March 22, 2016
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS
Vol. XLVIII No. 9
The
House met at 1:30 p.m.
MR. SPEAKER (Osborne):
Order, please!
Admit
strangers.
Statements by
Members
MR. SPEAKER:
For Members' statements
today, we have the Members for the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair,
Burin Grand Bank, Terra Nova, Ferryland, Mount Pearl North and Bonavista.
I
recognize the Member for the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair and Deputy
Speaker.
MS. DEMPSTER:
Thank you.
I rise
in this hon. House to recognize the racers in Cain's Quest who bravely signed up
to challenge the legendary Labrador course earlier this month. This
3,500-kilometre snowmobile race through the four corners of Labrador is truly
unique. Cain's Quest has earned its place among the world's greatest endurance
challenges. It was followed by people in 73 countries outside of Canada and
racked up some 1.3 million page views online.
If
Cain's Quest is one of the world's toughest races, its participants are some of
the world's toughest racers. That's certainly true, Mr. Speaker, of the teams
from my district. Four intrepid teams from Cartwright L'Anse au Clair embraced
the challenge. Team 24, the Cartwright Orange Eagles, blazed across the finish
line in 13th position a remarkable achievement considering there were 37 teams
that entered.
Team 85,
the Mary's Harbour Backcountry Riders, to the delight of spectators, decided to
complete the race despite being outside the mandatory 18-hour finish. Team 62,
Labrador South Racing and Team 16 of Charlottetown, like so many others, were
forced to withdraw but not before putting up a good fight.
I ask
all hon. Members to join me in recognizing the courage and the strength of all
Cain's Quest participants.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Burin Grand Bank.
MS. HALEY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr.
Speaker, in psychology the Stroop effect is a demonstration of the interference
in the reaction time when completing a task. Jenna Hennebury, a 13-year-old
grade eight student at Holy Name of Mary Academy in Lawn, was so fascinated with
the effect that she made it the topic for her project at the Burin Peninsula
Regional Science Fair held at Fortune Bay Academy in St. Bernard's-Jacques
Fontaine on March 8.
The
judges for the fair were so impressed by Jenna's project, which she dubbed
Colour Confusion, they awarded her top prize at this year's regional fair, and
with it a place representing the English School District at the Canada-Wide
Science Fair being held in Montreal from May 15 to 20.
Mr.
Speaker, students in grades seven to nine from six schools around the Burin
Peninsula presented 38 projects in a number of categories; however, it was
Jenna's project in the Life/Environmental/Biotechnology category that was deemed
best overall. Jenna is the daughter of proud parents Earl and Anna Hennebury of
Lawn.
Mr.
Speaker, I ask all Members to join me in congratulating Jenna on her win and
wishing her continued success at the national science fair in Montreal.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Terra Nova.
MR. HOLLOWAY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise
to recognize Mr. Wayne Hallett, owner and operator of the Prints of Whales Inn,
located in Sandringham, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr.
Hallett was chosen as the Tourism Champion of the Year in this year's
Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador Conference and Trade Show held at the
Delta Hotel and Conference Centre here in St. John's on March 1 to 3.
The
Tourism Champion of the Year Award is presented to an individual, company or
organization that has worked diligently to ensure the tourism industry prospers,
and has given freely of their time and energy to champion the interests of and
enhance the tourism industry.
Wayne
Hallett, along with this wife Ruth, has operated multiple accommodations in
Newfoundland before moving on to the Prints of Whales Inn. Wayne has been
involved in various tourism organizations, including those in the Coast of Bays
and the Road to the Beaches, as well as Tourism Quality Assurance Newfoundland
and Labrador and Adventure Central Newfoundland.
Mr.
Hallett demonstrates how a small tourism operator can play a significant role in
demonstrating the direction and success of the provincial tourism industry.
I ask
all hon. Members to join me in congratulating Mr. Hallett for being the
recipient of this year's Tourism Champion of the Year award.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Ferryland.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. HUTCHINGS:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to
honour the Goulds Volunteer Fire Department. This past year they celebrated
their 39th anniversary. I've had the pleasure over the past years to attend a
number of events to celebrate the work of this brigade.
I would
like to acknowledge and say thank you to the Goulds Volunteer Fire Department,
as well as all volunteer members over the years. The unselfish giving of their
time to the residents of their communities ensures people they have someone to
rely on in the event of a fire or any type of emergency.
We all
hope we'll never have to avail of the services they provide, but if required,
people of the area are very thankful knowing they would do so without hesitation
and can rest easier knowing they're ready to respond at any time.
The
volunteer fire department will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in October,
and I look forward to being a part of that celebration.
I ask
all Members of the House to join me in congratulating Fire Chief Jay Green and
all members of the Goulds Volunteer Fire Department for their many years of
service.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount
Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise
in this hon. House today to recognize the Mount Pearl Sports Alliance on a very
successful Annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet. At a recent
ceremony, four athletes and builders from Newfoundland and Labrador were
honoured and inducted into the Mount Pearl Sports Hall of Fame.
Mr.
Speaker, this annual event, hosted by the Mount Pearl Sports Alliance, honours
those individuals who have, and in some cases still do, contribute to sports and
athletics in a very significant way. It is through their individual commitment
that we are able to continue the work and operation of sporting organizations in
our communities and in the province.
Mr.
Speaker, I ask all Members of the House to join me in congratulating the Mount
Pearl Sports Alliance in honouring the achievements of these individuals. I
would also like to congratulate specifically the most recent inductees. In the
category of builder: Dave LeGrow and Dave Randell; and in the category of
athlete: Jennifer Andrews and Wince Taylor. Each of these individuals is very
worthy of this honour. I would like to wish them all the best in their future
endeavours and hope they continue their contribution to sport and to our
community.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Bonavista.
MR. KING:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to
acknowledge the female hockey teams of the Bonavista-Trinity Minor Hockey
Association and Discovery Collegiate. Over the past two months these young women
have been excellent representatives of the District of Bonavista, both on and
off the ice.
On
January 24, the under-12 team won gold at the Adam Pardy Invitational Tournament
which showcased the skills of six teams from around the province. This past
weekend, these same female Cabots won gold in the C division of the provincial
mega tournament. Our under-20 team won gold on March 13 in the B division of
their provincial mega tournament. Finally, the Discovery Collegiate Destroyers
won the student Sports Newfoundland and Labrador Female Varsity Ice Hockey
championship on March 6 beating six competitive teams.
Winning
isn't just about the results on the ice, but also about sportsmanship,
leadership and teamwork which these young women exhibit daily. I would like to
also acknowledge the dedication and sacrifices made by the coaches, volunteers,
parents and guardians who make the lives of these young women much richer.
I ask
all hon. Members to join me in congratulating the teams and wishing them a
bright future which I'm sure they'll have.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
The Commemoration
of the First World War and the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel
MR. SPEAKER:
For Honour 100 today we have
the Member for the District of Cape St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
I will now read into the
record the following 40 names of those who lost their lives in the First World
War in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Royal Newfoundland Naval Reserve or
the Newfoundland Mercantile Marine. This will be followed by a moment of
silence.
Lest we
forget: William Cox, Henry Charles Crane, John Charles Crane, Joseph Crane,
Nathaniel Crane, James F. Cranford, Llewellyn C. Cranford, Kenneth Critch,
Francis Thomas Crocker, Harrison Crocker, Job Crocker, Stanley Crocker, James
Matthew Cron, George Graham Crosbie, William Cross, Leo Crotty, James E.
Croucher, Nathaniel Croucher, George Little Cuff, Elijah Culimore, Ersatus
Cumby, Arthur Cummings, John Cunningham, John Thomas Curley, George Robert
Curnew, James Patrick Curran, Archibald Curtis, Frederick Dalton, James Joseph
Daly, Christopher Dawe, Fred Dawe, Henry Charles Dawe, Stewart Dawe, William
Henry Dawe, James Lewis Day, Norman Kenneth Dean, Walter Augustus Dean, Thomas
J. Delaney, Timothy Samuel Delaney, Harold DeLouchrey,
(Moment
of silence.)
MR. SPEAKER:
Please be seated.
Statements by Ministers.
Statements by
Ministers
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise
today in this hon. House to speak about Labrador's premiere sporting event, the
Labrador Winter Games, which took place from March 13 to March 19 in and around
Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
It was
my pleasure to participate in the opening ceremonies and to see the athletes
preparing for their events and representing their respective communities. I was
particularly pleased to see my hon. colleagues and several other leaders from
across Labrador.
The
games brought together athletes, team leaders and excited fans from all over
Labrador. They highlighted Labradorians' love of the outdoors and the
celebration of culture and traditions, while presenting some of the most
spirited competition this province has to offer. I had the opportunity to watch
the table tennis and the snowshoeing matches.
Mr.
Speaker, I am proud that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador was the
primary sponsor of the Labrador Winter Games and I thank the Board of Directors,
guided by the Chairman Joseph Goudie, the Labrador Winter Games staff and over
375 volunteers for yet another successful Labrador Winter Games.
I also
congratulate all the athletes who participated as well as those who were
successful in winning their events.
Mr.
Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in congratulating the community of
Cartwright for winning the overall event and taking home the Labrador Cup, and
indeed all those who participated in what truly was an amazing event.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Conception Bay East Bell Island.
MR. BRAZIL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like
to thank the Premier for an advance copy of his statement regarding the Labrador
Winter Games, which people may know is nicknamed the Olympics of the North and
goes back to the present structure to the early 1980s.
Mr.
Speaker, on behalf of the Official Opposition, we, too, want to congratulate the
organizers, the athletes, the sponsoring agencies and particularly the Board of
Directors and Mr. Goudie, who has been a leading force for the last three
decades when it comes to the Labrador Winter Games.
We'd
also like to thank the government for their continued support for these games,
and we note the value they have around outlining cultural diversity, inclusion,
competitiveness and active living.
Mr.
Speaker, I had the honour over my career as a former civil servant of attending
a number of those games in Labrador and was very much impressed, not only with
the athletic ability, but the unique sports these athletes participate in and
how they really reflect the culture of Labrador and the heritage of the people
there.
Mr.
Speaker, on behalf of the Opposition, again, we would like to congratulate all
of the athletes, the organizers and we look forward to the next Labrador Winter
Games.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's East Quidi Vidi.
MS. MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
I thank
the Premier for the advance copy of his statement. I, too, congratulate everyone
involved. I have been to the games and seen first-hand the amazing spirit of the
athletes, volunteers and participants. The games are an important cultural event
which serves to help keep alive the traditional sports, games and skills of the
people of Labrador.
Congratulations to the town of Cartwright who has set a high standard for those
hosting this event in the years to come.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Service NL.
MR. JOYCE:
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this
hon. House today to highlight Service NL's new online driver licence renewal
service, which enables residents to renew their licence from the convenience of
their home or office. In addition to this service enhancement, Service NL has
also extended the validity of driver's licence photos from five years to 10
years for anyone over the age of 19.
Mr.
Speaker, these initiatives are designed to simplify the renewal process, and
reduce the need for people to find the time to visit a Motor Registration
Division office or a Government Service Centre in their area.
I am
proud to say that within the first three days of announcing this new service, we
had more than 400 driver licence renewals processed. We want to build on that
success, and so I invite all hon. Members to encourage their constituents to
take advantage of this simple, convenient service.
Mr.
Speaker, I would also like to thank the dedicated staff within Service NL and
the Office of the Chief Information Officer for their work which made these
initiatives possible. Service NL will continue to deliver efficient and
effective services to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and I look forward to
announcing more service improvements in the near future.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Cape St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank
the minister for the advance copy of his statement. We, too, as the Official
Opposition realize how good this announcement is. It's a great announcement,
actually, anything that makes it more convenient for our residents to be able to
do and make services that we offer in government a little bit more effective. To
have it from five years to 10 years is in alignment with what is happening with
passports, in what the federal government did with passports. It's really more
convenient for all the residents.
Personally I just hope that it will decrease a bit of the wait time that we do
see at Motor Registration. I know we all have experiences going into the
building and having to wait so long. This hopefully will eliminate the periods
of time because I know people wait for hours. Some days you can be in there for
a couple of hours, so this is great.
I just
hope this doesn't result in any reduction of staff at Motor Registration,
because again it will reduce the wait times in there. It's a great service, and
I thank the minister.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's East Quidi Vidi.
MS. MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
I, too,
thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement, which has presented
the news of a really good initiative. We look forward to its rollout and seeing
if residents continue to take advantage of the new program.
I'd
caution the minister that he leave in place the traditional ways of making
application for those who either have no Internet access or poor Internet
access, or don't have a home computer or access to a computer, or even the
skills necessary to apply online. Innovation is a wonderful initiative we want
it but not at the expense of leaving a portion of the population behind.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Environment and Conservation.
MR. TRIMPER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am
pleased to rise in this House and join with the governments and organizations
around the world to recognize United Nations World Water Day.
Mr.
Speaker, I remember working on a United Nations project myself in Turkmenistan
in 1992 when we had to add chemicals, boil and filter every single sip of water.
Jurisdictions such as that one face horrific situations because of contaminated
water. It was an important experience for me to realize just how lucky we are in
Canada.
Safe and
abundant drinking water is something that so many people take for granted and
something that so many people around the world do not have available to them. I
ask that as Members reach for a glass of water here in the House, they think
about this important day and about those hundreds of millions of people around
the world that are not so fortunate.
Mr.
Speaker, our government is committed to addressing the challenges we face here
in Newfoundland and Labrador in providing safe and sustainable drinking water
systems, and ensuring high quality drinking water.
The
theme of World Water Day 2016 is water and jobs, and I can't imagine a better
theme, as my department holds its annual Clean and Safe Drinking Water Workshop
in Gander this week for approximately 300 water system operators and other
drinking water professionals. We are also releasing the
Drinking Water Safety in Newfoundland and Labrador annual report for
2015 and announcing spring 2016 training sessions for operators.
Mr.
Speaker, I ask all hon. Members of this House to join me in marking World Water
Day 2016.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want
to thank the minister for an advance copy of his statement. We on this side of
the House, too, wish to join government in recognizing today, March 22, as
United Nations World Water Day.
Mr.
Speaker, having safe and abundant drinking water is a luxury many of us take for
granted. On this day we should be mindful of many parts of the world who
struggle to have access to safe drinking water.
As the
United Nations does their part in progressing development of access to water
around the world, we too must do our part. So we must be mindful of water
conservation in our daily lives, and water is not an unlimited resource.
Thanks
again.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank
the minister for an advance copy of his statement. The minister says safe and
abundant drinking water is something so many people take for granted. I'm sure
he does not need reminding of the more than 200 boil-order advisories residents
of this province have to live with. Those people can take nothing for granted.
Every
resident in this province has a right to and should be able to get fresh, clean,
safe drinking water from their taps. After all, it is Newfoundland and Labrador,
and it is 2016. This must be a goal we reach as soon as possible.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
Oral Questions.
Oral Questions
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Shortly
after taking office, the new Liberal government cancelled the collection of
pension overpayments, and even went as far to say pensioners would be reimbursed
for payments they had already made on the overpayments. At the same time, a
37-year-old single parent who had received overpayments of income support was
being forced to pay it back in full. This low-income single parent even appealed
to her new MHA, a Liberal MHA for Harbour Grace Port de Grave, for help. The
only result she got was notification from CRA that her file had been forwarded
to CRA for collection.
I ask
the minister to explain: Why is she going against her own policy on overpayments
and forcing this low-income, vulnerable, single parent to pay?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well,
the question about the seniors' overpayments, as we know, this was an ongoing
overpayment that was made by the previous administration, and really years prior
to that, I would say.
In this
particular case, what happened, the overpayments were made. The people had made
lifestyle decisions on how this money would be spent, because what they thought
was this was a part of their pension plan. So what happened there was very
little money collected from the seniors. As a matter of fact, we've been reached
out to by a number of people. As a matter of fact, one lady herself would have
been about 102 years old prior to the overpayments being paid back. So the
decision was made by this government to actually stop the collection of those
overpayments there was very little collected and that was the reason why
that decision was made.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Mr. Speaker, my question was
about the 37-year-old single parent who's being forced to repay an overpayment
on income support.
Mr.
Speaker, we understand that the Liberals one-time and one-off decision not to
collect pension overpayments certainly benefited those pensioners who were
selected not to have to repay those overpayments. However, Mr. Speaker, I'll
give you another example: a 73-year-old resident of Conception Bay South, who is
also a public service pensioner and who is also a recipient of pension
overpayments from government, but he wasn't part of this particular group. It's
a very similar circumstance. He's not part of the group, but circumstances are
the same, except he's being forced to pay back those overpayments.
So I ask
the minister: Why the double standard?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I'd look forward
to the hon. Member giving me the information on his constituent so that I can
help him navigate through what I'm sure is a difficult situation for his
constituent, and as an MHA I would expect him to provide that information to my
office.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Will the
minister do the same for the 37-year-old single parent?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to
look at any issues through the Department of Finance that any Members in this
this House, both in Opposition and on the government side, have for us to take a
look at. Certainly, we'll take it under advisement once we have the full
details.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As we
receive more inquiries, I'll be glad to forward them to the minister; however,
this 37-year old, as I mentioned earlier, had already asked for assistance and
was turned down by government.
Mr.
Speaker, the Liberal government's decision to forgive pension overpayments is
leaving the pension plan with an approximately $1 million deficit. Government
has the responsibility to top-up the plan created by the pension overpayments.
Mr.
Speaker, I ask the Premier: Has government made up the shortfall, and how much
exactly are taxpayers on the hook for as a result of your decision?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly this government realizes that the pension liability will have to be
picked up by government. I guess when I think about the question coming from the
former premier and now Leader of the Opposition for his current party, I'm just
a little bit surprised that question would even make it to the floor of the
House of Assembly because they just did pension reform. He, of all people,
should know that any liabilities within those pension funds would have to be
picked up by the current government.
In fact,
I would say that if the former administration had done their due diligence and
had done their job that the pension funds in this province would not be in the
considerable mess that they are in right now.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the
Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
These
questions are very serious to the people who have contacted us and asked us to
raise these concerns on their behalf. I understand the position of the
government opposite. They continue to play the blame game, blame the former
government blame the former government. It wasn't us who decided that a
certain group didn't have to make payment returns.
We have
a 37-year-old single parent whose family is very vulnerable. She feels she's
paying a price because she has to recoup and repay an overpayment. We have a
pensioner who wasn't part of that group who has to pay back.
Maybe
the Premier can explain: What is your policy today on pension overpayments?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I can remind the
people of the province what the former administration's policy was. They became
aware of the pension overpayments in May 2014, and they did nothing to stop the
bleed from the pension plan for several months.
