr. Chairman, I am going to conclude with a couple of comments.

Certainly, I want to say that the message coming out of my district, I think, was loud and clear, at least from my perspective, loud and clear around constituent support for the vision of government, the leadership of Premier Williams, and the kind of team that we had in the last mandate and we have put together here today, and the vision we are trying to pursue and where we are trying to go in the Province. I do not think there is any question about that whatsoever.

One of the things that I hope is that we all strive to get elected to public office because we want to do what is best for the Province, and I am operating from that premise. I think all of us would recognize, though, that the vision you follow in trying to do what is best for the Province differs for many individuals. We often hear on a daily basis, in Question Period, there are different ways to get, through the same journey, to the same end.

At this point in time my vision, I think – I don't think; I know - I share with the Premier and I share with all of my colleagues here, the path we are following is the one I want to be on, and clearly the constituents in my district endorse that vision as the one that they want to be a part of as well as we move forward as a government.

I am very impressed with the new attitude that I see in the Province, and even in my district, in spite of the challenges that I have outlined. I sense more optimism than perhaps I have in a long time for my district. I am certainly committed to do my best for the constituents of Grand Bank. As I have said many times before, I am committed to work with Minister Jackman and MHA Peach because of the regional piece that we need to focus on. We have a lot of good things happening on the Burin Peninsula. It is only through strengthening communities in my district, and the services that we are able to provide constituents, and where required, like the Burin Health Care Centre, focusing on what is good for the entire region, it is only if we take that approach that we are going to be able to improve the lot in life for my constituents and my two colleagues who represent the Burin Peninsula as well.

Thank you very much for the opportunity, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

CHAIR: The hon. the Member for Port de Grave.

MR. BUTLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

First of all, I want to congratulate the hon. Member for the District of Grand Bank on his maiden speech here in the hon. House of Assembly.

I have to pick up on one thing he said, because the Burin Peninsula, you know, was my hometown in my earlier days, and I am sure the Member for Harbour Main will agree with me on this one.

We have a gentleman who is teaching in North River at the present time, and I am not sure if his hometown was Lawn or St. Lawrence, a Mr. Tarrant. We have a soccer system put in place and, I am going to tell you, the day is coming, not too long in the future, when the Member for Harbour Main and I will stand in this House and say that we won the championship for soccer for all Newfoundland and Labrador.

I also want to say to the member, it is always a joy and a pleasure to return to the Burin Peninsula, which I do usually two or three weeks every year, to celebrate the summer season and get back to that area.

Mr. Chairman, the few comments I want to make today, I guess, we are all speaking to Bill 2 but we usually stray away from it and go into different comments and what have you, but as I listen to hon. members on both sides of the House we hear the members on the government side talking about the good things that are happening, and that is a fact. I, too, stood here and praised the minister for some of the things that are going on in my district, but being elected - and I guess we all run to be on the government side, but from time to time some of us find ourselves in Opposition, and there are members on both sides of the House who have done that.

I want to say, Mr. Chair, when I listen to some of the members, we hear them talking about - but all too often we hear talk about what we inherited, what happened in the past Administration and so on. Just for a second I want to read a quote that was brought before this House by the Premier when he was Leader of the Opposition, when he was responding to the Throne Speech in 2003. He used a quote by the very famous and the late Winston Churchill when he said: I am not here to assign blame. If the present tries to sit in judgment of the past, it will lose the future. We must look to the future and not the past.

Mr. Chairman, as I stand here today, I am not standing here to lay blame on this Administration, on anything that went on over the past four or five years; however, in the role that I play in Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, I am here to bring forward issues and concerns of not only my constituents but people we receive phone calls from throughout this Province, Mr. Chairman.

This Administration - whether we agree with what I am going to say or not, it is going to said - when we look back to the past, former Administrations of all political stripes, former Administrations both provincially and federally, had a difficult challenge, I guess, to bring us to where we are today. We are very fortunate, and this government is very fortunate, to find ourselves in the financial position that we are, and we are all very proud of that. I can assure you things can be done now and in the recent two or three years that could never be done in probably the past ten or fifteen years. That doesn't mean to say that whoever was there, whatever political stripe – and we can name all the administrations that were here. Each and every individual whether male or female, whether they were in Opposition or on the government side, each and every one of them tried to do the best they could do for their constituents and for the people of this Province.

Mr. Chair, as we get closer to the Budget and knowing that there is a wonderful surplus, there is nothing wrong with bringing issues forward that we hope will be in the Budget, some issues that people are putting our way; and I am sure members on the other side of the House will bring issues from their constituents forward as well. As I said, we enjoy such a surplus it is a wonderful position to be in.

Mr. Speaker, just to touch on some of the issues that I want to bring forward: In recent weeks and even just prior to the last election, we in the Opposition and I am sure members on the government side had opportunity to meet with the seniors' groups throughout our Province. I know we met with – I think the name is the fifty-plus federation for seniors. I attended a public meeting in Mundy Pond in St. Theresa's just a few months ago where 700 or 800 people came forward and made their wishes known to the government and to others. I am sure they also met with the Minister of Finance when he went around this Province in consultation preparing for this year's Budget.

They had some really good issues to bring forward and hopefully government will be able to look at some of them so that the problems they have and they encounter financially, many of them – we have heard this before, that all they receive is their pension and they haven't received an increase. I think they told us that since somewhere in vicinity of 1989, there hasn't been an increase since then. They talk about different issues that probably government can have a look at.

Some of the ones they brought forward to us was a decrease in the licensing of their vehicles, which is now $180 and they were looking at a different rate, probably dropping it down to $140. They also brought forward the issue of relieving the taxes on the insurance. All this would be money going into their pockets so they can carry out some of the items that they can't do today. They even spoke about reducing the taxes on home care, which is a burden on many of them as they get up in years.

Many of them are having difficulty by not being able to afford oxygen. I know I have two or three residents in my district who are confined to their home because they can't afford to buy those small canisters of oxygen that they need when they travel outside their homes, and if they do go out they probably don't have time to get their groceries picked up before they have to rush back to their homes.

I will also speak about the home heating rebate, no one complaining about the issue of the home heating rebate, but it is the timeframe. I have had calls and been in homes in my district. I have had calls from residents in constituencies which are neighboring mine where when they turn out the lights at night, they also turn off the heat. If some of those taxes could be relieved that would mean for them a difference of wondering what they are going to do in the evenings with the thermostat or whether they should fill up the oil tank or probably buy extra groceries.

