June 23,
2015 HOUSE
OF ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS
Vol. XLVII No. 35
The House met at 1:30 p.m.
MR.
SPEAKER (Verge):
Order, please!
Admit strangers.
I am pleased to welcome to our public gallery today Mr.
Earle Howell, President of the Vera Perlin Society, as well as Marilyn Wall,
Manager of the Employment Division.
Welcome to the House of Assembly.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
Statements by Members
MR.
SPEAKER:
Today we will hear members' statements from the members representing the
Districts of Trinity Bay de Verde, Bonavista North, Port au Port, St. George's
Stephenville East, Signal Hill Quidi Vidi, and Bellevue.
The hon. the Member for Trinity Bay de Verde.
MR.
CROCKER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House today to
congratulate Ryan Barrett of Old Perlican for winning the title of Top Student
at the Military History Challenge sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion,
Carbonear.
On Wednesday, May 13, Ryan Barrett and his teammates
from Baccalieu Collegiate: Blake Potter, Zachary LeShane, and Michelle
Gillingham, participated in the Royal Canadian Legion-Carbonear sponsored
Military History Challenge. This
competition was based on the knowledge of Newfoundland and Labrador, along with
Canadian military history. Four
schools participated in the competition: Carbonear Collegiate, Ascension
Collegiate, Crescent Collegiate, and Baccalieu Collegiate.
The Baccalieu Collegiate team capture the goal, and
Ryan Barrett was awarded top student.
His award entitles him to accompany the Royal Canadian Legion on their
annual trip to Beaumont Hamel, scheduled to leave on June 28.
This trip includes visits to several World War I and World War II
Memorials, as well as Beaumont Hamel on July 1.
His history teacher, Mr. Garland Button, describes Ryan
as being an exceptional student with a vast wealth of knowledge in history.
The competition was videotaped and will air on Eastlink on July 1.
I ask all hon. members to join me in congratulating
Ryan, all participants, and Royal Canadian Legion Carbonear on this
competition.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Bonavista North.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
CROSS:
It
gives me great pleasure to rise today, Mr. Speaker, to salute nearly 200
residents of Lumsden who answered the call to give freely of their labour to
construct, assemble, and repair playground equipment on Saturday, June 20.
It was also known as Lumsden Community Spirit Day.
The Lumsden Recreation Committee had purchased several
pieces of new play equipment and desired to repair existing property situated
near the Lumsden Festival Site on the Northside beach.
Residents of all shapes and ages showed up sharp at 9:00 a.m. eager to
assist.
The town supplied BBQs, sandwiches and beverages, and
town equipment with staff to operate it.
Local ladies supplied their culinary skills, and by 4:00 p.m. everyone
had a belly filled with tasty treats, but more importantly our hearts were
filled intrinsically with community spirit.
As the castles and slides were completed, they were filled with children
whose voices gleefully competed with the seagulls as they played in a backdrop
of beach and icebergs. Their smile
was the only payment necessary.
A contest to name the facility was earlier won by
Carter, Caiden, and Cohen Gray as they scripted the name Seaside Playground.
I ask all hon. members to collegially assist me in
complimenting the Lumsden residents who gave freely to make Seaside Playground a
reality.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Port au Port.
MR.
CORNECT:
Mr.
Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Randy Alexander, Ian MacDonald, and Kara
Alexander of Stephenville High School for their recognition by School Sports
Newfoundland and Labrador.
At the recently held SSNL Annual Awards Banquet, Randy,
Ian, and Kara were among others to receive the well-deserved accolades for their
accomplishments.
Randy is a physical education teacher at Stephenville
High School. He was acknowledged
with the Coaching Service Award for the numerous hours he has devoted to guiding
student athletes. He also received
the Honour Award for his dedication to the sports program at the high school.
Ian, a Level III student, is the winner of the
2014-2015 Brother G. Moore Male Student Athlete of the Year Award.
His athletic prowess has contributed to winning many provincial banners
for his school.
I would like to commend Kara for placing second in the
Female Student Athlete of the Year category.
She too, is a very dynamic athlete.
Mr. Speaker, I ask all hon. members to join me in
congratulating Randy, Ian, and Kara for their honours and, Mr. Speaker, best
wishes to all our student athletes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. George's Stephenville East.
MR.
REID:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This year the Stephenville Theatre Festival will
celebrate its thirty-seventh season of entertaining people.
The Festival kicks off on July 17 with the hilarious Monty Python's
Spamalot, Norman Foster's
Looking opens on July 18,
Tales of Ti-Jean debuts on July 19,
Back in 59 opens on July 23, and
Mama's Country Record Collection
debuts on July 24.
Other highlights of the season include the A night
with
series and Reading for the Future series, both of which take place on
Wednesday nights during the Festival.
The Festival wraps up on August 16 with the always popular Gala
performance.
Since its beginning, the Stephenville Theatre Festival
has enriched the economy and the cultural sector of the Town of Stephenville and
has become a major draw for tourism in the Bay St. George area.
The Festival has provided training and hands on experience for numerous
artists, many of who are now counted among Canada's top professionals.
Show tickets are on sale now at the Stephenville Arts
and Culture Box Office or at their website.
I ask all members of the House to join with me in
wishing the cast and crew of the Stephenville Theatre Festival a good season.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I rise today to
recognize a woman who has spent the last twenty-eight years devoted to the work
of the Vera Perlin Society.
From 1987, when she began her work as coordinator of a
sewing program, to the present, as Manager of the Society's Employment Division,
Marilyn Wall has been a mover and shaker in this organization.
It was her drive and commitment that brought the
employment division to where it is today, supporting approximately 140
individuals on a daily basis with their work positions throughout the city.
The Vera Perlin Society is a charity and as a charity
relies on fundraising. Marilyn has
also been a driving force with the organization's golf tournament and chocolate
bar drive generating approximately $43,000 annually.
Marilyn Wall has not just been a successful and
efficient manager; she has also been a woman of compassion going above and
beyond for the individuals served by the Vera Perlin Society, making sure
individuals have food, clothing, and support with life events.
I ask all members of the House to join me in wishing
Marilyn Wall well as she begins, in August, a much-deserved retirement.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
We are all saddened by the tragedy that took place off
our waters just a week or so ago, in which three fisher people lost their life.
The Member for Bellevue, who represents that district,
wanted to make a member's statement that exceeds the normal time we allot for
members' statements. He is asking
for leave to be able to do this.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Leave.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Leave.
The hon. the Member for Bellevue.
MR.
PEACH:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is with a heavy heart that I stand in this hon.
House today to remember and pay tribute to three fishermen who tragically lost
their lives on June 16, 2015.
Friends and family watched from the wharf that day as
these three fishermen ventured out into Placentia Bay in a twenty-three foot
boat to go to Bar Haven on the other side of the bay to haul crab pots.
Just another normal day for a fisher
person who makes his or her living from the sea.
As the three fishermen went out of sight, the people of Davis Cove
carried on with their usual day and it was not until late that evening the
message went out to man a search.
The Coast Guard, the Search and Rescue, and the
volunteers are to be commended for braving up to forty-two knots of wind to
search for the missing men. In the
afternoon, the wind had changed and instead of what you would call a reasonable
day, Placentia Bay became a roaring lion, ready to pounce upon its pray.
In these unforeseen circumstances, these three men lost their lives.
Captain Kenneth Hickey of Southern Harbour, age
forty-eight; Kenneth was a family man with a wife and three children.
David Wareham of Arnold's Cove, age forty-two; David
was a single man who lived with his parents.
Larry Loveman from Leading Tickles, age fifty-eight,
with a wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren.
On the eve of Captain Hickey's funeral, the waters of
Placentia Bay were calm, quiet, not a whisper, as if the lion had successfully
completed its hunt and lay down for a rest.
I ask all members of this hon. House to join me in
expressing our condolences to the families of these three fishermen.
With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I ask if we could have a moment of
silence in the memory of Kenneth Hickey, David Wareham, and Larry Loveman.
Thank you.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
House will stand for a minute of silence.
[Moment of silence.]
MR.
SPEAKER:
Thank you.
Statements by Ministers.
Statements by Ministers
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in the House to
congratulate Jeremy Charles and Jeremy Bonia, owners of Raymonds, as well as
Todd Perrin, owner of Mallard Cottage, on being named the number one and seven
restaurants in Canada respectively by Vacay.ca.
Mr. Speaker, this is the second year in a row that
Raymonds, located in downtown St. John's, has been named the best in Canada.
The reputation of the experience offered by the staff at Raymonds has
become so well known that Adrian Brijbassi, founder of Top Restaurants in Canada
has said that Jeremy Charles and Jeremy Bonia have made Raymonds the nation's
greatest destination restaurant in one of its finest places to visit.
This designation is not a casual one, Mr. Speaker.
This sought-after recognition comes from a collection of Canadian and US
fine-dining connoisseurs, leading food and travel journalists, and industry
experts, which is published each year by Vacay.ca.
Mallard Cottage, in historic Quidi Vidi, ranks number
seven with its contemporary twist on authentic Newfoundland cuisine.
The Mallard Cottage, an eighteenth century Irish-Newfoundland style
cottage, is recognized as a National Historic Site because it is one of the
oldest wooden buildings in North America.
It is also now known as one of the country's best restaurants.
Mr. Speaker, culinary experiences play a tremendous
role in the tourism industry.
Spending reached $1 billion for the first time in 2011, while the Province
welcomed more than 1.5 million non-resident visitors from 2012-2014 and
non-resident tourism spending increased by 36 per cent.
Offering a high quality, unique and truly Newfoundland and Labrador
dining experience only adds to the top-notch travel product we offer.
Mr. Speaker, the majority of restaurants throughout our
Province are small businesses. I am
keenly aware that encouraging and supporting local business owners, especially
our Province's tourism and food sectors, is critical to building new businesses,
which ultimately leads to a stronger economy.
Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of the House today to
join me in congratulating the owners and chefs of Raymonds and Mallard Cottage
on being named amongst Canada's top ten restaurants.
Their dedication to their culinary craft and creating incredible dining
experiences is something everyone in the Province should be very proud of it.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Humber East.
MR.
FLYNN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the minister for an advance copy of his
statement. It is truly outstanding
that two of our local restaurants and their owners should be recognized in this
way. Industry has certainly raised
the bar and shown its professionalism.
We have come a long way in the past twenty years.
It speaks volumes about the kind of tourism product we
are able to produce using local products to develop award-winning cuisine which
is outstanding. We join the minister
in offering our congratulations to the owners of Raymonds and Mallard Cottage.
They are on the leading edge of what tourism could and should look like
in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Speaker, there are things that are really lacking
when it comes to our government's work to support the industry from the signage
program that has been delayed again and again since 2009 to the point where it
is completely stalled. We are
hitting our outfitters who supply our adventure tourism product with a 50 per
cent increase in the licensing fees that they were not consulted with.
We even allow unlicensed operators to continue to operate in this
Province.
I thank the minister for an advance copy, and we have a
lot of work to do.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR.
MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the minister for the advance copy of his
statement today. Congratulations to
both Raymonds and Mallard Cottage.
While I have not had the time yet to go down and visit these restaurants, I am
pretty sure that I will in the future.
Mr. Speaker, we have to keep in mind, of all things,
the importance of small business in this Province and we know that we have two
fine examples here. We know that
small business in this Province supports about 40 per cent employment in this
Province. It is a very important
revenue generator for government.
These people, because they took that chance and started those small businesses,
it is a great example for Newfoundland and Labrador citizens as well as they
consider entering into the small business trades.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister Responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
GRANTER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise to highlight the ongoing work of the Agriculture
in the Classroom and Little Green Thumbs Programs in providing hands-on
agricultural learning experiences to students throughout Newfoundland and
Labrador.
Since 2010, the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of
Agriculture, through the Agriculture in the Classroom Program, has been helping
to increase interest in agriculture among children throughout the Province by
bringing schools to farms and farming activities into the classroom.
The aim of the program is to provide teachers and
students with educational resources and programs that promote agriculture as an
important contributor to the economy and our everyday life.
Through the federal-provincial Growing Forward 2 Program, $280,000 has
been provided to help support this program in Newfoundland and Labrador for
2015-2016.
One of the programs managed by Agriculture in the
Classroom is Little Green Thumbs, a national program which aims to instill in
young people, the value of their own health, as well as that of their community
and the environment, through active participation in a classroom garden.
These indoor gardens complement learning concepts such as where food
comes from, how to grow healthy plants, sustainable food systems, community
interdependence and nutrition in fun, interesting, and relevant ways.
It also serves to familiarize school-aged children with
the agriculture industry in this Province and helps to develop lifelong values
of environmental stewardship and awareness of how people can positively interact
with their surroundings.
I was honoured to attend the launch of the Little Green
Thumbs song last Thursday, at Lester's Farm Chalet on Pearltown Road in St.
John's, with Grade 3 students and teachers from St. Mary's and Hazelwood
Elementary Schools. The enthusiasm
and pride in the room was clearly evident as these young students celebrated
their achievements and launched the new song for the program, which was
performed by Shelley Bean and The Duckety Muds.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to say that since the
Little Green Thumbs program came in the Province in 2010, the number of
classrooms participating has grown to seventy-two, providing hands-on learning
experiences for approximately 1,800 students.
This is indeed a worthwhile program and our government is proud to
support it.
I ask all members to join me in congratulating the
Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture, students and teachers,
employees of the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency's Agrifoods Development Branch
and everyone involved in making the Agriculture in the Classroom and Little
Green Thumbs programs such successes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
I
say to the minister, even with a hoarse voice you are still loud.
The hon. the Member for St. George's Stephenville
East.
MR.
REID:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the minister for an advance copy of his
statement. The Little Green Thumbs
program is a great program. It
connects young people with the agriculture industry in meaningful ways.
That is all very positive, Mr. Speaker.
The money spent in this program is funds well spent,
but I guess the problem is that there is not enough money in the program.
There are about twenty-five schools, I understand, that are still on the
waiting list for this program. I
would encourage the minister and the government to find those funds so that more
schools can be involved in this program.
As well, the success of the Little Green Thumbs
program, I think, demonstrates an interest among parents and students in having
healthy, locally grown food in their schools.
I think that is something that the government has to do to expand on the
success of this program, is look at ways they can work with farmers, school
board officials, and others in the community to bring healthy locally grown
foods into the cafeterias of schools, and maybe even other public buildings in
this Province, Mr. Speaker.
I think it is a very good program and a very good song
as well. I am a little bit hoarse
today or I would sing a little bit of it.
It is a good program, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I too thank the minister for an advance copy of his
statement. Congratulations to
everyone involved in the wonderful Little Green Thumbs project.
I have heard so much about it.
Everyone knows the best way to learn is by doing, and the best way to
learn where food comes from is to grow some.
I remind government, besides educating our young people
and youth, they also need to start building a stronger and more diverse industry
aimed at food security for this Province.
All people at all times need physical and economic access to adequate
amounts of nutritious, safe, and culturally appropriate foods.
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.
Government has repeatedly indicated they are delaying
the release of reports and initiatives until this House closes.
The minister admitted that this was specifically the case for the
long-promised Population Growth Strategy.
We are also waiting on the Workforce Development Action
Plan, a new Energy Plan, a diabetes registry, generic royalty regime, and any
details on a $30 million Vale Fund.
So I ask the Premier: Since you claim to be so open,
claim to be transparent, why are you delaying these initiatives until this House
is closed?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is an interesting question from the member opposite
today. I thank him for highlighting
some of the very hard work that is being conducted on this side of the House by
the members of our government, and also people in the public service, Mr.
Speaker.
As I laid out here to the member opposite when I spoke
in the Budget recently, I used several examples of very successful strategies
that have been developed by our government, Mr. Speaker.
Very successful strategies that are being executed by our government, and
all of them are in the best interests of the people of Newfoundland and
Labrador. All of them are benefiting
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and we will continue to roll out those
strategies. We continue to do the
work.
We have a responsibility to govern, we have a
responsibility to lead, we have a responsibility to set plans, develop plans,
and to execute those plans, and we are continuing to do that.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR.
BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, the Premier has forgotten that his responsibility
is just not to write plans, his responsibility is to execute them.
He claims to be open, claims to be transparent, yet we have so many plans
that this Premier has yet to release.
Now, there can only be two reasons for any government to delay these
initiatives. One, they do not want
to be questioned in this House of Assembly; or two, they want to release them
closer to an election as part of their platform, using public service money as
part of their PC election strategy.
So I ask the Premier: Which is it; are you avoiding the
questions here, or using public service money for your election platform?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Not
at all.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
As I said, we continue to do work that we are required
to do and is our obligation to do, and we are proud to do as a government, I can
say to you. If the member opposite
wants to talk about openness and transparency, I would be quite, quite pleased
to have that debate with him
AN
HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible).
PREMIER DAVIS:
I
would, yes, absolutely, because that is the very member over there who hid who
supported him in his leadership campaign, Mr. Speaker, gave money back so he
would not have to provide it.
Mr. Speaker, they said they had twenty-five people at a
dinner
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
they had twenty-five people at a dinner, Mr. Speaker.
They released twenty-two of them, but not twenty-five, but only after
significant pressure put on him by members of this House and by the general
public who demanded to know where they are getting their funding from.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Yes, I have had fundraisers, I tell the Opposition House Leader, I had
fundraisers, and we have laid them all out publicly for everyone to see.
They are out publicly right now, I tell you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR.
BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, the Premier must be too busy creating a plan for
the coming weeks with Statoil or he has either cancelled his subscription to
The Telegram because that has all been
publicly released, I say to the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
BALL:
Well in advance of when you released your leadership numbers, I say to the
Premier.
On November 19, I introduced a private member's motion
for the mandatory and immediate reporting by all government departments and
agencies of the deaths of critical incidents involving children and youth.
The Premier's mandate letter instructed the minister to introduce this
legislation, but we have yet to see that as well.
I ask the Premier: Will this critical legislation be
introduced in this House this session?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the member opposite knows, we put great value in the
work of the Child Advocate and other officers in the House as well.
Mr. Speaker, they do very important work on behalf of the House of
Assembly and on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
We have had a considerable amount of work done in the
area of critical incidents and reporting of those critical incidents to the
Child and Youth Advocate, Mr. Speaker.
I can tell you that even the Child and Youth Advocate, when I first met
with her on this very matter when she came in and talked to Cabinet, the Child
and Youth Advocate could not tell us what a critical incident would be or how it
would look.
I am glad to say that a number of departments have gone
through an interactive process with the Child and Youth Advocate and her office.
We are working towards an agreement and an understanding of what we would
see as a critical incident, Mr. Speaker.
That work continues, and I can tell you it is work that is important to
us. We are continuing to have those
discussions and conversations.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR.
BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, the mandate letter clearly says that the most
fundamental responsibility of society is to ensure the safety and well-being of
our most vulnerable children and youth, but this government has ignored the
Advocate's call for mandatory reporting, still waiting for the definition.
I ask the Premier: This legislation could have saved
lives, why has it really been delayed for so long?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, the member opposite is right, it is very important.
It is a very important piece of legislation.
It is also important that we get it right.
We continue to work I know the minister and I discuss it on a regular
basis, on the progress of this.
It was important.
It was important enough that it was included in the minister's mandate
letter. I know the minister is
working diligently. Staff and
officials in his department are working diligently on this piece of work.
We are continuing to make progress, I can assure you.
As a matter of fact, he and I had a discussion on it today; just today is
the most recent discussion we had on it.
We are going to continue to do that work, Mr. Speaker.
We are still within our mandate.
The execution and delivery of what has been listed in those mandate
letters continues to be worked on, Mr. Speaker. It
is part of the work that we do on a daily basis.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.
MR.
JOYCE:
Mr.
Speaker, the Premier was Minister of Transportation and Works for a full year
during the time of the AG review. He
also was Minister of Health which was one of the departments involved.
He was also a Premier for part of the time during which the AG conducted
the review. Almost 70 per cent of
the contracts looked at during the AG review received payments without approval.
I ask the Premier: While you were minister you allowed
payments to be made by two consultants without Treasury Board approval, why?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR.
BRAZIL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What the hon. member is noting here is a process that
has been ongoing for a number of decades.
It is a process that is well covered, well researched, and due diligence
being done on what we call a consultant's registry.
What that entails, Mr. Speaker
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR.
BRAZIL:
is our staff assessing exactly those consultants that we have in our registry
to show their ability to handle any project that we give to them.
We go through a process that is in place.
There are some policies in place that we are reviewing.
We take the work of the Auditor General very seriously.
I am further reviewing exactly what policies best serve the people of
this Province so that we can continue to move our economy forward and continue
to get the professionals to do the job we need done.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.
MR.
JOYCE:
I
can see the Premier's words, but being open and accountable are only just words,
Mr. Speaker. They are not actions I
can assure you of that.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
JOYCE:
Mr.
Speaker, the AG has found that the request for Expressions of Interest and the
direct appointment process does not provide a competitive, open, fair, or
transparent procurement process.
I ask the Premier, and directly to the Premier: Have
you during your time as Transportation Minister directly appointed consultants?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
BRAZIL:
Mr.
Speaker, Request for Proposals and requests of interest are all one of the tools
we use. One of the other ones is the
appointments that we do.
These are professionals who have an expertise and a
specialty in a particular field. We
want to ensure projects that are out there, be it around road safety, be it
around life safety, be it around building of schools, water treatment, these
type of things that are important to the people of this Province, get done on an
expedited time frame and get done within the time frames and the budgets that we
have allotted, Mr. Speaker. The
Auditor General has noted that.
They were done in our time frames, done within our
budget lines. What we have done in
some cases is do change orders because we get a better economy of scale as we
move forward on one part of the project and move to the other.
It works better for the people and works better for the project.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.
MR.
JOYCE:
Mr.
Speaker, here we have a Premier who was the minister who did not follow Treasury
Board guidelines and will not stand up and be answerable to those decisions.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier said he accepted the findings
of the AG. If you accept the
findings, you accept that the process used did not provide fair competition and
was not transparent.
I ask the Premier: Why did you directly appoint
consultants while you were minister?
Why did you allow it to happen while you were Premier also?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Transportation and Works.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
BRAZIL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I outlined at the beginning of this dialogue here,
the process was in place, Mr. Speaker.