Mr.
Speaker, the Member opposite likes to link one situation to another. He wants to
use individual situations, which are very important. I can imagine how difficult
it is for that 37-year-old mom. I would look forward to the Member opposite
sharing that information with me so that we can do what we need to do.
I would
remind people at home and people in this House that it was the former
administration that knew about these pension overpayments. It is their lack of
management and their lack of insight that got the pension plan into the
situation it is today.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Last
week when questioned in this House about the sale of government assets, the
Premier stated there would be a full analysis of assets prior to any sales. Yet
in November, the Liberals stated they would achieve $50 million in revenues by
the end of this year.
I ask
the Premier: Has this analysis or appraisal already been done?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, we are
undergoing quite a comprehensive review of government real estate assets. My
understanding, from documents that I have, is that we have assets in the
vicinity of some 800 buildings that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
owns throughout the province.
It is
our position, as we indicated, that our budget process will include considering
our investments, particularly looking for any revenue opportunities, cash
opportunities, of redeploying some of that capital that is currently tied up in
real estate. We'll look forward to continuing to present those plans to the
people of the province and this House of Assembly. After we gather the facts and
we make the plan, we'll certainly share it with this House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The Member for Conception Bay
South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Based on
your evidence-based analysis, do you still plan on meeting your $50 million
target this year as promised in your red book? As we know, it's 100 days already
into this year, so is the plan still for $50 million for this year?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Our plan
is to do what's in the best interest of the people of the province and we will
make sure that the plan that we have not only takes advantage of getting every
single cash dollar we can out of any defunct or unused or underutilized real
estate, but will also provide an opportunity for us to do that very quickly and
very expeditiously so we can continue to close the gap on the deficit that was
left by the former administration.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The
question this time is for the Minister of Transportation and Works; I asked the
question the other day, but the Premier took them. So I'll ask him.
When
will your administration give the people of the province details of what assets
will be sold and when? As we know, most assets within government stand within
TW.
Thank
you.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, when we do the
analysis of the 800 buildings we own, when we put a plan in place to make sure
that we are able to capture the best value for the people of the province, when
we're able to make those decisions, we will present that plan to the people of
the province and to this House. We will not be bullied into making short-term,
knee-jerk decisions, like the former administration made, and make mistakes.
We will
analyze, we will make a plan, we will implement a plan and we will make sure the
interests of the people of the province are at the forefront of our decisions.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr.
Speaker, my question this time, I ask the Minister of Natural Resources: Is your
administration considering selling some assets of Hydro as part of your revenue
plan?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I remind the
Members opposite that the assets that we currently have in our real estate
portfolio will be looked at through the entire business plan we are creating to
make sure that we extract the value from those for the people of the province.
Our
province right now has a deficit forecasted for '16, based on the former
administration's budget and the results that they have in excess this year of $2
billion. We have to look at all options, but we have to look at them through the
lens of good management, good planning, good programs and good execution to make
sure that we extract the best value for the people of the province. I can assure
you we intend to take our time but make the decisions in the right way for the
people of the province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cape
St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, 2,300 people
were affected by the closure of Wabush Mines by Cliffs Natural Resources: 1,200
lost their jobs when the mine closed; another 1,100 are retirees. We know the
Premier and officials met with the retirees in February, but since then we
haven't heard of any action.
I ask
the minister: What has been done for the 2,300 people affected by the closure,
who have their pensions reduced to 75-80 per cent?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Municipal Affairs.
MR. JOYCE:
Mr. Speaker, this is a very
serious issue for the people in Wabush and the Labrador area. We were aware of
the pension deficit, and I know the previous government were. To their credit,
they went in and forced the department to put in so much money for it, but then
they went into receivership.
Since
then, myself, personally, with the Member for Labrador West, flew to Labrador
with the superintendent of pensions. We met with all the pensioners. We outlined
all the details of it.
Mr.
Speaker, we are actively looking at now if there's an operator for the mine.
It's a very serious issue. All of this government is committed to help in any
way possible. I know the Minister of Finance visited the area and met with the
workers. I know the Premier went up himself.
This
government is engaged. We're trying to help out the workers. It is a sad time
for the people in Lab West and Wabush. We are working diligently with the
stakeholders, with the town councils, to help the best we can.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cape
St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, we agree. It's a
very serious issue. It would be great if a new owner can come in there and take
over, but that doesn't help the pensioners right now.
We have
had former employees and retirees contact our government and ask questions. We
know the Liberal government boasts of a close relationship with the federal
government.
I ask
the minister: Have you asked the federal government to intervene and take any
action in protecting these former employees?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Municipal Affairs.
MR. JOYCE:
Mr. Speaker, indeed, it is a
serious issue. Any time anybody gets their income decreased by that amount, it
is a serious issue.
As we
know, this went into court protection. This is out of the hands of federal and
provincial legislatures now. There is a move afoot to strengthen the federal
legislation so it won't happen again. Yvonne Jones has been in contact and had
meetings up in Wabush on many occasions.
We are
engaged with our federal counterparts. We are actively looking for someone to
take over the mine. We understand that would be the best option. There are no
guarantees that will happen, but we are actively seeking a new owner for the
mine. Until then, we are working just up until last week, the Member for Lab
West and the superintendent of pensions went up and answered any questions that
members did have. We are actively engaged. We will seek solutions for this area.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cape
St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Again,
we realize how important this issue is and how important it is to the people in
Wabush and people right across the province actually, Mr. Speaker. There are
retirees in my district. There are retirees in every district right across the
province.
Mr.
Speaker, I ask the minister: What action is he taking to assist former workers
with their health care benefits?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Municipal Affairs.
MR. JOYCE:
Mr. Speaker, that was raised
during the first public meeting when I went up there in December, actually. What
was raised at the time, there was a pension plan in Ontario where the government
put in $3 million. What we said at the time was there are enhanced health care
benefits for a lot of employees. Some are above the threshold that they would
receive benefits from. What we said we would do is the Member for Lab West would
deal with any individual.
Right
now, the enhanced health care plan that is in place is what we informed and
gave out all of the enhanced health care benefits for the area. Did we put $3
million in the plan? No, we did not. Once you get into that, Mr. Speaker, then
there are other benefits that other employees so we are working diligently
with the union, with the town councils up there and also with all the workers
themselves on their health care benefits.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.
MS. PERRY:
Mr. Speaker, in 2014 our
administration announced a $68 million federal-provincial investment in
affordable housing to assist 10,000 low-income households, many of whom are
seniors. These programs provide safety and security to the vulnerable people of
our province. These people are very worried, Mr. Speaker, when they hear that
everything is under review.
I ask
the Minister Responsible for Housing: Will these people see an increase in their
rent?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Child, Youth and Family Services.
MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:
Mr. Speaker, the financial
component is under review with the budget, as the Minister of Finance has said
numerous times in this House.
By 2019,
we will have 600 units in this province that will help to house seniors. So we
are very aware of the needs of seniors around housing and we are working on it.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.
MS. PERRY:
Seniors have a right to live
in a safe environment that is accessible. The website indicates that funding for
accessibility grants is currently not available.
I ask
the minister: Will her government be continuing with this program in 2016?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Child, Youth and Family Services.
MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:
Mr. Speaker, the Home Repair
Program and the Home Modification Program presently help address the issues of
accessibility; 85 per cent of seniors use that program.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Fortune Bay Cape La Hune.
MS. PERRY:
Mr. Speaker, my question was
about accessibility grants, but we can come back to that at a later time.
Mr.
Speaker, through the previous government's widely acclaimed Poverty Reduction
Strategy, we have increased funding to strengthen Family Resource Centres
throughout the province, which are widely utilized and extremely important.
I ask
the Minister of Seniors, Wellness and Social Development: Will these centres see
a cut in the upcoming budget?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Child, Youth and Family Services.
MS. GAMBIN-WALSH:
Family Resource Centres are
like everything else: they're under review for the budget process.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount
Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, Family Resource
Centres are under review. That's rather concerning to hear.
Mr.
Speaker, in the Open Government Draft
Action Plan, we committed to a sunshine list. We know that the Office of
Public Engagement is now working on the 15-month consultation tour and
unfortunately little else.
Will the
government commit to establishing the sunshine list as an early action item to
demonstrate some commitment to Open Government?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Natural Resources.
MS. COADY:
I thank the hon. Member for
his question. As he's well aware, the Open Government Initiative has 43 points
under it, 43 recommendations. This government is reviewing all 43, as well as
the information that we gathered through the public consultation sessions around
that.
He asked
specifically about one particular initiative under that Open Government
Initiative and we are considering that, but we have to look at a lens of cost
and impact as well as human resources. Unlike the former minister, who was in
that department for many years, we'll be very expeditious in getting to the Open
Government Initiative.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount
Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, the Open
Government Action Plan is finalized and the new government is refusing to act on
it. When it comes to sunshine lists, there's little cost involved and there's
little human resources involved.
Access
to information requests filed by local media has proven that the data that would
be on a sunshine list is quickly available. It's one of the items in the Open
Government Action Plan that should have been done by the end of this month.
Given
that this is low-hanging fruit and easy to act on, and rather than having the
media or the public build the list through ATIPP requests, why won't government
simply publish an official list?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Natural Resources.
MS. COADY:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
The hon.
Member had 12 years, I believe, in government.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS. COADY:
He could have acted on that
list if he felt it was so imminently available. As he indicated, the media has,
through the access to information, gathered a lot of the information. I think
they're making use of that information, Mr. Speaker, as we continue to assess
how we can implement the Open Government Initiative, how quickly we can do it.
Certainly, we've been preoccupied with cleaning up the financial mess left
behind by the former government.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount
Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I remind
the minister that we did launch the Open Government Initiative and finalized the
Open Government Action Plan which they now won't act on.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, from the
Fortunate Ones to Hey Rosetta!, from Jillian Keiley to Michael Crummey, we could
give dozens of examples of how the arts professions in our province are
generating economic success, attention abroad and economic activity.
Iceland
dedicates 5 per cent of its budget to arts and culture. While arts investment
has increased considerably over the past decade, will the minister responsible
for culture fight to see a similar percentage of the 2016 budget dedicated to
arts and culture, recognizing the potential for economic growth?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the parliamentary
assistant to the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development.
MR. HOLLOWAY:
I thank the Member opposite
for the question.
An
inaugural moment in this House, Mr. Speaker, a parliamentary secretary to stand
and speak in answer to a question in this House, so I'm proud and pleased to be
able to do that.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. HOLLOWAY:
In responding to the Member's
question in terms of artists in this province, certainly Minister Mitchelmore,
as mandated by the Premier, has been tasked to introduce an act in protection of
the artists of this province and we will continue to do that. We will engage
stakeholders and we'll draft that legislation, which we'll bring forward later.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the
District of Mount Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
What I'm about to say might
surprise you, Mr. Speaker, but I want to commend the Premier for engaging
parliamentary secretaries and having them answer questions in this House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KENT:
I just hope some of his
ministers will start to answer questions in this House as well.
Congratulations to my colleague.
Mr.
Speaker, in 2006 we launched a strategic cultural plan to invest in our artists.
That strategy has had a positive impact over the past decade.
Will
this government produce a brand-new strategic cultural plan to capitalize on
opportunities to invest in our artists and the economic activity they generate?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. parliamentary
secretary to the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development.
MR. HOLLOWAY:
I appreciate, Mr. Speaker,
having a second opportunity to stand in this House today.
As I
said in my last response, one of the things we're doing as we move forward is to
engage the sector to find out what are the challenges and the issues that need
to be brought forward in terms of drafting legislation in the protection of
artists in this Province. We will do that over the next number of months and we
will bring that forward in this House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay East Bell Island.
MR. BRAZIL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The
Liberal government promised increased administrative supports to enhance
inclusive learning in the classrooms. Given the possibility of a 30 per cent cut
that the department is facing, can students with exceptionalities still expect
enhancements in the budget or will this be a sacrifice they must shoulder?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is
a very important question the Member asked. We know that under the previous
administration there was an inclusion policy that was foisted upon the school
system in Newfoundland and Labrador that was not suitably resourced from the
beginning or in the end by the previous administration. This is a priority for
us, and that's why we're very happy to let people know, as I mentioned the other
day, that under the Premier's Task Force on Improving Educational Outcomes the
details of which will be announced later this year inclusion will be one of
the areas we will put under the microscope to make sure it's properly resourced.
At the
end of collective bargaining with the NLTA, the last round, there was an
agreement made to have a joint committee on inclusion with the NLTA, the school
district and government. That committee will be reporting at the end of this
month.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for
Conception Bay East Bell Island.
MR. BRAZIL:
Mr. Speaker, I ask the
minister: Will your government commit to moving forward with the K-12 Multi-Year
Infrastructure Strategy announced in Budget 2015? If not, what does this mean
for schools such as Coley's Point and Gander?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There
are a variety of things the Member just mentioned in the infrastructure
strategy. Our infrastructure strategy is going to be very different from the
previous administration's infrastructure strategy.
The
previous administration's infrastructure strategy involved ignoring population
growth on the Northeast Avalon in communities, like in the City of Mount Pearl
where there was growth in the area of Southlands that fed into Mount Pearl
schools; ignored growth in Paradise allowed schools to become overcrowded there;
allowed Beachy Cove Elementary in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's to become
overcrowded where children now have to go to school in very, very overcrowded
conditions; allowed the same situation to exist in Torbay.
We're
not going to do that. We're going to provide sufficient infrastructure so that
children can go to school and get a proper education without the overcrowded
conditions that the previous administration thought was appropriate.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's East Quidi Vidi.
MS. MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
In his
mandate letter, the Premier urged the Minister of Education and Early Childhood
Development to engage constituents and the general public, yet the minister is
allowing the appointed English School District board to run roughshod over
parents, students and school councils in the recent proposals to close schools
in Conche, Whitbourne and Holy Cross Junior High here in St. John's.
I ask
the Premier: Does he not believe his minister is responsible for ensuring that
the school board operates under the same principles as he?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm
pleased that this question is coming up again for, I believe, the third week in
a row now here in the House of Assembly.
The
government is not allowing the school district to do anything other than what is
laid out in the Schools Act, 1997. The
school districts, under the legislation, have the authority, legally, to
administrate primary education, elementary education and secondary education.
That's the law in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I think
that people are tired of the previous administration made a hobby of meddling
in the affairs of autonomous organizations, boards, committees and agencies that
are external to government. We're not going to do that. We're going to allow the
school district to do what is laid out in the Schools Act: their job, legally, in this province, which is to make
decisions regarding the resources that are provided to them.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's East Quidi Vidi.
MS. MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
I ask
the Premier to remind the minister of his responsibilities because he was tasked
in the mandate letter to improve educational outcomes.
I ask
the Premier: Why are you allowing your minister to hide behind an unelected
school board and shirk his duty to ensure a safe and optimal educational
environment for the children who are being affected?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank
the Member for her question. I will allow my ministers to do their jobs. It's
the appropriate thing to do. That's the reason why we call this a team on this
side of the House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER BALL:
I think the minister has
clearly outlined and answered the question from the Member opposite. It's
important for us to make sure we do the due diligence that's required and allow
people that are in positons to make those decisions to actually do their job. As
I will with the Members that we have on this side of the House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Mr. Speaker, the Premier's
mandate letter to the Minister of Education instructed the minister to pay
special attention to improving educational outcomes.
I ask
the Premier: How will closing Holy Cross Junior High that has a student
population with 38 per cent exceptionalities and moving them to another junior
high school that also has a high exceptionality rate improve educational
outcomes?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Mr. Speaker, as I've said a
number of times, just a minute ago and in previous sessions of the House, the
school districts in Newfoundland and Labrador have a responsibility under the
legislation, under the Schools Act,
have statutory responsibility for the administration of schools.
In this
instance, which is something that happens every year, annually, in Newfoundland
and Labrador, the district is doing its job in reviewing schools. They are doing
that. It's not something extraordinary. They are making decisions based on the
finite resources given to them by the taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Now, the
Member's colleague told CBC recently that no decision should be made with
respect to money. I think the taxpayers of the province want the school district
and the government to be good stewards of the few dollars they have. That's what
the district is trying to do. If the Member has any questions for the district,
ask the district.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The
minister also has a duty to make sure we have a duly elected school board of
trustees.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS. ROGERS:
The school board of trustees
has not had an election since 2009, and their role is to be accountable to the
people of the community from which they are elected. That is not what we have
right now. The minister knows that, Mr. Speaker.
I ask
the Premier: Will he instruct his Education Minister to do the right thing, stop
hiding behind unelected, appointed school board trustees and stop this school's
closure until he has a duly elected board of school trustees in place?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Education.
MR. KIRBY:
Mr. Speaker, what government
is doing is allowing the school district to do the job that is laid out in the
Schools Act. That job is to
administrate schools in Newfoundland and Labrador with the few dollars we have
left over after the spending spree the previous administration was on for some
13 years.
I raised
this question about school trustees when we were in Opposition. During the
election campaign last fall, we made a commitment to have school district
trustee elections within 12 months. I've met with the CEOs and chairs of both
the English and the French districts. I've met with the Newfoundland and
Labrador Federation of School Councils. I sat down with the Chief Electoral
Officer to talk about the process for doing that. We're now in the process of
drafting legislation for a legislative change to harmonize the process for
electing English and French trustees. We will have the election within 12
months.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The time for Question Period
has expired.
Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.
Tabling
of Documents.
Tabling of
Documents
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Natural Resources.
MS. COADY:
Mr. Speaker, in accordance
with the Energy Corporation Act and
the Hydro Corporation Act, I am
tabling the 2015 business and financial report for Nalcor Energy, as well as the
2015 consolidated financial statements of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further tabling of documents?
Notices
of Motion.
AN HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible.)
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Natural Resources, on tabling of documents.
MS. COADY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yesterday in my discourse on Bill 1, I referenced a document called
Meeting the Expectations of Canadians: Review of the Governance
Framework for Canada's Crown Corporations. I'd like to table that document,
as I indicated at the time.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further tabling of documents?
Notices
of Motion.
Answers
to Questions for which Notice has been Given.
Petitions.
Petitions
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cape
St. Francis.
MR. K. PARSONS:
To the hon. House of Assembly
of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the
petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly
sheweth:
WHEREAS
the federal government promised to provide $280 million for CETA innovation fund
to build our province's fishery into the future;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House
of Assembly to urge the government to be vigilant and vocal in demanding that
the federal government live up to its commitment of $280 million for the
fisheries innovation fund.
Mr.
Speaker, we realize today is the federal government's budget day. We, on this
side of the House, are hoping that this will be part of their budget today that
they will announce that $280 million that will help our fishery in Newfoundland
and Labrador.