Mr. Speaker, they also have a great concern with the health care and they know that many of them don't have a general practitioner. The doctors move into the local areas and for whatever reasons they move on and they are left without a general practitioner. I guess it is more of a concern to our seniors when they find themselves having to go to one of our major hospitals, the report by the specialist is to be sent out and they are really concerned because they don't have a general practitioner who the report can be sent to.

I just want to touch on a couple of issues with regard to the education system. We are hearing wonderful things with regard to the educational system. Only recently the Minister announced, through the ISSP Pathways, recommendations that came back and quite a few of them are being implemented. The teacher allocations that were announced last week, it is my understanding the NLTA and many other groups and the professionals think it's a wonderful thing. A lot of them are still reading the report. It is a good challenge to know that the teachers who are in the system will remain in the system, and we know that there are other professionals within the educational system who may benefit, when we find there could be more guidance counselors and what have you for the system.

Only today, I think, the Minister mentioned major changes to the math curriculum, and many of my constituents and other people throughout the Province had major concerns with it. The teachers in the schools even had problems with it. I know I haven't seen the full report but, from what I understand, there are going to be changes that will make it better for all of our children, from K to Grade 12. If I am not mistaken, that will go ahead and be of more benefit to the individuals.

I know from time to time I bring up the concerns of air quality in our schools, and we will do that from time to time. I want to say that I know when the issues were put forward the department worked on those. I can reference one in Upper Island Cove, St. Peter's School, where they had a problem out there. That school was supposed to be closed but the powers that be listened to the residents and that school is remaining open, hopefully for the long-term, and major renovations have been done with that school.

The only thing I want to bring forward, I guess, that I would like to see is a new school, a new primary school for Coley's Point. Hopefully, there will be something in the Budget this year, whether it is funds or to see if there needs to be a new school. The former speaker, the Member for Grand Bank, when he was head of the school board he attended meetings out there. He is well aware about this school, well aware of the recommendations that came in that there should be a new school for Coley's Point. Many of the students, not many, all of the Grade 4 students had to be moved from Coley's Point Primary to Amalgamated Academy. Hopefully, an announcement will be made in this Budget. I know it has been recommended it go ahead, that the extra money would be made available for the extra classrooms at Amalgamated Academy.

CHAIR: Order please!

I remind the hon. member that his time for speaking has expired.

MR. BUTLER: Just one other thing I would like to bring up.

CHAIR: Does the member have leave?

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave!

CHAIR: By leave.

MR. BUTLER: Just to conclude, Mr. Chair, and I thank you for the leave.

With the Budget fast approaching, I guess we are all looking for money now through Municipal Affairs, water and sewer and roads work through the municipalities. I just want to say to, I guess, the minister and through him to government, the recommendation that was put forth this year by the Newfoundland and Labrador Municipalities at their convention here in St. John's, when they asked that government bring back the MOGs to the level that they were back in the 1990s - I know the hon. minister is listening and he is well aware what I am referring to.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. BUTLER: I just want to make a quote that I saw in The Compass recently that was put in by the Mayor from Carbonear. They used to receive $690,000 through their MOGs and at the present time it is down to $153,000. The Town of Carbonear used to receive $690,000, I say to the minister, now it is down to $153,000.

MR. DENINE: How much did they receive when the Liberals were in?

MR. BUTLER: Never mind now who was in there. I say to the hon. minister, he should listen to the quote that I started with. He should listen to the quote that his Premier stated. Regardless of who cut them this government is in a position now with millions and millions of dollars that they do not know what to do with, Mr. Chair, and hopefully some of it is going to go there because this will relieve the burden on the small municipalities. It will correct some of the problems they have with their water quality and what have you, Mr. Chair.

Having said that, I call upon the minister, and I know he is going to have it in this Budget, that there will be additional money for the MOG programs. I can assure you the residents of this Province in each and every small town and large community will be very appreciative of that.

Thank you for the opportunity and hopefully we will get back to speak again, Mr. Chair.

CHAIR: The hon. the Member for St. John's East.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Chair, it is truly an honour and a privilege to rise in the House today to lend my support to the Interim Supply bill which is before us. Before I do that I have come to realize I have been a little lax in my ceremonial duties as the Member for St. John's East. It is my duty as MHA to welcome each and every one of you to my district when you come to this House every day. So, on behalf of the constituents welcome to St. John's East.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: St. John's East is the home of the House of Assembly, it is also a centre of education for the Province being blessed with the College of the North Atlantic, the Marine Institute, E´cole de Grande Vent and much of Memorial University. It has the flagship Arts and Culture Centre for the Province and over 95 per cent of the beautiful Rennies River, certainly a crown jewel of St. John's, runs through my district.

My intention here today as much as anything is to introduce myself to the House. Mr. Chair, my personal, political experience began at the age of seven when my father ran for the Progressive Conservatives in the District of Bell Island against that juggernaut known as Joey Smallwood and his local representative, Mr. Steve Neary. In conversations many years later my father acknowledged he was to be a sacrificial lamb for the party but he reasoned that if you truly believe any party represented your beliefs and values on how a province was to be run it was your duty to contribute to that party in any way possible.

Mr. Chair, it has been my good fortune through my involvement in politics to have been associated with many wonderful citizens who have given of their time and talent to contribute to the welfare of the historic District of St. John's East. I cut my own teeth in provincial politics working for Mr. Bill Marshall who later became a Justice of the Supreme Court. I remember well climbing up Hepditch Hill in the Outer Battery during my first election, asking residents to put up window signs as a show of support. Widow signs, a practice long gone from the politics of St. John's, but one I will truly miss. Only those in appreciation for the typography of Signal Hill can truly appreciate what a test of political resolve this was.

Following Mr. Marshall's ascent to the bench, Ms Shannie Duff carried the banner for the party in a by-election and a general election. Her contribution to St. John's, particularly in the area of municipal politics, is indeed significant.

In 1996, I was part of the core team that helped deliver my predecessor, Mr. John Ottenheimer, to this House. This was no small undertaking, as we defeated a prominent Cabinet minister who held the area for two previous elections in a government, a Liberal government, that was destined to be returned. Yet, Mr. Ottenheimer was put in the House.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Chair, Mr. Ottenheimer's two subsequent re-elections stand as a testament to his effectiveness in representing his constituents. However, I must be truthful. I did my best to convince Mr. Ottenheimer to stay on for another term. I spent hours trying to convince him. I was putting forward my best arguments but all to no avail. Finally, I was left with no choice but to play my final ace. I threatened Mr. Ottenheimer that if he did not run, then I would. He considered this momentarily, but to no avail. His resolve in his time being done was, unfortunately, too strong. He departed political life with the same grace and integrity in which he lived it.

