MR. SPEAKER (Hodder): Order, please!

Admit strangers.

This afternoon we welcome visitors from The Discovery Centre in Harbour Grace, in the District of Carbonear-Harbour Grace, together with their coordinator, Ms Debbie Snow and their instructors, Ms Elizabeth Baker and Ms Joanne Mullins.

Welcome to the House of Assembly.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: This afternoon we have members' statements as follows: the hon. the Member for Humber Valley, the hon. the Member for Terra Nova, the hon. the Member for Bay of Islands, the hon. the Member for Windsor-Springdale, the hon. the Member for Port de Grave, the hon. the Member for Port au Port.

The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today to recognize an exceptional group of young people from my district. These five young youth are students at Elwood Regional High School in Deer Lake and recently won the provincial Envirothon and will now have the honour of representing the Province at the international competition in Geneva, New York.

This win is a milestone for Elwood Regional High. The provincial Envirothon has been taking place now for seven years. Elwood has walked home with this prestigious award for the fourth time.

Mr. Speaker, the members of the winning team who called themselves Team Driftwood, were Kimberly Alexander, Chantel Coles, Kent Edwards, Matthew McDonald and Sarah Spence.

This amazing group of teens wowed the judges with their presentations in the soils, wildlife, forestry, current issues and the oral presentation categories.

The three-day competition was held at Killdevil Lodge in beautiful Gros Morne National Park and saw about ten teams of youth from across our great Province compete.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of this House to rise with me in extending congratulations to Elwood Regional High School in Deer Lake on their success at the 2007 Provincial Envirothon Competition. The members of Team Driftwood are our leaders of tomorrow and environmental stewards for our planet. They are conscientious, meticulous and exemplify the amazing talent we have throughout our great Province.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. ORAM: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the 780 Freshwater Royal Canadian Air Cadets of Gambo on their thirty-eighth annual ceremonial review and banquet which was held on June 3, 2007 at the Gambo Lions Club.

Mr. Speaker, it was my pleasure to be the reviewing officer for this occasion. In attendance were Mrs. Lisa Moss, Air Cadet League Representative, Newfoundland League; Mrs. Marilyn Dowden, sponsor body chairperson; Gambo Mayor Lloyd Noseworthy; veteran Mr. Matthew Brown; Major Robert Nolan, as well as a large number of parents and guardians.

Mr. Speaker, the squadron of thirty-three cadets meet every week for training, which include a flag party of five, a drill team of fifteen, and a band of seven. One of the highlights of the evening, was the announcement as to who would be going to summer camp. There are actually twenty-one cadets going to Ontario and Nova Scotia to the camp this year.

Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest events occurs on November 10 and 11 when the cadets hold an all-night vigil of the war memorial in Gambo. The cadets start at 8:00 p.m. on the tenth and finish up at 11:00 a.m. on November 11. This is the only cadet squadron that does this each year, Mr. Speaker. There was a series of awards handed out to cadets at the banquet, as well as twenty-two of thirty-three cadets received perfect attendance certificates.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all members join with me in congratulating the cadets and the staff of the 780 Freshwater Royal Canadian Air Cadets, Captain Dennis Wicks, Commanding Officer; Captain Laurie Wicks, Lieutenant Dana Barrow, Lieutenant Eileen Preston, Elizabeth Wicks and special helper Mr. Roger Ford, who is a paramedic, and Second Lieutenant Martin Murphy on thirty-eight years of cadet excellence in Gambo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE: Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today to extend a best wishes to the Tour de Rock represented by ten RNC Officers from its three detachments in the Province who have been raising funds for charity. Tour de Rock will depart from Port aux Basques and cycle across the Province to St. John's - a journey taking ten days.

The ten members include nine current members of the RNC and a retired officer. I am proud to stand in the House today to acknowledge a member of the team, a constituent of mine, Constable Shawna Park of the Corner Brook Detachment.

Last year, members raised $12,000 for Mothers Against Drunk Driving during the seven day event. Again, this year, MADD is the charity of choice in Corner Brook.

The Tour de Rock will begin in Port aux Basques and make stops across the West Coast at Stephenville, Corner Brook and Deer Lake. They will continue their ride across the Province with stops in Springdale, Grand Falls-Windsor, Gander, Clarenville, Whitbourne, and are scheduled to complete the Tour in St. John's on June 15.

This year, the RNC have decided to pass the proceeds on to fundraisers in each participating community across the Province to the charity of their choice. Tour de Rock has raised over $50,000 since it began four years ago.

I ask all hon. members of the House to join me in wishing Constable Shawna Park and her nine teammates of Tour de Rock a great success this year as they help raise funds for a variety of charity groups across this great Province.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Windsor-Springdale.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HUNTER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker and fellow hon. Members of the House of Assembly, I rise today with great pride to congratulate Hockey Newfoundland & Labrador on their 2007 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Banquet.

The individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame were: Alex Blanchard, Leo Kane and Harry Katrynuk for Player Category; Len Butt and Gerald Kelly for Builder Category; Michael Anderson for the Athlete/Builder; and William Callahan for the Media category.

The Brian Wakelin Executive of Year Award went to Joe Lane of the Port aux Basques Minor Hockey Association. The Minor Hockey Association of the Year Award went to Port aux Basques Minor Hockey Association as well.

Minor Hockey Meritorious Awards were presented to: Matt Chambers, Northern Director; Stan Doucette, Stephenville Minor Hockey Association; Neil Ward, La Scie Minor Hockey Association; and Albert Bud Chafe, Cee Bees Minor Hockey Association.

The Junior Hockey Meritorious Award went to Chuck Norris. The C.J. McCarthy Memorial Award went to Dale O'Brien from the Mount Pearl Blades. The Female Hockey Promotion Award went to Veronica Coffey from the Labrador West Minor Hockey Association. The Joe Byrne Development Award Honour Roll went to Joe Lane of the Port aux Basques Minor Hockey Association. The Gold Stick Award went to Garfield Bickford. The Ray Bowe Award of Merit went to Ralph Angela and Jim Hare.

Mr. Speaker, Roseanne Ryder, wife of the late past president, Marv Ryder, was presented with the President's Ring.

Minor Hockey Newfoundland & Labrador also honoured life members: Claude and Lucy Anstey; Walter and Gladys Clarke; George Pardy; Don and Flo Johnson; and Wayne Russell.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask all hon. members to join with me today to congratulate all the award winners and organizers of the 2007 Annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Banquet.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. BUTLER: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Jasmine Bennett, a young musician from Bay Roberts who took home the top award from this year's Annual Kiwanis Music Festival held in Clarenville.

In April 2006 Jasmine won the Terra Nova Shoes Senior Rose Bowl at the thirty-sixth Kiwanis Trinity Conception Music Festival held in Carbonear, and was recommended by the adjudicators for competition in the provincial music festival in Gander.

A Level III French Immersion student at Ascension Collegiate, Jasmine is the daughter of Thedie and Jim Bennett of Bay Roberts. She began her piano training in the Music For Young Children Program when she was four years of age. Besides piano, Jasmine also plays guitar, saxophone, flute, bass guitar and piano accordion. She recently auditioned at Memorial University's School of Music where she plans to study for a Bachelor of Music Performance Degree. Jasmine has also received The Dame Vera Lynn Entrance Scholarship to MUN.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in this House of Assembly to join with me in congratulating seventeen-year-old Jasmine Bennett on her second Rose Bowl win, and wish her every success in the future as she pursues her musical career.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. CORNECT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to congratulate the students of St. Thomas Aquinas in Port au Port East for their efforts in participating in a very interesting fitness oriented program.

Mr. Speaker, in the month of May, 140 students, teachers and parents participated in the Walk Across Newfoundland Challenge - a program which encourages students to be physically active. The kindergarten to Grade 8 students have been walking in their community during and after school. They have logged a total of 3,552 kilometres. This is equivalent to a walk from Port au Port to St. John's and back to Port au Port - twice. That is twice, Mr. Speaker. What an accomplishment! Because of this extraordinary effort, the school has won a class set of thirty pedometers.

They have well exceeded the goal of the challenge, Mr. Speaker, which was to walk across the Province one way.

To make the event more real, they erected a large map of the Province in the school gymnasium and the students used it to track their virtual trip across the Province.

Mr. Speaker, this is certainly in line with healthy and active living initiatives that are introduced in our schools.

I ask all members of this hon. House, Mr. Speaker, to join me in congratulating and thanking the students, the staff, the volunteers and the parents of St. Thomas Aquinas for accomplishing this great feat, and to congratulate all other schools who have participated as well.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Statements by Ministers.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works, and Labrador Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my colleague, the hon. Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources, I am pleased to advise my other hon. colleagues that earlier today Consolidated Thompson Limited announced a tentative agreement has been reached with the owners of Wabush Mines for the purchase of the mining operation in Labrador West.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: As members are aware, Mr. Speaker, last year Consolidated Thompson entered into exclusive discussions with the owners of Wabush Mines - Cleveland Cliffs, Stelco and Dofasco - in an effort to seek out possible synergies between the Labrador West mine and Consolidated Thompson's Bloom Lake iron ore project. Premier Williams engaged both Consolidate Thompson and Cleveland Cliffs, Stelco and Dofasco during the negotiation process to expedite a deal.

However, early in 2007, Consolidated Thompson announced that it had ended its negotiations on the purchase of Wabush Mines. Our government was very disappointed with that news; yet, we remained optimistic as the door was left open for future talks.

Mr. Speaker, as our government firmly believed there were significant opportunities to be realized through a partnership with the operations of Wabush Mines and the Bloom Lake project, we were not prepared to give up or let the prospect of such an arrangement pass by. It was our view that a successfully negotiated arrangement would add to the life of Wabush Mines.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier personally intervened and spoke with representatives of Consolidated Thompson in early February, at which time he impressed upon them the benefits of continuing to hold discussions in an effort to secure a deal.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we are seeing the results of how that direct intervention by our government helped to pave the way for an announcement that a deal has been reached.

This is tremendous news for the employees of Wabush Mines, their families and the entire Labrador West region. It will provide more stability and security for those directly employed with the mining operation as well as for those indirectly dependent on this operation for their livelihood. Furthermore, it is also a significant advancement for the mining industry, specifically in Labrador, and generally in the Province.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Consolidate Thompson and the mine owners for listening to our encouragement and reaching an agreement toward a win-win conclusion for both the Bloom Lake project and Wabush Mines.

I know I echo the sentiments of the people of Labrador West when I state this is the most positive development that has happened for this mine in quite some time. I firmly believe the cloud of uncertainty that has loomed over the future of Wabush Mines has dissipated. A new and more certain future is on the horizon. Great news for Labrador West, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS JONES: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank my colleague for a copy of his statement prior to coming to the House of Assembly.

We, too, want to congratulate Consolidated Thompson and Wabush Mines on reaching a deal regarding the purchase of this mining operation in Wabush.

Mr. Speaker, I do not think there was a doubt in the minds of a lot of people that this would happen because, as you know, the Bloom Lake iron ore project was a perfect fit for Wabush and for Wabush Mines. The attributes of this mining operation in Wabush to be able to carry out this project was very appealing to Consolidated Thompson, and I think all members will agree, for it would allow them to achieve their operations at a lower cost to their company in a site that was already constructed, which helped them save substantial capital expenditure; so, both financially and logistically, it made perfect sense.

Mr. Speaker, this is great news for the people of Labrador West and indeed in Labrador. It not only sustains the jobs that exist at Wabush Mines but it helps create more jobs in that particular area of our Province and helps sustain the mining operation in that area into the long term, which is indeed a benefit for all of us.

Mr. Speaker, what makes me grin in this statement is how the government is desperately trying to take credit for the consolidation of this particular deal and the purchase of Wabush Mines.

Mr. Speaker, we know that these are two very prominent mining companies in the country and I am certainly sure that they did not need the intervention of the government to see the real capital and fiscal benefits of being able to do this.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. member's allotted time has expired.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, may I have leave just to clue up?

AN HON. MEMBER: No leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Leave has been denied.

MS JONES: All right, thank you.

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

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

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

Obviously, it is good news that there is a tentative agreement and I, along with the people of Wabush - I was speaking to some of them recently, since the statement came out - look forward to a permanent agreement. As we know, all tentative agreements are not firmly in place until they are there, and I hope that is going to happen because the people in Wabush in particular, in Labrador West, do need a sense of security.

I am interested in the fact that the Premier and government did play a role, and that is good if they did, and I have no problem with that, but I think what I would like to say to government is: Think about other roles that you can play as well with regard to labour issues in the Province. Just as you played a role here -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. member's allotted time has expired.

MS MICHAEL: By leave, please, Mr. Speaker?

MR. SPEAKER: Leave has been requested.

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Leave has been granted.

MS MICHAEL: Just as you played a role here, I think you should think about the role that government has to play with all kinds of labour issues in the Province, especially not labour rest, not labour unrest. We need labour rest. Therefore, there is a role for government in taking a position with regard to anti-scab legislation. I do not think government has to wait for others to tell them what they do. I think government can take a position and let that position be known.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Further statements by ministers?

Oral Questions.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Today I have more questions about the government awarding of a contract for jobs to Quebec firms -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I do believe that there was another ministerial statement -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. RIDEOUT: It can be too late if that is the way you want to play it. Go ahead, Mr. Speaker, and we will do it tomorrow, if that is the way the Opposition wants to play (inaudible).

MR. SPEAKER: The Speaker understands there is no leave.

The Speaker will restart Question Period and recognize the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When in Opposition during the Voisey's Bay debate, Premier Williams stated in the House: There are insufficient safeguards that the work and jobs will go to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Not only are jobs going to Ontarians and Manitobans, they are going to Quebecers as well. Shame on you!

Now with the construction of the long-term care facility in Corner Brook, we know that the electrical, mechanical, and steel work will be completed in Quebec for this $57 million contract.

Can the minister confirm what percentage of work will be completed in Quebec, by Quebecers, work which could be completed by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in this Province? He did not know yesterday. Does the minister have the answer today?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works, and Labrador Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have tabled all the information that was requested by the hon. member, but let me say this while he yaks about this from the other side.

