No.
26/2008
House
of Assembly
Province
of Newfoundland & Labrador
_______________________________________
1st
Session – 46th General Assembly
________________________________________
Wednesday, May 14,
2008
ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS
(a) Statements
by Members
(b) Statements
by Ministers
(c) Oral
Questions
(d) Presenting
Reports by Standing and Select Committees
(e) Tabling of
Documents
(f) Notices of
Motion
(g) Answers to
questions for which notice has been given
(h) Petitions
ORDERS OF THE DAY
1. C
Committee of Supply
2. C
Address in Reply
Bills Referred to Committee of the Whole
3. C Committee
of the Whole on a Bill C AAn Act
To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000@. (Bill No. 26) (Finance and President
of Treasury Board)
4. C Committee
of the Whole on a Bill C AAn Act To Amend The Health And Post-Secondary Education
Tax Act@.
(Bill No. 27) (Finance and President of
Treasury Board)
Second
5. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act Respecting
Registered Nurses@.
(Bill No. 3)
(Health and Community Services)
6. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act To Provide For
The Protection Of Personal Health Information”. (Bill No. 7) (Health and Community Services)
7. C Second
8. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act
To Amend The Retail Sales Tax Act And The Tax Agreement Act@.
(Bill No. 28) (Adjourned) (Finance and President
of Treasury Board)
9. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act To Amend The Legal Aid Act”. (Bill No. 29)
(Justice and Attorney
General)
10. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act
To Amend The Partnership Act”. (Bill No. 30)
(Justice
and Attorney General)
11. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act
To Amend
The
12. C Second
Reading of a Bill C AAn Act
To Amend
The House Of Assembly Accountability, Integrity
And Administration Act”. (Bill No. 32) (Government House Leader)
MOTIONS
1. C THE HONOURABLE THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND PRESIDENT
OF TREASURY BOARD C To Move that the House Resolve itself into a Committee
of the Whole on Supply to Consider a Resolution for the Granting of Supply to
Her Majesty. (Bill No. 25)
2. C THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE LEADER C To
Move:
“WHEREAS under subsection 35(1) of the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity
and Administration Act the Speaker referred to the Standing Committee of
the House of Assembly on Privileges and Elections the responsibility for
developing and proposing to this House of Assembly a Code of Conduct to assist members in the
discharge of their obligations to the House of Assembly, constituents and the
public at large,
AND
WHEREAS the Standing
Committee of the House of Assembly on Privileges and Elections has met,
considered and reached an agreement on a Code of Conduct to apply to all members
of the House of Assembly,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that this House of Assembly for the purposes of section 35 of the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity
and Administration Act and for the benefit of the electorate of
CODE OF CONDUCT FOR MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE
OF ASSEMBLY
Commitments:
Members of this House of Assembly
recognize that we are responsible to the people of
Members of this House of Assembly respect
the law and the institution of the Legislature and acknowledge our need to
maintain the public trust placed in us by performing our duties with
accessibility, accountability, courtesy, honesty and integrity.
Principles:
1. Members
shall inform themselves of and shall conduct themselves in accordance with the
provisions and spirit of the Standing Orders of the House of Assembly, the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity
and Administration Act, the Members' Resources and Allowances Rules, the
Elections Act, 1991, the House of Assembly Act and this Code of Conduct and
shall ensure that their conduct does not bring the integrity of their office or
the House of Assembly into disrepute.
2.
It is a fundamental objective of their
holding public office that Members serve their fellow citizens with integrity
in order to improve the economic and social conditions of the people of the
province.
3. Members
reject political corruption and refuse to participate in unethical political
practices which tend to undermine the democratic traditions of our province and
its institutions.
4.
Members will act lawfully and in a
manner that will withstand the closest public scrutiny. Neither the law nor
this code is designed to be exhaustive and there will be occasions on which
Members will find it necessary to adopt more stringent norms of conduct in
order to protect the public interest and to enhance public confidence and
trust.
5.