We all
realize the importance of the fishery to this province. Right now we can see in
the province that the shell fishery, our shrimp and our crab, are on a little
bit of a decline and our groundfish is coming back. Mr. Speaker, this fund is
set up so that it can help our industry, help our harvesters, help people out
there get into the new of type fishery like we had to do when the ground fishery
went down.
It's
very important that the federal government live up to its commitment of the $280
million. We put pressure on them to make it so that rural Newfoundland can
survive because that's the gist of all of this, is making sure that our fishery
survives.
Mr.
Speaker, I urge the government to work with their counterparts in Ottawa and
make sure we get this fund.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
Further petitions?
The hon.
the Member for the District of Conception Bay South.
MR. PETTEN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the
hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in
Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS
the federal government should be reducing, not increasing, Marine Atlantic ferry
rates to drive tourism growth and stimulate the economy of Newfoundland and
Labrador;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House
of Assembly to urge government to press the province's federal Members of
Parliament and the federal government to reduce Marine Atlantic ferry rates.
And as
in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.
This is
the second time I've presented that petition because there are a couple of
things that brings it up. I know when we were in government and I was part of
that government I wasn't an elected official, but I was in the department
actually where Marine Atlantic resided.
The
governing party now gave us a lot of grief any time anything happened with
Marine Atlantic especially rate increases and whatnot, and fair game. We have
Members over there that have made a career out of bashing Marine Atlantic every
opportunity they got, anything they've done.
On this
issue, I just have to say their silence is deafening. There's not been a murmur;
there's not been a word of any sort. You're raising rates for tourism. I mean,
it's our lifeline; it's our grocery store shelves. I'm surprised that there's no
one up over there who actually took it upon themselves to ask their federal
cousins why these rates are increased and why not reduce them.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount
Pearl North.
MR. KENT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the
hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in
Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland
and Labrador humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS
firefighters, both career and volunteer, are exposed to many hazards in their
line of duty; and
WHEREAS
firefighters, both career and volunteer, risk their lives and well-being to
serve our communities;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House
of Assembly to urge government to bring forward workers' compensation
legislation containing a presumptive cancer and cardiac clause for firefighters,
both career and volunteer.
Mr.
Speaker, this issue has been talked about for many years. I recall debating this
issue during my time in local government. As part of the past administration,
there was quite a bit of dialogue about this issue as well. During the recent
election campaign, our party committed to enacting the legislation that I'm
speaking about here today had we been elected and successful in forming
government.
We have
to acknowledge that our fire and emergency services professions their health
is impacted, no doubt, by the work they do. There was a report in 2013 by the
Statutory Review Committee on Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation. It
recommended that our province should enact legislation containing a presumptive
cancer clause for firefighters. Most provinces already have it, Mr. Speaker.
A
full-time career firefighter who serves for a specified period of time and
develops a specific form of cancer is presumed to have developed that cancer as
a result of having served as a firefighter. Many provinces also have a
presumptive clause with respect to a heart injury that a full-time firefighter
suffers within 24 hours of attending a fire scene in the performance of his or
her duties. The firefighter is presumed to have suffered a work-related injury.
This
recognition impacts the firefighter's ability to receive compensation. Enacting
such legislation is the right thing to do. We were committed to doing it and
we're calling upon the new government to do the same.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the
hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in
Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS
the English School Board trustees proposed to close down Holy Cross Junior High
School and send students to a distant school; and
WHEREAS
the board has arbitrarily and without consultation reduced the Holy Cross Junior
High School catchment area and students will have to be bused to a far more
distant school; and
WHEREAS
Holy Cross Junior High School is an important neighbourhood school with
programs, community partnerships and extracurricular activities designed to meet
the particular needs of the intercity students who attend it; and
WHEREAS
the English School Board trustees are an appointed body and no longer
accountable to the people who elected them;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House
of Assembly to urge government to ensure that Holy Cross Junior High School
remains open and to immediately arrange for a democratically elected English
School Board.
And as
in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.
Mr.
Speaker, I believe what's been happening during Question Period in this House is
the Minister of Education is really splitting hairs. He knows the moral
implications of what we have here now in the form of a board of trustees. He
knows there hasn't been elected trustees since 2009.
As a
matter of fact, he railed and ranted and roared in this House of Assembly
against that very fact. Now, Mr. Speaker, he's turning around on his own words.
I don't know how he can sleep at night. He knows what the right thing is to do
here. He ranted, he roared, he rallied here in this House saying how wrong this
was. How wrong it was to not have an elected school board of trustees to make
these kinds of decisions; yet, now he's hiding behind that.
Why is
he hiding behind that, Mr. Speaker? Because he knows the closure of Holy Cross
Junior High is not in the best interest of the students. He knows that with
every fibre of his being. He also knows with every fibre of his being that to
allow this unelected, appointed school board is wrong. He knows that. He has
told us that himself; yet, he continues he will hide behind the trustees to
hide behind it. Let them make their vote which is secret and they are no longer
accountable to the people of their communities.
That is
what this minister is doing. He's not taking the leadership role that he knows
he must do, that he should do, morally. He knows that, Mr. Speaker. He's
deciding to just hide and relegate his responsibility to someone else. I find it
absolutely reprehensible.
Right
now, what's going to happen is the children and the families of Holy Cross
Junior High will be punished for the sins of the Tories by the Liberals. They
know this is not the right decision.
Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further petitions?
Orders
of the Day.
Orders of the Day
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to
call from the Order Paper, Motion 1, Bill 9.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, that the House
resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on Ways and Means to consider
certain resolutions and a bill relating to the raising of loans by the province.
MR. SPEAKER:
The motion is that the
Speaker now leave the Chair to allow the House to resolve itself into a
Committee of the Whole to Consider a Resolution Relating to the Raising of Loans
by the Province, Bill 9.
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On
motion, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speaker
left the Chair.
Committee of the
Whole
CHAIR (Lane):
Order, please!
We are
now debating the resolution and Bill 9.
Resolution
That it
is expedient to bring in a measure to authorize the raising from time to time by
way of loan on the credit of the province, in addition to the sum of money
already voted, a sum of money not exceeding $400,000,000.
CHAIR:
Shall the resolution carry?
The hon.
the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm
pleased to rise in this hon. House today and speak to Bill 9, which is an
amendment to the Loan Act, 2015.
This
government recognizes that we have increased borrowing requirements for this
fiscal year. As well, we know we will have significant borrowing needs in the
next fiscal year. We currently have the authority to borrow $2 billion and we
know now, based on updated information that we presented to the people of the
province back in December, that we will need the authority to borrow $2.4
billion.
In order
to continue to be active in the bond markets, the province requires a $400
million increase to the borrowing limit that was set out as a result of the
Loan Act, 2015. That is why we have
introduced Bill 9, to amend the Loan Act,
2015
The $400
million additional authority stays in place and will be supplemented by a
request for additional authority. The government has had success in the
long-term market, in spite of the challenges that have been facing this province
and many other provinces as well in the long-term bond market.
We are
having success now in the market because of the information that we have shared
with our investors through the fall update and the recent information that we've
shared with the bond rating agencies as well as our banks. Up until we issued
the mid-year update in December of 2015, there was a real void of information
and investors did not want to invest in Newfoundland and Labrador. Quite
frankly, we are changing that.
Under
the previous administration, borrowing was slow in April to December with only
$400 million being able to be secured. Since January of this year, this
government has been able to secure five market issues totalling $1.985 billion.
It is
clear that this government's commitment to action to deal with the fiscal
situation is allowing Newfoundland and Labrador to secure long-term borrowing in
the market domestically. As I mentioned, under the previous administration's
watch from April 2015 to December of 2015, they only managed to get one
successful market issue.
The
previous administration may not have anticipated the sharp decline in the price
of oil, but they should have been well aware of the rest of the factors
impacting borrowing, especially since they were the ones that delayed the
mid-year update, causing more uncertainty in the market.
They
themselves had said in their budget document of last year that they anticipated
borrowing to be $4.85 billion. The previous administration should have known
that the borrowing would be an issue in the domestic market. The signs were
there, but they chose not to act, not to have a plan and not to have an investor
relations strategy and they projected deficits for three years. The previous
administration had no plan in place as to how it would successfully borrow the
required $4.85 billion over four years and didn't develop an investor relations
strategy.
Our
government is looking to the future and are evolving our investor relations
strategy. As I have indicated, we know we will have to borrow in '16-'17. In
order to continue to avail of market opportunities, we need to begin to
establish our borrowing authority for next year. That is why in addition to
amendments to the Loan Act, 2015 which
we are debating right now, we have also introduced Bill 10, the
Loan Act, 2016 which I look forward to
debating in this House in the coming weeks.
The
Loan Act, 2016 will give us the
authority to borrow $1.6 billion to begin our borrowing program for 2016-17. Our
total borrowing requirements for 2016-17 will be confirmed by budget 2016. Our
government is working very hard to continue to have good relationships with the
rating agencies and our investors in the face of a tremendously difficult fiscal
situation. We intend to present them and the people of the province with a
credible plan forward. Part of that plan is how we approach our borrowing needs.
The province borrows money for a number of different reasons.
Yesterday, in Question Period, Members opposite asked questions about the
Financial Administration Act and also
asked a question about special warrants. In the context of borrowing, special
warrants are not relevant. Special warrants are actually for expenditures that
come outside of the budget envelope. Unfortunately there was confusion
yesterday. Hopefully, we've been able to clear that up over the last 24 hours.
The
Financial Administration Act, which is
separate from the Loan Act, allows for
borrowing activities to support activity related to long-term debt renewal,
pensions and sinking funds. I would remind the people in this House as well as
the people at home that at the beginning of this fiscal year, the remainder or
the total of the borrowing debt that was on the books for the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador is $5.5 billion. Part of the plan now is how we will
be approaching our borrowing needs.
The
unprecedented fiscal situation, left to us by the former administration, demands
we have a loan bill in place as early as possible in 2016-17. We cannot miss an
opportunity to borrow funds in the first quarter of 2016-17.
The
Financial Administration Act also
allows for temporary borrowing to provide cash management flexibility. That
specifically relates to T-bills. Historically, the authority there has been $1.5
billion and the cash management program normally has been held at a cap of about
$780 million.
The
former administration, just before the election, increased the temporary
borrowing and T-bills by a billion dollars, and on January 16 we had to do the
same and increased it to a total of $3.5 billion. The reason for that was that
the province was unable to borrow long-term money and was using short-term
T-bills to be able to cover the lack of long-term debt being in place.
As I
said earlier, this all leads into the reason why in addition to amendments to
the Loan Act, 2015, which we're
debating right now, we've also introduced Bill 10, the
Loan Act, 2016, which I really look forward to debating in this
House. The Loan Act, 2016 will give us
the authority to borrow $1.6 billion to begin our borrowing program for the
2016-17 fiscal year, and our total borrowing requirements for '16-'17 will be
confirmed as part of budget 2016.
The
unprecedented fiscal situation left to us by the former administration demands
we have this loan bill in place as early as possible because, as I said earlier,
we cannot miss the opportunity to borrow long-term money.
Earlier
I mentioned the $3.5 billion that is in place for temporary borrowing.
Currently, $1.6 billion of that is related to the lack of long-term borrowing
that was in effect when we came into office. We intend, as is the normal
practice, to table all the information around temporary borrowing in this House
at the end of the fiscal year and certainly within the compliance of the 15 days
that is required, specifically related to temporary borrowings under the
Financial Administration Act.
But I
want to be clear that the Financial
Administration Act covers certain borrowings and the loan acts cover
different borrowings. The loan acts cover the borrowings related to new or
incremental borrowing that the province must take on. Any administration who
believes that they are going to run a deficit needs to come into this House of
Assembly and present a loan act that allows them the borrowing authority to be
able to meet their financial commitments in their budget.
This
success this government has seen in the long-term market in the last couple of
months, quite frankly, is a testament to the fact that the Premier has been
having many conversations over the last month, as I have, over the last several
months, with our financial advisors. I personally have spoken with our
bond-rating agencies and the major banks, and will continue to do so as we need
to ensure very transparent relationships with those organizations in conjunction
with the people of the province.
We are
certainly giving them the confidence that we are doing all the due diligence and
all the evidence-based analysis we need to present a plan as part of budget 2016
that is going to be very credible. And we believe the markets are reacting.
Quite frankly, I believe the success we are seeing in the long-term markets, as
I've said earlier, is a part and parcel result of the conversations we are
having with our investors. And it's also because of the void of information that
was in the market prior to the election.
There
was no major fiscal update. The bond-rating agencies in the market had no
measure of how the province was performing financially. And as I've said
previously, that is something we continue to work on and are continuing to
change.
Mr.
Chair, I will take my seat and I look forward now to continuing to discuss this
government's financial plan on how we will reshape Newfoundland and Labrador's
fiscal future.
Thank
you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon.
the Opposition Leader.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank
you very much for a chance to get up in Committee to discuss Bill 9, An Act to
Amend the Loan Act, 2015, which is last year's. There are two bills before the
House today not today, but there are two bills in the House. Bill 9 has been
tabled, notice has been given on Bill 10, but we haven't seen that. It hasn't
been tabled yet. Bill 9 was tabled yesterday.
Bill 9
is to amend the Loan Act, 2015. The
Loan Act is a normal process for
governments to seek borrowing, to seek loans, and is usually done following a
budget process. The Loan Act, 2015 did
follow the budget of 2015; however, the government of the day is seeking to
amend that act to increase the borrowing by $400 million. That's what this bill
is about today. It's about amending the budget from last year to increase
borrowing from $2 billion to $2.4 billion.
Mr.
Chair, those will be my comments today. I know I get to speak this afternoon for
15 minutes; I've already used up a minute and I get to speak now for 15 minutes.
For those people who are not aware what happens in Committee and what happens
with these bills, it's that once I use my 15 minutes, following that, Members
can rise alternatively, one after another, for 10 minutes and continue to debate
the bill. So in all likelihood if I don't get all of my points made in the 13
minutes I have left, then I will get to them later this afternoon. I'm sure I'll
be using my time to get to them.
The
first thing I'd like to do is thank officials for the briefing this morning. We
had requested for a briefing; I thank the minister for arranging that. We came
early this morning and we had a briefing from officials. Mr. Chair, to be honest
with you and to be quite
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
My first notice of our
briefing this morning was quite refreshing actually because I believe we had a
good exchange and we had a number of people that attended the briefing with
officials. We received answers, direct answers to several questions and
discussion that we had. It was informative for us. It helped enlighten us as to
their thinking, their rationale, the process they're following, why they were
where they were and so on. I thank the officials for providing that, Mr. Chair,
because it is in contrast to what we've been receiving here in the House of
Assembly.
The
minister yesterday during Question Period said: Oh, 16 times the Member opposite
referring to me has asked the same question. She said: I don't know how many
more times I can tell him. We'll tell him in the budget is essentially what
happened. Well, Mr. Chair, the reason why we continue to ask it is because the
Minister of Finance had offered the information. She had offered the
information. That information is relative to this bill because it's about
spending.
Now
they're asking to borrow more for 2015, $400 million worth of additional
borrowing, and I think it's very relevant for us as an Opposition to stand in
the House and stand in our place during Question Period and ask the government
how that spending has occurred. How that particular discussion about savings
came about was in Question Period early in this sitting of the House, probably
about three weeks ago, I had asked the minister if she could outline savings she
has created because, when they did their fiscal update in December, she
referenced that they were going to stop discretionary spending and reduce travel
and do a bunch of other things.
I asked
her what savings have been created and she jumped out of her chair and very
proudly said: Oh, we've saved, I'm so proud to say, $100 million. And the
gallery opposite over on government side erupted in applause, Mr. Chair, and
saying wonderful, what a great job they've done, they've saved. The minister
said, in fairness to her, in the vicinity of $100 million. As I said, they
erupted in applause and pleasure that they had saved $100 million.
So of
course the next question would be: Can you break down that $100 million for us?
The minister once again said: I'd be delighted to give you the details on the
$100 million. I'd be delighted to provide it I'm just looking for a copy of it
here; I don't think I have it with me. She said I'd be delighted, and a day or
two later she tabled a document that had three numbers, Mr. Chair three
numbers. One of them indicated it had three different titles on them, but they
were very high-level numbers.
I asked
the minister, you said you were going to table the numbers. You're so pleased
you've saved $100 million. From December to the middle of March, government had
saved in the vicinity of $100 million in discretionary spending.
What's
also interesting is after the first day of questions the hon. Member went
outside to talk to the media. I wasn't there. I can only go by media reports
and what I saw through the media, what I heard through the media and people who
were there that she had indicated it was annualized. She's indicating now it
wasn't actually $100 million saved.
So I
would fully expect that if the minister erred, made a mistake and wasn't clear
in her information, that she would have come back the next day to clarify the
information. She didn't do that. She took the position of I'll give it to you
when the budget comes, I'll give it to you when the budget comes, I'll give it
to you when the budget comes. Yes, there were 16 times we asked. It might have
been more than for all I know, Mr. Chair. That's essentially been her answer.
Now
we're here today with a bill to look for borrowing. I would think the minister
is probably not going to change her position; you're going to have to wait for
the budget to see what we spent in 2015. You wait until the Estimate books come
out which show you what the budget was for 2015, what the actual spending was
for 2015 and then what their budget is for 2016. That's contained in Estimate
books that come out with the 2016 budget.
She's
saying to the House and to people of the province we want $400 million
additional borrowing, but we're not going to tell you where the savings are that
I stood up and boasted about here in the House in the vicinity of $100 million.
I just think that's unfair, Mr. Chair. I really do.
We ask
questions on behalf of the people of the province. I know she's a little bit
frustrated with it and I appreciate that. I have full respect for Members
opposite, Mr. Chair, I have to say. I have full respect for them, full respect
for the fact that the people elected a new government. I have full respect for
the decisions that the people made. I mean that in all sincerity, but we have a
responsibility to ask questions.
We're
hearing all the time we hear a beginning of an answer and we just heard it in
the minister's comments, the previous administration, the former administration
were the words she used a few minutes ago. We hear it quite often: the previous
administration. We hear it in answers in Question Period.
Well,
let me tell you what they did, and we're asking them about what are you going to
do. You see, Mr. Chair, we have to remind them, sometimes, they were elected to
govern; and what's important to people right now is not so much the history
lesson, but what are they going to do about it. What are they going to do about
the circumstances they face today? They are today the government. What are they
going to do about it?
We asked
a number of questions today to various ministers. The Minister of Finance
continued to get up and answer for them, which is interesting. A lot of the
questions were related to financial matters. We did hear from the Minister of
Child, Youth and Family Services. She was asked some questions about housing and
didn't say no to the questions when we asked are people likely to see an
increase in rates for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing tenants. Didn't answer
no, and gave an answer that kind of danced around it; did answer that the Family
Resource Centres are on the table.