Mr. Speaker, it was his government at the time that signed the interprovincial trade agreement. We have two agreements here. We have one on internal trade, interprovincial trade, of which Premier Clyde Wells signed. We have another one with the Province of Quebec, Mr. Speaker, in March of 1998, which was signed by then Premier Tobin with the Province of Quebec to allow the opportunity for contractors and for workers between the two provinces.

Mr. Speaker, the Member for the Bay of Islands has no idea what he is talking about. There are subcontractors from this Province that are gaining benefits from this project. There are subcontractors from this Province that are gaining benefits from this project. Mr. Speaker, there are workers from this Province who are working on this project, I say to the hon. Member for Bay of Islands.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair recognizes the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously, the minister did not do his homework because he just does not know. Just to give the minister an example, excluding the work by the engineering firm, minimal, 50 per cent of all the work of prefabrication and other steel work will be done in Quebec. The minimal is 50 per cent of this project will be done.

Mr. Speaker, again, while in Opposition Premier Williams made the following statement during the Voisey's Bay debate, and I quote: The work is instead being awarded to a Quebec company, Gagnier Transport. Explain why there are not appropriate safeguards in place to protect provincial companies that hire Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and carry on business in Newfoundland and Labrador?

Mr. Speaker, there are safeguards in this Province. When submitting a bid through the Public Tender Act companies are supposed to include a list of subcontractors to whom they plan to award contracts. If this is not included, this is a reason to exclude a company from the bidding process.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the member to complete his question.

MR. JOYCE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I ask the minister: Did the Quebec company, awarded this $57 million contract, include a list of subcontractors to complete this work? If not, why not?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation Works, and Labrador Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, just for the hon. member across the way, obviously, he is trying to get a hold of something that is really not there. When we look at the subcontracts for that site in Corner Brook, we have Marine Contractors from Corner Brook, Mr. Speaker, who are doing the engineering; rebar from Harris Steel in St. John's; rebar installation, Corner Brook, rebar from Corner Brook; concrete supply from Atlantic rebar in Corner Brook.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. HICKEY: We have design services, Mr. Speaker, from Sheppard Case Architects in St. John's; mechanical, electrical, Newton Engineering from St. John's; structural, Atlantic Engineering from Corner Brook.

Mr. Speaker, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are getting benefits from this project, I can say to the hon. Member for Bay of Islands.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.

MR. JOYCE: Mr. Speaker, I will say to the minister again, in the Public Tender Act, I think it is section 27, a company has to list a number of subcontractors that they have in the tender that are going to be used to be approved by the minister.

I ask the minister: You did not name one of the subcontractors for the mechanical, for the steel component or the electrical of this contract. Did this Quebec company include, in section 27, a list of subcontractors that are going to be used? Yes or no?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works, and Labrador Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, it was that government on the other side that signed the agreement, the Newfoundland and Labrador-Quebec Agreement on Labour Mobility on March 6, 1998. They were the ones who did the deal with Quebec. They were the ones who invited Quebec companies to come into the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Let me say this, Mr. Speaker, the construction industry in this Province does not live in a bubble. We have companies that are doing business in Quebec. What are we supposed to do, tell Joe Kruger to go back to Montreal, Transatlantic to go back to Montreal, Air Labrador to give up a $25 million contract they just received? Mr. Speaker, we live in a global economy and Newfoundland and Labrador companies are participating in that economy, I say to the hon. member.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the Bay of Islands.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. JOYCE: Thank you.

I say to the Minister of Transportation and Works, Joe Kruger is using workers from Corner Brook, the Bay of Islands and the West Coast.

I ask the minister, Mr. Speaker: If the company, Pomerleau, did not have in section 27 a list of subcontractors for this work and if they changed the subcontractors, will the minister immediately cancel this tender and protect the jobs of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and award it to the second bidder? I ask the minister: Will you protect the jobs?

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works; and Labrador Affairs.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HICKEY: Mr. Speaker, I have tabled the list of contractors, I have listed the names of contractors, that are involved in this. Mr. Speaker, let me say this, we are cancelling no contract for the long-term facility in Corner Brook; absolutely not. That is a facility that is long needed by the people of Corner Brook and we are going to build that facility sooner rather than later, I say, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier.

Mr. Speaker, in an effort to do damage control over government's mishandling of the ER/PR test results, Mr. Abbott was removed last week as Deputy Minister of Health.

I ask the Premier: What role did Mr. Abbott play in the ER/PR testing to justify his removal from that department?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: As I have indicated in this House many times in the last two to three weeks, this whole issue of the ER/PR testing at Eastern Health took place between - the period in question was from 1997 to 2005, and issues in and around what happened during that period, what were the causes, what were some of the issues that gave rise to those differences -

MR. REID: (Inaudible) John Abbott last week.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. WISEMAN: - and issues that give rise to what may have happened during that period, will be the subject of an inquiry. Mr. Speaker, we have announced a judicial inquiry. We announced there is going to be a very public process here. We are going to have a judge appointed to conduct an inquiry. It is going to be an open process, a very transparent process. That individual will have the power and authority to subpoena witnesses, to subpoena documentation and, at the end of the day when that individual produces a report, that report will be made public for all of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador -

MR. SPEAKER: I ask the minister now to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: - and for the people in this House and anyone else who might have an interest. Everybody will know all of the answers in and around the issues pertaining to the ER/PR testing from 1997 to 2005.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The minister just gave us a chronology of what happened since 1995, and never mentioned the deputy minister or why he was fired last week.

I will ask you again; maybe you can put your headphone in so you can hear me, because you obviously didn't.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. REID: I ask you or the Premier: What role did Mr. Abbott play in the ER/PR testing that caused you and the Premier to remove him from his position as deputy minister?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, I understood the question perfectly well. I heard the question very clearly.

Let me repeat it again, because obviously the member opposite did not hear my answer. I said, very clearly, and let me repeat, I said at that point, and I will repeat it again, we have announced a judicial commission of inquiry. That commissioner will conduct an open and transparent inquiry into any and all issues in and around the ER/PR testing between 1997 and 2005, and any issues coming from that in terms of who knew what, when, the flow of information, who took what action. Any and all of those questions, I say, Mr. Speaker, will be answered by this inquiry, and we will be announcing - I suspect the Premier will be announcing, in short order - the name of that person who will be the commissioner, the terms of reference for that inquiry -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister now to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I said before, any and all answers with respect to that issue will be addressed during that inquiry, I say, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, I just hope that whoever does that inquiry does not have to ask this minister anything, because he might be twenty years before he gets an answer.

Again, not once did he mention why he fired, or the Premier fired, the deputy minister last week. If he is trying to make it sound, because he was involved in it, then I have to ask the minister the question: Why hasn't the Premier removed you? You were over there in the capacity as minister, or parliamentary secretary to the minister, all during this fiasco, so why are you still sitting there?

Mr. Speaker, in local newspapers around the Province today, Eastern Health are running full page ads to do damage control over how they handled the faulty ER/PR tests.

I ask the Premier: How can you justify allowing Eastern Health to spend thousands, and tens of thousands, of dollars on that type of propaganda when there are so many other health care needs that need to be addressed in the Province?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Let me correct two things in the member's preamble.

Number one, Mr. Abbott, the former Deputy Minister of Health and Community Services, was not fired. Mr. Abbott was provided an opportunity to move to another location, another department, as a deputy minister, I say, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Abbott, made the conscious decision himself that he would pursue a career in professional consulting, a personal practice that he had before coming with government.

The second thing, I say, Mr. Speaker, on which I will correct the member opposite, it is not Eastern Health going out and doing damage control. It is Eastern Health going out and straightening out the facts and the misrepresentation of facts imposed on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador by members opposite in the line of questioning in this House and their comments to the public, I say, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. minister now to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: So, it is very important - I continue to say in this House - it is important to understand the facts around this issue. It is important to understand the chronology around this issue.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister and all members to respect the general rule we have, the protocols of one minute.

The Chair recognizes the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess what the minister is saying is that Mr. Abbott resigned as Deputy Minister of the Department of Health, just like I guess Ms Joan Cleary resigned from the Bull Arm Site. She was not fired either. You never even asked for her resignation, I suppose, did you? She tendered that.

Mr. Speaker, Eastern Health claims in this very ad that all - all - patients whose samples were being retested were notified. Now, the minister and the Premier know that statement is both false and misleading because they were not all notified, I say to the minister.

Now, last week the Premier dismissed the Deputy Minister of Health. Today, he is allowing Eastern Health to spend tens of thousands of dollars on propaganda, misleading information that they are putting out to the public.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the member to put his question quickly.

MR. REID: I ask the Premier, Mr. Speaker: When is he going to do the hon. thing and not fire anybody else? He should ask for the resignation of the minister, the individual who is supposed to be responsible for what happened in his department. (Inaudible) the honourable thing and ask for his resignation?

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Premier.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Don't hold your breath, because you will suffocate, because this minister will not be asked to resign, I can tell you right now. Neither will the other ministers who were involved be contaminated with the kind of filth and the kind of smear that you want to put over everybody.

You have to stop playing politics here and you have to realize that this is a very serious matter. You can wave your ads and you can talk about propaganda and everything else, but this government is going to get to the bottom of these health problems, and we are going to go about it responsibly, but this minister will not be asked to resign.

This goes back to the 1990s when your crowd were in government. It goes all the way through the last period when you were a minister of the Cabinet, all the way through. So, if there is going to be responsibility here, you be prepared to accept some responsibility as well.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair recognizes the Member for Humber Valley.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BALL: Mr. Speaker, according to recent reports from nurses, Newfoundland and Labrador nurses are the second-lowest paid in the country; second only, Mr. Speaker, to those in Quebec. We understand that a benefits package is being negotiated with Quebec nurses that, if settled, will relegate nurses in this Province to the lowest paid in the country. What is interesting in Quebec, Mr. Speaker, is that the minister voluntarily identified the nurses' issue and came forward to work with them to find a solution.

I ask the minister: Is he prepared to take this proactive step and do the same for our nurses?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: In fact, we have done just that, Mr. Speaker. We have been proactive. We have been aggressively working with them.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. WISEMAN: In fact, Mr. Speaker, just let me share with the member opposite some of the things we have been doing.

We have been very successful this year in recruiting numbers of nurses. Each of our health authorities have had a real success this year in recruiting nurses, both from new graduates and from others who are coming back into the workforce, so we have had some real success.

Some of our authorities have put in place some recruitment incentives: relocation bonuses, signing bonuses, assistance with accommodations when they are moving into some of the more difficult to recruit areas.

We have put together a working group, I say, Mr. Speaker, made up of representatives of the Department of Health and Community Services, our Regional Health Authorities, the Association of Professional Nurses, the Council of LPNs, and the Nurses' Union, all working together collectively trying to improve the quality of work life of individuals who are currently in the workforce, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister to conclude his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to answer such a question in a short period of time because there has been such a long list of things that we have done to improve the lot of nurses in this Province, I say, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair recognizes the Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: Mr. Speaker, according to the recent reports that we have been hearing, that not all nurses feel the same way or feel as optimistic about the future in the Province as the minister does. There is also a very severe shortage, not only in the Province, but in the Labrador portion where there are 250 nursing positions. Of the 250 nursing positions, there is actually forty that is short. Certainly, what is being created here is the impact this is having on the nurses rights to their allotted vacation time and with reports of nurses having to quit just to spend time with their families.

I ask the minister: Will he acknowledge that what government is doing is inadequate to overcome the challenges and will he commit, today, to strengthen the benefits package of our nurses, especially those in Labrador, and retain the ones we have to recruit more?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, just to correct something in the preamble, Labrador is a part of Newfoundland and Labrador by the way.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, as I said a moment ago, each of our health authorities have had success in recruiting this year. I think in Labrador alone, there has been sixteen new nurses recruited this year. There is a new initiative underway with Inuit students to get them into the nursing profession, a new initiative of this government. So we are working with some of the regions of our Province that have some challenges in recruitment, and historically, had challenges in recruitment.

Just to put this question in context, as well, not only his preamble, in acknowledging some of the challenges in nursing recruitment in Newfoundland and Labrador, he could have expanded that statement and made the statement that this is not only in this Province, but it is national, it is international.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister now to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The member opposite may have listened to the news last night and heard a nurse from Ireland, heard another nurse from Australia, both commenting on the significant challenges they have, because it is an international issue.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: Well, Mr. Speaker, there is no question that the nurses shortage is a global and, certainly, a national issue. Our concern here today is for nurses in our own Province and the stories that they are sharing with us.

Just to build on this more, one of the more serious issues for nurses is the extended hours that they are being pressured to work. We know of nurses who have worked twenty-four hour shifts and this is not unusual that they work at least sixteen hour shifts. Nurses are concerned about the ability to provide quality care for these sick patients.

So I ask the minister: Does he consider nurses working such unacceptable hours of providing the quality, quality care he speaks of in this House?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, there is no one in this House, not a single person any more interested in quality care than I am. That is my responsibility as a minister.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. WISEMAN: The actions of this government, Mr. Speaker, clearly demonstrates our sincere and genuine interests.

In 2006-2007, we have the highest number of nurses in this Province today than we have had in our history. In the last year - since we formed government we have had a 3 per cent increase in the number of nurses in this Province, I say, Mr. Speaker. These are initiatives that we have undertaken. If you look at this Budget year alone, in Estimates when we talked about the number of nursing positions, in Eastern region alone, thirty-nine FTEs; Central, nine FTEs; Western four FTEs; Labrador-Grenfell, five FTEs. Mr. Speaker -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to point out, Mr. Speaker, that I think these facts become very important because it illustrates clearly, not only the investment we have made in the nursing profession in terms of the budget increase, the number of new positions we have created, but the quality of work life issues that we have been attempting to address.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair recognizes the hon. Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: A quality work life, in my mind, is certainly not around a sixteen hour work shift, I might add there.

Another concern I have, Mr. Speaker, is the lack of opportunities for nurses to engage in things like professional development and training. We have heard of overworked nurses too busy to mentor their younger colleagues, those who are entering the system. Today we are told of some nurses who could not even attend the nursing conference now taking place here in the city.

So, I ask the minister: Is he concerned that the quality of patient care is being further compromised by nurses not getting the proper training they need to keep on top of their profession?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, we are always concerned about the amount of education provided to our health professionals. We have just witnessed very recently the announcement we made of $6.2 million in Child, Youth and Family Services. A significant piece of the Human Resource factor in there was education, continuing education, ongoing education.