It is this Administration that went back and reviewed how we better
improve on that process. This
Administration, and I and my officials have said we respect the Auditor General.
We have had dialogue with the Auditor General.
We have gone back, and he made two recommendations about how we improve
and how we continue to do things in a manner that best fits the people of this
Province. We are taking that under
advisement.
I have gone back to look at the existing policy to see
how we better implement what works for the people of this Province.
We are about openness and transparency, Mr. Speaker, and all of those we
contract work have the ability and the expertise to deliver to the people of
this Province.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.
MR.
EDMUNDS:
Mr.
Speaker, the state of emergency relating to the loss of drinking water continues
in the Inuit community of Hopedale.
When I asked about this situation in this hon. House in March, the Minister of
Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs said that government was fully committed to an
assessment of the long-term needs of the community.
I ask the minister: Has the assessment been completed,
and when can the residents of Hopedale expect a long-term solution to their
drinking water shortage?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
HUTCHINGS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we have been working diligently with the
people of Hopedale, the mayor, the Minister of Labrador Affairs.
This morning I spoke to the mayor.
We (inaudible) the Municipal Capital Works projects to the issue they
have over the winter. We have
approved a Municipal Capital Works project of $640,000 to address that immediate
issue in terms of the reservoir.
Incidentally, now they are having trouble with
particular leakage in terms of pipes and those types of things.
We are working with Hopedale.
They have a contractor coming soon to look at that and how we deal with the
immediate concerns of leakage in their pipes.
Then again, the $640,000 project, we hope to get started soon and
certainly work with the community, as we do with all communities in Newfoundland
and Labrador, to deal with issues that they have at any particular time.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Torngat Mountains.
MR.
EDMUNDS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My question is about the long-term plan.
Mr. Speaker, the window to get some meaningful work
done on the situation in Hopedale is already closing.
It would be disastrous for the residents if a solution is not found this
construction season.
I ask the minister: In the absence of a long-term
solution, what contingency plan do you have in place for the residents of
Hopedale?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Municipal and Intergovernmental Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
HUTCHINGS:
Mr.
Speaker, any solution to any community is driven by that community.
It is driven, oftentimes, by three levels of governments: municipality,
provincial government, the federal government, and in this case certainly the
Nunatsiavut Government as well. We
are working collectively.
The community would make their priorities.
Over the past number of years they have made priorities in regard to
capital infrastructure. That is
their choice to make.
What we have done this particular year in regard to
issues that have arisen, we have stepped up and put over $600,000 of taxpayers'
money in this Province. We think it
is a very important project. It
should be done. We are going to
partner to do it.
There are immediate concerns right now.
We are working with them to address it.
As we move forward with the community we will address long-term issues in
that community and all communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.
MR.
A. PARSONS:
Mr.
Speaker, we understand government recently counterclaimed against a class-action
lawsuit of approximately $15 million undertaken by employees and former
employees of the College of the North Atlantic's Qatar campus.
Government's claim has now been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
I ask the minister: Why did you counterclaim against
these individuals, given that in 2010 you and the college president both stated
that the government had no legal or moral right to go after them?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Justice and Public Safety.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is our understanding that there has been an ongoing
dispute between the College of the North Atlantic and employees at Qatar dating
back to, I think, when I was probably Minister of Education five or six years
ago. I will say to the member
opposite, I am not fully aware of the details of the case.
Obviously it is not involving government directly, it would be the
college, which is an arm's-length entity of government.
We will certainly endeavour to get some details and report back to the
member.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.
MR.
A. PARSONS:
Yes, Mr. Speaker, and speaking of details, I am still waiting on how much this
government has spent in outside counsel fees which leads to my next question.
Can you advise how much government has spent on outside
legal fees to file and lose this counterclaim?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Justice and Public Safety.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
Once again, Mr. Speaker, I do not have those details in front of me, but I can
certainly get the details and report back to the House.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Conception Bay South.
MR.
HILLIER:
Mr.
Speaker, in his review of select government run long-term care facilities, the
Auditor General discovered some residents were accidentally being underfed while
others were being given the wrong supplements.
I asked the minister last week whether the families of these residents
were notified, but he avoided the question.
I will ask again: Were the families of these residents
notified?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KENT:
Mr.
Speaker, in the recent report by the Auditor General numerous important issues
were raised. I can assure you that
the regional health authorities working closely with my department are following
up on all those issues, especially those relating to our personal care homes in
this Province and our long-term care facilities as well.
I can also assure the member opposite that our staff,
who are well trained, they are professional people in our long-term care
facilities, are in regular contact with families of residents of patients in
those facilities. That is a normal
course of practice when it comes to maintaining those important family
connections for those in long-term care.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Conception Bay South.
MR.
HILLIER:
Mr.
Speaker, when we asked last week about a resident being fed half portions for
seven full weeks, when that resident should have been receiving full portions,
the minister questioned the mere suggestion that residents in any facilities are
being neglected.
I ask the Minister of Health: Do you not consider it
neglect to underfeed a resident from almost two months?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KENT:
Mr.
Speaker, any safety concerns that are raised in relation to the delivery of
health care services of any kind in this Province are important and require full
investigation. The Auditor General
has raised a number of important issues.
We are working very closely with the regional health authorities, with
the management and staff of our long-term care homes to address any concerns
that exist.
When it comes to meeting dietary needs, there are all
kinds of individual circumstances that are taken into consideration.
We work closely with dietitians.
We work closely with doctors and nurses in our long-term care facilities
to ensure that the individual needs of residents are indeed met.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.
MS
DEMPSTER:
Mr.
Speaker, government spends close to $90 million per year on skills development
funding for people eligible for EI.
The Auditor General reported that 40 per cent of the files he reviewed did not
include training updates to confirm attendance.
He said government may be missing out on tuition refunds.
I ask the minister: How do you justify this gross
mismanagement of the EI fund?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
JACKMAN:
Mr.
Speaker, we certainly take the recommendations of the AG very seriously.
In the climate of openness and investigation, the thing is to ensure a
program that meets the needs of the people; but, more importantly, I think, is
that things are being done correctly, people are availing of the programs that
they need, and that process is in place within the department.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Cartwright L'Anse au Clair.
MS
DEMPSTER:
Mr.
Speaker, we are talking about a fund paid for by hard-working Newfoundlanders
and Labradorians. We are talking
about hundreds of millions of dollars spent but not tracked.
The results of this mismanagement are clear.
We have the highest unemployment rate and nineteen consecutive months of
year-over-year job losses.
I ask the minister: How can you expect to meet the
needs of the labour market and tackle high unemployment rates when you continue
spending without a plan?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
JACKMAN:
Mr.
Speaker, the member has gotten up in this House on several occasions now and
raised the issue of where employment figures are.
This Province recorded the highest rate of employment in 2013-2014.
We recognize that there are dips because projects are winding down.
The thing about it is that we continue to offer
programs that support workers, we have put out information about the labour
market, job opportunities, and we will continue to do that to ensure that this
Province has a strong economy, which it does, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. George's Stephenville East.
MR.
REID:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Several weeks ago I asked the Minister of Environment
about oil leaks into the Port au Port bay from abandoned oil wells.
He said he was on top of the situation and committed to having the matter
investigated.
I ask the minister, or his alternate: Does he have a
report completed yet, and when will it be released to the public?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
GRANTER:
Mr.
Speaker, I do not have the answer in front of me whether a report has been
tabled, but I do know that officials have visited the site on a number of
occasions I believe that they have visited there four times.
I will get the answer with regard to if a report has been developed and
present it to the House.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. George's Stephenville East.
MR.
REID:
Mr.
Speaker, government has already delayed action on this for years, and people
living in the area are concerned about the environmental impacts.
I ask the minister: What representation has been made
to the federal government on this issue, and when will these sites be cleaned up
so this issue is finally addressed, Mr. Speaker?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
GRANTER:
Mr.
Speaker, the safety and well-being of all Newfoundlanders and Labradors is first
and foremost for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in all departments,
and I am sure in the minister's department with regard to environment.
Clean-up prevention for further discharge in the area
that the hon. member speaks about, further environmental site assessment will
take place and will be a topic of further work and discussion between our
department and Environment and Conservation, as well as with the federal
government.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Humber East.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
FLYNN:
Mr.
Speaker, in April, government announced again a plan to build the long-term care
facility in Corner Brook, but this time it was going to be a private
partnership.
I ask the minister: Is government committed to building
a long-term care facility in Corner Brook through a private partnership in 2015?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KENT:
Mr.
Speaker, we are not only committed to building the long-term care facility as
part of the new West Coast hospital campus, but we are also committed to
building an acute care hospital on the site as well.
I have made it clear in this House on numerous occasions that we will
award a contract for the construction of the long-term care facility later this
year.
This fall we anticipate that contract being awarded.
There will be other site work ongoing this year as well.
The water treatment facility needs to be completed.
There is various other infrastructure work that is required as we prepare
to move towards full-blown construction.
Progress continues and there will be a contract awarded later this year.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Humber East.
MR.
FLYNN:
Mr.
Speaker, when the plan was announced, the Minister of Health said that in the
coming weeks government would engage in a competitive selection process to find
private long-term care providers to build the facility.
I ask the minister: When will government issue a
Request for Proposals for the Corner Brook facility; this year, or will it be
again next year?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad the member opposite raised a very important
matter. It is one that we have taken
on head-on, Mr. Speaker, and looked for a way different than we have been
accustomed to
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
here in this Province in creating projects.
I also want to just to remind the member opposite as well the significant
investments we have made in the West Coast part of our Province, Mr. Speaker,
and the work that we have done for the Corner Brook region as well.
As you know the new city hall, which the City of Corner
Brook is very proud of, is a brand new state-of-the-art facility for people on
the West Coast, Mr. Speaker. We have
done great partnerships
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
We
have done great partnerships with Kruger, Mr. Speaker, to ensure the continued
operation, providing jobs and employment for the people of the West Coast.
We have made investments in fire and emergency services and fire services
out there, a new courthouse, and new roads like nowhere else in the Province.
We will continue to make investments for the people on the West Coast.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for Virginia Waters.
MS
C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Several weeks ago in this House the minister stated
that he has been unable to fill staff positions at a public long-term care
facility in St. John's while the wait-list continues to grow.
He stated that the private sector is better at recruitment and retention
of staff than this government.
Maybe that is the real reason you are privatizing
long-term care services, because you cannot manage recruitment and retention
and people wait; the unit opening is further delayed until this September.
I ask the Premier: People of the Province are fed up
with your lack of planning, creating a crisis for them seven years you have
had to plan the staff and get them in place when will these critical beds be
open so the people who need services will get them?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
I
will, I say to members opposite, I will.
Because I know just a moment ago I talked about some of the great work we
are doing on the West Coast and members opposite did not want to hear it.
I had a job to hear myself think over here, Mr. Speaker, loud heckling me
over across the way over there. I
know it is important to them
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
and I know that progress is important to them.
When we came in here a decade ago the member opposite referenced years
ago, and I will reference years ago.
Because when we came in here there was a critical deficit of infrastructure in
Newfoundland and Labrador. Our
programs were deficient of the important needs of the people of Newfoundland and
Labrador. We made billions of
dollars in investments in infrastructure in this Province billions, Mr.
Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
We
have improved programs and services, Mr. Speaker.
We have made greater improvements in so many more and such better
improvements than any other Province in Canada.
The successes are countless.
The investments have been enormous, and the benefits to the people of the
Province have been second to none.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This government has a terrible record for getting
buildings like schools built on schedule.
There is something grossly wrong when it comes to getting tenders out in
a timely fashion. The building of
the replacement school for Virginia Park Elementary has been stalled for weeks.
I ask the Minister of Education: Why hasn't the tender
for the next construction phase of the new school gone out as yet?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, I am glad the member opposite asked
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
I
am glad the member opposite has asked the question, Mr. Speaker, because it
really falls much in line with the last question asked by the Liberal member
because we have made significant investments in schools in this Province, there
are no two ways about it. We have
almost sixty new schools or significant expansions, extensions, renovations to
schools in this Province in the last decade, Mr. Speaker, more than have ever
been completed before.
A decade ago, Mr. Speaker, when we came into power, a
daily conversation was about the mould in the schools and classrooms that were
not fit to put children in. Today,
we talk about the challenges in capacity, keeping up with the growth of our
Province, keeping up with the growth of the Northeast Avalon, areas where things
are happening. The economy is
driving and jobs are available to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
That is growth of families.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Well, does the Premier have an answer as to why there
was not planning done in a timely manner so that the bulk of the construction on
the new school in Virginia Park, on the exterior of the school, could have been
done over the summer so that students will have a safer environment to return to
in September? What about the safety
of students, Premier?
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, the safety of students is a paramount consideration in these projects,
I can assure you. When you make
infrastructure investments, Mr. Speaker, they are for the benefit of
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
When you make investments in schools, they are for the benefit of students, I
say to the member opposite. They
benefit students in classrooms. As I
just said, we have such a tremendous amount of growth we have experienced in
recent years, especially in certain areas of the Province.
The Northeast Avalon is a great example.
The area where the member is referring to, she is quite
well aware of the significant growth that has happened in that area.
It is a challenge we have to keep up with that growth that is a
challenge, but it is not the challenge we had a decade ago when we had schools
that were not fit to put students in.
We do not hear those problems from people today.
We continue to make economic
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR.
MURPHY:
Mr.
Speaker, occupational accidents have almost doubled over the past year,
according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour.
Accidents abound, particularly for young workers.
I ask the minister, I ask this government: It is
obvious there are rules for workplace safety and some inspections are occurring,
we will admit that, but when do we see criminal negligence charges being laid
against some of these violators?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, investigations
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Investigations regarding safe work practices occur in this Province on a daily
basis, Mr. Speaker. There are
thousands and thousands of inspections and directives that are issued on an
annual basis. What is fortunate
and where the member erred slightly is that the number of accidents in
workplaces has gone down. It is
lower today than it has been before, and that is because of partnerships that
have created. We are a big fan over
on this side of the House of partnerships and working with groups and
organizations.
You look at some of the safety associations, like the
Construction Safety Association who have led the charge to create safer work
environments in the construction industry.
They have done work beyond anyone's belief or comprehension.
No one could have predicted the great success they have had.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for St. John's East has time for a
quick question.
MR.
MURPHY:
Mr.
Speaker, why doesn't government publish any company's workplace safety reports
or stop work orders? It sounds like
a great idea. Three other provinces
in this country do it.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier has time for a quick reply.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, it is important that a number of actions be taken to ensure that we
reduce the risk to workers. Workers'
safety is of paramount consideration for many groups.
It is important that we do work together.
We look at valuable ideas and give careful consideration to them.
One loss of life is too many.
One injury in a workplace is too many.
We will work together, and we accept all suggestions and recommendations
to find ways to move forward to create safer work environments.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
Time for Question Period has expired.
Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees.
Tabling of Documents.
Tabling of Documents
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Pursuant to section 26(5)(a) of the Financial
Administration Act, I am tabling an Order-in-Council relating to the funding
pre-commitments for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Further tabling of documents?
Notices of Motion.
Notices of Motion
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a
bill, An Act To Amend The Auditor General's Act, Bill 17.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Further notices of motion?
The hon. the Minister of Child, Youth and Family
Services.
MR.
S. COLLINS:
Mr.
Speaker, I give notice that I will ask leave to introduce a bill entitled, An
Act To Amend The Child, Youth Advocate Act, Bill 16.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Further notices?
Answers to Questions for which Notice has been Given.
Petitions.
Petitions
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Trinity Bay de Verde.
MR.
CROCKER:
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 many communities in the District of Trinity
Bay de Verde do not have cellphone coverage; and
WHEREAS residents of the district require cellphone
coverage to ensure their safety and communications abilities; and
WHEREAS cellphone coverage on many portions of the
highway in the district is poor or non-existent;
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 cellphone coverage
throughout the entire District of Trinity Bay de Verde
As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity this
afternoon to enter this petition on behalf of the residents of the District of
Trinity Bay de Verde. This is a
petition that I have entered many times here in this House in my short period of
time here. It is an ongoing issue.
Every time I speak to people in the district, it is always a concern of
theirs.
I guess I will do a little bit of a recap.
You go back to the 911 system that the government implemented back in the
later winter, early spring and the seventy-five cents that each of us now get to
pay on our cellphone bills each and every month.
Government still shows no willingness to act on the issue or lack of
cellphone coverage in many parts of the Province.
Mr. Speaker, I hear it day in and day out from my
colleagues: my colleague for St. Barbe, my colleague for Cartwright L'Anse au
Clair, and my colleague for Burgeo La Poile.
There was an incident this winter in Burgeo La Poile where we had
people stuck on a highway.
Mr. Speaker, I look at Route 74, Route 80, and Route
70; and Route 70, being the Heart's Content Barrens.
There are very treacherous conditions on the Heart's Content Barrens.
It is the main transportation link between the district, or much of the
district and the hub, which would be Carbonear where we go for medical services
among other things, Mr. Speaker.
We also have four community-based ambulance services in
the district. We have a
community-based ambulance service in Heart's Delight Islington, we have one in
Winterton, one in Old Perlican, and another on the North Shore.
These community-based ambulance services have all expressed to me a
concern with the lack of cellphone coverage in the district.
Mr. Speaker, we look at economic development.
We have the largest processing and harvesting fishing industries in this
Province on the tip of the Bay de Verde Peninsula, when you look at the fish
plants in Old Perlican and Bay de Verde, and the fish plant in Winterton, all
producing shellfish.
Mr. Speaker, we look at the thousands of people
employed, and still when people come in there is no way to use cellphones.
All of the harvesters coming into Old Perlican and Bay de Verde, and
other ports on much of the Bay de Verde Peninsula, little or no cellphone
coverage.
Mr. Speaker, again, I call upon the government, I call
upon the minister, to act on the cellphone coverage issue in our Province.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
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 Route 510 from L'Anse au Clair to Red Bay is in
deplorable condition and requires immediate upgrading; and
WHEREAS the condition of the highway is causing undue
damage to vehicles using the highway and is a safety hazard for the travelling
public; and
WHEREAS both residential and commercial traffic has
increased dramatically with the opening of the Trans-Labrador Highway and
increased development in Labrador; and
WHEREAS cold patching is no longer adequate as a means
of repair;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly
pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland
and Labrador to immediately allocate resources to Route 510 from L'Anse au Clair
to Red Bay that allows for permanent resurfacing of the highway.
As in duty bound your petitioners will every pray.
Mr. Speaker, I have stood numerous, numerous times and
especially over the ten weeks of this spring sitting, entering this petition on
behalf of the residents who drive Route 510, specifically the residents of
L'Anse au Clair to Red Bay.
The petition I am entering today, Mr. Speaker, is
signed by residents of the community of Forteau.
That will definitely be one of the towns that have the worse pavement
going through. Forteau would be one
of the communities where you are swerving off the road and into private
property. It is very, very dangerous
for buses and for ambulances.
I have said it before, Mr. Speaker, and I will say it
again, it is an absolute miracle that someone has not been killed.
Traffic has greatly increased there.
We see very, very heavy traffic going back and forth to Muskrat Falls.
We are entering into the tourist season, and I just hope that nobody
loses a life on this stretch of the road.
I have called on the minister again and again, and I will call on him
again today to tell the residents who drive Route 510: what is your plan, what
is your list of priorities, where does that road sit on your list of priorities?
I will continue as long as the House is open, to enter
this petition on behalf of the residents who drive Route 510, which is the main
artery, I might add. We are not
talking about side roads, community roads.
It is the main artery that goes right through Labrador.
It is in deplorable need. It
is almost forty years old. It is
long past its expiration date, and it is definitely in need of repair.
Thank you.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR.
MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the
undersigned residents humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS in 2011 the provincial government announced
that it would lift the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST on residential
heat and light by introducing the Residential Energy Rebate; and
WHEREAS heat is a necessity of life and a health
concern, particularly for seniors; and
WHEREAS the provincial government has projected oil
prices to increase in the next five years;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly
pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge government to stop taxing home
energy and to reverse its decision to abolish the Residential Energy Rebate.
As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the people of the
Bonavista area, the Town of Bonavista, particularly, who certainly appeared to
have gone out and gotten a few names on this particular petition to express
their discontent with government's policy of taxing home energy.
I think it was a gross disappointment on the people's part when they saw
this come down in the Budget that the tax was coming back.
As much as we did not want the tax to come back, the
people are highly upset again about the simple fact that government reversed
their decision on not taxing home energy and decided to do it again.
It may have been a need on the part of government to generate revenue,
but they should not have gone back to the people of the Province and told them
they were going to be taxing a necessity of life.
Mr. Speaker, we know how much money this puts back into
the economy, number one. The simple
fact of keeping the money where the money mattered, in the consumers' hands.
We know as well the costs of home energy are projected to rise in the
future. We certainly know that the
price of electricity is going to be going up.
We certainly know that the price of heating oil, as an example, is going
to be going up. We certainly know,
by looking at the numbers out there, that there has not been any kind of a
strategic retreat in the price of home heating oil this year.
We are still looking at, for example, in this area in St. John's roughly
about eighty-four or eighty-five cents a litre.
Mr. Speaker, tax on top of that, on top of a 900-litre
tank fill up is probably going to be well it is obvious, I guess, in this
particular case at $1 a litre it is going to be $90.
That is quite a lot of money.
When you are talking about constituents, when you are talking about seniors out
there
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR.
MURPHY:
or people on a lower income, I think that we have an issue here as regards to
people's well-being. I would like
government to address this, to withdraw from their policy of taxing home energy,
and give the money back to the people.
Let's keep it back and keep it rotating in the economy.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for St. George's Stephenville East.
MR.
REID:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have a petition today related to road conditions in
the Bay St. George South area and especially the bridge across the Crabbes River
that connects Jeffrey's and St. David's, Mr. Speaker.
The petition reads:
To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the
undersigned humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS the roads in the Bay St. George area are in
much need of repair in many places; and
WHEREAS the bridge at the mouth of Crabbes River has
continued to deteriorate and is creating an unsafe situation; and
WHEREAS there is significant danger specifically
related to children on a school bus which have to cross this bridge;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly
pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge the Government of Newfoundland
and Labrador to repair roads in the Bay St. George South area and the bridge on
Crabbes River.