This past October I asked the residents of St. John's East to extend the privilege of allowing me to represent them in this House. It amazes me how intertwined the full of my life is with this district. I was born, raised and schooled in the district, as it was prior to the recent redistribution. I played, and continue to play, all my sports in St. John's East. My entire teaching career has been in St. John's East. I shop here. My children go to school here. My wife grew up here. Even today I cannot escape, nor would I want to, St. John's East; that is now where I am currently working. All of this leads me to two inescapable conclusions. One, I am truly a representative of the people of St. John's East, and secondly, I need to get out more.

The Progressive Conservative Party has, for all my years of involvement, represented the political beliefs that I hold. When it veered too far I made my views known and worked from within to make change.

In 1987, as President of the PC Association for St. John's East, I rose on the floor of a provincial meeting to ask then Premier Peckford if he had a business plan, some projections, anything that I could bring back to the good people of St. John's East to justify the sinkhole that was known as Sprung Greenhouse. The Premier of the day was somewhat indignant that anyone would make such a challenge and told all assembled, not only did he not have that information but we would just have to take his word for it. My response was to rise and say: Mr. Premier, with all due respect, sir, that just is not good enough. Political suicide for a young district president perhaps, for I would have been better off to say nothing perhaps also, but the important question is: Do I have any regrets for having so long ago on that sunny day in Lewisporte having stood up for what I believe? Mr. Chairman, I have none, but I am sure that had I said nothing I would be kicking myself to this very day. So the question became: What now? Does one leave the party? That seemed to be an easy choice, but it was my choice not to leave. Rather, I resolved to make St. John's East a stronger district, more prepared for whomever the next PC candidate was. While the PC Party of the day may not have represented the full of my political value system, it held enough, and let me assure you, Mr. Chair, the alternative held none.

In October of 2003, the federal PC Party announced its attention to emerge with the Alliance Party of Canada. I let this development digest for about two weeks and was finally forced to realize that this turn of events not only caused me a great deal of discomfort, it made me nauseous.

On September 2, 2003, I resigned from the executive of St. John's East, stating that this merger is the death knell of the political values that the PC Party has represented and Peter MacKay is pulling the rope. This time, Mr. Chair, the party left me and I am was not going to follow it.

Mr. Chair, while I am proud and anxious to be any part of an ABC campaign for the next federal election, and I fully support anyone who is willing to jump on this bandwagon which is being so well driven by our Premier, I stand in this House to contend that I was one of the first to lead this bandwagon out of the barn.

Mr. Chair, words are words, principles are principles, and as the Prime Minister has so clearly shown, words can be twisted and changed. Principles, however, can only be abandoned. Now some people have suggested that the federal government has no principles and this is a grossly unfair statement. The federal government does have principles. Unfortunately, they are principles any parent would be ashamed to pass on to their children.

Mr. Chair, the PC Party, my party, prides itself in being open and democratic. The recent election has only served to strengthen my faith, not only in this principle, but in this party's resolve to enact the principle. This is a party and a leader who not only talks the talk, but walks to walk and insists that the democratic process should unfold as it should.

In just a few months my faith in what I believe this party represents, my faith in how I thought a new member would be treated, and my faith in this party's overarching desire to choose improving the lives of every resident over political expediency has been rewarded. Any resident of this Province would be greatly heartened to be in our caucus room, as I witness the commitment of our members to this Province. Every government member has a full voice and that opinion is considered and considered fully. While it is fair to say that this accepting and opening - and I know that the hon. members opposite may have a problem with this. While it is fair to say that this opening and accepting environment stems directly from a leader who insists on it being thus, I also suggest this stems more directly from a party who would expect no less from its leader.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Chairman, our Province is on the cusp of unparalleled economic growth and while we all eagerly anticipate it, it seems that only a select few of us were talking about the negative social impacts it will surely bring. I am deeply concerned about this and the effect it will have on St. John's in particular. In discussions with constituents as I went door-to-door, they saw it too. I then considered the possibility that I may be but a lone voice in this House bringing up this issue but a voice that will be heard nonetheless. However, my worries were unfounded.

My first media event for the recent election occurred at the RNC headquarters. The Premier rolled out the crime strategy. It was well thought out and addressed immediate concerns for areas we all knew to exist. When it was over the audience applauded, the cameras packed up and the politicians went about the business of hitting the streets to continue with their election. However, as I was about to leave I realized I had left something in the hall and I returned to retrieve it. There in the room was the Premier, out from behind the microphones, no cameras in sight, talking to a class of new police recruits, telling them of his concern for the social downside of the impending prosperity and of his quiet involvement over the years on this very issue and why their role would be so important.

As I listened from the side of the room – and I don't believe the Premier to this day even knows that I was there – but as I listened from the side of the room to the Premier, I was struck by two things. First, that someone must have borrowed the full text of my concerns because the Premier was using them word for word, and secondly, I realized that I was in the right place in the right party and under the right leader. The rest, as I say, is history.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Chair, my sincerest thanks goes out to my team of volunteers. They were and will continue to be an imposing blend of energy, enthusiasm and experience. I often wonder what I must have done right in my life to warrant such an extraordinary group of people coming together to held me achieve my goal.

To my family, my wife, my children, who agreed to go with me through this great unknown adventure that lies ahead, words cannot express what that support means to me.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: To all my former students who taught me so much more than I can ever claim to have taught them, I extend my deep appreciation and remind them that they will always be Celtics forever.

To the citizens of St. John's East, I say to you that I am truly humbled by your leap of faith in allowing me to represent you in the House of Assembly. I pray that you will be rewarded by my actions as your representative for years to come.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

CHAIR: The hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairperson.

I am pleased to get another opportunity today to speak to Bill 2, the Interim Supply Bill, particularly because I do have some things that I haven't been able to ask in Question Period. A bunch of my questions that I have put together are going to form a lot of what I have to say here in the next ten minutes.

One of the things that the House has heard me calling for and that I will be continuing to call for is an external review of our health care system. What I want to do this afternoon is to talk a bit about why that is so important to me and why I am calling for it, and why I think that the Minister of Finance should have money in the upcoming Budget to cover an external review. I am not talking about an inquiry; I am talking about a review that would use external people, along with people inside of our health care system, to do a review of how the system is working or, to put it more bluntly, how the system is not working.

I cannot let go of this because I have too many people coming to me and talking to me about the situation. I have people coming from throughout the health care system. I have nurses coming and talking to me. I have doctors coming and talking to me. I have social workers coming and talking, people in management in various levels within the health care system. The message that is coming from all of them is that things are in a mess and if we do not do something about it, down the road, in five, six, seven years' time, we are going to have a major crisis because we did not recognize now that we have a mess on our hands.