In our nursing, I mentioned earlier about the quality of work life initiatives. We have a fund of some $300,000 that we have set aside to be used by health organizations throughout the Province to provide continuing education as a special kind of funding. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, if you look at the budgets of each of the regional health authorities, there is a significant piece of that which is allocated to continuing education. All of our newly recruited nurses go through an extensive orientation throughout the entire organization, but when they get in each individual nursing unit, I say, Mr. Speaker, there is very intensive ongoing orientation to those students.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: Yes, Mr. Speaker

I think, Mr. Speaker, one of the things that the member opposite needs to fully understand is that the issues in and around recruitment and retention are not simple. They are complex, and we, as a government, have made a significant effort and a -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Again, I ask the minister for his co-operation in respecting of protocols.

The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for Humber Valley.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BALL: Mr. Speaker, it is well known that our population in this Province is aging and the changing demographics will bring challenges for improved and expanded health services. As the system looks to reduce the hospital length of stays it also looks to the community to provide the necessary supports.

A few weeks ago the Minister of Health and Community Services stated in the House what would amount to about twenty-five cents an hour available to the home support sector.

Will the minister confirm whether this money will be going directly to health authorities or to the workers?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, just so that the member understands the process of how health authorities are funded. As a government, we pass in this House - and we passed last week - a significant Budget. A big chunk of it, thirty-odd per cent of it, $2.2 billion, was for health care.

In the areas of program delivery, the service delivery is the responsibility of each of our four health authorities. We have created a piece of legislation that creates these authorities and gives them the mandate to deliver health care in this Province. We funnel money to them and they in turn pay for and provide the programs and services. We give it to the health authorities who, in turn, provides the funding for those agencies or individual home support workers who are providing those services.

If he needs to understand the accounting process, it goes through the health authority. It ends up in the hands of the health provides.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the hon. minister to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: They are the principal benefactors of the money at the end of the day, I say, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: A final supplementary, the Member for Humber Valley.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. BALL: Mr. Speaker, we all that was the process back in 2004 when the Premier himself intervened in the VON strike in Corner Brook.

The 2007 Budget makes provision to provide the extra twenty-five cents, as he said, to health authorities.

I ask the minister: How does he plan to address the home support workers working in other areas, including some other agencies?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: I am not sure I fully understand the question, to be frank with you, Mr. Speaker. If he is talking about how the money flows to agencies, agencies are contracted by families to provide services to the mothers, fathers, aunts or uncles, whoever it might be. The agencies then are paid, because they are contracted to provide the service. They are paid for that contractual arrangement. The money that pays them comes from the health authority. The health authority -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. WISEMAN: - in this particular case, the funds that the health authority pays the agency provides for the direct compensation of the home support workers. It provides for other benefits such as an EI fund and the Workers' Compensation.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I ask the minister to complete his answer.

MR. WISEMAN: The rates, I say, Mr. Speaker, the contractually negotiated rates, reflect enough money to pay the home support workers.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair recognizes the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

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

My question today is for the Minister of Environment and Conservation.

Last night, this House passed our first Sustainable Development Act, long overdue in a Province so dependent on natural resources development. This act came after a consultation process which included referencing other relevant legislation in the country.

I ask the minister to explain why the act, since it closely follows the Manitoba act, and since his department's discussion paper included principles and guidelines, does not include principles and guidelines, the heart of any piece of legislation?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

I can undertake for the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi to find out the answer to that question. I am not directly familiar with the answer to that, but I will certainly find out for you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

MS MICHAEL: Well, Mr. Speaker, I guess I may have a bit of a frustrating time this afternoon because all of my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Conservation, but I will plug ahead and I would like to see a response to my question in writing.

My next question, and maybe the minister speaking for him may know the answer to this, even through the government chose not to include principles and guidelines in the act, and the act is passed and that is not there, and that runs counter to what is typical in sustainable development legislation and policy across the country, it still would be very useful to have principles and guidelines prepared earlier rather than later.

I am asking the minister if the minister will prepare a set of principles and guidelines to present at the first meeting of the round table, that is the showpiece of the legislation, so that the members of the round table have some clear direction with regard to government's expectations?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: Mr. Speaker, the Sustainable Development Act was followed by an extensive consultation process throughout the Province by a number of stakeholders, a number of individuals, organizations and groups that had extensive input into the Sustainable Development Act. It is a very comprehensive act. It covers a wide range of areas related to the Sustainable Development Act, Mr. Speaker.

At the first meeting of the round table, as the member suggests, I am sure they will review her concerns, but I can assure her that the Sustainable Development Act is very comprehensive, very detailed, and covers a wide range of areas, and I am sure that the objectives of the act will cover the principles that you are asking about as well.

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

MS MICHAEL: Mr. Speaker, it is precisely because of the broad consultation that I was so surprised that there were no principles and guidelines in the act, because the discussion paper included them and people responded to them. I responded myself. I put my response in writing, as well, to the minister. That is why I am so shocked that the legislation does not have any content with regard to the principles and guidelines.

A final question. The legislation says that the minister will draft the indicators for measuring progress towards sustainable development. Mr. Speaker, even though our act gives the minister alone the job of defining indicators, he will obviously need to consult widely about their content, so my question for the minister is: Will he be open to allowing the round table a more central role in defining the first draft of indicators, not just respond to a draft he passes them, given that the members on the round table will represent all stakeholders and not just the government?

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. OSBORNE: Mr. Speaker, generally speaking, an act passed in this House will be followed by regulations. Generally, an act does not include principles or guidelines. An act is legislation. Once gazetted, and once the regulations are put in place, guidelines and principles are generally contained therein.

Once the round table meet and discuss the progress that is made, and follow the progress that is made as a result of the new Sustainable Development Act which, I may add, this government is very proud of - it does follow an extensive consultation, it was founded based on extensive consultation - I am sure that, when we look at the progress that has been made, and measure the progress that has been made, Mr. Speaker, if there are further changes that are required as a result of that we will make those changes.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The time allocated for Question Period has expired.

The Speaker wishes to rule on a matter raised in the House on Monday, June 4, regarding the use of unparliamentary language. During Question Period, the Premier, in reference to the Leader of the Opposition, made the following statement as recorded in Hansard. "He issued an incorrect release, deliberately providing incorrect, inaccurate, misleading, untrue information to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador."

Marleau and Montpetit, on page 522, gives guidance to the Speaker in this matter, "Remarks directed specifically at another Member, which question that Member's integrity, honesty or character are not in order. A Member will be requested to withdraw offensive remarks, allegations or accusations of impropriety directed towards another Member."

The Speaker rules the words, "deliberately providing incorrect, misleading, untrue information", used by the Premier in his statement to be unparliamentary and asks him to withdraw.

The hon. the Premier.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: No problem, Mr. Speaker, I withdraw those remarks.

AN HON. MEMBER: Thank you. (Inaudible).

PREMIER WILLIAMS: You are welcome. You are very welcome.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.

Tabling of Documents.

Notices of Motion.

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

MR. PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have had some discussions earlier - yesterday, actually, or late yesterday - with the Government House Leader concerning the private member's resolution for today. There was one that we submitted under the usual rules on Monday past; however, because of the imminent announcement, apparently, by Minister Hearn with respect to that issue, we felt it would be redundant to actually debate it here today, so we agreed that we would draft another private member's resolution, with leave, and proceed to do it today.

I spoke with the Government House Leader and with the Leader of the NDP, and that was deemed to be okay, and it deals with health care.

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair would ask the floor, has leave been granted?

AN HON. MEMBER: Agreed.

MR. SPEAKER: It is recognized that leave is granted.

MR. PARSONS: It is being moved by the Member for Humber Valley, seconded by the Member for Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair.

I will just read the resolve section. BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly urges government to take immediate and decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals in this Province.

MR. SPEAKER: I thank the hon. the Opposition House Leader.

Further notices of motion?

Answers to Questions for Which Notice has been Given.

Petitions.

The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Actually, it is a point of order, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: A point of order has been raised by the hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Thank you.

I have been in and out today, some medical issues ongoing. Anyway, just to point out that there seems to have been some issue, while I was out of the Chamber, concerning a certain Ministerial Statement. I was not here, and was not party to it, of course, and did not know what had happened.

Just for the record, there seems to have been some confusion today about Ministerial Statements as well. I raise it as a point of order because we always try to keep the Speakers, of course, and the Table staff in the loop when it comes to what is happening.

There is a process whereby Ministerial Statements are normally delivered to the Opposition at least thirty minutes before the day's commencement, and that happened today, but it went off the rails a little bit, I guess. I actually thought, because as Opposition House Leader I get a copy of all of these when they come in, that I was given a copy of only two. I was personally given a copy of one by the Minister of Justice which dealt with new interpretive services, improvements. There was one from Minister Burke, I do believe, and one from Minister Hickey, but all three of them weren't in the envelope, there were only two in the envelope. That is why I actually thought there were two Ministerial Statements today and not three. There seems to have been some confusion.

That is aside from the issue of what happened here, who withdrew leave and who didn't. There has been some breakdown in the process, that three didn't find their way to our offices in the same order, because we were prepared to respond to Minister Osborne and Minister Hickey. There was some confusion about Minister Burke's in any case.

MR. SPEAKER: Speaking to the point of order, the Government House Leader.

MR. RIDEOUT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just a brief response.

I acknowledge what has been said by my colleague, the Opposition House Leader, and I understand there was some staff person who was ill on this side as well. That may explain the foul-up in terms of what was in the package.

All that had happened on the floor, of course, is that, when we realized nobody had stood to carry on with another statement, we had requested that perhaps we revert to statements, and leave wasn't given. That is fine, we will carry on - I know the Opposition House Leader wasn't in his seat because if he was that probably wouldn't have happened - but we will just carry on the next parliamentary day.

MR. SPEAKER: Speaking to the point of order, the hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. PARSONS: Mr. Speaker, given the confusion, I think, on all sides, if the Government House Leader and the minister in question want to proceed with the ministerial statement we have no problem taking it out of order and getting it done today, if there is a timing issue here; no problem whatsoever.

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

MR. RIDEOUT: I thank the hon. Opposition House Leader for his suggestion and his co-operation, Mr. Speaker, but I think we are at the point in Private Members' Day now, unless by leave, where we would want to carry on with something else. We will do the statements the next parliamentary day and carry on with the normal business that should be carried on with on Private Members' Day.

MR. SPEAKER: The Chair recognizes that while the matter does not purely constitute a point of order, there is a protocol we follow and the House leadership are the proper persons and members to work out these arrangements.

I would also remind the hon. the Opposition House Leader about the protocol regarding addressing members by their portfolios. This afternoon, he was rather consistent in that particular matter, but I am sure it was inadvertent. That happens sometimes, the Chair recognizes that.

Orders of the day.

Oh, I am sorry. The Chair had called Petitions, but the Chair didn't recognize anyone standing at that time -

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. SPEAKER: There is time for one petition.

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

MR. LANGDON: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

For a moment, I lost my train of thought.

I have a petition here again today on behalf of the people of Ramea. I just want to read:

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge government to revisit their current position and subsequently approve a groundfish licence for Ramea.

I will not go into all of the detail that I said yesterday, but, Mr. Speaker, it is very important for the rural communities, rural, rural communities and island communities, that they be treated somewhat differently than the norm and the mainstream of the Province.

I think that in the situation here in Ramea, if we are going to sustain a community then they deserve a groundfish licence. They already have an operator. They have people who already deliver fish to their community, to be trucked to all parts of the Province. That particular amount of fish that have been caught, or would have been caught by the fishers out of Ramea, would provide a valuable amount of work and employment for the people of that community. If that groundfish licence could have been attained for the community, along with other licences, then it could become a multi-species plant and a number of people could find work there.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I will call upon the government to revisit that situation. To look once again at the small rural, rural communities and island communities to see where one policy does not fit all so that people in this community, in this instance, might find employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day.

MR. SPEAKER: As noted by the Opposition House Leader, the private member's resolution under debate this afternoon stands in the name of the Member for Humber Valley.

The Chair will dispense with the WHEREAS clauses, and the BE IT RESOLVED section reads as follows:

BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly urges government to take immediate and decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals in this Province.

The Chair recognizes the hon. the Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess the ongoing shortages in our health care system, as many would say, has been discussed earlier today in Question Period. This has been somewhat, I guess, a global, maybe even provincial in nature. Shortages have been existing in our health care system for quite some time, as we all know. As I said earlier in the House today, I guess our primary concern is actually what is going on in our own Province.

To read the resolution as we presented it. It says:

WHEREAS there is a chronic shortage of nurses and other health care professionals in this Province; and

WHEREAS many health care professionals are overworked and in some cases have been denied vacation time; and

WHEREAS health care professionals are being asked to work unreasonably long shifts; and

WHEREAS in many cases pay for health care professionals in this Province are among the lowest in Canada; and

WHEREAS there have been several incidents where the health care system has not provided proper health care services due in part to the shortage of health car professionals; and

WHEREAS unions and other professional associations have raised concerns about the current crisis and the possibility that it will further deteriorate in the future; and

WHEREAS the current efforts to recruit and retain health care professionals in this Province are not adequate to address the problem;

BE IT RESOLVED - as the Speaker says - that this House of Assembly urges government to take immediate and decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals in this Province.

As I said, Mr. Speaker, the shortage of health care professionals is something that we have all heard about throughout the country for sure, but to merely just sit and accept the fact that our systems are short of our professionals, really does not satisfy - I know the members on this side of the House - our concerns.

We look to what would be the advantage of someone working in our Province. Why would a health care professional come to the Province to work? What is it that we do here, or do we have here that would be advantageous for someone to stay home and work in this Province, or actually move in from some other jurisdiction?

In yesterday's Globe and Mail we saw some tourism stats where many people spoke - where it was suggested that the country as a whole is seen to be very attractive to many people living outside as a place to actually visit. As I said in this House before, not only is this Province a great place to visit, it is indeed a great place to live.

