MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please. We will begin the daily routine.
PRESENTING AND READING PETITIONS
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable member for Pictou East.
MR. WAYNE FRASER: Madam Speaker, I beg leave to table a petition on behalf of some 98 residents of the Chance Harbour Road/Hillside area. They are requesting that their road be upgraded and resurfaced with new pavement. Having travelled on this road, I can attest to the deplorable conditions. I have affixed my signature to this petition for tabling purposes.
MADAM SPEAKER: The petition is tabled.
PRESENTING REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
TABLING REPORTS, REGULATIONS AND OTHER PAPERS
STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS
GOVERNMENT NOTICES OF MOTION
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
Bill No. 4 - Entitled an Act to Amend Chapter 11 of the Acts of 1992. The Utility and Review Board Act. (Hon. William Gillis)
MADAM SPEAKER: Ordered that this bill be read a second time on a future day.
NOTICES OF MOTION
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable member for Queens.
MR. JOHN LEEFE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas yesterday the Auditor General released his annual report to the House of Assembly; and
Whereas that report was critical of the Minister of Transportation for taking $26 million from the Strategic Highway Improvement Program which was specifically earmarked for Highway No. 104 construction and diverting it to secondary road construction in part in his own constituency; and
Whereas in a fit of pique the Minister of Transportation referred to the Auditor General's criticism as, ". . . maybe . . . just another bureaucratic attack on Cape Breton Island.";
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Transportation be reminded that the Auditor General is not "just another bureaucrat" but rather that he is the independent watchdog of public spending in Nova Scotia and as such is a servant of the House of Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable Leader of the New Democratic Party.
MR. JOHN HOLM: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Auditor General's Report for 1994 has exposed outright misappropriation of funds intended for the 100-Series Highway into other roads partly in the riding of the Minister of Transportation; and
Whereas an essential element of the election platform of the Liberal Party was its promise of honesty and integrity in government and an end to the Buchanan-era slush-fund administration of the taxpayers' dollars; and
Whereas the Minister of Transportation has harshly criticized the former government's political approach to roadbuilding where, for political reasons, they switched dollars from one fund to another;
Therefore be it resolved that this House calls upon the Minister of Transportation to publicly apologize to the Auditor General for the minister's self-serving tirade in which he accused the Auditor General of making a bureaucratic attack against Cape Breton, when the Auditor General was merely doing his job and pointing out the facts.
MADAM SPEAKER: There is a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I hear a few Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable Leader of the Official Opposition.
MR. TERENCE DONAHOE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Minister of Finance has attempted to have Nova Scotians believe that the finances of the Province of Nova Scotia are in the best shape they have been for many years and brags about coming forward in a few days with a budget containing a deficit in double figures; and
Whereas the Auditor General said yesterday that the province's deficit is, in fact, twice what the government says it is and says the net direct debt increased by $824 million over the previous year; and
Whereas the Finance Minister, by borrowing in foreign currencies and failing (Interruptions) to hedge against foreign currency and interest fluctuations, has resulted in "unrealized foreign exchange losses of $930 million";
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Finance forgo his self-congratulation on fiscal management and explain to Nova Scotian taxpayers how he increased the net indebtedness of the province by $1.75 billion in the last fiscal year.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Timberlea-Prospect.
MR. BRUCE HOLLAND: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas today is World Health Day; and
Whereas this year's theme is Target 2000: a World Without Polio; and
Whereas for Canadians that means emphasizing the importance of immunization and vigilant surveillance to prevent future importation of the virus;
Therefore be it resolved that the Nova Scotia House of Assembly recognize World Health Day and the importance to the health of all Nova Scotians of immunization against polio and other diseases and of ongoing preventive surveillance.
Madam Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Pictou West.
MR. DONALD MCINNES: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas from the annual meeting of the Credit Union Central of Nova Scotia this week, the province received positive news regarding the health of the province's 71 credit unions; and
Whereas positive growth for our credit unions is good news for communities across this province who take pride in being a part of their banking co-operatives; and
Whereas this co-operative effort makes the complexities of banking that much more familiar for the shareholders who feel they have more control and the ability for input over their financial affairs;
Therefore be it resolved that the positive outcome of our province's credit unions be commended, as their success means the continuance of an alternative for Nova Scotians who choose to invest in their community and play a major part in the managing of their banking institutions.
Madam Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver is requested.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Halifax Atlantic.
MR. ROBERT CHISHOLM: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas yesterday the Minister of Transportation accused critics of simply engaging in another bureaucratic attack on Cape Breton; and
Whereas, in actual fact, since the Liberals came to power, Cape Breton has fallen further and further behind the rest of Nova Scotia, with the highest unemployment rate in the province; and
Whereas, in actual fact, it is the Liberal Party and its 10 silent MLAs who are guilty of ignoring the real need for economic development in Cape Breton and have instead resorted to the sleazy tactics of the Buchanan Government;
Therefore be it resolved that this House condemns the Minister of Transportation for trying to replicate the ways of old, of trying to pave his way to re-election.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Guysborough-Port Hawkesbury.
MR. RAYMOND WHITE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the membership of the Medical Society of Nova Scotia have recently endorsed an agreement between the government and the Medical Society; and
Whereas this agreement will promote quality health care service to all areas of the province, including an incentive program to attract physicians to under-serviced, more remote rural areas of the province; and
Whereas the rural areas of Nova Scotia are encouraged by this agreement and view it as vital to ensuring quality health care in their areas;
Therefore be it resolved that this House applaud the efforts of the Minister of Health, the Honourable Ron Stewart, and the members of the Medical Society of Nova Scotia for their innovative leadership in ratifying an agreement which will help to secure quality health care in rural and remote areas.
I request waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver of notice is requested.
Is it agreed?
I hear several Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable Leader of the Opposition.
MR. TERENCE DONAHOE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas parents in Arichat are keeping their children away from classes until they receive a commitment from the minister on funding for the clean-up of the Isle Madame Elementary; and
Whereas on the one hand the minister has stated how vital it is to ensure that elementary children are educated in their communities, but dismisses the concerns of these parents who are worried that their children's education will be affected because of the distance the students are bused to temporary classrooms in other communities; and
Whereas the parents have said that the minister and his department promised a clean-up of the IME immediately after the high school portion of the school was cleaned of toxic fungus and re-opened, a commitment now refuted by the minister who believes the children are happy in their current learning environment;
Therefore be it resolved that this minister state in this House whether or not he made this promise to the parents, teachers and students of IME a year and one-half ago and confirm that he believes the situation which exists now for those Primary to Grade 6 students is a situation which inspires a positive learning experience.
Waive notice, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: I hear several Noes.
It is not agreed.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Halifax Fairview.
MS. ALEXA MCDONOUGH: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Auditor General has reported in his 1994 Report that 68 per cent of the province's net debenture debt is held, as of March 1994, in foreign currencies; and
Whereas the Auditor General has confirmed that the level of borrowings in foreign currencies represents a significant risk that can only be marginally managed; and
Whereas the Auditor General has raised serious questions as to the adequacy of policy direction, overall debt strategy, analysis and decision-making processes in this area of fiscal policy;
Therefore be it resolved that the government immediately limit its foreign currency borrowings until Finance officials, in collaboration with the Public Accounts Committee, rigorously research the issue of foreign borrowings and, in particular, borrowings in foreign currencies and develop a comprehensive policy framework and detailed strategy for managing these critical issues as recommended by the Auditor General.
I would like to ask for waiver of notice, Madam Speaker.
[11:15 a.m.]
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver is requested.
Do I have consent?
I near a few Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Pictou Centre.
DR. JOHN HAMM: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the 1995 AAA Midget Hockey tournament, the Atlantic Air Canada Cup, opened last night in New Glasgow; and
Whereas this tournament is dedicated to the memory of the late Mr. Gerry Holle and the late Mr. Scott Weeks who were two of the driving forces behind Pictou County Minor Hockey; and
Whereas Mrs. Bev Holle will present a trophy in her husband's memory to the player who best shows dedication and hard work and Mrs. Audrey Weeks will present a trophy in her husband's memory for the player who best demonstrates leadership abilities;
Therefore be it resolved that this Legislature recognize the hard work of committee chairman, Danny MacLeod, and his many committee members who have carried on the work of Gerry Holle and Scott Weeks and organized a tournament where our young players may showcase their talents and may the best team win.
Madam Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver was requested.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable Leader of the New Democratic Party.
MR. JOHN HOLM: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the health care system of Canada has been built upon five fundamental principles: that health care must be universal, portable, comprehensive, publicly funded and publicly administered, and this is what makes us Canadians and not Americans; and
Whereas the Reform Party Leader has just said that he favours the development of a system of two-tier health care in which ability to pay becomes an important factor in a person's access to services; and
Whereas Nova Scotians are not interested in adopting an American style health care system;
Therefore be it resolved that this House rejects outright any shift in policy that would create a system of health care that abandons or erodes the fundamental principles enshrined in the Canada Health Act and will not permit any such system to be established in Nova Scotia.
Madam Speaker, I request waiver of notice and passage without debate.
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver of notice is requested.
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Kings North.
MR. GEORGE ARCHIBALD: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas apples are a $10 million a year economic generator for Nova Scotia; and
Whereas the most recent statistics available from the Department of Agriculture and Marketing show the five year average for apple production in Nova Scotia at 3.1 million bushels; and
Whereas the growing climate for apples on Canada's East Coast and West Coast are extremely different;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Agriculture and Marketing make an immediate attempt to have the federal Minister of Agriculture understand that for the benefit of Nova Scotia growers, tree fruit research should not and cannot be done solely on Canada's West Coast.
Madam Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: Waiver of notice has been requested.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
MR. BROOKE TAYLOR: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Official Opposition supports tourism enhancement across Nova Scotia but not to a point where lives are sacrificed; and
Whereas the Minister of Transportation evidently has trouble with numbers when he attempts to refute criticism by saying, it was okay to divert funding to the Fleur-de-lis Trail because only $55 million of the $113 million necessary to twin death valley was available; and
Whereas Nova Scotians do not want any more death and carnage on Highway No. 104 at the expense of political gamesmanship being played by the Minister of Transportation and the federal Minister of Public Works;
Therefore be it resolved that before slapping user fees on motorists using Highway No. 104, the Minister of Transportation encourage fellow Cabinet ministers to stop making lucrative severance payments and put that money towards the twinning of Highway No. 104.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
I have two members standing.
