The House met at 1:30 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): Order, please!

Admit strangers.

Before we proceed with the routine proceedings, I would like to observe an old parliamentary tradition. I have the pleasant task today of formally welcoming a new member who has been duly elected in a by-election since the House last met in September of 2009. The new member is Mr. Marshall Dean, representing The Straits & White Bay North.

I have been advised by the Clerk of the House that the member has taken the Oath of Office and the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown as required by the Constitution, and has signed the Members' Roll.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: It is my honour, Mr. Speaker, to ask that Marshall Dean, the Member for The Straits & White Bay North have the right to claim his seat.

MR. SPEAKER: Allow the hon. member to take his seat.

The Chair would also like to welcome, sitting in the Speaker's gallery, the Member Elect for the District of Terra Nova, Mr. Sandy Collins.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: According to our Standing Orders again, that Mr. Collins, the Member Elect, will take his seat after fifteen clear days of the election, and will be duly sworn in and presented to the House of Assembly at that time.

MR. SPEAKER: The following members' statements will be heard: the hon. the Member for the District of Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair; the hon. the Member for the District of Exploits; the hon. the Member for the District of The Straits & White Bay North; the hon. the Member for the District of Kilbride; the hon. the Member for the District of Port de Grave; and the hon. the Member for the District of Port au Port.

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise in the House today to congratulate Christy Groves of Forteau, Labrador on being selected by Coca-Cola for the prestigious Aboriginal Art Bottle Program.

Mr. Speaker, this program provides Aboriginal people across the country the opportunity to showcase their artwork and culture to the world at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Fifteen artists were selected from more than 100 Aboriginal artists across Canada. The artists, both amateurs and professionals, are First Nations, Inuit or Metis. Ms Groves, an eighteen-year-old university student, of Metis descent, was informed that she was the youngest winner countrywide by roughly fifteen years.

Mr. Speaker, her work is inspired by the Olympic flame and an Inukshuk and is displayed beautifully on a six-foot fibreglass bottle. The artwork will first be unveiled regionally throughout the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Each bottle will then be auctioned to collectors from around the world. The proceeds from the sale will go to the Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Youth Legacy Fund to support sport, culture, sustainability and education initiatives for Aboriginal youth across Canada.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members in this House to join me in congratulating Christy Groves on being selected to have her artwork displayed at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. FORSEY: Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure today to stand in this House to recognize the contribution of three volunteer firefighters on achieving thirty-five years service, each with the Bishop's Falls Volunteer Fire Department.

Mr. Speaker, in 1974, Ed Harnum, Wilf Carey and Onnie Balsom joined the Bishop's Falls Fire Department. For the next thirty-five years they made a commitment to be on call twenty-four hours a day to respond to emergencies that would affect their community and surrounding area.

Mr. Speaker, these firefighters have given unselfishly of their time to fire and emergency training, responding to emergencies such as residential and commercial fires, to highway traffic accidents, and volunteering to raise awareness and funds for worthwhile causes such as muscular dystrophy, the wish foundation and many others.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of this House to join me in congratulating Ed Harnum, Wilf Carey and Onnie Balsom on their thirty-five years of volunteer service with the Bishop's Falls Fire Department.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of The Straits & White Bay North.

MR. DEAN: Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today to recognize the St. Anthony Volunteer Fire Department and to thank them for the tremendous service they provide to St. Anthony and the surrounding area.

Mr. Speaker, this group of dedicated volunteers, including the firefighters who risk their lives to save life and property, and the firettes who work behind the scenes on fundraising projects to provide the equipment for them to do their job, are a part of the best equipped volunteer fire department in the Province.

This year, in addition to responding to fire calls, rescue assistance and accident calls, members have completed thirty-nine training sessions and are working on getting all members to level one status for the new year.

Mr. Speaker, the St. Anthony Volunteer Fire Department celebrated its volunteers on November 21 at the Annual Firefighters Appreciation Supper where a number of awards were passed out. Captain Harvey Richards was named Officer of the Year; Bonnie Hynes was names Firefighter of the Year; while Mike Boiduk was runner-up; and Josh Slade, second runner-up.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of this House to join with me in congratulating members of the St. Anthony Volunteer Fire Department for their commitment to their community, region and Province with best wishes for continued success.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. DINN: Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to recognize and pay tribute to a constituent of mine, Shawn Lahey of Kilbride.

Shawn was recently awarded a Medal of Bravery by Governor General Michaelle Jean for bravery in his courageous rescue of a partner on a night in January, 2006.

Shawn is a corrections officer working at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's for the past six years. On that night referenced, he and his partner were letting Unit 1 inmates out one at a time for their showers. One of the inmates, after being let out, grabbed Shawn's partner around the neck and put a shank up to his throat. Shawn Lahey did not panic but immediately sprung into action. He disarmed the inmate and with the help of his partner was able to handcuff him as they held him to the floor.

Mr. Lahey's partner escaped without serious injury, only sustaining a puncture wound from the shank. The inmate had intended to use Shawn's correction officer partner as a hostage while he escaped from prison.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all hon. members of this House to join me in congratulating Shawn Lahey for his distinctive act of bravery.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Mr. Speaker, I stand today to congratulate fifteen-year-old William Rose of Shearstown on being named tournament top batter at the Atlantic Bantam AA Baseball Championships earlier this year.

William was a member of the Spaniard's Bay Bantam AA Pirates this summer. After winning the provincial championship in Corner Brook, the Pirates went on to represent the Province at the Atlantic tournament. During the provincial championships, William Rose won three of the possible five individual awards. He went on to win the top batter award with an average of 538 at the Atlantic championships which were held in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. A very quiet and mannerly individual, he is not only a credit to his team but to the community that he represents.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all hon. members to join with his family and many friends in wishing William Rose every success as he continues with the sport he truly loves.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. CORNECT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. CORNECT: Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of attending the first annual Aboriginal Business Gala earlier this fall in Stephenville. The Aboriginal Community-Business Advisory Committee is to be commended for organizing this successful event. The gala provided the opportunity for showcasing Aboriginal businesses in the Port au Port, Bay St. George and Burgeo area.

Mr. Speaker, throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, Aboriginal peoples have been celebrating, expressing their origins and traditions with arts and cultural events. It was exciting to see this Aboriginal Business Gala celebrating and giving recognition to Aboriginal groups and individuals who are developing and diversifying our growing economy here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all hon. members of this hon. House to join me in applauding the Aboriginal Community-Business Advisory Committee on the success for their first annual Aboriginal Business Gala, and, Mr. Speaker, congratulations to all Aboriginal entrepreneurs, artists and artisans in our Province.

We'lalin.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Before the Chair continues with routine proceedings, the Chair would like to recognize a former member of the House of Assembly who is in the public gallery today. Mr. Alvin Hewlett, welcome back to the House of Assembly.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Statements by Ministers.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform members of this hon. House and the general public of action taken today by Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation as a result of information which was passed on to that corporation by the provincial government.

As everyone in the Province is aware, in 1969 CF(L)Co signed an agreement with Hydro-Quebec for the development of the Upper Churchill River. Today the terms of this agreement provide grossly inequitable compensation in favour of Hydro-Quebec while our Province reaps a pittance by comparison.

For example, last year it is estimated that Hydro-Quebec reaped profits from the Upper Churchill contract of approximately $1.7 billion while Newfoundland and Labrador received a mere $63 million. CF(L)Co is also responsible for the running, and the upkeep and the maintenance of the Upper Churchill facility.

Power which is bought from our Province for a quarter of a cent per kilowatt hour is then resold by Hydro-Quebec for up to thirty-six times the price that they pay for it.

Mr. Speaker, the gross inequity of this agreement cannot be denied. It is without a doubt considered the biggest giveaway of resources by this Province; in fact, I would venture to say that there are no other similar agreements of such a disproportionate magnitude in the entire country.

Several previous administrations have attempted to remedy this by either requesting a renegotiation of the contract with Quebec or through the pursuit of various legal actions. To date, neither venue has successfully addressed the inequity of this contract.

A couple of years ago, I instructed officials to undertake an extensive and thorough review of potential legal remedies. As a lawyer by profession, I was determined to ensure that no legal stone was left unturned.

As a result of this review, we have discovered a very legitimate and a compelling legal argument that has not yet been tested in relation to the Upper Churchill contract. Under Quebec's own civil code, there is an obligation imposed by law for parties to act in good faith in all legal relationships, including the negotiation and the ongoing performance of contracts.

It is a very important and fundamental underpinning of the Quebec civil code, and one we feel is very relevant to the 1969 Upper Churchill contract. After many, many months of research and having received firm legal opinions from some of the most eminent and brilliant legal minds in Quebec, our Department of Justice informed CF(L) Co of our legal opinion.

Mr. Speaker, today President and CEO of CF(L) Co has informed me that after seeking and receiving their own legal opinions he has in fact sent a letter to Hydro-Quebec requesting that they enter into negotiations to amend the pricing terms of the contract for the future so as to finally provide a fair and equitable return to both CF(L) Co and Hydro-Quebec. This would be consistent with the good faith principle that is fundamental to the Quebec civil code.

Mr. Speaker, it is our firm hope and desire that Hydro-Quebec will affirm their desire to renegotiate this lopsided contract based upon the moral principles of fairness and more importantly upon the legal obligations under Quebec's own law, which ensure that both parties in an agreement enjoy equity and fairness.

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 certainly thank the Premier for an advance copy of his statement today.

Mr. Speaker, what a difference a few weeks makes. It was only a week or so ago when the Premier was looking at Quebec Hydro as a despicable power grabber in the country and today he is sending a note up along asking for a meeting to discuss some legal challenges they feel they may have within the contract. So it should be good context, I would say, Mr. Speaker, under which to get a meeting.

Having said that, Mr. Speaker, redress on the Upper Churchill has been the desire of every single person in Newfoundland and Labrador for over three decades, and, Mr. Speaker, it has been a priority for almost every successive government over the last three decades. Attempts have been made to reopen the contract, to look for redress, both through constitutional means and through the Supreme Courts.

Mr. Speaker, if it was only based on moral principle and fairness, I think we would have had that redress a long time ago because morally what is happening is indeed wrong, and I hope that this time it will be different and that we can see more return come to the people of the Province. It is not easy for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians anywhere in this Province, to watch billions of dollars of revenue on a resource that we own, going into another province to build the revenues and to build the infrastructure of that province.

Mr. Speaker, many times we have also seen the expectations of people in this Province raised around redress on this deal, and we have seen them squashed. That has always been a concern for me. When I hear this morning about this particular announcement, I look at it, and I know the closest that we have seen any Premier come was probably Brian Tobin back some years ago when he got them to reopen the negotiations on winter availability and also on recall power –

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. member to conclude her remarks.

MS JONES: – which he gained some additional revenue on at that time.

What I would say, Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, is that we want to know where the legal clauses are in this. What the reopeners are. Is there an opportunity for legal challenge in the courts, and is there really new information here that will allow us to have some redress (inaudible).

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Order, please!

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

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

I, too, thank the Premier for the advance copy of his statement. Obviously, you know, I, and I am sure everybody else would agree with the Premier that if there are still legal stones to be turned, then they be turned. I, too, applaud him for his efforts to attempt any remedy to this terribly one-sided and unfair contract.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS MICHAEL: I know that all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would like to see this odious agreement turned around. Nobody wants this agreement. What I fear – and again, we do not have details, and I guess I can understand why we are not being given legal details, though I would like to have some sense, more than what has been given us by the Premier, but I fear that it could be false hope being given to people. We sit down with Hydro-Quebec, CF(L)Co sits down with them, they ask them will you sit? They have the power to say yes or no, and if you sit and they just come up with a no, well then where does this go? Is that the end of it, or is this going further? Is this going to Supreme Court? What is happening, based on what is being presented to us by the Premier today? What is his next step, or is this the final step? I guess we are all going to have to wait and find out, because I do not want people being given false hope.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further statements by ministers.

The hon. the Minister of Education.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KING: Mr. Speaker, last year thirty schools throughout the Province received assistance from the provincial government in making their schools safe and respectful environments. In total, $15,000 in grants were approved under the Department of Education's Safe and Caring Schools Special Project Fund, with each school receiving $500.

I am pleased to announce, Mr. Speaker, that this year we are once again providing funding to help teachers and administrators make their schools and their communities safe places to be. Safe and caring schools are created and nurtured on a daily basis in classrooms, gymnasiums and playgrounds around the Province, and it is important that all educators and parents instill respectful behaviour in students at a young age.

This special project fund aims to promote awareness of our Safe and Caring Schools policy, which was launched in 2006 to guide school communities in their efforts to ensure safe, respectful learning environments. With funding provided through this special project, we hope to strengthen partnerships and promote effective actions to create positive school climates.

Schools or districts can submit project proposals which will be reviewed by the provincial advisory committee for the Safe and Caring Schools initiative. Projects which best reflect the goals of the initiative and best contribute to a safe and caring learning environment will be chosen for funding.

Teacher-sponsored student groups may also apply to complete projects associated with a particular course or curriculum area, or with their club or school-based organization. Projects, Mr. Speaker, could include a wide range of activities such as drama, musical or multi-media productions, visual art projects or any other innovative ideas. The deadline for these projects, the application deadline is December 7, and applications can be found on the Department of Education Web site.

I am also pleased that in the New Year, Mr. Speaker, we will be moving ahead with the Graduate Student Awards. Graduating students who have demonstrated leadership in helping to create or sustain safe and caring environments can apply for the award which consists of a $500 tuition voucher.

Mr. Speaker, I offer congratulations to last year's award recipients. I commend everyone who is working to make our schools safe, nurturing places, and I encourage all schools to put their project forward for consideration.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for The Straits & White Bay North.

MR. DEAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement.

Mr. Speaker, ensuring that the students in this Province are safe when they attend school is of vital importance to us. It is good to see programs such as Safe and Caring Schools which encourage every school to think about and provide positive learning environments for all students. It is also great, Mr. Speaker, to see that there will be a graduate student award program in place in the New Year. Any initiative which encourages our students to develop positive leadership roles and to be involved in sustaining safe and caring school environments is something that we would like to see happen.

I would suggest there is still bullying taking place in many of our schools that we would be concerned about. Trying to eliminate this and working together would be of vital importance and certainly once violence is taken out of our schools, I would hope that we can take a closer look at air quality controls and initiatives and so on.

Again, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

I, too, thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement. I am really glad about the statement, Caring Schools Project. I have known about it and I think it is something that we really need in our schools and that funding is being accessed by the schools and is available to help teachers and administrators work with their students and with parents to make their schools as safe as possible.

I also commend the Department of Education because of its support of a survey that was done, I think last year. The report is now out. It was done by Egale, which is a national organization which is concerned about equality and justice for gays, lesbians, and trans-gender persons. This survey surveyed the attitude in the schools towards teenagers and others in the schools who are gays, lesbians and trans-gendered.

I would like to see the fund put a special focus in the future on getting rid of homophobia in the schools, because the survey indicated that many students in our schools are suffering from homophobia. All children are entitled to a safe, respectful, learning environment and we are discovering that many young people are being harassed and injured because of homophobia. So I encourage the minister to work with his department in looking further into this particular aspect of safety for our children.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further statements by ministers?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today in this hon. House to provide an update on the Provincial Nominee Program.

Mr. Speaker, the provincial government views increasing immigration as an important part of our approach to addressing the skills shortages and demographic challenges that are being experienced provincially and nationally.

I am pleased to say, Mr. Speaker, that since the launch of the immigration strategy in 2007, the number of immigrants to this Province has grown from 512 in 2006 to 627 in 2008, an increase of 22 per cent.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: The primary reason for the increase is the changes we have made to the Provincial Nominee Program since it was transferred to the Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment in April, 2007. We are now focusing on attracting individuals with specialized skill sets who plan to make Newfoundland and Labrador their new home.

From April 1, 2007, to November 20, 2009, 637 individuals have been nominated through the Provincial Nominee Program. They come from fifty-five different countries. These nominees are highly educated with 72 per cent having at least one university degree, and 8 per cent with a Ph.D. The age distribution is also very encouraging; 92 per cent of these individuals are forty-nine years of age or younger. Further, the highest percentage is in the twenty-five to twenty-nine age range, thus helping to make a positive contribution to our demographic situation.

Mr. Speaker, another encouraging trend is the number of international graduates who have chosen to remain in the Province. In 2007 there were six international graduates nominated through our Provincial Nominee Program. In 2008 there were thirty-five nominated, and so far in 2009, we have nominated thirty-four international graduates. These are highly educated young people who have opted to remain in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our provincial nominees are working primarily in the medical, science, technology, management, trade, and education sector, and are making their contributions in thirty-seven communities throughout the Province.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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 want to thank the minister for an advance copy of her statement. It is good to get an update on the Provincial Nominee Program, let me assure you. It is an issue that came to the forefront through the Auditor General's report in 2009 where there were many concerns listed.

The minister gave an accurate account on how many people were nominated through the program but to this very day we do not know where they are at, Mr. Speaker. We do not know what happened to the funds for the local businesses, and not only that, there was $1.3 million in a trust fund that we are still trying to get documentation on, Mr. Speaker. True, we would love to see those people come to our Province and when she mentions that those people are coming to work primary in the medical and the science fields, that is wonderful because I can tell you, there were three or four doctors who came to this Province, came to the area where I live, wonderful individuals, but what we have to do is try to keep them here. They are here for a probationary period then they are gone to Ontario or Quebec somewhere. No doubt, this is a good program, Mr. Speaker,

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. BUTLER: I hear the former Minister of Health; he knows full well what I am speaking of.

Mr. Speaker, we congratulate those individuals. We welcome them to come to our Province but I can assure you, this is a good program and if we could only stand here today and say the 600-and-some-odd people who we nominated were in this Province, no doubt, the shortage of skills that we do have would be a problem we would not have to encounter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

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

I, too, thank the minister for the advance copy of her statement.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

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

In case you did not hear, I, once again, thank the minister for the advance copy of her statement.

I am glad to see that there has been –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS MICHAEL: - progress with regard to immigration into our Province and in retaining immigrants in our Province.

I know some individuals who have successfully gone through the program and have not moved and are using their skills here in our Province, and I applaud that, but I would ask the Minister to also consider some of the needs of the immigrants who are coming under the nominee program as well.

I attended a Multicultural Women's Organization meeting earlier this year, and I would just like to share with the minister a few of the issues that came up at that gathering with the Multicultural Women's Organization. They talked about needing more supports for students who immigrate with their families and enter our K-12 system, such support as learning English as a second language. While we have that program, they have identified problems within that program – and I know the minister speaks to this organization, I encourage her to continue speaking with this organization, because they need other academic supports as well, not just English as a second language. It is connected to the language, but it is more than that.