Mr. Speaker, this petition came together very quickly.
In a matter of four or five days, parents in the area put together a
petition and circulated it. This
petition, I estimate, has about 400 or so signatures on it.
People are very concerned about the state of this bridge and the entrance
and exit from the bridge. There is a
big dip there and it is causing a lot of problems.
The road seems to be sinking away from the bridge and there is a big dip
there.
I could talk about the many roads in the area that need
repair. I could talk about Fortune's
Road in Jeffrey's. I could talk
about the Highlands Road or the Station Road in Robinsons as well.
These are all in need of much repair.
The bridge between Jeffrey's and St. David's was built
in the 1980s while Ron Dawe was Minister of Transportation.
The bridge has deteriorated a bit since then.
At this point, parents of school-aged children are really concerned about
their children having to cross this bridge.
They are worried that it is going to get worse.
It is at the point where it needs to be repaired now before the school
opens. They are concerned that this
bridge will become worse and that children will not be able to use this route to
get to school and be safe.
It is a very serious situation with this bridge. It is
recognized in the area as being a problem.
With tourists coming to the area at this time, I think it poses a real
serious safety problem as well. It
is an issue that needs to be addressed, Mr. Speaker, and I call upon the
Minister of Transportation to have people in his department look at this matter.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Conception Bay South.
MR.
HILLIER:
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 Route 2 on the Conception Bay South Bypass Road
is the second busiest highway in the Province; and
WHEREAS we must ensure the safety of the residents who
use the access road, especially when driving at night; and
WHEREAS brush clearing can reduce the risk to drivers
from the local moose population;
We, the undersigned, petition the House of Assembly to
urge the government to allocate funding to include brush clearing for the
Manuels Access Road.
Mr. Speaker, this is six or eight times I have brought
this petition forward. Basically we
are asking for moose control from what we refer to as Weir's Pit to Fowler's
Road. There is an area there with a
lake and a lot of wooded area around it, and it is an area where moose come out
on the highway.
Mr. Speaker, as I said I have brought this forward
several times, and I have taken different themes as I have brought it forward.
I brought it forward from a point of view of the Premier's district.
I have brought it forward on behalf of people from the Premier's
district, because they cannot seem to get him to act on it.
I have brought it forward from the point of view that
the Minister of Transportation and Works at one point in time said perhaps we
will get you into the next tender.
Well, when the next tender came out, Mr. Speaker, there were nine contracts in
the tender; all nine going to government districts.
Nothing to Opposition districts, nothing to Third Party districts, all
going to government districts.
Mr. Speaker, I have brought this forward from the point
of view of the last contract that was completed goes down Pitts Memorial Drive
from the Trans-Canada Highway down to Kilbride and for the most part, it is
going through an urban area not to suggest that moose do not come out in an
urban area; but, in many cases, this particular contract goes by fences so the
moose are not jumping over the fence onto the highway, Mr. Speaker.
There are a whole bunch of different ways of looking at
this. To date, I have not been
successful in getting any help from the Minister of Transportation, but we still
know that there are 20,000 cars on that road on a given day.
We know there are moose in that area as well.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MR.
HILLIER:
Mr.
Speaker, I ask on behalf of the people in the District of Conception Bay South
that this area be put in the next tender document.
Thank you very much.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Burgeo La Poile.
MR.
A. PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am happy to enter this petition.
To the hon. House of Assembly of the Province of Newfoundland and
Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS the applied behavioural analysis, ABA program,
for children with autism is funded by the Department of Health and Community
Services; and
WHEREAS the program was introduced in 1999 and is in
serious need of revision; and
WHEREAS with the advances made in early diagnosis of
autism, the number of high-functioning children being diagnosed has drastically
increased; and
WHEREAS the current ABA program does not take into
account that children on the autism spectrum are involved in many educational,
recreational, and social activities outside of the home; and
WHEREAS the current ABA program requires that the
therapist be accompanied at all times by another adult, which is not only
inconvenient but can be quite costly when a parent is unable to be that second
adult due to work or other obligations; and
WHEREAS the current ABA program ends at Grade 3 but
autism is a lifelong social disorder;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly
pray and call upon the House to urge the government to implement a review of the
ABA program with considerations given to alternate programming options, and to
extend autism programming beyond Grade 3.
Mr. Speaker, this is very likely the last petition I
will have an opportunity to enter into this House since I first started entering
them four years ago. I am happy if
this is my last one, I am entering it on a cause that is significant to people
all over this Province and one that I have been questioning this government on
and fighting this government on for four years, and that is the issue of autism
in this Province.
The fact is this petition was based on talking to
parents all over this Province who are saying the same thing: We need to revisit
what we are doing here. We need to
look at it again. Government, as we
know, on many occasions they will talk about the investment they have made; but,
like an investment, they are not talking about the outcomes.
Any investment, you want to see what the end result is, and we are not
seeing it here.
We have addressed it in this House our leader did
on a number of occasions including today, that there are a number of strategies
and plans that I am sure this government will unveil in the coming weeks and
months as we get ready for an election.
I hope this is one of the ones that they do.
We all know why they are doing it.
They have delayed doing what should be done.
They have delayed putting it out there because they want to hide from the
questioning they will get in the House.
If this is one of the ones they will look at between now and the
election, I would be happy to see it because people have been calling for it for
years. It is time that this
government started listening. If
they do not, the next government will.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
To the House of Assembly of the Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament assembled, the petition of the
undersigned residents humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS Newfoundland and Labrador has the greatest
percentage of the workforce earning the provincial minimum wage in Canada, with
women, youth, and those from rural areas making up a disproportionate number of
these workers; and
WHEREAS the minimum wage is inadequate and does not
provide enough money for the necessities of life because a person earning
minimum wage working forty hours a week makes $20,800 a year, which is barely
above the low income cut off of $19,496, and a working couple with two children
are also close to low income; and
WHEREAS in 2012 the Minimum Wage Review Committee
recommended an increase in the minimum wage in 2013 to reflect the loss of
purchasing power since 2010, and an annual adjustment beginning in 2014 to
reflect the Consumer Price Index; and
WHEREAS the provincial government, instead, legislated
two twenty-five cent increases, one in October 2014 and one in October 2015 with
no indexing; and
WHEREAS other provinces and territories are continuing
to raise the minimum wage, and six now have a higher minimum wage than
Newfoundland and Labrador;
WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly
pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge government to legislate an
increase in the minimum wage in 2014 to reflect the loss of purchasing power
since 2010 and make an annual adjustment to the minimum wage beginning in 2015
to reflect the Consumer Price Index.
As in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.
I am very pleased to stand today and to present this
petition from residents in Mount Pearl, people who are hard-working people, many
of whom are working for minimum wage, especially in the retail sector.
This is one of the concerns that I have this government this year in
its Budget says that they are concerned about poverty and their looking at a
strategy, a continued strategy around poverty reduction, but the only way to
reduce poverty is to put more money in people's hands.
This fall, even though the minimum wage will go up by
twenty-five cents, a whopping twenty-five cents, this government at the same
time is adding extra burden to people's backs; number one, by putting back the
provincial tax on home heating; by raising the general GST, the provincial side
of the GST, putting that up as well.
At the same time that they are putting extra burden on
people, they are only giving them twenty-five cents more an hour for those who
are working minimum wage. There is
no consistency, Mr. Speaker, in this government's policies.
They cannot say that they are concerned about people being poor while at
the same time
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
MS
MICHAEL:
keeping them in poverty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
Orders of the Day.
Orders of the Day
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, I move pursuant to Standing
Order 11 that the House not adjourn at 5:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, June 23, 2015.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
The motion is that this House not adjourn at 5:30 p.m.
today.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this time I would like to call from the Order Paper,
number 2, third reading of a bill.
So moved by me, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that An Act To Amend The Teachers' Pensions Act,
Bill 15, be now read a third time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the said bill be now read a third time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion
that Bill 15, An Act To Amend The Teachers' Pensions Act, be now read a third
time?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
A
bill, An Act To Amend The Teachers' Pensions Act.
(Bill 15)
MR.
SPEAKER:
This bill has now been read a third time and it is ordered that the bill do pass
and its title be as on the Order Paper.
On motion, a bill, An Act To Amend The Teachers'
Pensions Act, read a third time, ordered passed and its title be as on the
Order Paper. (Bill 15)
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this time I would like to move, seconded by the
Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the House resolve
itself into a Committee of the Whole to Consider Certain Resolutions Respecting
the Imposition of Taxes on Income, Bill 6.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the House now resolve itself into a Committee of the
Whole to consider Bill 6.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
On motion, that the House resolve itself into a
Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speaker left the Chair.
Committee of the Whole
CHAIR (Littlejohn):
Order, please!
We are now debating the related resolution and Bill 6.
Resolution
That
it is expedient to bring in a measure respecting the imposition of taxes on
income.
CHAIR:
Shall the resolution carry?
The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of
Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Throughout this whole Budget debate, what we are seeing
today in the House there are two resolutions we are going to be debating in
the House today. For those who are
listening, the Budget itself has been passed by this Legislature.
In any Budget, there are a number of initiatives that need to be actioned
after the Budget is passed in the House.
Two of the things we are going to be doing today are
dealing with resolutions that give effect.
They are enabling legislation really.
These pieces of legislation give effect to the announcements that were
made in the Budget and the fact that the general fiscal policies of government
have been approved by this House.
Embedded in those fiscal policies are the actions we are taking through these
two bills that we are dealing with today.
The first one deals with Bill 6.
Bill 6 is an Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, 2000.
I just want to provide some commentary, Mr. Chair, of what the bill
actually does. One of the things we
have said repeatedly and going back to 2003 in fact when this Administration
formed government we wanted to make sure Newfoundland and Labrador had a
competitive tax regime.
We knew we were not going to be the best in the entire
country. We knew we were not going
to have necessarily the lowest taxes in the entire country, but we wanted to
make sure our income tax was competitive.
The other thing we wanted to do through this process here, and in Bill 6,
that is what it actually does. We
wanted to make sure our income tax was progressive, and that we had a
distribution of taxation across various income levels.
So one of the things we have tried to do here is to
maintain true to that intent that we have been saying since 2003, we need to be
competitive. We are bringing in some
changes to the income tax structure in Newfoundland and Labrador, while at the
same time our personal income tax remains the lowest in Atlantic Canada.
We have the third-lowest top marginal tax rate in Canada, behind only
Alberta and Saskatchewan. Those two
things are really important, Mr. Chair.
If you look at Atlantic Canada provinces, we are still the lowest in
Atlantic Canada when it comes to personal income tax.
When it comes to being competitive, trying to attract
the talent we need to help advance our economy the kind of talent our
employers need to be able to attract, people who are well-paid individuals, and
we are competing for that talent worldwide.
When people start looking at recruiting or able to attract highly paid
individuals to come to the Province, one of the big things they consider is your
marginal tax rate.
So we want to make sure we are still competitive.
This change makes us slightly different.
We were the second and now we are the third.
Really, we are in good company.
It is only if they go to Saskatchewan or Alberta will they enjoy high
income individuals a better tax rate than they will here.
What we are trying to do here is to make the tax, maintain it as being
the best in Atlantic Canada, but maintain ourselves to be competitive.
What we are doing, Mr. Chair, is we are introducing two
new tax brackets for tax payables by individuals, and that does a couple of
things. It makes sure that we remain
competitive, as I have said, but also makes our tax system much more
progressive.
I want to just, if I could with the indulgence of the
House. There has been much
discussion in recent past around: Who comments on our tax system?
What are some of the credible references we use?
Who are some of the experts who pass judgement and express an opinion
about how well we are doing, how well we are performing, how well the economy of
the Province is doing. One of those
individuals is Dr. Wade Locke from the university.
There is a research team he led, Mr. Chair, that did a
review. The report he released is
entitled, Promoting Tax Fairness in Newfoundland and Labrador Through The
Personal Income Tax System. If I
could just read one particular exert from that report which I think speaks to
the success of the changes we have made in making sure that our tax system
remains progressive.
Let me quote, both the tax and transfer system has made
our system progressive. It is
interesting to note, however, that, In terms of reducing income inequality
associated with market incomes, government, transfers seemed to play a greater
role than taxes. It does appear
that there may be room for changing the income tax rates to improve the
progressivity of the income tax system and improve the perceived equity
associated with publicly funding goods and services within Newfoundland and
Labrador.
That is the end of the quote, Mr. Chair.
What it speaks to, it is suggesting that if we were to add a couple of
new brackets as we have done, we would add to the agenda that we have to ensure
our tax is a progressive system. So
what we have done to assist with that, we are making an amendment to section 7
of the Income Tax Act 2000 and we will be amending that to include a fourth
bracket. That fourth bracket will
have a rate of 14.3 per cent for taxable income between $125,000 and $175,000.
Then we will be introducing a fifth tax bracket where the rate will be
15.3 per cent for taxable income greater than $175,000.
Mr. Chair, these changes will come into effect as of
January 2015. Therefore when you
file your return sometime in early 2016 for your 2015 tax year, those new rates
will apply. Mr. Chair, one of the
things, as I have said, this still positions us, though, to have the lowest
income tax structure in Atlantic Canada and competitively with the rest of the
country on a marginal tax basis.
The second amendment to be included in this bill, Mr.
Chair, speaks to the financial capital tax.
Right now there is a rate of 4 per cent that is applied on taxable paid
up capital allocated to Newfoundland and Labrador by banks and loan and trust
companies. For companies that have
total capital less than $10 million, the first $5 million is exempt. As a part
of our government's approach to ensure that we have a fair tax system, we are
now making a change. In Budget 2015,
we are proposing to increase that financial corporation capital tax from the
current 4 per cent to 5 per cent effective April 1, 2015.
Now, Mr. Chair, this will only affect banks and loans
and trust companies that operate within Newfoundland and Labrador.
Under Part II of the Income Tax Act, paragraph 66.2(1), the act presently
sets a rate of 4 per cent. We will
be making that amendment to be effective in this tax year.
This tax goes back a number of years. It goes back to
the early 1980s when it was first introduced, but there has not been any change
to this tax since the mid-1990s. So
we believe that in today's environment with the earnings of our major financial
corporations and their ability to make a fair contribution to the tax revenue
stream of the Province, we believe that this is a fair and equitable tax for
their operations in Newfoundland and Labrador.
We do not anticipate that this will have any impact at all on their
ability to operate in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Chair, when you consider when we talked about
taxation, if you think about some of the other measures that we have done, we
have taken measures that we have talked about in this House, through this Budget
process, then we provide relief
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate the members' attention, obviously, but
their excitement about our Budget has got them a little bit anxious today and
they want to prematurely contribute to the debate, but I am sure there will be
lots of opportunity for them to stand up and congratulate us on a wonderful
Budget.
Mr. Chair, as we talk about the tax structure and some
of the changes that we have made and I just talked about how we have
introduced a fourth and a fifth bracket for those people who earn on the higher
end of the income spectrum; but, on the other side, we have taken some
significant measures to make sure that people who are on lower income levels
have a significant tax relief in this Province.
That is why in taxation year 2015, as a result of
changes that occur automatically as a result of indexing, we now find ourselves
in a spot in this Province where any individual, on an individual basis, whose
income is at $18,955 per year, they will not pay any provincial income tax to
the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Families who have an income of $32,052, they too will not pay any
personal income tax in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I say, Mr. Chair, as we have made some adjustments for
the taxpayers on the higher end income levels, we have also continued to
maintain and enhance benefits for individuals on the lower income.
When you consider what we have done with the Seniors' Benefits, right now
that is a program is also indexed; and seniors who find themselves in income
levels similar to that, this year's contribution to that fund is some $42
million.
Seniors, for example, who find themselves at that same
income level, or similar income levels, will be entitled to $1,059 as a one-time
payment in the fall of the year.
Because if you combine the Seniors' Benefit of $1,059, combine the low-income
threshold for the non-payment of personal income tax in Newfoundland and
Labrador and just think about the adjustment we have just made for the HST
rebate, taking the income threshold from $15,000 to $30,000, these are the kinds
of measures that we have done, embedded in our tax structure, embedded in our
benefit program to ensure individuals who are on the low-income levels receive
maximum tax relief from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and
acknowledge their fiscal reality.
While, at the same time, taking those individuals who make the 125's, 150's,
170's and beyond, take those individuals, who are in a position as much as we
have to have a competitive tax system, they are in a much better position to
make a greater contribution to the provincial revenues than other individuals on
the low income.
So these amendments that we are introducing in Bill 6,
I think, Mr. Chair, is consistent with the philosophy and consistent with the
approach that we have taken since 2003; and that is to maintain a competitive
tax system, to make sure that we are the lowest personal income tax brackets in
Atlantic Canada, to make sure that we are competitive with the rest of the
country on a marginal tax basis, and to make sure that our tax system is
progressing, so that individuals who are in the position to make a greater
contribution do just that.
The addition of two new tax brackets for higher income
earners is something new in this Budget.
It is something that our government acknowledges that makes our tax
system much more progressive than it was.
It also acknowledges those individuals at the higher income levels need
to make a greater contribution to the revenue stream to the Province.
We have also recognized that banks, trust companies,
and loan companies that have the fiscal capacity need to pay a greater share of
their revenue that they earn on the assets in this Province.
They need to contribute a greater share of their revenue to the
provincial coffers, and therefore contributing to improving social programs and
the infrastructure that exists in this Province.
I say, Mr. Chair, with those quick introductions to
Bill 6 and an introduction to what we are trying to do here, I will take my seat
and invite members of the Opposition and others to make a contribution to this
debate this afternoon.
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Virginia Waters.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MS
C. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It certainly is a pleasure to stand in the House today,
as it is every day, on behalf of the constituents of the District of Virginia
Waters, soon to be renamed the District of Windsor Lake.
I look forward continuing to serve the people of my district.
For those watching at home, as the minister indicated,
the bill we are debating today is what is referenced as a money bill.
For those of us in the House, we get the privilege, when a money bill is
being debated, to speak to a variety of topics.
As the Opposition member responsible for the area of
finance, I have certainly spoken at length about the minister's Budget and this
government's Budget. As we all
anticipate that government will today close the House and debate will stop, it
will be important for those of us who do have the opportunity to stand up and
speak one last time before the House closes to make sure that we talk about the
really important things.
One of the things that continues to come up from
constituents in my district and from constituents from many of the districts
that we represent is a grave concern the economy.
We have repeatedly asked questions in this House of Assembly around the
nineteen consecutive months of job losses, year over year job losses that people
of the Province are facing. I know
in my own district I spoke to people over the last six months who have been
impacted not only by job losses here on the Northeast Avalon and positions they
were working on in the oil industry but also those who were working in Western
Canada, those who were working in non-oil related positions who have seen the
impact of the economy, the recession that the minister has identified we are in
the middle of. There is no doubt
that many people of the Province have a very clear expectation of how they feel
government should be involved in supporting the economy.
There are lots of questions about this government's
continued focus on the oil sector which is an important revenue contributor to
the provincial coffers but it is not a contributor to jobs en masse.
It only represents about 4 per cent of the jobs that Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians work in in our Province.
That is why so many people in the Province, so many people from community
leaders, to individuals, to business leaders are talking about the importance of
diversifying the economy.
Mr. Chair, small- and medium-businesses are truly the
ones that employ a significant portion of our population.
As was mentioned in this House already, about 40 per cent.
Many of those small- and medium-businesses are talking about the benefits
agreements that have been under the guidance of this particular government over
the last decade. They have a lot of
questions about whether or not those benefits agreements are actually impacting
them in a positive way.
There are also concerns about how our shrinking
population and our aging population is going to impact the transfer of
businesses from one generation to the other, and whether or not businesses will
be forced to close as opposed to finding young entrepreneurs who are eager to
take on the risk of a new enterprise.
Mr. Chair, we also hear regularly that individuals and
business leaders who are interested in growing and diversifying the economy are
frustrated with how government reacts to them, how government interfaces with
them, and how there is a lack of an appreciation of how much effort goes into
diversifying the economy. This
government has been happy to sit back and rest on its laurels, perceived
laurels, about growing a sector that really was about putting money into the
provincial coffers as opposed to creating opportunities for young people and for
families throughout our Province.
I found in Question Period today as the Leader of the
Opposition asked a lot of questions around the plans that this government has
continued to talk about are coming, that they are going to do, one of the ones
that was mentioned was the workforce development.
This is a new plan that this government has started to talk about in the
last number of weeks. This workforce
development plan certainly I do not think a lot of people in the Province have
a lot of confidence that this government can actually develop a workforce
development plan.
When we see situations like what has been reported to
be the largest industrial development period in Labrador and this government
cannot find one occupational health and safety officer to go up and make sure
those employees and those workers are safe, and that there is an on the ground
presence around safety. The
questions I asked about in the House earlier today.
We have a long-term care facility the Premier takes great pride in
talking about buildings. Well, I
would remind him it is not buildings that take care of people; it is people who
take care of people.
Quite frankly, the fact that this government continues
to talk about investments in infrastructure without addressing the real issues
of services that are not being provided.
Like the long-term care facility that has a unit that is currently empty,
while we have waiting lists and people backed up, and bed blockages happening at
the Health Sciences Centre I think offends people.
It certainly comes up on the doorsteps and in community town hall
discussions when I am working in my district, as it does with many of my
colleagues on this side of the House.
When we talk about the economy, the most important
thing in an economy, quite frankly, is whether people have jobs.
This government is not going to fix the population challenges unless they
address that. The recession we are
in is going to make it a whole lot tougher for people to choose to live here and
to stay in this Province because it is going to make it tougher for them to find
the resources to support their family.
I, along with many of my colleagues on this side of the
House, and I would argue many people in the community, believe the battle for
the future of our Province and the sustainability of our Province is on now.
In the coming months and weeks people of the Province will be asked very
clearly to decide which party in this Province they believe are going to be the
best to lead them through this difficult transition.
Mr. Chair, I know my time is rapidly cluing up.
I want to make sure that I make the point to listen to the debate in this
House of Assembly and listen to the members opposite and the government talk
about major oil deals, in the absence of talking about a continuous improvement
and an evolution of our benefits plan is quite worrisome to many people in this
Province.