I recognize the honourable member for Halifax Atlantic.
MR. ROBERT CHISHOLM: I was going to defer to my senior colleague, but thank you, Madam Speaker.
I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas over 2,000 appellants have painstakingly waited since 1993 for the Minister of Labour to deal appropriately and effectively with the huge backlog of appeals before the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board;
Whereas on November 24, 1994, this Minister of Labour concluded second reading debate on Bill No. 122 by stating that, "Things have a long way to go before this board is fully rehabilitated and injured workers actually have the degree of trust which they should have in any workers' compensation system.";
Whereas it now appears that the new Act may not be fully proclaimed until October 1995, eight months after its passage, and the Appeal Board will remain backlogged until the appropriate sections of the Act are proclaimed;
Therefore be it resolved that this House congratulates the Minister of Labour for doing his best to ensure that in the fullness of time injured workers may come to have "the degree of trust which they should have in any workers' compensation system.".
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Queens.
MR. JOHN LEEFE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Liverpool Curling Club is celebrating its 60th Anniversary on April 8th; and
Whereas the club continues to play a strong role in providing sporting opportunities to people of all ages;
Therefore be it resolved that the House congratulate the Liverpool Curling Club on the occasion of its 60th Anniversary.
I move waiver of notice.
MADAM SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice which requires unanimous consent.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Halifax Fairview.
MS. ALEXA MCDONOUGH: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Finance Minister reported with great fanfare on February 9, 1995, that the Liberal Government has dramatically reduced the deficit;
Whereas the Auditor General reported yesterday that the province is using an improper approach in reporting on the true state of the province's financial situation;
Whereas Nova Scotia's March 31, 1994, financial statements actually report an increase in net direct debt of $823.8 million;
Therefore be it resolved that the Liberal Government heed the advice of the Auditor General and immediately begin reporting the annual deficit in an accurate and truthful manner, consistent with other jurisdictions.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
MR. BROOKE TAYLOR: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas based on recent statistics, Nova Scotia's forest industries generate $657 million in annual sales; and
Whereas the clock is ticking on forest management as the result of the Minister of Natural Resource's anaemic performance in obtaining a new federal-provincial Forestry Agreement for Nova Scotia; and
Whereas the 1994 Auditor General's Report clearly states the Minister of Natural Resources and his department will be unable to meet silviculture targets in the final year of the Forestry Agreement, yet will likely achieve their objectives for increasing forest production;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Natural Resources use whatever little Cabinet influence he perceives himself as having and ensure tax concessions are in place in Tuesday's budget to assist Nova Scotia woodlot owners with enhancing silviculture programs.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the two Opposition Parties have long held an aversion to the expenditure of any government funds in Cape Breton, choosing instead to call government expenditures a subsidy; and
Whereas this distasteful attitude towards the Isle of Cape Breton is best demonstrated by the Tories' opposition to the relocation of the Nautical Institute, the senseless dismantling of the toll booths and the destruction of 18 jobs; and
Whereas the NDP applauded the removal of the toll booths, supported the retention of the Nautical Institute in Halifax and even attacked and criticized Stora stumpage rates on Crown land;
Therefore be it resolved that this House recognize that the latest Tory and NDP attack on the Fleur-de-lis Trail is just another on a long list they have directed toward our island.
MADAM SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
ORDERS OF THE DAY
GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, would you please call the order of business, Government Motions.
GOVERNMENT MOTIONS
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, would you please call the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.
MADAM SPEAKER: The adjourned debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.
The honourable member for Eastern Shore.
MR. KEITH COLWELL: Madam Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise again today, in my place in the House of Assembly. When I adjourned the debate last evening, I was talking about the significant improvements that have been made in the Sheet Harbour wharf facility and identified some of the problems we have had to work through in order to make these improvements. As I indicated yesterday, we have had new signage installed, new washroom facilities put in place where there were none before and improvements made in the workers' lunch room, along with the joining of two unions into one and several other important issues that have, indeed, made the wharf a lot more successful and a proper place to work.
In addition to that, that is simply not enough to increase employment and opportunities in the area. Madam Speaker, we have entered into new efforts to promote and market the wharf as a first-class, world-class facility. The leadership for marketing and promotion is coming from within the community and, through cooperative efforts, from all shareholders in the community and is being directed with professional assistance. This, indeed, is an improvement that should put the Sheet Harbour wharf facility in the forefront and definitely improve our economy in that area.
In the matter of fisheries, Madam Speaker, I would like to mention the new vitality that we are experiencing in the lobster fishery and the sea urchin fishery along the Eastern Shore. Our fishermen are going through a process of adaptation and learning and we have great hopes for the fishery. The dramatic reduction in the groundfish fishery has been very painful and shocking for all of us along the Eastern Shore and, indeed, throughout the province. Hopefully, within the next few years this problem can and will be resolved.
On behalf of the fishermen on the Eastern Shore, Madam Speaker, I would like to applaud the Honourable Brian Tobin, federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, for his valiant efforts to curtail and eliminate the overfishing of offshore fishing fleets just outside and inside Canadian waters. If we had had this type of leadership and course of action 8 to 10 years ago, I believe that the fishery crisis of today could have been totally avoided. As it is, with about 600 fishermen along the Eastern Shore, this has been a difficult time, requiring many changes and adaptations.
Another important industry to the local economy along the Eastern Shore is the logging and lumbering industry. This industry and the management of forests, silviculture and reforestation efforts will all be adversely affected by the termination of the federal Forestry Agreement this year. Madam Speaker, I would urge the federal government to renew the Forestry Agreement, which will ensure that these important efforts will be continued. At this time, I want to commend the Minister of Natural Resources and our government for its never-dying efforts to have this agreement put forward.
Madam Speaker, I would like to say a few words about the quality of life along the Eastern Shore. It is well known for its friendly and generous people. Support for family life is an ongoing tradition for us, especially support for seniors. I have a large number of senior citizens in my area and their expertise and concerns and viewpoints are so important to the life of our communities. I wish to state how vital and critical it is for our seniors, grandchildren and children, to stay in the community and hold together our family units.
This is why we must offer appropriate health and educational services along the Eastern Shore, to meet the real needs of every age level in our community. This is why it is so necessary for all of us to continue to stimulate the economic growth on the Eastern Shore, to allow the opportunities for intelligent young people of the Eastern Shore to stay in the community to help make the area prosper.
[11:30 a.m.]
To this effect, I have worked to secure dependable cellular telephone service all along the Eastern Shore through a new cellular tower system that has recently been installed at Musquodoboit Harbour. This service will provide badly needed communication facilities for business, residents and tourists alike and will definitely help improve the economic conditions along the Eastern Shore. This service is an example of how we can work to promote tourism and industry alike with very little effect on government spending and ultimately result in major improvements for our areas.
I have also been working to obtain more banking machines in our communities and improve our banking facilities. At the present time, we only have two banking machines in my total riding and a total of three banks. In a geographic area that represents approximately 100 miles along the coast, along the No. 7 Highway, this is a situation we can no longer tolerate.
If we are successful in securing improved banking facilities and banking machines, this will great assist our local people and businesses alike, as well as making it easier and more pleasant for tourists to visit and, indeed, get access to financial resources. That will ultimately result in increased spending along the Eastern Shore and definitely improve our economy.
Madam Speaker, as an example of the new energy we feel along the Eastern Shore, I would like to mention the second annual tourism day, held recently. More than 150 enthusiastic people came out for the day, to meet with the tourism staff, share ideas and plan together ways of expanding tourism in our area. Participants expressed their delight in the proactive role this government is playing in serving as a catalyst and resource to tourism entrepreneurs and in upgrading our tourism infrastructure along the Eastern Shore. As I spoke yesterday, tourism, I feel, is the only long-term immediate gain in employment we can achieve on the Eastern Shore.
To help promote tourism to a wide range of people this year, we have created a cable television show consisting of 14 programs. The series is entitled, Tales of the Eastern Shore. It highlights the beauty, attractiveness of the area, history and some very interesting individuals on the Eastern Shore. It has been receiving great reviews since it first aired and plans are already underway for more segments of this very successful promotional activity.
Madam Speaker, these are some examples of the new cooperative spirit and energy that is now flowing through the communities of the Eastern Shore. I look forward to the months ahead and I am confident that the leadership and vision offered by our government will continue to bear rich and full harvest of the economic growth and well-being of the people of the Eastern Shore. Thank you.
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable member for Kings North.
MR. GEORGE ARCHIBALD: Good morning, Madam Speaker, and may I take this opportunity to welcome you to your new position as Deputy Speaker of this House of Assembly. You, as we all know, are only the second woman ever to occupy such a place of esteem in this province and I know that you and we are both honoured that you are sitting in the Chair. I wish you every success and I hope that you enjoy the time that you spend as Speaker of this great Legislature.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Representing Kings North, as I do, I have a great feeling for the part that women can play and have played in politics in Nova Scotia. Behind me is the picture on our wall of Mrs. Gladys Porter, member of this Assembly from 1960 to 1967. Gladys Porter was a woman of great renown throughout Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada and, indeed, all of this great nation, because she was a forerunner and a great leader of the women's movement, even before we knew what a woman's movement even was.
She was out there championing causes, assisting her neighbours and helping to build and to make Kentville a strong and vibrant community, serving on the municipal council and then serving as mayor of that great shiretown prior to becoming an MLA. So it is an honour to be representing the area that did elect the first woman to this Legislature and I think it is quite fitting that as I am having my Throne Speech this morning, there is a woman sitting in the Chair. I certainly welcome you and congratulate you for being selected as Deputy Speaker.
Now I am very fortunate, I feel, to be a member of this Assembly because since 1984 I have been running successfully on behalf of those constituents. It is a real honour and a privilege to represent the wishes of the people of Kings North in this Assembly.