Also, the families need assistance in adjusting to the new culture. I know that government is working with the Multicultural Women's Organization on these programs, and I encourage the minister to continue, as I said, working with this organization. As well, I hope that her colleague, the Minister of Education, is listening – I know he is – that teachers also need assistance in knowing how to work with students who are coming from –

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. member to conclude her remarks.

MS MICHAEL: If I may conclude, Mr. Speaker, just a couple of seconds.

We also know that teachers in the school system also need assistance in knowing how to deal with students who are coming from other countries and other cultures.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further statements by ministers.

Oral Questions.

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My questions are for the Premier.

Just before we came to the House of Assembly, Nalcor did hold a press conference and the Premier did give a statement in the House of Assembly stating that new legal opinions have led them to ask Hydro-Quebec to reopen the Upper Churchill contract.

I ask the Premier today: Where did the legal opinions, I guess, come from that were solicited by the Province and how do they differ from other legal opinions that have been given to governments over the last thirty years?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There has been a fair bit of legal research done over the years in the Province, as far as I know it. Recently, scholars and jurists have come out, and their lawyers have given opinions with regard to certain actions that we could take in specific areas, whether that was taxation, whether was that breach of fiduciary duty

What we decided to do was go back and look at all the legal opinions, all the possible options to see if we could find the best option in order to possibly open the door to a renegotiation of the Upper Churchill contract.

As the hon. the Leader of the Opposition said before, this is a matter that sticks in the craw of every Newfoundlander and Labradorian. As I said, it is one of the biggest giveaways - probably the biggest giveaway that has ever occurred in the entire country in the history of Canada. So it is something that we feel should be wronged.

I, personally, feel that the actions of Hydro-Québec have been wrong. The term: despicable, was used, and I will continue to use that kind of a term -

AN HON. MEMBER: Odious –

PREMIER WILLIAMS: - odious, greedy.

So, on the basis of the legal opinions that we went through and that we obtained from senior legal firms and from eminent jurists in the Province of Quebec, we have decided that was information that was important to be passed over to CF(L)Co, and we did so.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The people of the Province have had their expectations raised around possible changes that could occur to the Upper Churchill contract many times in our history. Every time, I would say, Mr. Speaker, they have been left very disappointed.

I ask the Premier: Have you been able to confirm that the opinions you have are strong enough to launch a third challenge in the Supreme Court if that is necessary?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: This is not about raising expectations. This is about righting a very serious wrong.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: The option for this government would be to do absolutely nothing. That is not an option for this government, it has never been an option for this government and it never will be an option for this government.

We are trying to do - as other governments have tried, and with the best of intentions, and for various reasons, have failed. We are not prepared to give up on this under any circumstances whatsoever. The loss of revenue to this Province is enormous. It is a renewable energy source. It is hundreds of millions of barrels flowing every year, equivalent to some of the major oil fields that have been discovered out off our coastline.

As a result, we feel that we need to pursue this and the best way to pursue this is in good faith. The best way to pursue good faith is to have this information passed over to CF(L)Co. It is my understanding that CF(L)Co have announced today that president, Ed Martin, has now written the other shareholders of CF(L)Co to see whether, in fact, in good faith, this matter would be open for renegotiation, and that is a very good thing.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess this is a little different from the hard-nosed tactics we have seen the Premier playing with the Lower Churchill issue for some time now.

Mr. Speaker, let's not be fooled here. Every single person in this Province wants to see redress on this particular contract. The fact that we ask questions about it does not undermine how we feel about it as well.

I ask the Premier, Mr. Speaker: Although the letter has been sent, has there been any indication given at all by Hydro-Quebec that they would even be prepared to discuss any new legal clauses or claims that the Province says that they have been able to find within the contracts, and are they prepared to have any discussion at all around reopening the Upper Churchill agreement?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: It is my understanding that they would have probably just received this letter this morning or just early this afternoon, or within the hour, or maybe it is on the way right now. I assume that when the announcement was made the letter had been sent.

We, obviously, have had no correspondence from Hydro-Quebec or indication from Hydro-Quebec because this is a matter within CF(L)Co. This is a matter that has to be discussed within them.

If, at some point, the Premier of Quebec decided to pick up the phone and indicate to me, as Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, that he wanted to enter into negotiations to reopen the Upper Churchill contract, well then sure, absolutely, we welcome that, but we do not expect that to happen, it has not happened before. Efforts by previous governments, it has not happened.

They have never indicated they wanted to renegotiate the Upper Churchill, so we felt that it was time that we provided information to CF(L)Co so that they could take the initiative to make it happen.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am somewhat disappointed to know that the Premier of Quebec would not have our Premier on speed-dial over an important issue like this.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier has stated in the past that redress on the Upper Churchill was a precondition to any development of the Lower Churchill with Quebec. Now, a few weeks ago, I heard him kind of back off that statement in the media when he said that a commitment - you backed off the commitment saying that those demands, a deal would not get done.

I ask the Premier today: Are you, again, making redress on the Upper Churchill part of the prerequisite to any negotiations that would occur on future Lower Churchill agreements done by yourself or your government?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: I do not want the Leader of the Opposition or anyone else to misunderstand. The action, as I understand it, that has been taken by CF(L)Co today is an internal action taken by that company with their customer, Hydro-Quebec, in order to renegotiate a very, very unfair and odious and oppressive contract.

The Lower Churchill negotiations are completely separate negotiations. We intend to pursue those. Quebec are trying to block us every step of the way. Their strategic move to attempt to obtain the assets in New Brunswick was obviously a strategic attempt to try and block us from going through the Maritime Provinces. Their recent action, again, which is a terrible action, is the agreement on the water rights for the Churchill River. We attempted to have a fair agreement put in place, one that was a win-win for both parties. It was approved by lawyers, it was approved by officials in both companies, it went before the board of CF(L)Co and Quebec voted that down. As a result, now that is going before the Public Utilities Board.

So there is no indication from Quebec, in any manner whatsoever, that they want to play fair, they want to be equitable. Instead, they want –

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. Premier to complete his answer.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

They want to do whatever they can to prevent us from developing our project. The Upper Churchill redress is a separate issue from the Lower Churchill and we are proceeding on both.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Premier continues to lash out at Hydro-Quebec and the Government of New Brunswick for considering a deal that would see New Brunswick Power sold off to the Quebec utility. Now, Mr. Speaker, in his comments he has indicated that this could, in fact, restrict access for Newfoundland and Labrador's capacity to transport power from the Lower Churchill project through New Brunswick.

I ask the Premier, that if he was so confident that a Lower Churchill agreement was imminent, why did you not make application under the proposal call that was issued by New Brunswick more than a year ago to access transmission capacity at that time?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: First of all, Mr. Speaker, I cannot understand why the Opposition is so cozy with Quebec. I cannot understand why they are so concerned about Quebec interests. I cannot understand why they want us to do business with Quebec, the way that Quebec shafted them. Maybe it is just a little bit of guilt to the fact that it was a Liberal government –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: – that gave this away some forty or fifty years ago. Maybe it is just a little guilt and a little shame that back in 2003, when she was a member of the Cabinet, Premier Grimes and his government were going to have the second largest giveaway in the entire Province. Maybe that is what motivates her.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: The simple answer to her question is I am not prepared, on behalf of this government, to authorize spending $10 million a year on nothing for seven years.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Every time I listen to the Premier when I ask questions about the Lower Churchill, you are starting to sound like an old gramophone with the needle stuck, because it is just the same thing over and over again. Well, Mr. Speaker, I can tell him right now that there is no one cozy with Quebec. No one cozy on this side with Quebec. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you one thing, at least we can have a conversation with them, and that is more than what is happening on the other side.

Mr. Speaker, Prince Edward Island did bid for capacity –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS JONES: – even though their projects were not ready to be constructed.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When the proposal call went out for capacity on the lines in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island did bid. Although their projects were not ready to come on stream as well, but, Mr. Speaker, they were confident in those projects and they were looking forward, something that this Province failed to do.

So, I ask today, Mr. Speaker, under the new FERC rules, which the Minister of Natural Resources claims in this House time and time again that allows for fair access to the U.S. markets through Quebec and through New Brunswick, I ask: The fact that the operator in New Brunswick changes, why does that change your access, your fair access, that you claim to have under FERC regulations?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I do not know where the hon. Leader of the Opposition has been for the last three years because we have said time and time again that we have made application to the Régie in Quebec and that application is an open access application which should go through in about nine months. That was three years ago. Under that application we would apply to have capacity through Quebec so that we could wheel down into Ontario, we could wheel down on it to New Brunswick, and we could carry power on to the United States if absolutely necessary. Those applications have been blocked every step of the way. They even went so far on the first application to even deny the jurisdiction of their own regulator, which is the Régie. In other words, you have no right or no ability to hear this, we are just going to do what we want. That was one of their objections.

Another objection was they would not even tell us the capacity of their system. So, we are applying for 740 megawatts or kilowatts, I do not know what the right –

MS DUNDERDALE: Megawatts.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: - megawatts of power through Quebec, and they will not even tell us if there is any space available. These are very, very basic pieces of information that we are entitled to receive under open access principles, but I can tell you, that the people at FERC – and that is why I went to New York, and that is why I spoke to the people in New York – will ensure that Hydro-Quebec adheres to open access principles in their country and, hopefully, it spills over into ours.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order please!

MS JONES: It really does not answer the question as to the reason why your government fell down on the job when there was access availability through New Brunswick and you did not take them up on that offer.

Mr. Speaker, we know about the application that was in the system. The minister talked about it hundreds of times in the House of Assembly. We still never saw any results on it. We have not seen anything come back whatsoever, so it really does not answer the question as to why you did not make the application.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the Premier to confirm that, regardless who the operator is in New Brunswick under that utility, we should still have free access. However, isn't the real problem that exists is that there is no capacity left on the lines either in Quebec or in New Brunswick that will allow you to transport Lower Churchill power?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Before Joan Marie was writing her questions, now Shawn Graham is writing her questions for her.

We just had the same discussion in Churchill Falls a week and a half ago, where Premier Graham indicated that there was no capacity. Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, we can build new capacity. That is one piece of the equation. We can build a corridor through and we will be writing Premier Graham in the very near future to request that access. We will be doing that in conjunction with the Premier of Nova Scotia and in partnership between Nalcor and Emera Energy. As well, if the interties at Orrington are upgraded, that will increase the capacity in New Brunswick. So there will be greater ability for us to go through New Brunswick. So, in fact, with the proper upgrades we can have additional capacity in New Brunswick. So that is the political answer in New Brunswick by a Liberal government that is doing another giveaway right there.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If we were to look at building additional transmission lines for Lower Churchill power, has the government done any evaluation of what the cost would be, and if so, can you tell us what that cost would be and could you also tell us if it will still allow the project to be economically feasible?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Deputy Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Nalcor and this government will understand every aspect of this project before we sanction, and before, unlike previous governments, we will negotiate a power purchase agreement with anybody in this country or in the United States. Yes, Mr. Speaker, that has the potential to have to build new infrastructure on- for transmission either through Quebec or New Brunswick has always existed. We have factored those costs into the cost of the project and the project is still feasible. It is part of the necessary homework that you did not do when you tried to negotiate the last deal.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

You might want to remind the minister, I have never sat at a negotiating table on the Lower Churchill deal. However, I am getting a little bit of insight into where they have been all the same.

Mr. Speaker, maybe the minister could tell us if it is economically feasible over what period of time, what routes they have looked at, and what the cost will be?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Deputy Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, given the nature of the questions that have been asked in this House, you would think they would have known that. The route will be through Quebec. The route will be through New Brunswick. We have three applications in: two in Quebec, one in New Brunswick. The one application in New Brunswick has two routes that are under consideration. The two applications in Quebec have a number of routes under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, all of those have been factored in. There will come a time when we have to have a preferred route that we will have to let the system operator know, but in all of our planning we have factored in those costs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: My question is for the Premier.

Nalcor is 100 per cent owned by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the government has funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars into Nalcor through the last few budgets. It has come to our attention that Nalcor has paid almost $1 million to an Ottawa lobby company to arrange meetings with federal government agencies and departments.

I ask the Premier: Why does Nalcor have to use taxpayer money to access federal government agencies and departments when we have our Premier, we have the hon. the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and we have Dr. John FitzGerald who should be doing this?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, Nalcor is a corporation that is doing business all over the world. When the hon. member opposite talks about the hundreds of millions of dollars that we have put into Nalcor, let me tell you that the dividends, and I don't mean cash dividends to government, I mean the rewards that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador are going to receive from Nalcor Energy, even after our lifetime, are going to be absolutely enormous.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: This is about building for the future. It is about planning for the future. It is about - not to beat it to death - it is about children, it is about grandchildren, it is about not giving away any more, it is about getting equitable ownership in our resources offshore. I am sure the minister, this week, is going to have some calculations for you on what the recent announcement meant and what the hundreds of millions of dollars that we have spent have meant to the Province.

Nalcor is a company that is operating in the best interests of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and we stand behind them 100 per cent.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Mr. Speaker, the lobby company who received this $960,000 from Nalcor was Summa Strategies Canada. They were asked to access federal government agencies and departments such as ACOA, fisheries, environment and the prime minister's office about funding possibilities for the Lower Churchill.

I ask the Premier: Have relations between this government and Ottawa hit such a low that we need to pay almost a million dollars to lobbyists in order to conduct talks with the prime minister's office and federal departments?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, obviously the hon. members opposite have no idea of the magnitude and the scope of a project like this. Unfortunately, that is what happened to us back in 1969. I do not think there was a real understanding of the magnitude of that project.

I was up there just a couple of weeks ago and saw it, and looked at it, and just saw what an engineering marvel Upper Churchill is. We own it, it is on our river, we built it, we maintain it, we pay the cost of maintaining it, and all that profit, and all that money, billions of dollars goes across those wires and goes into Quebec. Now, I get that, and 99.9 per cent of Newfoundlanders get it, but they do not get it.

Now, this is a big deal; this is big stuff. We have to have the best lawyers money can buy, and the best engineers and the best consultants that money can buy. I can tell you if, for a million dollars, we could get financing or guarantees for $2 billion, or $3 billion, or $4billion dollars for the Lower Churchill, well that would be money pretty well spent (inaudible).

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Nalcor has been set up as a secret corporation by this government. They are not subject to the freedom of information laws, they are not subject to the Auditor General, they are not subject to the Public Tender Act. This information about this lobbyist expenditure only became available through the federal Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying.

How much more taxpayer money has been spent by Nalcor just to get meetings and information, which should be readily available to them through regular channels? Will government force Nalcor to release exactly how much information they have paid, in addition to this sum that has been revealed today?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: It sounds to be now like the Liberal government in Quebec must be giving them information, and the Liberal government in New Brunswick must be giving them information, and the Liberal government in Prince Edward Island must be giving them information, because they seem to be doing everything they can to advocate the Quebec and the Hydro-Quebec position.

Now, I have to tell you, politically, that is not somewhere I would want to be. As a Newfoundlander and a Labradorian, that is not somewhere I would want to be. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians get the fact that the work that Nalcor Energy and the Department of Natural Resources and this government has done for the people of this Province has been through the moon. It has been outstanding, it has been exceptional work, and the return has been incredible.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: So, to be getting on and want to know what is in the legal opinions and want to know what consultants are being hired, well that information goes right straight to Hydro-Quebec and then they use that information to work against us. Well, that is not going to happen. When we get a deal done, we will show you the whole lot of it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Before the Premier gets in a tizzy here about conspiracy theories and brown envelopes and whatever, I would just point out to the Premier that the information actually came off the federal government Web site from the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. There are no big secrets here about where the information came from.

The issue here is why does a 100 per cent provincially-funded corporation, such as Nalcor, have to pay a million bucks to talk to our prime minister's office or any federal department? That is pretty simple.

My final question to the Premier is: The Opposition, and indeed the general public, have always wondered if the Province is getting its value for Dr. FitzGerald? In fact, we have dubbed him Dr. Feelgood because it seems his primary goal was to make provincial cabinet ministers who visit Ottawa comfortable. Why has Nalcor not used Dr. FitzGerald to arrange these meetings and save the taxpayers of this Province a million dollars? That is pretty simple. Why not?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: What a transformation is after happening of the hon. member opposite. When he was over here, and he sat in the chair as a minister, and I asked him, as Leader of the Opposition, when they were going to do the Lower Churchill giveaway: Did you read the document? He said: No, I have not read the document. I will read it after I sign. That is what he said to me. That is exactly what he said to me. Now he is reading government Web sites. He has lots of time on his hands.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. the Premier to complete his response.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: I will give you one example. They should be calling him Dr. ‘Sealgood', because when the seal issue was on the go he went around to every single embassy on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador - he did an outstanding job –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: He identified for us who was with us and who was against us, and that was invaluable information to me. That is one example. If you have a couple of hours, I will give you another couple of dozen.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

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

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Community Services. For almost two years government has promised the people of the Province a long-term care and community support services strategy that so far has not materialized, at least publicly.

Mr. Speaker, people deserve to know what government is proposing. We need a planned approached to solving problems with home care in this Province.

I ask the Minister of Health and Community Services: Could you please inform the members of this House if we are going to see this strategy released in this sitting?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KENNEDY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can say to the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi that the long-term care strategy is not complete. It will not be completed for the sitting of this House. However, I will also say to the hon. member that we are moving ahead with the implementation of the long-term care strategy, Mr. Speaker, in building long-term care homes. This year we have committed $19.2 million for a 236 bed facility in Corner Brook; $9.3 million for a fifty bed long-term care home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay; site selection for a 460 bed long-term care home in St. John's; $500,000 for site selection of a long-term care home in Carbonear; $30 million approximately for the construction of a new long-term care home in Lewisporte, and fourteen long-term care beds in the new Lab West health centre. Whether it is a strategy or not, Mr. Speaker, we are moving ahead and we are serving the people of this Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

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

What I have just heard the minister tell me is that the government is building long-term care facilities. That is great; I am glad. What I asked is: Do you have a plan with regard to long-term care and community support? People in a town hall that I held last week in my district told me without any doubt whatsoever that home care is one of the best ways to take care of our sick and our elderly when they do not need long-term care. People are being put there when they do not need it.

Would you please tell me, Mr. Minister – I asked the Speaker to allow me to ask this question – what is in that strategy? Where is that strategy headed?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KENNEDY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have already indicated that the long-term care strategy is not complete. There are people who are diligently working on the strategy. There is no question that the strategy will encompass community care, home care, independent living, all of the aspects which are required for a long-term care strategy.