Extractors who want to come here and make money from
our resources, we cannot be satisfied to only talk about benefits agreements.
Quite frankly, we must insist that benefits be derived not just for the
provincial coffers, but more importantly for the people of the Province.
Mr. Chair, we need to guard against those resourceful global companies
that are, quite frankly, motivated by shareholder value that will endeavour to
prey on the weaknesses such as perceived productivity issues, a shrinking
economy, and a declining population.
Mr. Chair, we must tackle the misconception that our
businesses and our workforce are unproductive.
Perceptions of, it cannot be done in Newfoundland, for example.
We must celebrate the incredible resilience of a people who know one way
of doing things and that is with hard work.
We must advance our economy and not be satisfied with a narrow view of
what drives economic activity. Every
region of this Province deserves the attention of a government that is focused
on all of the population and not just simply on the revenue that the Province
brings in.
Mr. Chair, we must address the population.
This Budget certainly is not one that is resonating with people of the
Province when it comes to addressing the population.
Quite frankly, we must entrust this work to happen with people who do not
make excuses. Most people I talk to
are fed up with this government's continuing habit of making excuses for their
inability to get things done. The
time for excuses is over and the time for action is now.
The time for leadership and compassion, and more importantly, the time
for results, is now.
Mr. Chair, I look forward to joining the Leader of the
Official Opposition, our caucus, and do you know what, many, many people around
this Province who know that better is possible and who know that better is
achievable, and more importantly, better is a must.
Not because we want to win a political battle, but rather because we want
to ensure the survival of our beautiful Province for the 25,000 kids I just
want you to think about that for a second between the ages of zero and four
who are currently in our Province, and for the over 60,000 school-age kids.
Quite frankly, it is those two groups, those 85,000 kids who are the real
future of our Province.
Mr. Chair, as long as this government will allow this
House to remain open, I will continue to speak about this Budget and the issues
that people in my district are presenting to me, just like every member on this
side of the House will continue to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Bonavista North.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
CROSS:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is certainly great to stand up and speak today as
maybe a final chance to speak in this term to represent the good people of the
District of Bonavista North. As the
opposite member just spoke, her district is transitioning and the one I hope to
represent is transitioning as well.
As we move into the coming months, I look forward and am eager to reacquaint
with some of the people from the parts of the district that will be included.
The matter at hand today, Mr. Chair, is to stand here
and offer a few comments about Bill 6, which will amend the Income Tax Act in
order to implement a couple of tax measures that we feel in the plan of this
government is necessary with this year's Budget.
As our minister so aptly said when he stood up, the balance of looking at
the broad spectrum of incomes in our Province and all of the other aspects that
we might have to raise revenues, these acts now, after the Budget has been
passed, is necessary in order to fulfill the promise or the balance of that
Budget.
If I may for a couple of moments, I just want to speak
to the both of these. The income tax
rate increase is one of these things that the minister alluded to.
Basically, he referred to our tax regime as being very competitive and
progressive. If this income tax rate
that we are talking about applying today if your income is less than $125,000
per year, there is no impact on you.
There is absolutely no impact on you.
The addition of a fourth and a fifth rate to our income tax regime would
mean that if you are earning between $125,000 and $175,000, then you are in a
14.3 per cent income tax rate.
Just after the Budget came out, I was talking to a few
individuals who may have been in that rate.
They were very scared about what was happening in the Budget and did not
realize that when you get down to, as grandfather would say, the brass tacks and
analyze it all, what happened is this increase for someone who is earning
between $125,000 and $150,000 a year, the tax payable on that extra $25,000 is
going to be a difference of $250 in their pockets or taken out of their pocket
for this. Again, when they realize,
in that amount, for someone who is in that bracket, that is a very modest hit.
The fifth rate at 15.3 per cent, which would be
implemented for taxable income over $175,000, if you are between $175,000 and
$200,000, the hit on your pocketbook is going to be able $1,000 per year.
The hit for someone in that category, Mr. Chair, is not going to be felt
as great as the protection we have offered to the lower income whereby the
raising of it and the benefits that we have created over the years, such that
now as the minister alluded to if your income is in the $32,000 plateau, you
pay no taxes at all, Mr. Chair. That
has risen drastically in the years that we have been in office.
These changes maintain Newfoundland and Labrador
competitiveness. We are still the
lowest in Atlantic Canada and still in the third progressive rate of personal
income tax in all of the country.
The second particular part of this is related to the
financial capital tax as it is applied.
Most provinces and federal governments have capital taxes on financial
institutions. It also has capital
tax on banks and loans and trust companies with permanent establishments in our
Province; however, the rate that is being applied now is for people who have
taxable paid up capital in Newfoundland and Labrador, all capital stock and
other things. Really it is applied
after $5 million because the first $5 million you have is exempt from taxes, Mr.
Chair. What makes a need for this
change is that this particular tax has not changed for the last nineteen years;
1996 was the last time this tax had actually changed.
So in review for this year, it was something that was probably necessary.
Just to rebut a comment that my hon. member just made
in the sense of trying to be critical about this government and the fact that we
have not diversified the economy. It
would make you think and this comment was told to me just this last weekend
when I was home and talking to people.
If you would listen to the Opposition parties, you would think the oil is
going to be gone tomorrow. This
gentleman told me that. He said: You
would think the oil is going to be gone tomorrow and what have we done.
Well, in looking at the potential for oil and where it
goes, it is still going to be around for years to come and we have to take
whatever chance we have to diversify.
We depend on it in the beginning and as we grow, much like Norway or much
like other countries that have had oil, after you get involved for fifteen or
twenty years, you become major players and you are to the point that you can
actually step up the idea.
The very first and probably biggest project that we are
doing to diversify this economy, to take us away from the oil, is Muskrat Falls.
All we get is comments and jeers and whatever from people opposing that
and not really accepting the fact that that is a big diversification project for
this Province, to take us away from the oil.
Also, Mr. Chair, in other ways with smaller projects,
either with private business I know through private enterprise in my district,
there have been numerous commercial entities that have taken or have applied for
grants or supports or loans from this Province to help diversify, be it in the
fishery or other aspects of our Province.
There are also not-for-profit groups that receive capital investment from
this government to help in the tourist industry and whatever.
We all agree that the basis of most of our economy and
our Province is on small business your megaprojects are going to have great
things to do, but it is your small business that leads for the majority of this
Province to keep our industry and our economy flowing.
Through all of this, we have had projects here.
You think about the innovation projects that have been
done in the last two or three years with the SubC group in Clarenville, you have
the other guys who are making the snowboards in Western Newfoundland, and all
these groups. As we invest in
projects like that, we help diversify our economy.
Now, Mr. Chair, just for the last minute or two, to
change. Four years ago I stood here
and I completed my maiden speech. At
that time I intentionally stood up and tried not to have a script.
I had a few notes and I did something that I felt was necessary to go
through. When you take a chance such
as that on an idea like your maiden speech or whatever I do not know what this
speech may be called. If my first
speech was the maiden speech, I do not know what term is referred to for this
one, but in my maiden speech I forgot something very important.
I stood up and I thanked family and friends and everything, but I forgot
what I consider my personal maiden, my spouse.
I thanked everybody as we went through, and I have been four years trying
to think of a way to make that up to the point that I have been in this House, I
have been living a dream, I have had to pinch myself but I thank her
immensely, I thank Jocelyn for the support.
I understand, Mr. Chair, that I have also been given
I do not know what term the green light to continue.
I guess that is a great thanks as well.
When I look at it, maybe it is not a green light, it is not a red light,
it is not a yellow or orange light, but it is a blue light to continue on;
because as long as the blue light
is in the distance and still continues to fire the dreams of Newfoundlanders
like me, I feel that we are strong on this foundation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR. CROSS:
So I take my seat today proud of what I have tried to do in the last
four years, and hope that the great people of Bonavista North will let me
continue for a few more in the new District of
Fogo Island Cape Freels. It is all
in a name, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the opportunity.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for St. Barbe.
MR.
J. BENNETT:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to take the next ten minutes to recount
where we have come or not come over the past twelve years.
Let's look at where we were, where we have been, where we are, and how we
got there.
Mr. Chair, twelve years ago we had three paper mills.
Now we have one paper mill and an environmental disaster zone
expropriated by this government. Had
this government not been so careless to expropriate the Grand Falls mill, we
would not have an environmental disaster zone that belonged to us.
Successive owners were responsible and we are the final owner.
Nevertheless, we went out and spent a ton of money on
legal fees in order to find out that, yes, it is our environmental disaster zone
in Grand Falls. We still do not have
a price tag. We do not know if we
are going to restore it to a brown zone.
We certainly are not going to restore it to a green zone, but it is an
environmental disaster zone.
Mr. Chair, maybe we should turn to the fishery.
What has this government done in the last dozen years for the fishery?
They took over a billion-dollar fishery and they have managed to get it
down to $900 million in twelve years.
That is no increase. How do
you get a $900 million fishery under this government?
You start with a billion-dollar fishery, wait a dozen years, and all of a
sudden you have less than you started with.
Maybe they have better results in education, because in
education when our struggling Newfoundland and Labrador government was when we
struggled in 2003, we were ranked midway in Canada under the program for
international assessment scores. We
were midway, and now we are struggling to stay out of last place.
That was in math, that was in science, and that was in numeracy for
fifteen year olds. We have gone from
middle of the pack, a have-not Province, to struggling and I say struggling
instead of last place as a have Province.
Maybe we did better in health, because health is
certainly one of the most important issues in our Province.
After a dozen years we find we have the unhealthiest population in
Canada, in spite of billions of dollars spent on health care.
Mr. Chair, in short we have the most expensive, least accountable
government, which keeps on saying whenever you challenge them on an issue like
education, or on health, or on any issue at all, they say, we have spent and we
have spent and we have spent. The
Auditor General agrees, yes, you have spent, and you have spent, and you have
spent. Then he points out lack of
controls, lack of oversight, and lack of accountability.
The Auditor General concludes, oh, but money sent out
the door is not a measure of success.
All we have seen for a dozen years is money sent out the door.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
That is a good one. Say it again,
Jim.
MR.
J. BENNETT:
Money sent out the door is not a measure of success.
So how do we get there?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
J. BENNETT:
Mr.
Chair, let's look at 2003 to know where we are because if you do not know where
you have been you will only repeat history, which is what we seem to be doing
with this government with spending.
In 2003, when this government took office we were in
rough shape, no doubt about it.
Everything they can say about 2003 was pretty much true, all the deficits, the
infrastructure issues, and this government had no plan except put the government
back on track financially. That
would be prudent, conservative, fiscal policy if they were to do it.
They had no plan except to get the government back on
track, get our Province back on track financially.
So what did they do? They cut
corners. They jacked up fees.
Everybody remembers ambulance fees going up, a whole range of scores
and perhaps even hundreds of fees going up.
They consolidated health boards.
They consolidated education boards, and they froze wages.
All of the things that they said.
Well, they did not actually say what they would do because back then in
2003 the only words I can remember hearing from the government in the pre-2003
campaign was, we do not know what we are going to do.
We are in such a mess, we have to get in and take a look at the books.
We have to get in and take a look at the books before we can tell you
what we will do.
Then shortly after this government took office
something happened. We got oil.
Well, we had the oil all along but we got the oil money.
The oil revenues started to roll in.
Based on the work and sacrifice of people before them, based on nothing
they did, the money started to roll in and roll in and roll in.
Mr. Chair, the money rolled in, almost like capelin
rolling in on the beach. This is
June, and I imagine in some places the capelin are still rolling.
They are rolling, the little silvery things.
This is how the money literally rolled in to this Province, the oil
money, but the government still did not have a plan.
The only plan they had in the first place was how to save money.
Now they did not need to save money.
They did not need to save money anymore.
The one issue of government, from 2003, they did not have that issue
anymore because they had money. They
had more money than they knew what to do with, and they spent and they spent and
they spent.
Mr. Chair, they took over a government that struggled
to survive on a $4 billion Budget in 2002 of the Grimes government.
Now we have a government that struggles on an $8 billion Budget.
Twelve years later, with twice as much money as when they took over, we
have a government that struggles on $8 billion and still is forced to borrow and
to borrow and to borrow.
Why does it borrow?
It borrows to feed a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy, all the while
neglecting our people; all the while neglecting the people of this Province.
We have double the rate of unemployment of our nation.
We are an oil dependent, single-issue government that has done little
over the past twelve years to diversity our economy.
I say they have done very little to diversify our economy.
Mr. Chair, the government that pats itself on the back
and points to stacks of cancelled cheques.
Cheques that included $20 billion or more of oil royalties and mineral
royalties, created by a previous government and spent by this government with no
new sources of wealth to replace the money spent.
Mr. Chair, the people in our Province are in despair
with this government. I know because
I travelled all over the Province in recent times and previously.
They are absolutely in despair and they are afraid.
They want change.
Mr. Chair, who are these people?
They are realtors, they are contractors, and they are business owners.
That is mostly in the Northeast Avalon and some areas of scattered
prosperity. They are also ordinary
working people, everyday ordinary working people who do not know where they are
going to turn. They are absolutely
paranoid of what is going to happen if this government stays in power.
They are also seniors. They
are also vulnerable members of our Province who must rely on Income Support.
There is fear and despair that this government will be
re-elected. The government rewards
this fear and despair. How do they
reward this fear and despair? Well,
they increased the HST. They jacked
up the taxes some more. They came
into power in 2003 with no money and they increased taxes, cut benefits, and
consolidated. Today, they increased
HST all over again.
Mr. Chair, if you can imagine, one of the least popular
people in our Province is Stephen Harper.
I think maybe Mr. Harper probably even acknowledges that himself;
however, in his time in office he has rewarded our people.
He has rewarded the people of this Province because the federal portion
of the HST has gone down twice. It
has been lowered 1 per cent, then another per cent.
The federal portion of the HST that used to be 7 per cent is now 5 per
cent.
What is this government going to do with that?
They are going to take back the money that Stephen Harper said we could
keep. Stephen Harper said: no, no,
we can get by on 5 per cent instead of 7 per cent.
The 5 per cent and 8 per cent, that is 13 per cent.
This government has just jacked up the HST to 7 per
cent plus. Actually, they have
increased it to if there is 5 per cent left, that is 10 per cent HST.
I am afraid if I screw up my math I might be recruited to be a finance
minister in the government. I would
rather stay in the Opposition for now.
In any event, this is the most expensive HST in Canada.
It is needed to be increased by this wasteful, out-of-control
unaccountable government which is taking back what Stephen Harper let us keep.
Mr. Chair, this is absolutely shameful.
It is out of touch. This
government is indifferent to the needs of people.
If a government was ever ready to spend time in Opposition, it is this
government right now.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It is good to get on my feet again and have some things
to say with regard to the situation in the Province dealing with Bill 6 today.
It is what we call a money bill because it is a bill that deals directly
with income for government, income that will come because of rises to the income
tax rate, and the good thing the government did which was adding two more tax
brackets to personal income.
However, they certainly did not, in doing that, in any
way put a plan in place that would increase very much the income that will come
from those changes. They created new
tax brackets and then did not use the opportunity to make sure that the
highest-earning people in the Province would be paying their fair share of what
needs to be paid. They missed a
golden opportunity.
I am not going to talk specifically about the income
tax brackets and the income raise, Mr. Chair.
What I want to talk about, which I may talk about, are some of the things
this government does or does not do with the money that they have, the decisions
that they make, and the way in which the government is being run which really
disturbs me.
I want to speak first very, very specifically.
Both of the things I am going to talk about are things that have to do
with my district. I came into this
House in the fall of 2006 when I was first elected in a by-election.
One of the issues that was an issue in the District of Signal Hill
Quidi Vidi at that time and had been for, I think, it was two years before I
became elected was the whole issue of the need for a new school in Virginia
Park.
The Virginia Park Elementary School is mainly made up
of temporary buildings that were added on to the main structure.
It has many problems. It was
agreed upon for many, many years that the school needed to be replaced.
My predecessor of course, Mr. Jack Harris, had been involved with the
school before me. I came in knowing
that this was an important issue.
One of the first things I did, when I became MHA, was
to meet with the people in the school, the school council, get to know them, and
get to know about the issue. I have
been many years, with my predecessor before me, advocating for the school.
What I have learned, this government has a different
interpretation of long-term planning in my books.
Long-term planning for me would mean you set a date for something, you
work towards it, you have a schedule, you have timelines, you stick with them,
and you know when you are going to reach your goal.
For this government, it would seem, when it comes to building the new
school, for example, long-term planning is sometime in the future it is going to
happen.
When we finally got to a point, as we did this year,
where ground was broken in the new area and where the foundation has been laid,
now we are finding that the long-term planning which would be my kind of
long-term planning did not include making sure that everything in the
construction phase is being done in a timely way.
We finally have the foundation in, we finally have
steel girders in place, reaching to the sky already, and the tender for the
second phase of construction has not even gone out has not even gone out.
I really think that people of my district and the people of Virginia Park
Elementary were insulted today here in this House when no answer was given by
this government when I asked why has the tender not gone out.
Here we are, we are heading into the last day of
school, all the children will be gone, and this would be the perfect time for
the exterior to start being built.
Because unlike some other places, the new school is being built right next to
the old school. In actual fact, you
have this danger of construction, even though there is a fence around, et
cetera, you have large vehicles, large trucks, and large equipment in and out of
the site all the time. The school
has to be extremely careful about the movement of cars and children.
This summer would have been the time to start building the exterior of
the school so that in September when the kids come back, the exterior would have
been up and it would be internal work that would be done.
I really cannot understand the process that goes on
inside of government and particularly inside of Transportation and Works.
They cannot do two things at the same time?
They cannot have more than one project having tenders going out, and they
cannot make sure that things are being done in a logical way?
Do they talk to the Department of Education and say to them what would be
good according to the school schedule?
What would be good for the kids?
What would be good for everybody in that school community?
The lack of planning, the lack of departments working
together making logical decisions really bemuses me.
I just cannot understand the thinking that goes on.
That is one thing that really bothers me.
I want to use this opportunity to speak about another
thing in my district that really bothers me as well.
It could be I do not know, because I do not know what government's plan
is. We never know in this House what
government's plan is with regard to our parliamentary calendar.
This could be the last time I will get to talk on behalf of people who
live in the Virginia Park area.
Because of course with the changes to the boundaries, I will be running for the
NDP nomination in St. John's East Quidi Vidi, and the Virginia Park area will
be no longer an area that I would represent if I am honoured enough to be
re-elected by people to represent St. John's East Quidi Vidi.
This could be the last time I get to speak to the
issues of Virginia Park Elementary and also to the issue of the long-term care
facility. Neither one of these would
be in the new district I would represent, if I become elected.
I want to talk about the long-term care because I have found the
government being very, almost disrespectful of the experience of people, whether
it is people who are in the facility or the experience of families.
One of the big issues that we have brought up here and
I have brought up here with regard to the long-term care facility is the
understaffing of the long-term care facility and the impact of that on the
people who are there, the impact of that on the residents in the long-term care
facility.
I have here in my hand a document I think it is about
twenty-seven pages long. It was a
letter that was put together by a woman she has given me permission to use her
name. Her name is Rosalind White.
Her mother is in the St. John's long-term care facility.
She began in Hoyles-Escasoni, and then moved over to the long-term care
facility.
I am amazed by the patience of Ms White who has
observed her mother's care for a number of years now and has made tremendous
observations with regard to what is happening in the new facility.
Her patience is that she fully understands that what is happening is not
because of the poor care of the individuals who are working there, but because
the whole facility is understaffed.
Because it is understaffed, then she is aware of both her mother and other
residents, for example, being left in Depends for a long time, hours and hours
beyond where one would expect them to be wearing what they have to wear for
their personal needs.
She is aware of meals being brought in and left in
front of residents who cannot feed themselves and because of the understaffing
have to wait until somebody can come and feed them.
This is not because the staff is incompetent, this is and I am struck
as I read through her twenty-odd page document how often she says, because she
is writing the Administration, this is because of the understaffing.
So if there is anything that I want to lay before
government today as the final stab at these issues is acknowledge that
understaffing, do something about it, and for goodness sakes speed up the
building of the school in Virginia Park.
It has been promised for the fall of 2016.
I will not be their MHA at that time, but I am certainly going to be
observing and watching to see what happens.
Is that school going to start on time?
Mr. Chair, it does not matter what government says
about its broad fiscal policies, if they are not putting things in place to help
people in the educational system and in the health care system, then we have a
real problem.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to take a few minutes.
I will not take all of my allocated time because I have spoken a fair bit
already about this Budget. There are
only so many good things you can say about a good Budget.
Mr. Chair, I do want to make a couple of comments,
though. I want very specifically to
respond to the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
If she has not already read it, it is an interesting read.
I bring her attention and bring all members' attention, actually, to a
document that was distributed as a part of the Budget.
It is called Solid Investments in
Provincial Infrastructure 2004-05-2015-16.
It is a really interesting read I say, Mr. Chair.
It is interesting for a number of things.
The first part of the document talks about the period between 2004 and
today. We have talked many times in
the House about the significant infrastructure investments that have been made
in this Province and how successfully those strategic investments have advanced
social programs in this Province and have contributed to significant economic
activity in many parts of the Province.
So this provides the highlights of how that $6 billion has been spent
over the last eight or ten years.
It is a very interesting read for that perspective.
It is a stroll down memory lane of the last ten years and the number of
investments that have been made by this Administration in strategic pieces of
infrastructure throughout the Province.
The other part, which is important I think, and it
speaks directly to the question that has been raised, all you need to do is turn
yourself to page 36. Page 36 talks
about Budget 2015, the provincial infrastructure investments, our strategic
plan. For the first time ever in the
history of Newfoundland and Labrador and the government of this Province the
people have before them a master plan of infrastructure investments that are on
the agenda right now today and very particularly, the school system, a
multi-year K-12 infrastructure plan.
We talk about what is going to happen in each of the next three or four years,
what schools, what communities, the nature of the investment, and the timelines
in which we are going to do this.
So when the member talks about schools that will be
open in September 2016, that is the plan, that is the commitment, that is the
track we are on; tender work, design work, those sorts of things that are
prerequisites to having us meet that timeline are well in place.
