March 18, 2014 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS Vol. XLVII No. 3
The House met at 1:30 p.m.
MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman):
Order, please!
Admit strangers.
Statements by Members
MR. SPEAKER:
Today we will have members' statements from the
Member for the District of Baie Verte Springdale; the Member for the District
of St. John's Centre; the Member for the District of Cape St. Francis; the
Member for the District of Carbonear Harbour Grace; the Member for the
District of Lewisporte, and the Member for the District of Humber Valley.
The hon. the Member for the
District of Baie Verte Springdale.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. POLLARD:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
From March 5 to March 9, the
Baie Verte Peninsula was the place to be.
The second annual Shiver Soiree provided lots of winter fun as the
residents took advantage of a jam packed fun-filled agenda enabling many
communities to get together and enjoy the powdery snow and the natural beautiful
landscape that the region offers.
A wide variety of activities
ranging from snowshoeing, skating, skiing to Ski-Doo races were all enjoyed by
avid winter enthusiasts hailing from all over the peninsula and beyond.
The 2014 Peninsula Shiver
Soiree Committee is to be applauded for their stellar work in organizing such a
successful event. Members include:
Jennifer Whelan, Sandra Shiner, Maud Noble, Molly Mitchell, Jamie Burton, Celia
Dicks, Lloyd Hayden, Denis Dupont and Nancy Brown.
In addition, local businesses and a strong dedicated group of community
minded volunteers are to be commended for their support and leadership.
Founded in 2013 as an
initiative of the Dorset Trail Tourism Association, the aim of the festival was
to promote tourism and to bring communities together.
Mission accomplished.
Honourable colleagues,
please join me in sending congratulations to all involved for such an exciting
event.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.
MS ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am happy to stand in this
House to recognize 1 Billion Rising for Justice 2014, an event that took place
in my District of St. John's Centre on Thursday, February 12, and what an
incredible event it was.
Twenty-two community groups,
including women's groups, anti-violence groups and labour groups, along with my
office, formed a committee to organize the activities that celebrated and
acknowledged the work done to help stop violence against women and to highlight
the work that still needs to be done.
We held a community fair
with representatives from several NGOs, and we had live entertainment,
multicultural food, information booths, dancing and more.
It was free and open to the public.
Several hundred people participated.
It was exhilarating.
One Billion Rising is an
international initiative calling for 1 billion people worldwide to rise up, to
raise awareness around violence against women, and to push for change.
This year's theme, Rise for Justice, invited people everywhere to
demonstrate at police stations, courthouses, government buildings, anywhere
where women should be able to expect justice.
Rise we did, Mr. Speaker. We
rose at Confederation Building with speakers and dancers, asking our Premier to
reinstate the Family Violence Intervention Court.
Bravo, One Billion Rising
St. John's!
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cape St. Francis.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. K. PARSONS:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I rise in this hon. House
today to congratulate a young lady in my district, ten-year-old Emily Hynes, a
Grade 5 student at Holy Trinity Elementary in Torbay.
Emily won The Telegram Spelling Bee 2014, a competition held at Holy
Heart of Mary on February 22.
Emily is one of the youngest
ever to win the competition; students from Grade 5 to Grade 8 competed, so Emily
still has a few more years yet to compete.
The judges said it was one of the most intense spelling bees
The Telegram has ever taken part in.
Emily practiced up to five
pages of words a day preparing for this competition.
She won $2,000, a trophy, and some other prizes for her impressive
spelling abilities. Now, Emily
qualifies for the Scripps National Spelling Bee to be held near Washington, D.C.
I ask all hon. members in
this House to join with me in congratulating Emily and wishing her the best of
luck in her future competitions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour
Grace.
MR SLADE:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this
hon. House today to congratulate three young men from my District of Carbonear
Harbour Grace. They are Anthony
Griffin, eleven, Josh Griffin, thirteen, and Andrew Green, fourteen.
Anthony, Josh, and Andrew
were chosen as recipients for the WE DAY program, sponsored by Telus, the first
teens from this Province to be recognized under the program.
WE DAY recognizes youth from thirteen to seventeen years of age who have
made a difference to their communities.
Those three young men were
rewarded for their efforts through an act of kindness that saw them restore a
go-cart belonging to Ben Clarke that had been vandalized.
They gathered all the parts and returned the reassembled cart without any
desire for reward or recognition.
In September of 2013, the
three boys were nominated for an event in Nova Scotia and travelled to Halifax
on November 27 to represent Newfoundland and Labrador as part of the WE DAY
program.
Mr. Speaker, Anthony, Josh,
and Andrew have shown that young people can make a difference in their
communities just by doing good deeds.
I ask all hon. members to
join me in congratulating Anthony, Josh, and Andrew on being recognized as a
part of the WE DAY program.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the District of
Lewisporte.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. VERGE:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a young
thirteen-year-old student from Lewisporte.
Blake Russell is not your typical teenager.
Blake has a great love and passion for the traditions, culture, and the
music of Newfoundland and Labrador.
You can find Blake playing
his button accordion to the joy of residents in seniors' homes, or providing
entertainment at local fundraisers and concerts.
He loves the traditional music of our Province.
Fergus O'Byrne and Mark Hiscock have become musical idols to Blake.
In August of last year, Blake released his first CD of button accordion
music at Citadel House in Lewisporte.
It was a great success.
When Blake is not playing
his accordion, he is usually on the salmon rivers using his own flies and
providing tips on casting to other anglers.
In winter, Blake is usually in the woods snaring rabbits or trapping fox,
mink, and otter. His furs are sent
to the North American Fur Trade Auction and some end up in the European markets.
Honourable members, please
join with me in recognizing Blake Russell, a young man who is doing more than
his part to keep our culture alive and well.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Humber Valley.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise in this hon. House
today to congratulate the Pasadena Academy Falcons Senior Boys' Basketball team
on winning the thirty-seventh Annual Elwood Invitational Basketball Tournament
held at Elwood Regional High School in Deer Lake in December of 2013.
The Falcons went undefeated,
completing the tournament with a final 93-63 win over Prince of Wales
Collegiate. Mitch Snow led the
Falcons in the championship game with twenty-six points.
Three players from the
Falcons were honoured with individual awards for their play in the tournament.
Nick Pilgrim was named Tournament MVP, Corey Manuel was named Team MVP,
and Mitch Snow was named to the All-Star Team for the third consecutive year.
Since this win in December, the Falcons have won the Templeton Academy
Invitational in Meadows and the regional qualifying tournament for their
provincial 3A basketball tournament.
Mr. Speaker, eight members
of the Falcons will finish up their studies at Pasadena Academy this year.
It is through athletic events, such as these, that lifelong memories are
created for these students. I ask
all members to join me in extending congratulations to the Pasadena Falcons
Boys' Basketball team on their inspiring play and wish them success in their
upcoming provincial 3A Boys' Basketball Tournament this weekend at Templeton
Academy in Meadows.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
Statements by Ministers.
Statements by Ministers
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is with sadness today
that I rise in this hon. House to express my sincere condolences to the family
and friends of the late Ambrose Peddle, who recently passed away at the age of
eighty-six. As the Member for Humber
East, I am honoured to stand and pay tribute to another son of Corner Brook and
Grand Falls.
Ambrose Peddle dedicated his
life to public service. He was a
municipal leader, he was a Member of this House of Assembly, and he was also a
Member of the Parliament of Canada.
All of us who were given the opportunity to sit here in this House recognize
that to serve the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in public office is a true
privilege and it is a great responsibility.
Ambrose Peddle accepted this duty with compassion and with integrity, and
he indeed set an example for all of us to follow.
His life of public service
continued in 1975, when Mr. Peddle had the distinct honour of being appointed
Newfoundland and Labrador's first ombudsmen by then Premier Frank Moores.
In his capacity as ombudsman, he acted as an impartial, unbiased advocate
for the people of our Province. For
fifteen years, he listened to the concerns of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
and he worked diligently on their behalf to ensure they were treated fairly by
their government.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all
members of this House join me in honouring the life and the spirit of Ambrose
Peddle. On behalf of all
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, I want to thank Mr. Peddle for his important
and remarkable contribution to our Province and its people.
To his family, I hope that at this difficult time they may find solace in
his lasting legacy.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Premier
for the advance copy of his statement today.
As a former municipal leader, MHA, and an MP as the Premier said and
eventually the ombudsman for the Province, Mr. Peddle devoted much of his life
to public service. As a judge of the
Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador we know his only surviving son,
David, continues in his father's footsteps.
In the obituary it was said
about Mr. Peddle that he was a private man who was very well known.
This gives us some insight into his life and we thank him for the
sacrifices that he made. I am sure
all members in this House can attest to the sacrifices that are made by members
and the sacrifices that are made with their families as they make their
commitment to public service when it is your calling.
It is only fitting today
that I stand here and pay tribute to Mr. Peddle in this House of Assembly where
he advocated for the people of the Province and his district.
We do extend our condolences
to his wife, Bessie, and his surviving son, David, and the extended family; but,
more than that, we celebrate his eighty-six years of public service and the life
of a remarkable man, Mr. Ambrose Peddle.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I, too, thank the Premier
for an advance copy of his statement.
It is a privilege to join with him and the Leader of the Official
Opposition in offering my condolences to the family of the late Ambrose Peddle.
I did not know Mr. Peddle myself but certainly his life is known to
everybody. Of his many
accomplishments, I think he may be best remembered as the Province's first
ombudsman.
He was a pioneer in this
Province of helping people fight unfair bureaucratic decisions and advocate on
behalf of those who perhaps could not for themselves.
He gave of himself for others.
I encourage the government
very sincerely actually, Mr. Speaker, as I say this to bring in the
whistle-blower legislation in his honour, in his memory.
I think it is legislation that he would certainly support, and let us do
that in the memory of Mr. Ambrose Peddle.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Health and Community
Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SULLIVAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise today in this hon.
House to highlight March as national Nutrition Month.
The month's theme, Simply Cook and Enjoy! aims to inspire individuals to
get back to cooking basics and to involve children and youth in food
preparation.
Healthy eating is
fundamental to overall health and well-being, and with today's busy lifestyles
there is a growing concern that food preparation skills are not being passed
down to our children and grandchildren.
Evidence shows that children who are involved in meal preparation with
their families enjoy healthier food, which promotes healthy weights.
Mr. Speaker, our government
partners with several organizations to provide programs and services which focus
on healthy eating and wellness.
These include the Kids Eat Smart Foundation, which sponsors nutritious breakfast
and snack programs for school-aged children; the Food Security Network of
Newfoundland and Labrador, which promotes community-based solutions to increase
access to adequate healthy food for residents; and, the Eat Great and
Participate program, which aims to increase access to healthy food and beverage
options for children and youth participating in events at recreation, sport, and
community facilities.
Nutrition Month is an
initiative of Dietitians of Canada, the association that represents registered
dietitians across the country, with more than 100 members in this Province.
By visiting the organization's Web site at
www.dietitians.ca people can
access healthy eating tips and fact sheets to help them plan, shop, and cook.
To supplement the promotion of Nutrition Month, our government is
tweeting messages on nutrition and simple cooking ideas.
Mr. Speaker, Nutrition Month
is an important opportunity to promote the benefits of healthy eating and to
create awareness of the importance of passing these skills on to our children
and youth. We encourage and remind
residents to take an active role in their overall health and well-being through
healthy eating and physical activity.
Our government is working to provide supportive environments to help
families make the healthiest choices possible.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the minister for the
advance copy of her statement. We
here in the Opposition certainly think it is great to see government
acknowledging the value of healthy eating and we also commend the Dietitians of
Canada for this great initiative. We
are pleased to see government programs that partner to deliver healthy eating
and wellness.
Many children are going to
school hungry and, obviously, this has to affect their learning ability.
The Canadian Institute of Health Information released their 2013 report
on health outcomes, and we here in Newfoundland and Labrador have the lowest
rate of fruit and vegetable consumption in Canada; 44 per cent of Canadians are
consuming five plus servings a day and only 30 per cent of us here in
Newfoundland and Labrador are consuming the same.
We also have the highest
rate of obesity in all of the country; 63.4 per cent of our population is obese
compared to the national average of 51 per cent.
Obviously we know we have huge barriers to overcome in this Province when
it comes to food security, cost and transportation; but, working together, we
can get past these barriers.
Government needs to be
proactive in trying to ensure we have healthy populations and a failure to do
this will lead to more health issues in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I, too, thank the minister
for an advance copy of her statement.
It is certainly important to support Nutrition Month.
Young people do need better nutrition to offset the trends in obesity and
diabetes. Certainly educating them
about how to prepare foods is important and educational materials are useful,
but many low-income families, those on minimum wage or receiving Income Support,
increasingly cannot afford to feed their children nutritionally.
Increases in Income Support and the minimum wage are needed to allow this
to happen.
I would like to see more
government investment to provide nutritional meals in all schools across the
Province and provide hands-on food preparation training in all our schools.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
Oral Questions.
The minister did not stand;
so, is it okay to go back to ministerial statements?
MR. BALL:
Yes.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
MR. KENT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to you and the Leader
of the Opposition for your co-operation.
I, too, was anticipating Question Period.
I was so excited, especially when I see all those smiling faces across
the House.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this
House today to update hon. members on the work of the Government of Newfoundland
and Labrador, we have been undertaking work to help support the community sector
in our Province. Last month, through
the Office of Public Engagement, the provincial government held its third
Community Summit, which I am proud to say, was our most successful summit to
date.
Mr. Speaker, this year's
summit was unique in that it connected community leaders Province-wide in four
locations through a Web-based engagement process called Interactive Rooms.
Sector representatives in St. John's, Grand Falls Windsor, Corner
Brook, and Happy Valley Goose Bay worked together in real time through a
combination of Webcast and other Internet applications, including audience
response remote-polling software. In
addition, there was a virtual Web-based discussion table option for those who
could not attend any of the physical sites.
Using this innovative
approach to facilitate constructive relationships within the community sector,
we engaged over 200 people all across regions of the Province an all-time high
for the Community Summit. I
participated from the St. John's location and was pleased to be joined by my
hon. colleagues in their respective regions.
Mr. Speaker, later this
spring, we will be releasing a What We Heard document, based on the feedback
of summit participants. The
information gathered will help us advance government's commitment to
communities, which includes providing innovative training tools, research
opportunities, and promoting social enterprise.
I can tell you that the feedback received was very positive and very
constructive, and it highlighted the importance of continuing networking
opportunities between government and the community sector.
As our Premier stated in his
first address in this House last week, We need to engage people in building a
better province for all, which means reaching out to where they live in their
communities
it means engaging them, not just for show but for real.
Mr. Speaker, in the coming
days, the provincial government will bring forward even more public engagement
activities and create new dialogue opportunities through our Open Government
Initiative. By building partnerships
with community and stakeholders groups, and by connecting and engaging with
residents in innovative ways just like we did with the Community Summit the
people of the Province will have a greater say in the decisions that make a
difference in their lives, no matter where they live.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. Barbe.
MR. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for an advance
copy of his statement.
The Office of Public
Engagement was created by the former Premier seventeen months ago to convince
people that they were doing a good job.
The budget last year was a little over $7 million.
The current Premier, when he
was former Minister of Justice, created the family violence court.
That ran successfully and it cost $500,000.
We could have fourteen family violence courts we do not even have
fourteen judicial districts in the Province.
We could have fourteen family violence courts for the cost of the Office
of Public Engagement.
I would ask if the current
Premier would instruct the current Minister of Public Engagement to shave his
budget by $500,000. He could still
keep his little plaything to keep people informed about how well they are doing
and we could have our family violence court back.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.
MS ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I too thank the minister for
an advance copy of his statement.
Although the new Web-based engagement process of remote polling process
government is using for public consultation is truly interesting, I question
whether it allows community advocates for full, real, meaningful comprehensive
dialogue that really challenges existing structures and comes up with solutions.
These community agencies are
doing vital work. Work that
government depends on and that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador depend
on. Working with seniors and youth,
on violence against women, mental health, recreation and sport, community
economic development, many of these groups had their funding cut back in last
year's Budget and they could ill afford to absorb these cuts.
If they suffer through any more cuts this year it will make a serious
challenge even worse. I suggest that
government really listen with the intent to hear their expertise and their
concerns.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
Oral Questions.
Oral Questions
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Nalcor has twice issued
energy conservation requests so far in 2014, and government has said that energy
conservation is key to preventing more rolling blackouts.
However, this government on this issue is all talk and no action because
there is no provincial energy conservation program that targets all ratepayers
in our Province.
I ask the Premier: Why are
you limiting energy efficiency programs instead of including all ratepayers in
our Province?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, there is no question that any time
and when we look at future development and opportunities in this Province and
the role that Nalcor is playing in developing our electrical power system into
the future, an important key part of that as it has always been and a key
message that comes from our utilities, both Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and
Newfoundland Power is around the issue of conservation.
I think everybody in the
Province would be aware of the importance of conservation and conservation
methods upfront in terms of turning off the switch, turning off the heaters,
watching your hot water heaters and so on.
These kinds of things are standard and we continue to promote these.
As well, during the recent
issues around utilities and power supply, it was obvious that the general
public, both in the residential as well as industrial customers, complied with
that, Mr. Speaker, and we had success.
MR. SPEAKER:
Order, please!
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, my point was there is
no inclusive energy efficiency program for all ratepayers.
We know that these are standard things, and in other provinces we have
had a lot of success.
Government says that energy
conservation is important, but has placed the energy conservation program in the
hands of the people who are supplying the energy.
So there is no independent energy efficiency program in our Province, and
no clear targets.
So I ask the Premier: Why
have you allowed a private energy company that makes its money by selling
electricity, let them take control of the program, and how does that make sense?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Environment and
Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SHEA:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this government
has offered a program through Newfoundland and Labrador Housing for low-income
home owners to be able to do some refits for their house to make them more
energy efficient. Under that
program, some 4,500 households have been made more energy efficient.
So we do provide funding in that area.
Further to that, under the
Green Fund, there has been a number of different buildings and organizations in
Newfoundland and Labrador that have benefited from energy efficient refits.
That would include the Glacier in Mount Pearl, the Corner Brook Pepsi
Centre, Stella Burry, and Ronald McDonald House.
We also have some of our new schools in Paradise and Torbay that have
also benefited from funding to become more energy efficient.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, we know that this
government has had some problems in communication, and just to address the
comments from the minister, what we were talking about is a program that affects
all ratepayers. When I speak to
communications I say that government has admitted, by the minister himself, that
the energy conservation is a low priority, and even cut the only program in half
last year. The minister said that
other priorities rank higher than energy efficiency.
So I ask the Premier: How
can your government say that energy conservation is a low priority when we still
risk rolling blackouts?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Environment and
Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SHEA:
Mr. Speaker, energy efficiency, along with energy
conservation, remain priorities. At
times these priorities become competing demands on a fiscal budget that we have
to announce. In saying that, we also
have our Climate Change Office, we have the Take Back the Tide public awareness
campaign, so that all people in Newfoundland and Labrador can understand that
they have a part to play as well.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, many
non-profit organizations have benefited from the Green Fund to become more
energy efficient in their operations, and 4,500 households in this Province have
also benefited from funding to help them become more energy efficient as well.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Just weeks after saying that
no additional oversight was needed on the Muskrat Falls Project, government is
now setting up a committee of bureaucrats for the Muskrat Falls to provide this
oversight. The Premier would like
this committee to report to Cabinet, which means the information would become a
Cabinet document and blocked by Bill 29.