The
indication we got over here from those answers were, yeah, all that is really
being considered. Could there be a rental increase for Newfoundland and Labrador
Housing tenants? There could be. But she did answer the questions, and credit to
her for doing so. We respect that. When someone stands in their place and tries
to provide the information, then we're thankful for that and we appreciate that.
Instead of standing up and saying well, let me tell you what you did. We know
what we did, we know what happened, we know why we're here, we know how we're
here, we know what the people decided and we respect that decision.
I would
say, Mr. Chair, and it's no exaggeration, and I tell you I couldn't be more
honest with you when I tell you that the most frequent conversation I believe I
have with citizens as they contact me, if I see them at a coffee shop or in a
store or on the street, or they phone me in the office or they send me a
message, the most frequent comment I receive is people saying I'm some tired of
government saying, oh, it's your fault, this is what you did and giving the
history lesson.
I know
the Minister of Natural Resources doesn't like to hear that, but I'm just
telling you I couldn't be more honest in saying that's what I hear most
frequently from people, is they're tired of listening to the blame game from
government.
As a
matter of fact, speaking of the blame game, Mr. Chair, even back in December
the minister mentioned the fiscal update in December and it was during the
fiscal update the Premier actually pointed out that day that we're not blaming
the previous government. The fall in oil prices got us in a bad spot. He made
those comments. Then again in January when they were announcing their LEAP tour
no, the LEAP tour was back in 2015 when they were going to travel the province
and consult with everybody, but we never heard that report. What was it called?
MR. HUTCHINGS:
They leaped all over the
place.
MR. P. DAVIS:
They leaped all over the
place.
No, it
was when they did their tour, their financial tour, which they're going to plan
next year's budget, when they announced that one in January. The Premier is on
the record again and said this is not about blame. This is not about the
Opposition. This is about consulting with the people of the province.
I think
they have forgotten that because very quickly in the House we've come to it
seems like the standard answer, the precursor to any answer in the House: well,
let me tell you what the Members opposite did. That's how they start. We've
heard the former administration, the former government's record and history and
so on. I remind him, the people have spoken. You're elected. You're in control
today. You are now responsible. You asked to be. As a matter of fact, while
doing so you repeatedly went to the people of the province and said: we have a
plan.
Even
back to 2014, the Premier told a group of people, he was talking about health
care, he said we have a plan and you're going to like it. It appears now to
everyone in the province, Mr. Chair, that the government doesn't have a plan;
the Members opposite didn't have a plan. We heard today they're creating the
plan. They're consulting with people. They don't have a plan, even though they
went to the people and said they had a plan.
We did
have a plan, Mr. Chair, and the people rejected our plan. That's the truth of
it. We had a plan that included increasing the HST. We said we'd increase the
HST, which would have realized $200 million this year in revenue to the
government. That's half of what they're asking us for additional borrowing
today. That's $200 million. It's half of what they're asking for today for
additional borrowing.
They
said with no concern about the needs of revenue, very quickly after being
elected, without even taking time to settle in and have a good, hard look and
study at the books we're doing away with the HST increase. They did away with
the HST increase; $200 million gone, Mr. Chair.
Now I
see the Minister of Finance is eager to get back up again, and in three minutes
and 30 seconds she can.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
But I intend to use all my
time, Mr. Chair, here today.
Mr.
Chair, we also had a plan on attrition. We had a plan for long-term care, which
they've cancelled. They've cancelled long-term care. They've cancelled a lot.
They cancelled the Green Bay hospital as well, which comes to mind when I talk
about long-term care. They don't have a plan; they're going to reconsider. They
felt we didn't do it right and they have a better way forward.
Mr.
Chair, that's going to take a long time to do and that doesn't solve the problem
of people lying on stretchers in emergency rooms because
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
there's no room available
for them in an acute care hospital, because a high percentage of acute care
hospital beds are occupied by long-term care patients waiting for a long-term
care bed to go to.
Mr.
Chair, they came to the people, they said we have the way forward. We now know
they have to borrow more to get through 2015. We respect that. I think the
Premier used the words
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
I can't remember, I think it
was
CHAIR:
Order, please!
The
Chair has asked for order several times. I would ask all hon. Members to respect
the order of the House.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank
you for that.
Mr.
Chair, I can't remember, I think it was early January, and I stand to be
corrected, when the Premier said that since December, since they took office,
they lost $400 million in annual revenue because of the drop in the price of
oil. I think the minister maybe when she gets up again she can talk about I
think they predicted the price at around $37. It's up about that now the last
week or 10 days, or maybe a little bit longer but for most of that period from
December and into January and February it was well below that, so she knows how
hard it is to predict that.
This
bill is about increasing borrowing. It's about paying the bills for government.
Of course we respect that, but I can tell the minister and Members opposite,
we're going to ask questions about this today. They are probably not going to
answer them, but we'll ask questions about this today. We're going to talk about
it. We're going to have a debate on it because that's what we're expected to do
and that's what the people expect us to do, nothing less. We're going to try not
to engage in the blame game. We're going to ask people and ask the government
how they are going to deal with the circumstances that impact us.
We know
the budget is not tabled yet. We don't expect it now until after the Easter
break. I know they'll be working hard in their offices every day. I know the
Premier and ministers will be in their offices working through the budget to get
it done as quickly as they can through the Easter break. I've been there myself.
I've done that in the past and I know it's a lot of work. It's very stressful
work and difficult decisions to make, and we respect the circumstances they're
in because these are hard times. These are difficult times in the province with
such a loss in revenue because of the fall in oil prices. They really have hard
and difficult circumstances and decisions to make, and we respect that.
We look
forward to further debate this afternoon.
Thank
you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon.
the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Well, I
certainly hope the Members opposite start to participate in the accountability
game because when we came into office back in December officials met with us and
in our briefings it was very clear to us that we had a significant problem when
it came to borrowing.
I would
like to just remind the Member opposite who felt it was appropriate to, I
guess, not listen I hope he is watching outside, part of this debate.
Under
the Financial Accountability Act,
there is an allowance for temporary borrowing to provide for cash management
flexibility. The former administration brought in their budget in June and did
not bring in a loan act for some 14 days to actually exercise the activity
related to the borrowing. They knew they had presented a deficit in excess of
$1.1 billion and that there would be a cash shortfall. They took several weeks
to bring in a loan act.
Then,
throughout the course of the summer, as the activity related to securing debt
under long-term facilities became evident that wasn't happening, they chose in
October to increase the T-bill capacity, which they did. They increased it by a
billion dollars. They borrowed short-term money, even though back in June they
knew they needed long-term debt.
Mr.
Chair, I listened to the Member opposite talk about his respect for the
situation that we are faced with as a government. He admitted as he perceives
it that this situation is a revenue situation. Well, that revenue situation
has exacerbated an already in place spending problem of the former
administration, not of this administration.
In our
budget, we will clearly lay out to the people of the province where we feel we
have been able to restrain spending and begin to create a culture that is based
on making sure that the best interests of the people of the province are
reflected in our expenditures.
The
problem we are faced with today, the $2.4 billion we believe we need to borrow
as a result of the '15-'16 fiscal plan, $1.1 billion was evident when they
presented their budget. Over the course of the summer it became evident that the
revenue they had forecasted wasn't going to be achieved. We were very open and
honest with the people of the province in December when we shared with them the
numbers.
Mr.
Chair, when officials came to us when we were sworn in as a Cabinet, and,
certainly, the Premier in his initial briefings, and they spoke to us about
their concern about our inability to secure long-term borrowing, we undertook
significant action, speaking with lenders, speaking with bond-rating agencies,
providing information first and foremost to the people of the province in a
fiscal update that the former administration refused to provide when our
Premier, then Opposition leader, asked for that information. The letter went
ignored. I don't know if they had the information. I don't know if they didn't
have visibility into it, but, certainly, that information wasn't made
transparent to the people of the province until December.
Since
December, we have been able to, under the
Loan Act the former administration had secured $400 million. We've been
able to secure $1.485 billion.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS. C. BENNETT:
So the $400 million that they
did and the $1.485 billion that we've been able to do is a total of $1.885
billion. There's $115 million left and this
Loan Act is asking for another $400
million so that we can get the borrowing in place, so that we can provide
financial stability and assurances to the people of the province that we can get
the money to pay for the services that we have to have in place.
Mr.
Chair, I listened to the Member opposite continue to talk about the money that
we've been able to save. I appreciate the fact that he continues to give us
credit for being able to do things that they were unable to do. I look forward
to being able to present the budget that displays and shows all of the things
we've been able to do in a very short period of time.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS. C. BENNETT:
What we've been able to do to
present a budget to the people of the province that is more responsible than the
former administration. I look forward to continuing through the debate in this
particular Loan Act and the
Loan Act that's coming up related to
the 2016-17 fiscal year. I look forward to debating that and I'll be very
pleased when the debate for the budget for '16-'17 starts.
This
financial situation that we find ourselves in today is unprecedented. It is the
highest deficit we have had in our province. It is the most amount of debt we've
had in our province, at a time when the former administration had access to a
tremendous amount of revenue. They knew they hit peak oil production in 2007.
They knew they reached peak oil price in 2008 at over $140 and that number was
forecasted to decline. The former administration made decisions based on
short-term thinking. This administration will not do that. We are going to make
decisions based on what is in the best interests of the people of the province
and not what is in the best interests of a political party, Mr. Chair.
Yesterday in this House the Member opposite, in a question, asked about special
warrants related to borrowing. As I mentioned in my comments earlier, special
warrants are not related to borrowing. Special warrants are related to
expenditures that take you outside of the budgeting envelope. I would have
thought as a former premier, as he had indicated, spending many hours at a
Cabinet table talking about a budget, that would be something I'm sure he
understands. I can't imagine that he wouldn't.
Mr.
Chair, as a Newfoundlander and Labradorian, as a mom, I can tell you I am not
pleased to have to stand here in this House and ask to add $400 million in
incremental borrowing to our already exploding debt load as a province. I am not
happy with that. That is not the Newfoundland and Labrador I want to be a part
of. That is one of the reasons why I offered myself to serve in public service,
because we cannot pass on the debt loads that the former administration had
started to forecast on to our children and on to future generations, while at
the same time not being able to provide the services to those people in our
province that critically need them today.
Mr.
Chair, I'll look forward to listening to the rest of this debate, and providing
closing commentary when the debate concludes. I would ask the Members of this
hon. House to support the request through the
Loan Act amendment to increase the borrowing to $400 million so that
we can secure long-term debt and provide assurance and confidence to the people
of the province something that, quite frankly, wasn't there under the previous
administration.
Thank
you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon.
the Member for Topsail Paradise.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want
to respond to the Member opposite. As I said earlier, I expect this is going to
be going back and forth all day. I had to step out of the House for a few
minutes so I never caught all of her comments, but I did hear her comment on
fiscal update.
Mr.
Chair, we had to make a choice and a decision, which you have to make when
you're in government sometimes. Every day you make decisions and choices. You
sometimes make hard and difficult decisions. How are you going to deal with the
fact that the deficit is rising and the debt is increasing? How do you make
those decisions? What are you going to do about it?
The
Minister of Finance has, on numerous occasions more than 16 talked about a
$5,000 credit card being run up every hour and $300,000 sorry, a $5,000 credit
card being run up every minute and $300,000 every hour. I'm not sure if that's
24 hours a day or eight hours a day. Maybe the minister can
MS. C. BENNETT:
Maybe you could use a
calculator.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Now, there's a good answer,
Mr. Chair. She said maybe I can use a calculator. That's the kind of arrogance
sometimes we hear opposite but I'm not going to I'll move on from that, but we
hear it a lot.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
We hear it a lot, Mr. Chair.
The
Member opposite referred to the fiscal update.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
So here's where we were, and
I just pulled up on the Internet here where the price of oil was last year. If
you go back and look at Bloomberg, which will show you I'm sure
MR. KIRBY:
Are you allowed to use
(inaudible) in the House of Assembly, Mr. Chair?
MR. P. DAVIS:
What's that, I say to the
Minister of Education? Did you want to get up?
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
Did the Minister of Education
want to rise?
CHAIR:
I ask the hon. Member to
address the Chair, and I ask for order in this House.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Bloomberg will show you where the price of oil was in the last year. If you were
to look at it, you'll see that from around the end of August oil started to
balance out, up and down, above and below the $50 mark. It went from there. It
started to shoot up and down. There was a bit of a down in August. It
straightened out towards the end of August. It stayed around that $50 mark right
on through until early November.
The
reason why that's important, Mr. Chair, is because that's when the writ was
dropped. That's when a government becomes in what they refer to as caretaker
government or caretaker mode while you're going through an election process.
Even in the days leading up to that we were reminded constantly by officials in
government we had to be very, very careful knowing we're going into a writ
period and going into an election, and decisions we make and conclusions we
reach based on data and information and those decisions we make.
One of
the decisions you make when doing an update is you have to have a prediction of
where oil is going to be from then until the end of the year. The new Minister
of Finance actually talked about that during her update in December. She talked
about she had predicted the price of oil for the rest of the year. It was off
and that's not her fault. It was off because there's such volatility in oil
prices, Mr. Chair.
If you
look at what happened from November right through until December, we'll see
there was a big dip, continuously. There was consistency from August right
through to November. Then there was a significant drop in the price of oil right
on through until January and continued to fall right into January.
Mr.
Chair, the point being, if we had done a fiscal update in October, which is when
we would have to have done it before the writ period, before we moved into a
caretaker mode, before we moved into the election period or perceived election
period even before the writ so we would have to have done that in October
before the writ, before that period of time, we would have based it on $50 oil,
based on what the price of oil was for several weeks before the writ period.
Today,
the Members opposite with all due respect would have been saying something
terrible and nasty about us very differently.
AN HON. MEMBER:
No.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Oh, yes, they would've.
Absolutely, they would've because they would have said
AN HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible).
MR. P. DAVIS:
Yes, absolutely you would
because you would have said look how far off you were. You couldn't predict oil
from November until after the writ period because there was a $22, $23, $24,
$25, in that range, drop from the writ period to the end of the fiscal year to
the first of January.
Now, I
remind Members opposite, and for people at home who are watching, we know over
the period of a year a dollar decrease in a barrel of oil is equivalent to about
$29 million. Let's make the math easy because I don't have a calculator in front
of me. According to the Minister of Education, I probably wouldn't be allowed to
use it anyway. It's about $30 for every dollar. You start to add that up; you're
in a lot of money.
The
Premier himself said $400 million was what they lost. From the time they took
office until early January they lost $400 million in oil. So if we had to have
done a fiscal update, we would have been way off, Mr. Chair. What I suggest to
Members opposite is that they would have been standing today saying: Why did you
give us the wrong information? Why did you mislead the people of the province?
They
wouldn't have called us anything worse than that because that's unparliamentary.
I'm sure the Members opposite wouldn't do that in the House. They wouldn't be
unparliamentary in the House. Of course not, but, Mr. Chair, they would be
saying bad things about us. They'd be saying you misled the people of the
province; why did you not tell them the truth? Why did you not tell them the way
it was? Why did you make up some kind of fairy tale for the people of the
province? That's what they would have done.
We knew
that OPEC meets on the 1st of December. When OPEC meets, it always has an impact
on the price of oil. If OPEC decides to lower production, the price of oil goes
up. It's very simple. If OPEC increases production or stays the same, where
they've been, the price of oil is going to stay where it is or it's going to
drop.
What
happened in December was OPEC had a negative impact on the price of oil, which
had a big impact on our province and the government. It made the circumstances
much, much worse. So we made the decision not to go out on the predictions that
we knew were not reliable prior to OPEC. We decided not to do that. The right
thing to do was to wait until OPEC met and that was the decision we made.
Mr.
Chair, I don't apologize for that. At the end of it, the government of the day,
if it was us at the time or the new government now after that, has to deal with
you have to deal with it. That's it you have to deal with it. You have to
make hard and difficult decisions in how you're going to do that.
We were
criticized heavily by Members opposite for our budget last year heavily
criticized. I remember budget day when the Member, who's now the Minister of
Finance, sat out in the lobby with the media and talked about we don't know what
part of government we're going to eliminate until we get in there. She raised
the flag; she told the people of the province we're going to eliminate parts of
government.
So we
don't know, and to this day we still don't know what programs and services are
going to be eliminated in the budget. We have to wait for the budget process to
take place and for the Minister of Finance to deliver the budget. That's the
process that we're here and that's the process we do.
We can
also ask questions about circumstances that exist today. We can also ask
questions about spending and savings, and steps they've taken to reduce costs
and spending, what success they've had to do with it, but we can't get that
information. We're here today on a $400 million bill to amend the
Loan Act, 2015, but we can't get the
information from the government.
We got a
lot of good information this morning from officials, and I mentioned this
earlier, how appreciative I am. I know, as the minister has said several times,
you've been in Cabinet, you've had lots of Cabinet meetings, you must know what
it's like. Yes, well, I do know what it's like and I know how hard officials
work as well. They provide advice and they provide information. Then it becomes
the government's place to make those decisions and to steer the ship and decide
which direction the ship is going to go in.
We're
waiting for this government to do that. I know the people of the province are
waiting. Even today when we asked questions about housing, the Member behind me
here didn't ask questions about housing just for the sake of asking a question.
We asked questions about housing. Are housing rates liable to change or go up?
Will Family Resource Centres be impacted? We're asking these questions because
people are calling us and writing us and asking us to ask those questions.
That's why we ask them because people are saying to us, ask those questions.
Now,
we're learning this process, too. They have to learn how to be government and
what to do in government. Ministers are still learning their departments and
their portfolios. That's a process that's going to go on for some time. With all
due respect to Members opposite, the budget process is one of the best processes
to learn your departments, line by line.
I was
speaking to a minister a couple of days ago who told me they have learned a lot
about their department because they've been going through the operations of
their department line by line. The budget process is really good for that. It
really forces a minister to dig down deep into the weeds of their department and
the actual functions of the department, how things operate and how things
function and so they should. The budget process gives them the opportunity to
do that. I'm glad they're going through it and we look forward to the budget.
The
fiscal update, as I wanted to refer to it during my time, at this point in time
we made that choice. I don't have any regrets on it. We also made a choice to
increase the HST because we knew a year ago we were in tough times and we were
headed for tough times. Members opposite wiped it out and erased it. Mr. Chair,
$200 million in revenue gone from the government while we're here today talking
about borrowing an additional $400 million. That's the important discussion we
have to have today.