So whether it is Virginia Waters, or whether it is schools in Gander,
whether it is schools in Portugal Cove-St. Phillips, regardless of where the
school might be new schools, Mr. Chair, that you might be very familiar with,
obviously. There is a commitment to
replace the school in Coley's Point, something that has been a long-standing
issue in your district, a long-standing issue for the people that you represent,
and this Budget makes a commitment to ensure that becomes a reality.
I am sure that you have celebrated with your
constituents and parents who have kids going to that school, or parents who will
have kids going to that new school.
I want to take this time to thank you for your contribution in lobbying for that
new infrastructure for your district, a well-needed piece of infrastructure, and
this Budget and this document lays that out and responds to those that is just
one example.
So I say to the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi,
she need not worry about the successful completion of Virginia Park School, she
need not worry about the successful completion of any of the schools laid out in
this infrastructure plan, because they will be executed.
Plans are in place, design work done, site work selected in many cases,
cement being poured as we speak on some sites.
So this is an agenda that we are committed to and we will deliver on.
So, Mr. Chair, with that few comments, I will conclude
my comments about Bill 6, look forward to the vote in a few moments, and then as
we conclude this one, we will come back and we will debate the loan bill, which
is the second part of the bills we need to deal with today as a part of the
Budget process.
CHAIR:
Shall the resolution carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On motion, resolution carried.
A bill, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000.
(Bill 6)
CLERK:
Clause 1.
CHAIR:
Shall clause 1 carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On motion, clause 1 carried.
CLERK:
Clauses 2 and 3.
CHAIR:
Shall clauses 2 and 3 carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On motion, clauses 2 through 3 carried.
CLERK:
Be
it enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor and House of Assembly in Legislative
session convened, as follows.
CHAIR:
Shall the enacting clause carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On motion, enacting clause carried.
CLERK:
An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000.
CHAIR:
Shall the title carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
On motion, title carried.
CHAIR:
Shall I report Bill 6 without amendment?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
Carried.
Motion, that the Committee report having passed the
bill without amendment, carried.
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that the Committee do now rise and report Bill 6
without amendment.
CHAIR:
The
motion is that the Committee rise and report the resolution and Bill 6 without
amendment.
Is it the pleasure of the Committee to adopt the
motion?
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 (Verge):
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for Port de Grave and Chair of
Committees.
MR.
LITTLEJOHN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Committee of Ways and Means have considered the
matters to them referred and have directed me to report that they have adopted a
certain resolution and recommend that a bill be introduced to give effect to the
same.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
Chair of the Committee of Ways and Means reports that the Committee have
considered the matters to them referred, and they have adopted a certain
resolution and recommend that a bill be introduced to effect to the same.
When shall the report be received?
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Now.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Now.
On motion, report received and adopted.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that the resolution be now read the first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that this resolution be now read a first time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
Be
it resolved by the House of Assembly in Legislative Session convened, as
follows:
That it is expedient to bring in a measure respecting
the imposition of taxes on income.
On motion, resolution read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that the resolution be now read the second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the resolution be now read a second time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
Second reading of the resolution.
On motion, resolution read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this time I move, seconded by the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board, that the House resolve itself into a
Committee of the Whole to Consider a Resolution Relating to the Raising of Loans
by the Province, Bill 10.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate your patience here.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Minister of
Finance and President of Treasury Board, for leave to introduce a bill to
Consider Certain Resolutions Respecting the Imposition of Taxes on Income, Bill
6, and that the said bill be now read the first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the hon. the Government House Leader shall have leave
to introduce Bill 6, and that the said bill be now read the first time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion
that Bill 6 be now read a first time?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
A
bill, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000.
(Bill 6)
On motion, Bill 6 read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This time I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance
and President of Treasury Board, that Bill 6 be now read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that Bill 6 be now read a second time.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
Second reading of Bill 6.
On motion, Bill 6 read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that Bill 6 be now read a third time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that Bill 6 be now read a third time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
Third Reading of Bill 6.
MR.
SPEAKER:
This bill has now been read a third time, it is ordered that the bill do pass
and its title be as on the Order Paper.
On motion, a bill, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act,
2000, read a third time, ordered passed and its title be as on the Order Paper.
(Bill 6).
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that the House resolve itself into a Committee of
the Whole to Consider a Resolution Relating to the Raising of Loans by the
Province, Bil1 10.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
motion is that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole in order
to consider Bill 10.
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.'
The motion is carried.
On motion, that the House resolve itself into a
Committee of the Whole, Mr. Speaker left the Chair.
Committee of the Whole
CHAIR (Cross):
Order, please!
We are now debating the related resolution and Bill 10.
Resolution
That
it is expedient to bring in a measure to authorize the raising from time to time
by way of loan on the credit of the Province a sum of money not exceeding
$2,000,000,000.
CHAIR:
Shall the resolution carry?
The hon. the Minister of Finance and President of
Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This is Bill 10, what this does it gives effect to
decisions that have already been made in the Budget process itself.
We debated the main supply bill.
We debated the Budget itself and the resolution, and the House has
endorsed this year's Budget. So this
bill, together with the one we just finished debating a moment ago, Bill 6, are
two pieces of legislation that we need to enact to give us the authority to
follow through on decisions already made in the Budget.
Many have described bills such as these as money bills,
because they relate to the raising of funds or the levying of taxes.
No doubt, when members opposite stand they will talk about a range of
things, about the budgets and government's policy, things we do and things we do
not do. Much of it, no doubt, will
be criticism of things we have done or criticisms of things we are not doing.
Clearly, Mr. Chair, this Budget this year was about
balance, it was about choices. We
needed to make some significant decisions around what the Province's fiscal
position was going to be like over the course of the next five years.
We have mapped out this year, Mr. Chair, a plan, and it is highlighted.
The Budget Speech was read into the record in this
House, but this document here, the Highlights document is one that spells out in
black and white in fact, not just black and white, it is multicoloured.
It spells out very clearly on a variety of fronts what it is government
is going to be doing with money over the course of this year, what the plans
will be for the next five years, how we plan to return to a surplus, and how we
plan to have a balanced Budget in four years and a surplus in five.
That is what this plan does; it gives us a blueprint for that five-year
plan.
One of the things we need to do because in the next
five years or the next four particularly, our revenues will be less than the
expenses we need to have to run these programs and services for the people of
the Province. One of the things we
need to do is we need to borrow.
That is not something we have done a lot of in recent years.
Mr. Chair, one of the things we are proposing to do
this year is we are proposing to start first of all, it will be four years of
a borrowing plan to allow us to continue with much-needed and critical programs
and services that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador get to enjoy daily.
This builds into this master plan that we talked about.
Over the next four years we anticipate borrowing some $4.85 billion.
This year we are going to be borrowing a couple of billion.
Let's look at why we are doing that, Mr. Chair.
I said earlier that this document here lays out what it is we are doing.
We need to borrow money this year for infrastructure.
I just spoke a moment ago in response to the Member for Signal Hill
Quidi Vidi. We are going to continue
to build schools. We are going to
continue to upgrade our roads. We
need to continue to enhance transportation infrastructure.
We are building new ferries.
We are going to continue to make those strategic
investments in much-needed infrastructure, but we are going to need to borrow
for that infrastructure this year.
This is the first time since 2003 and 2004 that we have had to borrow for
infrastructure. This year we are
going to start doing that.
The other significant thing we are going to be having
to do this year, Mr. Chair, is we want to continue to make strategic investments
in Nalcor. Over the course of the
next couple of years we will make some strategic investments, building on
investments already made in Nalcor.
One of the things that many have talked about is the
value of that investment and when we are going to get a return.
I want to bring people's attention to this Highlights document.
On page 8 it talks very clearly about how this government has made, over
a ten-year period, strategic investments in Nalcor as an organization.
Nalcor has a mandate on behalf of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador
to develop our energy resource, to develop oil and gas, to create an equity
position in our oil and gas development, look at developing and the
responsibility for developing Muskrat Falls.
This organization is going to be one of the key success
factors as we move forward as a Province.
So over a ten-year period, including this year and next year, and what we
have already done, this Province will invest about $3 billion in Nalcor over
about a ten-year period. If you fast
forward for eight years, by 2025-2026 we are going to have all of that back.
The return on that investment we made in Nalcor will come back to us in
eight years, and in 2024-2025 we will have it all back.
From then on out, we will be getting about $1 billion a year from Nalcor
$1 billion on an annual basis coming from Nalcor.
If you think about the investment we are making this
year and some would say well, why are you are borrowing for it?
Because it is important to borrow for that kind of strategic investment
in an organization that is going to give us that kind of return and be one of
the key economic drivers as we move ourselves into the future.
The second thing, Mr. Chair, we want to borrow for, we
talked about infrastructure, how critical that is to enhancing social programs
and providing us with the economic stimulation the second thing we have to
deal with is the day-to-day operational cost of government.
We need to maintain our health services, we need to maintain our schools,
and we need to maintain our transportation network.
All of those programs and services that are going to be critical to the
future and the well-being, the day-to-day lives, the quality of life of all
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, we are going to need to maintain a reasonable
level of service.
We have made some significant program decisions and
policy decisions around how we actually adjust the size of the public service
and ratchet back some of our expenditure levels over the next couple of years.
These are mapped out again in this five-year plan, but we need to borrow
to provide the offset for the revenues that we do not have this year, yet we
have the commitment for those much needed programs and services.
The other big piece that is driving our borrowing, one
of the things that we are very proud of as an Administration, very proud of
because we are leading the country in this area, we have finally taken a grip
the public sector pension plans. We
debated last week in this House a piece of legislation that helps reform the
teachers' plan. Last fall, we
debated in this House a piece of legislation that will reform the public sector
pension plan. So we now have two of
the largest pension plans within the public service reformed.
That requires though, on our part, as an employer, as a
part of government's contribution to that reform, we have made a commitment.
We have commitments to make contributions and payments towards a
promissory note that we issued and will honour to actually support the
stabilization and future sustainability of those pension plans.
So we have made those financial commitments and we need to honour those.
So for the next couple of years, we are going to need to borrow to honour
those commitments.
If you look at our infrastructure commitment, our
strategic investment in Nalcor, our obligation to our pension plans and our
obligation to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador who desperately need and
deserve the kinds of programs and services that we are going to be able to
continue to provide for them as we work our way through these challenges times,
that is what has given rise to the need to borrow this year.
That is why we are aggressively pulling out a plan and, as I have said,
this is mapping ourselves out for the next four years, Mr. Chair.
Now, many have said and in fact, there have been
comments in this House by members in the Opposition that is a lot of money.
It is a lot of money. There
has been much criticism by Opposition members about whether or not we should be
borrowing that kind of money. Can we
afford it? Can we afford not to?
I tell you, Mr. Chair, there is a couple of things that
I want to share with you and I know my time is ticking by.
If you think about the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, the history
of this Province, we have gone through periods of time in fact if we take you
back to the late 1980s through to 2003-2004 period, that is a fairly long period
of time, long before we came into government.
Governments of Newfoundland and Labrador had to borrow on an annual
basis.
In fact if you look at that period between 1988 and
2004, this Province was borrowing at a rate of about $390 million-odd on an
annual basis annually, year over year over year over year.
If you think about that for a moment, the accumulation of all of that
over that period of time is only going to equate to what we are going to be
borrowing ourselves over the course of the next four years.
This level of borrowing over an extended period of time is not
unprecedented for this Province.
One of the things, Mr. Chair, that is really important
to appreciate. When people borrow,
no different than anyone who lives in this Province people in this House will
buy a car, they buy a home, they get a mortgage, all of us need to ensure that
what we borrow we can afford to repay.
What we borrow, the debt servicing costs of what we borrow in our
personal lives cannot put us in a spot where we cannot feed our children.
You cannot do that.
Governments cannot do it either. We
need to be prudent in the level of borrowing.
One of the things that we have done, Mr. Chair, in this
Budget we have mapped out and I have said it in this House many times, and I
want to repeat it. This is the first
time in the history of this Province has any government ever brought down a
Budget that had a five-year plan that mapped out year over year for five years
what the expenses were going to be and what the revenue was going to be.
Equally as important perhaps many would say more
important we have put together a series of performance indicators.
We have said it is not responsible for any government to start talking
about expending money, generating revenues, borrowing money unless you are able
to establish some fiscal targets.
What is a cap? How much would you be
prepared to borrow? What is the
absolute cap you would ever put on borrowing?
What is the absolute cap that you think that you will be able to service?
So we have said two things, regardless of what happens
over the course of the next five years, we have a plan and we have set ourselves
targets. The people of this Province
can measure our success against these targets.
I will just share two of them with you because they relate to borrowing.
These are the two targets that relate to borrowing.
We have said that regardless of how much we borrow, regardless of how
much interest rates become, whatever banks charge us for borrowing money, we
will never find ourselves ever where the cost of borrowing becomes excessive.
We have said, Mr. Chair, that we will make sure that we have built-in
targets that make sure that our cost of borrowing, that our debt-servicing cost,
the amount of interest that we pay, will never, ever go beyond 13 per cent of
our gross revenue. So our debt
expenses will never be beyond 13 per cent.
Mr. Chair, take it from those of us who have been
around this House for a while because it was not all that many years ago.
In fact, 2003, when we came to power in this Province and we formed
government in 2003, the Province at that time was paying twenty-five cents on
every dollar it generated just to service the debt, just to pay the interest.
We believe that is dangerous.
We will never put ourselves in that spot.
We will never put the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in that
position. So that is why we have
said we will never borrow an amount of money that puts us in the position where
our debt servicing cost is greater than 13 per cent of our total revenue.
The second thing we have said, Mr. Chair, relative to
expenditures and relative to borrowing money, we have said that we will never,
over the course of the next five years, borrow more than $5 billion never.
So regardless of how much we spend, how much demands may be made on us,
we will never be borrowing that much.
Members opposite might think that is a lot of money
and it is a lot of money, in anybody's language.
We as a Progressive Conservative Party and as the governing party today
are suggesting that we will borrow close to that over the next five years.
I doubt very much if anybody from the Liberal Party
will stand here today and say, you know that is not all that bad because we
borrowed that same amount of money when we were in power.
No one is going to say that.
No one in the Liberal Party will stand and say that today.
No one would stand and say that.
No one would ever do that, Mr. Chair.
They were borrowing at a rate of about close to $400
million a year, but they were doing it year over year.
It became a matter of course.
It was pretty natural. Every Budget
came down, oh yes, this is what we are going to spend, but we are going to
borrow $400 million. This is what we
are going to spend. They did that
year over year. Over a period of
time they borrowed the same amount, but they will stand here today and say what
a large amount of money it is and you should not be doing it.
Mr. Chair, this bill is about borrowing money.
This bill is about borrowing money that is a part of a fiscal plan that
talks about balance. It talks about
a five-year strategy. It talks about
growing revenues. It talks about
reducing expenditures. It talks
about providing balance. It talks
about providing fairness. It talks
about maintaining core government services and programs to support
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. It
talks about a fair tax system. It
talks about enhancing programs for seniors.
It talks about a huge capital investment in education programming and
transportation programming. It helps
service in this Province.
That is what this bill speaks to, all of those things.
They form a part of a balanced Budget where we had to make some choices
to see ourselves through for the next five years.
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Bay of Islands.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
JOYCE:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will just stand for a few minutes to have a few
words. I know the Minister of
Natural Resources is here. I just
want to clarify something the minister said here on June 2, Mr. Chair.
I like putting it on the record and having it all clarified.
When the minister was up giving a very animated debate
about Muskrat Falls and this bunch over here and he talked about me back here
in 1999, Mr. Chair, and in 2009. The
minister wanted to be animated. We
all know the minister had to apologize several times here in the House.
We understand that.
When the minister makes the statement about Muskrat
Falls, asking me how I can support a $20 billion-and-something project and I
could not support Muskrat Falls of course, and I am being fair to the
minister, I actually sent it over to him.
The actual cost was $4 billion.
I know the minister is touchy on the subject.
So for the minister to stand over here and say I would not support
Muskrat but I will support a $20 billion-and-something, I think was the exact
words, Mr. Chair, it is factually incorrect.
Then Muskrat Falls, what is it, 800?
In 2009, it was 2,200 megawatts.
So you need to put the facts out there before you can stand up and be
animated.
I understand the minister does a lot of work.
I even offered the minister a copy of the agreement.
I just want to have the record straight on that, Mr. Chair.
Any statement that I ever made in this House or anything I ever voted on,
I have no problem standing up and defending.
I know it was just a misquote by the minister.
He can apologize again at any time, Mr. Chair.
I want to speak on something else I have to give him
credit. He has not apologized yet
this week. So it might be the first
time he is going to apologize this week, but that is fine.
Mr. Chair, I am going to speak on Coppermine Brook.
I know the Member for Port au Port who was the Minister of Service NL,
and I know the Member for St. John's West of all my years in government, I
never seen people treated in such a way as what happened in Coppermine Brook and
Number Four Brook.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs, I have to give him
credit, he took the bull by the horns when Crown Lands was transferred to him.
He is making some commitments and he is putting out information to try to
solve this problem. So I have to
give that minister credit first, but the Member for Port au Port and the Member
for St. John's West, who were Ministers of Service NL, I wrote them four times
and the Member for Humber West, a lot of residents from his district were never
treated properly in this matter.
Mr. Chair, do you know they walked in, they had an area
in Coppermine Brook, all the area was frozen from any transfer, any major work.
They were notified for almost two years that there was a freeze on.
No one would even speak to them.
That is the way they were treated.
It is an absolute shame.
I know the Member for Humber West said he met with a
lot of residents from the area. I
know a lot he never met with who are from his district.
I think that is one of the hardest punishments they ever gave anybody
that I dealt with in government, of putting a freeze on their land.
They could not transfer the land.
They could not do any major renovations to the land, and they were not
even told it was in place. It is
absolutely ridiculous.
I wrote the Member for Port au Port, he was the
minister, and he would not even give the residents a courtesy of a response, not
even a response, Mr. Chair. The
Member for St. John's West would not even give a response.
It is just absolutely ridiculous.
I have to give the Minister of Municipal Affairs some kudos because he is
getting to the bottom of it. At
least he is working with the people, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, I will just say one more thing about that
before I move on. They were at a
meeting, get this now, who owned the land there.
He was a constituent of the Member for Humber West.
He stood up and said: I am going on a trip tomorrow, what happens if I
and my wife get killed on the plane?
Do you know what they were told? Do
you know what they were told because a freeze was put on this land and no one
was ever notified? Do you know what
they were told? It will go in trust
until the government decides what to do with the land.
It is absolutely shameful the way those ministers
treated those people, Mr. Chair. It
is absolutely shameful. If anybody
across this Province wants to listen to this and want to know why people are
disillusioned now and are getting fed up with this government, Mr. Chair, sit
down and look at the file for Coppermine Brook.
It is absolutely shameful.
Mr. Chair, I just want to speak on another issue that I
attended on Sunday night. It was a
meeting in Lark Harbour for St. James All-Grade for the schools.
Then for anybody to stand up here and talk about how the cuts are not
that bad, go out to St. James in Lark Harbour where they are cutting two units.
Go out to St. James in Lark Harbour where they cut two units from 13.25
down to 11.25; go out there.
Mr. Chair, I do not know exactly how the system works,
but they were told they were going to be cut two units.
There is going to be an autistic child in the school who is going to be
coming. They cannot put back the
unit until this kid actually enrols.
They have to go through all this, making up the appeal, doing all the appeal
system. I met with the school board
and they said yes, we are holding teacher units back.
I can understand that, Mr. Chair, but there has to be some way that you
can sit down with the school council and say yes, but here is the other option
that if this kid, or if you need special services for other children in the
school, here is what is available.
I am not saying they should just walk in and say:
Blanket, what do you need? I think
they should be given the full information.
They should be given the full information and then when the school
councils I am sure the administration at the school has some of it.
When you give them the full information they can make an informed
decision, Mr. Chair, but they never had the full information.
They are getting parts of it now because the school board in a response
to the media said yes, there are holdbacks which I told them at the meeting.
Yes, if they can make a case for it and an appeal, there are positions
available, which is good.
The only thing I ask the minister or urge the minister
somehow is to get the school board to inform the school councils of their
options, their rights, and what is available.
I am not saying they should get everything they want.
I am not saying that everything they ask for should happen.
There has to be a limit.
There has to be justification, I have no problem with that.
Supplying people the information is very important for the school
councils, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, another issue is transportation and works.
I know myself and the minister is going to be chatting.
My understanding from the minister is that there is work coming for the
Bay of Islands. There was a little
bit of a misunderstanding last week.
There was an announcement made for Route 440.
It was not the Bay of Islands, I say to the minister.
It is not. It is Route 440.
It is pretty close, but it is not the Bay of Islands.
So when you gave out this announcement saying that the
Bay of Islands is getting this money and people called me, well, what work is
being done? It is really not the Bay
of Islands, Mr. Chair. It is
Riverside Drive. It will be part of
Humber Bay of Islands. I know the
minister committed for some funds for the Bay of Islands.
I know the minister read it and I know the minister was trying to arrange
a meeting with myself to discuss it.
I thank the minister for that.
On the South Shore of the Bay of Islands and I have
been trying now. The Member for Lab
West can remember this because there was a flood back probably two or three
years ago and they are still trying to get work done from that.
We hear about all this money being spent on the roads,
Mr. Chair and I know from Frenchman's Cove out to York Harbour, it is a major
concern for a lot of the residents.
That is why when I wrote the minister and there are two major spots; one there
in Coppermine. There was a slide
there two years ago and it is still not paved.
I have to be fair to the officials, the slide they did not know when it
was going to stop. I think it is
settled now.
There is one over in McIver's, Mr. Chair, that has not
been paved now for a year, the same thing.
It has to be fixed. There are
school buses. I know in McIver's
there are school buses going over that.
The one in Lark Harbour, the one in Coppermine Brook has been there now
two years. The one over in McIver's
has to be fixed.
A lot of residents on Route 450 have asked me to
express their concerns. I wrote the
minister on three or four occasions.
He agreed that there will be some work in the Bay of Islands this year
pavement. So I am very pleased with
that. I thank the minister for that
because we have to work together.