I mean, I have been astounded by the things that are being said to me. I am not making this stuff up. This is reality, and I am really sorry if colleagues in the House, on the government side, think that the Leader of the NDP is being negative. I am here because I have to bring the reality of what is being brought to me into the House. That is why I was elected. That is why all of us were elected. That is my job and that is what I am doing.

I am shocked and astounded by the things that are being told to me. I am being told about procedures that still are not standardized under the new four board system. I am being told about how the sub-regions are still operating separately. Attempts are being made but things are still going on; sub-regions are operating separately. There are bottlenecks and delays in getting supplies. The hiring of staff - we hear about this over and over - how much we need new staff on all levels within the health care system. There are problems with maintenance and repair. There are not enough people for IT servicing. There is not enough staff for maintenance. The issues go on and on.

There were front line managers who were eliminated, and they are feeling the crunch inside of the system of what that has meant by having these front line managers eliminated with the new structure that happened with the four boards. There is frustration among the staff, and I have been impacted personally by the level of the people who are coming to me.

Then you get people coming who are being affected by what is going on inside the system. I want to point out, they are not being affected by the individuals; they are not being affected by doctors or by nurses, or because of poor care. They are not. We have fantastic caring personnel inside of our health care system, and I get that said to me all of the time, but the system is not working. The example I want to use happened to me last Thursday.

Last Thursday, I got word that there was a man down here in the lobby who wanted to come talk to me. When he came up, he talked to me about the fact that he had just come directly from the Health Sciences - it was now around 10:00 o'clock in the morning - where he had gone in at 6:30 to do the final prep for surgery that he was going to have that day. His surgery - again, this is fact - could prove to be a life and death situation. He has a history of cancer. The last two years he has been fighting cancer, and this surgery is a last-ditch effort with regard to his life.

Everything was ready. It was 9:05; everything was ready. The operating room was ready; the anesthesiologist was ready. The nursing team, the doctors, everything was ready. The doctor had to come tell him that the surgery was cancelled, and the reason why the surgery was cancelled for that day was because the ICU beds were filled and there would not be an ICU bed to put him in; and, if he did not have an ICU bed, he just could not have the surgery. He is going to be in ICU for a number of days after the surgery.

I am not making this story up. This is a true story. You have heard people, I would suspect, on Open Line talking about surgeries being postponed for the same reason. I have spoken to people in the know and what they have told me is, you can deal with this by having a special care unit.

It is a structural, it is a systemic thing. It is not because all of a sudden this month there may be more people coming into ER who need to go into ICU beds because of respiratory problems. That is not the reason. I am being told by people inside the system, this is endemic; it is going on all the time.

When I talk about needing an external review, consultants to work with Eastern Health, it is because I know things can go better. I know it does not have to be the way it is. If Eastern Health is not going to be able to do it on its own, then get consultants to work with them. That is what I am talking about. I am not talking about an inquiry; I am talking about making this thing work.

What I have been told by people inside of Eastern Health, and people in key positions, some people who are no longer there, who couldn't take it and left - ex-directors - what they are telling me is, the cart was put before the horse. What they are saying to me is, we are not saying that restructuring was a bad thing. What we are saying is that a structure wasn't put in place prior to, and during, in order to make it work.

I have spoken to people who have been on restructuring teams in other provinces, because restructuring has gone on in other Provinces and it has worked, but what they have told me is - and these are people, two of whom in particular are now working inside of our health care system but who had worked outside and who were part of restructuring in other provinces, and what they are telling me is - that their experience was that a whole team was put in place with a load of different disciplines on the team and their sole job was to make the new restructured system work. Money was put into it; personnel were put into it.

What I am being told is, that didn't happen here; we put the cart before the horse. A decision was made, the boards were formed, and it was: Go make it work.

What I am hearing is, that cannot be. So, we cannot wait another five, another six, another seven years; because, what I am being told, and I believe the people who are telling me, is that if we just continue on the path we are going, without recognizing changes have to happen, and something has to happen to the system, then five, six or seven years' time we are going to be in a major crisis, and that is what we have to stop.

That is why I am calling for bringing in external bodies to work with people inside of Eastern Health to look at everything; to look at absolutely everything. Are people who are in positions qualified for the positions they are in? What are our hiring practices? What are the communications systems? I am told that the communications system has completely fallen apart. I don't want to exaggerate too much here, but that is what I am being told, that lines of communication aren't clear any more in the new structure.

Everything that makes up the system needs to be looked at, even the issue that I brought up today. Okay, data systems have been put in place with regard to the hormone receptor testing. Are they the best data systems? Do they have all the information in them?

Everything needs to be evaluated. That is not a negative statement, that is saying, lets make everything go right for the good of the people in the system, working in it, so that they can be proud of the place where they work and also for the people who have to go and be serviced by the system. This is what we have to do. This is what I am asking for. I am not asking, as I said, for a witch hunt. I am not asking for laying blame. It is nothing but an administrative logical issue of organizing. It is an organizational thing that I am talking about that just was not put in place.

CHAIR (Collins): Order, please!

I would like to remind the hon. member that her speaking time has expired.

MS MICHAEL: If I could just clue up please, Mr. Chair.

CHAIR: By leave.

MS MICHAEL: Thank you.

The case I am making here is a case for doing the external review by involving consultants and a plea to both the Minister of Health and Community Services and the Minister of Finance to understand the need for doing this and to put money in the Budget. I am happy that I have had the opportunity to make some of these points, it is actually more effective than just asking questions about it, and I hope that the ministers will think about what I have had to say.

Thank you, very much.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

Mr. Chair, it is my first opportunity in the House for this new session to thank, as well, my volunteers and certainly the residents of the District of St. John's South for returning me again to represent them. It is certainly my hope that over the next three and a half years I will represent them effectively and serve their needs during that time period.

Mr. Chair, it does bring me back to my first election in 1996, and I recall at that point there were nine of us elected within our Caucus. We had a very daunting task ahead of us and that was not only within the House because each of us had a number of shadow portfolios, but within the Province in rebuilding the party and getting out to communities and visiting communities and municipalities and stakeholders around the Province to start rebuilding the party and reshaping the party and to try to create an alternative for voters. In 1996, much the same as in 2003, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador voted for a government on hope. They voted for a government on the promise of hope. So, we had that challenge as well. At that time Brian Tobin was the Premier and a very popular Premier, so there were many challenges for an Opposition of nine.

I look across the House now, the Official Opposition has three members, and I will say to that Opposition, there is a reason the three of you got elected. There was a Tory tide, a very strong movement in the Province, and I believe that the three members that represent the Official Opposition got elected because of their dedication within their districts and their hard work.