What I am saying to the member opposite, though, Mr. Speaker, is that without the strategy being fully finalized, we are still moving ahead. We are constructing long-term care. We are investing in home care. I also heard, Mr. Speaker – I watch the CBC Web site and I heard the stories of the people who are affected by home care. I heard the hon. member outline her personal circumstances and refer to how it affected her. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of the numbers of home care workers out there, but last year in the budget we put aside $16 million to increase home care wages, home care worker wages. Since, Mr. Speaker -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. minister to conclude his answer.

MR. KENNEDY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have infused $38.5 million since 2005-2006 in relation to the increase for home care worker wages.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the government has also said that there will be a new financial assessment process for home care recipients that supposedly will come into effect tomorrow, December 1. At the forum last week, people talked about their problems accessing home care, that they do not believe will be helped by the new financial assessment process.

Mr. Speaker, will the minister tell us when the new financial assessment process will actually be in place? Is it starting tomorrow, and will he please give us the details of the new assessment structure?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. KENNEDY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that the financial assessment tool will, in fact, be in place tomorrow. The latest numbers I have seen, I think close to 1,200 people who have been assessed or reassessed. I do not have the numbers in front of me, Mr. Speaker, but one example is that a couple, a seniors couple who would normally have to pay $1,100, as a result of this $7.5 million tool and the way it is utilized, will now pay $150; that a single individual, Mr. Speaker, who had to contribute a certain amount, it could have been around $700, would now not have to contribute anything.

So, tomorrow I can actually find the numbers - I have those somewhere – in terms of how this financial assessment tool will benefit people. It will be ready to proceed tomorrow. It is good news, Mr. Speaker, like most of the things this government does.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My question is for the Minister of Justice. Minister, a year ago a review of the prison systems called Decades of Darkness: Moving Towards the Light, was released to the public. It contained seventy-seven recommendations in all. One of those recommendations dealt with the construction of a pre-trial detention centre for youth and women in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, $2 million was in the Budget of 2009-2010 for that construction.

Could you tell us if the tender has yet been issued for that facility, and if not, what is the justification for the delays?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. F. COLLINS: Mr. Speaker, I can tell this House that this government is committed, in public committed to correctional facilities in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and, at the present time, the discussions are ongoing with regard to that pre-detention centre. There is a lot of work to be done on it. There is some preliminary work that has been done and planning, but the discussion is still ongoing and regrouping is the way to how best to handle the situation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The time allotted for questions and answers has expired.

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Education.

MR. KING: Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Memorial University Pensions Act No. 2. (Bill 38)

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Minister of Labrador Affairs.

MR. HICKEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement Act. (Bill 46)

I also give further notice, Mr. Speaker, to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement Act No. 2. (Bill 47)

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Minister of Government Services.

MR. O'BRIEN: Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Private Investigation And Security Services Act. (Bill 39)

I further give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Engineers And Geosciences Act, 2008. (Bill 44)

I further give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Vital Statistics Act, 2009. (Bill 42)

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Remove Anomalies And Errors In The Statute Law. (Bill 40)

I further give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Law With Respect To Definition Of Spouse. (Bill 41)

I further give notice I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Victims Of Crime Services Act. (Bill 45)

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. FRENCH: Mr. Speaker, I should have a speech, not a sentence for that response.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Repeal The Newspapers And Books Act. (Bill 43)

I am sure a significant piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion?

The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 63.(3) I move the following private member's motion:

WHEREAS it is estimated that there are over 120,000 moose living in Newfoundland and Labrador; and

WHEREAS more than 700 moose-vehicle collisions occur in our Province each year; and

WHEREAS moose-vehicle collisions result in human fatalities and a higher prevalence of head, neck and brain injuries than other motor vehicle accidents; and

WHEREAS the cost estimates to the provincial health care system for just initial emergency care due to moose-vehicle accidents is averaged at over $600,000 a year and cost estimates for vehicle damage is over $1 million annually; and

WHEREAS other provinces with lower moose populations have taken significant action to reduce moose-vehicle collisions; and

WHEREAS the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has not conducted a recent study or review of new technologies and mitigative options, such as fencing, lighting systems, increased brush cutting and increased hunting quotas, that could potentially lower the number of moose-vehicle accidents;

BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly call upon the government to initiate a comprehensive study to evaluate what technologies and mitigation techniques and investments can be undertaken to reduce moose-vehicle collisions in Newfoundland and Labrador; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this review include a detailed analysis of other jurisdictions, and evaluate options such as fencing, lighting systems, brush cutting and increasing hunting quotas; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this House of Assembly call upon government to accept and implement the conclusions or recommendations of any such review.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further notices of motion.

Answers to Questions for which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to present a petition on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, asking and calling upon government to take some action in terms of dealing with the number of vehicle collisions with moose on our highways throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

The committee which was started by a number of interested people across the Province is headed by Eugene Nippard, whom we have all heard of in the media on many occasions. Mr. Nippard and his organization, called Save Our People Action Committee, is comprised of people from all across the Province who have been affected by accidents with moose. They are either individuals themselves who have been left with tremendous disabilities and anguish, Mr. Speaker, as a result of accidents they themselves have had, or they are the family members of others who have lost their lives on our highways due to collisions with moose.

Mr. Speaker, these individuals have come together and they have done research in other provinces across Canada to look at how other provinces have dealt with vehicle accidents with moose on highways. They have made a number of recommendations in the public and they have provided those recommendations to government through various ministers and departments, asking for government to look at those options, look at what can be implemented to save lives on our own highways.

In the past year alone, Mr. Speaker, in fact since January, there have been four fatalities on our highways where people have lost their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I heard a lady on the radio this morning talking about how her husband had lost his life as a result of a vehicle collision with a moose; a lady by the name of Jennifer Pilgrim. Mr. Speaker, her story is all too common. It is all too common to too many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians today.

I sat in my office only a few weeks ago and listened to the story of a young woman who worked as a nurse, who had an accident on her way to work, who has been off work for the last five years and has been suffering from chronic pain and disabilities, and spending a lot of money to try and rehabilitate herself so that she, too, can have a satisfactory standard of living. These are the stories that are all too common across Newfoundland and Labrador.

In addition to four fatalities on our highways this year with moose, we have had 700 accidents on those highways. If you look at where these accidents are occurring, some of them are in areas that are much more common. There may be an increased volume of traffic, but there are also increased moose populations in those particular areas.

Mr. Speaker, if there is a way that we can reduce the number of families each year in this Province that are left in mourning for someone they love, who has been killed as a result of a moose accident, if there is some way, Mr. Speaker, we can alleviate the pain, the hardship and the financial burden that is put on many victims of accidents in these collisions on our highways, then we have a responsibility as governments and as a Province to actually do something about it.

Twenty thousand of those people across Newfoundland and Labrador are calling upon you today, Minister -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just, by leave, to clue up?

MR. SPEAKER: Does the hon. member have leave?

The hon. member by leave.

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Twenty thousand of those people today - and I am sure, Mr. Speaker, there are many more out there across Newfoundland and Labrador who did not get the opportunity to sign this petition - are asking the government today to hear our concerns and to take some action. The action that they want is: they want you to evaluate options. They want you to look at what will work best on our highways to reduce the number of vehicle-moose accidents, and they want you to look at this in the light of enacting those particular recommendations.

So, on behalf of those people, Mr. Speaker, I make their case in the House of Assembly today and I ask that government give this full consideration.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I take this opportunity to present I believe it is my sixty-eighth petition on behalf of the people of Southwestern Newfoundland with respect to the lack of dialysis services in that particular area.

In fact, since we were here - the last one I did was in September, when we had a brief two days here – there have been new developments as well. We, of course, have a new Minister of Health now in the form of Minister Kennedy, whereas Minister Wiseman used to be the Minister of Health.

I am pleased to see, in fact - because so far one of the individuals impacted by the dialysis, besides writing to myself and calling and sending e-mails, in fact, e-mailed the minister and the minister did indeed get to her and we have had some ongoing conversations. I think the minister – at least this minister - has an appreciation of the problem, whereas I cannot say the same for the former minister. You get lip service being paid to it, and rhetoric, but absolutely no action.

To date, I must say, this minister is dealing with the thing up front. If there are answers that need to be given, he goes out of his way to try to get them. For example, we could not even find out, as a public official in this Province, or as a person in this Province who lives on the Southwest Coast, we could not find out from the people at Western Health how many people in Southwestern Newfoundland receive dialysis.

We did not want any names, did not want any addresses, did not want any private information, but asked a simple question of the people at Western Health: How many people from the Codroy Valley down to Rose Blanche, which is inclusive of Port aux Basques and those areas, and Isle aux Morts, how many people receive dialysis services and they have to travel for them? We could not get the information. Now, can you imagine?

Anyway, this lady e-mailed the minister, and I am meeting with him later in the afternoon; he tells me he has that information. All we need is a simple number; because, of course, getting the problem solved is based upon numbers. Because they have been telling us for years, unless you have ten people in your area we cannot justify the setting up of the dialysis service.

Now, they have done it up in St. Anthony, of course, they have done it down the Burin Peninsula, they have done it out in Carbonear, and every time our numbers go up they come up with the excuse: We do not have the money in the budget. Every time the numbers go down, they say: You do not need it now.

Of course the numbers go up and down; because, believe it or not, folks, unfortunately, some of these people die. They die. Part of the reason they die is because they are not getting the proper service that they need in getting dialysis. That is why the numbers go up and down. Unfortunately, more people are being added to the numbers as time goes on.

Hopefully, based upon a conversation I am hoping to have with this Minister of Health this afternoon, we will get the information as to numbers. Hopefully, we will get some answers as to where we might be able to go to resolve this problem.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

Orders of the Day.

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

MS BURKE: Mr. Speaker, we are going to ask by leave today to do first reading of Bills 38, 39, 40 and 41.

MR. SPEAKER: Does the hon. member have leave to introduce Bills 38, 39, 40 and 41?

AN HON. MEMBER: Leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Indication that leave has been granted.

The hon. the Government House Leader.

MS BURKE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I move, seconded by the hon. Minister of Education, for leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Memorial University Pensions Act No. 2, Bill 38. I further move that the said bill be now read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is properly moved and seconded that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Memorial University Pensions Act No. 2, Bill 38, and that Bill 38 be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the minister shall have leave to introduce Bill 38 and that this bill be now read a first time?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

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

The motion is carried.

Motion, the hon. the Minister of Education to introduce a bill, "An Act To Amend The Memorial University Pensions Act No. 2", carried. (Bill 38)

CLERK: A bill, An Act To Amend The Memorial University Pensions Act No. 2, Bill 38.

MR. SPEAKER: Bill 38 has now been read a first time.

When shall the said bill be read a second time?

MS BURKE: Tomorrow.

MR. SPEAKER: Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 38 read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

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

MS BURKE: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the hon. the Minister of Government Services, for leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Private Investigation And Security Services Act, Bill 39, and I further move that the said bill be now read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is properly moved and seconded that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Private Investigation And Security Services Act, Bill 39, and that this bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the House that Bill 39 be now read a first time?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

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

The motion is carried.

Motion, the hon. the Minister of Government Services to introduce a bill, "An Act To Amend The Private Investigation And Security Services Act", carried. (Bill 39)

CLERK: A bill, An Act To Amend The Private Investigation And Security Services Act, Bill 39.

MR. SPEAKER: Bill 39 has now been read a first time.

When shall the said bill be read a second time?

MS BURKE: Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 39 read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

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

MS BURKE: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the hon. the Minister of Justice for leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Remove Anomalies And Errors In The Statute Law, Bill 40, and I further move that the said bill be now read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is properly moved and seconded that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Remove Anomalies And Errors In The Statute Law, and that this bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave to introduce Bill 40 and that this bill be now read a first time?

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

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

The motion is carried.

Motion, the hon. the Minister of Justice to introduce a bill, "An Act To Remove Anomalies And Errors In The Statute Law", carried. (Bill 40)

CLERK: A bill, An Act To Remove Anomalies And Errors In The Statute Law, Bill 40.

MR. SPEAKER: Bill 40 has now been read a first time.

When shall Bill 40 be read a second time?

MS BURKE: Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 40 read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

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

MS BURKE: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the hon. the Minister of Justice for leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Law With Respect To The Definition Of Spouse, Bill 41, and I further move that the said bill be now read a first time.

MR. SPEAKER: It is moved and seconded by the hon. the Government House Leader that she shall have leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Law With Respect To The Definition Of Spouse, Bill 41, and that this said bill be now read a first time.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave to introduce Bill 41 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'.

The motion is carried.

Motion, the hon. the Minister of Justice to introduce a bill, "An Act To Amend The Law With Respect To The Definition Of Spouse", carried. (Bill 41)

CLERK: A bill, An Act To Amend The Law With Respect To The Definition Of Spouse, Bill 41.

MR. SPEAKER: Bill 41 has now been read a first time.

When shall Bill 41 be read a second time?

MS BURKE: Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Tomorrow.

On motion, Bill 41 read a first time, ordered read a second time on tomorrow.

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

MS BURKE: Mr. Speaker, from the Order Paper we would like to call Order 2, Address in Reply.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS PERRY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my pleasure to rise in this House today to speak to the Speech from the Throne which is primarily focused, I guess, on staying the course. We certainly have a lot to be proud of here in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly under the Administration of the Williams' government which has been leading us to prosperity; steadily but surely.

Staying the course is one of the pillars of our Throne Speech. For the first time since Confederation, this year, Newfoundland and Labrador has achieved have status. Quite an accomplishment for our Province which, for sixty years, has been trailing behind and are now moving towards leading the way across this entire country.

Weathering the storm is something we have done quite well. The global recession which has impacted the entire world, we have fared through fairly well in Newfoundland and Labrador. Again, it is because of the policies and procedures put in place by this government that focus on long-term stability, include a major investment in infrastructure, and certainly includes improving health care and education.

Mr. Speaker, our government and our Throne Speech this year, the direction we have taken, is all about preparing our people for self-reliance. We have measures such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy. We have major investments in education which are making a difference all across this entire Province, including rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Capping class sizes, new programs are introduced, free text books, we are freezing tuition. We are opening the doors for many more people to be able to afford a post-secondary education and, in turn, become leaders of tomorrow.

We also have the Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy which was recently released. Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, there are some outstanding young people in this Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and they are providing us with excellent guidance and vision for where they want to see this Province go over the next few years.

We are growing our economy, investing in innovation and diversification, regional collaboration, the Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador, the ocean technologies sector, fishery renewal, investing in aquaculture, and establishing ourselves as leaders in research and development by launching the Research & Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador. This will enable us to capitalize on new and emerging opportunities in ocean technology, energy and biotechnology, just to name a few.

The Throne Speech clearly recognizes our respect as a government of people. We are measuring our success by the difference we are making in the lives of ordinary citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador. We intend to ensure that our Province has communities that remain places where people can put down their roots and raise families in an environment that is socially and economically secure.

Mr. Speaker, we have great expectations and we continue to focus on our greatest resources and strengths: our people and our natural resources.

In my District of Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune, the leadership of this government is clearly producing strong, sustainable, economic renewal in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. We are experiencing solid growth.

I am going to talk about the fishery a little bit down my way. It is still the most significant employer for the Coast of Bays region, and it continues to be a very, very, very important industry for our future. We have over 500 people directly employed in this sector as fisherpersons, and it is critical to our long-term survival. We, as a government, are investing in the fishery and working towards a fishery of the future that is sustainable for our rural communities.

Some of our investments include the processing policy renewal; increase in research and development; improved occupational health and safety; we have enhanced the harvesting sector loan guarantee program; we are strengthening workforce measures, and we are committed to continue lobbying for custodial management and an early retirement program. Most recently, we have hired an accounting firm to further assess the processing and harvesting viability. So, certainly more great work will be coming through co-operation with the fishing industry itself.

In my former life, prior to entering politics, I worked very closely with local municipalities and the regional economic development board, the Newfoundland Salmonid Growers Association, the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, and the industry players at large, to further promote and grow the aquaculture industry, which has emerged as a very important employer in rural Newfoundland and Labrador as well. For over ten years, when I worked with the regional board, we lobbied and lobbied and lobbied government for a significant investment that was required to bring us to that next step and enable us to realize that increase in employment. I am very, very pleased to say that since 2003 this government has been listening, and this government has delivered. Early in 2004, the Aquaculture Loan Guarantee Program was announced. The Budget for 2007-2008 provided funding for blood-water treatment facilities for all of the fish processing facilities in the area, where aquaculture and the fishery are operating side by side fairly harmoniously.

We have also made an investment in infrastructure, with the recent announcement of $7.8 million for the new fish health facility. We are building four new biosecurity facilities. There is an over $8.5 million investment in a new cod hatchery in my district. Over $20 million has been invested through the Feed Loan Guarantee Program, and this $20 million investment has generated an additional $150 million in private sector investment that did not exist in this Province prior to our government taking on this industry and improving the programs available to accelerate its growth. So, certainly, we are witnessing the results quite strongly in the Coast of Bays region of what this government is doing to renew rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

Overall, I am really pleased. In fact, I am extremely pleased with the investment this government has made in just two short years in my rural, remote district of Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune, and I know from speaking with my colleagues that these investments are being made throughout the entire Province of Newfoundland and Labrador for the well-being of urban and rural communities.

I will take a look at my small community of Pool's Cove, for example, that has a population of less than 200 people. The difference in that community now from four years ago is astounding. The community is alive, it is vibrant, and everybody is at work. We are investing not only in the industries there but in the social well-being there as well. A new youth centre was recently funded and certainly that is benefiting not only the youth of the community but everyone from zero to the oldest person in the community is availing of the programs and facilities that were put in place there with the support of this government.

We have done small things that make a huge difference, like installing culverts, removing a large rock at the entrance to Pool's Cove which was posing a driving hazard for our motorists. That rock was there for decades, no one done anything about it. This government fixed that problem early this year. It is measures like this that to me point out how important this government values the voice of the people and the voice of their members in bringing to the attention of government things that need to be done.

Some other things that we have done, we provided funding to assist with the St. Jacques Community Centre, new playground equipment in the Fortune Bay area, certainly investments in almost every - ambulance service, I have all community-based ambulance services and they are certainly pleased with the recent conclusion of negotiations. Our fire departments are benefiting significantly and my fire departments are in all rural remote communities and all volunteer based. This government is certainly doing what it can to support them and we really respect and appreciate the work of our committees in communities throughout the entire Province.

Rencontre East has had its clinic upgraded and there have been repairs to the school roof in Hermitage. At Conne River, we have made significant investments in industry, including aquaculture and tourism. We have provided $15,000 to help establish a young woman's cultural club at Conne River, and the list goes on. Our communities in rural Newfoundland and Labrador are strong and vibrant, with excellent volunteers, and we as a government are committed to working with these volunteers and improving the programs and services that are offered on the ground for the benefit of our people.