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon.
the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want
to echo what the Member opposite said about the budget process. Undoubtedly,
having the opportunity to review with officials, as Ministers of the Crown, as a
government, provides a very unique and important opportunity to get a tremendous
amount of visibility into government expenditures. That has been our experience
as we've done the line-by-line activity that we've undertaken. It's one of the
many activities that we have undertaken to build our budget.
I look
forward to having some of those discussions, as part of the budget debate, on
some of the insights that we were able to gain from that activity. I'm sure
Members opposite who had the pleasure of being able to sit in Cabinet, as some
of us do on this side, also had the opportunity to do the same due diligence and
attention to detail that we would have been privileged to have in the last
number of weeks.
I would
remind the Member opposite though, that the budget process, which is designed to
take place over a large number of months usually according to officials can
start as early as September or August now requires work to be done in advance.
The officials have been working very hard to prepare briefing binders to bring
ministers up to speed so that we can have the conversations about the
expenditures that we need to have.
I do
want to share for the Member opposite, though, that the total loss of revenue
since the adoption of the 2015 budget has been $615 million. Mr. Chair, $615
million in lost revenue, and as the Loan
Act request is we are requesting $400 million, in addition to the
already $2 billion that was in place from last year.
Mr. Chair, I want to address what the Member opposite said
about the fiscal update. Seven months would have transpired in a fiscal year in
October. Before the election happened in November, seven out of the 12 months
for the fiscal '15-'16 would have transpired. I would present that had the
former administration provided transparency not only to the people of the
province and to our leader, now Premier, when he was asked to in September
that the bond-rating agencies and the credit-rating agencies, the banks would
have had more visibility into the financial performance of the province.
In the absence of that, what ended up happening is
officials who were unable to borrow long-term money ended up using temporary
borrowings. I think the people of the province would be very eager to know that
we had, at peak, $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion in temporary T-bills. A temporary
T-bill, for those listening at home and for those in this hon. House who may not
know, actually is, at max, 91-day money. So a T-bill, Treasury bill
AN HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible).
MS. C. BENNETT:
I thank the Member opposite
for asking me to say the full term. I'm happy to do that. A Treasury bill
certainly would a $2.7 billion, $2.8 billion peak is what the government was
carrying before we came in, which was one of the reasons why we expeditiously
moved to put a long-term loan program in place, so that we could get more
stability in our borrowing.
I think
if anybody at home was thinking about having a significant portion of your debt
imagine having your mortgage in a loan that had to be renewed after 90 days.
I'm not sure any of us at home would like to have our mortgages being renewed
every 90 days. It would put us in a very uncomfortable and difficult position.
Certainly, that was one of the reasons why we wanted to more confidently and
assertively address the long-term borrowing needs of the province.
It's
also one of the reasons why I was very pleased to stand in the House yesterday
and speak to the just over $1.9 billion that we've able to secure, $1.485
billion of that related to the Loan Act,
2015. The remaining portion of that was related to renegotiating existing
long-term debt that was already on the books when the budget came in last year.
As a
province, we carry a tremendous amount of debt. It's something that we all, I
think, collectively in our province want to address. I don't think anybody in
our province wants to leave the legacy of that kind of debt to future
generations to bear. I don't believe that's irresponsible. The irresponsible
thing for us to do is to pass that debt onto future generations. That's why we
need to continue to look for ways of containing that debt.
Mr.
Chair, I look forward to listening to the rest of the debate. I would remind the
Member opposite, as I said, just for clarity it's $650 million in total revenue
lost since the 2015 budget. In October, had he chosen to release a fiscal update
and I would concur that oil prices continued to be volatile in November and
December, but the markets would have had at least some visibility the people
of the province would have had some visibility into the financial performance up
to that point of October, which would have included 7/12ths of the entire fiscal
year.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for St. John's East Quidi Vidi.
MS. MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr.
Chair.
I'm
pleased to get up this afternoon and speak to Bill 9, the loan guarantee act.
First of
all, thanks to the minister for arranging for us to have a briefing this
morning. We met with officials from the Department of Finance just to make sure
we all had a clear understanding of what the bill was all about, what a loan
guarantee bill is. I have to say, I was really impressed with the tremendous
expertise of the people in our Department of Finance. I think government needs
to recognize them for the great work they do in managing.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS. MICHAEL:
It's not government who does
it. It's these people inside. We've got the expertise. It's good we have it. We
need to recognize we have people with really good expertise inside of our
Department of Finance. I'm sure the minister has found that out already.
They
know well how to manage and how to do the housekeeping, as it were, for the
people of the province. They know how the system works. They know how to keep
cash flow going. They know how the borrowing and lending that goes on works so
money keeps flowing, so government always has money.
That's
what we're doing here today. We're ensuring government always has money to take
care of the programs. It's not rocket science. These people are trained to do
that. So I find it deplorable, really, that the Premier, over the last months,
and the government in general, has been terrifying people around money. I'm not
saying we don't have a problem with the fact that we've lost so much revenue
because of the low price of oil. I recognize that, but there's a system in
place. That system has been working. That system is continuing to work.
There
was no need for all the fear mongering that has been done by the Premier,
putting things out there that were unnecessarily making people frightened,
frightened we wouldn't be able to borrow money. It's nonsense. That was
explained to us so clearly this morning, that once the credit raters made their
decisions and adjustments were made, the investors were happy to make sure loans
happened. That's what the system is all about. You always have money. The money
is always there. Unless a government goes bankrupt, and this government is
nowhere near we're not near going bankrupt as a province. That's what they're
always leading people to believe. The system is working and things are under
control. That's what this loan is about.
I could
not stand up here today without making that point, so people understand we have
a well-oiled machine even though the oil may be cheaper right now. I didn't
mean that pun, but it was a good one. A well-oiled machine and things are going
okay. The system is working. Will we have a greater loan? Yes, we will. Might we
owe more money in another year's time? We very well might. That's part of what
has to happen. We have to make sure that people continue to be taken care of and
that our programs and services go on.
I think
in this context, then, I want to talk about some of the things that have to go
on and that have to improve. The first one I wanted to talk about today is the
whole issue of the situation of people in our province, children and adults, who
have ASD, autism spectrum disorder.
I don't
know right off the bat right now I should because I've had this number the
overall number in the province. I have to say, I was really shocked when I was
campaigning in the general election last summer and fall because we were
knocking on doors for a long time before the writ was dropped. One day in
particular when I was out knocking on doors, in just two hours I knocked on the
doors of three homes that had children with ASD. Just in my own district, in
actual fact, around the corner from where I live. Besides those people, I then,
as time went on, met quite a few others living in my own district, going to
schools in my district. We have a really high number of children and adults with
ASD in this province, relatively speaking, when you look at the population that
we have. It's a high percentage.
Recently, the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador the autism spectrum
disorder society of Newfoundland and Labrador had a needs assessment done.
They released that report last week. The report shows how much we are not
meeting the needs of the individuals themselves who have ASD, of their families
who are there supporting them and the institutions like schools that are also
there supporting them.
We have
tremendous needs. One of the biggest things well, all the recommendations are
serious. They're all heavy. They all are going to require money to make them
happen. One of the ones that I'd like to point out first today has to do with
training. It's quite a detailed recommendation. The training that the report
looks at, and the study considered, was training on all levels. There is such a
lack of understanding of ASD in our community, even with people who are
regularly dealing with children and adults with ASD. It's also linked to the
lack of understanding of mental conditions in our province as well.
We're
not the only ones. This is an issue everywhere, but this is where we are. This
is our province and we have to deal with it. The training that's talked about is
training for medical professionals who have to deal with people with ASD,
everything from general practitioners right through. They need to be trained as
to what it means, what that spectrum involves and how to work with people who
have ASD.
It talks
about training of the people in the school systems. It's not enough for the one
individual who may be dealing with a student with ASD because it's never just
one individual everybody from the administrator through to the support staff
in the office, support staff within the school itself through to teachers in the
classroom all need training when it comes to ASD.
We all
need to become more cognizant of what it means and what's required in working
with people who have ASD. It's so nuanced, the difference in individuals.
There's no one person who is identical to another. The differences really
require real intention on the part of people dealing with them.
I notice
in the mandate letter to the Minister of Education and Early Childhood
Development, he is to ensure that schools receive the support they need for
inclusive education, including teacher training and administrative support.
That's one sentence that means an awful lot because that teacher training the
training for teachers and others in the system could take up to three years,
to have adequate training that would really make them knowledgeable and
professional in the way they deal with ASD.
This is
something the minister is going to have to look at very seriously. We can't
ignore these reports. Children with ASD and adults with ASD are suffering, and
every year that we don't do what's needed, things worsen for them. So we have to
be looking at how we maintain our programs and improve our programs that will be
needed for the betterment of the health of our society.
I notice
in the mandate letter, though, the Premier did not mention the need for more
teachers and teaching assistants in the school system. The inclusion that is
going on is not working. It's not working because a policy and practice was put
in place without the adequate resources to make it work.
I only
have a few seconds left. There are several things in our province where a
program has been put in place and then the resources not put in place to make it
work. The next time I get a chance to stand, Mr. Chair, I'll address that.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The Chair recognizes the hon.
the Minister of Environment and Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. TRIMPER:
Thank you very much. I'm
still getting used to being called honourable.
Thank
you very much for the opportunity to speak on this today. First of all, I'm
going to follow up on the Member who just spoke. I agree that in the last few
weeks I've been nothing but struck by the calibre, quality and devotion of the
folks at the Department of Finance. There have been a lot of late nights and
unfortunately I see a few more late nights coming. It is tremendous dedication
and a tremendous capability.
As
somebody who has worked in the private sector the last 30 years, to come into
government and see the calibre of the folks who are at the top of the game in
this government, it's very impressive and very refreshing. So I echo her
compliments as to the calibre of the folks at Finance.
To me,
when I think about $400 million, I think just about the scale of that number. I
caught my colleague, the Minister of Finance's reaction in somewhat a mixed
emotion in terms of, while it's great that we've been able to access long-term
funding, the scale of it that we had to go after to the lenders truly is
overwhelming.
I just
thought I would talk about that for a few minutes in terms of what exactly this
$400 million means. For a guy who has been in the private sector and who spent
the better part of three decades building up a company along with 1,700 other
people, $400 million is a phenomenal amount of money.
I worked
in consulting. I jumped into a company that started in 1972. I started in 1987.
My three months slowly but surely ran into almost 30 years. When we recently
sold out our firm, and before I moved into a different realm, those 1,700 people
and what we had accumulated after 3½ decades of effort my gosh, we could have
bought three of these companies for $400 million. It's a number that we just
throw around in this House and we throw around in our day-to-day reality when
we're dealing with the budget and the deficit, a challenge that we have before
us.
Some
other examples in terms of scale of what $400 million means, if I just think
about where I am in Lake Melville and I mentioned this the other day when I
spoke about the Interim Supply bill. In terms of 5 Wing Goose Bay, there's an
operation that generates a tremendous amount of money for this economy, the
province, certainly for Lake Melville and certainly for the community of Happy
Valley-Goose Bay.
Operations at 5 Wing are probably in the vicinity of some $60 million, $70
million. I am just thinking how $400 million could give so much guarantee and
certainty to that operation for the next several years into the future. What a
difference that would make for our own economy. The fact that we have to go
borrow that kind of money and support just the essential services that we
provide in government is a very frustrating situation, as someone new to
government.
Then on
the other side, in terms of my own district, we have situations like the little
bridge at Mud Lake and the fact that it needs surfacing. It's a very dangerous
situation. The scale of what $400 million could mean for small projects and
large projects: the paving of the Trans-Labrador Highway; the paving of the road
to North West River; and the Paddon Home, a seniors' complex which has been
left, as some folks know, unfortunately, empty for the last five, six years.
It's under review right now, but it will need more money before it can become
operational. It's unfortunate because seniors could really avail of this type of
opportunity. We also have a little wellness centre that the community has been
working on for a long time. For $400 million, we could put up a lot of wellness
centres in this whole province.
I
appreciate the Premier's comments earlier on the Labrador Winter Games. I think
the provincial government's contribution is in the vicinity of half a million
dollars. Boy, with $400 million, I was calculating, it could probably run for
the next 800 events. That's a lot of certainty for a lot of athletes in
Labrador. It's probably going to outlive my time on this earth, but again, $400
million is a huge amount of money.
I
thought I'd also speak for a second just on what's pending. In the next few
minutes we should hear with some certainty at least what's coming out of the
budget in Ottawa. There are a lot of departments, a lot of folks. I know myself,
in my own role as Minister Responsible for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency,
we are hoping that some of the comments and some of the promises that the
federal government has made will actually come to fruition.
I
thought I would mention a few of those. As the federal government moves towards
its own greenhouse gas target for 2030, we've got our own targets set up for
2020. There will be a national framework that will be used to combat climate
change. We're looking to federal support for that. Again, $400 million would go
a long way towards helping us achieve a lot of our wishes as we strike that
balance between the economy and the environment.
As I
said, the budget should be out in a couple of hours. I do note in the federal
platform there was an indication that there would be something in the vicinity
of a $2 billion low-carbon trust fund. There would also be in the vicinity of a
$6 billion Canadian infrastructure bank that would issue green bonds to fund
climate-friendly infrastructure.
Again,
$400 million would really get us to that table because I'm sure there will be
some cost sharing that will be required. We'd be in quite a position if we were
able to access that kind of funding. Unfortunately, now we have to go borrow
just to meet the current activities that we're dealing with.
The
prime minister and in March there was the big GLOBE conference. Our Premier
was there. He had climate change talks and meetings with other that's the
First Ministers meeting. There was a further announcement of another $75 million
to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance climate resiliency. Further,
there was an additional $50 million to improve climate resilience and building
infrastructure codes, so just some examples of what $400 million can do for you.
We're
three months and a week into this mandate and I'm still finding myself amazed by
the numbers that are being pushed around. I enjoy and I'm very appreciative of
the honour to be sitting at Cabinet and discussing, debating these issues, but I
also feel the pressure of what we need to and how we need to find clarity in
finding a way forward.
With
that, I think I'll wrap up my remarks, just reflecting on what $400 million can
mean. I'm glad to have an opportunity to speak to the bill. I'll turn it over to
my colleagues.
Thank
you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR (Dempster):
The hon. the Member for Cape
St. Francis.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. K. PARSONS:
Thank you very much, Madam
Chair.
It's
indeed a pleasure to get up here again today. Look at that. See that? That's
what you get by getting a Member a couple of tickets to go see the Herder on
Friday night. That's where you get applause from him then.
Madam
Chair, it's a pleasure to get up here today and get involved in this debate. As
I always say, I want to thank the people of Cape St. Francis for giving me the
opportunity to get up here today to do this debate. I really want to thank the
officials in the department this morning and thank the minister for arranging
the briefing that we did have this morning. It was very informative. I have to
say, it was a great briefing that they gave us this morning.
The
Member just got up that time and he talked about $400 million. I agree. Listen,
it's an awful lot of money. That's a lot of money, $400 million. There are a lot
of things you can do with $400 million, and a lot of things have been done with
$400 million.
Madam
Chair, this is 100 days into this government's mandate, and 100 days they've
been in I think it's around 100 days you've been there. It's time for us to be
able to look back. When you see most governments get in power, they look back on
their first 100 days and talk about all their accomplishments and everything. I
don't see a lot of them anyway I can't draw up a list of what they have done.
Madam
Chair, we're here talking today about the difference between $400 million. I
look at what this government's done in its first turnaround. The very first
thing it did when it got in government was say, okay, the HST increase is gone;
we're not going to do that anymore. I know it was an election promise and I know
from day one last year when the budget came down, it was the very first thing
the Leader of the Opposition at the time went out and said, listen, that HST is
going to be gone, and it was a promise.
Things
change, and sometimes when you look at what changes, maybe you've got to look
back and say, listen, we can't do that; it's too important. Maybe if they didn't
do it, we wouldn't be here debating this bill today. That's huge. Because if you
look at the HST not only this year, it's about $180 million it's $180 million
this year, but over five years it's $1.2 billion. It adds up; it goes a little
bit higher every year. It's $1.2 billion over five years' revenue. I don't know
what you're going to do in your budget; I'm not sure. I know the budget's
coming.
I am
looking forward to the budget. I'm not sure if you're going to do what the rest
of Atlantic Canada did and all the other governments in Atlantic Canada now are
gone to 15 per cent. They needed to do it, but I think the haste of just saying,
listen, we made a promise and that's it. I think of the one promise you made
that maybe had the biggest effect here on government is reversing the decision
on the HST. And right now again today we're here and we're talking about an
increase of $400 million.
Madam
Chair, there are a lot of things that have changed, and I understand you have
the right to govern. I listened to the Minister of Health yesterday and he said
for the next four years, it'll be our decisions. We're the ones going to make
the decisions. I understand that, but I hope you listen to the debate we have
and listen to what we've got to say here in the House of Assembly.
Now,
Madam Chair, I really want to talk a little bit about long-term care. This is
something that really strikes home. I had the opportunity I pride myself in my
district if there's a need there, senior needs or whatever, I go to people's
houses and I sit down with people. And I'm sure most of the Members do. It's a
good thing to do. People really like to see you come to their house. It's not
just a phone call or someone from your office calling; the personal touch really
means something.
This
weekend I went to a house and there was a lady there and she was a little over
90 years old. She's waiting to get in a long-term care bed. To see what agony
she was going through, what the family is going through and everything else, I
really believe we have to do something about it.
She was
at the Health Sciences and she went home. Perhaps some people go to the Health
Sciences or go to different hospitals in the region that they are from and they
stay there until a bed becomes available. That's what a lot of people are doing.
It's sad because we don't have the room in our long-term care facilities to be
able to take care of them. Madam Chair, I watched the family and I spoke to the
family again today. They're still waiting for that bed.
Just
look at another thing that they cancelled. I know probably you might say we have
a better way of doing things, but I haven't heard it yet. We gave up 360
long-term care beds in this province that we had a plan for. We had a plan to
make 360 beds available to people who are home in their houses, people who are
in emergency rooms, people who are in beds in hospitals, family members, loved
ones, our seniors.
We know
today that seniors are living longer. I know my two parents lived to their
mid-80s and our seniors are living longer today, but it's so important that we
have to have a plan. That's the one thing we've been harping on a plan since
we started and we need a plan for our seniors. We need a plan for our long-term
care. We can't have family members trying to take care of loved ones and moving
a bed downstairs so that they don't have to walk over the stairs.
We're so
fortune I think to be living in Newfoundland and Labrador because I believe one
thing we are as a people, we take care of each other, especially when it comes
to families. I really do believe we take care of our families. I know when I
went through a few things in my family everybody stepped up and did their part.