I guess my message based on that is, while it is a daunting task not only within the House but in trying to rebuild the party - the challenges will be great - the work that is ahead of you and the rewards down the road, should you remain at this over the next number of terms, will probably be very rewarding.

I will say that the demeanor in the House has improved significantly, which I think speaks as well to the three Opposition members, the seriousness in which they take their jobs. I will say, with great sincerity, that I wish them success in their role as Opposition. In fact, I will say to the Leader of the Opposition that I am so sincere that I hope she has many years of success as the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Chair, I will say that in 2003 when our current Premier ran for office, ran for Premier, again it was on the promise of hope. The difference I think in the 2003 election and the 1996 election is that this Premier has delivered on that hope. I think the people of this Province see this government as a government that puts the Province first, a government that stands on the motto of no more giveaways. The people of the Province are developing a sense of pride, not only in themselves but within the Province. The economy is improving and the morale amongst the people of the Province has improved significantly.

Yes, in 2003 when we were elected we were elected on a promise of hope, but I believe we have delivered on that and we are continuing to deliver on that. I believe the polls in the Province show that this government has taken the job seriously. We are committed to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, we are committed to the job that we are here for. I think that is the reason we were returned in 2007 with such a large majority. I believe that we have looked at – and we have had challenges in 2003. I remember the challenges that we faced as a government in the early days of 2003, looking at public service negotiations, looking at the fiscal challenges that the Province faced, knowing that the bond rating agencies had come to speak to government. I was in Cabinet at that time and we got the message loud and clear that if we did not do something to correct the problems, the bond rating agencies would.

We did have challenges, but I believe we have delivered by very prudent management and prudent fiscal responsibility within the Province, and you are seeing the economy change and turnaround. The financial situation is improving and, yes, a lot of that has to do with the price of oil, a lot of that has to do with resource royalties, but a lot of it has to do with management of those resources as well, and management of the financial windfalls.

We have looked at the debt within the Province, and unlike prior administrations you do not just look at debt as the fiscal debt within the Province. We recognized that there was a social debt, there was an infrastructure debt, and there were many deficits within the Province. It is not just the bottom line on a set of books that you look at as the Province's debt or the deficit. There are a number of areas that you have to look at and you have to factor all of those into how you manage. While, yes, this year we have a huge surplus, you cannot say well now we can afford to spend tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars doing something, because we have to have a view to the future as well. We have to have a view to our resource management into the future and how that is going to return royalties and dividends to the people of this Province. Because when you commit to spending on programming, that is multiyear spending, and while there is a surplus this year, we need to look at not only next year's fiscal situation but the following year and the year after that and after that again, to determine whether or not a promise of spending this year, which has to be sustainable spending - because if you commit a $10 million package to a social program this year, that is $10 million you are spending next year and the year after that and the year after that again.

That is what I mean by, a lot of it has to do with management, management of our resources, management of the finances of the Province. I think that is part of the reason the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have hope. I think that is part of the reason the people of Newfoundland and Labrador are starting to have a sense of pride because this government are doing things a little bit differently. We are not just promising to do things differently, we are doing things differently. We are taking on Ottawa to ensure we get our fair share. We are taking on oil companies. While we have heard people say that there is risk in that, investors will walk away - and we have seen that with Hebron - they have come back, because I think this government and the leadership within this government has proven that we are here for the right reasons. We are here for the benefit of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and we are going to stand on the promises that we have made, that there will be no more giveaways.

Let's not forget that these resources are not government's resources. They are not there just to plan the next election, and how we are going to win the next election. These resources belong to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. We were elected to manage the business of the Province in the best interest of the people of the Province.

Mr. Chair, that is what we intend to do, and I believe – I believe firmly – that is the reason we were elected with such a majority in 2007; because people - not only did they see the reason they elected us in 2003, they were looking for hope, but that hope was delivered. It is my firm belief that, that hope will continue to be delivered by this government and the commitment of this government to make Newfoundland and Labrador a better place to live, and to make Newfoundlanders and Labradorians proud of the place that they live, so that they want to stay here and they want to work here. Because, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have always wanted to stay, but they needed that hope; they needed the opportunity. I believe we are providing that opportunity. As time continues to flow, we will see that opportunity realized even more and more.

CHAIR: Order please!

I remind the hon. member that his speaking time has lapsed.

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


I will have further opportunities to speak again in debate.

I thank the House again for the opportunity to speak today.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

CHAIR: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I will just have a few words.

First, I want to congratulate those members today who made their maiden speeches in the House of Assembly, and certainly welcome them to the debate in this House, Mr. Chairman. I am sure it will not be long before they will be engaging in any number of issues that will come to the floor here.

Certainly, Mr. Chairman, I want to acknowledge the minister who just spoke, because I think he made a great deal of sense, in my opinion, especially when he talks about the fiscal balance that you need to achieve in the Province when it comes to looking after our debt and also looking after our people. I don't think one can be done in isolation of the other at any occasion.

Mr. Chairman, since I have the ear of the hon. Minister of Finance today, I think I will take the opportunity to talk about a couple of important issues in the great District of Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair that could certainly use a little bit of attention from the minister as he brings down his Budget next week. I know that the hon. gentleman will certainly try his best to be accommodating, as he did in previous Budgets in the House, when he looked at important infrastructure that needed to be done, especially with regard to schools and medical infrastructure that was required throughout the district.

Mr. Chairman, there are a couple of things I wanted to raise. One of them is the need for the new school in Port Home Simpson, and for that to move forward in as timely a manner as possible. Mr. Chairman, it is only a small school, obviously, probably 100 children in that school, but it is important that they be able to learn in an environment that is a healthy environment and that is an enjoyable environment to learn in. I certainly hope that will be able to move forward in as timely a fashion as possible to be able to address the needs of the individuals in that community, and those students.

Mr. Chairman, I also want to speak about a couple of other issues. One is the concept of a regional airport for the Southeast Coast of Labrador. As you know, right now in communities in that area there are small airports that operate in the communities of Mary's Harbour, St. Lewis, Charlottetown and Port Hope Simpson primarily. It was back a number of years ago when those communities got together and decided unanimously, I say, that they would voluntarily close down the smaller airports and opt to have a regional airport facility in that area, a facility in which they would all be within fifty to sixty kilometres of driving access on a gravel road.

Mr. Chairman, that proposal has been in the Department of Works and Transportation for a number of years – in fact, ever since you came into power - and has not had any action, I say to you, Minister, and I am hoping that there will be some action taken. I understand the new Minister of Works and Transportation is certainly looking at it as one of the priorities in her department in addressing infrastructure in Labrador, but it is disappointing that we could have been a period of four to five years and not had any action on that particular infrastructure.