Speaking now, I guess, to the Province as a whole in terms of this year's budget and where this government is going. Low income earners and small businesses are certainly among the beneficiaries of the new tax measures that were introduced by this government. Some of these include: the low income tax reduction program; the dividend tax credit for small businesses; the corporate income tax small business threshold increased from $400,000 to $500,000; the labour sponsored venture capital tax credit is out there to help small businesses; and we have had a reduction in commercial electrical permit fees. You hear often, sometimes: What are we doing for rural Newfoundland and Labrador? These measures are making a difference in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. They are helping the small business, they are helping the small community organizations out there, and everything we can do to help certainly is a benefit.

The provincial employment level is also higher than it has been in over thirty years. What a difference six years under the Administration of a new government can make. Ten years ago it was all bleak, doom and gloom for Newfoundland and Labrador. She is gone, boy, she is gone. I do not hear that too much these days; very rarely, in fact, do I hear that these days. The employment increase – and again, going back to rural Newfoundland and Labrador – is especially evident in my rural district. Again, we have seen in the last two years alone over 500 new jobs created in this emerging sector, and we anticipate over the next five years or so we will see 1,000 more new jobs, all in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

As the aquaculture industry grows, Mr. Speaker, in the Coast of Bays region, it benefits the Province as a whole. We are seeing it outreach, for example, to trucking companies on the West Coast, boat manufacturing and barge building on the East Coast, and in Central Newfoundland and Labrador, the service sector in Central Newfoundland and Labrador. The Irving Big Stop certainly benefits from gas sales to all the tractor trailers that are bringing in feed and fish for us. So even though you hear a lot of talk about the investments directly in the Coast of Bays region, the benefits of growing this industry are certainly going to be felt by the entire Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and we are going to see more to come.

As I talked about earlier, before entering politics I worked for about twelve years in community economic development, and at almost every meeting I went to, whether it was Central caucus, whereby zone boards from all of Central Newfoundland got together, or the pan-provincial whereby everyone from Labrador to St. John's came together for meetings, which we did twice a year, or we were at some other type of conference that was initiated by government that we were participating in, you always heard, always, talk about out-migration and the brain drain. That is something else I do not hear a whole lot of talk about anymore.

Mr. Speaker, this government is changing all of that. In fact, in four of the last six quarters, for the first time in decades we are witnessing population growth in both rural Newfoundland and Labrador. I, for one, would certainly like to see a lot of more people talking about the positive things that are happening and as much as we talked about the brain drain, we should be talking about how things really are improving, we continue that positive energy and we continue to bring people home.

Certainly, in my Coast of Bays region in the last year alone, we have seen about twenty new families move in. They are having children and we certainly look forward to more good things like that to come.

As the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune, I feel that it is critical in my role as the MHA for the people to raise the profile of my district across this entire Province and to advocate for the investments that are needed to grow our economy and sustain our communities.

I am confident, in fact, I know that we have the full support of this government and we are well on our way to ensuring a bright future. Indeed, we have already begun. And, as far as I am concerned, we are enjoying a better today because of the administration, the policies and the vision of this government and what we are doing in partnership with the people for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is a great privilege for me to stand in this House today and to be able to speak on the Address In Reply. Particularly, I would like to pick up in terms of where my colleague, the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune, just started and ended, and that is with how well we have weathered the economic storm that has hit, not just this Province, not just this country, but the whole world.

Newfoundland and Labrador has weathered this storm, I would suggest, better than most, but my opinion is just that. The opinions of economists from around this country, the opinion of economists from around the world are saying the same thing. Global market, in its recent report said that Newfoundland and Labrador weathered and is continuing to weather this particular economic storm better than any other jurisdiction in Canada. We need to take note of that, we need to know that we are on the right course and we need to continue to follow that road, Mr. Speaker, because we are doing the right thing.

Very early on, Mr. Speaker, this government recognized the perils that were ahead and immediately, and was quick off the mark, to ensure that infrastructure spending was high on our list. We jumped into the fray. We invested $800 million, Mr. Speaker, in infrastructure spending in this Province because we knew that to keep the economy of this Province on the move we had to keep people employed, we had to have people working, we had to have a sense of confidence developed in our Province, and we did that

The infrastructure spending that happened in this Province, this summer, I think is unequal. District after district, you are going to hear, as we stand to speak in reply to the address. District after district will outline for you the benefits realized as a result of that infrastructure investment. I, too, will do the same thing momentarily when I make direct reference to my district and the difference that this infrastructure spending made.

Mr. Speaker, when we took government in 2003, this government was faced with a very unsustainable fiscal situation in this Province and strategies were put in place immediately to take care of this. Immediately, we understood that debt had to have gotten under control and we did that, Mr. Speaker. Immediately, we understood the implications of the financial situation in which we found ourselves and we put in place strategies that addressed those scenarios. Very quickly, we learned that again, we were on the right road. Indications came to us early enough as we saw credit ratings improving and so on.

Mr. Speaker, the real indication that told us that where we were going and the strategies that we were putting in place to address this unenviable situation of high debt and financial ruin in this Province, the real indicator that told us that we had put in place the best set of initiatives came when have status was awarded to this Province, Mr. Speaker.

We, all in this Province, have something to be proud of when we are able to stand up and for the first time since Confederation say that we are a have Province in this federation. There is no better indicator of our being on the right course.

There are a number of issues, Mr. Speaker, that I can outline to give indication of that particular right course of action, and perhaps I would just like to take a few minutes to do some of those, because when the recession hit, we certainly already knew that we had put in a balanced approach and that we were on the right path in terms of being able to find ways forward.

Let me talk about my district in particular, Mr. Speaker, and the Central area of the Province was perhaps one of the hardest hit. After 100 years, Mr. Speaker, in our area of the Province, in Grand Falls-Windsor, we lost our major employer; a huge blow to the area, but not one that is insurmountable because this government has made a promise to look after the area and will continue to do so. The $800 million in infrastructure investment saw huge implications for my district, but Mr. Speaker, we did more, much more, for the district.

I would like to take a few minutes just to outline some of those for those in our listening audience, our viewing audience, who perhaps just hear a scattered news release or a scattered story about infrastructure and other spending that is happening out in the district and the surrounding districts, because of course the loss of the paper mill was not simply felt in my district. It was felt in the District of Grand Falls-Windsor-Green Bay South, it was felt in the District of Exploits, it was felt in the District of Terra Nova, and so on. Mr. Speaker, I will leave that to my colleagues to point out all of the spending that has happened out there to help with the issue.

I will speak directly to spending that has been earmarked for my district. Five million dollars, Mr. Speaker, in funding allocated for the Community Development Trust. Seven point three million dollars for the infrastructure upgrades and improvements to the Trans-Canada Highway in the district, also in the Buchans Highway area, monies that have been asked for year over year are coming to the district to help with the loss of the paper mill, but certainly the upgrade of the infrastructure out there.

Eight hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Speaker, for the expansion of the Mary March Museum, and I can tell you that over and over again people in my district are saying: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, that again is something that we have been asking for, for a number of years. Our district is rich in heritage; our district is rich in a legacy of the Mi'kmaq and other native groups to the area. The Mary March Museum does much to promote that, but the Mary March Museum does much more in the sense that it will bring forward other exhibitions from across this Province. It will also now be able to introduce school programs for our children, to be able to educate them in the values and the culture of our area, and that is such an important piece of work. I hear from teachers, I hear from parents, and I certainly hear from those interested in the preservation of our heritage, that this $800,000 investment in the infrastructure of the Mary March Museum is very well deserved.

There was $1.6 million for the maintenance of and improvement to Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation units in my district, Mr. Speaker. Again, something we have very much needed and something that the residents of Grand Falls-Windsor, in particular, are very happy for; $3.3 million in municipal multi-year capital works. I would think, and I know because I heard it over and over again this summer, that the amount of roadwork that was done in my community, particularly this summer, has been of a size never before seen. Roadwork, there were parts of the town torn up all summer long; different parts of the town, because we could finally look to getting this infrastructure done. Why, Mr. Speaker? Because, again, this government knows the value of investing in its people, knows the value of investing in its infrastructure, and saw a direct need in the Central portion of this Province and responded to it.

There was $2.1 million in tax assistance for the towns affected by the closure of the mill. Mr. Speaker, I cannot begin to tell you how important that is, or how well accepted that was by the people in my area. This gives them three years now to find a way forward, knowing and having the reassurance and the assistance of the provincial government by way of tax assistance. It is a huge relief for those municipalities.

Also, $500,000, Mr. Speaker, was used for repairs and renovations for our school facilities. I relate just in the area of my town that we are talking about, Exploits Valley Intermediate, and you just need to drive by there, you can see the investment that has been made there, to Millcrest Academy, to Sprucewood Academy; $500,000 for the upgrades to the College of the North Atlantic Grand Falls-Windsor campus. Mr. Speaker, as we find our way forward I have no doubt that education will play a huge role. This initial investment of $500,000 for upgrades to the College of the North Atlantic is certainly just a beginning. We know that there is much more to come.

There was $4.6 million, Mr. Speaker, for improvements to the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre. Very much applauded in my district. The pharmacy renovations that have been asked for, for so long, are currently underway. In fact, they are 30 per cent completed, I found out when I last asked a couple of weeks ago; $900,000 invested for those pharmacy renovations at that particular hospital. They are to be completed in March of 2010. Phase II of the renovations to the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre for this year will see the redevelopment of the OR suites, the endoscopy and the cystoscopy units. That will be signed off on very soon and we can look forward again to more improvements at the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre. Again, very much needed, very much appreciated by the people of my district.

There was $500,000 for the development of a plan to construct the youth addictions residential treatment centre in Grand Falls as well, Mr. Speaker. Incidentally, I should point out that the consulting team submitted that final report and the master plan to Central Health on October 23 of this year. So we can look forward now to seeing the results of that plan and we know that the construction of that new facility for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador will begin in 2010. Again, a major indicator of support for my area.

Mr. Speaker, this summer we also - those particular announcements that I just referenced came out of Budget 2009 but this summer, through our taskforce initiatives and again through our commitment to this region of the Province that has been hard hit, investment continued. Economic development and stimulus packages were put in place in various other ways to try to diversify the economy of the area. Again, something very much needed in the area. Having seen the closure of the mill in the area we knew we needed to diversify. We knew we needed to look to other investments. We knew we needed to find new industry. So to that end, the cranberry industry is a really good example. It has the potential, Mr. Speaker, to provide for meaningful employment and to contribute significantly to the economic well-being of our area. So realizing that potential, Mr. Speaker, this government this summer, committed $2.2 million to the development of that emerging industry in the area.

Revitalizing the town's downtown core was also a significant piece of work that people in my area had been lobbying for a long time. Certainly, the town council of Grand Falls-Windsor has been looking for a way to attract new visitors, to attract new business to the downtown. We have the beautiful Exploit's River running right through the downtown area of Grand Falls and yet we have never done very much to develop that as a means of attracting people to the downtown. Most towns and cities, Mr. Speaker, would do that. We are looking to do the same thing. The government of this day, Mr. Speaker, recognized and understood the need to do that and so therefore we committed this summer $1.5 million in provincial funding to look to that redevelopment of the downtown core.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: Our health and social sciences sectors, undoubtedly a key growth area for the area as well. I welcome, Mr. Speaker, Memorial University's announcement that a new research office and a new medical laboratory assistant program at the College of the North Atlantic will be started. In fact, the medical research project, I noticed in the paper the other day, the consultants have been in, they are looking to find space now. They are looking to set up in the very near future. I am happy to say that our medical lab assistant program at the College of the North Atlantic is now open for business, has taken in its first students and they are proceeding through that program with all kinds of accolades, all kinds of support for the program at a cost of $500,000.

AN HON. MEMBER: What a government.

MS SULLIVAN: What a government is right.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: Furthermore, in terms of looking at investments in the area of Grand Falls-Windsor and in providing support. The Home Heating Rebate office has been moved to Grand Falls-Windsor as well as the Parental Benefits Program. It, too, at a cost of $720,000, Mr. Speaker, has been moved to Grand Falls-Windsor. The good news about that, of course, is that it will create for our district, for our area, some twenty-three permanent seasonal jobs. Again, supporting the people of the region.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MS SULLIVAN: Mr. Speaker, we are also happy to be able to show off our community spirit in Grand Falls-Windsor and in the surrounding areas and to be able to host the Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games. The 2010 Games will be coming to Grand Falls. Grand Falls-Windsor has a reputation, I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, for hosting and putting off first-class events. With the help of our neighbouring communities, I have no doubt that we will continue to do that.

Government has invested $250,000 for the operation of the Winter Games and an additional $100,000 to provide for transportation of athletes and coaches to the region. Again, we look at the infusion of those athletes in our area; we look at what happens when we bring in coaches and parents. We know all of our restaurants are going to be filled, we know all of our accommodations are going to be filled, and that, sir, in terms of helping the region cannot be underestimated. More than that, Mr. Speaker, I would say that, again, given the opportunity to show off in one of the areas where we know we are able to survive, in the area of being able to host something in a first-class manner will be equally important to the spirit of Grand Falls-Windsor.

I am not done yet, Mr. Speaker. I can go on and on. I am going to be cut off before I am finished the number of investments that I can list out here as proof that this government has been doing everything that it can to support Central Newfoundland, but more so to show that this government understands the need for investment, understands the need for spending even during difficult times.

For example, Mr. Speaker, $1.4 million was announced by my colleague the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development and the minister responsible for the task force just this summer in Grand Falls-Windsor. Again, to the College of the North Atlantic, and this time it is for a trades training facility. It is a convertible training facility that will allow us to be able to adjust the training that happens at the college to the need identified by the market. A very valuable investment in Grand Falls-Windsor and, again, we are looking at bringing in students into the area. We know that when students come into the area they spend money in terms of housing; they spend money in terms of social events. They become part of our community and hopefully, they will find opportunity to stay in our community once they are trained up in those particular skills. So we are certainly very happy about that.

Mr. Speaker, we have never overlooked the importance of the forest industry to the region and neither will we ever. The forestry region is an important sector and we will continue to find ways to redevelop the forestry sector in our area. We will continue to find opportunities to reinvest in the forestry sector of our area as well. Mr. Speaker, so much has been done and yet we know we still are on a journey. We still have a ways to go.

What I would like to do though is sort of highlight where the provincial government had come from when they were recognized way back in the early 2000s as a Province that struggled, as a Province that was in financial debt, as a Province that perhaps was not going very far, very fast, to a Province that is now recognized right across this country as a have Province. Mr. Speaker, the Poverty Reduction Strategy that we have put in place; the Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy that we have put in place; the devolution of the labour market agreement. All of these initiatives have highlighted again our government's sense of vision, our government's understanding of where we need to go. If I had another twenty minutes on each of those issues, on each of those initiatives, it still, Mr. Speaker, would not be enough to be able to tell you about the good work that we have done there.

Mr. Speaker, just as the Province has been able to pull itself up to reach the status of a have province, to be recognized right across this country as one of the provinces that has weathered the storm better than any other jurisdiction, I suggest to you that the central area of this Province is going to do the exact same thing. The reason, Mr. Speaker, that we are going to be able to do the exact same thing, or I should say the reasons are twofold. One is that we have a government that believes in us, in the central area of this Province. We have a government that is never going to let hold of us. We have a government that is going to help us find the way and, of course, we have a people in the area of Central Newfoundland who are resilient. We have a people in the area of Central Newfoundland who are resourceful. This was the same people, or their ancestors, Mr. Speaker, who were told you could not build a mill in the central part of the Island in the first place. Well, we did and we succeeded.

MR. SPEAKER (T. Osborne): Order, please!

MS SULLIVAN: And we succeeded for 100 years.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MS SULLIVAN: I need to tell you, Mr. Speaker -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

AN HON. MEMBER: Leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Does the hon. member have leave?

SOME HON. MEMBERS: By leave.

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

MS SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have no doubt, all that it takes to succeed in Central Newfoundland - as I said, we have a government that is firmly committed to us, that is firmly supportive, but not only that, Mr. Speaker, we have a government that has vision. We have a government that has a proven track record that is able to show us how to move forward, and as I said, we have a people that have the resilience and have the resourcefulness and have the tenacity, Mr. Speaker, to find that way forward as well.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the extra time. Hopefully, there will be a time when I stand again because there is so much more that I can tell you about what has happened (a) in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, but also in the central area of this Province.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate an opportunity to have a few words in this Address in Reply it is called. The fall session, of course, is normally a legislative session but being day one, it takes time to circulate the legislation that we are going to be debating here. So, I guess tomorrow we will be down to actually debating some pieces of legislation that the government gave notice of and circulated here today.

Of course, there is another section on the Order Paper, or the agenda, that deals with Address in Reply. Basically, back in March here, we had a Throne Speech, and there was an address sent in reply to that by certain members of the government and endorsed as well by the Opposition acknowledging receipt of it. This is an opportunity for members in the House to speak to that Address in Reply. It is pretty general, generic in nature. The minister, who just spoke, of course, alluded to some generalities but also to events in her district and so on. That is an opportunity basically, I guess, for a member to state what is happening in his or her district and where they think government might be going in general. Not always, of course, the government members are going to be flattering on all occasions of their government's performance, but Opposition members sometimes do have a different view of how the world works.

We, of course, had the Throne Speech. The analogy was drawn to the famous Captain Bob Bartlett and his Arctic explorations, and this is the year of celebration of Captain Bartlett. They compared the movings of this government since 2003 to Captain Bartlett's ship and trying to calm the waters and how to manoeuvre properly and so on. That was the analogy that was given, and hopefully, we are going to go as a Province in the future. I say to the government members, it is pretty clear that recently the ship hit a rock on one occasion. On another occasion, the ship took on water, some very serious water. I refer, of course, to the two recent by-elections that have just taken place in this Province. One up in The Straits & White Bay North, and one that took place in Terra Nova. I participated in a few, of course, and also participated in general elections when I ran myself.

First off, I want to say congratulations to the two persons who were successful. In the District of The Straits & White Bay North, of course, Mr. Dean, who is now the member, was successful in that particular by-election, and in the case of Terra Nova, Mr. Collins was successful. Congratulations and hats off to both of the new MHAs. One of whom has taken his seat in this House today, and the other who will be here shortly. I would also like to congratulate all the other participants in the by-election by way of being candidates, because it is not an easy thing to do to put your name on the ballot. It is a pretty tough thing to do. Some people do it frivolously, just to put their name out there. Others do it because they seriously are principled and want to take part in the democratic process. All of them work hard to try to get elected. Some people, of course, are more fortunate than others. Sometimes it is a combination of circumstances that are against you, that you are not successful. Sometimes it has nothing to do, of course, with you as a person. It has to do, sometimes, with party fortunes. Sometimes it has a lot to do with the individual, I would submit.