In the 1993 election, it was a little different because Kings North had an expanded role to play in Kings County because the area is much larger now than it used to be, about one-third larger now than it was in 1984 because the boundary moved part way through Kings West, to the Black Rock Road. So that now means that in addition to all the communities that I had the honour to represent before, I now represent Woodville and Lakeville, Black Rock, Grafton and many other communities and people in between. It is a pleasure to represent those people.
Now the Throne Speech debate is one of the great institutions of this House. I would like to take a few moments to talk about some of the history of my constituency because this is an opportunity that we don't get at any other time during the sitting of the Legislature, that is, I feel, to brag a little bit about the constituencies that we represent. We are able to tell you and other members of the House some of the facts that you may not know about our area.
Kings North, of course, is located along the Evangeline Trail and is part of the Town of Kentville. Kentville, under the direction of a new Mayor, Art Hope, elected last year, and the town council, they are a very imaginative group of individuals. I want to commend them on the job they are doing for the residents of Kentville. The population of Kentville is 5,000, making it the largest town located in the Annapolis Valley. It was originally settled by the New England Planters in the 1760's, following the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755. The town was incorporated in 1886 and named in honour of the Duke of Kent. Today it is the shiretown of Kings County.
Some of the interesting features people could look at when they are in Kentville are some of the older historic houses located on Main Street. There are some houses that have been plaqued by the province and should be looked at. There is also the old Kings Court House Heritage Museum, which is on Cornwallis Street. One of the things it specializes in is the natural history of Kings County. Its genealogical records are known far and wide because there are so many people from around Atlantic Canada and New England who come to visit there. There are Parks Canada artifacts relating to the Planters.
Also in Kentville, we have a live theatre that is operating on weekends. It certainly is a very pleasant place to spend an evening. There are walking trails located in Kentville for the people who want to come and have some exercise. One of them is of great interest through the agricultural centre because it is through a section of virgin forest. It is certainly a walk worth taking. I encourage those who are interested in walking to have a look at the trails through the agricultural centre.
Just outside of Kentville, there is a monument that I think we all should be proud of because there was an inventor named Abraham Gesner. He was born there in 1797. Mr. Gesner, who was a physician, a geologist and an author, discovered kerosene in 1846 and he was very prominent in its manufacture in New York. I think that although we don't use kerosene today, at the time it was a breakthrough and all people around the industrial world were very thankful that Abraham Gesner was smart enough to figure out how to make the stuff.
Other areas of Kings North that are of interest, too, include the area of Centreville. As you head through Centreville and you come towards Halls Harbour, you then immediately find the lobster pound that has been developed in Halls Harbour and that is truly one of the great industries that has been developed in the last few years.
One of the other areas of note is the lookoff beyond Canning. From the lookoff you can look across and you can see Acadia University, you can see up and down the Annapolis Valley and across the Minas Basin. So it is certainly an area that tourists like to frequent.
The New England Planters picked very well when they arrived in Kings County because we can see many of the features that attracted them to the area. Some of the dykes that are in the Kings County area are dykes that have been there since the 1700's and the Prescott Museum, which is located near the dykeland, near the Wellington Dyke, was the home that was built in 1819 by Charles Ramage Prescott. He was a businessman in Halifax and a horticulturalist and a great farmer who moved from Halifax to the Annapolis Valley to do agricultural research and farming. At the same time, he was a member of this Legislature when the Legislature opened in February 1819.
One of the interesting things you can see - not unique to Kings North - from the Wellington Dyke, if the tide is in the right situation, is on side of you, you have the river and, on the other side, you have the ocean water that is very much higher. For tourists and visitors, it is something of a marvel that you can be driving along and you can be farming below sea level.
One of the things that used to be more interesting years ago when you were driving across the dykes toward Port Williams, of course, was to see an ocean-going ship sitting on the bottom when the tide went out. It was quite something because when Port Williams used to operate, and I remember the ships, they would come in, they would tie up to the wharf, the tide would go out and they would be sitting on dry ground. They would load the ship, the tide would come up and away they would go, floating again.
One of the other interesting museums we have in Kings North is a private museum operated by George Lynch and his family in Woodville. It certainly is a place that I would urge anybody who is travelling through the Woodville area to stop in and visit for an hour or two in the afternoon. It is a private museum supported by the local community and it will show you a bit of the history of Kings County over the last 100 years or so.
If you are in the area of Woodville in the fall, you might just enjoy seeing (Interruption) Yes, it is a good place. The member for Halifax Atlantic grew up in the Woodville area - you might just happen to catch the Nova Scotia Fox Hunt Club riding to the hounds on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon; members of the hunt club, from across Nova Scotia, come to the Annapolis Valley in the fall to enjoy riding their horses and following the hounds looking for foxes.
In Canning, the Fieldwood Heritage Society has become very active over the last few years and they have helped Canning go through sort of a rebirth, because Canning was feeling a little down in the doldrums a few years ago and the Village Square Program came along. Through the Village Square Program, Canning has been reinvigorated and on Main Street, I believe, all of the storefronts are now occupied with active businesses and the people are contributing to the betterment of the community. But the Fieldwood Heritage Society is one of those groups of volunteer individuals that all got together and they are looking at the past and they are celebrating the past of Canning and the vicinity.
One of the things that is surprising to people driving through Canning is that Canning, at one time, was a seaport prior to the construction of some of the dykeland. Ocean-going ships used to dock at Canning. I was talking to a store owner a little while ago and when he opened his store originally, he used to receive his goods for sale by water but, today, it would be very difficult to imagine an ocean-going ship arriving in Canning. However, as the dykes were built and the aboiteaux constructed, that was the end of shipping into Canning. However, the Fieldwood Heritage Society keeps alive the memories of the ships because the Fieldwood actually was the largest sailing ship ever built in the Canning area. They keep alive the memory of the shipbuilding and the axe factory, the Blenkhorn Axe Factory that used to be located in Canning and they work very well in conjunction with the Heritage Society in Kentville.
[11:45 a.m.]
The new library they are building in Canning is a marvel that all of us, as Nova Scotians, can be proud of, because the Annapolis Valley Regional Library Authority has refused, on many occasions - many times I tried to get the Regional Library Authority to help and assist Canning in construction of a library and furnishing it with books. Each time they said no, they said Canning didn't need a library.
I vigorously argued that point with them. However, the Regional Library Authority would win out in the end. Of course, Canning received no provincial support for a library. But, being the good people of Canning, they decided that if they wanted a library, they would do it themselves. They have gone ahead and held raffles and raised money. They purchased a building and they are in the process of building their own library, certainly no thanks to the Annapolis Valley Regional Library Authority because the regional library board would turn them down at a moment's notice.
It always seemed a little ironic to me that the Annapolis Valley Regional Library Board would say Canning didn't need a library and they would not help them. However, in Wolfville, where Acadia University is located and they did have a library in a building, the regional authority indicated that Wolfville did, in fact, need a library and they contributed extensively to the conversion of the old railway station in Wolfville, to a library.
Now, by no means am I critical of the library in Wolfville at the old train station. I think it is a welcome addition to the Annapolis Valley. However, I think the regional board also should have considered Canning and assisted Canning when the request was made. However, the people of Canning are showing that they don't need the library authority, they can carry on and get their own library and, in the end, it will probably be better than had the regional board been involved because they are doing it for themselves.
Kings County is probably the most beautiful county in all of Nova Scotia. It is certainly the home of agriculture for Atlantic Canada. We produce fully one-third of all the agricultural production in Nova Scotia. We produce as much agricultural product in Kings County as they do in all of Prince Edward Island. So, you can see that agriculture is a very significant contributor to the lifeblood of our county.
It was a great shock and disbelief - we are beginning to realize the extent of the budget cuts that we are receiving from Ottawa. The Agricultural Centre located in Kentville, in Kings North, is going to disappear. This year the federal government announced one-third of the staff will be laid off. The poultry research at the station has been curtailed and cancelled. Today, we learned through news coverage that apple research will no longer take place in Kentville.
I find that very hard to believe, that the federal government would totally disregard Atlantic Canada's most important agricultural region and so callously treat Nova Scotians and the agricultural centre, because we have a great record in the 1950's, when the poultry industry in Atlantic Canada and, indeed, Canada, was beginning to change and they were starting to grow birds for the broiler industry. It was work at the research station in Kentville that led the way. The poultry section is gone.
Apples; we are now learning a great deal about sustainable development, sustainable agriculture. Well, people are just now starting to catch up to the thinking of Annapolis Valley farmers of 40 and 50 years ago. Integrated pest management was a new word developed about 10 years ago at a big conference in the United States. The fellows were organizing this conference and they were quite excited about it and so on. Then suddenly some of the research people said, well, I don't think that is a new term, I have heard about that before. So, lo and behold, they went back and they found all the research that has been done and continues to be done at the Kentville Agricultural Research Station on integrated pest management.
Kentville, was at the forefront, in the late 1940's, all through the 1950's and right up until today, integrated pest management. What integrated pest management is, in simplest terms, is you use bugs. There are two kinds of bugs in an apple orchard, there are good bugs and there are bad bugs. You time your sprays of insecticides so that you don't harm the good bugs and the good bugs are there and they eat the bad bugs. That is sort of the way it operates.
What that means is, you can use far less chemical on your orchard than you would otherwise have to. This is the research work that was done in Kentville, this is the research work that will no longer be done at the Kentville Research Station. It is a real tragedy because when and what new developments would the research scientists be doing if they were allowed to continue their work? In the late 1940's and early 1950's, when they started on integrated pest management it was something nobody had heard of. What else could they be doing and who is going to make the contribution that they should be making?
It is fine, the federal government said, we will do research on apples in British Columbia, but you see, all that tells me is that the people making the decisions in Ottawa have absolutely no background in agriculture. Because an apple tree and an apple variety that grows well in British Columbia, will not grow in Nova Scotia. The apple varieties that we see in the wintertime here sometimes, those Granny Smiths, we don't grow those in Nova Scotia, they are grown in foreign countries. But, we do grow apples in Nova Scotia that are unique and one of those is the Spy apple. The Spy apple grows in Nova Scotia, it grows in Ontario and in New Jersey.