Mr. Speaker, the findings
should be public, so I ask the Premier: Why are you setting up an oversight
committee to report and the report would be kept in secret?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the Leader of the Opposition, I
believe that our interpretation of the legislation differs.
He is referring to the fact where there is a third-party request for
information. There is nothing in the
ATIPP legislation that prevents government, with the exception of some privacy
information, from voluntarily releasing information that comes we release
reports all the time. The midwifery
report, I think, and the busing report, those reports were released and we will
continue to do so.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Well, just three weeks ago the Minister of
Natural Resources said that government did not need oversight in the Muskrat
Falls Project because Nalcor had the expertise to do that.
I ask the minister: Are you
now setting up this oversight committee because you have lost faith in the
experts at Nalcor?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
No, Mr. Speaker, I have not lost faith in the
experts at Nalcor. What I will
acknowledge is that it was certainly not one of my better interviews.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
MR. DALLEY:
We need to understand that this is one of the
largest projects ever built in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to say that this project is being built by
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. I
can assure the people watching today that this project will benefit generations
of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, through this whole process
pre-sanction, sanction, loan guarantee, there is a need for oversight and we are
absolutely committed to the oversight that is needed.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the minister
by saying that it was not one of his best interviews.
The second part was not much better either, Mr. Speaker.
Government is crafting this
committee to report in secret, when information on Muskrat Falls should be made
public. This is the largest
expenditure in the history of the Province and it is time for the Auditor
General to take a look at Nalcor's books.
I ask the Premier: Under
section 16 of the AG Act, will you now request the AG to inquire into and report
publicly into what is going on at Nalcor?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
I want to thank the leader for that question.
It is a good question. The
Auditor General is an independent officer of this House of Assembly.
He does not work for the government.
The Auditor General, under that legislation, could go into Nalcor or
anywhere else in government any time he wishes to do so.
We invite him to do so any time he considers it appropriate.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Under section 16 of that
act, the Lieutenant Governor in Council can actually make that request.
I ask the Premier: Will you
make that request to the AG?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, the Muskrat Falls Project is a project that is owned by the
people of Newfoundland and Labrador, therefore it is imperative that the proper
oversight be provided. Proper
oversight, as the minister indicated, has been provided from the time of
sanction, to the financing, and now as we go into construction.
The government has announced
additional oversight because the people of the Province have indicated they have
a concern, and the Auditor General is a key part of that, but we do not order
the Auditor General. We do have the
legislative authority to do so, but the Auditor General will conduct whatever
reports he considers necessary to do when he considers it appropriate, not when
we order him to.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Nalcor has confirmed that
dirty fuel was purchased and used at Holyrood last year, resulting in over $1
million in damage.
I ask the Minister of
Natural Resources: You claimed that Nalcor has all the experts, so how did these
so-called experts sign a contract for dirty fuel that cost taxpayers over $1
million?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, yesterday a former Liberal MHA, a
Liberal candidate in the leadership, and a likely, I believe, Liberal candidate
in the upcoming election called a news conference and made a conclusion that
there was dirty fuel used and also concluded that the fuel caused the power
outages in January.
Mr. Speaker, Nalcor has come
out very clearly. The engineers of
Nalcor who are running the system very clearly say the fuel that is used in no
way had any effect or impact on the outage.
That is clear. As well, they
made a number of comments to explain the issue of fuel usage at the Holyrood
facility.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Maybe the minister will
listen to the question that I have asked, because I did not talk about
blackouts. His officials at Nalcor
have confirmed that dirty fuel was purchased and dirty fuel was used.
You claim that they are the experts.
How did those experts sign that contract to purchase dirty fuel that cost
the taxpayers of this Province over $1 million?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, the explanation is clear.
They tendered a new fuel supplier in 2012.
They received new shipments of fuel.
It is tested at the load port.
It is also tested when it is received.
It met the specs that are required.
Mr. Speaker, through this
whole process it was recognized there was an increased level of aluminum and
silicon which had a negative impact on the actual functioning of some of the
system. That was rectified.
They addressed this issue with the supplier.
They have also made the Public Utilities Board aware of it.
There is no cover-up here or
anything, Mr. Speaker. It has all
been rectified and it has been addressed.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Mr. Speaker, even after Nalcor discovered that
the fuel was dirty, they willingly ordered more of it.
What additional toxins were
pumped into the air as a result of the continued use of this dirty fuel?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the member
opposite to check his facts.
Obviously, yesterday in the hastily-called news conference it presented some
information. It was ill-informed and
poor quality work, what we are seeing again today to jump to this conclusion.
The fuel was ordered, Mr.
Speaker. It was recognized to be a
problem. They consulted with the
supplier. Future supplies address
the concern that the people of Nalcor had in the operations of the system.
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely wrong to make that conclusion.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Mr. Speaker, the 600 foot
John I was adrift for thirty hours
before the Canadian Coast Guard arrived on the scene with the icebreaker
Earl Grey.
It subsequently ran aground near Rose Blanche.
When the Earl Grey did arrive she was helpless in providing any meaningful
assistance, while more capable Coast Guard vessels like the
Sir Wilfred Grenfell that remains tied
up in St. John's, could have been available.
I ask the minister: What
measures have you taken with the federal government to ensure that they have
more adequate response resources patrolling our waters to ensure marine safety?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, the Coast Guard and the Joint Rescue
Coordination Centre in Halifax responded in a timely fashion to the vessel that
was run aground off our shores.
We have nineteen Coast Guard
vessels dedicated to Newfoundland and Labrador.
We, at every opportunity, raise this issue with the federal government.
We need more resources dedicated to the Coast Guard.
We need more resources dedicated to search and rescue to protect those at
sea in our Province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Mr. Speaker, that is a contradiction; they
responded in a timely fashion but we need more resources.
Mr. Speaker, both the
Eastern Canada Response Corporation and the Coast Guard, can each respond to oil
spills in this Province but have very limited capacity.
There are more and more bulk carriers navigating our waters, carrying oil
far in capacity of what the ECRC and Coast Guard can jointly respond to.
I ask the minister: What
additional response measures are in place to deal with a potentially
catastrophic oil spill in a timely manner and prevent an environmental disaster
in the waters off our shores?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to those who are
working at sea, safety is paramount.
It is a top priority for this government.
At every single opportunity we have raised questions related to improved
safety standards. We have raised
questions regarding having an increased search and rescue presence in
Newfoundland and Labrador to protect those at sea.
Safety is a top priority for
this government. We will continue to
press the federal government for more resources to help those who are working at
sea in Newfoundland and Labrador.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
If the minister would read something other than
his briefing notes, I asked about oil spill response, not safety.
My first question was on safety.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
MR. SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR. OSBORNE:
What additional resources, Mr. Speaker, are in
place to ensure the environmental integrity of our coastal waters, protecting
fishermen, protecting our tourism, protecting the people of this Province from a
catastrophic oil spill?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KENT:
Mr. Speaker, protecting our oceans and protecting
the people who work on those oceans is a top priority for this government.
It is an issue we have raised at every single opportunity.
We want to see more resources in place.
We have raised questions
related to environmental protection.
We have raised questions related to safety standards.
We have raised questions continuously about search and rescue response
time and resources that are dedicated to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Protecting those at sea is a high priority for this Administration.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.
MR. LANE:
Mr. Speaker, last fall the Minister of Service
Newfoundland and Labrador was asked why so many parking lots still do not
conform to blue zone regulations implemented two years ago.
The minister claimed the regulations are being enforced; however, parking
accessibility still remains an issue for persons with disabilities.
I ask the Minister of
Service Newfoundland and Labrador: Obviously, enforcement is lacking, what is
your plan to ensure commercial properties are in compliance with blue zone
regulations?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Service NL.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. CRUMMELL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, society today
demands that we have accessible buildings, that we have everything in our
society today accessible for people who need to be included in our day-to-day
work, in our day-to-day lives. We
take that responsibility very seriously as a government.
Mr. Speaker, since the new
legislation came in, in 2012, we have had almost 1,000 regular inspections since
April, 2012. So to say we are not
doing our job, Mr. Speaker, is not true.
We are working with municipalities.
We are working with organizations out there that are looking at where the
issues are and lie. We realize there
are some compliance issues but we are ready to do our work and we will continue
to do our work.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.
MR. LANE:
Mr. Speaker, I suggest the minister take a drive
down through any commercial corridor in the St. John's area and he will find
non-compliance all over the place.
Mr. Speaker, some of
government's own buildings are failing to comply with provincial blue zone
regulations. Even our hospitals are
lacking appropriate vertical signage.
I ask the Minister of
Service Newfoundland and Labrador: How can you expect businesses to comply with
blue zone regulations when government is failing to lead by example?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Service NL.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. CRUMMELL:
Mr. Speaker, we are aware of the compliance
issues at the Health Sciences Centre, in the new parking lot they have.
We have directed them and issued orders to get fully up to speed in terms
of what the regulations dictate, what needs to be done in that parking lot at
the Health Sciences Centre. We have
given them a little bit of time while the snow clears to do the compliance and
get up to speed.
Mr. Speaker, we are working
with Eastern Health and the Health Sciences, as well as other organizations, to
make sure we address these types of complaints.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au
Clair.
MS DEMPSTER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Local apprentices are
telling us that Corner Brook Pulp and Paper mill are not hiring apprentices and
have not employed apprentices for decades.
The mill just received a government loan of up to $110 million, not to
mention another $100 million of taxpayers' money invested in the mill since
2004.
I ask the minister: Given
the log-jam of apprentices in the Province unable to secure work, did you
include a provision in this loan guarantee that the mill hires apprentices?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Environment and
Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SHEA:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this government
is aware of the need for people to receive their journeyperson status to support
us as a Province, to be able to take part in the mega projects that are
happening in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Speaker, under the
Department of Advanced Education and Skills there is an Apprenticeship Wage
Subsidy that any employer would be able to avail of.
They would be able to apply through our regional offices throughout the
Province. Basically, that program is
a wage subsidy where, depending on the year the apprentice is in training, we
could pay a significant portion of their salary.
Mr. Speaker, whether it is
Corner Brook Pulp and Paper or any other employer in this Province, this
government is more than willing to work with them to ensure that our apprentices
get the opportunity they deserve right here in this Province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au
Clair.
MS DEMPSTER:
Mr. Speaker, John Noseworthy pointed out this
government's many failures in getting apprentices through their plans of
training and addressing the skilled trade shortage now upon us.
Noseworthy criticized government for entering into major capital works
projects with external contractors without a contract provision for the hiring
of apprentices on these projects.
I ask the minister: How
could you miss these opportunities to get apprentices the work experience they
need when thousands thousands of them are unable to secure work?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Environment and
Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SHEA:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, to be clear let
me say that this government has done more for the apprentices in Newfoundland
and Labrador than any previous government in the history of this Province.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SHEA:
Mr. Speaker, an employer, whether it is an
employer who is doing work for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador or in
private industry, or a major contractor doing a megaproject in Newfoundland and
Labrador, can avail of the services that we provide for apprentices in this
Province. We have many training
opportunities for apprentices in this Province as well as our wage subsidy
program.
If there is any particular
employer who would like information, Mr. Speaker, we would certainly encourage
them to contact the Department of Advanced Education and Skills.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's North.
MR. KIRBY:
Mr. Speaker, last year when the Minister of
Education was asked about the $12 million he claimed would be saved by merging
school boards, he said he had nothing to hide.
A year later, we still have no details to back that up.
I ask the minister: If there
is nothing to hide, why haven't you released the basic information on the
savings earned?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Education.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. JACKMAN:
Mr. Speaker, let me start by saying I want to
commend the people who have been involved in the restructuring of this board
from the trustees to those working at the board office.
They have done a commendable job.
Mr. Speaker, I think the
people of the Province recognize, whether they recognize it or not, with a
decrease in population of some 14,000, a 17 per-cent reduction, it was time we
took a review of the school board, the first review since 2004.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
MR. SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR. JACKMAN:
As the year unfolds, Mr. Speaker we have not
gone through a year in this process yet.
This new board took effect on September 1 and as that unfolds we will see
what final dollars are realized then.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear
MR. SPEAKER:
I ask the Member for St. John's North for a very
quick question without preamble.
MR. KIRBY:
Mr. Speaker, will the minister finally admit that
cutting three school boards resulted in no cost savings at all?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Education.
MR. JACKMAN:
Mr. Speaker, the man is not a mathematician; I
can assure you that. My answer is
that there will be savings.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
The government plans to
appoint a committee of bureaucrats to oversee the Muskrat Falls Project.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the
Premier: Why doesn't he just ask our Public Utilities Board to give oversight as
their counterpart in Nova Scotia is doing for the Maritime Link Project?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, the Public Utilities Board, of course, will have a role.
It is a regulator, it will deal with all general rate applications, and
it will deal with all the capital applications and so on.
We have a responsibility to
the people of the Province who are asking us to provide oversight for this
project. It is owned by the people
of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is
a large project. It is imperative
that proper oversight be provided.
There is oversight being
provided now. There was oversight
provided when the decision was made to sanction the project.
There was oversight provided when the decision was made to come up with
the financing, and the financing has been obtained and the cost is certain and
the amount is certain; and now that we have moved into construction there is
further oversight, a different type of oversight, now going to be required to
oversee that aspect of the project.
Later on, when the project is commissioned, then there will be oversight over
the operations.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
All of which the PUB could
have done.
I ask the Premier: Was he
aware when he announced his oversight committee that its reports would have to
be kept secret under Bill 29?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is incorrect in that statement.
Reports that we have, if government wants to voluntarily release the
reports, we have done it in the past and we will be doing it again very soon.
The midwifery report came out, the busing report we are always
releasing reports and we are going to continue to do so.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I ask the Premier: Is he now
committing to release all the reports of the oversight committee as they receive
them?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, I mentioned the other day the oversight that is in effect
right now in terms of the internal auditors of the company, the audit committee
of the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors themselves, the independent
auditor, their external auditor, their lawyers, and their financial people.
Also, now the independent engineers report is going to be available as
well. We are going to continue to
add some more from the government's perspective so that the people of the
Province can have assurances that the government is doing what the people want
and ensure that the appropriate oversight is in place.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I did not hear a commitment
to release the reports of the oversight committee.
Mr. Speaker, the quickest
route to allowing openness and transparency on the Muskrat Falls Project would
be to introduce legislation changing the wording in the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act, section 18.(2), from shall to may, allowing
his oversight committee reports to be made public.
So I ask the Premier: Will
he move quickly to pass this amendment?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, we have access to information and protection of privacy
legislation in this Province, and people have raised concerns, and then we
announced today the appointment of a committee with stellar credentials, chaired
by a former Chief Justice of Newfoundland and Labrador, made up of a Privacy
Commissioner of Canada, and well-respected journalist from this Province.
We have asked them to conduct a review.
We have asked them to look at the whole legislation not just Bill 29
and then we asked them after they complete a line-by-line review to give us the
benefit of their advice and their knowledge.
We are not going to
pre-judge the report, we are going to wait and see what they say, we are going
to take their recommendations very, very seriously, and I am sure, if it is not
this government, the next government will respond accordingly.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR. MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
While government has
announced a moratorium on fracking in the Province, back in November now,
nothing has been heard from the government since.
It stated that it would do its own internal review of regulations across
the country.
Can the minister please
update the House and the people of the Province what it has been finding so far?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, with respect to the fracking issue,
and particularly with respect to fracking on the West Coast of Newfoundland and
Labrador, this government recognizes the importance to protect the health and
safety of our people and the environment.
We called for a hold on accepting any applications for fracking, Mr.
Speaker, until we did some work on behalf of the people of the Province.
My department continues to
do that work. It is not completed,
but in the interim I have also travelled to the West Coast and met with
representatives of some of the anti-fracking groups who wanted to share
information with me, and certainly I wanted to get information from them.
I have also met with a proponent, Mr. Speaker, on the industry side,
again, committing, as I have, to a balanced approach to this whole situation,
and we will continue to do our work and report to the House
MR. SPEAKER:
Order, please!
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR. MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is okay for government to
be doing an internal review of regulations across the country, but what the
people of the Province need is a full independent external and scientific review
that includes public consultation.
Government promised that
they would be doing some public consultation, Mr. Speaker.
When will those consultations begin?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. DALLEY:
Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue with
respect to a safe and healthy environment.
It is also a very important issue with respect to economic opportunity
and development, and creating jobs, so finding that balance is extremely
important.
I have committed in this
House that we would do a balanced review both internally within my department.
I have had some discussions as well outside, as I have just indicated,
Mr. Speaker. I have also committed
and promised to the people of the Province that when we have that work, and we
have had a chance to analyze that work, we will absolutely go to the public for
consultations. They will have an
opportunity to have input as promised.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East for a
quick question without preamble.
MR. MURPHY:
Mr. Speaker, I ask the government: Will the
government be following the recommendations of Health Canada when it comes to a
human health risk assessment?
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Health and Community
Services for a quick response.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS SULLIVAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we always
follow the recommendations, particularly when it comes to human health and
safety. We will do so this time as
well.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The time for Question Period has expired.
Presenting Reports by
Standing and Select Committees.
Tabling of Documents.
Notices of Motion.
Notices of Motion
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs.
MR. KENT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I give notice that I will
ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The City Of Corner Brook
Act, The City Of Mount Pearl Act, The City Of St. John's Act And The
Municipalities Act, 1999, Bill 6.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further notices of motion?
The hon. the Minister of
Health and Community Services.
MS SULLIVAN:
I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce
a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Mental Health Care And Treatment Act, Bill
4.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further notices of motion?
The hon. the Minister of
Service Newfoundland and Labrador.
MR. CRUMMELL:
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave
to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Amend The Vital Statistics Act, 2009,
Bill 3.
I have another one, Mr.
Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
Proceed.
MR. CRUMMELL:
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave
to introduce a bill entitled, An Act To Repeal The Printing Services Act, Bill
5.
MR. SPEAKER:
Further notices of motion?
The hon. the Government
House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice
that I will introduce a resolution calling for a national inquiry into missing
and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada:
WHEREAS Aboriginal women
experience a rate of violence 3.5 times higher than non-Aboriginal women; and
WHEREAS Canadian Aboriginal
women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four are five times more likely
than all other Canadian women in the same age group to die as a result of
violence; and
WHEREAS the Native Women's
Association of Canada estimates that there are approximately 800 cases of
missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada; and
WHEREAS the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador is on record as supporting the Native Women's
Association of Canada in calling for a national inquiry on missing and murdered
Aboriginal women and girls in July, 2013;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that all parties of this hon. House call upon the Government of Canada to do its
part to address the very serious issue of violence against Aboriginal girls and
women by launching a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women
in Canada.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's South.
MR. OSBORNE:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A notice of our private
member's resolution:
WHEREAS government has
recently indicated that energy conservation was necessary to prevent rolling
blackouts; and
WHEREAS Nalcor has issued
two energy conservation requests to the general public in 2014;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that this House urge government to consider developing and introducing energy
conservation programs for all ratepayers in our Province.