What we offer is somewhat of an attractive lifestyle. This is a benefit, of course, we must be able to take - we must see this as an opportunity and take advantage of. If we are truly to take advantage of this, we must, of course, be competitive in some other areas. They would be in terms of compensation benefits, workplace issues that sometimes we have to deal with. We cannot be a better place to live and have all of those attractive lifestyle issues if people are being denied vacation, people are forced to work part-time hours instead of full-time, because what this leads to, Mr. Speaker, is the inability to make plans for people's lives. We have heard in recent weeks about people who cannot plan vacation time for this upcoming summer.

So, what is the impact? What is the impact that the shortages have on the workplace itself? What is the impact on our workers? We all know now, we have seen recent reports that it certainly adds to a lot of stress in the workplace. I was reading an article, actually just this morning, that we are the second highest in the country of workplace stress among our health care professionals and this is something in my mind that becomes a little alarming and certainly something that government needs to address. We need to address it quickly because, as we all know, if people have an opportunity to move, they will if their workplace is stressful.

The other concerns that I would have, Mr. Speaker, in terms of our workers and how the shortage in the workplace affects their lives, is just the productivity of the workers. Workers are becoming tired. We heard earlier in Question Period about workers being forced to work sixteen hours a day. Some workers, for instance, in the Clarenville area, which is in the Eastern Health Authority, one particular nurse told us a story of having to work a twenty-four shift. Of course, we all realize that this may be an isolated incident but, indeed, it is something we should never expect from any health care worker. So, this less productivity and tired workers is actually having an impact on the service levels and the care levels that we can actually provide.

The other thing, Mr. Speaker, about the shortage in health care professionals, is that right now many professionals, including nurses, physicians and pharmacists, and many others, are looking for ways they can actually expand their role so that we can better utilize those health care professionals. Nurses for sure, and LPNs, we all know have always looked for areas where they can expand their roles so that we, as a health care system, can better utilize their education and their training. This is very important to them, but if we do not have the necessary human resources available, it is very tough for those professionals to expand their roles. This, again, is another impact that the shortage of health care professionals are having on the health care system of today.

Then, Mr. Speaker, we have to look towards patient care. We ask ourselves, is the shortage of health professional having any impact on patient care? There is no question in my mind, Mr. Speaker, that patient care is compromised if we do not have the necessary health care professionals. We have seen that throughout. We have seen, I guess, Mr. Speaker, where people look towards the reduction of length of stays and those sorts of things, obviously, because there are times around bed closures and those sorts of things. We just do not have the necessary human resources or staffing levels required to have those services available.

The other thing, Mr. Speaker, I asked is: What would be the impact of the shortage of health care professionals? What impact would this have on our communities?

When I look towards economic growth in our communities, I see things like health care and things like education. These are almost pillars that we would grow our communities from. If someone is to look at a place to live, a couple of questions, I think, that most people would ask are: How accessible are our health care providers? What is the education system like?

When we experience shortages in health care providers, or health care professionals, there is no question, people will give second thought to take up residence there. They want to know that they have accessibility, in a timely way, to those services.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, a shortage of health care professionals, not only is it impacting the types of level of care that we provide, and the types of service that we provide; it actually also impacts the way our communities can grow because, as I said, health care services are certainly one of the major pillars and foundations of community growth.

I wonder, when I look at this situation of health care shortages, I ask: What is it that the Province can control? What is in the control of the Province? The ‘controllables', what are they? There are a couple of things that certainly come to my mind. We can control, for instance, how many full-time workers we have versus part-time workers. From time to time we have heard, in particular, nurses are not satisfied just to work part-time forever.

I think what happens here is that they need to be given that option. Some people might be okay to work casually or work part-time, but some others want to work full-time and take advantage of the benefits that are associated with full-time work, things like being able to plan their days off, things like being able to take part in a pension plan, and so on and so forth.

We have heard of many nurses, in particular, out there right now who had problems attending birthday parties for their kids, and actually getting someone to backfill a shift for them. In this day and age, Mr. Speaker, we do not see this as being acceptable at all. People should be able to plan for time off, and to do things with their families.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard now of consultations where nurses in particular, again, as I said, have asked for meetings with various levels of government to sit and discuss the staffing levels. Particularly in the Burin Peninsula we heard stories of nurses identifying this problem, I guess, up to two years ago. So, if this problem has existed for two years, this is something that should have been addressed much earlier. This should not be left, and it should not be left ongoing so, when we get to the eleventh hour, we have people not being in a situation where they could plan for their summer vacations and so on.

This adds stress. How you would feel, how would any of us feel, if we had to go to their kids with just two or three weeks left in school, still not knowing if they are going to be able to get proper vacation time this summer? This, I think, is certainly an unfair expectation and something that needs to be addressed, as I said.

This consultation process between the health authorities staff and indeed government themselves is certainly something that I would encourage, and certainly something that needs to be done on a regular basis, and more of, because right now it is certainly not successful.

Mr. Speaker, we talked a bit today about the shortages in nursing in particular, but the shortage indeed is widespread. That is the reason why I guess this statement talks about health care professionals as opposed to just nursing alone.

We are experiencing shortages in physicians. We are experiencing shortages, I know, in the profession that I spent almost thirty years at now, in pharmacists again. These people, this is having an impact certainly on our recruiting and on the long-term plans, I guess, that we would like to put in place for the Province.

Mr. Speaker, I would also look at the impact. We have talked a bit about the impact on the workers. We have talked about the impact that this is having on communities. We talked a little bit about what is in our control. Mr. Speaker, I guess I would like to talk a little bit about the impact that this is actually having on the residents of the Province. What impact is this having on the people who actually live in our communities, the people who are the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador?

One thing for sure, Mr. Speaker, in terms of the shortages of physicians, what we are seeing is longer wait times, people who do not have timely access to patient care, to physicians, or even, sometimes, to nurse practitioners and those sorts of people. This first line, this front line health care provider, the accessibility in many areas of this Province is just not there. I can see this even in my own district where there are some uncertainties in the number of physicians that would be available even this summer.

The longer wait times is an issue. We are certainly seeing this amongst many specialists. We are seeing this in diabetic education, for instance, Mr. Speaker. We have a shortage of specialists. Some of the specialities we have not been able to fill vacancies for a number of years now. This, as I said, leads to longer wait times. What it also leads to is travel to appointments. Sometimes people have to travel longer distances to appointments and this, of course, adds cost to the residents in our Province.

What is the impact on the residents of our Province? We are seeing an impact in terms of transportation costs. We are seeing an impact on longer wait times. The other thing that we are seeing is the turnover rate. We are seeing many professionals - in particular, physicians, I might add, who have come to our Province and they just do not stay. They come for a brief period of time. Many of them just come for a couple of years and then we see a resignation. Then we have to wait again for someone to come in and take their place.

So, what we are losing here in this high turnover rate - what is important about this, in particular, with physicians, is this physician-patient relationship. It is very tough to foster that, and we all know how important that is for patient care. We all know the confidence that people get when they have a health care professional, in particular, a physician, that they can identify with. The relationship is built and people become very familiar and very confident with their physician, in particular, as I say, Mr. Speaker. What happens, too, when those people leave, they just do not leave where we have many construction workers and many people who are working in Alberta right now, is that they work in Alberta and some of them decide to live in the province, but that is not what we see. That is not the trend that we see within the health care profession. Our health care providers, when they leave they uproot their families and they are gone.

The other thing that we have heard much of in the last few days, and we have all experienced this, I am sure, through friends of ours and constituents in our own district, is what happens in an emergency room. When we have a shortage of physicians in certain areas, what happens is a backlog gets created in our emergency rooms. We are having people who are experiencing five and six hour wait times in emergency rooms. There was a news article done just, I guess, a couple of weeks ago, where someone told a story of having to wait for up to ten hours in an emergency room, and I do not think any of us sees this as something as acceptable. Not only are long waits in the emergency room happening in rural areas or in smaller areas, Mr. Speaker, they are happening right here in St. John's.

Just about a month ago, I guess, Mr. Speaker, it was Nursing Week and it was a celebration. I think there were some statements raised in this House about Nursing Week. As I said earlier in Question Period, right now our nurses are the second-lowest paid in the country. I guess depending on what happens in Quebec, they could be indeed the lowest paid in the country.

So, Mr. Speaker, this needs to be addressed. There is no way that we are going to be able to recruit and retain nurses in this particular Province if their pay is not competitive. There is no question, we are hearing this from the nursing profession. They do not feel their pay fully reflects the work that they do for us right now. We are hearing stories of workloads, very high workloads, working shifts without breaks, extended shifts, as I said earlier, up to four hours added to the end of a twelve hour shift, which would be like sixteen hours for someone to work in somewhat of a very high stressful situation. That is very difficult to ask. Not only are they asked, but in some cases people are actually pressured to stay because they cannot go if the staff is not readily available to come in and work the shift that would follow. This is not happening - and we are hearing it, and I am sure everybody is hearing the fact that nurses, in particular, are pressured into staying and are pressured into adding hours at the end of their shift, which is something that I cannot imagine. Having to do this on a regular basis, I am sure, would be very difficult.

We brought up earlier about the positions in Labrador, where we have 250 nursing positions -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. member's allotted time to make his introductory comments have expired.

MR. BALL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will have time, I am sure, at the end of this to clue up. I will conclude my statements for right now.

Thank you.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not going to stand here today and suggest that everything in our health system is rosy. I am not going to stand here and suggest that we have an abundance of every discipline that we find in our health system, but I do want to enlighten members of the House and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador of some of the real facts in terms of our current status.

Mr. Speaker, right now, today, as of March 31, 2007, we have the highest number of physicians we have ever had in this Province, the highest number. Is that enough? Maybe not. Are they located in the right places? Maybe not. Are there some places where we do not have an adequate number of doctors? Yes, that is correct. In terms of our success, in being able to attract physicians to Newfoundland and Labrador and to keep them here, in March of 2007 there were 985 physicians in this Province, 481 general practitioners, and 504 specialists. The highest number in our history.

In 2006-2007, we achieved the highest number of RNs in this Province. We reached a total of 5,727, the highest in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. Since we formed government, we have increased the number of nursing positions in this Province by 3 per cent. We have increased the number of social workers in this Province by 9.2 per cent. If you look at this year's Budget alone, just look at what we have done. If you look at the Eastern region, thirty-nine FTEs. Now, to get thirty-nine FTEs, you probably recruited some forty-seven, forty-eight individual positions. Central, 9.75 FTEs. Again, eighteen or nineteen new nursing positions.

If you look at this year's success, Mr. Speaker. This year alone, Eastern Health - the member opposite mentioned the process of working casual versus permanent. Eastern Health alone, just one authority, converted 168 casual positions to permanent full-time and they hired 100 new grads. Central Health hired thirty permanent RNs. Western hired thirty-nine full-time RNs. Labrador Grenfell Health hired sixteen RNs.

I say, Mr. Speaker, we are having some real success. Are we able to always retain ever single person we recruit? Not necessarily so. The whole issue of recruitment and retention is always a challenge. Look at the number of lab technologists that we have recruited. There has been an increase in the number of overall lab technologists since we formed government. I could go through a list of others that we have had some success in recruiting. Are we continuing to work to do so? Yes. Is the job complete? No. Is there more we can do? Yes. Are we doing more? Yes, absolutely.

I just want to share some of these initiatives, Mr. Speaker. One of the things that we have here in the resolution - the resolution calls on government to start doing something. I say, Mr. Speaker, we started a long time ago. We have been in government since 2003 and in that period of time we have made tremendous strides in this effort.

I just want to share with the members opposite some of the things we have done. I shared some of it earlier, as we talked about some of the things we have done with nursing. We have put in place a working group, as I said earlier, with the nurses' union, the ARNN, the Department of Health and Community Services, and our Regional Health Authorities, put together a working group, focusing on just that, that whole issue of recruitment and what it is we are trying to do.

If you look at the kind of structure we put in place. Now today, Mr. Speaker, we have in place a team of individuals looking at quality work life issues. One of the things we are doing, is we now have - within that group I just described, there are three sub-committees. One looking at human resource planning, the other looking at scope of practice, and the other looking at leadership.

I said earlier, we had a quality professional practice environment project on the go. A project that we fund annually out of the Department of Health and Community Services looking at quality of work life issues, I say, Mr. Speaker. Just some of the things that we are doing to look at improving the quality of work life. As I mentioned earlier, as a part of the current collective agreement there are some $300,000 spent annually in quality initiatives to improve the quality of work life.

Looking at what we are doing with the physician side, I say, Mr. Speaker. We have made some tremendous strides in physician recruitment. Members call upon us to initiate an action. Let me share with the members opposite what we have done. For some time now, I say, Mr. Speaker, for the last year and a half or so, together with the Department of Health and Community Services, the Vice-President of Medical Services with each of our health authorities, together with the School of Medicine, we have been working collectively, collaboratively, developing a human resource strategy for positions in the Province, asking ourselves: How many should we have; what kind of specialists should we have; where should they be located; what is an adequate number of physicians to have in a certain region of the Province; how many should we have on the Northern Peninsula; how many should we have in Conception Bay; what about the Burin Peninsula, how many should we have there; what kinds of specialty services should we provide. All those sorts of things, Mr. Speaker, are becoming a part of this strategy that we are talking about, that we have been working on for some time, that we will have ready before the end of this year, because we are working in collaboration with each of the health authorities.

Not just physicians, not just nurses, we have physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, medical physicists, just to name a few of some of the other areas and some of the other disciplines where we have had some challenges in recruiting in the past. There are small numbers of them, they are very difficult to recruit, but for some time, I say, Mr. Speaker, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has had seats that we sponsor, that we pay for, at Dalhousie University, to provide people in the areas of occupational therapy and physiotherapy so that they are able to come back to the Province.

We have bursary programs, I say, Mr. Speaker. We have invested new money in our bursary programs to ensure we provide financial incentives for individuals from Newfoundland and Labrador to attend these universities and colleges around the country, to get the appropriate training to be able to come back and to work with us in this Province, I say, Mr. Speaker.

When the members opposite call upon us to take some action, I acknowledge - and I look at the resolution, I say, Mr. Speaker - that there are some areas where we have had some challenges. Yes, we have some vacancies today. Yes, we are recruiting nurses. Yes, we are recruiting physiotherapists. Yes, we are recruiting occupational therapists. We are doing some recruitment in all these areas, Mr. Speaker, with success, I might add. We do have some challenges, though, in retaining individuals in certain locations. That is nothing new today, that is not unique to this Province.