Mr. Chair, the last little thing I am going to bring up
is the hospital in Corner Brook and the long-term care.
I know the minister stood up today and said yes, there will be
construction started. I have to see
the details. I heard in 2007
construction was going to start. I
heard in 2011 when the Member for Humber West, the former Premier, and the
Member for Humber East got up and made the announcement at a public forum that
construction will start. They had
tractors going up there the biggest dog park in Corner Brook.
They had all the tractors going.
When I got back in the House of Assembly, I found out that even the
design was not even started. The
pre-design was not even completed, yet they had the big announcements.
I say to the minister I am sorry if I do not share all your excitement
because I have been through this before.
Mr. Chair, on some good things, I am very proud for the people in Cox's Cove who
got a fire truck, well deserved.
They are at the lower end of Route 440 and it would be a long time for anybody
to come there if there was an emergency, so I am very pleased with that.
The upper part now of Frenchman's Cove just received
funding for water and sewer. The
minister again seen the concern of that, and that there is a major improvement
for the area. It is the only part
now in that whole south shore from Frenchman's Cove up that do not have water.
Again I want to say to the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs that we are in negotiations with York Harbour and Lark
Harbour over amalgamation. I am not
sure how it is going to turn out. I
know there are some concerns with the Town of Lark Harbour, legitimate concerns.
I just wanted to put it on the record before I leave here that the
Minister of Municipal Affairs has put his heart and soul into this amalgamation
issue. I just want to recognize that
we have been working together now for the last six or seven months on this, Mr.
Chair. If this does not work, it is
not because there was not good faith from the minister and from myself and the
councils, it is probably just some issues.
So I just want to put that on the record that the minister has been
working very diligently on this.
Mr. Chair, in closing, I am going to have my seat now
and I said this before that some of us will not be back here next time.
Some of us will not be back for different reasons; some will retire; some
more may run and lose. I said it
before and I will say it again. I
honestly feel that the forty-eight people who are in this House really have the
best interests of their constituents at heart.
I really feel that. I know
sometimes there are issues that come up.
So to everybody that I dealt with in the House of
Assembly, the majority of people on both sides of the House, are great to deal
with. We always get our own personal
issues with people. We always get
our own issues with the people, but the majority that we have work together.
So, in closing, Mr. Chair, the ones who are not coming
back from retirement, we have created great friendships.
The ones who may not be successful in the election anybody who puts
their name forth deserves a lot of accolades, because it is a demanding job when
you are in the public on a regular basis and when you are dealing with all the
issues of the constituents. It is a
tough and demanding job.
So to everybody here, Mr. Chair, who do not make it
back, and hopefully we develop friendships that we could always have and carry
on with us over the years. I know
sometimes it gets a bit hostile, but I honestly feel that the majority of
people, the vast majority, if not everyone here is concerned about the district
they represent. That is great to
know.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
(Inaudible).
MR.
JOYCE:
I
know some people are talking about my grey hair, but I had that since I was
twenty years old. That has nothing
to do with politics. That has
nothing to do with that.
This is going to be my last chance to have a few words
in this Legislature, so congratulations to everybody who makes it back.
To everybody who do not run, and retires, keep up the good work for your
towns and communities. It is a
profession that you have to remember there are only forty-eight of us are in
this House, it is a privilege to be in this House, and it is a privilege for us
to represent all of our towns and our people.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and all the best to everybody.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Port de Grave.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
LITTLEJOHN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is a great opportunity to get on my feet today and
speak to Bill 10, the Loan Act.
Obviously, when governments need to borrow, they need to come before the House
and before the Committee and they to provide a resolution to go out and borrow
for monies they are going to need to expend.
Mr. Chair, it is always a pleasure to stand on my feet
here and represent the fine people in the historic District of Port de Grave.
I never ever thought I would be in this position, to stand here and
represent those people, and it has been a great four years.
With the recent announcement and recent changes and recent reduction, as
the hon. member opposite just said, there will be some of us who may not get the
opportunity to be back in this wonderful place and be one of those elite forty.
Mr. Chair, I want to take this opportunity to thank the
people in the District of Port de Grave who placed their confidence in me four
years ago to elect me. I have worked
with them, and I hope we have made the District of Port de Grave a little bit
better place in the last four years.
Mr. Chair, with the reduction in the number of seats
here in the House, it is going to be a new district.
Like you, Mr. Chair, we are going to be looking at a new district.
It is combining two very historic districts, the District of Port de
Grave and the District of Harbour Grace.
I will be looking forward to seeking their support and representing that
new district in the House of Assembly come the election in November.
Today, we are speaking about Bill 10.
I just want to reiterate some of the points the Finance Minister made a
little earlier today. He talked
about it is the first time since 2003-2004 that we have actually borrowed for
infrastructure purposes. Mr. Chair,
that adds up to about twelve years.
It has been about twelve years since this government has borrowed any money to
do infrastructure development.
We hear it all the time, Mr. Chair, all of our
districts, and every member in this House of Assembly hears it all the time
about the infrastructure needs in our districts, whether it be roads, whether it
be hospitals, whether it be schools, whether it be a day care facility.
Whatever it is, Mr. Chair, we all hear about it.
I know as a Member of the House of Assembly, we all
have some focus and we try to work with ministers and work with departments to
improve the infrastructure in our districts.
In my case, it has been no different, Mr. Chair.
Many of our roads, when we go through the District of Port de Grave, Mr.
Chair, in the last four years the main roads in particular, probably received no
maintenance or no new asphalt in ten or fifteen years at least.
Mr. Chair, I am pleased to say that over the last four
years most of the main highway through the District of Port de Grave has
received some new asphalt, new ditching, culverts and all of the rest.
Some of the side roads, thinking of Bareneed road going to Port de Grave,
three kilometres of new paving, ditching and culverts there.
Again, I have talked many times about the importance of that road and the
economic benefits that come from that with the fish plant and the crab fishery
in Port de Grave.
Mr. Chair, I digress once again.
In Budget 2015, this Budget is asking to borrow up to $2 billion.
That is not saying we will need to borrow $2 billion, but if we need to
this Budget is telling us we can borrow up to $2 billion.
Again, it is mostly for infrastructure needs.
Schools, hospitals, roads, and those things that are critical in all of
our districts.
The Minister of Finance mentioned earlier today about
the commitment of this government to the new school in Coley's Point.
That is one of many schools that this government has committed to over
the years. I heard the member
opposite talk about her school in Virginia Waters a little while ago.
Mr. Chair, this commitment and this borrowing of $2 billion, most of that
is going to the infrastructure in our districts.
As well, it was very good news for a long time we
talked about pension reform in this Province and the need to get our pension and
the cost of our pension reform under control.
This government took that on in the last year and has reached agreements
with most of the major unions. This
pension reform will certainly improve the Province's deficit and net debt
overall. It was something that had
to be tackled and had to be done.
I remember being a public servant about fifteen years
ago and many of my colleagues at that time were going out and trying to save
some money to do some private investment because they did not believe they were
going to have a pension to go to when their time came to retire, whether it was
ten years, five years, or twenty years down the road.
They were afraid the pension was going to run out of money.
Many of my colleagues that I spoke with and worked with in the public
service were going out and trying to make sure they would have some type of
pension when they retire.
Mr. Chair, as well, we are borrowing at a time when
interest rates are at an all-time low.
Though, we are borrowing vast amounts of money and, yes, $2 billion is
a large amount of money. Nobody is
going to argue that. Nobody on this
side or the other side of the House will argue that $2 billion is a large amount
of money, but when we are going to the markets today, we are probably going to
the markets today in a time of the best, lowest interest rates probably in the
last fifty years. I am not sure,
but, again, interest rates are relatively low.
It is a good time to go to the market.
As well, I want to talk just for a minute about I
know the critic for Finance stood up earlier on Bill 6 and talked about our
children. He talked about the 25,000
children who were zero to four, and talked about our school-age children.
Well, Mr. Chair, I believe we are in a good positon.
I believe the future for our young people is bright in this Province.
It is bright because of investments like Muskrat Falls.
I remember sitting in this House and you do too, Mr.
Chair of that great debate. I
remember having some second thoughts.
I will not lie, I had some second thoughts.
I remember the Minister of Finance at the time standing up here and
speaking for three hours on the importance and the need for Muskrat Falls and
what that would do for our Province, making this Province 98 per cent with clean
energy, renewable energy. I remember
him talking about as long as the water flows we will have clean, renewable
energy. Mr. Chair, what we have
tried to do on this side of the House since we have been in government is take
some of our resources that we had from the oil industry and the non-renewable
resources that we have and invest them into renewable, clean, energy resources
like Muskrat Falls.
Mr. Chair, we all know that Muskrat Falls is only the first step because
whatever government in the future gets here, the next step is Gull Island.
We are going to do Gull Island one day, and Gull Island will be the next
major investment for whichever government on whatever side it is.
I believe, with our investments in Nalcor, we have set this all up to be
good.
As we debate Bill 10 today and as my time winds down,
once again I want to thank the people in Port de Grave.
I want to thank the people in Port de Grave for entrusting me with the
responsibility for me to represent them over the last four years.
It has been an honour to do it.
Like anything I have ever done before, Mr. Chair, I have always worked
hard day in and day out for the people in my district.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
LITTLEJOHN:
I
commit to working day in and day out for the people in my new district.
While we are in this transition, I will not forget the people in North
River, Clarke's Beach, and Makinsons that I will be no longer representing in
the House of Assembly the next time.
Mr. Chair, they are here, and we will continue to represent them until the
upcoming election in November.
With that said, again I want to thank the fine people
in the district. It has been an
honour to represent them, and I will sit down and let somebody else continue the
debate.
Thank you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Trinity Bay de Verde.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
CROCKER:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, it is my privilege to stand this afternoon
and have a few words on behalf of the constituents of Trinity Bay de Verde and
follow on the heels of my good friend from Port de Grave and spend a few minutes
talking about the District of Trinity Bay de Verde and some of the issues that
I have come across in my brief stint here from the by-election win back in
November.
It has been an absolute privilege to represent the
people of Trinity Bay de Verde, and I will go into that a little bit further
in a little while. Mr. Chair, we
have some major issues in Trinity Bay de Verde when we look at the district
overall. I have raised the issue
many, many times in this House, and my colleague for Mount Pearl South reminds
me that he sort of knows when I stand up, I am going to say cellphones and I am
going to continue to say cellphones
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
CROCKER:
Because, at the end of the day, the people in rural Newfoundland and Labrador
deserve cellphone coverage no different than the people in other parts of the
Province's more urban centres.
We have a lot of local issues throughout the district,
Mr. Chair. Continual issues around summer
maintenance, ditching, and brush cutting.
They are all issues that impact daily routines for people, and issues
that I think are very important for the government to follow through on.
Mr. Chair, on a more positive side when you look at the
District of Trinity Bay de Verde you look at the main industry which is the
reason we settled there hundreds of years ago would obviously be the fishery.
The fishery over the years transitioned from the traditional groundfish
fishery, to after the moratorium when 28,000 people lost their jobs overnight,
we transitioned into a shellfish fishery.
Trinity Bay de Verde has three processing plants and
a large, large number of harvesters fishing out of ports like Bay de Verde, Old
Perlican, Ochre Pit Cove, Grates Cove, Sibley's Cove, Winterton, Heart's
Content, and Heart's Delight. Mr.
Chair, we have a very broad, broad-based fishery in the district.
Thousands of people are employed, hundreds more directly operating as
harvesters putting their lives at risk every day to pursue a career that they
chose. As the Member for Bellevue so
eloquently pointed out this afternoon in his remarks about the fishermen who
lost their lives just last week prosecuting the fishery, it is important we
remember that.
When I come back to my district, Mr. Chair, and look at
tourism, it is an ever-expanding industry in the district.
We see it more and more every year with the quality of our restaurants,
the quality of our accommodations, and our beautiful attractions.
They are too numerous for me to actually start naming them here this
afternoon. What will happen is I
will start naming some of the attractions and I will miss somebody.
I would invite everybody in this House and anybody who might be watching
this afternoon, if they get an opportunity this summer to travel the Baccalieu
Trail which is home to the District of Trinity Bay de Verde, I certainly
invite them. They certainly will not
be disappointed.
Mr. Chair, I just want to quickly go to my critic's
role for a minute. It is something
that is near and dear to me and it is small business.
I was raised in a family where we relied on small business.
It was our way of life. To
some extent, it still is today.
When we look at some numbers from the Canadian
Federation of Independent Business just in a letter to the article today and
realize the significance of small business to our Province.
Mr. Chair, 46 per cent of our workforce in this Province are employed by
small- and medium-sized businesses compared to 26 per cent in the public sector
and only 28 per cent in large-scale businesses over more than 500 people.
So even though oil has been good to us, Mr. Chair, the
backbone to our economy and this has always been said, and lots of time I
think government loses sight because the employer that is employing one, two,
three, four, five, ten, twelve people, they are the backbone of the rural
economies. I encourage the
government to take some heed to what the Auditor General said in his report just
last week.
The Auditor General clearly points out that government
has come to a point where they are measuring success in their business
investment programs simply on the money out the door.
It is not necessarily about money out the door, Mr. Chair.
The CFIB points out in their letter today to the editor that only 50 per
cent of businesses in this Province avail of programs that are offered through
government. So I encourage
government government certainly, absolutely, has a role to play with small
business development and business development in the Province.
I know back in the early winter I was asking questions
from time to time about money that had been written off over the years and past
due accounts. Coming from a small
business, I realized the importance of making sure your accounts are current and
making sure that money that we are putting out there for business investment,
taxpayers' money I do not care who lent it, if it was a previous Liberal
Administration or a previous PC Administration it is time we started to do it
right and ensure that public dollars are absolutely spent in the proper way, Mr.
Chair.
I am not going to belabour my remarks this afternoon,
but I do want to thank the people of Trinity Bay de Verde and come back to my
district for a few more minutes. In
my maiden speech back in January, I talked about the length of time each of us
as members are given to serve in this place.
From the day I first walked in here on December 11 until this afternoon,
being a person who always had a keen interest in politics, every single day I
sat in my seat I looked up in amazement and humbled to have the opportunity to
sit in this place.
I spoke a few minutes ago with the Member for St.
John's East. Myself and the Member
for St. John's East go back quite a ways.
We conversed about the fact that over time, both of us, this was
something we always wanted to do. I
wish the Member for St. John's East all the best in his retirement.
I am not sure it is going to be a long retirement.
I expect that someday in the future we will see him back.
Again, Mr. Chair, I want to take the opportunity to
thank the people of the District of Trinity Bay de Verde.
I look forward to offering myself in the coming nomination for the new
District of Carbonear Trinity Bay de Verde.
There is one thing that always stands true to me when it comes to
politics: The people will make a decision; I thoroughly and truly respect the
decision of the people, Mr. Chair.
Again, thank you very much to the people of the
District of Trinity Bay de Verde for the opportunity to have served them in
this Parliament, and I look forward to serving again in the next Parliament.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for Carbonear Harbour Grace.
MR.
SLADE:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is indeed a pleasure for me to stand on my feet here
again today and speak on behalf of the residents of Carbonear Harbour Grace.
I just want to take up a little bit of time here today to speak about the
fishery in general. There are many
strategies that have been left on the table.
We have been asking for the cod strategy and many others here and, of
course, to no avail.
One day I asked the Minister of Fisheries questions
here about the fishery and about that strategy and there has not been anything
done here. I tell you, Mr. Chair, it
is so sad that you had a vital fishery here in Newfoundland and Labrador that
was worth $1.1 billion and now it is $948 million or something like that.
It is a shame that it is falling back and there is not enough interest
from the other side put into it because of the oil.
Mr. Chair, while we enjoy the oil
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SLADE:
Mr.
Chair, can I have a bit of protection here?
Not that I need protection, Mr. Chair, I can assure you.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR.
SLADE:
Mr.
Chair, they do not like to hear you say what is true here, and this is the
problem. The crowd across the way do
not like to hear you talk the truth.
There has been very little interest put in the fishery here in Newfoundland and
Labrador.
Mr. Chair, I am just going to explain that a little bit
to you; $948 million and back in 1992 when the moratorium was called, the value
of the fishery was $1.1 billion. All
of a sudden there is slippage. It is
not slippage forward; it is slippage backwards.
You guys lost interest in the fishery, a once proud department here with
a budget of $51 million gone down to $21 million.
That shows the interest that this crowd across the way have in the
fishery, I can tell you that. It is
nothing, Mr. Chair; they have no interest in it.
Now, Mr. Chair, even the Minister of Finance can tell
$51 million and then it drops back to $21 million, the Minister of Finance can
even add that up, $30 million. It is
unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.
There has not been any interest shown in the fishery by you guys.
You guys over there, you had interest in the oil revenues.
Like I said, God bless the oil that came because you guys over there
would not have been able to do anything over there nothing, absolutely
nothing.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SLADE:
It
is unbelievable. I could not
understand it.
Mr. Chair, when I came here two years ago I was amazed
that those guys over there, hardly either one of them ever opened their mouth up
about the fishery.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Hardly one of them.
MR.
SLADE:
Hardly one of them, Mr. Chair. When
I started getting to my feet here, the then minister, Minister Hutchings was
there and
CHAIR:
I
remind the member, we do not call them by name.
MR.
SLADE:
I
am after going through two now, Mr. Chair, two fisheries ministers.
Just as you get a little bit of a relationship here with a minister, in
the blink of an eye he is gone, rotating door, revolving door, Mr. Chair.
It is the same thing with every minister.
MR.
KING:
Elections are like that.
MR.
SLADE:
I
would say to the Minister of Justice, yes, elections are like that which he is
soon going to find out. He is
certainly soon going to find out, elections are going to be like that.
Elections are just like that, Mr. Chair, you never know.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR.
SLADE:
Mr. Chair, I say to the minister, he should go over and explain it to the people
over in Fortune, the plant workers in Fortune.
That is what he should do.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Sit
down.
MR.
SLADE:
Come on now, you are not going to tell me to sit down, Mr. Chair.
CHAIR:
Order, please!
MR.
SLADE:
Mr.
Chair, there is nobody over there who is going to tell me to sit down.
I am going to stand up here and speak my mind.
Mr. Chair, they know they did nothing with the fishery.
They never did a thing for the fishery and it is going to come back now
and it is going to haunt them.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SLADE:
Mr.
Chair, I am so proud to be able to stand on my feet here and have that
conversation with those guys over there because they have done absolutely
nothing for it.
I have a lot of respect for the Member for Cape St.
Francis, I have to tell you, because he knows what he is talking about when he
stands up and speaks on the fishery.
He does not do it often enough, but when he does stand we had a great crab
season. The fish harvesters had a
great crab season. The money was
well up there. I am sure the shrimp
industry this year will be the same.
That is good.
So instead of going backwards, like $956 million, we
should be coming forward. Mr. Chair,
they may as well face one thing, the cod strategy they are supposed to be doing
MR.
J. BENNETT:
Tomcod strategy.
MR.
SLADE:
Yes, a tomcod strategy.
Mr. Chair, the strategy they are supposed to be doing,
I hope they have it done because we have some serious issues that is going to
face Newfoundland and Labrador in a short period of time.
I will tell you what it is going to be.
I saw it when I was fishing.
It is still out there. The problem
is still there. The fish are back.
There is no marketing strategy over there.
Absolutely nothing, and if we do not take care of it, if we do deal with
the issue at hand right now, the crab industry will collapse.
Do you guys realize over there the only safe crab stock
right now is in 3L? The only safe
crab industry right now is in 3L. I
am going to tell you something; you better start dealing with it.
Mr. Chair, I have to say one thing.
I tend to believe that I can actually stir those fellows up over there.
I can actually stir those fellows up, and I am so proud of it.
I say to the Minister of Finance, if he could only
learn how to count, we would be all right here, Mr. Chair.
Anyway, I am not going to say too much more, but I will
say this to you, I can certainly stir those fellows up over there.
Mr. Chair, I am going to speak now about the Minister
of Fisheries and Aquaculture. I am
going to tell you, I have sat in this House for two years.
When he went to be the Minister of Fisheries, I said to the Speaker one
day: Mr. Speaker, is there anything here, like are there any plugs or anything
here because he speaks really, really loud?
He really speaks loud. Lo and
behold, he never spoke this evening, but he did answer a few questions today, or
he tried to answer a few questions I should say.
I could not believe it, the Member for Port de Grave
district, it was the same thing. He
is starting to bawl at us now too.
It is absolutely unbelievable.
Mr. Chair, I am going to tell you, I really certainly
hope that those strategies come out during the election, they need to happen,
and I am sure you guys will be able to use it as a platform because you really
need to go deep, deep, deep in the heart and the soul of rural Newfoundland and
Labrador now to sell yourselves. You
really do. I am going to tell you
something, the fish harvesters out there lost faith in you.
The plant workers out there lost faith in you.
Just imagine, it is a brand new set of standards here
now. There is a brand new set of
standards here. I did not realize it
until I came here. Full-time now in
Newfoundland and Labrador in the fishing industry is twenty weeks a year
twenty weeks a year. That is what
the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture said is full-time.
The people over in Fortune have a full-time job 110 of them have
full-time jobs.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Shameful.
MR.
SLADE:
Twenty weeks a year, my God, Mr. Chair, how shameful indeed.
Mr. Chair, I would just like to say one thing.
It has been indeed a pleasure for me to stand in this House and to work
with all hon. House members. It has
indeed been a pleasure for me. I
would say that I will be also fighting for the same district as my colleague for
Trinity Bay de Verde. I will tell
you guys, I hope I see you back here; but not on that side, on this side.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
I
recognize the hon. minister from his district the Member for Grand Bank.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is indeed a pleasure and an honour to follow the
Member for Carbonear Harbour Grace.
I accept his challenge. In
his commentary, he asked me to speak about the people of Fortune and I am going
to do just that, Mr. Chair. I
applaud the member for his speech.
It is not all accurate, not all that I agree with, but I applaud him for getting
up and giving a good political speech.
I am going to remind the member because the member was
not sitting in this House when we dealt with the issue of the Fortune fish
plant. I am going to remind the
member of a number of things that transpired.