This is seconded by the
Member for Humber Valley.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Standing Order 63.(3) entered by the Member for St. John's South is the
motion to be debated tomorrow.
MR. SPEAKER:
Thank you.
Answers to Questions for
which Notice has been Given.
Petitions.
Petitions
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. Barbe.
MR. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I petition the hon. House of
Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,
the petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS there is no
cellphone service in the Town of Trout River, which is an enclave community in
Gros Morne National Park; and
WHEREAS visitors to Gros
Morne National Park, more than 100,000 annually, expect to communicate by
cellphone when they visit the park; and
WHEREAS cellphone service
has become a very important aspect of everyday living for residents; and
WHEREAS cellphone service is
an essential safety tool for visitors and residents; and
WHEREAS cellphone service is
essential for business development;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to partner with the private sector to
extend cellphone coverage throughout Gros Morne National Park and the enclave
community of Trout River.
As in duty bound your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, one of the
interesting things about this particular petition is that in addition to being
signed by a number of residents of Trout River, it is also signed by somebody
from Orangeville, Ontario, Brampton, Ontario, and Pasadena.
Mr. Speaker, people are
coming through the park regularly and they are at a loss not to have cellphone
coverage. They leave generally urban
areas; the majority of Canadians live in urban areas.
They come here for vacations.
They see some of the wonderful advertising our government has done, and
continues to do, and the place looks like a great place to come.
They come here and they find no cellphone service.
Cellphone service has
penetrated most of the Canadian culture.
Most people with the means to travel this far from other provinces have
the means to have a cellphone, and they carry cellphones.
For them not to have cellphone service is a blight on this Province.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.
MS ROGERS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the hon. House of
Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,
the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly
sheweth:
WHEREAS the Family Violence
Intervention Court provided a comprehensive approach to domestic violence in a
court setting that fully understood and dealt with the complex issues of
domestic violence; and
WHEREAS domestic violence
continues to be one of the most serious issues facing our Province today and the
cost of the impact of domestic violence is great both economically and in human
suffering; and
WHEREAS the Family Violence
Intervention Court was welcomed and endorsed by all aspects of the justice
system including the police, the courts, prosecutors, defence counsel, Child
Youth and Family Services, as well as victims, offenders, community agencies and
women's groups; and
WHEREAS the recidivism rate
for offenders going through the court was 10 per cent compared to 40 per cent of
those who did not; and
WHEREAS the budget for the
court was only 0.2 per cent of the entire budget of the Department of Justice;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge
government to reinstate the Family Violence Intervention Court.
As in duty bound your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, I have had the
privilege to present this petition on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and
Labrador several times in the House.
Each time I try to speak about a different aspect of the court.
I suspect by the time we get the court back everyone here in this House
will be fully, fully familiar with the court and how it works.
The issue I would like to
speak to today, Mr. Speaker, about the Family Violence Intervention Court is
what would it take to reinstate this court?
Even the Minister of Justice himself talked about how important the court
was and that the court was doing what it was mandated to do and it was doing it
well.
The court again, the budget
was $500,000, Mr. Speaker. We know
that for instance the budget for Muskrat Falls is $7.7 billion, so that is
0.00649 per cent of the budget for Muskrat Falls.
The new third line that has been introduced is going to cost $300
million. That money was found very,
very quickly. What we are talking
about for the Family Violence Intervention Court is $500,000.
So, $300 million was found very quickly.
Muskrat Falls currently is spending a minimum of $1 million a day.
We are talking about $500,000 for a court that could serve the people for
a whole year.
Mr. Speaker, I will be happy
to once again stand and talk about the other aspects of the court that we will
need in order to get it up and running again because all of the pieces are in
place.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.
MR. A. PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have a petition.
To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and
Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the undersigned humbly
sheweth:
WHEREAS hundreds of
residents of the South Coast of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador,
including residents of the communities of La Poile, Ramea, Grey River, Franηois,
Rencontre East, Pool's Cove, South East Bight, Petite Forte, Gaultois, McCallum,
and Hermitage use the provincial ferry system on a regular basis for work,
medical, educational, and social reasons; and
WHEREAS the provincial ferry
system is the main source of transportation for these communities; and
WHEREAS most of these
ferries are old, have ongoing mechanical problems, and are constantly being
taken out of service and replaced with even older vessels; and
WHEREAS government, as part
of its provincial ferry strategy, agreed to replace the ferries servicing these
communities and awarded a design contract to Fleetway on January 11, 2011 for
five new ferries for same; and
WHEREAS the residents and
users of these communities are still waiting for these new vessels;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to finalize the design and begin
construction of the new vessels for residents of the South Coast of Newfoundland
and Labrador.
As in duty bound, your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, I have these
petitions circulating all over the South Coast of this Province, and it is
certainly outside districts that are not my own because everybody should be
treated to a properly working ferry system.
I get calls, not even people in your own district.
They call you. It is not
hard. Every one of us here has heard
the calls that come into radio shows talking about the ferry service, about how
one is being juggled here and one is being juggled there, and we are going to
take this one and put it there.
The funny thing is there was
a strategy. Again, I mention
strategy because I heard that word numerous times during the Throne Speech.
Everybody was so optimistic and positive, but this was a strategy, too.
This was a few years ago now and we have not seen much on that.
I am looking to see what is
going to come out of this. The
optimism is starting to wane and people are still waiting to see the ferries.
They are getting subservice in many ways and many times.
I take La Poile, for
instance. The number of calls I got
over Christmas when people could not get back and forth was absolutely amazing.
I am getting calls from all over.
I know the minister was
supposed to make an announcement sometime in the new year.
I was told this in a meeting just before Christmas.
We are into March now and I have not heard anything yet, so I guess like
many things the government does, I will use the term hopefully we will hear it
very soon.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's North.
MR. KIRBY:
To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the
undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS current government
regulations deny busing services to students who live closer than 1.6 kilometres
to school; and
WHEREAS parents have
expressed concern that children living within 1.6 kilometres of school face
dangers in walking to school, such as congested streets and busy intersections,
especially during winter weather conditions; and
WHEREAS the $75,000 review
of the school transportation system completed by Deloitte recommended that the
Department of Education consider reducing the 1.6 kilometre eligibility zone for
kindergarten and elementary students; and
WHEREAS the $75,000 Deloitte
report also noted that only 10 per cent of those surveyed for the school
transportation system review agree with the current 1.6 kilometre policy is
reasonable for students and families; and
WHEREAS parents are
continuing to demand more flexible policies to meet current needs of school
children;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge
government to change the outdated 1.6 kilometre busing eligibility policy in
order to ensure safe transportation for primary and elementary school children
in the Province.
As in duty bound, your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, parents are
asking why the minister is continuing to sit on the school transportation review
that he paid $75,000 to complete.
I was doing some research on
this and found this letter to the editor that was written about school
transportation polices and busing in the Province.
It talks about how the previous Minister of Education, the Government
House Leader, had said it was no problem, he was going to look into this, and
how the current Minister of Education at a convention also said no problem, he
was going to look at it. The writer
of the letter said it is unfortunate if Ministers of the Crown are too busy or
too important to have time to listen to the legitimate concerns of those who are
striving to make things better.
I ask the minister and I ask
members to think about it. Are you
too busy to act on the $75,000 Deloitte review?
We asked for a review, the minister was co-operative, and carried out the
review. Now he is sitting on the
review. Is he too busy to actually
do something about it? Because, as
the minister knows, he gets e-mails from my constituents, he gets e-mails from
other members' constituents, and he probably gets telephone calls about this as
well. It is something that needs to
be acted on. He cannot just spend
$75,000 on a report such as this, lay it up on the shelf in the office and just
let it collect dust forevermore. We
need action on this, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au
Clair.
MS DEMPSTER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the hon. House of
Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,
the petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS most communities in
the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair do not have adequate broadband
service; and
WHEREAS residents,
businesses, students, nurses, and teachers rely heavily on the Internet to
conduct their work and cannot afford to wait until 2016 to access a potential
plan in partnership with the Muskrat Falls development; and
WHEREAS there are a number
of world-class tourism sites in the region, including a UNESCO site at Red Bay,
Battle Harbour historic site, and the Mealy Mountains National Park;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to work with the appropriate agencies to
provide adequate broadband service to communities along the Labrador Coast.
As in duty bound, your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, in the Speech
from the Throne that came down talking about investing in infrastructure and
growing communities by attracting opportunities, it listed that in 2014 the
Province will reach 95 per cent broadband coverage.
My question immediately was: 95 per cent but is the coverage adequate?
Every single day
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh, oh!
MR. SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MS DEMPSTER:
I have a number of communities in my district
that are not covered, that are paying for their own Internet.
They all have a dish on their house.
The communities of Williams Harbour, Normans Bay, Black Tickle, these
towns are paying for their own.
In the communities, Mr.
Speaker, it was very sad, just every single day I receive e-mails.
Yesterday I had an e-mail from a lady who is working on her masters and
could not sign on to do the final course that she needed.
I think we have to put increased emphasis on retaining these
professionals in rural parts who want to stay here.
We certainly cannot wait for two or three years because our communities
are dying.
We have teachers who we are
trying to entice to the area, yet they cannot get Internet.
Just in my district alone we have ten communities that are maxed out
ten communities in the District of Cartwright L'Anse au Clair that are maxed
out with broadband, and the broadband that we have is very inadequate.
I am going to continue to stand and raise the cases as the people bring
the issues forward to me.
Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR. MURPHY:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
To the hon. House of
Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled,
the petition of the undersigned residents of Newfoundland and Labrador humbly
sheweth:
WHEREAS in the past the town
of Conception Bay South has provided space for the Conception Bay South Public
Library, but will not be providing space for the library in its new town hall
building; and
WHEREAS losing the
provincial library means that one of the fastest growing communities in the
Province with a population of 25,000 will no longer have library service; and
WHEREAS a library is more
than just books; it is an open community space for Internet access, online
lending, children's reading programs and community events and services, which
provide literacy levels, provide access to information, stimulate creativity and
innovation, and foster the development of strong communities; and
WHEREAS the Town of
Conception Bay South has expressed an interest in cost-sharing a new site with
the Conception Bay South Public Library;
WHEREUPON the undersigned,
your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge
government to provide the necessary resources to retain the public library in
Conception Bay South.
Mr. Speaker, I am quite
pleased to present this petition again today, as I did in the last session of
the House. In particular, what I was
really pleased to see with this petition was the representation from other
communities that are out supporting Conception Bay South in this effort,
particularly as this petition comes from Central Newfoundland, from the Town of
Gander.
I am quite pleased to see
one community supporting another.
Particularly when it comes to an initiative like this, because whenever you see
people signing a petition from other areas of the Province there is a direct
area of concern here on the part, for example, of the Town of Gander, whether
they are going to be the next ones to be losing their public library.
I think the people of Gander, Mr. Speaker, know the importance of a
public library, of what it represents.
Among some of the things I
have also listed here; we know government, for example, wants to get out there
and start an outreach program where it is going to be reaching out to the
various publics here in the Province to find out the opinions of government.
What better way for somebody to be able to do that than by going to the
library, for example, and not only doing research for a small business or
whatever it is they are going to be doing at the library, but as a way for
government to be using libraries at the same time, for government to be working
with this outreach.
Mr. Speaker, I am very
pleased. Again, like I said, the
representation from other communities on this issue is very strong.
I will continue to stand in the House when it comes to talking about the
issues around public libraries, and I will be looking forward to standing in the
days ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
Orders of the Day.
Orders of the Day
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Orders of the Day, I call
Motion 1. On behalf of the Striking
Committee of the House of Assembly, and in accordance with Standing Order
65.(1), I move, seconded by the Minister of Natural Resources, that the Member
for Conception Bay East be replaced by the Member for Fortune Bay Cape La
Hune; and that the Member for The Straits White Bay North be replaced by the
Member for St. John's East.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those in favour of the motion.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All against.
Motion carried.
The hon. the Government
House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I call now
Motion 2 from the Order Paper. I
move, seconded by the Minister of Child, Youth and Family Services, the
following resolution:
Be it resolved by the House
of Assembly as follows: Whereas Section 7 of the House of Assembly
Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act provides that the
Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Assembly is to be appointed by the
Lieutenant-Governor in Council on a nomination of the House of Assembly;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that Mr. Wayne L. Harnum be nominated for appointment as the Sergeant-at-Arms of
the House of Assembly.
MR. SPEAKER:
Is it the desire of the House to approve the
motion?
The hon. the Government
House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is certainly a pleasure
to be able to stand in the House today for a few moments and speak to this
particular resolution.
I want to start, first of
all, by recognizing our outgoing Sergeant-at-Arms who happens to be with us here
in the gallery today, Mr. Bill Brown, who served with us for two years.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. KING:
Bill was a tireless worker in this House, who
worked very diligently and gave the House itself and all of us on all sides of
the House, a great level of commitment.
I think I can, on a rare occasion, speak for all members when I say he is
very highly regarded by all of us here in this House for his commitment and
dedication.
I am certainly going to miss
you Bill. I am not supposed to speak
to you, but I will say that to you.
We are going to miss you. I
understand he is going to stay around, Mr. Speaker, as Director of Security with
the Department of Transportation. On
behalf of government, I want to wish you well.
As I said, thank you so very much for your service here for the past two
years. We appreciate the commitment
and dedication and the level of service that you provided here.
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am very
pleased now to take a few moments to welcome another very qualified and very
experienced individual to the position of Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Wayne Harnum,
who is coincidently a former Royal Newfoundland Constabulary as well, similar to
his predecessor. Mr. Harnum recently
retired as a Staff Sargent with more than thirty years.
Being the Justice Minister, I take pride in saying that anyone who is
coming out of thirty years with the RNC, and such a quality organization as
that, brings a tremendous level of skill and a lot of strong attributes that are
required to function effectively in this House.
I want to recognize that upfront.
Mr. Harnum is known, Mr.
Speaker, for being a very dedicated and loyal employee in whatever position he
has taken up. He has been highly
recognized in the RNC, in particular, for his work in forensic identification.
I hope all of us would recognize and share the view that the experiences
and extensive knowledge that he brings to this position will be very invaluable
to the position here in providing a great high level of service to the position
and ensuring a safe and secure House of Assembly.
I am sure his experience of
course with the RNC, and particularly when you are engaged in forensic
investigations, you would be required to pay attention to detail.
That is probably a significant responsibility of the position that he is
going to be taking here with us today.
It is a great attribute in assisting him in doing his job and maintaining
order and decorum in the House.
As a side note, I understand
as well he is an accomplished photographer.
Maybe we will get a chance to have a look at some of his work one of
these days.
Mr. Speaker, just a couple
of quick further comments for the record.
This is an opportunity for us to pay tribute and welcome Mr. Harnum.
I understand he is a very strong family person, who is married.
He has a son and a daughter.
I understand your son is carrying on the family tradition in the RNC.
I wish him well in that.
We feel as a government, Mr.
Speaker, that we are very fortunate to have someone of Mr. Harnum's
qualifications and credentials join us here in the House of Assembly and help us
maintain and perhaps surpass the high level of service we have been used to for
the last number of years. On behalf
of the Premier and members of the government caucus here, I want to congratulate
him on obtaining the position and officially welcome him here to the House of
Assembly.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know under the rules that
we operate here under this House it is not usual that we look to the gallery and
speak to someone in the gallery. I
will look at you, Mr. Speaker, knowing that the voice over in the corner will
hear me.
I too want to congratulate
Mr. Bill Brown on his years of service here in the House of Assembly, a couple
of years now since I have been here.
We have had many chats in the corridor about things we like to do in the few
hours that we get away from this House, in relaxation and those sorts of things.
I could tell he was a family man, someone who enjoyed living in
Newfoundland and Labrador.
As one point and a memory
for me going back to June of 2012 during the filibuster time, it was quite
demanding on our staff here in the House of Assembly.
Bill Brown, in this particular case, worked his way through that as being
just relatively new to the work here.
I really admired the level of service, what he did, and the commitment to
us as MHAs here and to the Speaker as well during that time.
As the Leader of the Official Opposition, I want to extend my gratitude
and thank you too for the contribution that Mr. Brown has made to all of us
here.
Really the reason why we are
standing and responding here today is to welcome Mr. Wayne Harnum to the
position of Sergeant-at-Arms. What I
did is I looked at what is the role here.
As people watching the broadcast, the Webcasts and all the things that go
on, not too often does the camera actually be on the Sergeant-at-Arms.
For the information of the
people who are watching and saying, who is this guy?
What does he do anyway, the guy with the white gloves on and carrying
this mace in? He is the officer who
is responsible for security here in the Chamber, protecting the MHAs, and takes
custody of our Mace but also is the enforcer for the Speaker here in the House
of Assembly. So for those of you who
are watching, this is the person we are talking about.
What would make someone like
Mr. Harnum qualified to protect us?
Well, his thirty-two years of experience with the RNC, Royal Newfoundland
Constabulary, certainly does that, but it is much more than that.
If you look at the c.v. of Mr. Harnum, you will see that he is renowned
as the senior forensic identification officer within the RNC and he has been a
very valuable contributor to the RNC in general.
It also goes to say about
his calmness under pressure, and I can almost see that as I look at his demeanor
as he sits in the chair today. He
has been called as an expert witness and has been part of many active
investigations in his term at the RNC.
So these are the attributes, these are the things that make Mr. Harnum, I
believe and we support him being the new Sergeant-at-Arms.
These are the attributes that would make him certainly qualified to do
this job.
Not only that; when I looked
a little bit back into his history, I also realized that back in his early
years, back some time ago, he had an interest in automotive technology and
surveying technology, back in some of his education, because now he comes with
obviously a lot of his own personal experiences and he will bring that to the
floor of the House of Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, it also goes on
to say that the RNC call on him to design and teach several courses within the
Constabulary. That is very important
because that is the leadership role that he would take and he would be part of
the education for the younger officers.
This all prepares him for his new job here; but, even more than that, he
has been recognized by multiple awards.
Two that I could actually mention would be the Michael J. Cassidy Award
in 1998 and the Tiller Award in 1996 for his excellence as a police officer.
So, Mr. Speaker, you can see
that my job today to respond to this and welcome Mr. Harnum as the
Sergeant-at-Arms is relatively easy when you look at the experience and you look
at the credentials that this man brings to the House of Assembly.
On behalf of the Official
Opposition, and as Leader of the Official Opposition, I want to welcome Mr.
Harnum to his role as Sergeant-at-Arms.
I look forward to many years of public service as you take on this new
role in working here at the House of Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The Leader of the Third Party.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Being the third speaker,
there is not a lot left for me to say.
So if I repeat some things, I hope everybody will understand.
First of all, I, too, want to recognize Mr. Brown for the role he played
with us here in the House of Assembly.
I am hoping that we did not frighten him away with two filibusters,
because in his short history with us, less than two years, that was a lot to
take on. I do wish him well in his
new position as director of transportation.
We do not interact a lot
with the Sergeant-at-Arms, but we did get the times when we can have little
chats and you get a sense of people's personality during that time.
It has been a pleasure having Mr. Brown here in the House with us.
As I said, I do wish him well on behalf of our caucus.