We really do, but after a while it gets pretty hard on the families, the stress
and everything else. We have home care that comes in. An average home care
person will come in for 35 hours a week. But there are a lot of hours in a week
and there is a lot of time.
Today,
it's difficult. We've got both members of families working and our children are
working. We had a plan put in place for 360 beds. How much relief would that
have given the people of Newfoundland and Labrador who are trying to take care
of their loved ones? I'd say everyone in this House have people in their
districts just like I explained a little while ago about this lady waiting for
long-term care. I'd say everyone here and every one of us will get phone calls.
We'll visit houses. We'll go down and visit the person or see what we can do.
We'll make the phone calls. We'll talk to the social workers. We'll talk to
people that are down there, but the beds are not available. Like I said earlier,
they're waiting in long-term care, they're waiting in hospitals and they're
waiting at home. Their families are just so stressed about it; it's
unbelievable.
Again, I
hope when your budget comes down you do have a plan that can take care of this
because we are an aging society. Our seniors, they did so much for us and it's
time for us to do stuff for them. That's what we have to do. There are so many
things we can do, but the one thing we can do is to make sure we take care of
our seniors; take care of the people who made us to be able to stand here in the
House of Assembly today and gave us the rights that we have today. We need to
take care of them. Our seniors are living a lot longer. We have seniors today
who do so much.
I'll
always remember going down to a lady's house one time and she had a leaky roof.
Her grandson walked in, he was looking for something. The next thing I see her
slipping him $20. It was nothing about the roof, it was as long as that grandson
was taken care of, he needed something. That's what they're all about. They're
not asking for anything. They're not out there asking for us to do this. We need
to do it for them because they'd rather take care of their grandchildren and
their children than themselves, and that's the way most of them are. That's just
how they grew up. That's how we grew up, I suppose. Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians, that's who we are as people and it's important.
Today,
when we talk about this budget and $400 million and the deficit and everything
else, we have to remember about the people who put us here in the House of
Assembly. We have to remember about the people who stood up and did so much for
us over the years, and that's our seniors. I really believe we have to take care
of our seniors.
There
are other little things that we do with seniors grants. I know the Department of
Health had a wellness thing out there last year where we had seniors more
active. Again, I spoke about this the other day. It's a small grant. It's a
small grant of $1,000 or $500, whatever it is. I'm sure the Minister of Health
would agree with me, the more active a senior is the healthier a senior will be.
That's another part, the small investments that we make.
I just
hope that the government, when you come down with your budget, that you do focus
on our seniors. Focus on the people who did so much for us, now we need to take
care of them. We have a lot of people out there, like I said earlier, who are
waiting to get in these long-term beds. There are 300 or 400 people on a
wait-list I'm sure. It's really unfortunate that we can't do what we need to do,
and we should be doing it. We had a plan in place to make up 360 beds. I'm
hoping that come this budget, you'll have a plan to take care of those 360 beds,
and make sure it gets done sooner rather than later.
Madam
Chair, I see my time is gone, and I hope to get up a couple more times during
this debate because there are lots of other things I'd like to talk about. I'd
like to talk about the fishery and a few other little things.
Again,
Madam Chair, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak. I thank
all the seniors for giving me the opportunity to be here in the House of
Assembly.
Thank
you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Minister of
Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Thanks, Madam Chairperson.
It's a
pleasure for me to rise, although I have to say I wish it was under different
circumstances. We're here looking for another $400 million in borrowing due to
the financial mess the province finds itself in.
It's
good. It's great. It's refreshing to have a Minister of Finance, at long last,
who is actually good at math. Unlike the previous Finance minister who was
obviously, by his own admission, bad at math. If you look at the books, you can
tell he was bad at math. Actually, I wouldn't say he was the only person who was
bad at math because, obviously, a lot of people in the previous administration
were bad at math or we wouldn't be in the situation we're in.
Just to
respond to a few things that have been said. You have to ask why we're in this
situation. Of course, it's a product of poor planning. The previous
administration was on a spending spree that we haven't seen before in the
history of Newfoundland and Labrador. As a result, we now are facing the largest
deficit that we've ever had and the largest mountain of debt that
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians ever had taken out in their name by their
government.
The
Premier wrote the current Leader of the Official Opposition back in September to
ask about the fiscal update, to ask about the fiscal situation of the province
to get a sense of the true nature of the financial situation of the province. I
don't know why he didn't respond. You could speculate. Somebody said to me, it's
either incompetence or deception. You choose which one it is, but I'll let
people make up their own minds. He never responded.
The
Members over there are talking about: Why didn't you increase the HST or why did
you cancel the increase in the HST? Well, as the Minister of Finance has just
said, the total loss in revenue, the total revenue loss to the province since
the previous administration introduced the budget in 2015 is some $615 million,
and $52 million of that $615 million is since the current administration, since
the Liberal Party won the election on November 30. So there was $563 million in
additional debt that was racked up by the previous administration between the
budget in 2015 and election day on November 30.
Now, if
the previous premier had to have been open and transparent and released the
fiscal update in September, maybe we would have made different decisions. Maybe
we would have made different commitments around revenue generation, if we knew
the true nature of the half-a-billion-dollar additional hole that they had dug
the province into. But we didn't, because they didn't see fit to be open and
transparent, to be frank with the people of the province, to tell them exactly
what it was they were doing.
The
Member is over there talking about long-term care. I think everybody here is
concerned about seniors and long-term care, but that's the first time I heard
the Member mention that in the House of Assembly. He sat over here for four
years, I sat over there, I never heard him mention it before. So I'm glad he's
concerned about it now. Certainly, it's better late than never to come to the
table and speak to your concern about it. After a number of years in Opposition
saying very little, I never heard him talk about it before.
One of
the things that we've been doing as part of Treasury Board, a committee of
Cabinet, is to do a line-by-line review of the budgets of the various agencies,
boards, commissions and departments of government. I have to say, I completely
agree with one of the previous speakers who spoke about the talent and the depth
of knowledge, the skill that the senior bureaucracy has in this province. I've
been amazed, as well, at their level of insight into our situation. It's been
very helpful to have them at the table.
When
agencies, boards and commissions came in to discuss the financial situation with
Treasury Board, almost to a person, they talked about never being invited in to
have that sort of discussion before. Never in their remembrance in the roles and
positions that they hold significant ones, ones that oversee the spending of
millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of the province's money
never, ever under the previous administration were they ever invited in to have
a frank discussion to go through their budget line by line to see how they spend
the people's money to see if it can be done differently. Can it be done better?
Can it be done more openly? Can it be done more transparently? Can it be done
more reasonably for the future?
There's
a limit to borrowing. I know the co-leader of the Third Party was up there
saying we're not going to go bankrupt. One of the first things that those same
senior officials that she praised up said to the government when we took office
was that we needed to be more open and transparent about the nature of the
province's fiscal situation if we were going to continue to be able to make ends
meet in the province. That's what they told us.
So what
did the Minister of Finance and the Premier do? They released the fiscal update
that the previous administration had neglected to release to the province and to
basically lay bare the fiscal situation that had been kept secret since Budget
2015, the deteriorating situation the province was in. That's why the fiscal
update was released.
Contrary
to the other Member's notion, there is a limit to the amount the province can
borrow. Nobody over here is trying to be deceptive or to frighten anybody. It is
frightening to me, as somebody who is a father of a small child, that the
previous administration saw no problem, just rack up and rack up and rack up
more debt; a $5,000 credit card every minute of every day, a $300,000 mortgage
ever hour of every day. Just go put that on all of our sons' and daughters' and
grandchildren's credit card. Just go rack it up and don't care about what the
outcome is because somebody else can come in and clean up the mess.
If that
doesn't frighten the Members on the other side, then it should, because it
certainly frightens me. That's what keeps me awake at night.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KIRBY:
What's going to happen to the
next generation who the previous administration had so little concern for?
We ought
to be concerned about the borrowing situation because there is a limit to the
amount of money we can borrow. If you had a $50,000 a year income and you went
into a bank and said I'm going to get a $2.5 million mortgage on a house, they'd
laugh you out of there, and so they should. That's basically the situation we're
in because the international lenders are not going to continue to let us borrow
and borrow and borrow. That's not the way it works. It's certainly a frightening
circumstance, but that's the circumstance we're in.
Another
part of the whole process we've been engaged in to try and repair the financial
situation of the province has been looking into patterns of spending in the
previous administration. There are some shocking details in it. I assure the
people of the province that over the next few months a lot of that is going to
become publicly known. People will find out the true nature of what was going on
behind the curtain.
It's
absolutely astounding. Agencies, boards and commissions came in and said: You
know, ministers, we brought these proposals to save the province money here to
ministers before. We raised this in the budget last year. We could have saved
tens of millions of dollars on health care spending, but there was no
acknowledgement of the fact that we had this plan. We just were simply not
listened to. We have learned there were lots of ideas presented that were never
listened to.
Then
there were lots of things done that made absolutely no sense. To be honest, I
don't even know if the people who were responsible for heading it up really
believed it made any sense either. I'll give you one example. The previous
administration in its ingenuity and I don't mean that in any sincerity
decided to spend $500,000, a half a million dollars, on an advertising campaign
under the guise of population growth. A half a million dollars on an advertising
campaign, on TV ads, basically telling Newfoundlanders and Labradorians that you
should continue to be Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
That was
the Population Growth Strategy. It was called grow where you are, or grow in
place, or whatever it was. Absolutely shameful to basically take $500,000 of
Newfoundlanders' and Labradorians' hard-earned dollars, throw it into a burn
barrel, throw a bit of kerosene on it and catch it on fire because that is more
or less the same impact of that. It made absolutely no sense, no sense to the
people who are carrying it out at all $500,000 just absolutely wasted.
As we
went through the agencies, boards, commissions and departments of government
line by line about 65 hours that we met over the course of about a week this
came up over and over and over again. They could not waste the money as fast as
they could charge it, $5,000 a minute of every hour, every day of the week while
they were in office. They could not waste the public's money fast enough. That
was the nature of their fiscal administration.
Thank
you, Madam Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Member for St.
John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Thank you very much, Madam
Chair.
I'm very
happy to stand and speak to Bill 9. As it's a money bill, I'm assuming that what
we are facing here in the potential closure of Holy Cross Junior High is about
money. If it is, in fact, about money, which it appears to be, then I believe we
have a problem. I'm not so sure that closing Holy Cross Junior High will save us
any money.
We have
a school that is populated by children from communities that face perhaps some
of the most severe and challenging socio-economic challenges in the whole
province. Of the school population, 38 per cent of the students have
exceptionalities.
If
children are not able to get the help they need in order to succeed
academically, then what happens is that for the most part they're not able to
attain post-secondary education, and for the most part they're not able to
attain well-paying, stable jobs. Then, oftentimes, they have to rely on the
state in order to help them get through life.
So in
the long run I am not so sure that we are saving money. As a matter of fact, we
may be creating more problems. We may be creating, in fact, further costs and
greater costs down the road. I don't believe that's government's intention, but
I believe that might be an unintended consequence.
One of
the things about Holy Cross Junior High is that they have incredible community
partnerships. Again, we have to keep in mind a number of children come from
families that face really strong socio-economic challenges. These are families
that don't have a whole lot of money. If their children aren't doing really well
in school, these are families who cannot pay for tutoring. There are great
community supports and community partnerships for Holy Cross Junior High. This
didn't just happen; this is a result of years and years of working together, of
building relationships in the community.
For
instance, one of the really strong community partners to Holy Cross Junior High
is the Froude Avenue Community Centre. The Froude Avenue Community Centre has an
after-school program every day and sometimes even at lunchtime. They have
teachers who volunteer. They have one staff member who coordinates it all. Kids
go after school. They can walk to school because the school is in their
community. After school, they can walk to the Froude Avenue Community Centre
where they get tutoring.
It's
amazing the number of kids from Holy Cross Junior High who ended up going on to
high school and then won Fry Family scholarships. They were among the school,
the alumni from Holy Cross Junior High the schools that won the most
scholarships that enabled these kids to do post-secondary education. That's a
success story. That didn't happen out of the blue; it happened because of the
years of dedication and partnerships. That enabled it to happen.
There
was a time when we had Holy Cross Elementary School. When the kids graduated
from Holy Cross Elementary School it was closed a year and a half ago. When
they graduated they would be fed into Holy Cross Junior High. As well, there's
another elementary but that was closed. So now they are fed to St. Teresa's
Elementary School.
Those
children, after finishing St. Teresa's at grade six, should be streamlined back
into Holy Cross Junior High, but that's not happening. There was no big
announcement. There was no big policy decision that the parents were informed of
or that the community had input in. What has happened is that those kids who
used to go to Holy Cross Elementary, which was almost adjacent to Holy Cross
Junior High, go to St. Teresa's. From St. Teresa's they're told they have to go
to Brother Rice.
This is
one of the reasons that the population has dropped in Holy Cross Junior High. As
well, the kids from Bishop Abraham elementary are fed into Holy Cross Junior
High, but that's now a smaller population. What we have is we've had a
purposeful design of shrinking the population going into Holy Cross Junior High.
The
other thing about Holy Cross Junior High is they have a very strong inclusive
policy for all of their sports. Anybody who wants to be on the basketball team
can be on the basketball team. They don't have to audition. It's a wonderful
thing to watch. They have a band. They have cheerleading. They have a number of
after-school activities.
All
these kids walk to school. Many of the kids can see the school from their
kitchen windows. What's going to happen now? All of these kids will have to get
on a bus earlier than when they walk to school, and then they're bused to
school. They're going to be bused to a school whose population right now is
expanding already. A lot of the immigrant children and refugee children are now
going into Brother Rice. They're also going into Bishop Feild Elementary School.
We have
a school, Brother Rice Junior High, that has a large number of children with
exceptionalities as well. Holy Cross has 38 per cent. Mr. Chair, 38 per cent of
the children going to Holy Cross Junior High have exceptionalities. That means
that 38 per cent of the kids who are going there need extra help, who aren't
able to get through the regular school system without some support and some
extra help.
There's
a high percentage as well, when we see the inner-city kids going to Brother Rice
Junior High, kids who are coming from Bishop Feild Elementary, kids who are from
refugee families, from immigrant families where English is not their first
language. That, as well, is going to create extra exceptionalities. In fact,
what might be happening here is that this is not an advantage to the children.
As a matter of fact, it will make it more difficult for these kids.
I don't
think that's what government wants to see happen. I don't think that's what the
Premier had in mind with his mandate letter. There was a commitment to
neighbourhood schools and community schools because they're the heartbeat of
their communities. That's what we are losing here.
We're
going to have kids who come from families with strong socio-economic challenges.
If they miss the bus, because many of them will miss the bus, because a lot of
kids get to school because of the challenges they face. If they miss the bus,
they don't have parents who can drive them to school. It means they will miss
the whole day of school. So the rate of absenteeism or truancy is a big concern.
The good
teachers at Holy Cross Junior High are on top of that. They call home and say:
Where's Johnny? They call home and say: Where's Susie? They say: I know they're
late. Tell them to come on in. We can just slip them right in to class. That's
not possible. It's not going to happen when they get to Brother Rice Junior
High.
This is
not progressive. This is not progress. To close a school that is working for
children who are so disadvantaged, to close a school that actually works for
them, is not progress. It is not progress. As a matter of fact, it's a step
backwards. It is a loss.
Now, one
of the problems I have asked again and again and again for the Minister of
Education to do his job and to intercede and to hold off any of these decisions
until a duly elected school board of trustees is elected. One that comes from
the community, that's answerable to the community and reflects the needs of the
community.
The
other thing is the Minister of Education, his background; he knows the
difference this will make in the lives of the children. He knows how important
community schools are. He knows how important it is to make sure children who
have certain disadvantages, who have exceptionalities, how important it is they
do not fall between the cracks.
There's
a wonderful book out called Boston Against
Busing who looked again at the whole issue of busing our children to schools
that are further away and what it means. Our kids, the kids from Holy Cross
Junior High, will not be able to take part in drama, like they do in their own
school. They'll not be able to be involved in sports teams, like they do in
their own school. This is impoverishing the lives of these children. This is so
not progress. It's such a step backwards.
Now, the
other thing is I would just like to offer a few quotes
CHAIR:
Order, please!
I remind
the Member her time is expired.
MS. ROGERS:
Okay, thank you very much,
Madam Chair.
I look
forward to getting up and speaking again on this issue.
Thank
you.
CHAIR:
The hon. the Minister of
Justice and Public Safety.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm
happy to stand here today and have an opportunity to speak to Bill 9, which is
the Loan Act. It's one of these pieces
of legislation that you see from time to time where we need to raise money. In
order to do that, obviously, we have to come through the House of Assembly. I
think the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board has done a very
good job, as she always does, in getting up and talking about the need for this
piece of legislation and how she goes about arranging for this. Certainly, I
will get back to that.
One of
the things I want to talk about, actually, is there was some confusion in this
House of Assembly yesterday when it came to this bill. It was brought up
especially in Question Period and then after. I think some of it came down to
procedure on how this works. Again, this is more of an explanation for anybody
who happens to be watching now that may have been watching yesterday. The
question the Opposition was raising was: Why wasn't Bill 9 tabled?
The
explanation is yesterday followed the same procedure as is standard, which is
that when the bill is given notice on Thursday, we'll say in this case, the next
day is the day that you actually distribute it prior to first reading. That has
been the norm. That's absolutely the norm and, certainly, was what we were
treated to when we were on the other side. I think it's a case of the same
treatment being applied here.
Although, yesterday, it was hard to be looking at it and figuring out, my God,
there was a major crime committed yesterday, coming from the tone of the
questions of various Members opposite, primarily the Leader of the Official
Opposition and the Deputy House Leader. In fact, the deputy referenced it in one
of his questions. He said: Why isn't it tabled? So this is an education right
now as to why it was not tabled because it was standard procedure, is what I
would say to the Deputy House Leader of the Official Opposition.
I took
offence to it in many ways because it implied that perhaps some of the House
staff weren't doing their job. In this case, they were. They were doing
everything as per normal. The other thing, I think, is interesting, because some
of the implications here were, well, we haven't had an opportunity to look at
this. We haven't had an opportunity to deal with it.
Do you
know what? That's fair. That's why the Department of Finance provided a briefing
today. Again, there's no rush here. We have to get this done, no doubt. We need
to get this borrowing done for reasons that have been outlined by every Member
who has spoken, which is when you come in and you have to clean up a mess, well,
you have to get certain things done on time.
So,
again, the briefing was done. I've heard some Members say thank you for the
briefing. It was well done. I'm glad to hear that all went well, but what's
interesting is when you go back and look at and the Minister of Finance can
correct me if I'm wrong here. I believe there was a loan act done last year in
June.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Yes, there was.