I say it is important for a couple of reasons: not only in servicing the people in that area in terms of the general public, but the people in that area depend upon regular air access in order to access larger medical facilities outside of the region, primarily St. Anthony hospital. They also depend upon it to be able to fly in all their goods during the winter, and ensuring that there is good access for these people ensures a better quality of service.

That was the idea and the concept. I understand that there was some representation made to the federal government. It was very sketchy in detail, at least the information that I obtained from the Department of Transport Canada, and it does not build a proper proposal in terms of looking at this infrastructure. I hope that there can be some movement on it over the course of the next few months to ensure that we have full access for regional air services in that area.

Right now, all of the air services there are being provided by a Twin Otter aircraft, which is a smaller aircraft. I do not have to tell the minister it is a very reliable aircraft but oftentimes somewhat inconvenient; inconvenient in the fact that I think it was only a little while ago that I was taking a flight and it was me, along with the mail and the cargo and everything else. I certainly do not have any problem with that, because I know that people need those goods and those services into their communities, and I was happy to see that it was being delivered. Air Labrador does a remarkable job in trying to provide that service in the kind of environment that they have to operate in, but they could certainly provide a far better service as well if they had the proper infrastructure to do so, ensuring that you could use a larger aircraft, make more direct connections with St. Anthony, and, of course, places like St. John's and Goose Bay.

I want to register that on the radar of government so that they can have a look at it and see if there is a way that we can move forward with that. Again, I stress that there is unanimous support for that in the region, and that infrastructure to occur.

Mr. Chairman, I want to also speak about a couple of other issues - two issues, actually - in a community of Williams Harbour. One of them will come as no surprise to people in this House - I have spoken about it on any number of occasions - and that is the request from the people in that community to have a road access.

They are approximately twenty-three or twenty-five kilometres from the main highway. They actually are on an island. In the past there has been difficulty getting on and off the island during the winter months simply because the water is sea ice; it does not always freeze the way you need it to, to be able to operate safely over that ice by snow machine. We have had incidents. In fact, just recently I congratulated a young fellow there on receiving a bravery award, who actually rescued and saved the lives of two individuals who had gotten themselves in the water. One person nearly drowned, only for the fact that this other young fellow had saved his life, and that was trying to get out of their home community.

Mr. Chair, in the community of William's Harbour there are no medical clinics. There are no large-scale grocery stores. You cannot buy gyproc and aspenite if you need to do some work on your house. If your furnace breaks down and you need to get a furnace part, you have to leave the community to access all of those services and to receive all of those goods. In doing so, you should at least be able to do it with a certain degree of safety; feeling safe in being able to do that. That has not been the case because of the isolation, because they are on an island surrounded by salt water that does not always freeze to the level where they can get off the island and access those goods.

The last estimates that I looked at on building this road into William's Harbour was at a cost of about $6 million. If you look at that in the context of the kind of revenues that the governments have today to be able to spend on infrastructure in our Province, it is a very small amount. It is a very small amount of money that will allow direct access for a full community of people to be able to get services that every other part of this Province tends to enjoy. Again, I want to bring that issue forward because I think when government decided to cancel the construction of this road in the 2003-2004 Budget, it was at a time when revenues were low and government could not afford to build the infrastructure. Well, today the fiscal situation has drastically changed. The need has been greater probably today than it was even then because of the changes in the climate. In recent years it is becoming harder to get in and out of this community. I am hoping that it could be put back on the radar of government and that it could be looked at. I would certainly invite the Minister of Transportation and Works, and the Minister of Finance to visit that community if you ever have an opportunity and to meet with the people there and be able to better understand the kind of challenges they have to face everyday to be able to access services that many of us take for granted. I think if there is a way that that can be put back on the radar and considered again by government, now would be the time to do that.

Also, in this community, Mr. Chairman, they went through a tragedy in the past year in which the wharf in the community burnt down; realizing that they are on an island, they have no road. The only form of public transportation they had was a ferry that went in and out of there three times a year, paid for on contract by the provincial government to service that community. The wharf which the boat docked at and the fishermen's wharf were all adjoining. There was a fire, Mr. Chairman. Two fishermen, in particular, lost their fishing boats that they used to earn a living. One did not have any insurance. So, I do not even have to tell you how great that loss was for that one fishing family and how much hardship it has been for them ever since. In addition to that, the community lost a piece of infrastructure that they gravely need. Every person in this community earns their living from the fishery. If you go back and look at job creation projects, for example, you will see that hardly either job creation ever went into this community because there is almost full employment there. Everybody works in the fishing industry. When the wharf burnt down it was an absolute, devastating day for everyone in that community. What is even sadder, Mr. Chairman, is that, to date, they have not been able to secure the money to rebuild that wharf. They have been trying to raise their issue in the media -

CHAIR (T. Osborne): Order please!

I remind the hon. member that her time for speaking has expired.

MS JONES: May I have leave to clue up?

CHAIR: Does the member have leave?

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

CHAIR: By leave.

MS JONES: Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, what has happened is that they want to rebuild this infrastructure. We have made representation to the federal government on this matter. In fact, I have had discussions with the minister for the Province myself on the very matter. Of course, it is an issue of where small crafts and harbours do not own the facility and neither does the federal department of fisheries own the facility. It was once the property of the provincial government, I guess, and was used by local fishermen.

Mr. Chairman, I have raised the issue with the current Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Province. He is certainly very understanding of the situation in this community and I am sure will make his views known to Cabinet and to the minister in terms of being able to provide for this infrastructure for the people in this community.

Mr. Chairman, I know that my time in debate is limited today but I did want to register, for the record, a couple of these issues, and of course there are many other issues. If you want to get into talking about roadwork that needs to be done and other infrastructure that needs to be built, I am sure we could all stand and talk at great length about each of our districts and the kinds of things that need to be addressed. I am just taking the opportunity to try and prioritize some of these pieces that need to be done and to hope that they are on the radar of government, that when budgetary items are considered and brought forward in this House, that some of these things will be given some priority.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I will conclude my comments.

CHAIR: The hon. the Member for Burgeo & LaPoile.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate an opportunity to have a few words. Again, we are debating Interim Supply here but, of course, it involves expenditures and money and so on, which gives you pretty wide latitude as to what one might speak about.