I am very pleased to join
with the other leaders in the House to welcome Mr. Harnum in his role as
Sergeant-at-Arms. I cannot help but
note, Mr. Speaker, that you must really want help in keeping us toeing the line
with our second Sergeant-at-Arms from the RNC background.
If you are trying to put the fear of God in us, perhaps you are going to
succeed in doing that.
I say to Mr. Harnum, we are
not as bad as all that though, I do not think.
I wish him well in helping us do what we should be doing here in the
House of Assembly.
On another light note, I do
read with interest the awards he has received and the fact that he is a forensic
footwear examiner. I, myself, am a
real fan of CSI and I am going to try
to find time to ask him: Is anything that I see on television what he actually
does? I am also going to watch what
I wear on my feet and where I walk in this House of Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the
motion?
All those in favour, aye'.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, nay'.
Motion carried.
Before we move to further
business of Orders of the Day, I just want to take a moment, with the House's
indulgence, to offer my thanks as well to the outgoing Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr.
Brown, for his wise counsel, advice, and support to me in my role as the
Speaker. As the Leader of the
Official Opposition pointed out, one of the roles of the Sergeant-at-Arms is
protection of the Speaker. I always
felt pretty secure, not because of anything you would do, but obviously having
someone of Bill's calibre to be able to provide some advice and support to my
role as Speaker. Thank you very
much.
I want to welcome as well,
and thank all of you for endorsing the decision to recruit Mr. Harnum into his
new role as Sergeant-at-Arms.
Welcome, Sir, to your new role.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with leave from
my colleagues of the other two parties, I would like to call from the Order
Paper the notice of the resolution that I gave earlier today respecting a
national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and children.
AN HON. MEMBER:
Leave.
MR. SPEAKER:
Government has leave.
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by reading into the record the all-party
resolution that we are bringing forward today.
I want to express my appreciation to the Leader of the Third Party who
came to me with the idea that we unite in doing this.
It says:
WHEREAS Aboriginal women
experience a rate of violence that is 3.5 times higher than non-Aboriginal
women; and
WHEREAS Canadian Aboriginal
women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four are five times more likely
than all other Canadian women in the same age group to die as a result of
violence; and
WHEREAS the Native Women's
Association of Canada estimates that there are approximately 800 cases of
missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada; and
WHEREAS the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador is on record as supporting the Native Women's
Association of Canada in calling for a national inquiry on missing and murdered
Aboriginal women and girls in July of 2013;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that all parties of this hon. House call upon the Government of Canada to do its
part to address the very serious issue of violence against Aboriginal girls and
women by launching a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women
in Canada.
That is seconded by the
Leader of the Opposition.
Mr. Speaker, healthy debate
is at the heart of our democracy.
Much can be accomplished by exploring all sides of an issue, but there are also
times when it is proper to put aside our differences and to stand united to
achieve a goal about which we all agree.
This is one of those moments.
Loretta Saunders was a young
Aboriginal woman from Newfoundland and Labrador who was deeply troubled by the
issues of violence against Aboriginal women in our country violence that so
often leads to death or disappearance.
She understood the grief; she understood the unbearable vacuum that so
many families endure when they do not know where their loved ones are, or what
has happened to them. She understood
it, because as a young Inuk woman she felt it.
She took ownership of it, and she set out to change it.
She enrolled at St. Mary's
University in Nova Scotia and commenced work on a thesis about missing and
murdered Aboriginal women. Her
thesis advisor has written poignantly about the insight she brought to this
issue, and her determination to shine a spotlight on those tragedies and change
things. She was just twenty-six
years old, just starting out, expecting to have a whole lifetime in which to
bring about change, but then she herself disappeared.
In a database of statistics
somewhere in Ottawa the number of Aboriginal women murdered in Canada increased
by one, Loretta had become a statistic.
Loretta's family, her community, and all of us are absolutely determined
that just another statistic is not what Loretta Saunders will be.
This time it will be different.
This time we act.
Loretta's sister, Delilah
Terriak, announced on Facebook that she intended to help organize a national
vigil on March 27. She wrote, While
we found my sister, she and I know of too many stories of women who will not be
laid to rest. This needs to change
now. I plan on holding a country
wide vigil and would love to have any help organizing actual gatherings in your
community. This is for all women,
not just you, me or Loretta.
In a couple of minutes I am
going to ask that we all rise and pay tribute to Loretta with a moment of
silence. Then I am going to ask that
all of us put our silence aside and raise our voices unitedly to make change.
Indigenous rights groups, the United Nations, the Premiers of all
thirteen provinces and territories, and both opposition parties in Ottawa have
called upon the federal government to launch a national inquiry on missing and
murdered Aboriginal women as reported in
The Independent on March 1, 2014.
Mr. Speaker, such an inquiry
will be one of the most painful in Canadian history.
It will reveal deep and bleeding wounds in our society.
All sorts of things will be said that will be very painful to hear.
There will be anger and outrage, harsh accusations, and scathing
indictments. The process will
unleash a tempest of fury like none that we have seen in our history.
Many political advisors and public relations professionals would probably
advise that this is absolutely, unequivocally not the thing to do, but it is the
right thing to do.
Just as South Africa needed
Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to expose the deep wounds
in that society in order for the necessary reforms and the healing to begin, so
too we need such a process to expose the wounds in our society, to change things
and to start the process of healing.
We are a long way from healing because the violence continues to be done.
The wounds continue to be inflicted.
Aboriginal women continue to
suffer from violence. They continue
to disappear. They continue to be
murdered. They continue to live in
fear that it will happen to them or their daughters or their neighbours.
All of us are culpable if we continue to ignore it.
I implore the federal
government to take a leap of faith, as truly this will require.
I implore them to ignore those who are saying no and to make this inquiry
happen. Find a way, do it now.
Let this be Loretta's legacy, the legacy of the thesis that she never got
to finish.
I am sure she would say that
far more important than the thesis she hoped to write, was the change she hoped
to inspire. Although her voice has
fallen silent, we can breathe life into her words and aspirations by taking up
the torch and bringing about the change that she hoped to inspire.
Let us rise to honour her
now with a moment of silence and then let us resolve to be silent no more.
MR. SPEAKER (Verge):
All rise.
[A moment of silence is
observed.]
MR. SPEAKER:
Members, please be seated.
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Many times when we respond
to something like this from the Premier, we start by saying we are happy to
respond, or we take the opportunity to respond, but today as I stand here in
response to this all-party resolution I cannot say it is something I am
absolutely happy to do because the story in itself is a difficult story.
It is a narrative we have heard about, we discussed and talked about for
many years now, but I do consider it a privilege that we join with the
government caucus and the Premier's resolution, and I want to thank the Leader
of the Third Party for extending this invitation.
I believe an all-party resolution is certainly very appropriate on an
issue like this.
As Leader of the Official
Opposition, we do support the call for an independent national public inquiry.
It is indeed important for us to set aside our differences on issues like
this so that we can all be united, not only as members of the House of Assembly
here in Newfoundland and Labrador but on behalf of all the residents of our
Province.
We did, a few weeks ago,
issue some press releases as critic for the Status of Women and Aboriginal
Affairs. I see the need to do this.
So it is appropriate that we do take this opportunity today to stand here
in this House and support this resolution.
Going back to July, 2013, it
was not only us here in this House today, it was many other people at the
Council Federation meeting where the Native Women's Association of Canada
recognized the need for a national inquiry.
As the Premier said, at that meeting we had thirteen premiers across our
country that supported this.
The Aboriginal women and
young girls, as the resolution says, are three-and-a-half times more likely to
be victims of violent attacks than non-Aboriginal women.
When you think of this, when you look at how disproportionate that is in
terms of numbers, realizing of all the missing women and girls in our country
today, based on the database that the Premier mentioned, it is there as a
statistic, we realize if you look at the 824 in that database, it speaks to the
Aboriginal women and young girls, that is about 25 per cent.
That is the disproportionate number we are talking about.
That is the statistic, but behind every one of those statistics is a
family. Realizing that of 25 per
cent of those, they were indeed a mother.
It is not a story that we
only hear about in the news today as we listen to this, it is a story that
affects families, that affects young children, and children who would have to
live without the experience of growing up with their mother.
It is important for us that we do stand here today united and in
solidarity as the House of Assembly to support the need for this and supporting
this all-party resolution, and the call for the national, public, independent
inquiry.
People would say: Well, here
we go again; we have another group of politicians who are asking for an inquiry.
The question would be: What is the purpose of this inquiry?
The purpose is we want to make a change, and as the Premier said this
would be difficult. The conversation
around all of this will indeed be difficult, but it is time that, as a society,
we now identify what the systemic problems are facing Aboriginal women.
What are the root causes that, indeed, we have those disproportionate
numbers? That is what this inquiry
would do. It is my privilege to be
able to stand and support this all-party resolution.
When you look at the life of
Loretta Saunders, a promising young graduate who in herself had recognized the
need to do whatever she could, really as an individual, to make a difference,
for her to go out, write a thesis, and try to identify what those root causes
are. To think now the legacy of her
death will be that she has a family member, and the Premier mentioned her
sister, but indeed her cousin as well and they put together almost 60,000
signatures on a petition that is calling for this national inquiry, all of this
to support the research that has already been done.
The answer to get to the systemic problem, as I said, will be a national
inquiry into the murders and missing young Aboriginal women.
So it is a difficult time.
I will read in the resolved part again that I do support, and as a Leader
of the Official Opposition, we do support that all parties of this hon. House
today call upon the Government of Canada to do their part to address the very
serious issue of violence against Aboriginal girls and women by launching the
national inquiry.
It is important we do this.
I believe it is also important that the Premier take the opportunity to
write the Minister of Justice, the appropriate ministers around Status of Women
federally, and indeed the Prime Minister himself.
This is not about politics; this is about identifying the root causes and
the systemic problems we have because we do need to change this so that
Aboriginal women are not living with the fear of being another victim, another
statistic, be added to the missing persons list, and indeed a murdered victim.
It is my privilege to be
here to support this all-party resolution on behalf of the Official Opposition.
Thank you for the time, Mr.
Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister Responsible for Labrador
and Aboriginal Affairs.
MR. MCGRATH:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, to stand in the
House today as the Minister Responsible for Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs it
is not a day that you want to stand to this resolution, but I feel it is
necessary to have a few words. As
difficult as it is, on February 13 we lost an individual to a very unfair
circumstance, an individual who was making a difference to Aboriginal people.
This is my second time as
the Aboriginal Minister. As an
Aboriginal Minister you sit on the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, which is a
committee that is formed by all of the Aboriginal ministers across the country.
At every meeting that I have been to, they normally meet face to face
twice a year throughout the country.
At every meeting that I have been to with the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group,
violence against Aboriginal women and children has always been one of the top
priorities to try to find a resolution for it.
I think that through the
loss of Loretta Saunders it certainly brought it to a forefront again, not just
in our Province of Newfoundland and Labrador but throughout the whole country.
I have spoken with some of my colleagues across the country and the
devastation that this senseless murder and senseless act of crime against
another Aboriginal youth almost, because Loretta was very young, has had a
terrible effect throughout the whole country.
I am proud, I guess, to be
part of a government that is standing today as three parties in a House that are
unified in getting a message sent clearly to our colleagues in Ottawa that this
does need a national inquiry. As you
heard the Premier and you heard the Leader of the Opposition allude to that,
with a national inquiry it is not always the good things you are going to hear;
but, hopefully, through a national inquiry, you do have good results.
We know that if there is a national inquiry, there will be changes made.
We know there will be very difficult and sensitive issues that will be
raised. There will be a lot of hurt
for people who still have members of their family missing and no resolutions to
those missing people still out there.
There will be anger and pain
also in a national inquiry, but I think most important with a national inquiry
what we get is that we find some closure, we find an opportunity, and we find an
opportunity for some healing. I
think that is very important.
Next week I will be meeting,
personally, with Loretta's thesis advisor, and I am hoping that her sister and
her cousin will also be at the meeting and they want to sit down and talk to me
about the work that they are going to be doing in the near future.
As we all know, there was a
petition in Ottawa last week actually, it was this week, and 300 people were
at that. It started out with about
twenty people walking up to the steps, and by the time they had unrolled the
banners and the drum dancers had played, there was over 300 people listening to
a clear message. I think the clear
message is that we need to be together on this, have that national inquiry and,
hopefully, find some answers so that we can once and for all put an end to the
violence that our young Aboriginal women and children are being subjected to
and, hopefully, find some resolutions to that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. Barbe.
MR. BENNETT:
Mr. Speaker, I, again, also speak in support of
this resolution.
Maryanne Pearce, an
Ottawa-based researcher, has developed a database with 3,329 women who have gone
missing or have been murdered, and, of these, 824 were Aboriginal women.
That means 25 per cent of the 3,000 women database has been Aboriginal
women, yet they make up only 2 per cent of the population of Canada.
The odds on being murdered if you are a woman are higher than if you are
a man, generally, and if you are an Aboriginal women, they are in the extreme.
Mr. Speaker, hopefully this
inquiry will not focus exclusively on the offenders one of whom it is reported
today, his victims are going to receive a compensation reward for a serial
murderer in British Columbia. Mr.
Speaker, I am not saying his name because I believe that too often we focus on
the name of the perpetrator and that only tends to, in their warped way, glorify
some of the acts they have done; it publicizes them and makes them prominent.
There are many of these serial murderers and mass murderers who, after
they are dealt with through the criminal justice system, in my opinion, they
ought not to be in the public domain as a name any more, simply as a person who
perpetrated certain offences.
The victims, we need to know
and not from the time a young girl is picked up hitchhiking, not from the time
that a young woman is picked up prostituting herself in some of our streets
because she is drug addicted and made vulnerable - we need to go back to the
beginning. We need to go all the way
back to the communities where these women came from.
We have some of these communities in our Province.
The Premier said yes, this
inquiry will unleash a lot of strong emotions.
In my view, it is likely that nobody will be left untouched by this.
We have issues with how we have dealt with native people, Aboriginal
people, even in our Province that tends to make them more vulnerable.
The root causes of why 25 per cent of the women who have gone missing or
have been murdered in this country in the last few decades and most of them
are only in the last two decades have been Aboriginal women.
For sure we need this
national inquiry. The national
inquiry needs to be a public inquiry; it needs to touch on all provinces.
In addition to looking at today why a person such as Loretta Saunders
finds herself a victim of crime, why is it that so many people over the entire
nation have found themselves, so many Aboriginal women and girls who have found
themselves in vulnerable situations.
The results speak for themselves.
These are horrific outcomes.
We need to know: What were
the beginning stages? How did this
begin in the first place, and what can we do to alleviate these numbers?
Not just by apprehension and enforcement, which clearly is important, but
by getting at the root causes of why these Aboriginal women were in a situation
where they could be so easily victimized by the monsters among us.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Lake Melville.
MR. RUSSELL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is an honour and a
privilege to rise today in support of this all-party resolution and to have a
few words on behalf of the people of Lake Melville, and the people indeed of
Labrador. As a young Inuk myself, as
an Aboriginal person, it becomes very clear to you in life where the matriarch
of our families stand in terms of the perspective we give to our elders.
It is something that is bred into us.
It is the way we are raised.
If you look at traditional
Inuit families going back before colonization, you see the mothers, the
grandmothers, our elders in the families.
They are the pillars behind those families and those communities, small
and isolated and rural as they may be.
What you see is the men hunting and fishing, but the social network, the
weave of the fabric of the society was maintained by the women.
That is what we are here to talk about today.
When we heard the Minister
of Environment and Conservation last week talk about how issues such as this
transcend partisan politics and the colours we fly as the banners around the
communities we represent, I was so glad to hear this is the way we were going to
stand, united. To look towards Ottawa,
and to look towards the Harper Government and demand that an inquiry be held to
get some answers, to have justice for those who have been lost along the way,
and to get some type of closure for the families involved.
Today, I would just like to
share with this House and the people who are watching at home, how it affected
our community. Loretta, as we all
know, was not the cause and the start of the call for a national inquiry, but
she is certainly that spark, the catalyst that should hopefully drive this home.
I had the pleasure to have been to two fundraisers on behalf of the
family during this whole process when we heard the bad news and all of that.
At the first fundraiser we
had hope. It was a search effort.
We all came together and played our instruments.
We took the stage. We shared
in a night of social engagement, just to throw in a few dollars and do your own
little part at a community level to make sure the family at that particular
point in time had the resources to carry on a search, to fly family members out
to Halifax, to print flyers, to put out ads in as many places as they possibly
could, to have people dedicated to organizing this on our social networks, if
you will, on Facebook, on Twitter, doing those things.
All of which we engaged in.
I will not forget it, Mr.
Speaker. You put your cellphone on
airplane mode. I was on the way back
to a fundraiser when we were sitting on the tarmac in Deer Lake and somebody I
had known from the community of Rigolet, the AngajukKak, the Mayor, Ms Charlotte
Wolfrey, a friend of mine from my previous life in the Nunatsiavut Government.
She said: Keith, did you hear?
I said, no. She told me of
the news of the update where Loretta was found.
I was floored, just like every community across Newfoundland and
Labrador, indeed, the country, because that is what Loretta has done here.
Even in the most tragic of
circumstances here she has reached out.
She has put a national spotlight back on the issue.
She was not the start for those calls for an inquiry, but she is
certainly hopefully going to be the one to bring it on home for people
everywhere.
Without belabouring the
point, I will just say in previous roles within the Nunatsiavut Government, as
Minister of Health and responsible for the Status of Women, I have seen
first-hand how these issues are still prevalent in Inuit communities today.
Even though some of the stats we have heard mentioned by other members of
the House here today talk about older numbers going back, even back into the
1970s. I believe the earliest case
from the Native Women's Association of Canada was probably in the 1940s; having
said that, we still see it today.
Due to isolation and due to
rural communities, we still have to combat these issues.
I believe it does come down to prevention.
I know this government, in our Violence Prevention Initiative, is part of
that, so making people aware this is still happening.
It is about making people aware this is unacceptable, it will not be
tolerated, and that there is hope.
I will not go on and on, but
I want to make this point, Mr. Speaker.
Prime Minister Harper has a chance now to keep hope alive in the hearts
of Aboriginal communities and for Aboriginal women across the country
everywhere. Hope that an inquiry
will be struck, it will have some meaning to it, and it will change this trend
in terms of these statistics and the fact that there is a disproportionate
amount of Aboriginal women falling victim to unfortunate circumstance.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I
will say thank you for the opportunity to speak to this.
I am fully in support of this.
I have never been more proud to be a member of this House, to see all
parties united and doing something that is genuinely right.
Now it is on Ottawa.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
It is unfortunate that we
have to stand in our House today to call for the kind of inquiry that we are
calling for. What this resolution is
dealing with is the reality that we wish did not exist, and that is the reality
of violence against women, girls, and children, and particularly in this House
today, violence against Aboriginal women, girls, and children.
I am proud of us as a House
of Assembly, as a Legislature, that we have come together to stand solidly in
support of the resolution. I do
thank the Premier and the Leader of the Official Opposition for responding
positively to my request for an all-party resolution.
I knew when I wrote the letter, I had no doubt there would be agreement,
because however much we may disagree on various political points in this House,
I know we would not disagree on the issues around violence against women, girls
and children, and particularly Aboriginal women, girls and children.