MR. A. PARSONS:
So I went back and looked at
the progress of bills last year. It says that the
Loan Act, 2015 first reading was
June 23, then second reading was June 23, then Committee was June 23, then third
reading was June 23 and then Royal Assent was June 23. Last year, you came in
and put the whole thing through from start to finish in one day, and you have
the audacity to get here less than a year later and say: Hey, how come you're
not treating us fair?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. A. PARSONS:
That, Madam Chair, is in
black and white as opposed to the red that this government inherited.
I had to
put that out there because there was some miscommunication there. The main
thing, I think, the point we need to get back to here is that this is a
necessity. It's one of those things where you stand up and certainly, I'm
obviously very proud of our Minister of Finance, our Premier and all the staff
here. I think everybody on each side knows the value of the people doing the
work.
Those
aren't the people that you see here in the House of Assembly talking about it,
but people in these departments, especially Finance now going through a budget;
it's a tremendous, tremendous amount of work. The work that they do and
Members opposite know this because they've gone through this process, too is
extremely time consuming. It's filled with pressure.
In this
case, the workers that are out there and they know who they are. All those in
the Department of Finance, especially those people that have been dealing with
us in going through this, I say thank you for all the work that you're doing,
the long hours you're putting in. You're coming in on one day, and a lot of
times you don't leave and actually go back to your home until the following day.
That's hard work done by these civil servants and I appreciate it.
At the
same time, though, it's hard to stand up and be proud of it. I mean, it's not
something that anybody wants to do. It wasn't that long ago when I was sitting
on the other side and I heard a former I don't know if he was premier then. It
was Premier Marshall. I'm allowed to say the name now that he's not in the
House. He may have been minister of Finance and he may have been premier. I
can't remember what he was at the time.
I'll
never forget this, and I remember it right now. It's engraved in my brain as we
go through this process now. He stood up in the House, I'm pretty sure, and
said: Mr. Speaker, we are flush with cash. Flush with cash were the actual
words. When we stand here today and we have to bring in a bill to increase our
borrowing to levels that are in many ways are they unprecedented?
AN HON. MEMBER:
They're unprecedented.
MR. A. PARSONS:
They are unprecedented. It's
hard not to look back to this financial guru who said we are flush with cash.
AN HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible.)
MR. A. PARSONS:
You were.
So then
the question I say to the Deputy Opposition House Leader: What happened? What
happened? You're over there saying you were flush with cash. We're here trying
to raise more money than ever has to be done. Again, you don't have to answer me
now; you can get up now in a second and explain. What happened? What happened?
When you
stand there and you have it said to you, we're flush with cash, we're going to
do this, we're going to do that and then what we see in the very short period of
time that we've been here, we've been given the privilege and the opportunity to
govern, is that it ain't flush with cash. I believe that might have been
somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Was that two years ago? Two years ago.
The
constant refrain we hear is, boy, it's all due to oil. It's all due to oil. Now,
I disagreed with that the first time I heard about it. But then when you get
into the nuts and bolts of it and you start going through this, again under the
leadership of the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board and the
officials, then you start getting into it and saying: Do you know what? No,
there was a bigger problem there.
Now,
don't get me wrong; the price of oil has had a traumatic effect on this province
and many others. We all see that, but there were aspects of the previous
government's managerial style that left something to be desired.
I don't
want to get into this thing either where we the leader opposite said earlier
today: I don't want to get in the blame game. That's fine. I don't want to get
in the blame game, but I will say that this time last year when I was sitting on
the other side, I was hearing about all the stuff you guys did back in 2003. My
God, how could they do that back in 1949? You Liberals, how could you do this?
It's
funny when you hear about in 2003, because 2003 I was actually in university.
Well, God forbid, the blame game go on. I just say I don't want to get into that
and I think as we move forward and get into this, we'll get out of this whole
thing. But don't stand there, please, and talk about the blame game when you
just spent at least the last four years I was sat over there doing it. Many
Members on the other side took that opportunity not all, but many took it. I
tell you what, many that aren't here right now took the opportunity to lay blame
on the other side for stuff done 10 years before.
Now,
that being said, we have to move on. We have to move on and that is our plan. We
were elected to govern, and we appreciate the opportunity to do so. That is why
we're here to speak to Bill 9, which gives us the room for borrowing borrowing
which was done by our Minister of Finance. A borrowing plan that was put in
place, that requires work, it requires skill, it requires planning, and I
appreciate what the Minister of Finance and her team has done.
I look
forward to getting to speak to this and the budget and other financial matters
as we move forward, but I look forward to this being done so that we can
continue on and make sure we get the borrowing done that we need to get done.
Thank
you, Madam Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CLERK:
The hon. the Leader of the
Official Opposition.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank
you for recognizing me today. I'm going to rise to speak for another 10 minutes
on this bill, probably my last time to speak on this bill. I think we're going
to wind up the debate on this shortly, is what I expect is going to happen.
I just
want to recognize the Government House Leader and Minister of Justice for his
comments he just raised now. It's interesting, because he spent the first eight
minutes talking about blame game, and then
MR. A. PARSONS:
We can stay here all night, all night.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
He spent
the first eight minutes about blame game, and then the last two minutes saying
he's not going to play the
MR. A PARSONS:
(Inaudible) the last two
minutes was blame game.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I guess
he doesn't like the comments I'm making. He spent the first eight minutes
playing the blame game, talking about the former premier, and the time when we
were in government in the last two minutes. He said I don't want to get into the
blame game, is what he said. He said he's not going to go there. Those were his
words, I just copied it down. He doesn't want to get into the blame game.
Anyway,
I appreciate his comments, and of course in this type of debate we're welcome to
speak and continue to speak.
I want
to address the Minister of Education, because he got up in quite an animated
display there a short time ago and talked about a lot of things in a short
period of time. I'm going to help him out with his math, because he talked about
simple math. I'm going to help him out with his math.
We had
predicted and budgeted a $1.2 billion deficit. Now, the fall in the price of oil
this is not difficult. The fall in the price of oil I anticipate was about
$600 million. The Premier himself is on the record as saying that since they
took office, until about January, they lost about $400 million. I think from
budget time to today, it's probably a little bit more than $600 million. So $600
million and $1.2 billion, that's $1.8 billion. They took the HST off, that's
$200 million in a year. Now you're up to $2 billion. Now that's quick and rough
math, and I know the $200 million for HST is over the full year and so on, but
there's $2 billion right there.
So for
the Member opposite to say that we couldn't do math, when we were in government
we couldn't do math, I just gave him some very easy math that he can
MR. A. PARSONS:
That's not what I said.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. P. DAVIS:
I guess I'm striking a nerve
again, Madam Chair, because we sat quietly
AN HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible).
CHAIR:
Order, please!
This is
the fourth time the Chair has called order since the Member stood. If I have to
do it again I will name Members in the House.
MR. P. DAVIS:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I guess
I'm striking a nerve because we sat quietly and listened to the Members
opposite. We tried not to interrupt. We tried to allow them to make their points
and I only ask that we get the same courtesy.
The
Minister of Education also talked about he's going to pull the curtain back.
Well, you know there are a lot of things we should pull the curtain back on. We
absolutely should, and while my time in government, we did that a number of
times when we went in and dug down and looked at operations. We looked at ABCs
and we looked at what government was doing.
The
Minister of Education should have a look too in his department. I know
government is going to look at they should look at Memorial University and
pull the curtain back over there. Maybe they should look at salaries. Maybe the
Minister of Education wants to look at salaries over there. Have a look at
salaries that are obtained by professors who also have jobs in government. Maybe
they are Members of the House sometimes and they're getting salaries from both,
government-funded university, our provincial university and they're getting
salaries as MHAs. Maybe the Minister of Education wants to pull the curtain back
on that.
Maybe he
wants to pull the curtain back on MUNSU or CSU. Maybe he wants to do that.
Because he wants to sit in his place and talk about, oh, I'm so righteous and
I'm so wonderful and I'm so perfect. We're going to go after other folks. Well,
it's a long road with no turns, I was always taught. I was always taught that he
who is without sin cast the first stone. That was always taught by my father.
The
Minister of Education likes to get personal sometimes. He likes to say nasty
things. He was a little bit upset here in the House earlier, and he's going at
it again today, Madam Chair he's going at it again today. But I can tell you I
won't be intimidated by him, I can assure you that.
Our
caucus over here will not be intimidated by the Minister of Education and the
things he says and the things sometimes he whispers in your ear. I remind the
Minister of Education, like the comment you made to me when I attended the
public consultation session in Conception Bay South when I was walking out
through the door. Do you remember that? I can remind you if you want. I won't do
it here on the floor, but I can remind you if you want, the comments you made to
me.
That's
the kind of stuff that really causes heat to rise right here in the House, when
we're all supposed to be here working together and finding a better way forward.
The very first day in the House, they said, oh, we should work together. We
said, yes, we're willing to do that. We're going to do our jobs. We'll ask
questions, we'll do those kinds of things.
I've
said this before and I'll say it again, we're all here because we want what's in
the best interest of the people; but if the Member opposite wants to go down
that road, we'll go down that road, but it's certainly not one that we want to
go down. I know the Government House Leader, the Minister of Justice and
Attorney General made a similar comment a few minutes ago when he finished up
his speech, that's not productive and that's not going to benefit, and I agree.
If the
Minister of Education is going to continue to get on with those kinds of things
and hiding behind curtains if you want to talk about hiding behind curtains,
what's behind the curtains, he hides behind the school board. He still has a
responsibility. We just discussed this in Bill 1 yesterday, that ministers and
legislation over and over and over again you'll see legislation that says the
minister still has responsibilities.
Madam
Chair, this is a bill about borrowing because of the circumstances that the
government of the province finds itself in today. We support the need to borrow.
We have to borrow. You have to borrow; you have to pay the bills. You have to
pay the bills, you have to run government. We agree with that. We agree with
what they have to do.
We look
forward to the budget. We'll look forward to seeing what the Members are doing
in the budget, what they're going to present to the people of Newfoundland and
Labrador. I've said already today, I know they're all working hard on it. We've
been there.
I
remember back in 2012, we had a really tough budget trying to roll back spending
and trying to make adjustments. I tell you, it was a tough time in the House
after we introduced our budget. I remember some of the Members opposite, who are
ministers today, who sat in Opposition back then, I tell you they held our feet
to the fire. They gave it to us pretty hard.
The
Minister of Service NL knows what I'm talking about. He's a long-standing Member
of the House, knows his job, does it well, can stand and ask questions. He came
in and asked us questions. He asked hard questions of us and I'm sure the same
will happen after this budget.
In 2012,
I remember specifically, it was a really tough year. Last year was a tough year.
Don't worry, we're looking at Hansard to see what they asked us after we were
taking steps to reduce public service and reduce expenditures. We're looking at,
what did they ask us to do? What did they come to the House and ask for from us
as a government? What did they support in the initiatives we were doing? What
suggestions did they make? What did they say when we decided we were going to
take a step to reduce an expenditure? How were they critical to us? How did they
stand and say, no, you shouldn't do that, don't do that?
Yes,
we're looking at all that because we're interested to see what they're going to
do as well. That's their responsibility today. As I said earlier, we respect the
fact that they have a responsibility to do that. They have a responsibility to
the people of the province, which they were elected to do. We respect the
decision of the people and respect their role. I would urge them to respect our
role as well.
Madam
Chair, I'm going to conclude my remarks, at least for now. It will probably be
my last time speaking on Bill 9, which is a law to amend the
Loan Act, 2015 to increase borrowing
by government from $2 billion to $2.4 billion. We'll be supporting the bill
because government needs to do the work and do the business. We also look
forward to a budget soon after the Easter break.
Thank
you, Madam Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
The hon.
the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
MR. KIRBY:
Thanks, Madam Chair.
It's a
pleasure for me to stand again. I wanted to respond to the former premier's
comments. I know he's not paying attention again now, like he was when I was
speaking before. Maybe if he'll pay attention, I could correct the mathematics.
In any
case, Madam Chair, if I'm intimidating to the former premier, I really
apologize. I didn't intend to intimidate the Member at all. I was just trying to
debate, and sometimes debate gets colourful in here. Sometimes people are
passionate about the situation the province is in or policies or whatever.
That's just the way it is. If the Member is not interested in that sort of
debate, I apologize, but at no point in time did I try to intimidate the Member.
As for
pulling back the curtain on professors at Memorial University who are Members of
the House of Assembly, I made the same declaration that all the other Members of
the House of Assembly made to the Commissioner of Members' Interests, and that's
publicly available. In fact, I met with the Chief Electoral Officer, who is the
Commissioner of Members' Interests, very recently. If you want to go have a
conversation with him, he can share every word that he shared with me and
everything is laid bare. So that's fine.
As I
said before, it's good to have a Minister of Finance who's good at math. It's
pretty obvious to me now that the former premier is actually not good at math,
or he wasn't paying attention when I was speaking before. What I said when I got
up, Madam Chair, was the following: Since the 2015 budget, there has been $615
million worth of lost revenue. That's revenue that's lost to the province $615
million. I'll say it more slowly just to make sure I'm not confusing him: $52
million of that $615 million of revenue that's been lost to the province since
Budget 2015 has been lost since this government took office on
MS. C. BENNETT:
Since our fiscal update.
MR. KIRBY:
Since the fiscal update. So
that leaves $563 million in revenue that was lost under the previous
administration. There was no acknowledgement. Basically, it was not made known
to the public.
The
Leader of the Opposition at the time, the current Premier, wrote to the Leader
of the Official Opposition and asked for the fiscal update. Had he seen fit to
provide the fiscal update, that information would've been shared, that it was
about $563 million, more than half a billion dollars that the previous
government was out in terms of revenue.
What I
said was maybe we would have made different decisions. Maybe all political
parties would have made different decisions around what they were promising had
they known the full extent of the deep, deep hole that the previous
administration decided to dig for the next generation of Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians and the next generation after that and the next generation after
that, because somebody's got to pay for the mess now. I know that really the
former premier is very sensitive to this issue that they created a big mess,
they walked away from it and now somebody else has to clean up the mess.
That
somebody else is not just this government. It's not just this government because
that record debt from the spending spree that they were on, that record debt
that they racked up, that $5,000 a minute that they decided to put on the credit
card of the next generation, that they just rang in and rang in and rang in and
rang in without a care in the world, our children are going to have to pay to
clean up that mess. It's not a mess that can be cleaned up in one budget.
If you
kept on going the way that the previous administration was operating
financially, we would have something closing in on $15 billion worth of
additional debt racked up due to deficits, building and building deficits, as a
result of that way of operating. Just spending and spending and spending without
a care in the world, that the lenders would just continue to hand it out.
What I
said was when this government took office one of the first things that senior
Finance officials said was we need to be transparent about the true financial
situation of the province. That financial situation that the current Premier
inquired about to the Leader of the Official Opposition he is now in September
and we don't know why he didn't bother to update the people of the province on
the true financial situation that we were facing. Only he knows that.
What we
know is that senior officials said we can't continue to operate this way. If we
continue to operate this way, we're more or less going to run out of borrowing.
We're going to face higher and higher and higher interest rates for borrowing.
It is just going to be a compounded effect. We'll have millions and tens of
millions and hundreds of millions of dollars of more debt that just comes from
borrowing. So that's what was said.
The
other thing I was saying is and I'm sure that's why the Member is so insulted
and he feels that I'm intimidating him somehow when we had agencies, boards,
commissions and departments come and present to Treasury Board they told us two
things. One, they never had such an invitation before. No one ever invited them
in before. Almost to a person they said that we were never in before to
present to Treasury Board like this, never to sit in front of ministers and talk
about the true nature of the financial situation of the province never, ever.
So that's one thing.
The
other thing they said was they had tried to tell their ministers. Many of them
had tried to tell their ministers if they could get a hold of them, if they
weren't on Twitter or whatever it was they spent their time at, because a lot of
them didn't know. They told their ministers we have ways to save money that
won't impact services, that won't impact the quality of service delivery, that
won't adversely impact the people of the province, and here's how.
In some
cases, they told us, ministers cut funding to those departments, to the
agencies, boards and commissions, cut their funding, and then after they
produced the budget with their funding reduced, well, they said, no, you can't
make those changes. So it purposely drove them into the ditch, drove them into
deficit and so on and so forth.
Now, the
former premier, he stands there and he pontificates and he alleges and he makes
all sorts of accusations, and I'd encourage him to try to back it up. He makes
all sorts of accusations. He talks about the difficult budget, he said the other
day, they introduced. The difficult budget they produced last year. Yes, a
difficult budget, Madam Chair. It was so difficult that they couldn't help
themselves. The difficult budget increased spending somewhere close to 15 per
cent of overall spending in the province. It was 12 per cent, I believe it was.
That was the difficult budget.
I really
wouldn't want to see a great one that they'd produce, a pleasant one. If a hard
budget is one where you over spend the Treasury by 12 per cent, then God help
us. Again, like I said, if this is all intimidating to the Member, then I
apologize. I think it should be fairly frightening to the people of the
province. There's no question; it's frightening. It's frightening as well, it's
surprising, that the Member thinks this is all acceptable and he somehow should
be proud of all of this, that basically they've just loaded an incredible, a
tremendous amount of debt and borrowing onto the next generation. Children who
cannot understand today what it is they've done.
He's
like a teenager, basically, who's messed up his room. He's gone in there, he's
torn the place apart and he's turned it bottom up. He's turned everything bottom
up. Every toy he had he's thrown around his room, and now his mother is
coming in and saying, clean it up. He
said, no, that's not my job; that's your job. You clean up the mess. I might
have made it, but you clean it up because I'm accepting no responsibility.
We talk
about the blame game. For the four years that I sat in Opposition, the former
premier talked about stuff going back to well before 1971 when I was born.
Liberals did this and Liberals did that. He invoked the name of every Liberal
premier in my lifetime, I believe, and blamed everything that was going wrong
with the previous administration on them.
It's
quite hypocritical to stand there and say that somehow we're not allowed to
point out the obvious fact that you did not care at all. You just spent, with
abandon, every cent you could get to put on the credit card of the next several
generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. You just spent and spent and
spent and spent and you said I'm not cleaning it up. Mom, I'll leave it to
somebody else to clean it up. That's not my job. I'm not accepting any
responsibility. That's hypocritical.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR. KIRBY:
That's unacceptable and
completely unreasonable.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
I remind the Member his time
is expired.
The hon.
the Member for St. John's Centre.
MS. ROGERS:
Thank you very much, Madam
Chair.