In any case, congratulations to all of the participants, regardless of what political stripe you may be. It takes courage and it takes determination to put your name on the sheet and go through it, and it is a tough slog for the three-week period. Anybody who is involved in it knows it is tough. You do all the standards things, of course, in the process of putting up signs, you have meetings with constituents, you have meetings with groups in your district and associations, you are doing your door-to-door campaigning, you are having your telephone campaigning going on, meeting with different organizations. A lot of hard work, a lot of long days, and of course you hope at the end of it that you are successful.

When I refer to the ship hitting a rock, I am referring to the ship – in this case, she hit the rock up around St. Anthony somewhere. Captain Bob's imaginary ship analogy that the government used in its Throne Speech; they hit a big rock up around St. Anthony, major, major rock, folks. Lo and behold, they went down, the ship sailed on down the coast and got down as far as Terra Nova, lo and behold she took on some serious water, did not strike a rock, but took on some serious water.

Now, I was personally particularly pleased with having, number one, been involved in both by-elections; and secondly, the outcomes of the by-elections. First of all, let me say why I was pleased to have been personally involved, because first of all I met a lot of people in this Province in both districts who I did not know before. Obviously, I am from the Southwest Coast; I have not had an opportunity to meet a lot of them. I did a lot of door-to-door of both campaigns, and I am telling you, they say Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are the salt of the earth, and I can vouch for that more today as a result of attending and helping out in those two by-elections than ever before. That is regardless, again, of what political stripe they were. I met both of them. Tories, we call them, I met Liberals, I met NDPs, no matter - but they are fine people. They are fine people.

Obviously, you learn about issues. Now, you know a lot about your own personal issues in your district, for example, but we do not know a lot, and I do not know a lot and have a lot of involvement when it comes to forestry issues, for example. For example, in my district, which runs from Cape Ray down the coast to Burgeo, there is not a lot of forest. So forestry is not an issue that I have a very, very informed knowledge of. Certainly, out in Terra Nova, that is a very important industry the people in the Terra Nova District would be the forest industry. Also, shipbuilding, I was not aware, based on experience in my own district, about shipbuilding issues, but obviously they are very important to the people in the Terra Nova district. So, it was informative, it was very educational and I think that only broadens one's horizons and gives a person a better opportunity to understand the issues that we have in this Province.

Some of the district's issues, of course, were very similar - fisheries. No matter where you live in this Province, probably except for the Northeast Avalon and the capital city, you are pretty well involved in fisheries issues. Health care issues, pretty general throughout the Province regardless of where you live. Employment issues, for example, are very important. Those issues are pretty prevalent throughout the whole thing.

You meet a lot of fine people, I say, you meet a lot of fine people. I met people who helped out – there is one gentleman, for example, who lives in Bunyan's Cove. I have never been there before in my life. His name is Gus Oldford. He watches these proceedings, he tells me, religiously, day in, day out. I said to him: Mr. Oldford, the next time I am on my feet in the House of Assembly, I am going to recognize you. He tells me that there are actually a lot of people out in TV land who watch what goes on here and listens to what goes on here.

I met people like Marlie Genge and Arlene MacLean up on the Northern Peninsula. Ed Goudie, the Ren Genges of the world. All of whom have, and are entitled to have, an opinion of what they think we, as MHAs and politicians, do in this House here. They do not hold back on voicing those opinions nor should they.

That was the other educational piece about it because you get to listen to people from different areas of the Province who have different points of view; different perspectives sometimes even on the same issue. So that was very educational. People in Terra Nova who were involved - and there are just too many to name because I met dozens and dozens of them as part of the process.

Back to the ship again; they call it a ship, and as I say, she hit a rock and took on water in two districts. The recently appointed Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, who I have personally congratulated, upon his appointment today, he was known as the election in a box. We used to call him the election in a box. They used to have a little box done up and he was the carrier of the box, I guess. He used to go out and his job was to organize and win these by-elections. He had a great record. He had a fantastic record and, no doubt, he has been rewarded. He has been rewarded, no doubt, by the Premier for all the fine work he put in.

As I said to him today: I guess the bottom is a little bit soggy in the bottom of your box now. Soggy bottom box they call it now. Guess what? The election in a box did not work. It did not work up in St. Anthony. Guess what, folks? It almost did not work in Terra Nova and I am going to tell you why. I am going to tell you why it did not work now.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Now, a lot of the members here, they get boisterous now, Mr. Speaker. Did you notice that? The more I say here, and I have not been insightful or anything here today in terms of trying to incite them to get rowdy and nasty. I am just telling it like it is.

MS JONES: They are all vulnerable.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: In fact, the Leader of the Opposition just mentioned a word to me, and maybe that is what it is. She said: They feel vulnerable. Maybe that is what it is. Because someone said to me the other day, after Terra Nova: Well, a lot of them people in the House, you know, they came there on coattails. They came there on the coattails of the Premier, but they said: Guess what? The Premier is not wearing a trench coat any more, he has a sports coat. The coattails are getting shorter.

Now there are some of them here, no doubt about it, there are a lot of members here who came here on their own merits, great constituency persons, great organizations in their districts and whatever, but there are some here who came on the coattails of the Premier. They know who they are.

In fact, the current Minister of Business, he knows what I am talking about. I worked my little fingers and my feet off to get him elected back when –

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Oh yes, out in the good district; I did so. He knows I did; guaranteed, I did. Now, meanwhile he knows very little about loyalty, I will not even go there. He knows very little about that.

This is not about being nasty today; this is not about being nasty, this is about being factual. In fact, to be factual and try to make my point I am going to cite none other than the Chief Electoral Officer of this Province and the statistics that came out of these districts. You cannot fudge this folks, this is not this member's interpretation, and this is raw data, actual facts which cannot be perverted or convoluted.

I want to tell you why the ship sunk a rock in the first place and then I am going to tell you why she took on water. Now, first of all the rock that she hit up around St. Anthony -

MR. HICKEY: That was an iceberg, boy.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: No, no I say to the Member for Lake Melville it was not an iceberg. She did not glance off an iceberg; she hit the rock and sank. There is no question about it. She did not glance off anything.

Now, back to these facts, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Back to these facts, Mr. Speaker. It is a fact, for example, when you look at The Straits & White Bay North that a government member won it in 2003 and in 2007. In 2007, for example, and this is a fact, in 2007 the former member for The Straits & White Bay North won that district by 1,293 votes. That is how decisive the victory was. By 1,293 votes over the nearest person, the Liberal candidate. Guess what happened a few weeks ago in The Straits & White Bay North, folks? Guess what happened? We did not have a PC member come back from The Straits & White Bay North. That 1,293 vote lead that existed a mere two years ago has evaporated. Disappeared. Disappeared, and we have a Liberal member who sits there today with us. Now that is a rock, folks. That is a rock. That is rock-solid evidence that the ship hit a rock.

Now, looking at Terra Nova, if you want to talk about taking on water. The figures are even more substantial. In 2007, the former member for Terra Nova – and I can see by the looks from some of the members opposite that you are hearing this information for the first time. In 2007, the former PC member won the Terra Nova District by 2,646 votes. Imagine! Almost 2,700 vote majority two years ago. Now, what happened just last week? What happened just last week? The Progressive Conservative member won the district, but guess by how much? Guess by how much? Not 2,700 votes. Not 2,000 votes. Not 1,500 votes. Not even 1,000 votes. The newly elected Member for Terra Nova won by 735 votes. Guess what, folks? That is a 2,000 vote turnaround. Now, that is a 2,000 vote difference between just two years ago. Now you tell me that is not taking on some serious water. You tell me that is not taking on some serious water. When you win in 2007 with 73 per cent of the vote, and you barely make the 50 per cent two years out.

Now, contrary to what our Premier would have you believe that all is well in rural Newfoundland, I think there is a message in that. I think there is a serious message in that, and some of the coattail people are paying attention. There is a very serious message. You do not lose your 1,293 vote majority and lose the seat, and you do not lose 2,000 votes from two years and then claim that all is well. All is not well, folks, and the PC Party knows it is not well.

MR. O'BRIEN: Go on, sit down out of it.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: I say to the Member for Gander, who just told me to sit down, by the way, I have as much right as anybody in this House to stand and I will sit down when the Chair tells me to sit, and not him. If he cannot hear what is happening in rural Newfoundland, he may well be one of those coattails that is going to get clipped very soon, I say to the member. Maybe that is why he wants me to sit down because he does not like to hear the news, because it is not good news.

Now, I have to hand it to the government members, though. Now, come on, I will be fair here. I will be the first one to say that they tried everything in their power to win. Absolutely! They tried everything in their power to win. I was up in Flower's Cove, in The Straights & White Bay North District, and I could not get up over some steps, they were coming down over the steps. Seriously, seriously. There were more Cabinet ministers and more MHAs from the PC Party up in The Straights & White Bay than you want to believe. I was in Flower's Cove and I saw ten in one day. I could not believe it. Now, it was just as bad, folks, it was just as bad in Terra Nova.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It was just as bad in Terra Nova. The Leader of the Opposition was up on the Eastport Peninsula two Friday nights ago. She walked into a restaurant, she could not get a seat. She could not get a chair. There were so many PC Cabinet ministers and members there, she had to get takeout because there was nowhere to sit, and that is the truth. Absolutely true, and they know who they are. They know who they are. She could not get a chair.

Sure, the new Minister of Health, he was just newly minted into the Minister of Health, sure he got jet-lagged going back and forth to St. Anthony during the by-election. He never had his spurs on in the Department of Health when the Premier had him on a plane and had him in St. Anthony. We have to switch around this Flower's Cove thing. Well, he switched it around, all right. Well, he said, we will not do it all the one day. We will say there is a 99 per cent chance that we might give it back to you. That is what we will do, a 99 per cent chance. They went off and did their polls and then they realized: that didn't cut it, boys. That didn't cut it. The people up here are going to vote for that fellow Dean, 99 per cent on Flowers Cove is not on. Lo and behold, on the plane again. The Premier is with him, back up to St. Anthony again. We changed our mind, we found the money. We are not going to build a steel structure now, we are going to build a wood one. Therefore, we found your money. Therefore, we are 100 per cent changed. Now you can vote for us. Thank you very much. They had a little glitch in that, see. They had a little glitch because by doing that they also had to change their mind on Lewisporte. The Member for Lewisporte was some pleased that they called a by-election because he was in all kinds of trouble out in Lewisporte with his district, but because there was a by-election and they had to change their mind on the Flower's Cove health care facility, the Member for Lewisporte gained as well. God bless him! Good job, I say.

Anyway, my time is up and I am sure I am not going to get leave when I give a speech like this. So I will take my leave, but the thing is, the point I am trying to make is the ship hit a rock once. The ship took water seriously in Terra Nova. The ship is in a bit of trouble. The ship is in a bit of trouble and rural Newfoundland knows that. The coattails are done, folks, the coattails are over.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. FORSEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is always a pleasure to get up behind the members of the Opposition, especially the Opposition House Leader. Before I do comment on that I would certainly like as well to congratulate the two new members. Of course, Marshall Dean from The Straits & White Bay North, who is sitting in the House today, and our Member Elect for Terra Nova, Sandy Collins. Certainly, we will enjoy hearing from them in the future, both of them, I am sure.

It is amazing. We are, I guess, speaking on the Throne Speech today, Mr. Speaker, but the Leader of the Opposition can get up and spend twenty minutes talking about an election and gloating because they won a district up in The Straits & White Bay North. They cannot get up and talk about things about rural Newfoundland because we are investing in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. That is a fact. So they can get up and spend twenty minutes talking about an election and gloating that they may have gained some stride. Well, I live in rural Newfoundland and so do a lot of our members here live in rural Newfoundland and Labrador; and I am sure the Leader of the Opposition, if she could just probably keep quiet for a little bit, she would probably realize that she is in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. God forbid, if I happen to mention things that we are doing in her district, because we are doing some great things down there - as a matter of fact we are putting that big of an investment in Southern Labrador that she will probably get re-elected again because we like to look after Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Exploits.

MR. FORSEY: Mr. Speaker, one more thing, the Opposition House Leader said that okay you got in on the Premier's coattails. Well, isn't that just great, because my main objective and main focus was to serve the people of the District of Exploits, irregardless how I got in here. So what we are saying is that Mr. Dean from The Straits & White Bay North did not get in on the coattails of his leader, especially if she is riding at 10 per cent in the polls. So I doubt very much if she is even wearing not a trench coat or a sports coat.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to speak on the Throne Speech today, and certainly a privilege to follow my colleague from Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans, the Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment. We are in the same area out there in Central Newfoundland and it is no doubt that with the downturn in the economy this past year, globally, that we are no exception. We have had our little problems and we have had some serious problems at times, especially with the closure of the pulp and paper mill in Central Newfoundland.

I do say Central Newfoundland; we say Grand Falls-Windsor in a lot of cases and rightfully so, that particular piece of infrastructure is in Grand Falls-Windsor. However, there are a lot of other infrastructure and people that work with this company that are spread throughout the Exploits Valley. As a matter of fact, I think there was some close to 200 positions directly affected in the District of Exploits alone, including some infrastructure that is down there right now that was left by that company.

Right now, Mr. Speaker, we do have people going around representing the Department of Environment doing some testing and everything, and hopefully the environmental issues, if there are any, will be looked after, because we do not want to see what has happened in the past, especially – and we can relate to the ASARCO mines in Buchans, Mr. Speaker. It has been left nothing only a mess, and this government does not want to see that type of thing happening.

Mr. Speaker, in the Throne Speech, there was an infrastructure investment announced of $800 million. Now, that is throughout the Province. There was a lot of investment throughout the Province in the urban and rural areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. I just want to touch on a couple, and I would like to, if I get the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to just expand on them a little bit.

This past year, we had $103 million for municipal infrastructure, Mr. Speaker; $277 million for transportation and infrastructure as well; $156 million in education; $167 million in health care facilities, Mr. Speaker.

Now, I just want to touch on the health care. This past year, people are always saying: Well, what are you doing for rural Newfoundland? What are you doing for health care? Well, I can remember back thirteen years ago, Mr. Speaker, I think it was. I had a family member who was on dialysis and in order to be able to avail of the services of a dialysis machine, he had to go to Corner Brook or he had to go to St. John's; that was thirteen years ago. We would have been glad to have gone to Grand Falls-Windsor or Gander. Well, guess what, Mr. Speaker? Today we can go to Grand Falls-Windsor or Gander. Today we have probably the maximum of an hour and ten minutes drive or as little as probably fifteen minutes drive, Mr. Speaker, in the District of Exploits. That, in itself, is a major accomplishment when you are talking about health care.

We have had a lot of investments in health care: $71.9 million investment in infrastructure; $52 million for purchase of equipment such mammography, CT scanners, and MRIs.

The incentives for the recruitment and retention of nurses, Mr. Speaker, and the bursaries for third and fourth year nursing students have seen a big change in our professional services that are offered by the nurses. They deserve these benefits, which our government signed a deal with them and now we see nurses coming back to this Province, Mr. Speaker. The ones that are coming out of school want to stay in this Province because we have a package there that they want to be part of the health care in Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. Speaker.

Just in my district alone, in the Dr. Hugh Twomey Health centre, Mr. Speaker, we have got a three-unit facility down there. On one unit there are thirty-nine beds. Another unit, there are twenty-nine; plus palliative care. Another one, there are twelve beds for the veterans wing, Mr. Speaker. Eighty-bed facility. There are roughly 150 to 160 professional people working at that facility in Botwood.

When you talk about rural Newfoundland, this facility is in as rural as you can get and this particular facility is employing 150 to 160 professional people. This is major when you start investing in health care when you can maintain and expand.

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans touched on the Community Development Fund. That was a big initiative for this government to help out Central Newfoundland, not only Grand Falls-Windsor, but also Badger, Botwood, Bishop's Falls. That fund invested in a couple of projects that right now are starting to proceed and starting to develop and we are going to see a couple of years down the road that it is going to start employing extra people, which is really great.

In my district alone, in Bishop's Falls, we have a new pelletizing plant there, Exploits Pelletizing. Thanks to an initiative through Environment and Innovation and Trade, they were able to expand and start up a pelletizing business in Bishop's Falls. That particular facility, along with their woodworking, Mr. Speaker, is employing about twenty-five people there; a great initiative.

Mr. Speaker, the money that was spent in education this year and the past couple of years – and I would like to go back to the campaign of 2003, the general election of 2003. I have said it before and I am going to say it again. The Opposition party who was in power at the time, in 2003, their big platform was the elimination of school fees. That was their platform. I can see it now: We are going to eliminate school fees. Well, since this government came on we have eliminated school fees. We have given out free textbooks from K-12, but we have also invested in skilled trades, Mr. Speaker.

I recall the first time that we started the skilled trades program in the high schools. We picked, I believe it was twenty-five, maybe twenty-six pilot projects. In the District of Exploits, in the Town of Botwood, we were fortunate enough to be one of the schools that could avail of the skilled trades. Well, the investment in that particular school and that particular facility, Mr. Speaker, was $1.3 million. Quite the facility. Where is it? It is in rural Newfoundland, Mr. Speaker.

There were also upgrades and investments to the rest of the schools in the District of Exploits as well. Right now, we have skilled trades in all of our high schools out there. The upgrades have been done, and at the time, when this party moved in a lot of these schools were deteriorated, needed a lot of investment, and to date, Mr. Speaker, I am glad to say that the majority of them right now are basically – have been finished.

Mr. Speaker, the consumer confidence in Atlantic Canada, it is the greatest in the country, even with the recession. Guess what? Newfoundland is leading in that particular area, in consumer confidence and consumer spending. That is why, with the investment and the initiatives that this government has taken in the past year, that we, I guess, confirmed to the people that we are investing in Newfoundland and Labrador and in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, which has given them the ability to go back out and still spend in their communities, because they have the confidence to spend, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, one of the big initiatives this year, especially in the infrastructure announcement, was for municipal infrastructure, and fire and emergency. This year, Mr. Speaker, under the cost-share ratio that was brought in last year by this government, there has been a number of small communities able to purchase fire trucks, new pumper trucks, $260,000. That is what one of these fire trucks are roughly worth, $260,000. We saw communities this year receive these fire trucks right across the Province, including – I do have a couple of other ones there that I knew was –

MR. HUTCHINGS: Ferryland.