I would like to make a few more comments concerning the questions I asked today in Question Period which related to the transfer of licence by the federal Minister of Fisheries, Minister Hearn. He allowed Seafreeze to transfer the licence or the quota for turbot that was in the Burgeo plant to Clearwater. This government provincially is on record. They are all about no more giveaways, and I appreciate the forthright answers of the minister today. There was absolutely zero consultation by the federal minister with our provincial Minister of Fisheries about this quota. Now, as I understand it, I spoke to two former Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture for this Province, the current Leader of the Opposition and the former Minister of Fisheries who was Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Reid, both tell me that it was always a common courtesy when something like that happens. If you are going to get into major issues of transferring quotas and so on, a common courtesy is that the federal government would contact the provincial minister to say this is what we are talking about, what is your opinion on it? Do you have any input or whatever? What do you think? It is quite obvious now that that has not happened.

We have seen since 1991 when Mr. Barry took over this plant - it used to be owned by National Sea - he obviously was given certain quotas to run the plant in Burgeo. It said right in the deal that there were certain things. He had quotas of redfish; he had quotas of turbot; certain groundfish allocations, all intended for Burgeo. From day one it seems like the community of Burgeo has gotten one knife after another in the back. In fact, not even in the back, right face on sometimes; stabbed, robbed over this deal. The plant closes down. Now, I realize there was a dispute between the union and the processor. All the redfish quotas go off to Canso. Canso is now closed down, as I understand. I do not think Mr. Barry is involved in that anymore. The Burgeo plant has not worked in fifteen years. I ask myself a question - I was not even aware of the turbot deal, the turbot quota. What has Mr. Barry done with the turbot quota for the last fifteen years? Has he had it sitting on the shelf or is he selling that every year and peddling that every year to somebody? Because it is quite common amongst these companies that somebody has a quota. They cannot fish it themselves. They give it to someone else to fish it and they take it. So, has he been using that quota for fifteen years, 40 per cent of which was destined for Burgeo, and they have not seen hide nor hair of it.

Here we have a situation now where Minister Hearn has allowed him to transfer that. A quota that would have been processed there in our Province is now going to be taken off to Nova Scotia the same as the Redfish quota was. I, for the life of me, cannot figure out why the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans would allow such a thing to happen. I hope he does respond to our provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. This cries out for an answer. If there is some rational explanation I hope to God he is going to come and tell the people of this Province and the people of Burgeo why he did it.

I know for a fact that Minister Hearn sat down with the Mayor and the council in Burgeo within the last eighteen months. He understands what happened to them historically. He spoke with them, expressed his sympathies and would do whatever he could to help them. Here we are now, we find out that this happened under the cover of darkness, shall we say. He did not tell anybody in this Province that it was going on.

I mean, I just got clued into this myself because I happened to read an article in The Navigator that came out this March issue; read it, talking about the Nunavut resources. Someone else calls me to talk about it and says, no, no that might be the Nunavut resources but that is part of the old Burgeo deal. Sure enough, when we investigated and I checked around I came across this letter that our minister wrote February 29, two weeks ago. Done deal, he tells me today, done deal and not even consulted on it. Well, folks, that is not good enough. That is not good enough.

There has to be some recourse when you see this kind of skullduggery going on. First of all, Mr. Hearn has to come to the floor and tell why he did it. That is the first thing we have to know, why did he do it? He cannot be just let off the hook. He cannot be giving flap happy answers or whatever, condescending answers. Let's get an upfront answer as to why he allowed this to happen. I do not know, Mr. Barry had troubles that he needed to sell off a quota and get some money. I do not think that is the principle concern about why these quotas exist. I think this quota was put there quite clearly for the benefit of, at least 40 per cent of the quota, to be processed in the Community of Burgeo, but it did not happen.

What recourse do we have, I say to the Minister of Fisheries provincially? Surely Mr. Barry, who has done this, run roughshod now in two cases, in the Redfish and now in the Turbot, over this deal, and gets away with it - there must be some recourse to deal with that. This is just not a political thing. There is outright skullduggery when this stuff happens. Who is going to stand up and say to Mr. Barry, if you can't talk or pound any sense into Mr. Hearn, you just can't get away with this.

For example, while he has done this, he still holds a processing licence for Burgeo; got a facility in Burgeo, still holds a processing licence there. What is he going to do six months down the road, twelve months down the road? Is he going to sell that processing licence because they are worth gold too? Is he going to turn around and sell that to someone else? Under the provincial policy right now, apparently if you don't produce, if you don't use for two years, you lose. Now Mr. Barry has been holding on to his processing licence in Burgeo for the last fifteen years under the explanation that he processes offal there. He takes all of his garbage from everywhere else where he has plants and whatever and ships it to Burgeo and produces offal; not a fish, don't produce any fish. Because he is producing offal, that's what he uses as his justification with our Department to keep his processing licence in Burgeo for fifteen years.

I say to our Minister, we have to find some way to bring some pressure to bear on Mr. Barry too. Maybe that's one way to do it. Maybe production of offal anymore is not processing or ought not to be considered processing and therefore if he doesn't do something there he loses it, before he again turns around and sells or transfers the processing licence or tries to process it or sell it to someone else, the same way that he has done with this turbot allocation.

More importantly, we have to come back again, and I implore the Minister of Fisheries again, don't let Mr. Hearn off the hook. Lots of letters get written and a lot go unanswered. I will be going on the open line shows. I will be putting out press releases. I, in fact, already faxed a letter to Mr. Hearn today and asked him what is his explanation for this, and I would ask the Provincial Minister to do the same thing. Don't let this sit idle and not get a response. This is a perfect situation where somebody should be forced to respond. We just cannot be able to run roughshod over peoples' lives and this resource and not be held accountable for it and not give an answer for it.

I would also implore the MP, Bill Matthews - he is a Liberal, he is not going to run in the next Federal Election, but he is still on the payroll and he might not have been aware of it. I implore Mr. Matthews as well, the MP, to check out and bring whatever pressure he can to bear at the federal level and get an answer to this question.

This is just not acceptable. Again, the minister was very forthright today in his answers. I was somewhat confused when he used the word adequate consultation in this letter, because it left the impression that there had been some kind of consultation but did not get into any details of what it involved. That was why I asked the question as I did: What do you mean by adequate consultation?

He made it very clear, unequivocal. What he meant was that there was none, period. There was no consultation, no involvement. It is very clear now what Mr. Hearn did not do. He did not talk to anybody down here in Fisheries to find out or get their consent or approval to this move. So, again, he should be brought to bear.