I think we should be proud
of ourselves that we are here today united in this issue and are ready to do
what the Premier has called us to do, which is not to be silent.
That means that after our debate today, we still have to stay vocal.
That after our debate today, we have to continue to let the federal
government know what we expect of them.
We have to, I think, reach out to other provinces.
We responded to what
happened in Nova Scotia. That was my
inspiration, the fact that the Legislature in Nova Scotia did what we are doing
here today, and now I hope that we will become a role model for other
Legislatures in the country. I would
love to see all provinces and territories stand and say to the federal
government we absolutely need a national inquiry.
Because, no, the answers have not been found, as I have heard said by the
federal government. The answers have
not been found. We have a major
systemic problem in our country and we have to get to the bottom of that
systemic problem, and I think a national inquiry is the only way to do it.
We have to deal with the
fact that the murder and disappearance of Aboriginal women and girls has gone on
for way too long in Canada and it has gone on because nobody spoke out about it.
I lived in Vancouver in 1991 when a young woman was murdered on Powell
Street in the downtown east side, which has almost become an iconic region in
this country when it comes to the murder and disappearance of Aboriginal women,
younger and older.
It was that death in January
of 1991 that created what became the first of many annual women's memorial
marches. I remember taking part in
some of the activities that took place on the first February 14, 1991 to mark
the memorial of the death and disappearance of Aboriginal women.
I think we all know the horrific stories that have since come out of the
downtown east side, about women who had been murdered, women who have
disappeared and the frustration of the community they were part of in trying to
get a justice system to listen to them, to pay attention to the fact that they
just did not walk off the street on their own and not come back, that some other
people had been involved, that murders had happened.
They just did not disappear accidentally.
I took part in other
memorial services as they grew across Canada. Throughout the 1990s I lived
outside of the Province and I took part in some of the memorials that happened
in Toronto, where I lived after Vancouver.
Then I came home in 1999 and was surprised to find out that in actual
fact we did not have a memorial here in Newfoundland and Labrador, that nowhere
in the Province did we take part in this February 14 date which was the time for
remembering disappeared and murdered Aboriginal women.
I remember the first time
that I saw the reminder that the memorial was taking place in different parts in
Canada and feeling sad that we did not do it here in this Province, because I
knew that we did have women who were being murdered, not just Aboriginal women
but women including Aboriginal women.
I knew the mother of one of
these Aboriginal women. She has been
mentioned already here in the House but I want to mention her in a deeper way
today. I do have her permission for
doing this. It is Mayor Charlotte
Wolfrey in Rigolet. Charlotte's
daughter Deidre was murdered in 1993.
She was actually the second young woman in that community to be murdered
by her partner. That is shocking to
think of such a small community having two murders in a fairly short period of
time. I think the first one was 1985
and then in 1993.
Charlotte Wolfrey and
another wonderful leader in Labrador, Ruth Flowers I do not think her son is
in the House today, but her son sits in the House worked together with the
community to raise the issue of what was happening and the fact that women,
particularly in Rigolet, did not feel safe, they wanted justice, they wanted
protection, and they wanted police protection.
They started with the women
throughout the North Coast of Labrador, calling for protection for Aboriginal
women, calling for protection by the presence of police.
It took seven solid years. I
asked Charlotte last evening when I was talking to her: Can you remember when
that struggle was over? She said: My
memory is that in the 2000 Budget the money was there to finally have RCMP
officers in Rigolet.
It is good that they are
there, but isn't it a shame that it took seven years of the women of the North
Coast of Labrador begging and pleading and trying to prove why this was
necessary? Do we have a problem in
this country? Yes, we do.
We have to face it. We have
to face what the systemic issues are.
They will not be pleasant as has been pointed out by the Premier and by
others. It will not be easy, but if
we do not do it, the murders will continue.
We have to stop those murders from happening.
It is important that we not
just do what we are doing here today in having the debate, but we do have to put
in writing and I am sure the Premier will be taking the leadership in doing
this of letting the federal government know what we have done here today and
in telling them that we are insistent, that we have to have an inquiry.
In February of this year though it was not done on the fourteenth, I
think there were reasons for that.
On February 3, in St. John's, we did have finally a vigil in remembrance of the
murdered and missing women and girls in Newfoundland and Labrador.
It included all that they knew at the time, not just Aboriginal.
The decision was in our small community it was good to recognize all.
We have a list going back to
1815. It was chilling that night to
be at that memorial and to hear the descriptions of the murders.
It was horrific, and we have to stop it.
We have to make sure that murders stop.
We have to continue with our initiatives with regard to violence against
women. More than that, we have to
make sure that there is no silence.
We have to make sure that murders end.
We have to make sure that if murders happen that the full justice system
finds out why the murders happen and justice is done.
What we are doing here today
is absolutely essential. What we are
doing here today I think should make us proud, but it also should make us sad.
That has already been expressed.
Just as in 1991 in Vancouver the murder of a young woman on Powell Street
in Vancouver woke people up to what was going on and broke the silence.
I think that is what Loretta Saunders death has done for us in this
Province. I think some people have
not been aware of the number of murders of women that have happened, and a lot
have not been aware of the numbers of murders with regard to Aboriginal women.
So we are helping break that silence.
We are helping shed a spotlight on an issue that is a shame on any
society, and it is part of our society.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker. Once again, thanks to
everybody in the House, that all of us can stand here together today united.
I look forward to being able to vote for this resolution.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister of Health and Community
Services.
MS SULLIVAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as expressed by
many who have stood before me in this House today, it is so unfortunate that we
have to stand here and do what we are doing today, but stand we will because we
need to. We need to ensure that all
voices are heard, as the Premier said when he spoke earlier this afternoon on
this issue. We have to break the
silence, Mr. Speaker. We have to
ensure that united united in this House, united in this Province, united in
this country we make a difference for Aboriginal women and children.
Mr. Speaker, it is
unfortunate that this is not a new problem.
This is an issue, Mr. Speaker, that I would say since Newfoundland and
Labrador has been settled, has been an issue.
It has been with us since our earliest days.
It has been with us for more than 500 years, Mr. Speaker.
It is a terrible blight on our society.
It has resulted in so much pain.
It has resulted in so much sorrow, not just for the families of those who
have been inflicted and affected, but for the friends and for our society as a
whole, Mr. Speaker.
For particular members of
our communities, particularly for Aboriginal women and children who have either
been victims of violence or somebody they have known or a friend has been a
victim of violence, it has been all of that pain that has finally raised this
issue into the public prevue. That
is where it should be, Mr. Speaker.
It should truly be under the
harsh light of the day for all of us in this Province and in this country to see
and to understand so that we consider all of the aspects that contribute to this
issue, so that we take the time to interpret what is going on to the point where
we get to the root cause of this particular issue.
That is our responsibility, Mr. Speaker.
That is the responsibility of all of us in this Province, all of us in a
civilized society who want to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to
quote some stats. I do not normally
like to do that, but there is a time for stats.
Because I believe that armed by knowledge, inspired by understanding, and
determined by a caring that all of us have when we read about and when we
understand what has happened to women and children, and particularly to
Aboriginal women and children, I believe when we take the time to focus, that is
when we will truly rise up and that is when we will make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to
quote some of the statistics I was able to find quickly this morning.
Some of them you may have heard already, but, again, I really believe
that as painful and difficult, and unpleasant as it is, we need to focus on
these stats. For each of us
individually, we need to make some determination about: What does it mean to us?
What does it mean for us?
What does it mean about our society?
Mr. Speaker, I will read
some of them. Aboriginal women are
3.5 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to be victims of violence.
Physical assault is the
most frequently reported violent offence by Aboriginal people.
Approximately 56 % of
violent incidents committed against Aboriginal people are perpetrated by someone
who is known to the victim.
Aboriginal women are more
likely to report the most severe forms of spousal violence, such as being
beaten, choked, threatened with a weapon, or sexually assaulted.
75% of survivors of sexual
assault in Aboriginal communities are young women under 18 years of age.
Almost 50 per cent of these girls are under the age of fourteen, and
nearly 25 per cent are under the age of seven.
Canadian Aboriginal women
between the ages of 25 and 44 are five times more likely than all other Canadian
women in the same age group to die as a result of violence.
Between 1997 and 2000, the
murder rate for Aboriginal women was almost seven times higher than that of
non-Aboriginal women. Mr. Speaker, I
have pages. I could go on.
How can we hear these
statistics, how can we know these facts, and not act?
We have to do what this all-party resolution is calling for, Mr. Speaker.
We have to let our voices be heard.
We have to stand with the Native Women's Association of Canada and call
for that national inquiry. I believe
the inquiry can be the first step. I
believe it can be that first critical step, Mr. Speaker, to producing a national
action plan, and it is an action plan that we need.
The federal government, we
all know, is responsible for Aboriginal people.
They really need to and ought to engage in meaningful discussions with
Aboriginal women's organizations, given the significant rates of violence I just
quoted here this afternoon, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I believe
everyone in this Province as well needs to engage in that discussion.
We cannot simply pass it off and say the federal government should do
this; the provincial government should do this.
We all need to stand and talk about the issue and ensure it is understood
from coast to coast to coast and ensure that our voice has been part of what has
made a difference for missing and murdered Aboriginal women and children.
Mr. Speaker, there has to be zero tolerance for any sort of violence, but
in this case particularly for missing and murdered Aboriginal women we have to
make it our cause to make that difference.
Mr. Speaker, I did not know
Loretta Saunders. I had never met
Loretta Saunders, but my niece is a student at Saint Mary's University in
Halifax. She is studying sociology
and criminology. Though she was not
in Loretta's classes, because she is in the first part of her program, many of
the professors she has at the university were also professors of Loretta's.
So the conversations have been had in all of the classes.
She reports that before this
actually happened and she had the sense of walking the halls of that particular
university where Loretta had been, and interacting with some of the people with
whom Loretta had been interacting, she had heard much about this but really did
not understand. She really did not
quite get it, but now that she is so close to it she understands.
She, too, like all of us, is saying: What can we do?
How can we make these differences?
Mr. Speaker, I believe the
Premier used the word implore. We
have to implore the federal government to get to work and to initiate this
national inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
Mr. Speaker, it is something that we all ought to be involved in.
I encourage everyone in this Province who is listening, who is watching
us today, and who hears what we are about in this House of Assembly today to
join with us and make this happen for murdered and missing Aboriginal women in
this Province and in this country.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au
Clair.
MS DEMPSTER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the Opposition critic for
the Status of Women, I, too, want to mingle my voice here with the voices that
we have already heard today in support of Loretta.
On March 1, on behalf of the Liberal caucus, and with the support of our
leader who was very much in favour, we put out our first press release calling
for an inquiry. I have been taking
every opportunity since that time to speak, and to do our part here to ensure
that our voices are heard on the hill in Parliament.
Shortly after my election in
July, there was a call from the native women to launch an inquiry into missing
and murdered Aboriginal women. At
that time all of the provinces bought into it, and all of the territories bought
into it. We little knew what would
happen in February, but we were fully aware back then that this was a huge
issue, that missing and murdered Aboriginal women was already a national crisis
that we were dealing with in our country.
Then we have a beautiful young woman who goes missing.
The outcome is what we had all hoped it would not be.
What that did was raised again for us those very daunting, staggering
figures that cannot be dismissed.
The executive director of
the native women's council in expressing her sentiments said that Aboriginal
women continue to be treated as second-class citizens and that Aboriginal women
often are considered disposable.
What a chilling, chilling thought.
It is important, Mr.
Speaker, for us to differentiate between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women's
experiences of victimization to better understand the extent of violence against
Aboriginal women and the context in which it occurs.
Every time I have the opportunity to speak about violence against women
in general, I certainly seize that opportunity.
I was grateful for the opportunity last night.
It is very important that we
identify that the numbers are so disproportionate when it comes to Aboriginal
women. It was a sombre, sombre
evening for me when I visited with Loretta's family in Goose Bay a couple of
Friday nights ago at that funeral home.
Any time a parent loses a child, I think there are a couple of things
they want. They want them to never
be forgotten, they want to keep their memory alive, but also they want to know
that it mattered that they lived.
I can tell you, in the midst
of that very grief stricken atmosphere, forefront on the minds of the parents
that I spoke with, and of her sisters, Delilah and Audrey, was the fact that
this has to happen a non-partisan independent national inquiry has to happen.
It is the only thing that will bring the family and members of all of the
Aboriginal groups and I am sure everybody connected who have parents, have
moms, and have aunts. It is the only
thing that will bring some solace if we get this national inquiry because
violence, Mr. Speaker, is something that affects everyone.
It affects people of all ages, race, culture, marital status, and gender.
That is why we need to keep speaking out.
We have the purple ribbon
campaigns that we have had here in Newfoundland now for four years, but aside
from all that we know that Aboriginal victims my colleague, Randy Edmunds, I
would be remiss if I did not mention that he talks about Aboriginal victims a
lot and he calls for a better justice system improvement in Labrador and the
trend of lesser sentences. Often in
Labrador we have issues around delayed justice, meaning denied justice.
Maryanne Pearce, as was
mentioned here earlier, an Ottawa-based researcher has shed light on some very,
very sobering figures of research that she has done.
In a database of 3,329 women, 824 of those were Aboriginal women.
It was early February that I
took my place and attended a provincial vigil at the Holiday Inn.
Sixty-eight names were read.
The pain, the grief, the rawness the date on the calendar might have been two
or three decades ago but to look at the faces of those families who lost their
loved ones, you could tell that in their heart it was just yesterday.
Sixty-eight names were read and there were eight, I believe, that were
read from Labrador. Of the eight
names read from Labrador, I am going to venture to guess that probably 90 per
cent of them were Aboriginal women very, very sad.
As the Leader of the Third
Party mentioned, it was also
identified how they died. It was
very, very brutal. They were not
just killed; they were killed over and over again.
These are difficult things to talk about, Mr. Speaker.
It is not pleasant, but we have to.
We have to continue now to do this for Loretta, and to do this for all of
the other ladies who lost the opportunity to go out and leave their mark and
make their contribution in society.
Sometimes we can stigmatize
a little bit in society; does it feel as tragic to the public to hear if
somebody was further down in society?
We know that was not the case with Loretta.
Here was a very bright girl.
She understood that this was an issue, and so she took it upon herself and
that is what her sister said to me when I met her that night in Goose Bay.
She said: Lisa, she knew this was a problem; we feared ourselves for our
lives lots of times. It was
bone-chilling to listen to her talk to me like that, and just in the next room
was her sister who did not get to finish her thesis.
I believe we all have a
responsibility here to ensure that we mingle our voices, and that we stay the
course, and that we remain relentless in ensuring that this national inquiry not
only happens, but that some real results come out of it; and then we need people
with the courage in influential positions in both provincial and federal
government to ensure that the recommendations are implemented.
Far too many times we have inquiries that are called and then the
information coming out of that ends up on a shelf and that benefits nobody.
Once again, on behalf of the
caucus, it has been sober conversations around our table, we certainly do
support a national inquiry, and we will continue to call for that.
Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Fortune Bay Cape La
Hune.
MS PERRY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I certainly want to join
with my colleagues today and echo their sentiments that we must have an inquiry
into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
When the Minister of Health
and Community Services spoke a little while ago, she talked about some
statistics and I am going to repeat a few of them because these statistics are
crucial. It may not be top of mind
for many of us, but the reality is Aboriginal women today are three-and-a-half
times more likely than other women to be victims of violence totally
unacceptable, Mr. Speaker.
The national statistics also
reveal that women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four are more likely
to die from this violence. Mr.
Speaker, that is absolutely staggering and certainly something we have recently
witnessed. As members have talked
about earlier, hundreds of women have been murdered in this Province and all
across this country, and we need to put a stop to this.
We cannot wait any longer for a national inquiry.
The time is now.
In those cases of Aboriginal
violence, 50 per cent of the violent incidents were committed by people who knew
them. In over 56 per cent, they knew
their perpetrator. They know the
person who victimized them. We
really need, as a population and as a society, to put an end to this, to
eradicate the days of violence against women and violence against all persons in
our society.
I am going to focus, though,
today predominately on women.
Looking at our Province alone of Newfoundland and Labrador, there is a very
alarming statistic. Seventy per cent
of women in this Province are most likely to experience victimization by a
spouse or partner. The rest are due
to an ex-spouse or common-law or a relative.
Only 5 per cent of women in most cases are unable to identify their
abuser in any way.
We all need to pay attention
to the signs that we see. If we hear
of someone using language we do not like, if we see signs of someone becoming
withdrawn, it is important for each and every one of us to speak up, to step up
and do what we can to ensure that this person is provided with the safety and
the supports they need to get out of their situations.
Far too many women in our Province live with violence every day.
In 2012, of the 5,847 crimes
committed in this Province, 54 per cent of them were against women.
During the past seven years two police forces in our Province, the RNC
and the RCMP, reported a total of over 20,000 incidents of crimes against women.
These are crimes recorded by the police as actual offences and include
crimes such as physical assault, harassment, and sexual offences.
Incredibly, in about 90 per
cent of these domestic assaults the man is the perpetrator.
Even more incredibly, only 10 per cent of these women will actually
report the victimization to police.
If the numbers and statistics we are talking about only represent 10 per cent of
what has been reported and what is known, how much is really happening and
taking place day to day in our society, Mr. Speaker?
The stats are alarming and they represent a huge societal issue that we
all have a responsibility to address.
Our ultimate goal is eradication.
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured
that today we are taking an all-party resolution, because by working
collaboratively together with government, community partners and stakeholders,
we can all make a very positive difference in not only raising awareness about
what is happening but putting an end to what is happening.
Mr. Speaker, today I wanted
to, if I may and I know we are not supposed to read directly from text but
this has been an issue that has touched my heart for many, many years.
In my District of Fortune Bay Cape La Hune, not so very long ago we had
two murder suicides over a seven-month period.
We certainly know and understand the pain that this causes to the
families and their entire communities.
We had back in 2010, a very
special event. I think it was done
province-wide in many areas by the co-ordinating committees.
We call them silent witnesses.
These were silhouettes of all the women who have lost their lives.
These women of course represent people like Loretta Saunders.
The poem here I think really
portrays what Loretta is going to continue to do in her afterlife and how she
will continue to lead us to do the right thing and achieve what she so desired.
I have no voice.
I feel no pain.
I'll stand beside you each
step of the way.
I'll see you through,
there's work left to do
So no more lives will be
lost in vain
I'll stand in the rain.
I'll stand in the rain.
I'll stand in the snow
I'll carry my message
wherever I go
To bring peace and healing
to help the world change
I'll stand in the rain.
Don't turn away, don't close
your eyes
My friends it's time to
realize
There's lots to do, reach
out your hand,
We'll heal the pain across
this land
Together we'll stand.
If we all work together,
we'll see a new day
We'll stand in the rain.
Our voices are gone,
but our spirits live on...
Mr. Speaker, Loretta
certainly has inspired us all to change this behaviour.
I join Premier Marshall and everybody here today in saying that we must
resolve to be silent no more.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's Centre.
MS ROGERS:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I am proud that we can all
stand together in this House today to deal with this very important issue.
I am proud that the Leader of the Third Party has led us to this action
in this House, to bring us to unity.
My grandmother was a Mi'kmaq
woman from Port au Port. I grew up
watching the effects of daily racism that she faced.