The people of Fortune went through a very serious time in their life
where they were represented by a Liberal Cabinet minister at one point and then
an Opposition member during the days where the fish plant closed, very sad time
in the lifeline of Fortune my home
community by the way, born and raised there, graduated high school there.
It was after 2007 that myself and at the time
Conservative MP Bill Mathews started negotiations and discussions with OCI and
others about the possibility of reopening the Fortune plant.
I am going to help the member understand a little bit some of the details
that maybe he does not understand.
We had a number of obstacles to overcome and two would be his colleague the
Member for The Straits White Bay North who happens not to be onside with
Fortune.
I can show the member the front page of
The Telegram where my picture and his
was there and there was a finger pointing and a lot of arguing on Confederation
steps. My colleague the Member for
the Isles of Notre Dame happened to be the minister at the time.
We were trying to find a deal for Fortune, Mr. Chair, while his
colleague, the Member for The Straits White Bay North, accompanied by the
Member for St. John's North, asked the people of Fortune what the trouble was
and what the problem was, and what is the fuss about and why should we do a deal
for the people of Fortune.
That is two members of the Liberal Party, I say to my
colleague from Carbonear Harbour Grace, two members of the Liberal Party
against the deal for Fortune, while I, as the member and I have heard you say
it many times: Where is the Member for Grand Bank?
Well, I am highlighting for you where the Member for Grand Bank was
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
standing very clearly for the people of Fortune, and I continue to do that.
Mr. Chair, then we went through an era where, guess
what? Captain Kipper arrived on the
scene; the Member for St. Barbe arrived on the scene.
Guess what? The people of
Fortune were no better because what they got from him was the same as the NDP:
the big goose egg. Not one iota of
support for Fortune, nor St. Lawrence, nor Grand Bank when we were transferring
licences. Not one iota of support.
So I say, with the greatest of respect to the Member
for Carbonear Harbour Grace, I fully appreciate your position.
Unfortunately, you are arguing from a position of weakness because your
colleagues around you, who engaged in that discussion, all objected to the deal
in Fortune.
Today, what we have in Fortune is not the best of deals
absolutely, because today not everybody is working, but what we do have is
about fifty people working who went six or seven years with no jobs.
Not one job, not one income in a family.
So it is because of the efforts of our government and the strength of my
colleague for the Isles of Notre Dame, followed by the Minister of Municipal and
Intergovernmental Affairs in fisheries, because of the fortitude of this
government that we stood with the people of Fortune, not only against the
Liberals and the NDP, but against the FFAW and the new Leader of the NDP, I
might add. It is not all about the
Opposition. It is also the new
Leader of the NDP who stood forcefully and said that he would never, never,
never support the people of Fortune in the deal that was being proposed.
Now mind you, as my colleague for Carbonear would know,
the yellowtail fish had not been fished for years.
It was my colleague for the Isles of Notre Dame who said to the public:
Fair enough, you think there is a better deal; we will make the fish available.
We made the quota available to the Province.
Guess how many offers we had?
Guess how many harvesters came forward and wanted to fish that quota?
Have a guess, anybody have a guess.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Goose egg.
MR.
KING:
The
big goose egg again, Mr. Chair. The
moral of the story is we do not support Fortune.
We recognize that there is no deal for yellowtail fish in this Province.
We realize nobody wants it, but to heck with the people of Fortune said
the NDP, Mr. McCurdy, and the Liberal Opposition.
It was only the Conservative government and me as the member that stood
with the people of Fortune and said in spite of the opposition, we are moving
forward with a deal.
I challenge the Member for Carbonear and I challenge
the members opposite who are heckling me today, come down in Fortune.
If you really believe what you are saying, come to Fortune when the
election is called and stand on the wharf in Fortune and you ask the 150 people
whose families are affected by this whether or not they support this government
for the deal, or support the opposition you provided.
I say, come down
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
and I will stand with you. I say to
the Member for Carbonear who is pointing at me, I will stand with you and if you
really believe so strongly that the deal was a bad deal and that they have not
been represented, you are in a bit of quandary.
You come down and run against me and let's see who the people of Fortune
want to represent them, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
KING:
I
offer you that challenge.
With that, Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the
opportunity to speak.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Member for St. John's East.
MR.
MURPHY:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
CHAIR:
Order, please!
The Chair has recognized the Member for St. John's
East.
MR.
MURPHY:
Before I was elected, Mr. Chair, a long time ago I used to be a bouncer and it
was also retro for me I thought they were going to get into it, but anyway let
peace reign I guess within the House again.
Mr. Chair, I want to take this opportunity to thank you
again for this opportunity to get up and speak to this particular piece of
legislation. I wanted to give a
couple of minutes to that and, at the same time, sum up my very short political
career, as everybody is saying.
When I look at the budgetary plans of the government, I
have to bring this into context of what this Province is going to be dealing
with in the future. One of the big
things that we are concerned about of course and all the parties talk about
it. The government side will talk
about it, the Official Opposition will talk about it, and our party will talk
about it too. The importance of
seniors in this Province and looking after our seniors in the next coming years,
I call this one of the biggest crises that this Province is ever going to face.
I want to talk a little bit about the statistics I have
been looking at over the last little while.
This is not the first time that I talked about this.
One of the first times I talked about this I think was probably within
the first time I ever dealt with a budget.
Mr. Chair, I am going to come back to the 2011 Census
of Statistics Canada just for a minute and talk about what Statistics Canada is
actually telling us about this crisis that we are probably going to be facing in
the next little while that we have not seen any plans for so far yet because
really the numbers are alarming. I
will bring this forward to the government's attention, I guess just to put it on
the record here.
Right now, Mr. Chair, as of the 2011 Census, the
population of this Province that are between the ages of seventy-five to
seventy-nine is 14,620 people. We
have problems now in dealing with senior's homes and where we are going to be
placing seniors. If I can go back to
the particular age group who are right now between fifty and fifty-four years
old, a projectile of what we are going to be seeing by the time they catch up to
those ages, we are going to be needing senior's care, and extensive senior's
care.
I am looking at a population of 43,180 people,
approximately four times that number, or about three-and-a-half times the number
actually. We have a crisis situation
where I think government is going to have to deal with it, but government cannot
go it alone when it comes to dealing with that situation.
Government has to consult with the people of the Province on this.
One of the important points I would like to bring out,
and I guess summing up the budgetary talk, in this particular case the money
talk, is the simple fact that I think besides talking with the people outside
about how we are going to address that situation in the future and I guess in
this particular case their population growth strategy.
I would also like to bring forth the simple fact that I think this is
probably a very good time for government to consider bringing back the committee
structure so that we can have an in-depth discussion, indeed, if not an inquiry
into how we are going to be dealing with this particular crisis in the future.
The numbers are really quite alarming.
If you look at the age group of forty-five to forty-nine, for example,
42,220 people right now; if you look at the fifty-five to fifty-nine age group,
42,645, we are going to be swamped.
We are going to be swamped with people needing care, and we do not really have a
solution to deliver. We have to look
onwards, of course, a little bit farther than that, a little bit deeper into
statistics.
If you go right down to the age group of fifteen to
nineteen year olds right now, anywhere in between the high population figure
that I gave of 43,180 between the fifty and fifty-four age group, leading on
down to the fifteen to nineteen-year-old age group, Mr. Chair, those numbers
decline. So we are going to have
some erosion that is going to be happening too in our tax base.
Government has some significant challenges here that they are going to
have to face. It is probably one of
the most important issues of our time that we are going to have to deal with,
next to how we are going to be paying off the debt.
So you can see where the challenges come from.
Mr. Chair, I see my time is winding down.
I have several people to thank at this particular point when it comes to
how I have spent the last four years.
The first thing I am going to do is thank my wife who
has been my rock and has been my stalwart supporter.
She has been a cornerstone of how I have been as a person over the last
several years and she continues to remain one of my chief advisors in how life
carries on. She was the one I
consulted with when I came up with the final decision not to run at this
particular time around. I know at
this particular time, not only do I owe my children a few years, but I owe her a
heck of a lot. So I am going to be
taking some time off, obviously, away from the House.
I am going miss it.
It is a very emotional time, I guess, because it is not
everybody who gets to come in and dictate the history.
Some people sort of look at it it was one of these things that was on
my wish list, I guess you could say, ever since I was a kid.
I would come in here into this House of Assembly and walk through these
front doors for the first time and look around at the place where the likes of
Joey Smallwood used to speak, and Steve Neary amongst others, and Ank Murphy.
I look at the wall here, at the people who kind of dictated my direction.
I look at the picture of Len Simms, former Speaker of
the House. I can still remember the
day he came in and spoke at our youth Parliament at Gonzaga.
He kind of pushed me off in that direction; the same as some very
important teachers in my life, Kevin Rumsey and Wayne Parsons.
They are just great people.
I remember first coming in here and being sworn in as a
Member of the House of Assembly. I
remember the words of Bill MacKenzie, when he used to be the Clerk of the House
here. He told me what my job was.
I can only hope I fulfilled it to the best that I possibly could at the
time, for a fellow who really, in essence, was a rookie first stepping out onto
the ice of the House of Assembly and actually practicing the craft that I
learned all the ways back in high school, watching people preform in the House,
or on the House of Assembly channel.
That is how I learned it, getting mixed up in provincial politics.
I will tell you something that the people of
Newfoundland and Labrador should know.
Do not ever discount yourself because of the job you are at, how
important you are to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Do not ever consider that you cannot have your name on a ballot just
because of the job you are working at do not ever think that.
You are just as important; you have just as important a say as what any
of us in this House of Assembly do.
I would expect and the people of this House of Assembly would expect that you
would use your voice in whatever way you can to get your message out.
To let government know what direction you want the Province to be taken
in.
I think everybody in this House of Assembly would agree
with that too. They want you to
speak. They want to be heard.
They need direction given to them at the same time.
It is not all about government setting policy.
It is about the policy being set by the people so that government can
take direction on your behalf. I
think that is one of the most important lessons that I ever learned, but be
yourself too. Like I said, do not
ever expect that you can never have your name on the ballot because you can.
If you have that dream, pursue it, whatever it is.
It does not have to be about serving in government.
You could want to be a taxi driver, if that is your dream.
Somebody has to pull their weight at that particular job in order to help
keep an economy going. Do not ever
discount your career choice.
Mr. Chair, I want to thank as well my sons Aaron and Lewis, my daughters Krista
and Bailey for being there as well and supporting their dad.
Sometimes kids are a little bit too young to even understand.
When kids call out and they are wondering where dad is to, or how come he
was not there to pick them up at school today, sometimes that plays on my mind.
I am a very human person and a dad, and it was a big part of the role in
choosing not to run at this particular time and spend time with them.
I want to thank my constituency assistant especially,
Ms Brenda Murphy I am going to name her.
I will put her up against any other constituency assistant who is working
for any of the other member in this House.
She was the best. She was the
other Member for St. John's East.
She was the one who pulled on the ropes when I could not be there to pull them.
We all know the roles of our constituency assistants, how much of a load
that they carry, whenever those phone calls come in, and they deal with a lot of
these calls. I want to thank her for
her commitment over the last couple of years.
I tell you, it really meant so much, and it is still going to be meaning
a lot over the last five years. So I
wanted to thank her.
I want to thank you, MHAs.
As much as what we are divided on political lines sometimes, I think that
we are still kin in keeping this Province going, for better or for worse
sometimes. When a government comes
out with policy, we will always differ on policy, and there is a reason why for
that. It gives people options and we
come up with the best solutions.
That is why we are here, the democracy that we have,
but I want to thank you for the learning experience that I got off some of you.
I can remember one of the stark, staring lessons that I had as a rookie
MHA coming in here for the Muskrat Falls debate, which was great.
It comes back to another point too: How many people actually can crawl
out of behind the wheel of a taxi, stand here in this House of Assembly and look
over at one of the best lawyers in this Province in the form of the Natural
Resources Minister of the day, Jerome Kennedy, and actually go toe-to-toe and
talk to him, debate with him on a natural resources issue.
That is all part of the dream, but that happened for me and I am so
thankful to the people of St. John's East for that.
Just getting back to the point about a learning
experience when you are a rookie MHA
CHAIR:
Order, please!
The member's time has
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Leave.
CHAIR:
The
member, by leave.
MR.
MURPHY:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the leave from the House.
I will not be too much longer.
I know that we have been here a long time now, and I do not want to keep
you here all night at the same time.
One of the first learning experiences I ever had during
I think it was the Muskrat Falls debate and I walk into this House one night
and of course the filibuster is on and there are people having a bit of a nap
sometimes, I guess, in the Speaker's gallery and everything.
I got kind of disgusted and I called them out on it.
Apparently, it is one of these lessons that you do not do in the House of
Assembly is call out another member on something like that when you are in the
middle of a filibuster. It was a
learning experience for me that you did not do that to another member.
I think after that, I went on the straight and narrow and learned a few
things.
Some of the other things that you could say that I
learned in this House of Assembly too is that you can get along with the
government members, work on an issue, get it done and sometimes get it done real
quick. I will come back to the Move
Over legislation on this. At the
time, the Member for Labrador West was the Minister of Transportation.
I wanted a meeting with him to talk about Move Over legislation.
I think that we probably sat down and both agreed on that in about
fifteen or twenty minutes. It must
have been record time. After I did
my research and everything, I think it was the week after we had that Move Over
legislation passed. I think it was
pretty much the next week. I say to
the member and I say to the House here that you can get things done when you
need to get them done and there is a spirit of co-operation.
Some of the other things I think that I can take pride
in was giving government some notice that we had an alarming environmental issue
hitting this Province called fracking.
There were some grave concerns about it.
I want to say to government at the same time thank you for listening when
it came to our party asking for the fracking moratorium.
Because they did that they listened to the people who presented their
petitions to me at the time. They
allowed me to speak for them when it came to that issue, but I call that kind of
a personal victory again where you actually argue with government and you put
your case forward.
This is one of the most alarming things, I guess, that
is happening to the Province right now.
We are at a point in history in our Province where we have to pay
attention more than ever to the environment because there are that many
pressures on it. Certainly, with the
progress of industrial development and what has been happening.
I consider those things kind of historic little pieces and little
mementos that I can mark along the way where I had some influence on government
policy and everything.
When it comes to the municipal funding formula, I think
when you are in Opposition you make suggestions to government.
So when it comes to municipal funding, I think government heard the need
for that because of course taxpayers do not need the added pressure of having to
see a tax burden dropped on them.
There is still work to do when it comes to transportation planning, when it
comes to roads and bridges. We will
continue to do that over the next five months, here on my side of the House
anyway when it comes to that.
Mr. Chair, let us not ever forget those who feel they
are being left behind. I want to
talk about that for a bit, it is playing on my mind.
I went down and had Christmas dinner with people who are I guess lower on
the poverty end of the scale.
Christmastime I keep thinking about those people.
Can we do better for them?
Certainly, we can. We have to work
harder to end poverty in this Province and to take these people out of the
situation they are in.
I think about the people out there with mental health
issues. We have our fellow members
of the House right now who are out there on a committee level looking for
answers when it comes to dealing with mental health, but the people who are
dealing with mental health issues cannot afford to wait for a hospital to be
placed where the old hospital is now.
The old hospital was built in 1855.
It is older than Canada itself.
The time for the old ideas behind treatment at that hospital have to be
changed to new ideas around treatment when it comes to dealing with a new
hospital. We have to have modern
facilities to look after our sick.
It is as plain and simple as that for me.
We have to make sure government, the Official Opposition, and our party
keep working towards that end, and let's keep the committee going and let's hear
what the people are saying on that.
Mr. Chair, I think I am probably going to end it there.
Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I will leave you with a couple of lines from one of my favourite Stan
Rogers songs, where I will be going:
Sun is rising high, burning into the day,
I will say goodbye, I will be going away,
Brush away my doubts, what tomorrow will hold,
Feeling fine for now, going down the road
Thank you for your time, and I thank the people again
for their support.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board.
MR.
WISEMAN:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will just take a few moments to wrap up the debate on
this bill. This represents the last
piece of discussion and debate with respect to this year's Budget.
It has been an interesting discussion around this
Budget. Many people have
complimented us on having a Budget that is visionary, a Budget that looks into
the future, a Budget that is balanced, a Budget that is about choices, and that
is exactly what we set out to do. We
approached this Budget recognizing the Province was facing some unique
challenges for the next four or five years and we needed to develop a map.
We needed to develop a map to guide us through the next five years, and
that is what this Budget did.
We have heard a lot of debate and commentary in the
House. There have been some
criticisms about some of the things we are doing in here that people do not
like. Members of the Opposition have
raised some issues that we should be doing, that are not included in the Budget.
That is what Budget debates are about.
Not everybody will agree all the time about all the things that are in a
budget, but this Budget is about choices.
This Budget was about making choices in difficult times, making choices
that were going to map a course for the future.
I want to repeat something I had said earlier in this
Budget debate. Inasmuch as
Opposition parties have been critical of what is contained in this document, one
of the things I would urge the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to do
because this will be the last Budget that will be delivered in this House before
the election on November 30.
This Budget reflects a significant part of our party's
fiscal platform for the next five years.
This is our blueprint for the next five years fiscal guidance for this
Province. Inasmuch as Opposition
parties have stood and said this was wrong, these were not the right choices,
you should have done something different, you should have done it in a different
way. One of the things we have not
heard much about, though, what would their five-year plan look like?
So I am going to repeat something I said here a couple
of weeks ago in this same debate. As
people look to different political parties this fall, they will be asking
themselves: Which party do we want to represent us and to govern this Province
for the next four-year term?
Regardless of what choice you make and I encourage everybody to participate in
that process because it is important.
It is important for all Newfoundlander and Labradorians that we do
participate in that process, but when you do, recognize that you too are making
a choice, as we have to do here.
Whatever choice you make, make sure there is one thing
that you have in mind. Whatever
party you think needs to government this Province for the next four years, the
four-year term, they need to have a plan.
They need to have a fiscal plan that will guide us through the next four
years.
So I suggest to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador
and to members of this House if you take the Highlights document in our Budget
this year, you take out this roadmap, you take out the forecast for five years,
you look at the standards that we have put in place, the measurements, the
criteria that we are going to use to measure our performance, those performance
indicators, you ask yourself what party is able to provide a better blueprint
for the next five years, what party is able to provide you a fiscal plan to
guide us through the next five years, and then you make your choice.
Do not make your choice until you have seen all of those options in which
you can choose from.
This is the one that we are offering.
This is the one that we believe that will guide us through the next five
years and return us to a balanced budget, return us to a surplus, and do it in a
fiscally responsible manner. Anyone
else who would like to have your support in the fall, make sure they too are
able to produce a document such as this that maps out the next five years.
If members opposite want to use this one as their plan, I encourage them;
in fact, we have some extra copies that we could give them as a part of their
campaign literature.
I say, Mr. Chair, in all seriousness to the people of
Newfoundland and Labrador, make sure that as you evaluate the debate that we
have had in this House and recognize that this is our government's fiscal plan
for the next five years, as you make your decision going into the fall, make
sure you too understand what options and what other alternatives are being
provided to you and that future needs to be mapped out in that same way.
With that, Mr. Chair, I am going to take my seat.
I want to thank all members in this House for their contribution to the
debate on this year's Budget. To
members opposite, as I have said, if this is not something that you believe is
the right path, then show us an alternative.
Thank you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
CHAIR:
Shall the resolution carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Contrary?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On motion, resolution carried.
A bill, An Act To Authorize The Raising Of Money By
Way Of Loan By The Province. (Bill
10)
CLERK:
Clause 1.
CHAIR:
Shall clause 1 carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On motion, clause 1 carried.
CLERK:
Clauses 2 through 6 inclusive.
CHAIR:
Shall clauses 2 through 6 inclusive carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
Contrary?
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On motion, clauses 2 through 6 carried.
CHAIR:
Be
it enacted by the Lieutenant Governor and House of Assembly in Legislative
session convened, as follows.
CHAIR:
Shall the enacting clause carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried.
On motion, enacting clause carried.
CLERK:
An
Act To Authorize The Raising Of Money By Way Of Loan By The Province.
CHAIR:
Shall the title carry?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried
On motion, title carried.
CHAIR:
Shall I report Bill 10 without amendment?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
CHAIR:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
CHAIR:
Carried.
Motion, that the Committee report having passed the
bill without amendment, carried.
CHAIR:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance that the
Committee rise, report Bill 10 and ask leave to sit again.
CHAIR:
The
motion is that the Committee rise, report Bill 10 and ask leave to sit again.
Is it the pleasure the Committee adopt this motion?
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 (Verge):
Order, please!
The hon. the Member for Bonavista North.
MR.
CROSS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Committee of Ways and Means have considered the
matters to them referred and have directed me to report that they have adopted a
certain resolution and a recommend a bill be introduced to give effect to the
same.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
Chair of the Committee of Ways and Means reports the Committee have considered
the matters to them referred, they have adopted a certain resolution and
recommend a bill be introduced to give effect to the same.
When shall the report be received?
MR.
KING:
Now.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Now.
On motion, report received and adopted.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, second by the Minister of Finance, that the
resolution be now read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the resolution be now read a first time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt this motion?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
Be
it resolved by the House of Assembly in Legislative Session convened, as
follows: That it is expedient to bring in a measure to authorize the raising
from time to time by way of loan on the credit of the province a sum of money
not exceeding $2,000,000,000.
On motion, resolution read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance, that the
resolution be now read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that this resolution be now read a second time.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
motion is carried.
CLERK:
Second reading of the resolution.
On motion, resolution read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance, for leave
to introduce Bill 10 and so moved that the said bill be now read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that the hon. Government House Leader shall have leave to
introduce Bill 10 and that the said bill be now read a first time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
Motion, that the hon. the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board to introduce a bill, An Act To Authorize The
Raising Of Money By Way Of Loan By The Province, carried (Bill 10).
CLERK:
A
bill, An Act To Authorize The Raising Of Money By Way Of Loan By The Province.
(Bill 10).
On motion, Bill 10 read a first time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance and
President of Treasury Board, that Bill 10 be now read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that Bill 10 be now read a second time.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Nay.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
motion is carried.
CLERK:
Second reading of Bill 10.
On motion, Bill 10 read a second time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once again, I move, seconded by the Minister of Finance
and President of Treasury Board, that the said bill be now read a third time.