One of the industries we have that depends on the Spy apple is the Sarsfields Food Plant where they are manufacturing pies using the Spy apple. The Spy apple has unique characteristics that allow it to be put into a pie frozen, thawed, cooked and not lose its shape. There isn't another apple that will do that and it doesn't all boil over during the cooking. We need the research station and I was pleased today that the House unanimously accepted a resolution urging our Minister of Agriculture, in supporting him talking to the federal government. Do not abandon Atlantic Canada agriculture the way that they appear to be doing.
As we enter the free trade era, agriculture research is more important now than ever. This is the most critical time in agricultural's development and we cannot turn, as taxpayers and Canadians, a blind eye to research. Future developments will help us remain strong if we have research programs. Money spent during research is not wasted money, it is necessary and the repayment is rapid and it is long-term. The federal government must be made to realize that by reducing the research station to only a bare maintenance situation, this is not the answer for economic growth in Canada.
This is the time to do more research, not the time to eliminate the future benefits of agriculture in Atlantic Canada. While the federal budget was welcomed by many Canadians, the thrusts have been devastating to Nova Scotia agriculture. The Nova Scotia agricultural interests are not pleased with the federal budget. The elimination of the Feed Freight Assistance Subsidy will hit poultry producers and dairy producers across the province and it is not just a small amount of money, anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 a year is what it is going to cost to the hog producers. A poultry farmer is going to have to find an additional $25,000 for his poultry products. The dairy producers are going to be losing about $3,500 a year and on top of that they have also seen the elimination of the dairy subsidy. Now, in Cape Breton, this will mean an added cost of about $22 a ton to the price of feed. These are very significant costs and there is only one person that can bear them and that person is the consumer. Hopefully, the farmers will be able to pass these additional costs on to the consumer. Canadians don't oppose the elimination of subsidies, but the added costs to the agricultural industry should not be borne in one fell swoop. There should be some kind of an adjustment.
Agriculture is so important to Kings County and to Kings North that I want to talk for a moment or two about agriculture and some of the industries and some of the things that we are doing that are new, different and informative. Canning is sort of one the centres we look for for agriculture and near Canning is Kings Produce, Richard Melvin, RandsLand Farm, EllsLea Farm, they are all benefitting from Kings Produce. Kings Produce is a limited company formed by eight or nine producers a few years ago to produce and market the very best agricultural vegetable products possible, better than products you can buy imported from California, Ontario or Quebec. They have succeeded where nobody thought they could.
One of the reasons they were able to succeed so much was due to the Agri-Food Agreement that Nova Scotia and Ottawa signed. The Agri-Food Agreement is a federal-provincial agreement that put about $20 million a year into the agricultural industry in Nova Scotia. That was for new technology, new developments. Kings Produce is dependent completely and solely on new product development and new techniques. The farmers involved have travelled across North America, Europe and Australia looking at machinery and looking at techniques so that the product grown in the field can land on the grocery store shelf and on your table in better condition than ever before. This program, apparently, has been cancelled, also, by the federal government and one of the things that is so tragic about it is, when you look at the developments that have taken place in the agricultural industry through the benefit of this federal-provincial agreement and you can say, look, if this development stops now, where will we be in 10 years? This is something that is unacceptable.
We have had federal-provincial agreements since 1957 when that old fellow, John Diefenbaker, thought that it was a good idea to help rural Canada. So ever since, it has been going on now for over 40 years that we have had these provincial agreements for agriculture. I do hope that this new federal government will bring forth another kind of federal-provincial agreement, give it another name, but technology and development and research is really what we need, because this is how our farmers keep expanding.
Now, Riverbrook Farms in Port Williams is the only commercial spinach grower in Atlantic Canada. One of the things about growing spinach is it is hard to grow it. That is why they are the only people doing it. But with a lot of research, they figured out how to become a commercial spinach grower. It is very labour intensive and it is a very difficult crop to grow, so that it can be harvested and delivered to you, the consumer, the way you want it.
We have been very fortunate in Nova Scotia with the development in agriculture. A little while ago there was a write-up by a university professor from the University of Guelph who was doing a study and a tour of Cape Breton Island agriculture. One of the things he said was kind of surprising to a lot of people because he said, he had seen more technology in Cape Breton dairy farms than any other area in Canada. He said the Nova Scotia farmer is more up-to-date than any other farmer in Canada. They are quicker to grasp new ideas and they are quicker to adapt them to their home farm.
That tells me that the federal-provincial agreement has been working because the technology transfer funds have been coming through the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture with the federal money attached. It has been a successful program and I do hope the minister is able to negotiate with Ottawa so that we can have a continuation of these new and modern techniques for Nova Scotia because we certainly need them.
[12:00 p.m.]
For years we enjoyed hearing about the constituencies that we represent. The first time I spoke in this Legislation in 1985 I talked about a friend of mine, Len Sarsfield, and his pie making business. At that time, I was bragging about him and telling you all that Len and his wife, Fran, were making about 5,000 pies a day. Really, I thought that was quite a thing to talk and brag about.
Today, that same organization has expanded and expanded and now they are making in excess of 100,000 pies per day in 30 different varieties. This is employing hundreds of Nova Scotians both as workers in the manufacturing plant, on the farm. It has added value to the apple, to the strawberry, to the rhubarb, to the blueberry because those are the kinds of products they are using, Nova Scotia fruit going into those pies. It is just a tremendous success story and one that we can all share some of the pride in because it is a great success and shows what we can do in Nova Scotia.
It also re-emphasizes the importance that we place in Nova Scotia on research. The research station in Kentville has played an integral part in the development of the Spy apple and I know from time to time the research station in Kentville played an important role in the development of pies in the manufacturing plant at Sarsfields. So we cannot emphasize the importance of the research station. Also, the research station is important for employment.
They used to call it the farm. Many people around Kentville will tell you, oh yes, my dad or my mom works at the farm or I hope I get a job at the farm. When they said, the farm, everybody knew they meant the Agricultural Research Centre. You hear less and less about it now because the research they are doing is becoming insignificant and it is really becoming rather insulting to Canadians and to Nova Scotians to realize the proud history of that station and to see it being dismantled, one research project at a time. That is not fair to Nova Scotian agriculture or to the Canadian taxpayer.
In Nova Scotia we are fortunate with agricultural products because we have the highest percentage in all of Canada of added value to our agricultural product. That doesn't mean to say that we can stop and rest on our laurels. What it means is that we have to look and do more. When I speak of added value, you look at Eastern Protein Foods which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACA Cooperative in New Minas. Eastern Protein Foods is a processor of chicken products.
They make chicken nuggets, chicken burgers and all sorts of chicken products that normally would not be added value to. They can put them in little packages and they are exported across Canada under various name brands and labels, but they are actually made right here in Nova Scotia. They make 8 or 10 different varieties of chicken nuggets and I am sure, knowingly or unknowingly, each and every one of us in this room have had them at one time or another.
Larsen Packers in Kings West is a true success story. They enjoyed the expansion of a new plant a few years ago and now they are adding value to products that you make from pork. Their high quality is known throughout Atlantic Canada. We do have the highest percentage of added value in all of Canada. It is something we can be proud of.
Now the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne is the time for MLAs to talk about their area and to cover topics that really can't be said at any other time during the sitting of the Legislature. When I was given the opportunity to speak to the Throne Speech I always felt it was nice that we were not under any time constraints. In fact, I remember one time I was standing in the Legislature making my reply to the Throne Speech and I had about 10 or 15 minutes and the Premier sent me over a note. I was standing up when I read the note and it said, don't sit down until 5:00 o'clock. Here I looked at the clock and it was 4:10 p.m. I had to make a 50 minute speech out of a 10 minute speech, with a great deal of difficulty. When I got through making this speech, his wife, who happened to be here at the time, said my golly, I never heard anybody talk so slow before in my life. That is why I did it.
We were encouraged by the Premier to take all the time we wanted, up to one hour. In fact, we were told to take the time so that we could brag about our constituencies and tell all the people in here about some of the great things that are happening.
Now I want to tell you about the Apple Blossom Festival, which is the beginning of the tourist season for Nova Scotia. This year the Apple Blossom Festival is May 25th, mark it down in your calendars - May 25th, 26th and 27th. That weekend in May is the highlight of the Nova Scotia tourism year. This year the Apple Blossom Festival is going to have a new format. Some of the events and festivities are going to change. The one most noticeable by all the members in the Legislature, and I know many of you come down every year and enjoy the parade on Saturday. The Minister of Agriculture usually goes down on a Thursday evening. They are having a stage show of Nova Scotia folk music and Canadian musicians at the grandstand on Saturday. They are having a huge fireworks show in the evening. So it is going to be four or five days of interest.
I see my friend, the MLA for Annapolis, he is one of the most loyal and faithful followers of the Apple Blossom Festival. I don't think he has missed the parade for eight or nine years. I always enjoy seeing him in the parade, driving in that little tiny car that he zips along in. You would hardly recognize him, Madam Speaker, if you could see him in that sporty little car that he rips around in during Apple Blossom Day. He looks like quite a sport when he is there. But anyway, it is May 25th, 26th and 27th. I do urge all members to come down and enjoy some part of the Apple Blossom Festival, whether it is the stage shows or just looking at the apple blossoms in the field. (Interruptions)
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please. We have a number of simultaneous conversations and it is getting hard to hear the speaker.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Oh, that's all right. Last year the honourable Minister of Tourism, who is now a back bench person, he was at the Apple Blossom Festival and I think if he wanted to tell you what an enjoyable activity it was, he could explain in his own words to all what a great day he had when he was down in Kentville and how well they treated him. I don't think there is anywhere that he has travelled that he has been treated as well as he was when he was at the Apple Blossom Festival.