MR. FORSEY: Thank you very much there, the Member for Ferryland. I know Lumsden received one, Irishtown received one, Deer Lake received one and, of course, Wabush. Not to forget the Member for Labrador over there, the Minister of Labrador Affairs. Wabush got one, and in my district, Mr. Speaker, Peterview got one.

So, $260,000, I do not think that these communities could really afford new pumper trucks but under the new cost-share ratio with a population of 3,000 people or less, they are on a 90-10 cost share. So, that was a great initiative brought in by this government, Mr. Speaker. It also allowed towns to upgrade their water and sewer systems that could not do it before. They just could not do it. On a 50-50 cost share or a 60-40, they just could not do it. They never had the finances or the ability to do it. Today, Mr. Speaker, these past couple of years - and I know there has been a big investment in municipal infrastructure across the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, but I will just speak for the District of Exploits.

In a little community like Point of Bay, with their new water upgrades, $750,000, Mr. Speaker. This year the Town of Northern Arm has been looking for upgrades to their water system. They did not even have a fire hydrant there, in the Town of Northern Arm, but when their project is finished – because they have been approved for $3 million under the new program – they will have new fire hydrants. They will have upgrades in their water system, and for the first time they are able to avail of that because this government believes in the communities having safe drinking water. They need that in the communities if they are going to provide service for their residents.

Mr. Speaker, I will say one major project that is, I guess, on everybody's mind in Central Newfoundland is sewage treatment for the Town of Bishop's Falls. We have a great freshwater river out there. One of the best salmon rives in probably North America, not only Canada, the Exploits River. I know that my colleague from Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans mentioned it earlier. I guess what is there in that river, the tourism attraction that you could have and the industry you could have has not been touched yet, but the Town of Bishop's Falls have been approved for a new sewerage treatment for their town, Mr. Speaker. We are talking somewhere in the vicinity of $12 million to $13 million. Could they have done it before? No. It would have been impossible, but today they can. That is what is good about this government, because they are looking after rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

When the Opposition gets up, Mr. Speaker, and talks about rural Newfoundland and Labrador, I have no idea what they are talking about because I live in rural Newfoundland and Labrador and I have seen the infrastructure that we put in there in these places. Labour indicators will tell you that if you invest in communication, if you invest in health care, and you invest in education, you invest in transportation then people will be able to move and your communities will grow. Well, Mr. Speaker, I would like to go back just before – well, actually eleven years before I got elected. The eleven years prior to me getting elected. The District of Exploits received a whooping $2.5 million for roadwork. Now I am not saying that they could have done it, they should have done it, they had the money or did not have the money, because in all likeliness they probably did not have the funds but they were there. That was eleven years – and, by the way, that was the Premier of the Province at the time who was in that district, Mr. Speaker. So, $2.5 million for eleven years. That is all we got in that district after having the Premier there? Well, let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, in the past four years this government has invested close to $10 million in road infrastructure, upgrades, maintenance and bridge reconstruction and upgrades. That is what this government has done in the District of Exploits. There has been a lot of money spent in that district, like any other district in the Province, Mr. Speaker, in Newfoundland and Labrador.

I heard my colleague the Minister of Labrador Affairs say earlier, in the past six years there is something like $5 billion invested in Labrador, and the Opposition Leader, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Speaker, has certainly been the recipient of some of those investments in Southern Labrador, whether it was their new highways depot there in Cartwright, whether it was their new school that was built down there, and so on. They have done fairly well there and hopefully they are going to do better because this government, as long as you stay the course and manage your fiscal situation, then you are going to be able to reinvest, Mr. Speaker, back into your Province and into your communities.

Mr. Speaker, one other thing I would like speak on is the tax initiative and reduction of taxes by this government. I may not have much time to do it; I see my time is getting short.

I remember going around in 2007 in the campaign in the general election, Mr. Speaker, and one of the biggest issues was the retail sales tax on insurance: 15 per cent. That is a lot of money. That is a lot of money for people to be paying out on insurances – 15 per cent. Well, guess what? This year, we gave them back that 15 per cent, Mr. Speaker, and when they get this money back, that is money actually back into their pockets. Not only are we talking about investment in the district –

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Exploits.

MR. FORSEY: Just a minute; thank you very much.

I would just like to say, Mr. Speaker, two things. Number one, the investment in infrastructure in rural Newfoundland and Labrador and the money that we are giving back to the people to put in their pockets is allowing them to go out and regain their confidence in this government and regain confidence in consumer spending.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity today to speak on the Throne Speech.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS BURKE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

To interrupt, I guess, the Address in Reply, just momentarily, but there is some business of the House that I would like to address.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to move, seconded by the hon. Minister of Natural Resources and the Deputy Premier, that the Member for Humber Valley be appointed Deputy Chair of Committees.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: It has been moved and seconded that the hon. the Member for Humber Valley be appointed as the Deputy Chair of Committees.

All those in favour, 'aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

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

Carried.

Motion carried.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

It is a pleasure to be able to stand today and have a few words with regard to Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. We know that the Speech from the Throne is more or less a plan of what government plans to bring down when their budget came down last year. It is not detailed like the budget, but it gives you some perspective in what you can expect.

I hope, Mr. Speaker, that I do get the same attention and quietness that the hon. Member for Exploits just had, and I am sure I will get through our twenty minutes very quickly.

It is an honour and a pleasure to be here to represent the people of the great District of Port de Grave and to be able to bring forward their issues to this hon. House of Assembly.

First of all, I want to, as other members have done, congratulate the new Member for The Straits & White Bay North in his seat today, and also the Member for Terra Nova, Mr. Collins, who has a few more days before he can be placed to his seat here in the hon. House of Assembly, but I want to congratulate them both.

I also want to congratulate the member from, I think it is called CBS, the new minister in tourism, on his appointment. I have to say it is very deserving. An hon. member who, I think, should have probably been placed in a position similar to that some time ago.

Also, to the newly elected Chair of committees, who was just announced here, from Humber Valley. I hope, in his role, he does not make the mistake that I had one time when I was Chair of committees. I happened to be in the Chair when the Opposition House Leader of the day, Mr. Byrne, when they were in Opposition, and he was bringing up some issues. So, rather than say: I would like to recess the House. I said: I am going to adjourn the House. There was quite an upheaval. They had to go through Hansard, but they could not find it in print, so we got away with that situation.

Like other members who spoke here today, the Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune, the Member for Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans - I am not quite sure, because there are two of them there - in the comments that they made with regard to what is happening in their district, I am not going to go through all the issues that have happened in my district, but each and every one of us, I am sure, are very pleased what we have received over the past number of months. I put mine in print through a newsletter, and I am sure the people in the district are very appreciative of that.

Having said that, my comments today are not going to be in a negative way towards government, but I want to bring forward issues that you still hear from the individuals, not only in my district, but throughout the great Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. One of the key issues that we hear from time to time, and I think one of the hon. members said it a little while ago, is that you hear from time to time that government is not doing anything in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Where those people are coming from, it is not that they do not see things happening, they see the pavement, they are getting the water and sewer, new fire trucks, but I can assure you from the people that I have spoken to in The Straits & White Bay North area and in Terra Nova, people look at it, when they say there is nothing happening in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, they appreciate the infrastructure, but they would like to see something there that will create jobs. I know that is probably impossible to do in every district, but this is where they are coming from. There are different issues that they speak of, whether it is a fish plant in Englee that used to have a licence or other issues throughout this great Province of ours.

I have to say to you that during the Throne Speech the issue with regards to the fishery in our Province - and we know that it has been said that this year is a troubling time in our fishery; we know that to be a fact. I remember my very first private member's motion was on custodial management, and that is back some nine years ago and we are still talking about that. Ministers have come and gone, governments have come and gone, federal officials have changed as well, but it is an issue that we are still dealing with today.

We all know full well the issue that came before the House of Commons with regards to NAFO.

It was only about three weeks ago I attended the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador convention in Gander and Mr. Gus Etchegary was given a period of time to bring forward a motion to ask the municipalities of this Province to support the issue that he stood on. One of the issues that he stated, if the federal government should put this through the House of Commons, NAFO would be able to set quotas inside the 200-mile limit, and the voting privileges would have changed rather than having 50 per cent plus one - that is what it would be now, before they used to have a two-thirds majority.

He gave some staggering facts. Back in 1993, 933,000 metric tonnes of product was landed here in this Province. At today's prices, he estimated that would be somewhere around $2.2 billion. I mean there are people here who have been involved in the fishery know where he is coming from because I will say it again, that the lifeblood of this Province, even though we have the wealth flowing from the offshore - and that is wonderful, we hope that will continue. I can assure you if rural Newfoundland and Labrador is to survive the way we want to see it survive and keep going it has to be related to the ocean, the fishery, with regards to the various species.

He stated at that time, in 1992, we lost in this Province approximately 80,000 people and some 30,000 jobs just through the fishery alone.

As I travelled throughout the Province this summer, and a couple of places I was, one was in Dover. We went to visit the fish plant there. Another one is in the Member for Trinity-Bay de Verde's District, I think, Woodman's Fish Plant, and the Barry's own the one in Dover. The operation that they have, they are open just about fifty-two weeks a year, maybe a little less than that. It is something to see when you go there that those people almost have a full-time job in their own communities working within the fishing industry. It is too bad that we cannot see more of that throughout this Province because that is what is needed in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. No doubt, like I said earlier, there are difficult years, and this is one of them. I hear the fishermen in my area, in the crab fishery talking about the prices, where they were down this year. Some years they were far better off than they were this year. I have to say, this is what makes or breaks rural Newfoundland and I guess I am fortunate; I know the plant that is in Port de Grave this year, I think just about every individual who worked in that plant received enough insurable weeks that can help them through this winter.

You can see the frustration setting in, Mr. Speaker, from time to time, because now we hear the fishermen around this Province who are setting up meetings in different areas. They are more or less, I guess, taking on their unions. There are various issues that come forward when frustration sets in. We know when there has been private member motions brought forward here with regard to the fishery; with regard to the seal hunt, and the effects that the seal hunt has on the fishery. There is no doubt about it, that is a major issue and we saw what happened with that particular part of it.

We talked about, and it was in the Throne Speech, long-term stability and prosperity. We hear talk about people who are coming home and finding jobs here in this Province. I do not know if anyone else read it but there is a report that comes out, I think it is quarterly, it is called Atlantic Report. I know in the latest edition that I saw, it said that the first half of this year we lost 7,200 jobs in this Province and most of them were full-time jobs. Most of them, no doubt, were in the resource and manufacturing sector and most of them were in the rural Newfoundland areas. When you lose 7,200 jobs and you spread that over several smaller communities. The rate of unemployment, nobody wants to hear this, and I am not blaming government. It is the situation, the economy that we are into. It has gone from 13 per cent and what was stated in this report was 17.1 per cent. It is the highest time it has been since 2003.

We have a program here in the Province, the Community Enhancement Program. A wonderful program. I know that I do not receive the funding that some areas of the Province receive. I guess where you live in close proximity to the St. John's area, the wealth in that area is far different than what it is in some of the outlying areas, but I can assure you, members on both sides of this House have been probably looking for additional funding through this program, whether it is through the fishery initiative or just the regular Community Enhancement Program, where they need funding to help people who have not had the success as some areas have had this year.

The other issue that we hear a lot, and I know it is a very important issue, is the health care in our Province. We all know the difficult time that everybody went through with regard to the Cameron inquiry. The message that came down – and in our Throne Speech, it was noted that the message that came down would not be lost by government. Then, as my hon. colleague said earlier with regard to the issue in Flower's Cove and Lewisporte, and it is good to see that – regardless of how it happened, regardless if it was because of a by-election or whatever, those two problem areas were resolved and hopefully resolved for the long-term for those people. Because one thing I learned when I was in Roddickton is that there is a health care unit in Roddickton. If somebody should want to or unfortunately have to go for an ordinary X-ray, you just cannot go and receive it when you want to in that clinic. You have to wait until eight or ten or twelve people need an X-ray and then the officials would come over from Flower's Cove. So if Flower's Cove had closed and was no more, that was an issue that would have affected the people in Roddickton. If you have a serious injury, they do have to drive all the way to St. Anthony.

One of the major things that we heard about recently, I guess at the same time when those cuts were proposed for Flower's Cove and Roddickton, it is an issue that was more widespread. I know back in February, 2009, the then Minister of Health, the Member for Trinity North, wrote to the chair of Eastern Health, asking where they could come up with $22.1 million in cuts. There were many scenarios that were put forward, and people still have concerns. They have concerns whether those cuts will come forward. We know that when the issue at Flower's Cove and Lewisporte were put forward, the issue was stopped, and hopefully everything that was put forward, but Eastern Health is still looking for $22.1 million in cuts. The issues were put forward and it was made very clear what funding and what area they would make the cuts, but also the implications of what this would cause to the health care system with Eastern Health was also attached to it.

One issue, they were going to save $500,000 on courier and delivery costs. They were going to reduce them. The implications of that would be a minimal impact on service but it would be delays on the turnaround time of what would be transported from one hospital to a clinic, or what have you. I am sure the people of our Province do not want that. We heard enough about that through the Cameron inquiry.

Another issue that was brought forward: adjust support levels in rural areas. Layoffs would be required; discontinue a full-time medical director in Clarenville. This would decrease access to a medical director for a saving of $100,000. The laundry issue was going to be dealt with and this was going to create a major problem. The plan that was put forward was to close eight long-term care beds in rural Avalon. The current vacancy beds would be aligned in the region and there would be potential staff reductions, which really cannot take place. The vacancies that were there, they were not going to be filled. They were going to be held as being vacant and this would create many problems for people in those particular areas.

They were going to reduce overtime expenditures. If you talk to the people who are working in our hospital system, many of them are on overtime because there is nobody else to come in, they have to double back. I have had cases, and I have mentioned this before, where people last Christmas in Carbonear General Hospital were called in and served twenty-four hours, were unable to go home because of shortage of staff. They were going to discontinue fifteen flex beds at Chancellor Park, and we know what would happen and what would become there. Emergency departments and surgeries would be cancelled. There are a couple of major ones, and one of them was to implement an additional ten-day slowdown which would include diagnostics, surgery clinics and CAT labs. The implications that would come from that, approximately 250 surgical cases and fifty CAT lab procedures would not be preformed. Wait times for MRIs, CAT scans and ultrasounds would increase. I can assure you, the system cannot have any further wait-lists. I know, personally, people - myself included – I have been waiting now for seven-and-a-half months to have a CAT scan and an ultrasound done at Carbonear hospital. You do not blame that on the people there, but that is how bogged down the system is with regard to what is happening throughout our health care system.

Another issue that was very crucial to our area of the Province, they are going to review service delivery options for twenty-four hour on-site emergency services. Two or three of the areas that were being mentioned - and hopefully this is all on hold, but people are asking questions, they want to know the answers. One of them was a $1.8 million cut to the clinic at Old Perlican, a $1.5 million cut to the clinic at Whitbourne and a $500,000 reduction at the clinic in St. Lawrence.

I do not know about the one in St. Lawrence, but I can assure you if those cuts should come to Old Perlican and Whitbourne, it is the closure of those clinics. I can understand those were only proposals that were put forward, but they are out in the general public and the people are asking: Is this really going to happen or was all this put on hold, the same as Flower's Cove and St. Anthony? I can assure you, the people in Old Perlican, in particular, the road conditions in the winter, those people, the roads are blocked there, they find it very difficult to even move, let alone get up to Carbonear when they could only have to go to the clinic in Old Perlican.

There are many issues, Mr. Speaker, that we can bring forward. I know only recently I received a copy of the Newfoundland and Labrador pensioners and senior citizens in the fifty-plus federation, the proposals, the recommendations they have brought forward to government - and I am sure they will be looked at, each and every one of them, in their entirety. One of them I think someone mentioned here today was home care hours. Many of them are applying for home care - and I know the minister made it very clear that they are building long-term care facilities here in St. John's, and I was glad to hear them mention again today the $500,000 for the long-term care facility in Conception Bay North. It is immaterial where it is build as long as it is there, but many of those people would like to be able to stay in their own homes.

Another issue that they have brought forward is that they would like to have home care by a member of their family. I know we cannot have everything the way that we ask for it.

Another major issue that the seniors brought forward was the HST. I know we just heard about the HST being cut on the insurance, but they were looking at HST being cut on home care and on funeral expenses. Those seniors with an income at a fixed level, they find it very difficult, or someone in the family would have to do that.

Another thing they were asking, and I am sure government will look at this, is that eye, dental and foot care be covered under provincial programs. As we speak, they have to pay for it themselves to some degree, and they are just wondering if government would take the time to look into this situation.

Another issue that came forward today, and we know that we have been, I guess, spoke about throughout the country is our Poverty Reduction Strategy that we have in place and other provinces are saying they would like to have it. I understand that a report will be coming down soon. I think the minister has already made that clear in the media this week.

I believe we do have to have a social audit to see where we stand. It was only recently I read a report from a gentleman by the name of Chris Sarlo who is supposed to be an expert on poverty. He has been studying the issue for some twenty years and he said the first step to eliminating poverty is first to define it. Hopefully, we found that. I do not know, but once we get the report I guess we will know that. I know I have asked three different ministers, and they are here in the House today, to define poverty during our Estimate meetings. Each and every one of them said it is very difficult to do. I have to say when this report comes, hopefully, they will take care of it.

Another major issue that we are going to see and hear talk of - I attended a municipalities convention in Gander only about three weeks ago. That is the one with regard to the wastewater effluent regulations. I know our Province, and I think Quebec and Nunavut, did not sign on to that program, and probably for good reasons. What has been told to the municipalities at this convention is that the regulations are coming and it is going to be downloaded on the municipalities regardless of whether the Province is involved or not. I can tell you many of the municipalities were really concerned about that. They have many issues, many issues, Mr. Speaker, they want addressed and I am sure they will come forward to this hon. House.

I know my time is up and, like I said, I want to welcome you to the Chair. At this time, I thank you and I will take leave.

Thank you very much.

MR. SPEAKER (Kelly): Thank you.

The Chair recognizes the hon. the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

Let me, as others before me have done, also congratulate the new members, the member opposite from The Straits & White Bay North; a member who will be taking his place, our most recently elected member for the District of Terra Nova. I would also like to bring my congratulations to the floor for my colleague who is now the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. Well-deserved and a man who has paid his dues, and I am glad to see that he has made it there.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: Mr. Speaker, if I could, let me speak for a few minutes on what has been going on here today back and forth in terms of Address in Reply. Let's talk a little bit about the by-elections that have been going on.

One of the previous speakers brought up the fact that there seems to be some momentum shift. There was an army of people from this side who have been out into the various districts and apparently we have not been very successful if you listen to what was coming up from the other side.