Look at Alberta. Alberta, because of the big population boom they are experiencing, are short about 1,500 physicians today. It is a challenge for them to recruit them. The richest province in the country having some difficulty, Mr. Speaker, recruiting physicians.

Mr. Speaker, as I said when I started, I will stand here today and acknowledge that, as a Province, as a government, we need to continue to do some of the great work that we have done in the recruitment of many disciplines within our health system.

As I look at the resolution, Mr. Speaker, I see words like chronic shortages, suggesting that they have been long-term. I say, Mr. Speaker, I look at words like crisis. Again, the fearmongering that we have seen in this House in recent times, and actions that are not adequate, or suggesting that we need to start immediately to take action, Mr. Speaker, that kind of language in a resolution would suggest that this government has been irresponsible. It would suggest that this government has not done anything.

I say, Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. We have invested large amounts of money. We have undertaken some major initiatives, in collaboration with unions, with professional associations, in trying to address the ongoing health needs of the people of this Province and we have it, Mr. Speaker, with some success.

I am going to propose an amendment to the resolution that the members opposite have put forward. That amendment more adequately reflects the current day reality. That amendment to this resolution more adequately reflects the initiatives that this government has currently undertaken but, more importantly, Mr. Speaker, the amendments that I am proposing more accurately reflect to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador what is actually taking place in this Province and not what members opposite would tend to believe, or try to convince people that this government has not done anything.

Mr. Speaker, if we look at the resolution itself, I am going to propose that we amend the first recital by deleting the words "is a chronic shortage" and inserting the words "are periodic shortages".

I also propose, Mr. Speaker, that we delete the recitals listed from 2 through 5, so the second, third, fourth and fifth recital we delete all together, Mr. Speaker.

Then, when we get to the sixth recital, I am suggesting that we delete the word "crisis" but we would insert the word "challenges", because there are challenges but we are not in crisis, Mr. Speaker, and that is important to restore confidence and for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to understand that they do have a capable, competent workforce providing quality care to them.

Next, Mr. Speaker, I suggest that we delete the seventh recital as well, where it says, "Whereas the current efforts to recruit and retain health care professionals in this Province are not adequate to address the problem".

Finally, Mr. Speaker, the resolution itself, amend the resolution by deleting the words "take immediate and" and inserting the words "continue to take".

As I say, Mr. Speaker, the way it is worded now suggests that we are doing nothing. It suggests, Mr. Speaker, that this government has sat idly by for the last three years and has done absolutely nothing. I say, Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth because we have, in fact, been engaging many stakeholders in this Province in a very aggressive recruitment initiative and we have invested the necessary funding to have achieved the success that we have experienced, Mr. Speaker.

I propose these amendments. I shared them with the Table Officers, and I would ask for your ruling to determine if these amendments are in order.

MR. SPEAKER (Fitzgerald): The Chair has a copy of the proposed amendments as put forward by the hon. Minister of Health and Community Services.

The House will take a brief recess now so that the Chair can consult with the Table Officers and return very shortly to deem whether this particular resolution meets the test of the day.

This House is now in recess.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The Chair will read the amendment as put forward by the Minister of Health and Community Services.

The proposed amendment reads, "Amend the first recital by deleting ‘is a chronic shortage' and inserting ‘are periodic shortages'

"Delete recitals 2-5 as follows:

"Whereas many health care professionals are overworked and in some cases have been denied vacation time;

"Whereas health care professionals are being asked to work unreasonably long shifts;

"Whereas in many cases pay for health care professionals in this Province are among the lowest in Canada;

"Whereas there have been several incidents where the health care system has not provided proper health care services due to part of the shortage of health care professionals;

"Amend the sixth recital by deleting ‘crisis' and inserting ‘challenges'

"Delete the seventh recital as follows:

"Whereas the current efforts to recruit and retain health care professionals in this Province are not adequate to address the problem;

"Amend the resolution by deleting ‘take immediate and' and inserting ‘continue to take'."

The Chair has had an opportunity to confer with the Table Officers and refers members to Beauchesne's 4^th Edition, §203, page 172 (8) which states, "An amendment, substantially the same as the original motion, but omitting considerable matter of recital both of fact and law of said main motion, is in order."

The Chair deems this amendment to be in order.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

MR. WISEMAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the Chair has seen the wisdom of my recommendation and has accepted the amendments because, as I said earlier, Mr. Speaker, the resolution as it now reads, as amended, more accurately reflects the current day reality and more accurately reflects the efforts of this government and what is currently taking place in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Before I conclude, Mr. Speaker, my concluding comments will be clearly this: I want to assure the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and I want to assure those individuals who work in our health care system, that we support and we will continue to support the great work done by our health professionals in this Province. We will continue to provide a competitive compensation package for them. We will continue to strive and work with them to improve the quality of their work life and to make improvements in the workplace to ensure that they are not only pleased to come to work with these health organizations but will want to continue to stay and work and grow, professionally and personally, in those communities and with those institutions and with those employment settings.

To the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, they can be assured that the people who are recruited to provide health services in this Province are second to none. They are capable, competent, qualified individuals who are dedicated to their profession, dedicated to their patients, dedicated to their communities and to their colleagues. That is the kind of individuals that we recruit. That is the kind of individuals we want to retain. That is the kind of health service that we have in this Province, and that is the kind of health system.

So, I salute each and every one of those individuals who are a part of our great health system and I commit to working with them and the organizations that represent them, whether professional associations or unions, to continue to build on the successes that we have had and to continue to enhance the quality of their work life.

Thank you.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Member for Grand Bank.

MS FOOTE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I stand today to speak to the motion on health care professional shortage in our Province introduced by my colleague.

Clearly, what has been done here today in terms of amending our motion, certainly from our perspective, speaks volumes in terms of how this government really feels about what is happening in our health care system today.

As I listened to the minister stand here and talk about the professionals that we have working in our health care sector here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and how much the government appreciates them and their hard work, everything he says, if he truly believes that, he would never have suggested to delete some of the recitals in this motion today.

We believe, like the minister says he does, that the people who are working in our health care sector are hard-working individuals, they are professionals, and because they are, they need to be rewarded for their hard work. They need to be considered when decisions are being made about how much they should get paid, how many shifts they should have to work, the type of benefits they are entitled to, what their hourly wage should be. Those are all things that go into considering what we need to do to not only retain our professionals that we have in our Province today in our health care sector, but as well in recruiting them.

Now, what the minister has done here today on behalf of the government is nothing short of being criminal, to suggest that we delete number two, where it says, "..many health care professionals are overworked and in some cases have been denied vacation time." That is terrible. It is absolutely terrible, Mr. Speaker, because our health care professionals are overworked and they have been denied vacation. How can you, in all fairness, stand in this House of Assembly today, speaking to this motion, and ask to have that particular recital removed from the motion?

Whereas health care professionals are being asked to work unreasonably long shifts. My colleague raised it in the House of Assembly today in a question that was put to the minister. We have knowledge of a nurse who had to work twenty-four hours around the clock. This nurse had to work twenty-four hours, yet the minister asked to have this particular clause taken out of the motion: Whereas health care professionals are being asked to work unreasonably long shifts. Now, is that a failure by the minister and this government to acknowledge that this is happening? To me, it sure sounds like it.

Whereas there have been several incidents where the health care system has not provided proper health care services due in part to the shortage of health care professionals. Again, something that the minister has asked to have removed from this motion. The President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association and others have already said that a lot of the errors that are occurring may very well be attributed to the fact that there is a shortage of health care professionals. These are the people who are on the front line. They know better than any of us here what the real situation is, yet the minister has the nerve to stand in the House today and remove that particular clause from the motion that we, as the Opposition, have introduced.

Whether or not the minister wants to believe it or not, this is reality in our Province today. This is what is happening in the health care sector in Newfoundland and Labrador. To amend the first clause, which says: Whereas there is a chronic shortage of nurses and other health care professionals in this Province. To amend that to say, instead of a chronic shortage of nurses, that there is a periodic shortage of nurses. It must make any nurse who is watching this today cringe.

I would suggest to the minister that he might want to go and check the dictionary, because I can tell you, from nurses that I have spoken with, nurses who called our office, friends of mine who are nurses, that they believe there is a chronic shortage of nurses. To listen to the minister stand here today and go on and on about the investments in health care as if everything is coming up roses. Now, he did say: Well, no, we do not believe everything is perfect. Well, I guess on behalf of all of the people who contacted our office, I would like to tell him, no, it is not. It is not perfect. I know it is hard for everything to be perfect, but you can do a lot in terms of making a difference in the working conditions of these professionals.

What I find so hard to understand today is with everything that has gone down in our Province, in terms of health care, whether it is with what has happened on the Burin Peninsula with the radiologist's work, whether it is what has happened in Gander with the work of another radiologist, or whether it is with respect to the faulty hormone receptor tests, how any minister can stand today and speak about all of the investments they have made in health care since they have become a government and try to use that somehow as a justification for why they should not vote for this particular motion.

What they have done today, as a government, and what he has done, as a minister, is taken a motion that reflects what is happening in our Province - and you do not just have to talk to health care professionals to know that this is reality. Talk to people who are using our health care sector and you will find out very quickly that this is, indeed, reality today in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our health care professionals are overworked. There is a shortage of health care professionals in our Province. Again, I would ask you to speak to those on the front lines, speak to the doctors, speak to the nurses, speak to the LPNs, speak to whoever you have to, our x-ray technicians, and they will tell you there is, indeed, a shortage; contrary to the picture that the government is trying to put forward here today.

I do not know how many people realize it, but today there are 70,000 people over sixty-five in our Province. We have heard time and time again that we do, indeed, have an aging population. If you think the demands on our system are great now, just imagine what they are going to be five, ten, fifteen years from now. This is a time when we need to make sure that we have a health care system that is ready to respond to all of the issues that are going to come when our aging population becomes even larger.

This is a serious, serious matter for us in Newfoundland and Labrador, and unfortunately it would appear, from listening to the minister today, and the amendments he has made to this motion, the government does not realize this. Instead of getting up and acknowledging that there is a shortage, a chronic shortage of nurses, they want to refer instead to a periodic shortage. Instead of acknowledging that there is a current crisis in our health care sector - I can tell you, the people who have been impacted by what has gone on here, whether it is individuals who have had breast cancer, whether it is those who have had X-rays done, or ultrasounds done, or MRIs done, all tests that have been done that have to be read by a radiologist, all of the individuals who have been impacted by what has happened here in the last while believe there is a crisis here in our Province in our health care sector. The government has every opportunity to take charge here, to acknowledge that there is a serious issue here, and to help restore people's confidence in our health care system.

Instead of trying to hide from it, instead of trying to do something about it, instead of acknowledging that this is a difficult time in our health care sector - instead, they amend a motion to try and suggest that things are not as difficult as not only we believe as the Official Opposition but what people in the Province believe.

There are so many things happening in our health care sector today that it behooves all of us to treat this seriously; because, you know, everything else can be going fine but if we do not have our health then it does not matter what else is going on in your life. If you do not have good health and you have to avail of our health care system, you want to know that the advice that you are being given, the diagnosis that is being given, and the treatment that is being based on that diagnosis by your family doctor, is the right one.

If we have a shortage of nurses, if we have a shortage of physicians, if we have difficulty with making sure that the diagnosis that is being done is accurate, then no one - no one - can take any level of comfort from the health care system that we are availing of.

The minister says there is no chronic shortage of nurses. Oh, yes, there are pockets where we do not have enough nurses - that is the minister's take on all of this. If you do not acknowledge that there is a serious issue here, then, to me, that shows a total lack of respect for those on the front lines in our health care sector who are telling you time and time and time again that there is a serious issue here.

It is about respect. It is about respect for those who go into our health care system and work twelve-hour shifts, and when they get off at the end of the twelve-hour shift they are told: I am sorry, you have to go back and work another twelve hour shift; or, we have nurses who work eighteen-hour shifts, or we have nurses who cannot get a vacation. These are all serious issues and these are people - the type of work they do in our health care sector is such that we do not need to have people working who are overtired, people who are going to be administering medications, people who are going to be taking your blood pressure. We do not need people who are overworked to be working in our health care system, and that is something we should all strive to make sure does not happen.

Today is a great opportunity for the government to acknowledge that there are serious issues here and, instead of amending the motion we have put forward, to acknowledge that these are serious issues and, by working with all of the organizations involved, all of the professional associations involved, find solutions.

The minister can talk all he wants about putting in a working group, working groups, to work with these various professional associations. If you do not acknowledge that there is a serious issue here, and if you do not do something about stripping away benefits from these very people who we hope to have around to deliver quality health care in this Province, and if you don't acknowledge that we need to pay them comparable wages, then you can have all the working groups in the world and you can work around the clock but you are not going to find solutions.

I listened to the President of the National Nurses Association that is meeting here. I listened to her last night on the news. She said, you know, here is an opportunity for Newfoundland to lead the way, to be creative in how it negotiates and what it negotiates with their professionals, with their nurses and with their doctors and with other professionals in the health care sector. Lead the way, set an example for other provinces. Wouldn't it be nice to be a leader, instead of having our people leaving Newfoundland and Labrador and going to some other part of the country where they can get better benefits, certainly a better wage package. We are even losing our young graduates because, of course, they have education expenses. We are losing them to other provinces, we are losing them to the States, where they can get paid much better wages and they can pay off their loans a lot sooner.

We really need to look at our health care sector. We really need to look at whether or not we should do something different for those in our health care sector, for our nurses and for our doctors.

We talk about what we pay a radiologist here. It is about half of what they get paid in other parts of the country, particularly in Ontario.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I remind the hon. Member for Grand Bank that her time for speaking has expired.

MS FOOTE: Time to clue up, Mr. Speaker, please?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. member, by leave?

AN HON. MEMBER: By leave.

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. member.

MS FOOTE: Thank you for the few minutes just to clue up.

It is a serious, serious issue that we are facing in this Province, and whether or not the government wants to acknowledge that it is a crisis situation, that is up to you as a government. All we can do is bring forward the concerns that have been brought to our attention, continue to point them out, hope that you are listening and hope that you are taking it seriously.