I also grew up watching her strength, her determination, and her pride.
When I went to school in Winnipeg in high school, I went to school also
with Aboriginal girls who had grown up in a residential school system.
We witnessed their vulnerability.
We witnessed their pain, and we witnessed the racism that they, too, grew
up with.
As a young social worker, I
worked in a residential treatment centre for juvenile girls.
Most of those girls were Aboriginal girls.
Aboriginal girls who had been held into sexual slavery, and Aboriginal
girls who were the victims of random acts of violence based on racism and based
on their vulnerabilities.
We all know the depth and
the breadth of this issue. We know
how deep it goes. We know how long
it has existed. We know how
far-reaching it is. We know the
pain, we know the loss, and we know the tragedy.
We do not need any more statistics.
We know. We see it, we hear
it, and we understand it.
I am proud of the Native
Women's Association of Canada. I am
proud of all the Aboriginal women and their supporters who have spoken out, who
have cried out in public, who have demonstrated, who have walked for miles, who
have written briefs, who have written letters, and who have talked to their
politicians; the Aboriginal women who have called out the names of their
mothers, their sisters, their aunts, and their grandmothers who have been
beaten, who have been raped, and who have been murdered; the Aboriginal women
who have been courageous enough to tell their own stories or the stories of the
women they have loved who have gone missing or murdered.
We must listen.
We must listen. We must
listen to their pain. We must listen
to their truth. We must listen to
their wisdom. We must listen to
their expertise. We must listen and
respect their courage.
The Native Women's
Association of Canada in a press release in responding to the Report of the
Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women wrote, The Native
Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) wishes to express its disappointment and
frustration at the report recently released by the
Special Parliamentary Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women
that was touted to be the panacea for addressing the high rates of violence
against Aboriginal women and girls, including their disappearances and murder.
In spite of the call by many witnesses, who appeared before the
Committee, to hold a National Public Inquiry and to implement a National Action
Plan, their recommendations fail to appear in the Final Report.
They also go on to say,
Early on, the Special Parliamentary Committee on Violence Against Indigenous
Women and Girls offered the role of a special advisor and expert witness to NWAC
but this role fell short of NWAC's expectations vis-ΰ-vis their participation.
Instead, NWAC lobbied the Committee to be granted ex-officio status to
assist the Committee in developing its work plan, identifying and questioning
key witnesses and to participate in developing the final report.
Even as a non-voting member of the Committee, NWAC with its extensive
knowledge and experience on the issue of violence against women and girls would
have been a valuable asset throughout the Committee's mandate.
Consequently, NWAC's involvement with the Committee has been minimal.
They finish by saying, It
is truly unfortunate that this opportunity has been lost; on paper it looks like
we are the special advisor and expert witness, but what we received was tokenism
and no real engagement,' stated President Audette.
The committee report does contain a few nuggets of hope, but there is no
commitment to substantial change and no new funding dollars to ensure
appropriate actions are taken.'
What have we learned, Mr.
Speaker? We have learned again that
women who have been working in the field, who have been courageous enough,
determined enough, passionate enough to commit themselves to this kind of work
have not been heard. There is more
for us to learn and we must listen.
We must listen to what Loretta Saunders so courageously began.
In an article written by her
thesis advisor Darryl Leroux, he said, The last time I met with Loretta
Saunders, two weeks ago, I had never felt more inspired and proud of a student.
She had sent me her thesis proposal a week before, and at nearly 11,000
words (28 pages), it was 3 times what the department expected of honours student
proposals. Beyond its remarkable
length, Loretta carefully presented her research in what I recognized as a most
beautifully written and cared-for assignment I had ever read in seven years of
university teaching
.
He was listening; he was
hearing Loretta. We must believe
that we can do this; we must. The
problem is so big but we must believe that we can make a change.
After her murder, Loretta's
cousin wrote, It boils down to a simple question.
Does the Canadian Government think it's a problem that Aboriginal women
are 5-7 times more likely to die from a violent attack?
Right now, we don't know. I'm
praying that Loretta's death and tens of thousands calling for the inquiry will
finally move them to do the right thing.
I travelled from Labrador
to St. John's with Loretta when she left home.
We talked about our Inuit roots, our family and our pasts and how we
looked at our future as an opportunity to create change and different more
healthy cycles and family patterns.
We spoke about the topic of aboriginal women going missing and being killed.
We joked about how she would change the world, but it wasn't really a
joke at all. Loretta HAS changed the
world and I'm determined that Loretta will continue to change the world.
Mr. Speaker, I am hoping
that the actions that we take here in our House today will also be about being
determined to change the world and making the world a better and a safer place
for Aboriginal women and girls, and then consequently making the world a better
and a safer place for all women and girls, and then consequently for all people.
As the anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so
must we as a country call for our own, and we must call for it with a sense of
urgency, for this is a crisis that needs immediate immediate action.
Let us be led by Aboriginal women and their communities as we gather the
truth, as we gather the truth that tells the story, the stories that will compel
us to action because dialogue is not enough.
We have to have change on both personal and systemic levels so that
perhaps one day we may reach reconciliation.
I would like to end, Mr.
Speaker, with a quote from Arundhati Roy, who wrote: Another world is not only
possible, but she is on her way, and on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for Placentia St. Mary's.
MR. F. COLLINS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I also want to offer my
words of support to the previous speakers on this significant, very important
resolution. I thought I would take a
few minutes, and I will be very brief, just to give a little background on how
this whole request for a national inquiry has evolved over the last couple of
years.
Back in 2006, the First
Ministers of Canada in British Columbia gave direction to establish a National
Aboriginal Women's Summit in Canada to give direction on strategies with regard
to the issues and concerns of Aboriginal Women.
As a matter of fact, the first such summit was hosted right here in
Newfoundland in Corner Brook in 2007.
The second one was in Yellowknife a year later.
I had the opportunity to attend the next two in Winnipeg in 2012-2013.
These summits were hosted by the hon. Eric Robinson, who is the Minister
of Aboriginal Affairs for Manitoba, and Ms Michθle Audette, who is the President
of the Native Women's Association of Canada.
The thrust and focus of
those summits was to recommend to the federal government that there be a
national inquiry into murdered and missing women in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, various numbers have been used, 600 to 800 murdered and
missing women. The experiences we
have had in this part of the country, in Eastern Canada you have to remember
that these experiences are amplified hundreds of times over in Western Canada,
and it was Western Canada that was driving this particular issue.
Mr. Speaker, at that first
summit, it was a complete eye opener for me.
It was an emotional experience that I have never had before and one that
I will always remember. We had
participants in that summit, in that conference, giving their personal
experiences about missing siblings, missing daughters, missing mothers in
British Columbia and Western Canada.
Having them pour out these heart wrenching stories to the conference, it had an
impact on me and an impact on the other people around the table like I have
never seen before.
Mr. Speaker, the result of
that conference was not a request for a national inquiry.
As much as the Aboriginal people there were so disappointed at the time,
primarily because at the time there was already an inquiry ongoing in British
Columbia; British Columbia was conducting its own inquiry and the final report
had not been released from that.
As well, there were certain
parameters. We were not sure of the
parameters around the inquiry and what impact it would have on various
provinces. So we came out of that
summit directed to go back to our governments, our Premiers, and get further
direction for the next summit, which was held a few months later back in
Winnipeg again.
This time, Mr. Speaker, at
the second summit there was no hesitation.
After the presentations were made it was decided, much to the relief of
the Aboriginal leader there, that there would be a request to the federal
government to conduct a national inquiry into murdered and missing women in
Canada. Mr. Speaker, I was pleased
to be able to come back and sign off on that, have government sign off on that
request and be part of the national movement and be part of that national
discussion.
Mr. Speaker, it was felt, as
a result of that second summit, that this was not an Aboriginal tragedy.
This was a national tragedy, and a national disgrace that we had reached
this point.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to
give that little background because today this resolution is a fitting follow up
to what has gone on so far. It is
unfortunate and it is tragic that we had to have the experiences of Loretta
Saunders in order to instigate that, but the fact is we are here today as a
whole, the House as a whole, as a three-way party resolution, that we add our
support to this resolution.
Hopefully, it will be another step in making the federal government listen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR. MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have to say again, when
you serve in the House of Assembly sometimes you have very emotional days, as
this one is. I have to say it is one
of the most pleasurable days too, at the same time, to be working hand in hand
with government and the Premier for introducing the resolution with the Official
Opposition, and for seconding the motion at the same time working with our
Leader, Ms Michael, who presented the idea to government.
It is a pleasure to be
speaking hand in hand with my fellow members of the House of Assembly.
Again, this is going to be one of the days I think that we will all
remember. The day when we spoke
about the murdered and missing, and at the same time remember some great people
who have gone on before us, including Loretta Saunders.
Again, after hearing the
other members of the House of Assembly here today, I am quite honoured.
I keep asking myself the question, and I keep coming back to the question
ever since well I guess even before Loretta's passing, when we first all heard
the calls for a national inquiry into the murdered and missing.
What is it going to take for
the federal government to stand up and say, yes?
What is it going to take for our Prime Minister to stand up and say, yes,
we will do this? We will cut our
population and bleed what is there harming us at the same time and to bring
reconciliation to the country again, because as long as he says no, we will
forever fester in the knowledge that we are still seeking answers.
We are going to be asking ourselves, I fear, for a while yet until they
begin to understand.
As my fellow member of the
House of Assembly for St. John's Centre just said, the great country of South
Africa bled itself and sat down and reconciled with itself that something bad
happened. That something nasty was
there within its history. After it
got rid of apartheid it met the challenge and it refused to put down the
challenge.
That great Archbishop
Desmond Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the late 1980s,
early 1990s, and peeled back as painful as it was the truth and exposed it
for what it was. Now we have a
country that has started healing as a result of that.
The South African name, the country has become great again, all over
again. Not only because of Mandela,
but because the truth was exposed.
I want to bring out the
points as well that for every crime that has happened and for every Aboriginal
person who has disappeared or has been murdered as a result, somebody knows
something. Do you know who I feel
for in this? It is not just the
families that I think of, it is the police forces who investigate cases like
this and who have to long live with the memory of the case that is unsolved or
because they have had to go and attend to a crime scene like this.
We have to put a stop to it.
What makes it keep
happening? I do not know, but
somebody knows something. Hopefully,
in spite of all these cases that remain unsolved and people murdered, nobody
convicted for their crime, somebody may pick up the phone and justice will be
served one day. Hopefully, the
justice we are serving today will be presented again to the people of Canada one
of these days and represented by the Prime Minister who is going to say yes to
this. We will continue to press on
for it.
What can we as people do?
Some people sitting at home today may be wondering what to be doing to
help us as legislators, to help us as MHAs, government, Official Opposition,
Third Party, call us what you will.
It takes nothing to contact your Member of Parliament.
You can rip off the top of a cereal box and ask the Prime Minister today.
Drop it in the mail. Ask the
Prime Minister to get the inquiry on the go.
It costs nothing.
It does not cost you a stamp
to get in contact with your member, (inaudible) off to the Prime Minister.
That is probably one of the best ways to do it.
Send a message as legislators here in the Province.
Perhaps they could send us a message too at the same time, but I think we
have already gotten the message as members of the House of Assembly.
Our own constituents tell us every day, we want to get an effective
message to the Prime Minister on this issue and help bring resolution to the
cause.
We stand with the Official
Opposition, we stand with the government on this, and we stand with the people
of Newfoundland and Labrador on this issue.
Mr. Prime Minister, we want that inquiry and we want it now, the same as
other provinces and other people who have come forward.
I will leave you with a
little line, it is not very often, I guess, sometimes when you hear a member
speak, sometimes he sparks something in your mind and you have to grab a pen and
paper and write. I will leave you
with something that just came about because I have the note.
The Member for Lake Melville, for some reason, sparked this in my mind
and I wrote it down. It goes
something like this because he was talking about women being the fabric of
society. It goes like this: While
our women are the fabric of our society, within action we all stand with fabric
torn. While we wait for others to
react and help mend, another into trouble can be borne.
Mr. Speaker, I support this
call for a national inquiry. I stand
with my brothers and sisters in this House of Assembly and do the same thing.
Thank you very much.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Minister Responsible for the Status
of Women.
MS SHEA:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as you see here
today all parties are in favour of an inquiry into missing and murdered
Aboriginal women in Canada. As
people spoke today and particularly people like the Member for Lake Melville
who is from the same community as Loretta Saunders, this is still very raw in
everyone's mind what happened to Loretta.
We see the emotion and we hear it from a number of members here today.
As much as emotion plays into the debate, the need for the inquiry is not
just based on emotion; it is also based on some facts and some statistics that
really outline why we need to dig deeper and we need to understand the depths of
the problems that we are talking about.
Aboriginal women have a
higher rate of victimization compared to non-Aboriginal women, both in their
spousal relationships and non-spousal violence.
Aboriginal women experience higher and more severe forms of violence in
intimate relationships than non-Aboriginal women.
When we use words like severe forms of abuse, people are probably
wondering: What are you talking about?
What does that mean? When you
put the words to it, Mr. Speaker, it means they are more often sexually
assaulted, beaten, choked, and threatened with a gun or with a knife.
Aboriginal women are disproportionately represented as homicide victims
in Canada.
We always look for the
explanations of these findings. Why
is it that Aboriginal women experience violence more in and out of relationships
than other women in Canada? There
are some explanations and we have some broad socio-economic factors that affect
this. We look at issues sometimes
we look for answers, whether it is in loss of culture, residential school
experiences, economic and social inequalities, or demographic differences, and
in particular the fact that we have a faster growing youth population in our
Aboriginal communities than we have in some of our other communities.
When we look at these
explanations and we try to find some level of explanation or be able to answer
our questions, all of these socio-economic factors need to be brought together.
Because no one factor provides the explanation to help us explain why
Aboriginal women are more susceptible or are victimized more than non-Aboriginal
women, but it is being able to put a culmination of all these different factors
together and lay that over some of the institutions they use when they need
services.
Aboriginal women killed by a
spouse in a relationship account for about 4 per cent of the murders in Canada,
and that is in relation to the population.
So it would be the same for Aboriginal versus non-Aboriginal when it
comes to the homicide rates, but Aboriginal women account for at least 11 per
cent of the dating homicides in Canada and 10 per cent of the non-intimate
partner homicides in Canada as well, their victims.
As we look at the different forms of violence, whether it is a homicide
within a spousal relationship, in a dating relationship, or no relationship, we
start to see that Aboriginal women outpace other women in Canada as far as being
represented as victims in these types of homicides.
One of the shortcomings when
we look at the stats and we start quoting the 10 per cent and the 11 per cent is
11 per cent of all homicide cases in the survey, where the stats came, from the
Aboriginal identity was unknown.
What that means is it is very likely that the Aboriginal women are represented
more than the statistics can tell.
We should be able to
understand that as a Province of Newfoundland and Labrador simply by the fact
that we have so many women today who would be recognized as having their status
as Qalipu; however, if we go back into the history of the homicides in
Newfoundland and Labrador, we would have no way to know if the female victims
were Qalipu or Mi'kmaq in origin. We
would probably have more ability to look at the Inuit or Innu, but I would think
if we looked back over our statistics and we looked at the women who lost their
lives over the years we would probably have a higher rate of Aboriginal women
victims than what we know today.
We also know that the
severity of violence suffered by Aboriginal women is far greater than
non-Aboriginal women. What that
means is that if there is an act of violence towards an Aboriginal woman, it is
more likely that level of violence led to some level of injury which was greater
than what would be experienced by other women in our society.
There are a number of
stereotypes. There are a number of
ways that are systemic of how Aboriginal women have been stereotyped and are
subjected to racist views that lead to some of these statistics.
The racist and sexist stereotypes deny the dignity and the self-worth of
Aboriginal women. What that means is
that because of these long-standing stereotypes, we often think less of
Aboriginal women in our communities.
As a result, they are more likely to be a target.
Mr. Speaker, these racist
and sexist attitudes need to be challenged.
They need to be challenged in an inquiry that we hold into murdered and
missing Aboriginal women. Because if
these attitudes are being held by society, we need to come to grips with these
attitudes. Until we become aware of
them and we address them and we understand the implications, they will never
change.
We need to look at all
systems and how they are responding when Aboriginal women are looking for
supports. This could include housing
services, child protection, addictions, health care, mental health services, and
policing services. We need to be
able to see that in all of these services and there are even more is there
any way that racist or sexist stereotypes are pervasive or in any way affect how
women receive services? If we can
start digging and look at this, we will be able to come to some level of
agreement on what it means to move forward.
The inherent and systemic
biases needs to be removed; it needs to be removed right across this country and
at all level of services. We need to
examine and no longer accept the inequalities, we need to see that this is a
national issue, and we need to work with all the other provinces and the federal
government to ensure that the solutions that we find are not just localized to
one province or another. We need to
recognize that these issues are prevalent across Canada and we need to ensure
that any solutions also need to be enacted across the entire country, as well.
Mr. Speaker, this government
has had a Violence Prevention Initiative for a number of years, with six
strategic priorities. One of the
strategic priorities is increasing awareness and attitudinal change, and that
gets right at what I have been talking about when I talk about the racist or the
sexist attitudes that may underline some of the statistics when we talk about
violence towards Aboriginal women.
We need to ensure that we have social awareness campaigns that people are aware
of violence, they are able to identify what it means, and they are able to
understand that it is wrong. It is
not a joke, it is not a laughing matter, and they need to be able to deal with
it.
Another strategic priority
is increasing community participation.
We have ten regional co-ordinating committees that help us with the
activities of the Violence Prevention Initiative.
What that means is that we recognize our local communities have the
expertise and what it takes to understand their area, understand the violence
that is happening and what they need to do to address it to effectively address
a message. Mr. Speaker, we
understand that our Aboriginal communities play an important role in this as
well.
Another one of our strategic
priorities is supporting Aboriginal women and children.
We have $200,000 dedicated and we have eleven projects where our
Aboriginal communities apply for grants so that they can do anti-violence or
violence prevention activities in their local areas.
We have also had, for a
number of years, an annual Aboriginal women's conference.
It started in 2006. I
understand the planning is underway now.
I have had the benefit of attending a number of these difference
conferences when they are held throughout the Province, Mr. Speaker.
As we come together in our
Legislature to say that we want to have a national inquiry on murdered and
missing Aboriginal women, we understand that there is really only one side to
this issue. No one is going to argue
that we do not need an inquiry. I
would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that this is not if there is going to be an inquiry,
this is about when there is going to be an inquiry.
The need is not going to change until we understand the issues and we are
able to provide some answers.
I hope that the Government
of Canada acts swiftly so that we can have this inquiry because, as I said, it
is not about if, but it is about when.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I
just want to speak about the person who has really been the catalyst to move us
in this direction at this time; it is Loretta Saunders.
Loretta Saunders was from Happy Valley Goose Bay.
She was attending university in Halifax.
She was doing an honour thesis on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
Mr. Speaker, she did not get a chance to finish her work; however, if we
all work together we will finish the work of Loretta Saunders.
Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER:
If the hon. the Premier speaks now, he will close
the debate.
The hon. the Premier.
PREMIER MARSHALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to express my
appreciation to all members of the House who have taken part in this debate.