Members will not engage in personal
conduct that exploits for private reasons their positions or authorities or
that would tend to bring discredit to their offices.
6.
Members will carry out their official
duties and arrange their private financial affairs in a manner that protects
the public interest and enhances public confidence and trust in government and
in high standards of ethical conduct in public office.
7.
Members will base their conduct on a
consideration of the public interest. They are individually responsible for
preventing conflicts of interest and will endeavor to prevent them from
arising. Members will take all reasonable steps to resolve any such conflict
quickly and in a manner which is in the best interests of the public.
8.
In performing their official duties,
Members will apply public resources prudently and only for the purposes for
which they are intended.
9. Members will not use official
information which is not in the public domain, or information obtained in
confidence in the course of their official duties, for personal gain or the
personal gain of others.
10. Relationships between Members and
government employees should be professional and based upon mutual respect and
should have regard to the duty of those employees to remain politically
impartial when carrying out their duties.
11. Members
should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.
12. This Code of Conduct has a continuing
effect except as amended or rescinded by Resolution of the House of Assembly.”
3. C MS. LORRAINE MICHAEL (Signal Hill-Quidi
Vidi) C To
Move:
“WHEREAS the people of
AND
WHEREAS the crumbling infrastructure of health care facilities has been
revealed and remains an acute issue that must be addressed, including sprinkler
systems installed in personal care homes and hospital facilities to meet fire
code;
AND
WHEREAS the citizens of this Province have been subjected to a barrage of
news that has shaken their trust in the health care system, including the
impact on women with breast cancer and their families as a result of the faulty
breast cancer receptor testing in St. John's, and the revelation that 322
breast cancer patients had received questionable tests between 1997 and 2005;
AND
WHEREAS the inaccuracies of radiology tests have unsettled patients and
their families and created costs for the system as some 6,000 tests had to be
reviewed and in some cases repeated;
AND
WHEREAS there is a health human resources crisis with all health care
professionals in the system and the Province has an aging skilled trades
workforce;
AND
WHEREAS
AND
WHEREAS the Aboriginal population is growing at a significantly higher rate
than general population and our Aboriginal population continues to have a
poorer health status than that of our non-Aboriginal population;
AND
WHEREAS citizens living in rural and remote areas have difficulty accessing
health care services and incur great cost to access services;
AND
WHEREAS Newfoundland and Labrador has not yet reached national benchmarks
for wait times to the priority areas of cancer, heart, diagnostic imaging,
joint replacements, and sight restoration;
AND
WHEREAS chronic disease management, emergency health, cancer care and
patient safety are integral elements of our health care system;
AND
WHEREAS home care must be acknowledged as a part of the health care system;
AND
WHEREAS we await whistleblower legislation;
AND
WHEREAS our health care delivery system was first subjected to
regionalization in 1998 and further changes to these regions in 2004;
AND
WHEREAS no external evaluation of the Integrated Health Regions has ever
occurred;
THEREFORE
BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Assembly call upon the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador to conduct an independent external review of the
Integrated Health Regions that would be examined by review panel;
BE IT
FURTHER RESOLVED that the House of Assembly direct the panel to recommend
strategies for improvements to the Province's health care system in the
following areas: sharing models of
success, administration, communications, accountability, further enhancing
patient care, community participation and responding to local needs;
AND BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
have an opportunity to submit their views to the review”.
4. C MR. WADE VERGE (Lewisporte)
C To Move:
“WHEREAS
the Constitution of
Canada provides for fair and equitable treatment of all citizens;
AND WHEREAS Revenue
AND WHEREAS many
AND WHEREAS participants in the 1999 licence retirement program paid a disproportionate and
unfair share of income tax on their licence
retirement payout as compared to those participants in the 1996 and 2002
Atlantic Groundfish Retirement Program;
AND WHEREAS this inequity has cost fisher people who
participated in the 1999 buy back program undue financial hardship;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly call upon
the Government of Canada to immediately require Revenue
__________________________
Published under the authority of the
Speaker of the
House of Assembly by Earl G. Tucker,
Queen's Printer