I won't get into this whole issue of federal-provincial relations. You can get into this and play politics with this and say, because the Province is not talking to the feds or they are at each other's throats or whatever, that communities are suffering. I don't doubt that, by the way. I don't doubt that there are some negative impacts on communities and peoples and ventures in this Province because of that – I don't doubt it - but that is politicizing the issue. We do not need to politicize this issue; we just need some answers. Why, Minister Hearn, did you, a Newfoundlander and Labradorian, Minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, allow a resource that was intended for a community in this Province to be shipped off to Nova Scotia for their use?

It does not make sense. It doesn't sit well with me, and it doesn't sit well with anybody in Burgeo. It doesn't sit well with the Provincial Minister of Fisheries, and it is time that he came clean and gave an answer on this.

Thank you.

CHAIR: The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Chairman, first of all, I think we should agree to stop the clock. It is just about 5:00 o'clock, and 5:00 o'clock on Wednesday, even though we are doing government business, the closure motion is automatically before the House so we could agree to stop the clock – if we agree?

AN HON. MEMBER: Yes.

MR. RIDEOUT: Yes.

Before moving forward to carry on with the regular business, if there are no other speakers I will proceed to do that, but I want to, out of courtesy to my colleague who just took his seat, and I never got a chance to do this in Question Period today so that he has all of the information in front of him vis-à-vis the correspondence and so on as it relates to the sale of the OB turbot, of course, in area OB, the explanation given by the Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, to quote him, was: This is a private matter between companies.

That is his explanation. That is not good enough for us. I know it is not good enough for the hon. member, and it is not good enough for anybody except the other parties who are involved in it - for example, the private companies. It is not good enough for Nunavut. They are extremely upset, as are people in this Province, but I wanted him to know that was the minister's explanation: that it was a matter between two private companies and he was not interfering in it.

That is all I will say on that matter, but I just wanted to make sure that the hon. member had the benefit of that information in case he wants to follow up further.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee rise, report the resolution and bill carried without amendment, and ask leave to sit again.

No, I think you have to put a motion first and then I will put that one.

CHAIR: Yes.

There being no other speakers on Interim Supply, shall the resolution carry?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, resolution carried.

A bill, "An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For The Financial Year Ending March 31, 2009 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public Service." (Bill 2)

CLERK: Clause 1.

CHAIR: Shall clause 1 carry?

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, clause 1 carried.

CLERK: Clauses 2 to 4 inclusive.

CHAIR: Shall clauses 2 to 4 carry?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, clauses 2 to 4 inclusive carried.

CLERK: Be it enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor and House of Assembly in Legislative Session convened, as follows.

CHAIR: Shall the enacting clause carry?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, enacting clause carried.

CLERK: WHEREAS it appears that the sums mentioned are required to defray certain expenses of the Public Service of Newfoundland and Labrador for the financial year ending March 31, 2009 and for other purposes relating to the public service.

CHAIR: Shall the preamble carry?

All those in favour, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, preamble carried.

CLERK: The schedule.

CHAIR: Shall the schedule carry?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, schedule carried.

CLERK: An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For The Financial Year Ending March 31, 2009 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public Service.

CHAIR: Shall the long title carry?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, long title carried.

CHAIR: Shall I report the bill carried without amendment?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

Motion, that the Committee report having passed a resolution and a bill consequent thereto, carried.

CHAIR: The hon. the Government House Leader.

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee rise, report the resolution and the bill carried without amendment, and ask leave to sit again.

CHAIR: The motion is that the Committee rise, report the resolution and Bill 2 carried without amendment, and ask leave to sit again.

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

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

CHAIR: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

On motion, that the Committee rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again, Mr. Speaker returned to the Chair.

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): The hon. the Member for St. John's South and Deputy Speaker.

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

The Committee of Supply have considered the matters to them referred and have directed me to report that they have adopted a certain resolution and recommended that a bill be introduced to give effect to the same.

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair of the Committee of Supply reports that the Committee have considered the matters to them referred and have directed him to report that the Committee have adopted a certain resolution and recommended that a bill be introduced to give effect to the same.

When shall the report be received?

MR. RIDEOUT: Now.

MR. SPEAKER: Now.

On motion, report received and adopted, Committee ordered to sit again on tomorrow.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the resolution be now read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that this resolution be now read a first time.

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: That it is expedient to introduce a measure to provide for the granting to Her Majesty for defraying certain expenses of the public service for the financial year ending March 31, 2009 the sum of $1,902,039,700.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the resolution be now read a second time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that this resolution be now read a second time.

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: Second reading of the resolution.

On motion, resolution read a first and second time.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the Interim Supply, Bill 2, be introduced and read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that the hon. the minister shall have leave to introduce Bill 2, the Interim Supply Bill, and that the said bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the hon. the Minister of Finance shall have leave to introduce the Interim Supply Bill and that the said bill be now read a first time?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For the Financial Year Ending March 31, 2009 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public Service. (Bill 2)

On motion, Bill 2 read a first time, ordered read a second time presently, by leave.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the Interim Supply Bill be now read a second time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that the said bill be now read a second time.

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

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: Second reading of the bill.

On motion, a bill, "An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For the Financial Year Ending March 31, 2009 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public Service," read a second time. (Bill 2)

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the Interim Supply Bill be now read a third time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded that the said bill, Bill 2, be now read a third time.

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

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

Carried.

CLERK: Third reading of the bill.

MR. SPEAKER: This bill, Bill 2, is now read a third time and it is ordered that the bill do pass and its title be as on the Order Paper.

On motion, a bill, "An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For The Financial Year Ending March 31, 2009 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public Service," read a third time, ordered passed and its title be as on the Order Paper. (Bill 2)

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

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, this concludes the debate and the passage, of course, of Interim Supply. I want to thank all hon. members, on all sides of the House, for their participation and their contribution.

By agreement, of course, we have agreed that we would conclude the Interim Supply measures today and that the House would take its regular Easter adjournment. Tomorrow is Holy Thursday and then on into the Easter weekend. So it is quite normal that the House would adjourn for a couple of weeks over the Easter break, schools are closed, members' families are off and members will be going back to their districts or other things that they may have planned.

On behalf of the government, Mr. Speaker, I want to take the opportunity to wish members, staff, all those involved with the organization and the running of the House, a holy and happy Easter. I hope that the break will be enjoyable, that there will not be too many more Sheila's Brushes, or St. Patrick's hangovers as one media has referred to the mess. Anyway, we hope you have a nice Easter break and we will look forward to seeing members back here after that.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I move that the House on its rising do adjourn until tomorrow, Monday, April 7 at 1:30 of the clock and that this House now adjourn.

MR. SPEAKER: The motion is that this House do now adjourn.

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: All those against, 'nay'.

This House now stands adjourned until tomorrow, April 7, until 1:30 of the clock.