I stand
to speak about the issue that we've all become aware of today, and that's the
flying and the raising of the so-called Christian flag here at Confederation
Building. I was approached this morning by constituents who were really
concerned about the raising of this flag.
Some may
say this is a Christian flag. What is the problem? I do believe the problem that
many people have had and I've received many letters. I do understand that
people have also contacted the Premier about this. I, myself, spoke to the
Premier today and raised my concerns.
Initially, the Premier was going to be meeting with the crowd who wanted to
raise this flag. He was also going to be part of raising the flag with them.
Once I indicated some of my concerns about the flag, I believe that government
decided to not be involved in the raising of the flag.
The flag
itself has become a symbol of division, bigotry and homophobia. It has become a
symbol of anti-choice. I do believe that is not government's intention. It was
not government's intention to support the raising of this flag. I believe that
government has decided to reconsider and look at the protocols for raising flags
on the courtesy pole beside the House of Assembly.
It's
very interesting, some of the letters that I've received today, either written
directly to me or to the Premier. People have talked about how shocked and
saddened and disappointed they are that a religious symbol that has come to
represent division, intolerance, has been raised on our property, on the grounds
of the House of Assembly, on the grounds of the House of the people.
I would
ask if government, if the Premier, would reconsider the fact that because of
what the flag symbolizes I'm convinced that it's not government's intention to
enforce or to support what this flag has come to symbolize, because we do know
that a number of Christian religions are not at all in support of this flag. It
is my hope that government will reconsider and have the flag taken down at the
end of the day. Then we can come together to talk about what the protocol is for
using the courtesy flagpole.
We do
know that the courtesy flagpole, the raising of flags that support government,
aligns with government policy, also aligns with our Human Rights Code or with
our Human Rights Act, those flags are
welcome and those flags are raised in support.
I would
suggest, again, Madam Chair I ask if government may, at the end of the day,
remove the flag and not raise it again. There's been a commitment that it will
be up for a week, but in respect for people who feel this has been a flag that
has, again, promoted division, promoted intolerance, that the flag be removed
and our discussion about what in fact we can raise on the grounds of our House
of Assembly.
Thank
you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
The hon.
the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MS. C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm
pleased to participate in the debate this afternoon. Certainly, it's been lively
and educational and passionate, would be a word I'd use. I certainly thank all
the Members in the House who have participated in the debate and also thank
those Members who very dutifully listened and paid attention.
It was,
I think, very unanimous in this House this afternoon. I thank you on behalf of
the Members opposite, as well as the Members on this side to the officials in
Finance, not only for the work they've done today with the briefing for the
Opposition, but also for the work they've been doing in advance and preparation
for the budget. I think all of us in this House would certainly echo that.
That's what I'm taking away from this discussion this afternoon.
I would
like to just clarify something one of the Members opposite said earlier in the
debate that's with reference to the officials. Undoubtedly, we have very
talented officials in the Department of Finance. I'm very lucky as a minister to
be working with some very committed public sector employees who are very
passionate about serving the public the way they do. But when it comes to
borrowing, there is a limit to what officials are able to do.
They are
able to passionately pursue their work; however, they do need a government that
is able to be transparent about the financial status of the province. Also, they
need leadership to support those relationships with the investors and the banks.
Certainly, that's something our government will continue to provide going
forward.
As has
been mentioned previously in this debate, there is a capacity to the amount of
borrowing that we, as a province, can do. It's not infinite. There is a capacity
we are able to do on borrowing. That capacity is directly related to the
credibility of the plans we will be able to present as a government going
forward. It's our intention to present a very credible plan, first and foremost,
to the people of the province.
The
facts need to be presented. People need to understand what government's
priorities are and what our investments are going to be. Also, our fiscal policy
and how we're going to make decisions as a government, and how we're going to
take into account the impact on the economy when it comes to decisions that the
province makes.
It was
interesting, as the Member spoke earlier as we were going through the
line-by-line review as part of our Treasury Board activity, we had many
departments, agencies, boards and commissions share with us how the process was
very different that they went through this year. As President of Treasury Board,
I've certainly indicated to them it will continue to be different as we continue
to look for the efficiencies and savings that we can find together, so we can
make sure we have the resources for the quality public services we need for the
people of the province.
I would
also like to remind those Members in the House that when we talk about the debt
the province currently has, the administration that the people of the province
chose to replace in November had increased the total debt in the province by 69
per cent since 2003. I think that harsh reality is settling in for many of us on
this side of the House as we go through the exercises to prepare for the budget.
There's
been a lot of challenging work to do to get to a place where we'll have a budget
that we can present. We certainly think, as parents, as Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians, as neighbours, how incredibly challenging it is for a province of
just over half a million people to carry the size of the debt that we carry. We
need to continue to keep focused on that.
Madam
Chair, I would like to thank those that have spoken to the bill. I've heard the
Leader of the Official Opposition say that he is in support of the additional
borrowing that we're asking. I believe I also heard that as well from the Member
of the Third Party. So I look forward to the vote happening in short order.
Thank
you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
Seeing no more speakers to
Bill 9, shall the resolution carry?
On
motion, resolution carried.
A bill,
An Act To Amend The Loan Act, 2015. (Bill 9)
CLERK:
Clause 1.
CHAIR:
Shall clause 1 carry?
Aye?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On
motion, clause 1 carried.
CLERK:
Be it enacted by the Lieutenant Governor and House of Assembly in Legislative
Session convened, as follows.
CHAIR:
Shall the enacting clause
carry?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On
motion, enacting clause carried.
CLERK:
An Act To Amend The Loan Act, 2015.
CHAIR:
Shall the long title carry?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On
motion, title carried.
CHAIR:
Shall I report Bill 9 carried
without amendment?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Carried.
Motion,
that the Committee report having passed the resolution and a bill consequent
thereto, carried.
CHAIR:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Madam Chair, I move that the
Committee rise, report the resolution and Bill 9 carried without amendment.
CHAIR:
The motion is that the
Committee rise, report the resolution and Bill 9 carried without amendment.
Is it
the pleasure of the Committee to adopt the motion?
All
those in favour?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All those against?
Carried.
On
motion, that the Committee rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again, Mr.
Speaker returned to the Chair.
MR. SPEAKER (Osborne):
The hon. Deputy Speaker.
MS. DEMPSTER:
Mr. Speaker, the Committee of
Ways and Means have considered the matters to them referred and have directed me
to report that they have adopted a certain resolution and recommend that a bill
be introduced to give effect to the same.
MR. SPEAKER:
The Chair of Committee of
Ways and Means reports that the Committee have considered the matters to them
referred and have adopted a certain resolution and recommend that a bill be
introduced to give effect to the same.
When
shall the Committee have leave to sit again? Now?
On
motion, report received and adopted.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Member for Harbour Main, that the resolution be now read a first time.
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved that this
resolution be now read a first time.
Is it
the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
Against?
Carried.
CLERK:
Be it resolved by the House
of Assembly in Legislative Session convened, as follows: That it is expedient
to bring in a measure to authorize the raising from time to time by way of loan
on the credit of the province, in addition to the sum of money already voted, a
sum of money not exceeding $400,000,000.
On
motion, resolution read a first time.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Member for Lewisporte Twillingate, that the resolution be now read a
second time. That it
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved and seconded that
this resolution be now read a second time.
Is it
the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
CLERK:
That it is expedient to
bring in a measure to authorize the raising from time to time by way of loan on
the credit of the province, in addition to the sum of money already voted, a sum
of money not exceeding $400,000,000.
On
motion, resolution read a second time.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Minister of Municipal Affairs, that the bill be now read a first time.
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved and seconded by
the hon. Government House Leader and the Minister of Municipal Affairs that the
bill be read a first time.
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
Those against?
Carried.
Motion,
the hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board to introduce a
bill, An Act To Amend The Loan Act, 2015, carried. (Bill 9)
CLERK:
A bill, An To Amend The Loan
Act, 2015. (Bill 9)
On
motion, Bill 9 read a first time.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development, that Bill 9
be now read the second time.
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved and seconded that
the said bill be now read a second time.
Is it
the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion?
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
Those against?
Carried.
CLERK:
A bill, An To Amend The Loan
Act, 2015. (Bill 9)
On
motion, Bill 9 read a second time.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded
by the Minister of Environment and Conservation, that Bill 9 be now read a third
time.
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved and seconded that
Bill 9 be now read a third time.
Is it
the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion?
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
Those against?
Carried.
CLERK:
A bill, An To Amend The Loan
Act, 2015. (Bill 9)
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, I call from the
Order Paper, Address in Reply.
MR. SPEAKER:
I apologize to the House; I
missed a step.
The bill
has now been read a third time and it is ordered that the bill do pass and the
title be as on the Order Paper.
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
Those against?
Carried.
On
motion, a bill, An To Amend The Loan Act, 2015, read a third time, ordered
passed and its title be as on the Order Paper. (Bill 9)
MR. SPEAKER:
Again, the hon. the
Government House Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I now
call from Orders of the Day, Address in Reply.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of
Transportation and Works.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. HAWKINS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's an
honour for me today to stand in this great House to give my maiden speech. It
was a long time coming. I'm a senior. It's been a dream that has come true for
me to be representing the great people of Grand Falls-Windsor Buchans.
Mr.
Speaker, I stand today a very proud person, proud of my roots, growing up in
Twillingate and enjoying the simpler things of life in those days. We were an
island, served by a ferry, believe it or not. So I can appreciate some of the
frustrations that those people today, who are served with ferries, are dealing
with.
Then we
were fortunate enough, after several years, to get a fixed link by a causeway. I
got the experience to look at many of the advantages the connection brought to
my town. It's somewhat ironic, Mr. Speaker, that I'm now the Transportation and
Works Minister, and the Premier has mandated me to be a better management of our
ferries, and to look at possible fixed links. So we go full circle.
As I
reflect today upon my past, I would be remiss if I didn't reference my parents.
I can only imagine how proud they would be today, and proud of this moment. My
parents believed in hard work, and they believed in long days. My father was a
fisherman for most of his life before getting into the construction business. He
worked many summers on the Labrador Coast building wharves and lighthouses.
I'm
looking forward to joining my colleague for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair to take
to me to some of the places I haven't been yet, such as Battle Harbour, Mary's
Harbour during the summer, and I'd like to be able to get an opportunity to see
some of the places my father frequented during the summer. My father would leave
on the first coastal boat in the spring, and he would come home on the last
coastal boat in the fall.
While my
father was away, my mother made sure the work was done around the House. In
those days, Mr. Speaker, we lived off the land, like a lot of Newfoundlanders
and Labradorians did. We had our own sheep, we had our own cows, we had our own
pigs, we had our own goats, we had our own ducks we even had our own chicken.
I know it's a controversy these days, having your own chicken.
So you can imagine how hard my mom worked to make sure all
the animals were fed and care for all the other chores that had to happen. In
addition to that she was also responsible, because we had our horses and cows we
had to look after for the winter, it was her responsibility to make sure the
grass was cut and the hay was
made and put away. We all took part in that.
If that
wasn't enough, as a mother, as a woman, she also had to make sure that we kept
our garden because we grew our own vegetables. So we had to go through all of
that. She was a farmer. She was a house maker. She did all those things. In
addition to that, she had to make sure that I kept on the straight and narrow
and did my work. That was a challenge in itself. My parents never shied away
from hard work and, Mr. Speaker, I have some of that same drive and commitment.
I felt
it important today to pay tribute to my parents because they instilled in me a
concern for others. They treated people with respect and they helped out
wherever they could. Both of my parents have now since passed away. I actually
lost my father about a year before his actual physical death to the dreaded
disease of Alzheimer's. It was a devastating blow to me, especially the day that
I picked him up to take him for a ride and he had no idea who I was. I had to
quickly adjust to the fact that this physically strong man, who I had looked up
to all my life, had no idea who I was.
Mr.
Speaker, there are over 8,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who are diagnosed
with Alzheimer's. Their families and caregivers are impacted on a daily basis.
This disease is growing in alarming rates and we really are faced with a
challenge. As we age, more and more people will become dependent on our health
care services. This disease will have a huge impact on budgets, both
provincially and federally, in the coming years. We must find a cure. We need
both a provincial and federal plan in place quickly to deal with the pressures
about this disease.
I salute
all the caregivers that are providing countless hours of support to their loved
ones. The pressure and the strain sometimes can be unbearable, but you need to
realize there is help in our communities. It was for that reason I volunteered
for many years with both the Newfoundland and Labrador Alzheimer Society, where
I served as president, and the national Alzheimer Society where I served on the
board of directors.
I want
to thank many of my colleagues in this House who have supported us in the past
through our coffee breaks. I look at our Chair of our Committees Speaker,
Deputy Speaker and Chair, and our Walk for Memories. I want to salute the staff
at our provincial office on Topsail Road, especially our executive director
Shirley Lucas, who works above and beyond what is expected as an employee to
help those who are in need. Truly, it's help for today and it's hope for
tomorrow.
I ask
all of my hon. colleagues to reach out to someone that you know who's affected
by this disease and give them an encouraging word. My mom carried the heaviest
load as a caregiver. She was the one who insisted we keep our father at home
when he should have been in a long-term care facility. She was a dedicated and
committed wife who spent many years by my father's side. She was fortunate to
have a few good years after he had passed away. She lived until 95.
After
completing my university training, I started my career in Central Newfoundland.
I moved to Windsor and accepted a principal's position in Badger and worked
there for nine great years before moving on to Grand Falls Academy. Working with
young people was probably the most rewarding career I could have wished to have.
Knowing
at the end of a career that you have helped young people to become outstanding
citizens cannot be measured in words. This was truly fulfilling to me.
In 1991,
an historic event occurred. The Towns of Grand Falls and Windsor amalgamated.
This year, Mr. Speaker, the Town of Grand Falls-Windsor is celebrating 25 years
of amalgamation. This amalgamation is truly a success model that other
communities in this province could certainly learn from. Trust me; it wasn't
that painful, in spite of what a lot of people would have said. It just made
sense. Thankfully, someone had the foresight and was there to make it happen.
The many benefits using economies of scale are evident in the community today.
I would
like to offer my congratulations to the present Mayor Barry Manuel, and all of
the council. I had the honour of serving eight years as councillor and six years
as mayor. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it very rewarding.
I would
like to offer my congratulations to the two newest councillors, Peggy Bartlett
and Mike Browne, on their recent election. There is no deeper commitment than
the giving of your time to serve in this capacity. The rewards will far outweigh
the frustrations.
In
November last year, Mr. Speaker, the people of Grand Falls-Windsor Buchans
gave me a mandate, to represent them in this House. I am truly honoured and
indebted to the wonderful people in my district who have put their trust in me.
I want to thank the many campaign workers who worked tirelessly on my campaign,
and especially the three gentlemen who went door to door with me every day
starting in September until the election in November. That's the type of
commitment I will treasure as long as I'm in this House, because that truly was
above and beyond. I know some of my colleagues on this side and on the other
side experienced that type of support and commitment when we decided to run.
I met
many wonderful people while campaigning door to door during the election. I met
people for the first time, making lasting friendships. I met many of my former
students in Badger I don't know if that was a good thing or not. There were
certainly some times when it slowed my door to door, but it was great to be able
to see students I had as very young people, now outstanding citizens and adults.
I certainly cherish that moment. I got a fair amount of support, by the way, in
Badger, in spite of the fact that I spent nine years there. I'm sure some of
those children at that time had some other thoughts in their mind when I talked
to them, but it was great to see them.
Mr.
Speaker, I look forward to working hard during these difficult times on behalf
of the people of Grand Falls-Windsor Buchans, Millertown, Buchans Junction and
Buchans to improve the conditions and challenges we are facing. Our communities,
my district, have gone through many difficult times over the last number of
years.
The
downturn in the paper industry impacted Central Newfoundland with some 700
people losing their jobs with the closure of the mill in March of 2009. Again,
this year, we have been impacted by the closure of Duck Pond Mines with another
350 people losing their jobs.
Mr.
Speaker, that is devastating to any community and to any region. We have been
through these difficult times, but one of the things I want to assure this House
is that we will rise above that. It is imperative for us to find ways to
stimulate this supressed economy. This unfortunately happens when communities
are dependent on natural resources; however, Mr. Speaker, the people in my
district have been resilient in the past and I have the confidence that we will
find a way to diversify our economy.
I ask
our people to be innovative and to work in partnership with agencies for a
stronger tomorrow and a more sustainable future for my district and for this
province. We must work together to build stronger partnerships, to look for
other opportunities for all of us and I commit to do my part and to work hard to
ensure that we all have a better future.
Mr.
Speaker, none of this would have been possible if it was not for the support of
so many people. I stand here today because of the support I have received from
my family, my church and my community. I have to especially recognize my wife,
Joan, who has given me 100 per cent support over the years, whether it has been
my professional career or my political career. She has stood by me and has
encouraged me to fulfill my dreams. Being in politics requires a huge commitment
from all family members.
We are
so proud of our four children and our six grandchildren. I'm blessed to have at
least two of my grandchildren living in the province, in Gander; my good
friend's hometown. The oldest of my grandchildren, believe or not I know if
you look at me it probably is surprising to see that, but my oldest will be
attending MUN this coming September. I'm looking forward to that. I joke with
her, I said now that your pop is here in St. John's maybe you should stay with
me; but I think she's got other plans. She was sort of like, I'm not too sure
about that pop, maybe I should stay at residence. So I'm going to give her that
choice. She'll visit, I'm sure she will.
My other
four grandchildren, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, are living in Ontario. I would
love to have them here in the province, however, we all know that having four
children I have two now living in Newfoundland and Labrador and, of course, my
other two are in Toronto. All are gainfully employed and are professionals in
the City of Toronto. I know it's always great to visit, but I would love to have
my other four grandchildren in Newfoundland and Labrador; but I don't, and
that's the way we have it.
Having
grandchildren motivates me to help build a better tomorrow. A stronger tomorrow
will be for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. I want a future that is
environmentally friendly. I want a future that is safe. I want sustainable
communities. I want safe communities. I want a strong economy and a future that
is affordable. It is for this reason that I pledge to work hard to position this
province where it should be, a province that is not strapped with debt and no
hope, but a province that is rich in resources, is inclusive and giving hope to
our youth.
Mr.
Speaker, I call upon all Members of this House to help build that future.
Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House
Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Mr. Speaker, certainly a very
wonderful maiden speech by my colleague.
Given
the time of the day, I would move, seconded by the Minister of Transportation
and Works, that the House do now adjourn to the call of the Chair.
MR. SPEAKER:
It is moved and seconded that
the House adjourn to the call of the Chair.
All
those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
This
House now stands adjourned to the call of the Chair.
On
motion, the House at its rising adjourned to the call of the Chair.