What we have had here is something that does not happen too often in this
House that we have united; all parties have united in common agreement in
seeking this inquiry. Our voices
have been joined and it is now time to join our votes and pass this resolution
and then pass it on to the Government of Canada so they are well aware of the
unanimous feelings of all members of this House of Assembly.
MR. SPEAKER:
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the
motion?
All those in favour, aye'.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, nay'.
Carried.
The hon. the Government
House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the
Minister of Environment and Conservation, that the House now resolve itself into
a Committee of the Whole to consider Bill 2 respecting the granting of Interim
Supply to Her Majesty.
MR. SPEAKER:
The motion is that the House now resolve itself
into a Committee of Supply to consider Bill 2, and that I do now leave the
Chair.
All those in favour, aye'.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, nay'.
Carried.
On motion, that the House
resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on Supply, Mr. Speaker left the
Chair.
Committee of the Whole
CHAIR (Littlejohn):
Order, please!
We are considering the
related resolution and Bill 2, An Act For Granting To Her Majesty Certain Sums
Of Money For Defraying Certain Expenses Of The Public Service For The Financial
Year Ending March 31, 2015 And For Other Purposes Relating To The Public
Service.
The hon. the Minister of
Finance the Minister of Education, I am sorry.
MR. JACKMAN:
I am not the Minister of Finance, Mr. Chair, and
I do not want it either.
Mr. Chair, I suppose I will
put it this way. I am in a bit of a
difficult situation right now as we are going back to Interim Supply following
the debate no, it is not debate the conversation, I will put it that way,
that just happened around the call for this national inquiry.
You are sitting here and you have your BlackBerry, and you take a look at
the Twitter messages. I am going to
reference TelegramJames. I do not
want to inflate his ego too much, but I am going to take a look at him.
He is saying that three parties in this House can get along.
The roles that we carry out
in this House are a wonderful part of democracy.
Sometimes I am certain people will stand up and say: You know, I do not
think Minister Jackman likes the Member for St. John's North.
Now, that is absolutely not true.
We do our roles. He is in on
the opposite side being a critic for Education, and he has his role to carry
out.
I will remind some of the
people who follow it in the public or who look at it through the television
screens that off of these screens our roles are often quite the opposite.
I have a respect for the Member for St. John's North, and I would hope
that he respects my role as Education Minister because both of us want the same
thing. We want what is best for the
students of this Province. We want
what is best for education in this Province.
Mr. Chair, I am going to
take you back a few years now to when I was in university.
I can remember one professor bringing in a document at one point.
He wanted to point out to us that once we got out in the schools in our
classes we will have teachers, doctors, tradespeople, lawyers and ministers
not the ministers who are in this House, I call them the clergy but they would
have ministers but also that in your class you would have people who could end
up being murderers, robbers, thieves, and all of that.
You have that broad spectrum
in your classes starting at a very young age and eventually they develop into
different roles. I guess it has been
a part of the education system for the longest time, ever since education,
schools and everything have been established.
The bottom line as to the role of teachers in our schools and I guess us
as individuals in society, is that bottom line of respect.
Anybody who has been
following I will say my appearances or the things that we put out, the documents
that we have put out as a Department of Education, and from the Department of
Education previous to my coming into the ministry let's talk a little bit
about the Safe and Caring Schools.
We can have the debate about what the roles of teachers are, the numbers that
are required and everything else.
Look, the bottom line in anti-bullying and having our school system being the
best that we can is that one underlying word and that is respect.
We see it in our ads: Teach
him how to respect women that ad that is on TV.
Mr. Chair, I have four sons and a daughter.
I would hope that my sons have learned from my example the respect that I
have for their mother, and the respect that I have for their wives, my
daughters-in-law. They all have
different personalities and sometimes each will rub the other's nerves, but the
bottom line, Mr. Chair, is that bottom line of respect.
What are we doing?
I do not care what anyone says I do not care what anyone says you
look in our schools today and take a look at the education the young people are
getting around that message of respect, acceptance, and understanding.
There will always be the challenges of the few and that is what this
discussion today was about, that we have to find our way to a place where we see
incidents of this nature unfortunately I think these types of incidents will
happen again, but we have to make sure we do everything we possibly can to
counter these types of activities.
All we have to do is take a
look at the impact this has had on the people of this Province and the people of
this country. I have to tell you,
when we followed the story, it just gnaws at your heart and your psyche; it is
something that bothers you, that ugly side of society.
As minister, I have to say I
have been into a number of schools.
I would say I have probably been in ten to fifteen in the last year.
When I go into a gymnasium, I see the majority of the students that are
wearing pink t-shirts. We look at a
principal who stands in front of 400 and 500 students and says to them: Okay,
what is our main message? You get
students who are echoing back: It is about respect; it is about understanding
that you do not bully the person next to you and that you do not want anything
done to others that you would not want to have done to you.
All of these messages are coming across and I have to just stand and
commend the teachers who are in the system, who are working day in and day out
to promote that message across their entire curriculum.
Now, it is a never-ending
struggle, there is no doubt about that.
We have to keep on preaching that message.
We have to start it as early as we can.
We continue to preach it. We
deliver it in the schools and you take it into the home.
I learned a lesson quite a
while ago. I was a member of a
volunteer fire department. This is
going back a ways, too; it was when they were trying to get smoke detectors into
the homes. One of the things they
had trouble with was getting the smoke detectors into some homes.
So where did the provincial fire department go and look?
They said, let us start with kindergarten to Grade 3, the reason being
they knew that if miss or sir the teachers said that a smoke detector had to
go into the school, those students were going to go home and they were going to
insist that those smoke detectors went into the home.
They were highly successful.
My point in telling that
story is that young children respect and take the messages of their teachers
very seriously. As we move further
into the Safe and Caring Schools Initiative, then we know the teachers will
continue to preach and get that message out there.
I have to say that every
school I have gone into, you can see how the messaging is taking effect.
You can see their messages.
They are on their walls. They are on
whiteboards in their classrooms.
They are in the corridors. It is no
trouble to see. I can remember the
one I went to, the school in Harbour Breton, and right in the corridor was
five, I believe it was their key messages that they wanted their students to
abide by, and if I go to Beachy Cove, when I was there, and when I was in Grand
Falls, Exploits Valley High. So
right from the youngest of age to the oldest of our students, they are getting
that message.
I was so pleased on Pink
Shirt Day when I went to a restaurant out in the local area to see a young child
there with their pink shirt on, but also to see a senior high young girl who had
the pin in her lapel on Pink Day.
The message is getting out there. It
is about our Safe and Caring Schools, and today I kind of speak to the message
in a tone I do not think we normally see in this House of Assembly.
I just want to say to James,
TelegramJames, that democracy is at work and doing quite well.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Member for St. John's North.
MR. KIRBY:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to say in
response to the minister, I certainly respect him and the work he has to do as
Minister of Education. I know he has
to make difficult decisions, and while we disagree often, my disagreement with
him is certainly not personal. It is
based on our policy differences and maybe a difference in perspective for a
variety of different reasons.
In the spirit of positivity,
before I get into some other more gritty detail, I just wanted to thank the
Minister of Education for helping out a school in my district recently, Leary's
Brook Junior High, where there are a number of students who could avail of the
use of a sport wheelchair. They had
borrowed one from Easter Seals, which is also in my district.
The minister was kind enough to listen to administrators at the school
and help us out.
It is funny, last week I was
taking the minister to task, and after I sat down I went around the Speaker's
Chair and I said: I want to thank you very much because I was at the breakfast
program at Leary's Brook this morning, and I mentioned it to a young woman who
is in a wheelchair there, a student, and she was so delighted to hear this.
Then I said to him: Now, thank you very much, I have to go back over and
start at you again once I stand up.
So it is the nature of debate; we certainly disagree, but the minister has been
helpful. I can go into details on a
number of other occasions where he has certainly done things that are very
positive for schools in my district.
I wanted to put that out there.
Now, on another matter, I
listened to the minister last week when he spoke in debate on this particular
bill, and I will quote the minister.
He says, I would just like to take us through where we are.
I am the minister for kindergarten to Grade 12 and also the minister
responsible for the education component from zero up to the time that students
enter kindergarten.
Of course, that is accurate,
there is no question about that, but there is also a responsibility that comes
under the Minister of Education that he did not mention at any point in his
speech, and I can understand why. I
think what has happened with the public library system in Newfoundland and
Labrador is perhaps somewhat unmentionable in the context of the positive
message the minister was hoping to deliver.
I had received
correspondence from an organization with an interest in the state of public
libraries in the Province earlier last month.
They were imploring government to restore the funds that were cut to
libraries in Newfoundland and Labrador last year.
We know rural communities rely on libraries.
We know those young children the minister is talking about, their parents
rely on libraries.
I have personal experience
with this myself because my son is just turning three years old in May, and I
know the number of trips we have made down to the library to get children's
books, because you would have to have a small fortune really to keep up with the
books that you go through in the run of a week.
It is not just books. It is
other tools, if you will; there are other tools you can take out of the library
these days, whether it is DVDs and other sorts of learning materials.
Libraries are incredibly
crucial for people with young children.
Oftentimes there are people in our communities who have young children;
they are starting out, they have student loans, they have mortgages, they have
child care expenses, and they really cannot afford to purchase all of those
learning materials, storybooks, and so on themselves.
So libraries are extremely crucial in our Province today.
Last year, a total of $1.2
million $1.2 million was taken out of the library system.
That resulted in a significant loss of personnel, of managers, of
librarians, a number of IT personnel, and other personnel at libraries.
I remember sitting here or maybe it was over there last year when the
Budget was being delivered. The
Premier stood there and she said: We will get more with less.
I stood up and I looked at the Premier and I said no, we cannot get more
with less when it comes to our libraries.
I see the minister.
The minister spends a lot of time and as I said the last time I got up
to speak on this, the minister is very privileged, in my opinion.
He gets to go out and he gets to see the good work that our teachers are
doing in our schools by hook or by crook.
Sometimes things are almost like they are duct-taped together.
They are doing the best they can, extraordinary work under sometimes
difficult circumstances, children with increasingly complex needs, all included
in classrooms that require differentiated instructions.
That is whereby the teacher has to deliver curriculum in multiple ways,
sometimes at different levels to students, all in one classroom.
The minister gets out to observe this frequently across the Province.
I try to spend as much time
as I can working with and speaking with teachers, administrators, and staff in
the schools in St. John's North, and so I really envy the minister that he gets
to go across Newfoundland and Labrador and observe the good work, but also the
problems first-hand. That is
incredibly important for somebody who has to do that job.
I know the minister is often
out reading to children and so on.
There was an article last year, I think this was the CBC, just observing the
dichotomy of politicians, ministers of the Crown reading, celebrating, and
promoting literacy amidst the cuts we saw to public libraries in Newfoundland.
Not only that, because as I mentioned the last time I was up, we also saw
cuts to learning resource teachers as well.
Learning resource teachers
are sort of a modern-day, highfalutin way of saying librarians.
Learning resource teachers deal with the books in the library, but they
also deal with a lot of the information technology and twenty-first century
teaching tools in our schools. They
were cut as well. We have one now
for every 1,000 students instead of one for every 750.
That has significant impacts on the delivery of education in a classroom
in the context of cuts to public libraries.
None of this really should
be surprising because by and large literacy in many ways has fallen off of this
government's agenda. We also saw at
least a very significant pause in anything being done with the Strategic Adult
Literacy Plan that was promised back in 2007.
I do not know how many ministers have gone through that portfolio since
that was promised. Not much has been
done in that area.
We regularly see
international test scores that say we have serious problems with literacy in
this Province. Of course, a lot of
that comes from the structure of our economy.
There was a time when people did not have to achieve higher levels of
education in order to get a half-decent job.
I remember when I was growing up a lot of the people who I went to school
with quit school in Grade 9 and went to work down to the plant.
You cannot really do that the same way as you used to be able to.
I went up to the Legislative
Library and I had a look around. We
did have a strategic literacy plan in this Province.
We had a very well-thought-out, well-researched literacy plan for this
Province in 2000 and it just fell off the agenda.
I think this is the time; this year is the time to put literacy back on
the agenda. Let us put literacy back
on the agenda with this Budget this year.
This is an excellent opportunity, going into the election now the fall, I
say to members opposite.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
I remind the hon. member
that his time has expired.
MR. KIRBY:
Put literacy back on the agenda.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
CHAIR:
The hon. the Minister of Finance.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS JOHNSON:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, it is a pleasure
to rise again in this House and speak to Interim Supply.
I did bring it in last week, but before I get into that, I would like to
speak about the debate we did earlier today.
First and foremost I would
like to send my condolences to the family and friends of Loretta Saunders.
I have been in this House almost ten and a half years now and we have had
some moments where the debates have been very moving, but today was certainly
one that will remain with me for a long time.
It is such a tragedy to see such a young, bright female pass at such an
early age with so much to look forward to in life.
That was all stripped away, Mr. Chair.
It is really good to see all
parties on one side here today calling on the federal government to do an
inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
It is really hard to move from that debate back into Interim Supply and
speak about the economy and all of the things that I, as Minister of Finance,
have to speak to, but I did want to certainly send out my condolences before I
switched gears, Mr. Chair.
Most of Interim Supply now
has been taken up by the Minister of Education and his critic, the Member for
St. John's North, so I thought before I got into speaking about some economic
indicators I wanted to continue the piece around education because it is so
important. Family is critical and
certainly education comes very closely behind.
We strive to ensure that from birth onward, right throughout the entire
continuum, that as a government we do what we can for our children right from
birth.
I personally have seen the
kits that are given out at the public health nurse and the clinics.
My daughter recently had her preschool checkup and she absolutely loves
the two books that were included with the kit.
We read them over and over and over again.
As educators will tell you, that is the best way for the children to
learn. In very short order they are
reading the books to you. They do
not get every word, but they certainly understand and can memorize a lot of what
is in it, and there is no better way of learning.
Those kits are absolutely fabulous.
I have to commend the minister and the department on the work.
Also, the other things in the kits, in terms of the modeling clay and all
sorts of educational things, are not only educational for my child; it was
actually educational for me as a parent as well, so great kits.
We see what we do for age
zero to three, and then of course from K-12.
Our government has made such significant investments into education, and
so we should, Mr. Chair. Since 2003,
it is amazing to note that our spending has increased by 61.4 per cent just in
education in K-12 alone, and that includes capital infrastructure.
We have made extraordinary investments in the K-12 system, particularly
around infrastructure in our Province.
It is always important that we remind the public and we also remind
ourselves, sometimes, but we often forget, with so many things happening and so
many initiatives being brought in, what it is we have done.
It is really interesting to
note, Mr. Chair, that since 2004 thirteen new schools have opened and eight more
are under construction or in the planning phases.
These are some of the areas where they have opened or are under
construction: we have projects in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Port Hope Simpson,
L'Anse-au-Loup, Baie Verte, Carbonear, St. Anthony, Port Saunders, Conception
Bay South, Portugal Cove-St. Phillip's, Paradise, Torbay, Gander, and the list
goes on and on.
It is not just the new
schools that are under construction, but also major school extensions.
Since 2004 we have completed twenty-six major school extensions.
These are redevelopments and renovation projects, both in rural and urban
parts of the Province. Certainly
more of those are under way as well.
So, Mr. Chair, when it comes
to our investment into the K-12 system, it is certainly unprecedented in terms
of the numbers I have seen over the history of Newfoundland and Labrador being a
Province. It really illustrates our
commitment, the minister's commitment, the Premier's commitment, and our
government's commitment, to young people of this Province.
We want to ensure they have safe and healthy environments in which to
learn, and that is so critical, having a safe environment around you.
As we all know, it is important to have a safe home to live in, it is
important to have a safe workplace, and it is critically important to have a
safe school to learn in.
Just last year alone was
another extraordinary year for educational infrastructure in our Province.
We allocated $102 million in school infrastructure, and this includes
$3.5 million for major capital projects, $76.9 million for continuing projects,
and $21.4 million for repairs and maintenance.
That was just last year alone, Mr. Chair.
As we all know, the Budget is coming soon and we will see where we go in
terms of investments as we go forward with schools.
I just wanted to have a few
words around education because I really, truly believe that in order for society
as a whole to benefit both from a social and economic perspective there is no
better investment we can make than in our young people, particularly in the
areas of education.
To switch gears just a
little bit, Mr. Chair, I had the opportunity last night to speak at the
university to a Master of Employment Relations program.
There were some MBA students in the room and I understand the Member for
St. John's North was there a couple of weeks ago.
I believe it is so critically important as politicians, as government
members, and as Opposition to speak to young people, to speak to university
undergrads, and to speak to graduate students because they are the leaders of
tomorrow. They will be making the
decisions and it is important we have this dialogue with them.
They were very interested in the prospects for them when they graduate
and what is happening in the Province.
I talked about a lot of the economic indicators and they were quite
pleased to see how we have been doing as a Province since 2009.
As I said, we have said this
information before but it is important to keep saying it because this is really
remarkable stuff. When you look at
from 2003 to 2013, capital investment in the Province has increased by 232 per
cent. In terms of employment,
employment has increased over the last decade by 9.9 per cent.
Mr. Chair, in response to
the Speech from the Throne the other day, the Leader of the Opposition said that
we are the highest in Canada when it comes to our unemployment rate.
Well, first of all, that is not the case for this year.
We are very proud to say we are no longer the highest in Canada when it
comes to the unemployment rate; PEI has surpassed us.
What he did not say the other day in terms of unemployment rates is that
it has come down in the last ten years by 5 percentage points.
It is the lowest this year than it has ever been since 1973, since before
I was born. That is something to be
very proud of as a Province and it speaks to all of the businesses and all of
the major projects that are underway in the Province.
Mr. Chair, I also talked
about average weekly earnings last night, and we are actually the second, only
behind Alberta, in the country when it comes to average weekly earnings.
Our average weekly earnings in the Province now are $951, and since 2003
that number has increased by 48.6 per cent.
Certainly that is attributed to a lot of the oil and gas projects and
mining projects, but there are also major spinoffs and benefits that come from
those projects as well, which is increasing the earnings.
Mr. Chair, when you combine
these factors with unprecedented reductions in income tax by our government
and when I get an opportunity to get up again because my time is short I will
speak to and remind people of those tax reductions, which, by the way, have put
$600 million back into the pockets of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians every
year since 2006. The result of all
of this is that people have more disposable income.
If you have more disposable income, retail sales go up and housing starts
go up.
With only less than twenty
seconds left, I would like to save some of that detail for later because I do
not want to rush through it. It is
important in terms of what is going on in our economy.
So I will leave it at that and give somebody else an opportunity.
I will take my place again soon.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Member for Mount Pearl South.
MR. LANE:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It certainly is a pleasure
for me to stand again in this hon. House and make a few comments.
I am glad that we are on the topic of education because we have
significant issues taking place within the City of Mount Pearl as it relates to
education these days. Of course, Mr.
Chair, I am referring to the review which is being done of the Mount
Pearl-Paradise school system.
I will acknowledge up front
that this review is certainly something that needs to be done.
It is something that I have advocated.
Myself, the Member for Mount Pearl North, and the Member for Kilbride
have had meetings over the last couple of years with what was then the Eastern
School District. Of course, there
was, I think, at least two if not three years that there was actually a review
promised and in each year for one reason or another it did not happen.