It is not just the Apple Blossom Festival in Kings North that is exciting, it is Bay Day. Any of you who have missed Scots Bay on July 1st are missing a rare treat. Bay Day on July 1st is a very great time had by all. Scots Bay is just before you get to Cape Split, in a beautiful cove. On July 1st, you should be there, they have all kinds of events and a country parade. It is really worth going.
Kingsport is usually the next weekend and they have a gala day with fireworks and a parade and games for the kids. It is a real community event. Halls Harbour shifts their dates, I am not exactly sure what it is this year. They have to have their date at the right time, for the highest tides, so that the water is at its highest level for them to have their Halls Harbour Days. That is another great event. They have a barbecue and so on and really it just shows how important community life really is.
Centreville has a Centreville Park Day, where all the parents and the kids come and there are baseballs games and soccer games and an auction. I guess at the auction you can take the stuff there in the morning and you can buy it back in the afternoon. So it is that kind of an event they have in Centreville.
So we do have great events. Port Williams has its world-famous strawberry supper early in July. There are so many events taking place in Kings North and each and every one of them involve community people and community leadership. This is what makes our community so strong, whether you are in Kentville working with the Legion or in Canning working with the Legion. The Canning Lions Club, this year is their 25th Anniversary and the Port Williams Lions Club, it is their 25th Anniversary. These are events that are exciting, not just to me but to the people in the community and I really enjoy the opportunity, as MLA, to take part in all of these activities.
One of the things I am detecting as we are going through the Speech from the Throne is that we are kind of alone in the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne debate because the members in government are not seeming to take their part. It is almost as though the Government House Leader told them that we have a foot race going here and I want to see how many of you fellows I can get through in 20 minutes or one-half hour.
Yesterday, I was listening to the speech of a government backbencher and it was an excellent speech. It was about a 30 minute speech and he crammed it into 10 minutes and it was hard to follow it, he was speaking so fast. It was like those old record players that we used to have, where you had the speed dial on the side, the 78, the 33, or the 45. It was almost like it was a 45 record rammed up to 78, he was talking so fast because he had a time limit.
How different it is from what we heard during the election campaign about the importance of the Speech from the Throne. I really feel, Madam Speaker, that when members are told that they are not allowed to take their full hour and you must get through, that is a real departure from the Accountability and Accessibility in Government Liberal Policy.
MADAM SPEAKER: I would just like to remind the honourable member that as the person in the Chair keeping an eye on the clock, I have not been instructed to tell anybody that they must shorten their speech under an hour.
Would you like to carry on?
MR. ARCHIBALD: Madam Speaker, I never for a moment indicated it was you. It is the Government House Leader. It certainly seems that way because what a departure from what was said in the Accountability and Accessibility in Government Liberal Policy, "to allow Members, through the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, to air constituency concerns that otherwise might not be aired before the body of Nova Scotia's elected provincial representatives.".
Madam Speaker, that is what was said during the election campaign. When we did not have a Throne Speech for a year (Interruption) for two years, all and sundry was rattling and rolling, but that was just politics. These members do not really care about a Speech from the Throne, that was just something else to complain about because has there been a Cabinet Minister yet stand up in Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne?
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, on a point of order. Do not allow the member to confuse the facts here. The importance of a Speech from the Throne is in having one delivered to set direction for the province; the rhetoric often comes in the response.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think you have made your point but I would not call it a point of order.
MR. ARCHIBALD: If I could refer to the honourable Government House Leader to what he said Thursday, April 16, 1992, in reference to a Speech from the Throne, "I would be able to put the concerns together for an hour in some sort of order that might give the members of this Assembly a clear understanding of the difficulties of the concerns and the problems facing the people. Those people who pick up the phone and call me or visit my office.". Then he goes on to reiterate the importance of a Speech from the Throne and the debate following the Speech from the Throne, but yet, at the same time, that honourable Government House Leader indicates to one and all how important it is, debate seems to be cut-off and the speeches are limited. It doesn't seem as though they were serious when they were indicating how important the Speech from the Throne and Throne Speech debate really was. I am afraid it was perhaps politics.
[12:15 p.m.]
The honourable Minister of Education on May 10, 1991, he spoke at great length about the origin of the Speech from the Throne back to the beginning of western democracy - I wish the honourable minister had recorded this because I think it would have made great bedtime reading for anybody because half-way through I am sure you all would have fallen asleep - he went back almost to King Solomon but he went through the Middle Ages and so on. One of the things he said, the very foundation of democracy as the members here coming forward not just to approve a budget but to give the chance for the people of Nova Scotia too, in fact, that we can give forth their grievances.
We have one hour, each of us. Some of us get very little time in this House to speak and that is the one hour that we have historically and that is part of history. I would ask you to recognize that our freedom of speech has been curtailed. That is what he was saying in 1991 when the House opened without a Speech from the Throne yet, at the same time, what that government is practising is curtailing the free speech of its back bench members in telling them they can have 10 to 15 minutes. They should be allowed to have the full hour so that we could all enjoy the benefit of understanding the constituents that they represent because we do have a lot of interest in what is going on around the province because how else are we going to know what the constituents are thinking in Victoria and Inverness if they don't stand in their place and tell us.
The Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne is the time, according to the Minister of Education when we are going to hear this but yet this Throne Speech that they held in such high esteem not too many years ago, there hasn't been a Cabinet Minister to speak on it yet; the Premier spoke very briefly on it yesterday. But none of the other people think it important enough to speak on. What they were telling us a couple of years ago about the importance of the Speech from the Throne, did they really mean it or was it just more of that Liberal rhetoric? I am beginning to suspect it was just the Liberal rhetoric and wanting to criticize.
When we have the opportunity to speak about our area it is interesting and it is exciting but one of the things that is of interest in my area, in particular, at the present time, is hospital discussions. I want to bring it forward and I am pleased the Minister of Health is here at the present time because he is the Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Doctor, the head honcho, for all, the big cheese; I mean he is it as far as health care in Nova Scotia goes. There are questions, a lot of questions that people ask me and I am not a medical type person so all I do is the best I can.
But, you know a few years ago we built a regional hospital in Kentville and I think it was a very wise decision and it didn't just happen. The Kentville area was serviced in a community basis by the Blanchard Fraser Memorial Hospital. The Board of Directors of the Blanchard Fraser began to expand their scope and so on and they started attracting specialists to come and work in our hospital. Then it became known as the Valley Regional Hospital, even though it was in a very small building, three small buildings actually. When the specialists were there and everything was going and then we expanded and they built a new hospital.
One of the interesting facts about this new hospital in Kentville, the Valley Regional Hospital that was constructed and opened in the spring of 1992 or 1993 was that three other hospitals no longer had to operate and the cost-savings that have been generated from having the new Valley Regional Hospital will have paid for the hospital in six years. Now, that may be hard to believe. The hospital cost $38 million to build but the savings from operating under one facility will mean in six years that expenditure will have been recouped. What that tells me is that that means the monies saved can be spent on helping people who are ill. What a marvelous thing.
Since that hospital has opened, its case load has doubled, they are seeing twice as many people as they were. Their expenditures are reduced by 10 per cent. So they are doing twice the work for 90 per cent of the money. Look, that is success. There are more patients now than ever.
One of the interesting things, Madam Speaker, was the other day, there was a plea from some local cancer victims who have been successful in their cure and they were successful in fighting the disease, and they were concerned because as the Wolfville hospital, of course, as you know, I don't know if it is closed or not, it is hard to say, but the Berwick hospital is closed and they had a mammogram machine that would help diagnose breast cancer. But that section was closed and all they were going to be doing was the screening there; you could get screened there but then you have to go somewhere else for the operation. Well, some of the victims of breast cancer are writing letters and they wrote to the Minister of Health and he said, yes, you can do the work that they you used to do in Berwick, that machine can be moved to Kentville and they can do the screening and the diagnosis and the operation all in one, which was what the ladies were asking for; certainly, all people in the Valley wanted the operations to be done there, because it is much better, safer and quicker with greater success.
The Minister of Health, through the executive assistant from the Economic Renewal Agency got in touch with one of the ladies and said, yes, the Department of Health would be putting the machine in Kentville. So I inquired at the hospital and they said, yes, we have been given permission to have the mammogram machine here and we will be able to do the diagnostic work here, but there isn't any additional money to do the work. This is the difficulty, because the hospital in Kentville is doing more and more work all the time. They are seeing more and more patients; as they close the Wolfville hospital, as they close the Berwick hospital, Kentville requires more and more facilities.
There has been a recent addition of five beds to the hospital and that is a welcome thing. But it has been a hit and miss sort of an operation. It is always a great stress and a great strain to see whether there is any money, in fact, to look after the obligations that the government expects the hospital to fulfil. When you have the hospital there, people go to the hospital and they expect to get things there and all of a sudden the hospital has to provide the services. But it is difficult when they don't have the funds or the staff to do it. They are making the best of a difficult situation because I don't think anybody would come forth and claim that when the hospital in Berwick and the hospital in Wolfville were closed that there seemed to be any discernible planning involved in it. They just said, you're closed and Kentville pick up the slack. There was no plan. That's not good. I know the Minister of Health is listening and I hope that as things go along that there will be more planning and more examples of planning taking place because certainly it is only fair to the people to work with them and together we can solve these problems, but it cannot be just orders from head office to do this and it is done. That is not fair to the people, but that is exactly what was happening.
The people at the Valley Regional Hospital, I think, are to be commended, because under tremendously adverse conditions, with very little help from the office in Halifax, they have been able to do remarkable work and getting value for their dollar. Even though they have had tremendous health care cuts and reductions in their budget, they have still been able to provide health care services beyond what is even expected. So, I want to commend the staff and people that are at the Valley Regional Health, because they are working diligently under difficult situations.
I also want to commend the health groups that are springing up throughout Kings County, meeting, discussing health care needs. The people in the Town of Kentville have a concern because Kentville, in the eyes of the mayor, is no longer Kentville's community hospital. The hospital, located in Kentville - or very close, it receives the town electricity and the town water and so on, but really it is just on the line so, it is in the county. But the Kentville hospital, the Valley Regional, is no longer viewed by many as the community hospital for Kentville, it is the regional hospital. So, the people in Kentville, too, must not relax, they must show due diligence and make sure that they are involved in the community health care and in the discussions that are taking place by the volunteer group that is travelling around under the auspices of Canon Sid Davies. He has been travelling from one community to the other throughout Kings County, talking, listening and explaining, trying to help, to bring health care more to the people so they can understand the situation that we find ourselves in at the present time. I do not think enough can be said about the volunteers and the way that they have been working to try to help solve some of the problems that have been created.