I would say, Mr. Speaker, that I encountered a lot of people from the opposite side of the House out in the districts when I was out there. When I was out there, as a matter of fact, I went to go get a room in one of the places that we were staying in. When we were out there –

AN HON. MEMBER: All three of us.

MR. SKINNER: , I heard the hon. the Leader of the Opposition say all three of us. Well, there was a lot more than three I would say to her. There was a lot more than three, Mr. Speaker.

When I was out there, I tried to get a room in the place and I could not get a room when I went out first because of the rooms that had been taken up, not just by the hon. members opposite, but by some people on staff who were out there. So, I could not get a place to stay, so there was a lot more than three of them out on the road; a lot more than three of them.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) in a hotel.

MR. SKINNER: I did not say a hotel; I said a place that I was trying to stay. You know where you stayed; you know where your people stayed.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. SKINNER: You know where your people stayed to. So, if you are going to flick the barbs across this side of the House, Mr. Speaker, I think it is just as well we throw a few back the other way as well.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: I will just mention as well, Mr. Speaker, when I was out working on the campaign, there were a lot of members from both sides of the House who were out there and they should be; they should be out supporting each other.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair is having extreme difficulty listening to the hon. member. I would ask that all members of the hon. House please pay attention as the minister delivers his speech.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I did not mean to antagonize the members opposite. I just meant to provide some balance to the argument that was going back and forth, to the debate that was going back and forth in the House. I only meant to provide some balance; I did not mean to antagonize people. I just wanted to provide a little bit of balance to the argument, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to reflect a little bit on what it is that has transpired over the last six years in this Province. When we talk about the Throne Speech and we talk about the budgets that we have had come down for the last six years, I think it is important that we reflect upon where we have come from. If one thinks about the last six years, Mr. Speaker, one will see that we have come a long way. I remember sitting in this House six years ago when we felt an enormous pressure from the crushing debt load that this Province had found itself dealing with. We are here six years later and we are feeling much better about things. I remember six years ago when there was talks of having to cut services and cut budgets, we are not doing that today. This government has managed its way out of that. We have been able to use the riches of the oil revenues, we have been able to manage that well and we have been able to provide services to the people of the Province. So we have done some good things here, Mr. Speaker.

I want to talk, Mr. Speaker, about some - and I will do it in some general ways and then I will refer to some things specifically in my district as well. When I was out campaigning for myself and when I was out campaigning for my colleagues in various by-elections, two things that I heard from people in a broad sense. One thing was social supports, and we have heard some of that being talked about here today. There is no doubt that people of the Province expect us, as Members of the House of Assembly, to ensure that the social supports are in place so that the people of the Province who need that kind of help and that kind of support at various times in their life are able to get that.

They also talked to me about economics. They talked to me about: I want to be able to work. People in this Province want to work; there is no doubt in my mind about that. We have a high unemployment rate. We do not want to have that. We are trying to improve upon that, but the people of this Province also want to work. The perception that some people may have that there are people who do not want to work, I believe personally is not really an accurate reflection of the people that we have in this Province. The people who I have spoken to who are on income support, people who I have spoken to who are on EI, the people who are temporarily between jobs, the people who are underemployed, they all want to do better. They all want to contribute. They all want to be productive members of society. We have an obligation as members in this House to try and see them achieve that goal that they have set for themselves.

When we talk about social supports and what this government has been able to do, Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot that we have done. I will deal with a few, just to give the people of the Province a sense of the kinds of things that we have done. I will go to the minimum wage first of all. I remember when we started to talk about increasing the minimum wage there was a lot of banter on both sides. Some people felt we should not do it, some people felt that we should. This government was very decisive in its action. We went out and we consulted with the people across the Province to give all an opportunity to have their say but we made the decision to increase the minimum wage. We will have a minimum wage in this Province by 2010 of $10 an hour. The goal was $10 an hour by 2010. We have made the decision to do that. That has been very positive. I have had people who have come up to me and said, thank you for doing that. Because it has allowed them to have more money in their pockets, more earned income to be able to provide for themselves and their families, and we would like to see that go higher. People who are employed in the various industries in the Province are looking to try to get more work because it is more valuable to them now. They are not making $5.25 an hour; they are making $8.50 or $9 an hour. So they see more for the work that they put in. They see more economic return and they are happy with that. I think that is a good thing and that is something that we have done that has an economic value no doubt, but it also has, I believe, very much a social value.

When we look at some of the other things we have done, Mr. Speaker, let's talk for a little bit about medical. Let's talk about our health care system. I just heard it from the previous speaker. He was talking about things that were proposed and that might happen. A bit of fear mongering, I would say to you, talking about things that may happen. Well, there are options that have to be considered. When you are in government and you are looking at trying to balance the needs of all the people of the Province, you have to look at options. You have to look at what people present to you and see what it is that you are able to do to satisfy people, to be able to balance the monies that you have available to you and to be able to move forward as a government in providing the services.

When we talk about health care, our government, Mr. Speaker, has $2.6 billion invested in our health care services in this Province; $2.6 billion, more than ever has been done before. A lot more needs to be done. We have a competent minister who is working on that and I am sure there will be lots more in next years budget that we will see, but just for the record, it is $2.6 billion; a lot more than ever had been done before.

When we talk about some of the other things that have been done, there were talks about diagnostic equipment, X-rays and so on. Well, this government, Mr. Speaker, in terms of diagnostic and X-rays, medical services and so on, we put over the past five years $173 million into that area. We brought in a lot more equipment. We provided money for the various medical clinics around to be able to provide the services, and it is challenging times, but we have stepped up with the investment that needed to be put into those kinds of services so that people could get the service that they needed in a timely manner. We are working on improving that. We continue to make those kinds of investments and it is important that people understand that we are making those investments.

In terms of rural Newfoundland and Labrador, we have an air ambulance system. We spent almost $8 million last year on our air ambulance system. We have an air ambulance right now based in St. Anthony that can bring people in if they need to be brought into St. John's, if they need to be brought into the major medical facilities for trauma or whatever it may be. We have services that are provided to people for them to be able to do that, Mr. Speaker.

Besides the services side of the health care, I want to speak for a second on the infrastructure side. That was referenced today in Question Period, some of the monies that are being spent in infrastructure in our health care system. This year alone, over $76 million going into infrastructure: long-term care facilities in Corner Brook and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, new long-term care facilities going there; a new hospital in Corner Brook; redevelopment of the hospital in St. John's; Lab West in terms of a new hospital; in my own District of St. John's Centre, the emergency department of St. Clare's Hospital is receiving monies for infrastructure development. We also have the cancer centre receiving monies for infrastructure development. We had the announcement just the other day of the long-term care homes down in the Pleasantville region. Multi-million dollar investments being made by this government in health care, being made on the infrastructure side and also being made on the services side. That is important for people to hear, Mr. Speaker. We still have challenges, I recognize that, but this government has met the challenge thus far. We have made the investments that needed to be made. We are putting the money into the areas that we believe are the priorities of the people, and the people are responding. The people are saying to us that they believe we are doing the right kinds of things.

It was mentioned again earlier today, in terms of the financial assessment process for home support services. December 1 is when that will be officially launched. There have been a number of people who have already had the assessment or reassessment done and have benefited from that. The Minister of Health and Community Services referenced today in Question Period how there were people who would have in the past system paid $1,200 or $1,300 a month for home care services, now they are paying a $100 and $200 a month. A significant difference. So this government has stepped up. It recognized there were challenges for people and it fine tuned the system. It changed the system that we have to make sure that the people of the Province got the maximum benefit for the money that they were spending. So that was important for us to do, Mr. Speaker.

If we talk about - and I will stick with the social for just another few minutes - if we talk about the social sector, just look at what has been done in education in this Province. I could probably stand here and use my whole twenty minutes to talk about what we have done in the education field. In terms –

AN HON. MEMBER: What a minister we have.

MR. SKINNER: What a number of good ministers we have had. The minister we have now is pretty good, but we had a couple of good ones before him as well. They have done some good work. So it has not been any one person. It has been a whole team of people that have done this, and they have all been very, very good.

We have seen things happen in terms of school construction. Just look at the response we have had to school construction. There were schools in this Province that were being closed because of mould problems. Well, that mould occurred because there was a lack of work being done on those schools for the last twenty and twenty-five years. There was no maintenance money. Talk to the people who work in the schools, talk to the people who work in the school boards. There was no maintenance money available. This government came in; we provided maintenance money for people to be able to deal with the problems they were experiencing in schools, and where the problem was gone too far, we have been providing money for construction of new schools. So there has been all kinds of new money in school construction.

Look at what we have done with the textbooks in the K-12 system. My children have finished high school now, thankfully, but I remember when they were in school going through up to high school, having to come up with the money and come up with the school supplies. Doing fundraisers so that our schools could have paper and could have extra-curricular materials in the school. Well, those days are gone. Parents do not need to worry about that now. Teachers do not need to pull their hair out, and principals do not need to fret over that kind of stuff. This government stepped up and put the money into the school system so that the textbooks are available so that our youth have the opportunity to learn, the same as every other youth did, and not have it determined by whether or not your mom or dad had money to write a cheque so that you could buy your textbook. The kids today have their textbooks, and that is a wonderful. I think we will see a better generation coming up because they have those kinds of things.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: If I move into post-secondary – I still have one child in the post-secondary system, Mr. Speaker. Just look at what we have done in terms of the student aid system. Look at the improvements that have been made there. The impacts of that are going to be felt for years on the people who are going through our post-secondary school system right now.

When I went through post-secondary, I was fortunate, I was able to get part-time jobs and pay my way through; I did not have to get any loans. I had a younger sister who was not as fortunate and she ended up having to take out loans. She ended up leaving Newfoundland and Labrador after she got her degree, went away to do a masters, and when she came back, she spent twelve years, at the rate of hundreds of dollars a month, paying off her student loan – and it took her twelve years to do it, but she did it. She made a commitment to do it and she did it.

Those hundreds and thousands of dollars that she spent, and many other thousands of people have spent on their student loans could have been used for other purposes. It could have been used so that they did not have that burden around their necks when they graduated from university or graduated from college. So we have brought in policies and programs which have released that burden from our students, and I think we will see the benefits of that in years to come. We will have a much more productive group of young men and women staying here in this Province, enjoying themselves here in this Province, because they will not have to go away seeking these big high paying jobs to be able to pay down the significant debts that they have incurred.

I just want to mention the relief of interest on the student loans, as well, Mr. Speaker, for those that have student loans. We have reduced the interest rate down to 0 per cent. Just to give you an idea of how many people that impacts, there are 49,000 students, graduates, who are paying down on their student loans, who now will not have to pay any interest. Multiply that by the number of children or partners or family members that these people have, you are probably affecting hundreds of thousands of people with that initiative. Hundreds of thousands of people in this Province are being impacted in a positive way because they do not have to worry about paying down their interest on their student loans. I think it is a wonderful thing, a wonderful initiative of government. I have talked to many, many students in the post-secondary system, and those who have finished the post-secondary system, who are very happy that we have been able to do that kind of stuff.

If I look at some of the economic developments, Mr. Speaker, that we have talked about – and I am keeping an eye on the clock because there is much to be said and little time to say it in, unfortunately, but I will be back again another day. I will get an opportunity to get up another day.

Let's talk about economic development. Let's use the District of The Isles of Notre Dame - my hon. colleague from The Isles of Notre Dame. One of the things that this government was involved in with a proponent from that district who wanted to have something done – called the Shorefast Foundation. Five million dollars put into rural Newfoundland and Labrador to try and work forward, proceed with a vision that a lady has, that she would like to see something done out in the District of The Isles of Notre Dame. The provincial government, the federal government and the private proponent themselves have come in - a $16 million project. Sixteen million dollars of investment in rural Newfoundland and Labrador that this government has supported with $5 million as well, another wonderful investment.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: We have made a number of other investments. I will not list them all, Mr. Speaker, but I will say to you that through the department that I happen to be minister of, the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, we have a fund there called a Regional-Sectoral Diversification Fund, or RSDF people know it as. Many millions dollars every year go out through that fund to all parts of the Province. Eighty per cent of the money that we spend through that fund - and it is multi-million dollars. Eighty per cent of the money that goes out in that fund goes out to rural Newfoundland and Labrador, goes out to companies in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, goes out to community associations in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, goes out to cultural groups, goes out to economic development groups. It goes out to improve the quality of life and the services in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

There are many, many things that we have done with that. We have done it in things that we have done out in Roddickton. We have done some things up in Roddickton with pellet plants. We are doing some things in Central Newfoundland and Labrador in terms of the response to the Abitibi closure. We are doing some things in the South Coast of the Province with it, down in the Coast of Bays region. There are many, many areas where we are doing it. We are doing stuff in Carbonear. We are doing stuff in Bonavista. You name an area or a community in this Province, and I would suggest to you that we have put some monies into it there.

The things that we have done for municipal infrastructure. We have a new funding formula, because of the work done by the Minister of Municipal Affairs. A 90-10 formula now for a lot of communities. Tremendous work being done because of that. One of the things that I heard when I have been out on the road, in recent times, is that funding arrangement has certainly allowed the communities to do things that they never thought they would be able to do. Also, in terms of providing drinking water and potable water for people, that is something that a lot of people around this Province, when I travel around, mention to me. The fact that they now have access to clean, safe, potable water, they find that to be something that is of significance to them, and people are very, very happy that this government was able to help them with that.

When I travel around the Province, Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I constantly marvel at is the road infrastructure that we have in this Province. We have put millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into the roads in this Province. I remember sitting here in this House in 2003, and I was told – and I am going from memory, so I might be off, but I do not think I am off by much – that the previous Administration had spent about $6 million per year on roadwork.

This Administration, in the last year, has spent over $60 million on roadwork, and over our six years, we have put hundreds of millions of dollars into it. You can see it when you drive around the Province. When I leave St. John's and drive out to whatever area I am going to, whether it be the Burin Peninsula, whether it be Placentia, whether it be Carbonear, out in Central Newfoundland, whether I am going up to the Northern Peninsula, I am going to Stephenville, Corner Brook, I have been to a lot of places in my role as the minister, and when I have been there the roadwork has been absolutely fabulous.

MR. HICKEY: One hundred and eight-five million in Labrador roads.

MR. SKINNER: My hon. colleague behind me tells me that we have put $185 million into road infrastructure in Labrador itself - $185 million.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SKINNER: So there has been a lot done, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the time is winding down. I appreciate the opportunity to get up, and I look forward to getting up again very soon.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair recognizes the hon. Member for St. John's East.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a while getting to the business of Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. It does seem to be a good while ago since we sat here and listened to His Honour outline the plans for the government that he projected or that were projected to be coming in the future days since the speech.

A lot has happened since we last met here for a quick sitting in September. I would like to take this opportunity to perhaps give some perspective on what it is we are doing here. As anyone who is watching this broadcast has seen already, it is a very free-ranging type of discussion. A lot of liberties taken, a lot of different avenues travelled, and certainly, my time today will be no different.

One of the things that I wanted to bring to people's attention, particularly those who may not have had the opportunity, was to tell them about an experience I had this past summer, at the marine simulator up in the Marine Institute. Now, a lot of people may not realize it, but Newfoundland is home to one of the best marine simulators in the world. It has been there for quite a number of years. In fact, during my teaching career, I was a co-ordinator for a computer studies co-op program, and one of our co-op employers was the Centre for Marine Simulation, and every semester they would bring two or three students in to work on making this the best simulator available. Because of that, it has quite an international reputation. It has quite an international clientele of companies who come in to check to see how, in a very low-cost way, the ideas that they have about their marine ventures, about the ships they may choose to create, put it into a computer, put it in the simulator and see if it will work.

Now, the simulator has taken up some very interesting clients, one of which is a company that proposes to sell high-rise condominiums in New York. Now, you might ask, what does this have to do with a marine simulator? My question exactly, but as it turns out they were able to, through engineering information, input into the computers that control the simulator, how a condominium on the 125th floor would feel like during high winds. What this company would do was they would take prospective buyers for the condominiums, fly them to Newfoundland, put them on this marine simulator, but instead of a rendered view of what it would look like coming into St. John's Harbour or New York, or anywhere else like that, they actually had a view of New York from 120 stories up, looking out over Central Park, looking out over the different landmarks that are in New York, and they could put the prospective buyer in this simulator and they could feel what their prospective purchase would feel like.

One of the things, though, that they have done, and which gets more to what I did this summer, was they had a simulation of what Bob Bartlett's voyage must have been like. Now, they started off with a rendering of his leaving from New York, or from whichever port he left from – my historical facts are not all that great today – but it showed him going up, up through the north and putting in at Battle Harbour, and it had a beautiful rendering of what Battle Harbour must have looked like at the time, very geographically accurate. It showed him coming into Battle Harbour, taking on supplies, and then leaving and going up to, as far as he could, to the North Pole.

Now, as one might expect, going to the North Pole is not a little trip off the Caribbean. You have icebergs, ice floes, all of these things which a ship of lesser quality would never be able to endure. Of course, Bartlett knew what he was doing and had created a ship to endure it. However, physics of it being what it is, whenever a ship at full steam hit an iceberg, something had to give, and sometimes it was just a draw. The simulator would allow you to feel what it was like to come up against this ice, to be stuck in ice. To make the experience even more realistic, was sound, cold, light, all these things, darkness, wave motion, all of these things that would have been experienced. For anyone who did not get an opportunity to go up, it was really an opportunity missed, and I would suggest that if it ever comes available again that you should take advantage of this experience.

Also, since last we met, there has been a number of municipal elections. I, at this time, would like to congratulate everybody who offered themselves for a candidacy for all the municipal elections all through the Province. As I look around the House here, I see a number of people who have served in those capacities, and in those capacities have demonstrated their skills and abilities to a point where they created confidence that their constituents had seen fit to send them to the House of Assembly to represent them on the provincial level.

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the Opposition House Leader earlier do his nautical take on the recent by-elections, and while I suppose a lot of liberties have been taken today, I think maybe it might have been a good idea to have a health care analogy when he was talking about the by-election losses. Because in this health care analogy, he has taken what is substantially a hiccup and turned it into a catastrophic health event. I do not think, in the big scheme of things, that we expect that we are going to win every single election – although it would be nice, and we certainly would like to make that case. This by-election loss, is to my mind, a hiccup in the big picture of the political landscape for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Sticking with the health theme for a moment, if I may, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our new Minister of Health and Community Services, Minister Kennedy, on his handling of the H1N1 episode as it had unfolded so far.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BUCKINGHAM: Mr. Speaker, there are two components to government. One is the ability to manage and plan for the long term. I think we have done a very good job in what we bring forth day after day, and what we bring forth in this House of demonstrating to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that we have a vision and that we have a plan to get there. Now, this is not a static plan that follows a straight line. We understand that things will change, whether it be global events, local events, technology changes. Any of these things can come into play, which take you off the straight and narrow to where you want to be. Have no fear; we do have an idea of where we want to go and how we are going to get there.