Instead of what the minister said today, by standing on his feet and amending a motion that speaks to the very issue of what is going on in health care in Newfoundland and Labrador, instead of doing what he did today, I call on the government to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation we are facing and to do something about it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. ORAM: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is indeed a privilege to speak on this motion today.

I was sitting there thinking, as members were speaking, about this particular motion. You know, there is a part of this motion that is actually pretty good. It actually makes a lot of sense, I say to the Member for Humber Valley. When you take all of the politics out of this, it is actually pretty sensible. In fact, what I plan on doing in this next few minutes is actually showing how, at the end of the day, this particular government is doing what we are asking for in the last part of this motion, and that is, "Be it resolved that this House of Assembly urges government to take immediate and decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals in this Province."

I am going to show you how we are actually doing that. I do appreciate anything that comes up, and any time we decide to talk about health care in this Province, because, your know, it is strange but back a few years ago the number one priority in Canada's minds in terms of what they felt their government should do for them was health care. Now, of course, we know in recent months that has actually changed - now it has become the environment - but I still think that health care is among the top issues within our society today.

As I said, I am very pleased to speak on this motion and I have a few comments to make about what we have been listening to today. As I always do, every time I speak in this House, before I start talking about what we are doing as a government and where we are headed as a government, I like to first of all talk about what happened in the past. You know, before we go and look at the future let's look at what was done in the past for health care in this Province.

Well, what did health care actually look like in previous years? I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, when you talk about health care and you talk about nurses, I guess I am not much of an expert but I certainly live with a nurse because my wife is a nurse, actually, Mr. Speaker. I remember back in the late 1980s when she first got involved in nursing, and early 1990s and so on, I remember times being very tough back then as well, Mr. Speaker. I remember, because Karen worked at the hospital in Gander, James Paton, a lot of mornings it would be bad on the road so I would have to drive her into Gander in order to get her in to work because it would be bad for her to have to drive in. I remember going to pick her up after work, Mr. Speaker. I remember driving into Gander, parking in the parking lot, because she would get off at 7:30 p.m. Of course, we know it was a twelve-hour shift and she was supposed to get off at 7:30 in the night. Well, the fact remains, Mr. Speaker, that 7:30 p.m. would come and she would not come out through the door, and 7:35 p.m. would come and she would not come out through the door, and 7:45 p.m. would come and she still would not get out through the door, and 7:50 p.m. would come and she still would not get out. Sometimes 8:00 o'clock would come and she would not get out. Sometimes, Mr. Speaker 8:15 p.m. would come and she still would not get out.

Why was that, Mr. Speaker? Back in the days when this government was not in power, why was that? I will tell you the reason why, because they were very, very busy. There were times when you had to deal with things that were going on, on the floor, that you just could not walk away from, you could not leave.

Yes, there was a shortage of nurses back then as well. The fact of the matter is that there was a shortage of health care workers back in the late 1980s and 1990s, and maybe even before that, Mr. Speaker, I am not sure. I cannot speak to that because I do not have knowledge of that, but I certainly do have knowledge of the times when my wife actually worked at James Paton Hospital. I can tell you that it was very, very difficult.

I remember a time when we wanted to go on a family vacation to P.E.I. back in the early 1990s. My wife had put in for holiday time, in the early 1990s - this is a fact; she is a nurse, I say to the Member for Humber Valley - I remember having to put those plans off. Do you know why? Because she could not get the time off. At that time, she could not get the time off. There was no way that she could get the time off because there was nobody to cover her shifts at that time.

Again, I speak of this with first-hand knowledge because I remember our kids being very disappointed because we actually could not go on that particular date when we wanted to go to P.E.I. Is that unfair? Sure, it is. Is that difficult? Sure, it is. It was hard on our family to have to do that. The fact remains that, back then it happened. Does it happen today? Well, for his government to say that it does not happen would be silly.

The problem that I have, though, with this motion is that, when we look at the first whereas and it talks about the chronic shortage of nurses and other health care professions in this Province, I agree that at times there are. There are, at times, problems with trying to provide enough staff to take care of the people in this Province who need health care. It is a difficult situation. I suspect it will always be a difficult situation.

The fact is, or the thing we need to talk about is, what is this government doing to try to fix that? Is this government doing anything to try to fix that? Well, first of all, if you look at our budget, from 2003 to 2007 our budget has increased in health care $600 million. So, the first thing that we have done, and we have realized as a government, it is very important that we put more money into health care. The fact is that, in hiring folks, you have to have money to hire them. You have to have money to retain them. I am pleased that this government has put $600 million into health care.

Our retention rates, we have improved our retention rates of the physicians we are recruiting. Approximately 80 per cent of MUN graduates that we recruit are in practice in this Province after five years. There is another example of retaining health care professionals in this Province. Those are all positive things.

Again, as the minister already acknowledged, things are not perfect, no. We know that. In fact, I think if we listened to, as the Member for Grand Bank had said a little while ago, there was somebody on from the association of nursing, and the Irish Nursing Organization, and they had actually said that this is not just an issue in Newfoundland and Labrador; this is an issue throughout the world. Certainly in Ireland, certainly throughout Canada, there is an issue. Then if you look at the fact that throughout Canada there are jurisdictions that obviously pay more than Newfoundland and Labrador for nurses but, guess what? Here is the thing. Guess what? The fact is, even though they pay more, and quite a bit more - I admit, quite a bit more because they do have more money than Newfoundland and Labrador. The fact is that we do not have the riches that a lot of provinces have in Canada. As unfortunate as that is, that is a reality, but the thing is, even in places like Ontario, guess what? They find it hard to retain nurses. They find it hard to retain medical professionals even when they are paying the big bucks. The fact is that we are moving towards that.

If you look at registered nurses, and I am dealing with registered nurses because I have to tell you - and I know all members on all sides of the House will agree with this. I believe that nurses work very, very hard in this Province. Nurses care for people, and I have seen it firsthand. I have been in hospitals where I have seen nurses work very, very hard, and they do. We acknowledge that as a government and I am sure this whole House acknowledges that today. I am sure every side of this House will acknowledge that nurses work very, very hard and they are on the front lines. The fact is, they are on the front lines. They are providing services to people. I can tell you now, there are certain people who are cut out for certain jobs. I would never be able to be a registered nurse, I say. It would be very difficult for me to do that because it takes a special type of person to be able to be a nurse.

What is this government doing for nurses in this Province? First of all, registered nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador reached an all-time high in 2006-2007 with 5,727 practicing RNs. An all-time high, Mr. Speaker. That tells me today that this government is moving in the right direction if we are now seeing more nurses in the system than we ever saw before. That is a positive step. It shows some positive ground that this Province is making. It shows some good ground this government is actually making to retain and to bring nurses into our system.

What else do we see? Approximately, 198 Bachelor of Nursing graduates are expected in 2007. This does not include fast track students. In the fall of 2007, twenty-six graduates are expected from the Fast Track program and nine graduates from the Nurse Practitioner-Primary Health Care program. Again, it shows the commitment that this Province has, this government has to providing more and more nurses to the system. Are we fixing everything today, Mr. Speaker? Absolutely not. Would we like to fix everything today? Absolutely, we would.

The Member for Grand Bank, just a moment ago, had said that the hon. minister was actually asking the questions and answering them. I guess I am doing the same. We all recognize the fact that we have not done everything that we would like to be able to do but we are moving forward. We are trying to make steady progress here, Mr. Speaker.

This is the thing that I liked - when I read this today I felt really good about it, in fact. Currently, there are sixteen Inuit students completing the Integrated Nursing Access Program. Students who successfully complete the program will qualify for application into year two of the BN program in 2007. What does that do? What that does, Mr. Speaker, I believe, is it puts everything into perspective in terms of Labrador. It ensures that we do have nurses. We have medical professionals who are actually in Labrador, who are coming from their homeland, who are studying nursing, who are going to go back to their homeland, go back to rural Newfoundland and Labrador and they are actually going to be able to work and they are going to be able to do things that are great in rural Newfoundland and Labrador for the nursing profession.

Mr. Speaker, if you look at other things that we are doing. Eastern Health has converted 168 casual positions to permanent full-time and they have hired 100 new graduates. I want to speak about that for a minute because, again, that is a very important piece of all of this that this government is doing. That is an important piece of our plan that we have for the medical system in this Province.

Again, I want to go back to when my wife was a nurse. I remember when she finished nursing school, it was very, very difficult to get a full-time job, Mr. Speaker. There were lots of jobs around but they were casual positions. There is no young person who can start their life off based on just a casual position. I remember that was a big decision she had to make, should she leave the Province to look for a full-time position or should she stick around for a casual position. Mr. Speaker, I am talking about the early 1990s. I am talking about the late 1980s when this happened. This is not a thing that has come up all of a sudden in Newfoundland and Labrador since this government has taken power, certainly not that. This is an issue that has been around for a long time. At the time, she did take a casual position, but it did work into a permanent position.

When you look at things that this government is doing, like providing 168 casual positions and turning them into full-time positions, again, that is a good stride. That is a good thing that we are doing as a government. It is a step forward. It is a move that is positive for the medical part of this Province today.

Central Health has hired thirty permanent full-time RNs. Western Health has hired thirty-nine permanent full-time RNs. Labrador Grenfell Health has hired sixteen permanent full-time RNs. That is, again, good news for the Province and it shows this government's commitment to health care in this Province.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I will go back to the motion for a moment. When we look at the last part of the motion which - again, I do not think anybody in this House would disagree. I do not think anybody in this House would say that we should not urge government, that we should not take immediate action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals. I believe everybody on this side of the House believes that. I believe that through the initiatives that this government has brought in, through the initiatives that we continue to work on, that we are actually making sure that this is a reality. We are doing this right now. It is not to the speed maybe that we would like to even see it. We would certainly like to be able to see more and more nurses, more and more professionals, more and more health care workers in our system. The fact is, that it takes time, Mr. Speaker, and we are working towards that.

Budget 2007 acknowledged $1 million to be cost shared with original health authorities to support an eight week orientation program for new nursing graduates in front line practice. Again, another good initiative.

Budget 2007 provided $1.6 million in incremental funding to complete the hiring of thirty-nine public health nursing positions approved last year.

Government is trying to put money where it is mostly needed, Mr. Speaker. We are moving forward in the right manner. We are doing things that I believe are the correct things to do. We are - I say, we are! - dealing with this part of the motion every single day. The reality is that the Department of Health and Community Services, under the capable leadership of the minister, is working very, very diligently to put together a plan, and not only put together a plan but implement a plan, that will work for our health care system in this Province, to ensure that we have one of the best health care systems in the Province.

Again, I would assume that all members in this House would recognize that no matter how much money, no matter how many professionals we put back into the health care system, there are always going to be problems. You are never going to be able to put enough in where everybody is going to be covered.

Again, I look at other provinces in Canada. If you look at Ontario and you look at Nova Scotia and you look at Alberta, the fact is that all of their troubles haven't gone away either, Mr. Speaker. They have issues as well with retaining nurses and health care professionals. I will tell you the reason I say that, because, of course, every time we look in the paper, what do we see? Every time we look in our papers and we pick up the paper, we see right away - it says: Looking for nurses in Alberta; looking for nurses in Ontario. Everybody is looking for health care professionals.

The fact is that this government is stepping up to the plate with new initiatives that are going to help keep our health care system the way it should be, to help bring our health care system forward. That is what we need to do as a government and that is what we are doing as a government. I can't stress it enough, Mr. Speaker.

We can all talk about the negatives in our health care system, but the fact is with all of those negatives it is not something that started since 2003. These things have been ongoing for years. I can tell you, when I look at the commitment that this government has made, when I look at the commitment that this minister has made, to nurses, to the health care system in this Province, I feel good. I feel a sense of pride to know that we are moving forward.

I say: Have we fixed it all today? No, we haven't, but the fact is that this government has moved ahead on several initiatives that will help support, that will help bring health care to the people of this Province, that will help the people in this Province who actually need health care, that will ensure that our young students, that our young nurses, have the proper training that they need.

I was speaking to the Minister of Education just a moment ago, and the Minister of Education had said, very quickly: Do you know what? For our nursing students and for all our students in the Province, this Province now has put together a budget that will include grants to young people who want to become involved in any profession, but certainly the health profession as well. Now, folks can actually access student grants to help them get educated.

This government has the lowest -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

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

MR. ORAM: Just to clue up, Mr. Speaker, this government has the lowest interest rates around for student loans. This government provides the money that is needed in terms of loans for people, as I said, in grants and so on.

The fact is that this government is moving forward in the right direction. We are going to continue to do what we need to do because we believe, on this side of the House - and again I will say, I will be kind enough to say, because I do not think this is political today, this does not need to be political, we need to take the politics out of this, I will say that I believe members on all sides of the House want our health care system, we all want our health care system, to be the best health care system in Canada, if not the world.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. REID: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today to speak to the motion presented by my colleague, the Member for Humber Valley, and it deals with health care professional shortages here in the Province.

Like the Member for Terra Nova, he said we would like to have the best health care program in the country. Unfortunately, we do not and it does not appear that we are going to have it in the very near future or the very distant future.

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious, in watching the media and watching what has unfolded in our Province in the last month, that we have some very serious concerns about what is happening in our health care system in this Province. It all started back about a month ago when it came to light, again, about the faulty hormone receptor tests that were carried out in this Province a couple of years ago, and about how the results of these tests were kept from the public. As a result, we have a court case going on now, a class action suit against Eastern Health, and I guess against the Department of Health and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, because of their mishandling of that whole affair.

Shortly after that issue came to light, we learned of another very serious issue on the Burin Peninsula where a radiologist was removed from his job. Now we are retesting or looking at some 6,000 tests that he carried out while he was practicing radiology for six months, I think, in the Burin hospital.

Mr. Speaker, we heard last week, as well, about a similar situation in Gander concerning a radiologist, and the tests that he performed, or the reading of the tests, I should say, and that is under review right now. Just last week we heard of a nurse in Botwood who resigned her position after twenty-one years because she couldn't get a few weeks off this year for annual leave, when she had her family coming, I believe, from Scotland and they were going to vacation for a week or two in New Brunswick. Rather than be denied her leave, that individual resigned her position and quit.

Mr. Speaker, we saw last week, in the minister's own district, a group of nurses who were out picketing in front of the health care facility in Clarenville, in the rain, complaining about being overworked and not being given access to the holidays which they are owed and deserve.