Now, there is a lot happening in Kings County and in Kentville. One of the things that was announced not too many days ago was the court-house closure. I know, talking with one of my colleagues, he was very concerned because his court-house in Windsor was moving to Kentville. He said, you didn't have anything to worry about, you are not losing your court-house. Well, I did not think we were losing the Kentville court-house particularly either, I just assumed that when the government said they wanted to build a new court-house, they wanted to build a court-house in Kentville. However, to the best of our knowledge, Mr. Speaker, the court-house in Kentville, which is not very old - it is only about 10 or 12 years old - is not going to be in Kentville. Apparently, the government services people have been looking at locations in New Minas, to close the one in Kentville and build a new one in New Minas.
Speaking with practitioners of the law who operate out of the court-house in Kentville, they say what Kentville court-house should have is an extension of about 50 feet, to add the additional court-room space and there you've got it. So, a small addition and you would be able to stay in the same place. But rather than discuss with the legal profession, the practitioners, there has been a decision made, apparently, to close the court-house, move all the court records and probate and everything else to a new location somewhere in Kings County, preferably in New Minas. This, to me, is both shocking and peculiar. Most lawyers are practising in the Town of Kentville, most of the services are within the Town of Kentville. However, there has been a decision made, apparently, to try to see if they can move it, as quietly and quickly as possible, from its present location to somewhere else.
This really does not make sense, when you think of it, because in Kentville, the town office and the municipal office are both there. There is a town hall and a county hall and they are both in the same little town. Even though the Mayor of Wolfville said the other day, on March 21st, that the Minister of Economic Renewal had assured her that amalgamation would not take place in Kings County without his permission, even though it is not going to happen in Kings County, I think there are going to be some joint services taking place. Already Kings, Kentville and New Minas, the recreation departments are sitting down and talking; how can we get together? What can we do jointly?
[12:30 p.m.]
The water services are talking together. All of these things, and eventually we are going to have some amalgamation of services. So you are going to have a huge town hall and a huge county hall, both in the same town. Then, the court-house is heading to New Minas. It looks to me as though we are going to have an empty building.
I would think that the provincial government and the Municipalities of Kings and Kentville should really sit down and discuss the utilization of space within that area. I am sure they could come up with a conclusion that would be both cost-efficient and best-serving, both the people who are going to use the courtrooms and the taxpayers. There is only one poor guy out there paying taxes and he is paying all he can afford right now.
Speaking of taxes, look what the government did the other day to senior citizens; a new tax on senior citizens, a fishing license of $15. Is that fair? On top of the Pharmacare cuts coming on Tuesday. Overcrowding of classrooms. Mr. Speaker, the time is not long enough in this Legislature to say all the things that must be said, that have to be said.
Yesterday we had a great discussion in this Chamber about the switching of money from one project to another. Totally wrong, totally unfair.
Today we read in the paper that they are going to pave a parking lot for the G-7 downtown, so it can be ripped up in a few months to build an apartment complex. This is taxpayers' money, we are only holding it in trust. They should not be paving it so they can rip it up.
Micronav has apparently disappeared from the federal government. Halifax Harbour Clean Up is gone. Where have those federal dollars that were earmarked for Nova Scotia gone? Why isn't the Minister of Transportation in Ottawa demanding that the money from Micronav or the Halifax Harbour be sent to Nova Scotia so we can build our roads? Why isn't he doing that? Would he rather have tolls? What is this love affair that the minister has with tolls? He tried to put them back on the causeway. When that didn't happen, he now wants to build them on another road, one we have already paid for. Why is Micronav allowed to disappear and that $80 million allowed to disappear, without a whimper from this government?
Mr. Speaker, I see my time is gone. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Digby-Annapolis. (Applause)
MR. JOSEPH CASEY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to once again, as I have done so many times before, be able to rise and speak - wait a minute now, I have to get the thing started right.
To my distinguished colleagues, to speak in response to the government's Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. I am a little bit rattled. When I got up to speak I noticed that a button was missing from my coat and I always like to go well dressed.
That immediately reminded me of a story. Many years ago in the Annapolis Valley there was a Member of Parliament who, when he got up to speak, got so nervous he would twist the buttons off his vest. His wife had to travel around to every meeting he went, with a handful of buttons and a needle and thread. Now I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, to the people on the opposite side, the Opposition members, I am saying that when I get up to speak to them I am not nervous. So if that button is missing, that is not the reason. That is all.
Before I begin I would like to extend congratulations to our newly appointed Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable John James Kinley and his most charming and pleasant wife, Grace. I have known both of them over the years. I know they will both serve the people of our fair province with charm and dignity during their term in office.
I also want to congratulate my colleague, the honourable member for Halifax Needham, on his elevation to the Cabinet as Minister of Supply and Services. I know he will serve his province well in his new role as minister. Congratulations as well to the member for Bedford-Fall River on her elevation to the post of Deputy Speaker. Having previously served in that post I can assure the honourable member of my full support and cooperation.
Best wishes are extended to those members of Cabinet who assume new roles and in the recent Cabinet shuffle to my colleague, the honourable member for Cumberland North, sincere thanks for all his efforts on behalf of the citizens of Digby and Annapolis. I appreciate it very much and so do my constituents. (Applause)
Upon listening to the Leader of the Opposition in his speech given several days ago in this House, I think he has missed his calling, really. His show is good but his timing is bad, he is off about 50 years. Vaudeville went out several decades ago and ventriloquism went out with Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen. Although ventriloquism seems to be a dying art, I still say if the honourable Leader of the Opposition could get permission from the Speaker to hold the honourable member for Kings West on his knee, I think they could put on a show in this House that would be remembered for years to come. In fact, I think that it would make the late Edgar Bergen look like a rank amateur. With a show like that he could make a lot more money on the stage than he does as Leader of the Opposition and have a much bigger following.
Madam Speaker, the honourable Leader of the Opposition compared us or our government to a train. Well, let me tell you, when he first started talking I said to myself, this is the first time the Leader of the Opposition has been on track for years. A few minutes later, he jumped the rails. It is true, we did inherit a train from the previous government, a train that had square wheels and not enough steam left to blow the whistle.
I shouldn't speak disparagingly of trains because my wife and I were married when I was in the Armed Services during World War II and we spent the first night of our honeymoon on an overloaded troop train travelling from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Kingston, Ontario, standing up.
This government had just taken over a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy; deeply in debt and going deeper. No working capital and thousands of voters that were looking for a miracle.
Listening to the honourable Leader of the Opposition's Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, it appeared quite obvious that he has spent considerable time reading the children's book, The Little Engine That Could. This is not unusual. I myself find that with the approach of advancing age, this occurs from time to time and I suspect that fairy tales will be next on his list.
Madam Speaker, I would like to suggest that the particular part of the honourable Leader of the Opposition's speech dealing his mythical train, be made mandatory reading in all day care schools in the Province of Nova Scotia. But I still say, better we travel by train than by the government plane as did the previous government.
Getting to the Leader or the members of the Third Party, I think back to when The Ed Sullivan Show was on television. He had a comedian on there called Professor Backward. He could take a column of figures and go up, down, crosswise and he would come up with any answer he wanted. I am telling you, Madam Speaker, that these people are making him look like an amateur. We are also accused of waffling but I say, if we turn out a good waffle, what does it matter?
The rebuilding of Bluenose II with local shipbuilders in Lunenburg could help preserve what could become a dying art. I have known these people, the shipbuilders down there, they have done wonderful work over the years. They have many phrases and words in Lunenburg that are not used anywhere else in Nova Scotia, in fact, I can't understand some of them. But, I can tell you one thing, planned obsolescence, is not one.
I am pleased to say that a business which flourished in Digby and Annapolis County during World War II and many years after has been reactivated. This is the pit prop business. Now, mind you, Mr. Speaker, there are people probably in this House and many people on the street who do not know what a pit prop is. They are poles anywhere from four feet, six feet, eight feet long which are used to prop up ceilings in mines. These are cut in our woods and shipped to many places all over the world. Many of these pit props are fir, hemlock, juniper and poplar underutilized species, in most cases and in most cases, tramped underfoot when ordinary woods operations are being carried out. So, in many respects it is a salvage operation.
This does not sound like a very big business but I want to tell you at this time there is a ship due the first of the week in Digby, the largest one that has ever been docked to the fisherman's wharf and she is 11,600 tons and that is not a row boat, she is 440 feet long, she will be taking only a part cargo of 2,500 cords. I do not know exactly where she is going but it could be in the Middle East. So, this just started. This gives work to many people in the woods, to truckers, to people who work in the yard, they rouse all these poles, they have to go overseas with the bark removed. The stevedores, the ship's cargo, people that supply food and so on for the ships and all of this is going to make work. This sounds like a one-shot deal. It appears not to be, it looks like this could continue for at least three years and a half and many years beyond that. This is the kind of work that we need. It is labour intensive, they pay reasonably good wages and we are in business.
I just wanted one word on seals. I know it is a contentious article and people get very incensed when you even mention it but I am just speaking in this particular case maybe on the side of the seals. As the fish stocks decrease and the seal population increases, individual cod or haddock chances of survival diminish and come close to zero, even the killing of some of the seal population could be considered a mercy killing. If some of these are not gotten under control our fish stocks are never going to return.
In Digby and the Town of Digby and some of the outlying villages we are setting up community colleges. These are long overdue and when I hear people get up on the Opposition side and damn the present Minister of Education for his ineptness in educating people, all I have to do is look back and I find, I hope these statistics are right, but it said 40 per cent of the people in Nova Scotia are illiterate, in fact, in my area. I cannot believe it. After spending huge sums of money to educate our people and if they cannot even read or write. I don't think it is quite that bad but if they cannot read or write how do they make up a resume, and if they cannot make up a resume to send out to a respective employer how in the heck are they going to get a job.