To go along with that long-term planning, I think people also need to have confidence that the government can manage the day-to-day events. They can manage the crises that inevitably will come up. I think in this situation we have seen the Department of Health, particularly under Minister Kennedy's leadership, demonstrate every day and provide a face that provides confidence to people, to say: the situation is being evaluated, it is being evaluated critically, rationally, and we are putting forward the best possible plan to take care of things on a day-to-day basis.

Certainly, some problems did arise at the front end, as with all administrative issues when you do not have a template to go by. There were some problems in the beginning, but as we saw day after day the ability of this minister and this department, and particularly with Dr. Faith Stratton by his side, to assure the people that the bureaucracy was taking all of the information that was becoming available, looking at best practices, and I would suggest, also, Mr. Speaker, creating best practices that other jurisdictions around the country were looking at, and saying: this is not a bad idea, this is a good way to go. Now, have we gone through the last wave? Depending on who you talk to, we are in the last wave. There is another one to come, but I believe there is a fair amount of confidence now that this government and the Department of Health has initiated a game plan that will make sure that the best use of resources does take place and that it will continue to take place from here on in.

Now, Mr. Speaker, to get directly to Address in Reply, there are a number of things that His Honour talked about, but two things I would like to emphasize today. Certainly, it is a truth that we would all like to walk through this world being of sound mind and sound body. In fact, whenever we put our final wishes to paper, we always start off by saying: being of sound mind and body, this is where I want things to be. One of the things, being sound mind, is the emphasis that this government has decided to place on research and development. Now, Mr. Speaker, we all know that research and development is critical to moving any group forward. To not move forward and to stand still is in fact, to fall behind. The Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador is a prime example of harnessing the intellectual potential we have as a people.

The Member for Fortune Bay-Cape la Hune talked earlier about the brain drain that we had all talked about for years. Certainly, the Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador provides an opportunity for young Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who have an idea, who have skills, who have training, to exercise all of that right here for the benefit of our own people. Too many times we have seen our young people, with all of these skills, not have the avenue to create what they have in their minds, to bring forth what they envision can be.

Mr. Speaker, that is really nothing more than a reflection of Newfoundland and where it was at the time. However, this government understands that if we do not create the opportunity for young people or even for people who consider themselves to be somewhat older, but have a vision of what can be created, the Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, I believe, provides them with this.

Now, research and development has often had a love-hate relationship with society since the phrase was coined. From a business perspective, no one quite understands what this quirky little department does. A little department that has a ravenous appetite for money and resources but seems to produce little in the way of readily marketable products; yet, as a society we need to reflect on the products and services that R&D has brought us through the years, and more importantly, we need to be aware of the path that R&D took before it arrived at a product or a service that we take for granted.

A prime example is the Internet. We take it for granted, expect for when it is not working then we do not take it for granted at all. Anyone who has been a student or had to do some research, when it does not work, or even the omnipresent Blackberry when that ceases to be our lifeline to the outside world, technology always becomes the culprit, but few of us realize how the Internet was started and the technology that had to be in place before it came to be. Most people would not think of it, but what do we need? What are some of the things that had to come into place before the Internet? Well, you can talk about the telephone, telegraph, radio, and computers. All of these may seemingly be unrelated but they are all integral to the development of the Internet because it talks to information transmission, it talks to advancements in technology, it talks to changing the culture of how we do business. All you need to do it look at each of these individual technologies that preceded the Internet to realize that they have their place. They are important, and it was the improvement of these technologies that led us to where we are.

Now, Mr. Speaker, with regard to the Internet, I, for one, am very excited to – well, I guess impatient to find out exactly where our broadband initiative is going to finally land. We know that the process is well in place. We know that it is going to come very, very soon but it, to me, represents a mass of potential for unleashing the creativity that exists in this Province. We have already seen from many areas of Newfoundland, entrepreneurs, programmers who have taken advantage of the Internet.

Just the other day I went to the parent-teacher night at my daughter's high school and we registered for it using a program called OPTIS, which as I understand was created by a high school student. If I am not mistaken, it may even be a high school student from Grand Falls. Tremendously simple, but tremendously needed, and really a great, great convenience to me as a parent and certainly one that if there are schools out there listening who are wondering how to deal with parent-teacher scheduling this is a great way to go.

Now, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about R&D, what we are really talking about is the spirit of innovation and the spirit of invention, and R&D captures that in an organized and rationalized manner. Companies, provinces, and countries know that to stand still is to fall behind. True innovation is required if we are to maintain long-term growth, viability and stability. Yet, this endeavour, this pushing forward should not go unmanaged. To let it go unmanaged is to waste valuable resources and in every era that is not a good strategy to undertake. The catalyst behind R&D is invention, but it is often in response to a need. From a government point of view, it is usually a quest to solve a real problem by finding new solutions. Hopefully, R&D can be the answer that we need to bring us to new levels, to free a lot of rural Newfoundland in terms of allowing it to bring its creativity to the nation and to the world as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, I will finish off on R&D by bringing forward a simple analogy. Many people will argue that the cost of R&D is too high. A lot of money goes in, very questionable as to what goes out. So people tend to want to push it away, but some people might argue the same happens with education. We put a lot of money in and absolutely there are results, but do the results that come out of education match up with the monies that go in? Who is to say? We do not argue about it. We know in our heart of hearts that education is the proper way to go, it is a good use of our resources, and I suggest that R&D would be a good use also.

Mr. Speaker, the second part that I would like to speak to - and it will only take a few more minutes - the partner to a sound mind is a sound body. Mr. Speaker, I had a wonderful opportunity this summer to go to the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island, and it is truly inspirational to go to a national event like this and to see the youth and the enthusiasm that comes from sport, that comes from participation.

The Newfoundland team was made up of athletes who participate in their regular sports, as we have all come to know it. We had athletes with disabilities who participated and we have also had Special Olympic athletes who participated. Mr. Speaker, the enthusiasm was infectious. It was incredible to see all of these young people from across Canada excelling, doing their best, the results from years of training, the friendships that they formed, the realization that there was more to sport than just the sport itself, but the cultural and social part of it was extremely beneficial to all of them.

We garnered medals in rugby and rowing, those are bronze. Erica Noonan, a swimmer with a disability, earned three silvers, and Ryan Brockerville won the silver medal in the 3,000 metre steeple chase. Now, who invented the idea of running for three kilometres, jumping over a big barrel, landing in water for God knows how long? Well, God bless him, but Ryan was second best in Canada and it was a very exciting race. I was there, and the Newfoundland contingent was beside himself as I cheered him on.

One of the things that was mentioned in the Throne Speech was the PowerPlex, this new facility that is up on Crosbie Road. Mr. Speaker, I have been involved with sports in Newfoundland for a good many years, in particular with baseball. I have seen the teams that we have sent away to national competitions. This team that we sent this year, from a physical fitness and readiness point of view, was the best I have ever seen. I will uncategorically state, it was because of the PowerPlex, it was because of the trained staff, it was because of the facilities, it was because of the attitude, it was because of a new culture in sports in this Province that says, just going out and playing is not enough. If you want to compete at the national level, you have to train, you have to be ready, you have to show dedication. This government has encouraged this and said: if you want to do it, the facilities are there. There is no reason now for Newfoundland athletes to have that excuse: oh, we don't have the facilities. I have seen young boys who started in a baseball program with me at age thirteen and fourteen, and I have seen this physical progression. In the one year that they were involved in the sports centre, their physical transformation was amazing. Amazing, and these results were shown in their ability to compete.

The culture of excellence in sports in Newfoundland and Labrador has started, and I suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, that we have gone on the right path. It will become more accessible, and when the benefits start to roll in – when the benefits result in the success that we hope it will, then certainly we will have seen that this is money well spent.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you for this time, and I certainly look forward to more comments from my colleagues as we complete our Address in Reply to the Throne Speech.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am glad to be back in the House once again to be able to get on my feet and talk about the wonderful things that this government is doing for all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: Mr. Speaker, I think I have twenty minutes. If I had twenty hours I would not be able to get through the tremendous change that has been brought about here in Newfoundland and Labrador by the efforts of this government and our leader, Premier Williams.

Mr. Speaker, developments of late, though, certainly have indicated to me that not everyone believes that. I just reference the open lines and the last few by-election campaigns. I know the Opposition; their rallying cry seems to be that this government is not doing anything, not doing this much or that much. They are not doing anything for Newfoundland and Labrador, but in particular, rural Newfoundland. This rural myth is much like the urban myths that go around, all about beliefs. You often heard about those urban myths where this couple comes back from Mexico somewhere and they bring back what they think is a dog, and when they get it home it is a rat! Now, I would not want to bring up rats, but maybe it is a good time to talk about those sorts of myths that are propagated using people.

I have been in rural Newfoundland and Labrador as much as any sitting member here today or more and I can tell you that there are good things happening in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: They are good because they are getting to the heart of difficulties that are there, largely because of previous Administrations and their lack of concern for that particular part of our Province. I say to you, Mr. Speaker, that I am very, very proud of the record of this government because when we came in - and that is another thing, I guess, because I feel I am getting a little bit long in the tooth here, because I can talk about when I was over on that side of the House. I saw first hand what the previous Administration did, what they did do to rural Newfoundland and Labrador. I saw it first hand, and I remember sitting in the Opposition. I remember putting forth the needs of my rural district on roads, infrastructure and the like. Do you know how much I received?

AN HON. MEMBER: Tell us. How much did you get?

MR. HEDDERSON: I think I got $400,000. That is a large amount, but when you say over five years and that was for pavement; five years, $400,000, unbelievable. Now we are talking about this government with $800 million of infrastructure.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: What I might add, is that this particular year, that was really, I think when the final analysis - it was up around $900 million because we leveraged federal money. So you are talking about $900 million, and not only that, but we are ahead of the game because we were prepared as a government. Because we heard what was happening or what we saw and heard from the people what was required in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, in Newfoundland and Labrador in general, and we responded. Guess what? As a jurisdiction - talk about stimulus packages and that, we have been stimulating since 2003.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: So, this is only par for the course. Other jurisdictions are saying: oh my God, we have to do a stimulus package. We were lined up with good strategic planning in infrastructure and others to carry us, not only forward a year, not only two years, but we are talking about 2015. We are talking about with an energy plan 2041. We are way ahead. We are way ahead.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: When other jurisdictions now are looking back over their record they are saying: We got to be like Newfoundland and Labrador. Finally! Again, they appreciate where we have come from and where we are going and what our vision is, but there are still factions in our Province who cannot see the forest for the trees.

Election campaigns, again to go back to, doing nothing. What is it John Crosbie calls them? Nabobs of negativity; that is what it is. I tell you, there are no negativities among this side of the House. We are a team, a team that knows where we are going and asking for the support of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to get to where they need to go, not where we need to go. It is not about we, as politicians, it is about we as a province. It is about we as putting forth a vision that will not only take care of next week or next month, but, as our Premier said, it is about children, it is about our grandchildren, it is about self-sustainability for a province that deserves it.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: You show me a jurisdiction that, since 1949, has not really had a year to call a surplus. We are talking about four consecutive surpluses in this government for the last four years. That is what I am talking about!

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: We are talking about, as well, getting ahead of things. Do we wait now until next year to start looking at tendering or anything like that? We are usually at least a year, if not two years ahead.

This year we talk about $800 million. Of that, I think the last report that I had is 86 per cent – it is certainly in the eighties, with 80 per cent of the time. Now that is 85 per cent of what we said that has been tendered, it has been awarded - and I am only there since Friday.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: I take that back, Mr. Speaker, because there was an I in there, it was I, but it is not about I, it is about we.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: It is about we. That is what it is all about! That, I say to you, Mr. Speaker, was a slip of the tongue. It was a slip of the tongue. Because even though we work hard as individuals over here, Mr. Speaker, it is not about us in the sense of individuals, it is about a team who has taken on a task and we are moving forward. Moving forward, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: I say to you again, going back to our infrastructure - the other funny thing about it, there has nothing been done in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Do you realize, Mr. Speaker, that infrastructure – and you can do the math yourself if you want to, do the math yourself. I mentioned 85 per cent of it pretty well tendered and awarded. Well, really about $900 million, 85 per cent of that infrastructure, guess where it is taking place? It is out past that proverbial overpass. It is in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. That is where it is.

Mr. Speaker, we can look at the big picture, but we cannot forget about what makes up that big picture, and that is the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. I tell you, I stand here very, very proud because this has been more than a rough year in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. It has been more than a rough year, but have the people of Newfoundland and Labrador given up? No, Mr. Speaker, they are more determined than ever to turn it around and we, as a government, need to be there to make sure. You just have to look at some of the initiatives.

Of course, I am standing here next to the Deputy Premier and I know that she works extremely hard at the big picture, but she does not forget about the smaller picture which is community Newfoundland and Labrador. I remember one announcement - and Minister Dunderdale has certainly done a lot. I am sorry; I take it back.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. HEDDERSON: That is right; I needed that break.

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair reluctantly interrupts the hon. member, especially when he is in full flight delivering his speech. The Chair has to refer to a practice that is getting out of hand here and it is happening on both sides of the House, from members on both sides of the House here on several occasions today and that is the fact of members referring to other members by their given names.

I want to refer you to page 521 of M and M. It says: References to Members, "During debate, Members do not refer to one another by their names but rather by title, position or constituency name in order to guard against all tendency to personalize debate."

If you go to page 522, it also states, "The Speaker will not allow a Member to refer to another Member by name even if the Member is quoting…" or reading from a document or a newspaper. Members cannot do through the back door what they should not do and cannot do through the front.

I ask members to be guided by that particular rule and to refer to all the members by the portfolio that they have received here in the House or by their constituency that they represent rather than referring to members by their given names.

The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: I say to the Speaker thank you very much for that time out. Upon reflection, Mr. Speaker, I certainly realize that in my zest to get out my message that I did err, and to err is human, and I will accept your ruling and endeavour, as best I can, to refer to ministers or to our members in their proper terms.

To get back to where I left off though, let me say, the Minister of Natural Resources have certainly gone throughout this Province, in just about every nook and cranny, made all sorts of different announcements, but as I pointed out, she sees the big picture and that is about an energy warehouse and so on, and we are looking at 2041 as a target date as the Upper Churchill comes back to us, or maybe before.

What I am looking at is that she indicated that of all the announcements that she made there was one in particular that she remembers vividly, and that was up in Roddickton. She went in to that particular community, rural Newfoundland and Labrador, an area that was devastated by, to some degree, white elephants of previous administrations and a downturn, but she went in and announced $9 million for, basically, a pellet producing plant.

That made a big difference for that area, Mr. Speaker, and a big difference for the people in that area most importantly. Those are the types of announcements that mean very much – well, I guess, it is very near and dear to every one of our hearts because we realize it is about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, whether they live in rural Newfoundland, urban Newfoundland. We, as a group, we, as people, really and honestly believe that we can, as I pointed out earlier, are self-sustaining within this federation, that we can do things now with our vision, with our understanding that can carry into future generations.

For too long -and every one of us here are too much aware of the history that has gone before us and of the mistakes that were made in the past. That is not to say that any administration does not make mistakes, but again, I think we have clearly demonstrated, as an administration, that we are willing to go back over things where we feel we have made mistakes or not carried out as we should have. That tells, it tells about a person, it tells about a party, it tells about a government that are responsive to the needs of the people of this particular Province.

I say to you, Mr. Speaker, again I stand with pride, and I can go down through the hundreds of millions of dollars that we put out there, but it is not the money as much as it is the strategic directions that we are taking to ensure that our resources, there are no more giveaways, that we are taking those resources to the maximum benefit of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, that we have a leader who is there twenty-four seven, thinking and moving forward with his team to bring this Province to where we rightfully deserve to be.

Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way from the years that I sat in Opposition here between 1999 and 2003. From 2003, up to this particular point in time, we are on the right track; we are moving in the right direction. We certainly do appreciate good constructive criticism. That is what this life is all about. If, indeed, we get that, that will make us stronger as governments. When you have Opposition members up on by-elections going around spreading, I guess, inaccurate facts, if I want to put it that way –

AN HON. MEMBER: Creating urban legends.

MR. HEDDERSON: Yes, they are trying to, I guess, look at creating rural myths, much like urban legends, I suppose. They are not legends in themselves, legends in the sense that I would say to you, Mr. Speaker, again, we do not have all of the answers, but we do and are willing to listen and respond, not only listen and respond, but to respond in ways that can better serve the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As we are coming to the end of our legislative day today, Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity to stand in this House today, as I am always proud because, again, the work that is done inside this Chamber will bring about good, positive changes, we hope, in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Today, we welcome two new members into this House. Of course, those two new members obviously, I am sure, in some way or another, will distinguish themselves. We wish them well because, again, it is not an easy task to be a politician in Newfoundland and Labrador because of the great demands that are placed upon our time. Again, it is very rewarding, Mr. Speaker.

I would say, in closing, that I represent the great District of Harbour Main, historic District of Harbour Main. I am very, very pleased to say that as a district - I guess in representing that particular district, that I try every way I can to be in touch with their needs and be responsive to their needs. I think I speak for everyone in this House in saying that is what our job is and to bring forth to government that type of information, that type of intelligence to make us stronger as government and to get us down a road that we need to get down in order to get things done.

So, Mr. Speaker, again, I say this government has a record of distinguishing itself in finding ways to get things done in the years that we have been here now -into our second term - we have had tremendous success. This success is evident - just one example. We mentioned the Northern Peninsula. I remember going up on the Northern Peninsula - I believe it was somewhere around 2001 in two by-elections. I will be quite honest with you, Mr. Speaker; I think I lost my breakfast at least seven times. I came back from the Northern Peninsula about a week or two ago. I say, Mr. Speaker, the road from one end to the other has to be 1,000 per cent improvement. It is a great roadway and it just shows by the numbers of tourists now that are travelling up to that area, the number of businesses, that it is a great investment with regard government. We are proud of those types of investments because the infrastructure certainly leads to a situation where the quality of life for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador is indeed very well.

Mr. Speaker, I see that the clock is running. With that, again I thank the House for its indulgence and I will stop there.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS BURKE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I move, seconded by the hon. the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women that the House do 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 1:30 of the clock tomorrow, being Tuesday.

On motion, the House at its rising adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, at 1:30 p.m.