Mr. Speaker, from my own point of view, dealing with the health care facility on Fogo Island, there are lots of concerns over there, the latest of which - I had a call last night at 7:30 here in the building while I was at my office, even though the House was ongoing. A lady called me from Fogo Island who was crying. She fell down just before supper and she thought that she had her thumb broken. She called the hospital in the centre of the island in Fogo and asked which doctor was on only to be told that there was no doctor on and there was no point for her to come in to see a doctor, the doctor was gone home for the day and the only way he would return was if it were a life and death situation. That lady called me last night at 7:30 crying in pain and didn't have any resolution or any way to have that pain dealt with.

Mr. Speaker, that facility I know a lot about. It is a brand new facility that we built as a government in 2003. We have had numerous problems with it, the largest of which concerns the fact that we built a twenty-bed facility and this government saw fit to only open half those beds. As a result, we only have a limited number of chronic and acute care beds in operation on that island. I have raised some of the issues concerning that in the House before, about male and female patients having to share a room which is not the best of situations. It shouldn't exist when there are rooms in that hospital that the government refuses to open.

We have had incidents of patients being put in the hair salon in the hospital, the hair salon that is used to cut the hair of the elderly or the seniors in that facility. We have patients being put in there because the government refuses to open beds in that facility.

Mr. Speaker, we have also heard - and I have mentioned it here in this House - about a very sad situation that occurred about a month ago on Fogo Island, where a lady was brought to the hospital with severe head pains and the hospital called for an air ambulance. That lady waited for five hours in the hospital, or close to five hours, before a helicopter came from Gander and transported her to St. John's. The only reason given to the family of this lady was that they had to wait to do the paperwork. The flight from Gander to Fogo Island would probably take twenty minutes in a helicopter, and the flight from Fogo Island to St. John's would probably take an hour or less in a helicopter. Mr. Speaker, that lady waited five hours. Unfortunately, she has since passed away.

I am not being political, Mr. Speaker, as I am sometimes accused by the Member for Terra Nova and others, but the fact of the matter is, unlike the Minister of Health, I believe that if you do not recognize that there is a problem then the problem will never be fixed. The minister refuses to take off his blindfold and admit there is a problem in our health care system in this Province today. It is not only what Gerry Reid is saying. It is not only what I am saying.

Let me read some of the parts of this resolution that my colleague, the Member for Humber Valley, is putting forward today. It says, "Whereas there is a chronic shortage of nurses and other health care professionals in this Province." We all know that there is a chronic shortage of nurses in our Province, Mr. Speaker. We were told today by the nurses' association that in Labrador alone - and there are only some 23,000 people in Labrador - there is a shortage today of forty nurses in Labrador, forty positions that are not filled. Now, if that is not a chronic shortage, Mr. Speaker, what is?

We have instances all over this Province where we have a shortage of nurses. The minister can get up and talk about how many he has hired, and what they are doing to encourage nurses to come and stay here. The fact of the matter is, we are failing. If we have forty nurses, forty vacant nursing positions on the Labrador Coast, or in Labrador alone, that is a chronic problem, and we have a chronic problem with regard to nursing positions throughout this Province.

The minister admitted, himself, last week, or the week before, that we have a shortage of LPNs, Licensed Practical Nurses. They used to be called Nursing Assistants. He admitted himself two weeks ago that we have a shortage of those. I happen to think it is a chronic shortage and that is the reason the minister is talking about bringing in personal care attendants into facilities in this Province like the Hoyles Home, the Escasoni and others, personal care attendants, I might add, Mr. Speaker, who are getting three hours of training - if there is a nurse or an LPN in the facility who can spare those three hours to give that individual the training. I call that a chronic problem, and it is not just I who am seeing it. The associations representing the nurses and the associations representing the LPNs are saying there is a chronic shortage in the Province.

Mr. Speaker, the new President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, Dr. Tumilty, said himself - he is the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association. Basically, he is the president of the association which represent doctors in the Province. He said, just a short few days ago, that a shortage of professionals led to the problems we are now experiencing in our ER/PR testing, as well as the problems we are having with our radiologists.

These are not Gerry Reid's words. This is the doctor who is the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, saying there is a problem, there is a shortage of professionals. There is a shortage of nurses, there is a shortage of LPNs, and there is a shortage of doctors. We have a chronic shortage of doctors.

Mr. Speaker, many people in this Province today do not have what is called a family doctor. That is one of the problems that we had with the ER/PR testing results, the hormone receptor tests. When the minister and Eastern Health get up and talk about how all of those individuals who have those tests done were notified by their doctors - well, actually, they said in the paper today, in the ad that Eastern Health took out, Eastern Health said, for example, we - Eastern Health - called all patients whose samples were being retested.

That means that they were called while the sample was being retested. That is not true. That is a lie. That is a lie. This is brought to you by Eastern Health, paid for by taxpayers' dollars. That never happened.

Not all of the women who had these tests taken were called and told that they were being retested. I know of at least two individuals, myself, who did not know their tests were being redone until they made a call when this issue broke on the television and on the radio and in the House of Assembly a few short weeks ago. They were never told. One of the two individuals was never told because she was living in St. John's when the original test was taken and she moved to the West Coast of our Province. Now, I might assume that Eastern Health notified her doctor, her GP that she had when she was in St. John's, but that GP was no longer her doctor because she lived on the West Coast, and that doctor never called her. So, how can Eastern Health say that we called all of these patients when they did not do it? When I called this propaganda today in the House of Assembly, it is propaganda.

Mr. Speaker, one of the reasons, or the main reason, that we are having trouble getting health care professionals, nurses, doctors and LPNs in this Province is because of the pay scale. We cannot compete. When I listen to the minister talk about the benefits, and the things that he is doing for health care professionals in the Province, what he forgets is that three short years ago this same minister was part of a government that froze the wages of health care professionals in the Province for two years. Not only did they freeze the wages for two years, they took back benefits that these individuals, like nurses and LPNs, had fought for, for years, in their collective agreements. This government saw nothing wrong with tearing up their collective agreement, saying you will get zero and zero, and we are going to take back your sick leave benefits. That is what they did. They stripped their contract. Then, they are out here today saying all of the things we are doing for the nurses, the LPNs and the doctors. Pardon me, but I feel the same way about that - only I cannot say it in the House of Assembly - as what I said about this ad. This ad is a lie. This ad is a lie. There is wording in this ad that is a lie.

When you talk about it, Mr. Speaker, the nurses, we were told today, in this Province are the second-lowest paid nurses in Canada. Guess what? The lowest are in Quebec, but right now the nurses in Quebec, because of an initiative by the Health Minister in Quebec, recognizing the problem that they are confronted with, in enticing nurses to come and stay in Quebec, realizes there is a monetary problem. As a result, she is negotiating a higher wage package for those nurses. That will be signed in the very near future, and then we will have the lowest paid nurses in the country.

MS FOOTE: It was an initiative by the Minister of Health in Quebec (inaudible).

MR. REID: It was an initiative of the Minister of Health in Quebec who recognized the problem and decided she was going to deal with it. They are doing it, unlike our minister who puts the blindfold on, or buries his head in the sand and says we do not have a chronic shortage of nurses, we do not have a chronic shortage of health care professionals like doctors and LPNs.

Mr. Speaker, it is like anything else, if you don't recognize a problem then the problem will never be fixed. That is what the problem is with this government, because as we speak we have a $268 million surplus this year in our Budget; a $268 million surplus.

Mr. Speaker, the second clause that this government doesn't want to vote for today, "Whereas many health care professionals are overworked and in some cases denied vacation time" - they refuse to admit, the Minister of Health, that our health are workers are overworked and denied vacation time. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the Member for Humber Valley, was notified today by a nurse that she had worked many a sixteen-hour shift, because after coming off a twelve-hour shift she was asked to stay an additional four hours, for a sixteen-hour day. You wonder why we have problems in our health care?

I understand what the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. member's time for speaking is up.

MR. REID: Sure, Mr. Speaker, I was only getting started. That couldn't have been fifteen minutes. You must be using the Liberal clock, the one that runs fast. Are you serious, Mr. Speaker, that my time is up? Can I have a few minutes to clue up?

MR. SPEAKER: By leave.

MR. REID: Mr. Speaker, all I am saying is that the motion that my colleague put forward today contains nothing but the truth, and we are asking government to recognize that there is a problem. Rather than going around with their blinders on all day and all week and all year long, trying to bluff the people of the Province, deal with it. We have the money to deal with it. We have the money to be able to entice more nurses, LPNs, doctors and other health care professionals.

It was only a short time ago that the pharmacists in our health care facilities almost revolted. They were ready to leave the Province. Until that issue became a public issue, was raised in the House of Assembly and made the media, nothing was being done about it. Finally, after they said, enough is enough, we are leaving, the government woke up and did something.

Now, after the radiologists in the Province said a couple of weeks ago - until they recognized the problem such as that which existed on the Burin Peninsula, we never heard that there was a problem with radiologists. We thought everything was all right, but then we realized, when the radiologist was suspended in Burin and the radiology association in this Province came forward and said, listen, the reason we are not keeping radiologists in the Province is because we are not paying them enough - guess what? The government reacted again and gave them some money.

That is an awful message. Rather than being proactive, and if you are serious about health care in the Province, or serious about any issue, then the minister should know where the problems exist. You should not have to wait until we have issues like the ER-PR faulty testing. You should not have to wait until there is a radiologist suspended from his job on the Burin Peninsula. You should not have to wait until the nurses are picketing in the rain in Clarenville. You should not have to wait for the pharmacists to rebel and say they are leaving the Province, and hold wildcat strikes - not wildcat strikes, but make themselves public in the galleries of this House. You should not have to wait. If the Minister of Health knew what he was doing in the Department of Health and was doing his job, he would be more proactive and deal with these issues.

What we are saying today is: BE IT RESOLVED that this House of Assembly urges government to take immediate and decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care professionals in this Province. Because it is not being done, they are leaving on a daily basis. We are going to lose more of them unless this minister gets off his duff and does something about it. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, he has not been doing anything about it. He talks the talk, he does not walk the walk. Most of the time when he is talking the talk he is not talking about the issue.

Mr. Speaker, all I am saying is that I know from a personal perspective that we have major problems with health care in my district, along with any other in the Province (inaudible).

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Leave is withdrawn.

The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. DENINE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Today, I want to make a few comments on the private member's motion that was amended by our Minister of Health. I want to go back to some of the comments that were made about our government in terms that there is no respect for the health professionals in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of people, even in this House as we speak, who have been hospitalized for a variety of reasons. I have been in hospital over the last number of years for major surgery, and let me tell you, I can speak firsthand knowledge of the respect that I have for nurses. Nurses are a vital part of our health care sector, there is no doubt about that, and so are our LPNs, so are our doctors, so are our X-ray technicians, so are our lab technicians and so on. Each and every one of them are a vital part of our health care sector. When I look at what they do for people when they go into the hospital, what do they cover and what services do they offer? Mr. Speaker, it is significant.

Just yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to visit my wife's uncle who is in hospital at the Health Sciences complex. While I was walking through the Health Sciences complex, I witnessed an awful lot of dedicated, committed health care workers in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. People who are doing their job, minute after minute, hour by hour, day by day and doing a fine job of it, I might add. Very professional.

Mr. Speaker, to say that we do not care, on this side, it is not true. To say we do not care about our health care system, about the health of this Province, is simply not true. We have put our money where our mouth is.

Now, Mr. Speaker, we have grown the health budget by $600 million.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. DENINE: Mr. Speaker, I listened to the Leader of the Opposition to give his ten or fifteen minutes and I would appreciate if he would keep quiet and let me do mine.

This budget of $2.2 billion, the highest in the whole departments. The health care sector takes the top amount of money, and so it should. We have an aging population and we have a lot of concerns. In that whole picture of that budget comes out of a lot of things. We also not only have to worry about the workers in the system itself, but we have to look at the infrastructure in which supply - people go to these infrastructure places for health care and other issues. We need to improve the infrastructure in our Province's health care system. We were saddled with a lot of that because of the neglect of the previous government.

Mr. Speaker, they talked about the cancer stations in Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander - we have two. The dialysis machines that we put across the Province - six. The MRI, CAT scans, the facility in Labrador, the long-term health care facilities in Corner Brook, Clarenville and other places, these are some of the things that we have to look at when we are looking at our budget in the health care sector.

We have put a significant amount of money in it, and that eats up an awful lot of money of that $2.2 billion that we put in, the highest budget in health care.

Mr. Speaker, we also, since 2003, put 161 bursaries with a return-in-service commitment to the graduates of MUN, 161 bursaries. That, Mr. Speaker, is what we do as a government to try to entice the graduates of the nursing program to stay here in our Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I recently attended, as a matter of fact, the short-circuit nursing program last year, the graduation, the short course, or the Fast Track as they call it, and I also attended the graduation this year at the Health Sciences Complex. Mr. Speaker, a significant portion of them will be staying in the Province.

The Opposition would like you to believe that we are the only Province in Canada having trouble in the retention of our nursing and other health care professionals. This is not only Canada-wide; this is global.

The other night I heard a person, I believe he was in Australia. He was head of the nurses' federation down there - I believe that is who it was - and he even said that it is an epidemic throughout the world, global, that trying to retain nurses is a significant part of their issues. I heard about the nursing profession in Ireland, who said the same thing. So, to say that Newfoundland and Labrador is unique in its retention of nurses is not true. It is not true. Everywhere in the country - the union says they are short 16,000 workers. If the country is short 16,000 workers then obviously - we are a part of the country - we must be short workers also, but we have certainly taken a proactive approach, I think.

Everyone over on that side will say, have we done enough? Mr. Speaker, a lot of us on this side will probably say no, but we are continuing our efforts to retain the nurses in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and other health care professionals.

AN HON. MEMBER: And in rural parts.

MR. DENINE: And in rural parts, I might add.

When we do the 161 bursaries for return-in-service commitment, that has paid off for us.

Mr. Speaker, let's see what has happened over the last number of years. Eastern Health Care has converted 168 casual positions to permanent full-time positions and have hired 100 new graduates. Now, is that sitting back and taking a back seat and sitting on your laurels and not looking at something that we need to do?