We are trying to get some of these people up to speed and I have found over the years as an employer - we have hired as many as 200 people in our fish business at one time - that many people that we needed to do book work, to do things that needed some education, they were not available. It is that way even now with the shortage of help, people come to me and they say, I want a job. I ask them what they can do and it is surprising how little education they have and what few things they can do. How are we ever going to prosper in that kind of a society?
[12:45 p.m.]
I just want to mention something else, that is to the Minister of Transportation, who is not here. Now, we have a new ferry built, I think she has been launched, she will be christened shortly, for the Digby Neck and Islands service. Back in 1970, when I came to the government, before that, during my campaign, I promised the people on these two islands, Brier Island and Long Island, that I would get them off those islands one way or another. We managed to do that. We designed and built ferries that were like nothing else in the world, that is for sure. They sent engineers over from Sweden to copy them and they are now operating in Sweden and other parts of Europe, using the same design. We did this, we put two there, the Joshua Slocum and the Spray. They named them after Joshua Slocum, the man who circumnavigated the world, and the name of his vessel the Spray. They served very well over the years.
Then the Conservatives got in 15 years ago and they were going to put a bridge across to the islands, which never materialized. Then we got back in again, and I have talked the honourable minister into building this vessel, this ferry, and it will be in service shortly.
That is a very busy place in those islands, it is probably one of the most prosperous places in Nova Scotia. The whale watching is increasing by leaps and bounds; the business down on those islands in the fish plants. There are two fish plants down there running to capacity. They are bringing in people by bus from all over the counties and it is running very well.
We also have a museum there that has been very active and is very well attended. There are 10,000 people who went down there last year. Then, all of a sudden, we discovered we had what they called the balancing rock. I knew it was there but we had neglected it for years. The picture of that balancing rock that is 18 or 20 feet high and very narrow is standing on the edge of a cliff. It defies gravity. It withstood the Groundhog Day storm, which was 125 knots and that wasn't a light breeze, and thank Heavens, it keeps on standing there. People were intent on seeing that; they waded through swamps and mud and climbed up cliffs and so on. Three thousand of them managed to make it last year. Hopefully, the next 10,000 will get there this coming year because with the help of the honourable Minister of Tourism at that time and ACOA, each spending around $50,000, we have a nature trail going to that rock and it will be one of the wonders of Nova Scotia.
Ambulances, too. I visited one of the ambulances the other day, looked in it, saw all the equipment - one of the new ones, probably one of the newest and best in the world. We have that located at the Annapolis hospital. That is not in my constituency but many of my constituents will be using that when they use the hospital. I certainly want to thank the honourable Minister of Health for his far-sighted thinking. We will have a very good system. (Interruption) Pardon? I imagine the honourable member would be darn glad to get into that ambulance if he had a heart attack because he is going to be given treatment right on the site. If you have a heart attack in your bed at home, they will start treating you. I know we have a doctor on the other side, you probably would agree with me. It takes six minutes to die and after that time you cannot be revived, I understand. But if you are half an hour away from the hospital, you are going to arrive there in pretty poor condition, I would think. But you can start treatment immediately and that is only the beginning and I hope we get more of them around. I think I might be darn glad to see one if I had a heart attack.
We are trying to get 12 tall ships into Digby. It would do great things for the area. We don't know if we are going to get them or not. That is this summer, not the ones for the year 2000. This is just a small number of them. Anyway, if we get them, it will be great advertising and so on.
This past year I managed to go down as a representative of the provincial government, at the Sea Trade. All the people, or most of the people who are interested in cruise ships - the building of cruise ships, the owners of cruise ships, the operators and so on - they gather there at an annual convention. I am telling you, that was an eye-opener. The money that is being spent on the expansion of this business is phenomenal. I talked to the president of one company and they are building six ships this year; three in Italy, carrying 200 passengers each; and six in Helsinki, carrying 2,000 passengers each. Now that is a lot of people.
We have the facilities in Digby to handle these. I have a letter, which I took with me, from Marine Atlantic and they are offering their wharf, or the ferry terminal, for the use of cruise ships. They are looking for business and they are out to help in any way. They have even said that they will go so far as to expand the facilities or improve them so the ships can come in there. There are seven hours out of a day, each turnaround trip, when cruise ships can be docked at their terminal. They can be off-loaded in Digby and that gives an awful lot of business to that area, besides the advertising. We have only scratched the surface. It is far better we start looking at that than some other things that we are spending money on.
I just want to say something about the problems that we arrived at when we took over the new government, and it reminds me a story and I hope you understand that my Norwegian accent is not exactly clear. This happened to my father when he was in Gloucester aboard a fishing vessel unloading his catch.
There is a Norwegian vessel in there, alongside, and there is a man aloft in the bosn's chair painting the top mast on this vessel. There is a dinghy astern, tied by a painter. They call it a painter, the bow line of a dinghy. A man falls overboard, a crew member of the Norwegian ship. Anyway, the captain of the Norwegian vessel jumps in the dinghy and sings out to a man aboard his ship to cut away the painter. Instead of cutting away the rowboat, he cuts away the Norwegian, who is aloft. He falls a few feet, grabs on to one of the stays, and he is kicking and screaming. The captain says, "yump overboard, you fool, yump overboard.". He yells back, "Captain, how can I yump overboard when I got no place to stood?"
That is the situation we found ourselves in when we took over this government, but we are getting it straightened out. Thank you. I guess I have run out of time. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Pictou Centre.
DR. JOHN HAMM: Thank you, Madam Speaker, I appreciated the member for Digby's remarks. As usual, he had a good story that all of us could enjoy and I certainly congratulate his effort this afternoon.
As well, Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Halifax Needham who served us very well as Deputy Speaker and who now becomes a member of the government Cabinet. In addition, the member for Bedford-Fall River, who will serve as Deputy Speaker, I know she will be fair and will serve her office with dignity.
I would also like to make mention of the fact, of the kindness of the government and the Lieutenant Governor mentioning the name of my uncle, Dr. James M. Cameron, in the list of those Nova Scotians who passed away recently. My uncle, Dr. Cameron, was a noted local historian and has left an invaluable legacy of the history of Pictou County and I will have the opportunity, later in my speech this afternoon, to use some of his material in my remarks.
I plan to divide my speech into three parts: The first will be a brief discussion of some things of mention in Pictou County; then I will get on to some, perhaps pointed, remarks directed at the content of the Speech from the Throne, following which I will do a résumé of some activities in Pictou County; and, if time permits, I would like to do a chronological history of Trenton Works.
I represent three towns, Stellarton, New Glasgow and Trenton. They form the core of Pictou County, which is the third largest concentration of population and commercial and industrial activity in Nova Scotia. The downturn of the economy in the 1990's, coupled with the Westray explosion in May 1992 has resulted in a return of hard times to Pictou County. The recent upswing in the North American economy has benefitted Nova Scotians and Pictonians. Most recent figures reveal a seasonably adjusted rate of unemployment of 12.8 per cent, an improvement, but still far from a healthy rate. Our county needs the attention of government in its effort directed to economic renewal.
Pictou Centre last week received two infrastructure grants. One for the New Glasgow stadium project, which will allow upgrading of the 45 year old facility to handle large crowds for community events. The plan is to utilize the stadium in the fashion of Centre 200 and the Metro Centre. This project is a variation of a theme in that $200,000 of the cost-sharing in this infrastructure project comes from the private sector. The other project is a water works project in the Town of Stellarton to improve water pressure for firefighting. I thank the Minister of Municipal Affairs for her support for these projects.
Now, if I may, Mr. Speaker, return for a moment to the Speech from the Throne. I remember when I saw the advance copy of the Speech from the Throne and when I read through it as a relative novice in this place, I was struck by the vacuity of the document. This speech is thin gruel for a province hungry for a hearty meal of hope. It is a generic paper long in motherhood clauses and short in action clauses. It has no character, no personality, no detail and no identity; a generic paper, 90 per cent of which could be read on behalf of any government, in any province.
Nova Scotians were looking for a message in health. All Nova Scotians are extremely anxious about what is happening in terms of health care. They are not only anxious, they are frightened. They are frightened because the government is just saying, trust us, wait and see, you will have better health care, better emergency care, better home care, but all they have heard are promises and all they see is hospital downsizing.
There have been any number of studies, the Primary Health Care Report, the Emergency Services Report, the Home Care Report, the Blueprint Report, reports that have been around now for over a year and people still don't know what is in store for them or their communities.
The government openly admits it has done a lousy job of communicating with Nova Scotians on health care. The problem, Mr. Speaker, appears to be far more serious than a failure to communicate. The problem appears to be a failure to act. To have in place the kind of services the minister keep saying are vital to reforming our health care system before closing or downsizing hospitals. Nova Scotians are understandably concerned that these replacement services will either be a long time in coming or they won't come at all.
There is a major gap, a major flaw, in the government's approach. It cuts deep into the patient, our health care system, before examining it and making a determination as to the best health care plan. To make it worse, now that the patient has been cut open, it desperately needs a transfusion, that is replacement services, but the doctor is saying, all in good time.
Nova Scotians are reasonable and patient people, but when they see that little or nothing is being done by the government to honour its commitment to reform health care, all they seem to be doing is cutting the budget. But they are looking for health care and they are becoming understandingly concerned, frustrated and frightened - needlessly concerned, needlessly frightened. Health care reform needs direction. Communities need to know what services are going to be retained in their hospitals and they want to know when a comprehensive health care program will be available to replace already disappearing hospital beds. The programs in Annapolis Royal and Pictou are laudable, but other areas are bleeding as well. These are concerns not answered in the Throne Speech.
[1:00 p.m.]
A brief word about ambulance service. We seem to be emphasizing the ambulance and not enough attention being given to upgrading the skills of those aboard. I fail to see any rationale for the government to be involved in the leasing of 150 new ambulances in this province. Let the leasing arrangements be arranged by the ambulance operators, let the government determine the standards that those ambulances must meet.