MR.
SPEAKER:
It
is moved and seconded that Bill 10 be now read a third time.
Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion
that Bill 10 be now read a third time?
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
AN
HON. MEMBER:
Division.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Division has been called.
Summon the members.
Division
MR.
SPEAKER:
Are
the Whips ready?
All those in favour of the motion, please rise.
CLERK:
Mr.
Davis, Mr. King, Mr. Hutchings, Mr. Kent, Mr. Dalley, Mr. Sandy Collins, Mr.
Felix Collins, Mr. Wiseman, Mr. Jackman, Mr. Granter, Mr. Littlejohn, Mr. Cross,
Mr. Brazil, Mr. Forsey, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Dinn, Mr. Cornect, Mr. Kevin Parsons,
Mr. Little, Mr. Peach, Mr. McGrath.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against the motion, please rise.
CLERK:
Mr.
Ball, Mr. Andrew Parsons, Ms Cathy Bennett, Mr. Jim Bennett, Mr. Slade, Ms
Dempster, Mr. Edmunds, Mr. Kirby, Mr. Lane, Mr. Reid, Mr. Hillier, Mr. Flynn,
Mr. Crocker, Ms Michael, Mr. Murphy.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Oh,
oh!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
CLERK:
Mr.
Speaker, the ayes: twenty-one; the nays: fifteen.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Order, please!
I declare the motion carried.
This bill has now been read a third, it is ordered that
the bill do pass I must check, though, with the Clerk; did we already read the
bill a third time?
CLERK:
No,
we did not read the bill.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Okay, I will ask for third reading.
The motion is carried.
CLERK:
A
bill, An Act To Authorize The Raising Of Money By Way Of Loan By The Province.
(Bill 10)
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
bill has now been read a third time and it is ordered that the bill do pass and
its title be as on the Order Paper.
On motion, a bill, An Act To Authorize The Raising Of
Money By Way Of Loan By The Province, read a third time, ordered passed and its
title be as on the Order Paper.
(Bill 10).
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that the Administrator has arrived to
visit the House.
MR.
SPEAKER:
Thank you.
We are just waiting for His Honour the Administrator to
arrive to provide Royal Assent on the bills.
Admit His Honour the Administrator.
All rise.
[His Honour the Administrator takes the Chair]
SERGEANT-AT-ARMS:
It
is the wish of His Honour the Administrator that all present be seated.
MR.
SPEAKER:
May
it please Your Honour, the General Assembly of the Province has at its present
session passed certain bills, to which, in the name and on behalf of the General
Assembly, I respectfully request Your Honour's assent.
CLERK:
A
bill, An Act To Amend The Canada-Newfoundland And Labrador Atlantic Accord
Implementation Newfoundland And Labrador Act.
(Bill 2).
A bill, An Act To Amend The Works, Services and
Transportation Act. (Bill 4)
A bill, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000.
(Bill 6).
A bill, An Act To Amend The Revenue Administration
Act. (Bill 7)
A bill, An Act To Amend The Services Charges Act.
(Bill 8).
A bill, An Act To Amend The Legal Aid Act.
(Bill 9)
A bill, An Act To Authorize The Raising Of Money By
Way Of Loan By The Province. (Bill
10).
A bill, An Act To Amend The Health And Community
Services Act. (Bill 11).
A bill, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act, 2000 No.
2. (Bill 12)
A bill, An Act To Amend The Regional Service Boards
Act, 2012. (Bill 14)
A bill, An Act To Amend The Teachers' Pension Act.
(Bill 15)
HIS
HONOUR THE ADMINISTRATOR (Chief Justice J. Derek Green):
In
Her Majesty's name, I assent to these bills.
SERGEANT-AT-ARMS:
All
rise.
[His Honour the Administrator leaves the Chamber.
Mr. Speaker returns to the Chair].
MR.
SPEAKER:
Please be seated.
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As we are nearing the end of the session I think
probably it is appropriate if we would invite our party leaders, starting with
the NDP, to have a few words to close out the spring session.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill Quidi Vidi.
MS
MICHAEL:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
It is always an honour to stand and speak when we come
to the end of a sitting. I think
that is what we are doing here today.
The session began on April 21.
We came into the House in the earlier spring, but this session began on
April 21. We are in the fourth
session of the forty-seventh General Assembly I think getting all my facts
straight and getting the language straight is always complicated.
We have the Assembly, we have the sessions, and we have the sittings.
I think this is the spring sitting.
Will we sit again in this Assembly?
That will be, of course, at the call of the government, the Government
House Leader, and the Lieutenant Governor through the government whether or not
we come back in here. We know that
we have a general election on November 30, but that is over four months away.
We all know in politics too that anything can happen in politics.
A day is a long time in politics, we all know.
What always happens when we are in session is that the
time flies. We have been here now
seven weeks, I think, since we started this session.
We have done a lot of work.
We all know that we do not agree on everything.
We did bring in fifteen bills this time; some of them we all voted for,
and some we did not. That is the way
it goes because we all recognize the fact, and respect the fact actually, that
we are here representing different positions and representing different
positions not just as individuals in this room, but the positions of people who
voted for us, and the parties that we are a part of.
We have to be faithful to that.
All of us, I think and I know all of us are here because we are here
for the good of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and we are all committed
to that. We sincerely believe that
people who voted for us voted for us because of what we stand for and the
policies that we may represent here in this House.
I think it is good that in spite of the heat that sometimes gets
generated and we all know that heat gets generated that we also respect each
other and respect the differing opinions.
The important thing is that we work together for the good of the people.
Having said that, I will not belabour it.
We have a summer ahead of us, which is a summer prior to a general
election; but, as I said, it is also the summer of a general election that is
far away. We all, too, will have to
be part of the federal election, I guess.
Being the small population that we are, I know that our supporters and
our members do not differentiate between being supporters federally or
provincially.
They are totally involved politically, those who work
hard for our parties, all of our volunteers, et cetera.
It is going to be quite a few months ahead of us, people working on the
federal election, and then a slight break before I presume the writ will be
dropped for our own general election, the provincial election.
Before closing this sitting, I am very grateful.
I want to express that to the people who support all of us here in this
room. Our Table Officers, of course;
the special Office of the Speaker of the House and the Deputy Speaker.
The people we do not see, sometimes we forget them.
The people who record everything we say and do here, Hansard.
The people in the Broadcast Centre.
They are probably grateful we did not have any filibusters this session
because it is very hard on them when those things happen, but we do what we have
to do in the political system. We
are very grateful to the work they do.
The work of the Legislative Library.
That work really is behind the scenes, the Legislative Library.
They do a tremendous job when we are all doing research on various issues
that come up during a session. We
are very grateful to them, and the Pages who take care of us so well here in the
House of Assembly. Then the people
in our caucus offices. I know we all
would like to have more people sometimes.
Our caucus staff work very, very hard.
I think we need to be grateful to them for everything they do.
Having said that, I wish everyone well for the summer.
I am sure we will all be bumping into each other throughout the summer.
Although, with the new position I now play in my own caucus and party, I
will not be travelling as much around the Province this year.
I am going to miss that a bit.
I have enjoyed it because I got to know the Province so well.
I wish everybody well.
Have a good summer. I hope
the rest of summer will be better than the second day of summer is proving to be
today.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR.
BALL:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to take a few minutes too, obviously to thank
all of those who have supported us in the last ten weeks, in the spring session
in particular.
One thing, listening to the House Leader for the Third
Party, I am certainly glad she is not able to travel as much this year because
typically she showed up in my district at Strawberry Festival time and was
always very active in the dunk tank.
Fortunately, she happened to put me in that dunk tank a few times.
So the fact that you are not travelling in the district this summer is
real good news for me. Some of those
nights have been very cold and I have been left shivering there looking for a
warm place to be. So you stay right
where you are. I would appreciate
that, I say to the people in this House.
On a more serious note, I, too, want to reach out and
thank a lot of people. As we just
heard, who knows where this will be, if we will be back in this House at all
before the next election. Certainly,
that is not our decision. It will be
the call of the Premier and government at this point.
In reflecting on this, I do want to make mention just
in case we are not back here. Some
people will not be coming back to this House.
I reflect and remember back in 2007 when I was in a similar circumstance,
and I look no further than the Speaker who has already made his commitment that
he will move on to the next step of his life.
I want to recognize the great work the Speaker has done, and we wish you
all the best in the future, Sir.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
BALL:
Realizing the Speaker always gets great support from his deputies, we recognize
those people too. In this particular
case it was a different sense of scrutiny on our Speaker, as we had the former
Speaker actually sitting as the Minister of Finance.
So that was an unusual role and turn of events we have seen in this
session of the House.
To our Table Officers, our staff throughout the House
of Assembly, I, too, want to say thank you and repeat many of the comments the
House Leader for the Third Party just said.
To our Sergeant-at-Arms, our commissionaires that we run into every day
as they patiently wait for the debate inside this House to finish, then they go
on their own way and home to their families.
Our Pages who have gone over and beyond, I have to say,
the great work you have done. We
have been able to recognize some of you for the personal achievements you have
had. We really appreciate you being
here and supporting us on a day in, day out.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
BALL:
For
those of you who will not return, we wish you all the best in your future
endeavours as you pursue educational opportunities right here in our Province.
I encourage you to do that.
So thank you very much.
To Hansard and the Broadcast staff, who are always
there, hidden in some of the darker corners of this building but always there
when we need them and producing some great information for us.
It becomes very useful to us on a day-to-day basis that we do the work
here.
To the media, who are usually there waiting for us on a
daily basis. We do appreciate the
work they do in getting our messages out and helping people across the Province
become more informed of what we do in this House of Assembly.
So we want to thank you, too.
The Legislative Library, that we lean on, on a regular
basis, providing us information to help us as we prepare for the long hours of
debate here.
Recognizing our Third Party, I want to thank you for
your co-operation that we have seen in the past.
A lot of what happens in this House comes with a fair amount of
co-operation from all MHAs. As a
matter of fact, most legislation that goes through this House of Assembly comes
with all three parties supporting it.
So I want to say thank you to you as well.
To our government members and your staff who provided
the technical briefings on occasion, helping us prepare to have a proper,
informed debate in this House of Assembly.
Of course, my own team here standing behind me, what
can I say? This is a group I will
say that I feel the support of everyday, great chemistry, great teamwork here.
As they head out into this election year facing nominations in some
cases, I want to thank you for the support you have given me and your support
for the people of the Province.
Thank you very much for that.
We have a fabulous staff who are actually supporting
our group as well. They were there,
and often they meet personal challenges.
It is no different than many people across the Province.
They had to deal with personal challenges, yet come to work and support
the role of the Opposition. It is
great to see that.
With that, I will just conclude my remarks by saying we
have had great support. For the
first time in this session for sure we have seen two very functioning, what I
call all-party committees. We had
one on the shrimp allocation, the other one on mental health and addictions.
It is great to see that kind of support.
It is a great message, I believe, as we send this to the people of the
Province who are always looking for a non-partisan role for politicians in our
Province.
As Leader of the Official Opposition, I am really
looking forward to getting around this Province.
It is something I enjoy very much, meeting people in their own
communities. It is there that we get
a real good flavour of what the challenges are facing families, our seniors, our
young people, and people with disabilities.
It is there in their own communities that we get a real good sense of
where we can make a difference. We
really appreciate the challenges they have to meet on a day-to-day basis.
Also to that, as we travel the Province we get a
reassurance of the beauty that this Province has and we are able to promote to
all parts of the world, not only just the fact that the landscapes are so
breathtaking. Again, we still have a
great group of people who are there to provide service to our tourists who are
visiting our areas and providing that hospitality that only Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians are known for.
It is an election year, as we say.
I guess for all of us in this House, as we know, the election is on.
So those of you who will return in the fall, I will look forward to
seeing you. Those of you who will
move on to other parts of your life, I want to wish you all the best on whatever
that next step is.
I wish you all good health, safe journeys, and we will
see you over the summer.
Thank you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank both the Member for Signal Hill
Quidi Vidi, the former leader now I guess, the House Leader for the Third Party,
for the New Democratic Party, and also the Leader of the Opposition for their
very kind words. I join them in the
very kind words they have expressed, especially to the people who make the
operations of the House and government happen on a daily basis throughout the
year, Mr. Speaker.
I know that both members have mentioned several of
them, including yourself, Mr. Speaker, people who work in your office, your
staff around you, the Clerk, as well as Table Officers.
Also, a lot of people do not realize it we see it as members of the
House from time to time the work that goes on behind the scenes, from Hansard,
as an example. Every day we receive
this is the draft from Question Period from this very day.
The work is done efficiently, very well, and then the official
transcripts come after that and are available publicly.
As well as the Broadcast Centre who every day broadcasts the activities
of the House of Assembly and do it with what I believe is a professional
broadcast and an opportunity for people of the Province to tune in and to watch
what happens here in the House of Assembly, in the people's House of Assembly.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I would like to identify some of
the roles that take place in the House here from members as well, but before I
do that we all also rely on the assistance and support from the people who are
around you, Mr. Speaker, and our Pages.
These are young people who want to come and experience the House of
Assembly. They come here and they
want to have an opportunity to see it first-hand.
They also very similar to what we do come here to serve as well.
They do it professionally. We
are proud of them. We appreciate the
work they provide to us, the assistance and supports throughout
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Mr.
Speaker, in the House as well the elected members have a variety of roles.
We have in parties House Leaders, as was talked about, and during the
sitting of the House they meet regularly.
The Opposition House Leader, as well as the New Democratic Party House
Leader, and the Government House Leader meet on a daily basis.
They have discussions about activities in the House and the schedule.
So it is not all what people often see in the House
because there is work and cohesiveness that happens behind the scenes to make
sure that we have an efficient and effectively operating House of Assembly.
I want to thank all of them for the work they do because I know it is a
lot more I know the Government House Leader has many responsibilities while
the House is open. I know it is one
that puts additional pressure on him, the same as members opposite as well.
So I thank them for their additional roles.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Whip.
I know our party Whip and the Whips for the other parties as well I
cannot speak for what happens within their own parties, but I can tell you ours.
I think he actually thinks he has a whip some days that keeps us in
shape.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
Whips do that, Mr. Speaker. The role
of the Whip is lengthy, but on a daily basis they are very focused on who is
where and they are orchestrating the coming and going of members in and out of
the House for one reason or another, and also activities around caucuses outside
the House as well, so congratulations to them.
The member opposite, the Leader of the Opposition,
mentioned committees and there is a significant amount of work that happens with
committees as well. Committees,
quite often, is through the Budget process.
Committee work happens in the mornings and in the evenings.
Members come to the House of Assembly here to hear from departments.
They are done in three-hour blocks.
Most all of them use three-hour blocks.
Some of them go longer than three-hour blocks.
That happens during the course of the sitting as well.
So not just during the regular House of Assembly sittings in the
afternoons, there are other sittings that take place here in the House with
committee work and I want to thank all members of committees.
As the member opposite referred to the all-party
committees that have taken place, and I have said and I am a supporter of a
larger role for all MHAs in the House of Assembly.
I know members opposite are as well.
I think they are good examples of how the House can be more effective,
have greater input from all members of the House.
My belief is that when we have greater input from all members of the
House, then we will have better results as a result of that.
I thank all Members of the House of Assembly on both sides and all three
parties for their participation and work in all-party committees this year.
I think Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are better because of that, and
I thank them for that.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to take a few moments to also
acknowledge members who have spoken up about their future.
While we do not know yet if there is going to be a fall sitting of this
particular session and there could very well be a fall sitting of this
particular session. In knowing that
some members have expressed a future for them we heard this afternoon from the
Member for St. John's East.
I just want to take a moment to congratulate him on his
contribution to Newfoundland and Labrador.
We may see him again here the fall, but I do want to take a moment
because he did have his speech this afternoon and I just want to thank him for
that, thank him for sharing his very personal comments, background and history,
and his deep appreciation for having had the privilege to serve here in the
House. We all serve with a level of
privilege that is provided to us by the people of the Province, so
congratulations to you and I wish you all the best, Sir.
Also the Member for Gander has indicated his future
desires, and we do not know how the future is go, but we wish him all the best
in the future, as I do you, Mr. Speaker, wish you all the best and all Members
of the House of Assembly. We come
here every day and we run for office, all of us do, because we want to make a
contribution to our Province. We
want to make our Province better. We
want to make improvements to the Province.
We want the people of the Province to benefit.
We want Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to benefit from the work that we
all do here in the House.
We cannot do that without support mechanisms around us.
We all have staff that assist us.
We have political staff that assist us in our offices, from constituency
assistants who work in our districts when we are here in the House of Assembly
and we are tied up with work of government that keeps us busy.
We rely heavily on constituency assistants.
It is important that we acknowledge and recognize them, as the Leader of
the Opposition has done.
Also, Mr. Speaker, the public service I cannot be
prouder of the people who work for Newfoundland and Labrador than I am proud of
our public service. They come to
work every day; they work really hard.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
PREMIER DAVIS:
They work very, very hard for the people of the Province.
They are the ones who deliver programs and services on a regular basis.
They are the ones who are on the front lines quite often, face to face
with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who are having contact with government.
It is public servants who do that
We are blessed to have a hard-working, dedicated I
know some of them who are so well educated, that want to work in public service,
could work elsewhere, could work in private practice, could work in private
business, could in their own businesses, but choose to work in public service.
In many ways it is a calling to itself and as all members of the House
just did in expressing our appreciation to them, I join them in expressing that
appreciation to all members of public service.
We also have around Newfoundland and Labrador groups of
supporters. People who are not
employed by government, people who are not directly related or employed by
government, but people who support elected members and form teams around elected
members so we can continue to advocate and work for the people of the Province.
We all have those around throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and it is
important, I think, to acknowledge the assistance and support they give us.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not
take a moment to reference family.
The Member for St. John's East talked a fair bit about family just a few moments
ago this afternoon. I live in an
area where I can drive to the House of Assembly in less than thirty minutes from
my home in Conception Bay. I can
come here in a very short period of time but many members who come from all
around Newfoundland and Labrador I know members who spend countless nights
living in hotels.
While on the surface it may seem oh, that is nice, you
get a chance to stay in a hotel; but once you have done it for 100, or 150, or
200 nights a year, it gets a bit tiring after that.
It also means that you are away from your family, away from your home and
your community while you are doing that as well.
I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, to reference the most important
people in our lives, being our family, because quite often when we do the work
that we do, they make sacrifices on their own selves.
I know I speak for all members on our side of the House in expressing our
appreciation to our partners, our children, our families, our extended families,
friends, and neighbours who quite often play a role in our own lives, but we
lose that somewhat by the career paths that we choose.
So my sincere appreciation to all of them.
Mr. Speaker, as I conclude and wind up this afternoon,
I just want to acknowledge once again, as elected members there is nothing that
we appreciate more than our love for Newfoundland and Labrador, our love for
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the people who live in this great Province.
We do the best we can for all of them.
We make decisions that we believe are right for them.
We come in here and have open debates.
That is the beauty of having a society of democracy
where we are elected by the people.
We come here and present our views, take our positions, and we have our debates
and our discussions. I am sure those
discussions will occur and continue to occur outside the House throughout the
summer.
I wish all Members of the House of Assembly a safe
summer. We are going to continue to
work hard and we are going to continue to do what we were elected to do,
representing the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
I do wish people a safe summer, safe travels to all, and good health to
everyone.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
Thank you to all three speakers, from the NDP, the Official Opposition, and from
government side, the Premier. Thank
you for your comments.
As has been already said, of course, this potentially
could be my last day sitting in the House of Assembly, and as Speaker you do not
usually well, you do not get a chance to speak.
I remember the Minister of Finance, when I was Deputy
Speaker he said to me one time I said, would you like to go back in Cabinet?
He said, yes, I think I would.
He said being Speaker is like being on the team but never getting a
shift. I can relate, because you
never get to have your say in the House of Assembly other than to say over the
proceedings.
I want to say thank you to my district and the people
who elected me in 2007 and again in 2011, the great people of Lewisporte
District. I thank them from the
bottom of my heart for doing that and placing their confidence in me.
I want to say a special thank you to my family for
their support. I want to say to the
people who make this place run, and you do not really give them a full
appreciation for it until you sit in the office.
We have a great, a super group of Pages.
This group is phenomenal.
The people who sit at this Table every day, they soon
become your friends. You have
alluded to Hansard and the Broadcast, and all these people who make the place
work. They are super people.
I want to thank them for all they do.
For those of you who are retiring, I do wish you from
the bottom of my heart good health and happiness as you face whatever stage in
life you are going to be facing from here on in and whatever bend in the road
brings you. For those of you who are
offering for re-election, I want to say thank you.
As a citizen of this Province, as a member, thank you for putting your
name forward again to offer for re-election and being willing to lead this
Province.
I think you are good people, I really do.
Sometimes politicians get a hard knack, but I think you are good people
and I think your heart is in the right place.
I really want to thank you for stepping forward.
Despite the criticism, despite the late nights, despite time away from
your family, despite all the personal sacrifice you make yes, we get paid.
We get paid a pretty good salary, but there are a lot of people sitting
in here who could make an awful lot more money doing other things.
It is not all about the money.
I really genuinely believe you people have the desire to do what is
right. So from my heart, I say thank
you. I wish you all the best.
Those of you who are re-offering, I wish you good
fortune, good luck, and lots of energy on the campaign trail.
Thank you for your co-operation to me as I presided over matters for the
last few terms in this House, the last couple of sessions.
Thank you, I wish you all the best.
Thank you very much.
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Hear, hear!
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
With that, I move, seconded by the Member for Port de
Grave, that the House do now adjourn.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
motion is that the House do now adjourn.
I assume, Mr. Government House Leader, it is adjourning
to the call of the Chair?
The hon. the Government House Leader.
MR.
KING:
Yes, that would be correct, Mr. Speaker.
We will adjourn to the call of the Chair.
MR.
SPEAKER:
The
House stands adjourned to the call of the Chair.
All those in favour, 'aye.'
SOME HON. MEMBERS:
Aye.
MR.
SPEAKER:
All
those against, 'nay.'
The motion is carried.
This House now stands adjourned.
On motion, the House adjourned to the call of the
Chair.