The last year that was
promised, it was supposed to happen last year, and we were told at the time the
rationale behind why it was not done was because they were dealing with
situations with the school system in the Whitbourne area.
That was something that raised a question in my mind in terms of the
whole amalgamation, if you will, of all the schools under the English School
District. If they cannot handle
looking at reorganization in Mount Pearl and then dealing with some issues in
the Whitbourne area, how are they going to handle the whole Province?
It did make you think about that.
Nonetheless, it is happening now.
The fact that it is happening I think is a good thing.
It is a needed thing. We have
issues.
We have two streams coming
into Mount Pearl; we have the Mount Pearl Senior High and the Mount Pearl Senior
High feeder system, and then we have the O'Donel High School and the O'Donel
feeder system. In the Mount Pearl
Senior High system, there have been overcrowding issues.
There is no doubt, Mr. Chair, that something needs to be done there.
On the O'Donel side of things, particularly as it relates to the feeder
system and St. Peter's Elementary in particular, we have had significant issues.
I attended a couple of
rallies last year that were held by parents at school council and parents at St.
Peter's Elementary who had great concern because of the overcrowding.
I heard the Minister of Finance talking about all the investments that
have been made into school infrastructure and so on.
I think it is important that we make those investments.
I am glad to see other communities throughout the Province have
benefitted from that. There is a
requirement for investment to be made in Mount Pearl as well.
When we look at St. Peter's
Elementary we have a situation there, Mr. Chair, where we have the lunchroom
being utilized as a gymnasium by children.
We have the lunchroom also being utilized as a music room.
We have kids utilizing their desks in their classroom as a lunchroom
because of the fact that the lunchroom is being used for other purposes.
We have seen the loss of the
resource centre. We have seen what
used to be two classrooms renovations made to make two classrooms into three
classrooms, and jamming the kids into those three classrooms, and then having to
go around in terms of the use of computers and so on because of the resource
centre issue, having to bring in mobile systems into an already jammed space for
children. That is totally
unacceptable and there is no need.
Some changes have to be made.
That said, Mr. Chair, I
think what we have had occur since that time, the English school board have met
with school councils in the Mount Pearl-Paradise system, and as a result of
those meetings and I guess other consultations, they came forth to parents with
they held two meetings, public meetings, and they came forth with just two
options. I would suggest both
options that were presented, present serious concern.
Present serious concern to the students, present serious concerns to the
teachers, serious concerns, most importantly, to the students.
Basically, they had a
meeting with two options, both options of which were unacceptable and basically
gave parents the opportunity through their feedback to come up with one.
It is almost like here are two bad options, which one do you prefer the
best? What is the best of the worst?
Since that time, the school
board has come forward with one option.
The option that has come forward, Mr. Chair, I think there are numerous
concerns around it. I think I would
liken it to basically trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer.
I think that is what they are doing with the option that has been
presented. It is just like trying to
kill a fly with a sledgehammer you talk about overkill.
On the Mount Pearl Senior High side of things, they are looking to
totally destroy a school community at Mount Pearl Intermediate; totally destroy
it.
Mr. Chair, we are going to
see a situation, for example if I can find my notes here now.
Mount Pearl Intermediate is going to lose their Grade 5 and Grade 9s.
They are going to lose their early French teaching staff; that is going
to impact specialty teachers as well.
For example, because of the size of the population and the student body
and so on, they are able to allocate, for example, a teacher who is dedicated to
art as opposed to a teacher who teaches some other subject and art is sort of a
sideline. They lose expertise in
some of these areas.
It is going to cause a major
disruption in terms of the teaching staff, and the movement and the bumping and
everything else that is going to occur.
They are going to lose a large new art room they have.
That is going to be gone. A
double gymnasium is going to be gone.
They have an awesome resource centre there, that is going to be gone.
Smart Boards that they fundraised for, they are not going to be able to
take with them. That is going to be
gone. Overall, Mr. Chair, it is
going to totally destroy that school community.
There are also concerns with the Etcetera program and so on.
Mr. Chair, on the other
side, what they are proposing again, the best of two bad options is that we
are going to see St. Peter's Elementary now going to turn to a K to Grade 3, and
Newtown Elementary will be a Grades 4 to 6.
That is going to present a number of problems.
First of all, you are going to have the issue of siblings.
You have two kids who might be a year or two apart, now you are going to
be bringing them to different schools.
There are all kinds of issues around parents dropping off kids and so on.
They have young kids, and they are not going to stay together.
They will be in two schools.
We are going to have issues
around the fact that there will be extra schools they have to go to.
Instead of three schools, now they have to go to four schools.
They are going to have issues around parking lot safety.
St. Peter's Elementary is already I see the Minister of Health over
there getting a grand old laugh out of it.
It is amazing that she finds it funny that parents have all of these
concerns about their children and this is a big laugh, a big joke.
It might be a joke over there, it is not a joke over here I can assure
you.
Mr. Chair, a lot of the
problems that are presented here, other options could be brought forward, but it
may actually require government to spend a few dollars to accommodate.
For example, on Mount Pearl Senior High, there is an option that was
brought forward of having some what is it, as the Minister of Education says?
State of the art modular classrooms to alleviate the situation until
Paradise gets a high school; but, instead, we are going to switch the
intermediate with the high school and cause all of this disruption.
The other issue in terms of
St. Peter's, even after they make these changes they have already
acknowledged, even with the changes proposed there will still be kids eating
lunch in the classroom, doing gym in the lunchroom and so on.
Mr. Chair, there are all
kinds of concerns here, and I intend to get up and speak about them even further
as time goes on.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Member for Terra Nova.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. S. COLLINS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First I would like to ask,
who do I pay for that little bit of entertainment?
Because I have to say, I did find the previous speaker quite
entertaining. It is interesting how
the placement of one person's backside can change their philosophies and
thoughts and opinions. Time does
change everything, Mr. Chair, because it was only a short time ago that
everything was wonderful and now everything is terrible.
Going from cheerleader to critic is a quick transition.
It was only a short time ago
that I listened to the member speak about Mount Pearl and I think, as a person
with a young family, I would like to move to Mount Pearl because Mount Pearl
sounds like a wonderful place, wonderful schools and wonderful infrastructure.
My God, I would not step foot inside the city after listening to the
member now. Everything went from
wonderful to terrible. So, it is
interesting. I am glad to see
perspectives have changed.
I will have more to say
later, but I will take an opportunity to commend the Premier and the minister on
this morning's announcement. Of
course, they appointed three individuals to conduct an independent statutory
review of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. S. COLLINS:
Mr. Chair, that in itself is a significant announcement, but what is
even more significant is those who they put on that board.
If I can just review for some of the public who did not see the
announcement I am sure they will see it on the 6 o'clock news, but I would
like to speak about it for a second.
Of course, the first person we have there is Clyde Wells, and many people know
Clyde Wells as being a former Premier, as well he held quite a few positions.
I have a little bit of background here on the other as well: Doug Letto,
who is an accomplished journalist and author, amongst other things, as well as
Ms Stoddart I do not want to butcher her name, but Ms Stoddart who is actually
the former Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
We have people who are very,
very good at what they have done.
They have tied into this type of work and certainly nobody can say they were put
there because of their colours because, as you can tell by the names that I just
said, there is no political affiliation.
We want to hear what people
have to say and we want to hear it without any bias; we want to have it
straight. Again, I would like to
commend the Premier and the minister a fantastic announcement.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. S. COLLINS:
Mr. Chair, since 2011 actually it seems like since about 1983 I have
been in the Department of Health as Parliamentary Secretary; it has only been
three years but it seems like thirty-three.
As many people know, of course, the Department of Health the thing we
talk about with health, health affects everyone right from your first breath
right on to your last breath. It
affects and touches every single person and individual in the Province.
I just want to review a
couple of things because I have a couple of things to say.
I just want to touch the top of the trees first.
In Budget 2013 nearly $3 billion was allocated to improve health care for
all residents of the Province. Right
now our health care funding represents 40 per cent of the total provincial
Budget, and if you break that down, Mr. Chair, that is $5,249 per person to
provide those services across the Province.
In the country that is amongst the highest.
It is incumbent on us as a
government, as a department, to spend those dollars in the most efficient and
make sure you get the best bang for the buck, with patient care being paramount
over all things.
I want to talk about some of
the more, to me, important issues in health and things we are making great
strides in. Cancer treatment and
prevention: Over $155 million in cancer treatment and prevention since 2004, a
huge number. There are three cancer
screening programs; some of these being new.
The breast cancer screening program and that has actually been expanded
to allow women age forty to forty-nine who were referred by their primary health
care provider to be part of that program.
Then we have the cervical cancer screening program and we also have the
colon cancer screening program. That
is one that was rolled out, I guess, last year.
That is a new one and that is a wonderful program as well.
Again, these things affect all of us at a certain age.
Dialysis services: $225
million since 2004; we seen a doubling in the number of dialysis sites from
seven to fourteen since 2004 and we have the fifteenth site opening up, I guess,
this year in Harbour Breton.
AN HON. MEMBER:
In May.
MR. S. COLLINS:
In May of this year in Harbour Breton and that will be the fifteenth
site, and I know that the folks in Harbour Breton are so appreciative of that.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. S. COLLINS:
With dialysis, there is so much travel involved and you have people that
obviously are ill, so if we can provide those services closer to home and cover
off the large expansive geography that Newfoundland and Labrador is I think it
is a great, great thing to be able to do.
Infrastructure: Over $1.2
billion in health care infrastructure since 2004; thirty-five health care
infrastructure projects, to be precise, have been announced since 2004 including
hospitals, long-term care treatment centres, and twelve anticipated to be
completed in 2014.
I want to run through a few
of these: the youth treatment centres for addictions in Grand Falls Windsor
and complex mental health needs in Paradise; the Faculty of Medicine expansion
and Genetics Research Centre in St. John's; the Labrador West Health Centre and
Marystown North Clinic on the Burin Peninsula, which is going to be, I guess,
the same as the one that was just opened up last year in Glovertown, a new
clinic that I am very familiar with and very appreciative of.
Certainly I can say on behalf of all the residents in my district,
particularly Glovertown and surrounding areas, are very appreciative of a
beautiful building.
We also have the long-term
care facility opening in St. John's, along with protective community residences
in Bonavista and Clarenville. Now, I
want to speak a little bit about the St. John's long-term care.
I actually had the opportunity to attend with the CEO of Eastern Health,
along with the minister, and they did a guided media tour, I guess that was last
week some time, and that was the first time it had been open to the public.
It was the first time that I have stepped inside those doors.
I have driven by it on Newfoundland Drive quite a few times.
The building is just
massive. From the outside, it is
just absolutely massive. I have had
a few people actually say to me: What is that building?
They drive by it and they see it for the first time and they say: What is
that building? They are not even
familiar with it, so I think it is good to get that message out because it is
such a huge piece of infrastructure, such a huge investment, something so
important. This facility actually
was a commitment that was made back in 2008 and, again, this government is
delivering on that commitment. This
will open in September, if all goes as planned I believe, so we are nearing it.
I want to give you a little
bit of information I have just over three minutes left, so I want to give you
a little bit of a run down on this building.
This facility will replace Hoyles-Escasoni, and we are all very familiar
with that institution, that building.
While in university I did a bit of volunteering at Hoyles-Escasoni, and
that was a decade ago. At that
point, there left something to be desired about that building.
It has obviously served its time; it has been around for quite some time.
As an MHA I have received
calls from families saying my loved one is in there; we wish they had somewhere
else to go. It is getting a bit
downtrodden and whatnot and it is getting up there in age.
We recognize that obviously and in 2008 we made this commitment.
The overall cost of this new
long-term care facility will be $150 million with additional funding of $11.9
million annually for financial and human resources to sustain the operations.
The new facility will have a total of 461 beds, and as I said earlier a
huge building. That is up from 369
that now currently exist in Hoyles-Escasoni.
We will have twenty-five
beds that will be occupied by folks who currently reside in long-term care in
the Waterford facility, which is also going to be replaced sometime soon.
I can talk about that at a later date.
The remaining sixty-seven beds will be for new residents so we see a
growing not only are we taking everybody out of Hoyles and putting them in a
new bright, modern facility that can better represent their needs, but we are
also bringing in sixty-seven new beds.
It is greatly needed.
The facility will consist of
two residential buildings, east and west, and joined by a central building.
In that centre building you will have kitchen facilities, laundry,
maintenance, and supply services.
That will all be in the centre.
Something that I was impressed by and I was quite pleased to see is that the
kitchen services there everything there is just on a huge scale.
Everything is expansive; it is massive.
The kitchen is all modern, a
huge facility. All meals, all food
services, will be provided on site.
For anyone who is familiar with hospital food and whatnot, it gets a bad rap
sometimes. When you are able to
provide that food service on site so it does not have to be shipped in, you are
getting a higher quality of food.
The residents are going to be very appreciative of that.
In addition, there will be
dedicated space for occupational therapy, physiotherapy, rec therapy, a beauty
salon, gift shop, and physician specialist clinics.
There will also be spiritual care, if you will, or a chapel area.
Not to be repetitive, but it is a massive area.
We went in there and actually it is still under construction, the chapel
or spiritual area. It is a huge
place. It is something that is so
important for family members and for those who reside in the facility as well.
It is somewhere where they can go for spiritual health and whatnot.
Also, the residents who will
be transferred from Hoyles-Escasoni and the Waterford will be provided with
other services as well. I just want
to go through a couple of those if I could.
Enhanced living space for individuals requiring protective care and youth
adult population: That was something I was very impressed with.
When we went up there into the protective care unit again the scale is
very large. It also allows space,
because it is so important when you are talking about people with dementia and
people with those complex needs that they are given the area to walk, quite
literally, and to I am searching for the words here.
AN HON. MEMBER:
Wander.
MR. S. COLLINS:
Wander I did not want to say wander, but when people wander with
dementia, when they have complex needs, it allows them the area to have, and
that is something so important. That
is what we were told. When we went
out to get this building, we wanted to know exactly what this building was
supposed to be and what it should look like.
We got the opinion from professionals and they gave us what we wanted,
and certainly the facility is quite significant.
I will take my seat.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to get through all of it, but I hope
to have another opportunity.
Thank you so much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR. MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I take pleasure in getting
up and speaking on behalf of my constituents again in St. John's East and
expressing my opinion when it comes to Interim Supply.
I have to note, just
listening to the Member for Terra Nova talking about the costs, the investments
that have been made in the health care system.
There are other ways, at the same time, government could save money.
I will get into that in the next couple of days.
There is a little case that I am working on.
I should not say little, but it has pretty much a provincial implication
for a lot of constituents out there.
So I am going to have more on that in the next couple of days.
While government does make strategic investments, there are other ways it
can save, too, at the same time.
Mr. Chair, in the couple of
minutes that we have left, I would like to come back again and talk about some
municipal issues. Knowing at this
particular time various councils around the Province have been in talks, for a
long time now, with the provincial government, and it has been ongoing pretty
much since the 1980s. We have heard
talks about the municipal funding arrangement in this Province and how cities
and towns feel that they should be getting a better cut of the monies and
everything that the Province has, and I believe that.
I firmly believe our
municipalities should be doing a lot better by the provincial government, rather
than what they have been over the last couple of years.
It is no more evident than what we see every time the Budget comes
around, of course, we hear those same arguments being made, that the Province
can be doing more. The obvious
evidence, of course, is the impact that this weather has been having on various
pieces of infrastructure around the Province.
Of course, lately we have
been hearing about the problems up around the Northern Peninsula when it comes
to water supplies literally freezing underneath people's feet, and of course
people having to go with the lack of water.
It is reprehensible when you do hear about it, and it tells the dire need
of the investment in infrastructure that has to be made in the Province.
Of course, most of these municipalities, cities and towns, cannot afford
in some cases to come up with the new pieces of infrastructure that are needed,
particularly as evidenced by what is happening on the Northern Peninsula.
We do hope that government
this year, in this Budget, is going to come about with a new funding arrangement
for municipalities, but by the sounds of the Throne Speech, Mr. Chair, that is
not going to be readily happening.
They are saying some considerations are not going to be made for a new funding
formula until 2015-2016. What that
does, again, is it kicks the can down the road.
We keep hearing about it,
and I will say it again. If I hear
that my constituents, of course, in the City of St. John's, St. John's East, my
district, are going to be put at risk of an increase in municipal taxation
because the provincial government failed to meet a financing responsibility that
we all feel that it should have to the Province, if my constituents are going to
be put at risk of seeing a tax increase, that is not going to be very good news
for anybody, let alone the present government.
I bring that to the
government. They should be on notice
when it comes to that. This year
should be the year we come out with a funding arrangement, not next year.
We have been talking about it for thirty years now when it comes to
municipalities about having that fair arrangement put in place.
It is hard to believe, but yes, to the people out there who are listening
and to the people who this issue matters to, this is a thirty-year-old issue.
Your kids have been born, gone through high school and university at the
same time, and they are now in the workforce and they are probably going to be
tackling this same argument about how to manage to keep their municipal taxes
low at the same time, Mr. Chair. So
it is old.
If I could just go back
through some of these amounts again - and I can go back to 1997 as being the
year that was most evident. Of
course with the previous Administration or the present Administration, back in
1997 we had a different government.
There was $30.7 million at that particular time toward municipal operating
grants to help carry that load from municipalities.
At the same time in that particular year, it faced a 10 per cent
reduction.
In 2000, as the years went
ahead, of course, these amounts were seen to be cut by that particular
Administration in 1997, 2000, and 2002.
In 2002, it was down to $21.5 million.
For three years under the Tories we saw a cut in municipal operating
grants altogether until the cost cuts were reversed and municipal operating
grants started to be paid again in 2006.
Mr. Chair, I will leave it
at that for now. I can see by the
clock that we are getting close. I
will leave my comments at that.
There are going to be other days coming up, of course, that we will be able to
comment further on municipal funding issues, but it is a big matter for the
government to deal with because of the simple fact that these people are at risk
of seeing an increase in taxation.
Thank you.
CHAIR:
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I move that the
Committee rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again.
CHAIR:
The motion is that the Committee rise, report progress and sit again.
All those in favour, aye'.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All those against, nay'.
Carried.
On motion, that the
Committee rise, report progress and ask leave to sit again, Mr. Speaker returned
to the Chair.
MR. SPEAKER (Wiseman):
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for Port
de Grave.
MR. LITTLEJOHN:
Mr. Speaker, the Chair of Committee of Supply reports that the Committee
have considered the matters to them referred and have directed him to report
progress and ask leave to sit again.
MR. SPEAKER:
The Chair of Committee of Supply reports that the
Committee have considered the matters to them referred and have been directed to
report progress and ask leave to sit again.
When shall the Committee sit
again?
MR. KING:
Tomorrow.
MR. SPEAKER:
Tomorrow.
On motion, report received
and adopted. Committee ordered to
sit again on tomorrow.
MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR. KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the
Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, that the House do now adjourn.
MR. SPEAKER:
It has been moved and seconded that this House do
now adjourn.
All those in favour, aye'.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR. SPEAKER:
All those against, nay'.
Motion carried.
The House now stands
adjourned until 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.
On motion, the House at its
rising adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, at 2:00 p.m.