I say to you, Mr. Speaker, it is a proactive approach. Just think of it. I can remember coming in here, in government, and one of the major problems that we had was that the nurses were casual. They needed to make them full-time so that they could get the benefits and be consistent in callbacks, consistent in the workday, and so on and so on and so on. So, Eastern Health has converted 168 casual positions to permanent full-time and have hired 100 new graduates.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell you how many graduates graduated the last - it seemed to be about 100 or 110. So, we had 100 new graduates hired recently. Central Health has hired thirty full-time RNs. Thirty, Mr. Speaker. Western Health has hired thirty-nine permanent full-time RNs. Labrador-Grenfell Health has hired sixteen permanent full-time RNs, and many RNs have been also hired in casual positions.

At the end of the day, does this government feel that we have gone all the way that we can? No, but we are continuing our efforts. We are continuing to take immediate action. We are continuing to do that. We are not sitting back, a willy-nilly approach. We need to do that.

They talk about salaries. Well, I am not going to say what a nurse is worth. Nor am I going to say what a teacher is worth, what a public servant is worth, or what a police officer is worth, because we know each and every one of them can certainly justify a pay increase in their different sectors, and rightly so.

Our Province, in Newfoundland and Labrador, don't forget, we are $11 billion in debt. Eleven billion dollars, $23,000 for every man, woman and child, so we have to balance - it is a delicate balancing act in how we do our budget. We have to make sure that we give so much here, so much here and so much here. We have to cut the cloth.

Now, unfortunately - and I say unfortunately because I know our government is a very social minded government, I have to tell you, very social-minded. There is nothing that we would like to do more than offer an awful lot more money to different sectors of our workforce. They offer and give us a significant resource, they give us good service, and, Mr. Speaker, we are very proud of that. They are committed to this and they want to make sure that they continue to do that.

Mr. Speaker, we recognize that there is room for improvement, but to say that we sat back and didn't do anything is totally incorrect. The members across the way will get up and say, well, this is not true, that is not true, we didn't do that and we didn't do that. We didn't come across this shortage of nurses, the shortage of health care, in three years. This did not occur overnight. The hon. members across the way will get up and say, well, we should be hiring this person and this person. If they had to do continual hiring while they were in government, we probably wouldn't be in this state that we are in today.

Mr. Speaker, we do need more people. We are continuing to take a pro-active approach. We are looking at ways to improve our health care sector, but when we look at it we have to look at it in a number of ways. We have to look at our workforce and we have to look at our infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, as I said before, there is a delicate balance in that. To say that this government doesn't care or shows no respect for the health care workers in this Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is totally, totally incorrect.

Mr. Speaker, again I would like to see our continued effort, and I know the Minister of Health will do that. He has done a very admirable job while he has been in that position, and just recently I might add.

We are looking at retention. We are looking at ways to keep our nurses here. We are looking at ways to make our health care better for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, Mr. Speaker. We have negotiated a collective agreement with the nurses and that was signed not too long ago. The members across the way said, well, you stripped this and this and this. Mr. Speaker, let me add, this government didn't tear up contracts like previous governments did. They signed contracts, and what they did two months after, they tore the contracts up and didn't live up to them. This government is not going to do that. We have signed contracts and we will live up to them.

Mr. Speaker, again I say that I am pleased with the proactive approach that our government has done and we will all say, even the minister himself will say, we need to do more. Each health care association, each district has certainly -

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

Due to the nature of the time of the hour the member's time has elapsed.

It is turned to the Member for Bay of Islands if he wants to close the debate.

MR. DENINE: By leave?

MR. SPEAKER: Does the member have leave?

AN HON. MEMBER: Leave.

MR. SPEAKER: Leave.

MR. DENINE: Thank you, to the hon. member. I appreciate that.

I really wanted to say, this government cares about the health care workers. It cares about all of our workers and we will continue to live up to the agreements that we assigned. We will continue to make improvements where we can. We will continue to try to take a very proactive approach, and take immediate and decisive action in replenishing our stock in the health care system.

Mr. Speaker, to say that this government does not have respect for our health care workers, it is totally incorrect.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: I believe there is an agreement between the sides to have the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi speak.

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

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

I would like to thank the Member for Humber Valley for allowing me to share his last fourteen minutes. I will be brief, obviously, because I am splitting the time.

I did have some issues that I did want to speak to, so I am glad to have the opportunity. I guess I want to speak to the urgency that is implied in the motion that was brought to the floor by the Member for Humber Valley because I think there is an urgency. I am not standing up here to put blame out or anything else but to help us think about the reality of what we are dealing with in this Province.

When we talk about the retention issue, I think probably one of the biggest reasons for losing nurses in this Province is the workload, and not just nurses. I am going to speak to all health care professionals in our health care system. I say that because of people who are coming to me and talking, because of nurses who are coming and talking to me, because of LPNs, because of social workers in the health care field who are coming to me, that their workload is so great that they are completely overcome. We have to see this as an urgent reality. If we do not pay attention to that we will not be retaining.

One of the ways in which we can deal with the workload is by increasing the number of people on the floors in the facilities where nurses are working - I am going to speak to nurses at this moment. What I would like to put on the record today, because I think it is important to put it on the record, is information from the Minister of Health and Community Services that was given to us as part of the Estimates Committee review. There were various pieces of information that were asked for during the Estimates Committee review. One of the pieces of information that was asked for was: How many new nursing positions were created in the 2007 Budget?

I would like to read out to the whole Assembly the information that we have received from the Minister of Health and Community Services. I thank him for getting his information to us because he had a number of pieces of information that the Estimates Committee asked for and he has gotten that information to us. The information tells us that, yes, Budget 2007 does have sixty-one new positions, new nursing positions. So not replacement positions, but new positions. I want to read out, because I think it is important - I will try to do it quickly - what these positions are.

In the Department of Health and Community Services: two positions in communicable disease control - necessary. Eastern Health, one point eight for a dialysis unit in Burin; one nurse practitioner, St. Clare's emergency; one nurse in urgent care clinic, Clarenville; two nurses for eating disorders clinic; one for mental health case manager; two for personal care home monitoring; four point four in Bonavista, long-term care; five point six in St. Lawrence, long-term care; eight in St. John's hospitals acute beds - so that would be Health Sciences and St. Clare's; six for a medical flight crew; six for public health nurses; one surgical day care.

I hope we are all noticing these are all important positions, but most of them are specialized positions. They are not general care nurses on the regular floors in the hospitals. If we are going to be concerned about retention, we have to have greater numbers of those positions.

I am going to read the Central: one point seven-five in the cancer clinic; one lactation consultant; one nurse practitioner in the Gander emergency room; one team leader; one mental health case manager; three public health nurses, and one personal care home monitoring. No general nurse practitioners on the floors of the health facilities.

In Western: one nurse practitioner in the Stephenville emergency room; two public health nurses, and one personal care home monitoring.

In Labrador Grenfell: one public health nurse clinical coordinator, half a position for lactation consultation, one oncology, two public health nurses, and one emergency room operating room. I read that list and it is wonderful, it is great, that we have these new positions, but none of these positions are going to help with the workload of the nurse's position, that is the regular nurse on the floor dealing with the regular patients on the floor.

I know that this is happening and this is great, but it is not adequate and it is not going to take care of the acute issue that we have with the workload of nurses, and with all the other related people who work with the nurses, because they are all part of that workload. The LPNs in the hospitals, for example, are part of that workload.

This is good but this is not dealing with the reality that this motion is speaking to, and that is why I want to talk about it.

The other thing that the motion is speaking to is the effect on people of the fact that we not have enough people in the various professions to take care of the needs. That is an urgent situation as well.

I want, again, to quote something that will help speak to the urgency of that situation. What I am reading is an e-mail that I received yesterday, spontaneously, not something that I looked for. It is a woman, and I don't know where this woman lives in the Province. She didn't identify what part of the Province she lives in. Here is her e-mail, and I ask you to listen to it so that you will get a sense of how urgent the needs are in our Province.

Dear Ms Michael, I am a fifty-seven year old woman living with a disability. I am currently on long-term disability CPP with a top-up from HRLE. I have been trying to get some psychiatric help since 2005 and I have been on a waiting list with the earliest possibility of seeing someone being in 2008. She will have been three years waiting to get psychiatric help. That is one of her issues.

Secondly: I am currently on a two-year wait list for a colonoscopy. Now, you know, if the woman is already stressed and wanting to see a psychiatrist, waiting two years for a colonoscopy is going to add to that stress and she will be quite ready for that psychiatrist by the time she gets her colonoscopy.

Then her third condition: I have been waiting five months for a bone density test. The health care in this Province is atrocious, not to mention that fiasco with the cancer testing.

This is a person who sent this to me unbidden. I have her name now. I have no idea who she is, I have no idea where she lives. I did not ask for this. This is the kind of thing that is going on everywhere in the Province. I have a hunch this woman is here in St. John's. Imagine if she were outside of St. John's. I just have a sense that she is. This is the reality of what we are dealing with. So, is the situation urgent? Yes, the situation is urgent. We just cannot continue going at the rate that we are going.

Yes, I have no doubt that the government is doing some things, and the sixty-one new positions are part of that, but we have to speed it up. We cannot let it go at the rate it is going. If we let it go at the rate it is going, we are not going to get anywhere. There is an urgency to this, and the urgency is what I recognize in the motion from my fellow member who has put this motion on the floor. It is the urgency that I feel in this e-mail from this woman. It is the urgency that I feel when I talk to nurses. It is the urgency that I feel when I talk to LPNs and to social workers.

I plead with all of us to understand the urgency of this and to vote for the member's motion unamended.

Thank you very much, and thank you as well to the Member for Humber Valley for giving me the opportunity to share his time.

MR. SPEAKER (Hodder): The hon. the Member for Humber Valley, making some concluding comments.

The hon. the Member for Humber Valley.

MR. BALL: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will conclude. I will just take a few minutes to bring closure to the debate.

As I looked at the amendments and what they meant to me, changing the word chronic shortage of nurses and other health professionals to periodic, I guess I thought about, what is that? I am not interested in trying to make anything political out of this. Is it a period in time, 1,000 years, 100 years? Is it ten years or what? The fact is, we need to address and identify that there is a serious problem. Is it periodic or is it chronic? I still believe that it is chronic. I know it has been ongoing. We have heard some members speak today about this being ten years old, so that tells me that this is simply not just a little periodic small space in time; this has been ongoing for some time and certainly needs to be addressed.

The fact is, is it a crisis or is it a challenge? Again, Mr. Speaker, I am not really too concerned if we call it a crisis or if we call it a challenge. I believe that if nurses out there have to tell their families that they cannot get vacation or holiday time this summer, in the minds of those family members, do you know what? That is probably a crisis, that they are not able to spend family time.

Is it a challenge or is it a crisis? Again, Mr. Speaker, the people out there, the front line workers, are very concerned about this. They do feel a sense of urgency that we need to deal with this.

In terms of the number of physicians and the number of health care professionals that has been addressed in some of the responses today, again, when you look at the specialized services - because health care is becoming more complex as time goes by - it is just not necessarily saying we put the number there and let the number fit. It is actually what the need is, and are we properly addressing the need of the health care issues across this Province?

The Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi alluded to and made reference to the wait lists of this particular person. I know, first-hand, that I can speak of a person who called me some time ago and I actually did some intervention. This was back when I was a practicing pharmacist. The call went in, because there was certainly a need for psychiatric services, and as I called the psychiatrist for this particular person they said: Well, it is a two-year waiting list. I currently have 700 people on the wait list.

So, is that a crisis or is that a challenge? To that person it was definitely a crisis, because they needed to access someone in a reasonable period of time. Again, Mr. Speaker, two years, in my mind, is not a reasonable amount of time.

So, are we continuing to take action or are we taking immediate action? The problem is not if it is immediate or if we continue. What we want to see is results. If we do not take immediate action, those results will not be there.

Just to continue on the same path, do what we have always done, we are not getting the results that will satisfy or health care workers right now. They are not satisfied with the fact that they cannot plan vacation time, they cannot plan family time. It is the results that we are concerned about. If it is continuing action or immediate action, again it is the results. People need to know if the vacation time is available to them. They need to know if their shift is going to be extended by four hours or extended by twelve hours or by eight hours. Is there an extension in their shift or not? Is there going to be a requirement for them to stay to work that night? They need to know, because they need to be able to plan things.

So, Mr. Speaker, as we bring conclusion to this, one thing I did notice in an annual report that came out from the LPNs is that they saw an actual decline in their numbers for three consecutive years. So, again, it is not all rosy out there and, of course, we have had problems for a number of years, but the shortages are certainly a problem and I think it needs to be addressed right now.

One thing, as I conclude today, I do want to address the fact that we, too, appreciate our health care workers. They have done a remarkable job over the years. Their commitment, their dedication - they provide a monumental service for us, for all of us, and for our families. I, too, want to commend those people for the hard work that they do, and for the extra hours of care they provide, willing to do it. It surprises me every day, actually, when I hear the stories of what people are willing to put up with to keep this health care system alive.

Mr. Speaker, I will say, in my mind, it is the immediate action that is required. The continuing action that we see right now is not getting the necessary results. I would like to see more appropriate action taken so that we feel that this is dealt with in an urgent way.

Thank you.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

At the hour of 5:00 o'clock on Private Members' Day the Speaker is obliged to call the question.

First, we will vote on the amendment.

The Chair will not repeat all of the amendments, except to say that the resolution clause says, "...by deleting ‘take immediate and' and inserting ‘continue to take'."

All those in favour of the amendments as put forward, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

MR. SPEAKER: Contra-minded, ‘nay'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Nay.

MR. SPEAKER: The amendments have been adopted.

On motion, amendments adopted.

MR. SPEAKER: Those in favour of the motion, as amended.

Again, the Speaker will read the THEREFORE clause. As amended, it would now read, "Be it resolved that this House of Assembly urges government to continue to take decisive action to deal with the recruitment and retention of health care processionals in this Province."

All those in favour of the resolution, as amended, ‘aye'.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Aye.

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

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Nay.

MR. SPEAKER: The resolution has been adopted.

On motion, resolution, as amended, adopted.

MR. SPEAKER: This being Wednesday, Private Members' Day, the Chair adjourns the House until tomorrow, Thursday, June 7, at 1:30 of the clock.