Let us turn to education. Nova Scotians are expressing the same kind of fear and frustration when it comes to the education of their children. The White Paper proposes to amalgamate school boards and to create huge administrative structures. The new school boards will cover wide geographic areas and include student populations as much as five times larger than current boards. The minister tells us that creating school councils will balance the centralization of the boards.
He is moving at an incredible and dizzying pace. Why not examine the results of the site-based management pilots first? Why do everything at breakneck speed? Parents are saying their children will be the guinea pigs of the minister's foray into the education unknown. The answer the minister gives us is, we have to act fast in order to achieve administrative savings.
He then tells us that every cent will be put back into the classroom. Last year, he said cuts in funding would not affect the classroom. The parents would tell you that that has definitely not been the case. Understandably, they are concerned, frustrated, frightened and more than just a little skeptical when it comes to the latest promise, that every cent, every penny saved from the streamlining of administration will be put back into the classroom. They believe, as do all Nova Scotians, who have seen health care cutbacks without any serious attempt to actually reform health care service, that this government agenda is fiscal reform, not program or service reform. Nova Scotians want to know what area rates for education will mean for them. Is this a warning signal that the core programs to be guaranteed by the provincial government, to educate every young Nova Scotian equally, will be considered by most to be inadequate?
Community Services. Where is the timetable in the Speech from the Throne for a single-tiered welfare system? This was the carrot used for the service exchange proposal in the spring of 1993. These are the questions the Throne Speech should answer.
Mr. Speaker, as the representative in this place for Pictou Centre, I am proud of the community which I represent. I would like to take a few minutes and describe some of the activities that are going on in our particular area. Two years ago, the Museum of Industry, which is situated, as many of you know, beside the Trans Canada Highway in the Town of Stellarton, was destined never to open. A group of volunteers, who organized themselves and formed the Friends of the Museum, have been able to convince the government that this institution can play a real role in developing tourism in our county. With the support of ACOA, and the infrastructure program and the support of this government with the expertise within the friends of the museum, that museum will open on June 10th this spring.
The museum, as well, has had a program of exhibits through the winter. The dinosaur program, which closed several weeks ago, attracted 10,000 persons who paid admission. At present, there is a discovery exhibit there and I would urge those of you who pass by that museum on your way home to the northern end of the province to drop in, and it is certainly worth a visit. They are looking at, as well, a Discovery Centre which would be centred at the museum and would involve the eco-structure industry and history of the East River Valley. It is anticipated that this will be a healthy way to increase tourism in Pictou County. These are the kinds of endeavours that this province should be engaged in, in its efforts to promote tourism.
Health care, Madam Speaker, it is very important in Pictou County; our industrial base and our heavy industry demands that we have sophisticated services available in our community, not in communities 30 and 40 miles away. At present, our Aberdeen Hospital is undergoing a renovation which was begun in 1992; a 34 month project which will cost $23 million. When the project is finished, we will have 179 modern beds available, a marked improvement over the conditions which we were experiencing in recent years.
We have a large hospital; it is a busy hospital: 38,000 patient days; 26,000 emergency visits; 22,000 out-patient visits; 5,300 admissions; 485 deliveries a year; an annual budget of $23 million. The key to us continuing to be a centre of industry in this province is dependent on our ability to provide first-class medical attention in our area.
On a sad note, Madam Speaker, for 98 years we have had a nursing training course at the Aberdeen Hospital, beginning in 1897. This July, with the changes in nursing training which will now require a university based situation, the last class will graduate. It is a sad day in the history of the Aberdeen Hospital and the Aberdeen Hospital School of Nursing, and whether or not this is progress, only time will reveal.
The number of beds that are available in Pictou County is down. I have been a staff member of the Aberdeen Hospital for over 30 years and in the past we have had as high as 265 beds. At present, with the construction going on, we are down to 126 beds and that will improve, however, when the construction is finished. I cannot overemphasize the fact that despite the reality of the situation in that we are at the periphery of the smallest health care region in the province, we must continue to be a dominant player in the provision of health care service in our area.
I would also like to make a brief reference to our social drop-in centre. The Minister of Health is very familiar with this activity and it is an activity and a situation and a location where people with serious chronic mental illnesses may congregate, and by way of their communication, provide a self-support group. I encourage the minister in his budget, which we will be seeing next week, to continue the funding to allow that drop-in centre to continue.
As in other areas of the province, community services are a big item in our area. We have an unemployment rate, as I had made reference to earlier, of 12.8 per cent. We have many of the same family problems that you experience here in the city or in industrial Cape Breton.
At present, we have 387 child protection cases active in our area, at present being administered by only five child protection officers. I had occasion to speak in the fall of the problems in Lunenburg and the problems in Truro due to the insufficient number of child protection officers available in those jurisdictions. We need additional child protection officers in Pictou County; 387 cases, 5 child protection workers, when the recommended average is 20 cases per worker.
We have a women's centre in New Glasgow. A year ago, as many of you are aware, the federal funding for these centres ceased. I was pleased when the minister was able to come forward with some funding for our women's centre along with, I believe, the other five women's centres in the province. I certainly encourage the continuation of that funding in the budget that we will see next week.
We have significant coal bed in our province and those of you who were here last year when I made my address, I discussed at length the history and the structure of the coal bed in Pictou County. Recently, the Department of the Environment and the Department of Natural Resources have approved a surface mining project in the Village of Thorburn. There are certainly a number of area concerns. Many of these concerns have been addressed by the Minister of the Environment, particularly those relating to the water table. I had an opportunity to communicate my concern over how that issue was being handled and I thank the minister for coming forward with the recommendations that correct and allay those concerns; they were that no project would start until an alternative water supply was available and that there would be a bond in place which would protect the water table after the project was finished.
I was very concerned about how this whole approach was going to be made to the issue of surface mining, because there is a major project planned for Stellarton, a 10 year project, which will harvest 175,000 tons of Pictou County coal every year and will employ 50 persons. Now, the proposal for that project has been accepted and a full environmental review has been ordered. If the environmental review is satisfactory, then obviously the project will go forward. This project will, in fact, be beneficial to the province because one of the additions to the usual royalty is $1.50 per ton which will be payable to the province and that would be added, of course, to the $6.25 royalty per ton. I think this is very satisfactory and I think it is very germane to the situation in that surface mining will probably be more financially rewarding to the operator than underground mining, therefore, more money should revert to the province.
[1:15 p.m.]
Also, I have witnessed the effects of surface mining in Westville and in addition to the funds that go from the operator to the province, we must be cognizant of the fact that the people who live on the periphery of a surface mine, particularly one that is within the confines of a built-up town, deserve special compensation. I see that my responsibility to my constituents in this particular project is to ensure that those who live on the immediate surroundings of the Wimpey Pit operation will be properly recompensed by the operator. In addition, dust and noise control must be adhered to in the strictest sense.
One of the concerns that we have in Pictou County at present is the threat of the loss of our transit system. Every year, 300,000 Pictonians or 300,000 riders use the transit system. In connection with that operation is the Access-a-Bus, which is extremely important in Pictou County as we do not have accessible taxis.
With the service exchange formula that has seriously disadvantaged Pictou County, $200,000 of funding will be lost from the province to the Regional Transport Authority. I certainly encourage this government to look at that situation. We cannot, in Pictou County, afford to lose our transit system. We are a community of small towns in which all of the services and most of the shopping is concentrated in one town. The seniors and others in our area cannot access these services unless this transit system continues. Many of our residents do not have the financial ability to go by taxi. This is just one of the many crisis situations that service exchange has created in Pictou County.
The bulk of the load of service exchange has fallen on the shoulders of small towns in Nova Scotia. Five of our six municipal units are small towns and all have been left with a considerable cost after service exchange has started on April 1, 1995. The interesting thing is, I am being told that the figures that they were given in February of last year, are not the figures that are being used now. So, the criticism that was directed at the government at that time, in that the figures were not accurate, certainly seems to be being borne out with what I am hearing from town officials.
The important thing is that our mayors and our warden are starting that process of looking at redesigning how services are to be provided within our county. It is not an exciting task but it is a task that can save money. Many of you may have noticed recently, that the Towns of Westville and New Glasgow have started a cooperative effort in terms of delivery of policing and public works services and certain administrative services, that will save collectively about $300,000. What we don't want in Pictou County, is the same kind of solution that has been proposed by this government for metro. We need a little time to work on the solution locally.
At present the chief administrative officers of the towns are meeting and attempting to come up with a formula which will provide the savings which the service exchange is demanding. Certainly in Pictou Centre and in the remainder of Pictou County we cannot use an increased residential or commercial tax rate as a solution to service exchange.
Madam Speaker, we have many concerns in Pictou County. Time this afternoon will not allow me to look at all of them. We have a concern, for example, that the financial problems in Trenton may result in the loss of our airport. Our airport is owned by the Town of Trenton and we have borne the cost of maintaining that airport. We must find a way that that airport can remain open.
Madam Speaker, before moving on to a discussion of Trenton Works, I would encourage the government, as it goes about its program of reform, to look at areas such as ours, Pictou County, to make sure that reforms generated through fiscal necessity do not result in the destruction of our way of life.
We talk in this place of the problems that the breakdown in families have created for Nova Scotians. We talk about family violence, we talk about violence against women. Yet we look at one of the solutions for our fiscal problems as being the introduction of casinos into this province. There is no one who can suggest that casinos will not have a negative social effect in this province and will result in the destruction of some of the values that we consider are unique to Nova Scotia. It is just a further erosion into the Nova Scotian way of life.
I presented in this place last fall a petition from my constituents, bearing 2,100 names, who were opposed to casinos. (Interruption)
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please. We have a number of conversations going on that are making it difficult to hear the speaker.
DR. HAMM: Madam Speaker, we have lost the battle to keep casinos out of Nova Scotia, let us not lose the battle that will allow us to control the activities within those casinos, to make the effects of those activities as minimal as possible on Nova Scotians.
One of the things to which I refer is the hours of operation. After Nova Scotians have said in no uncertain terms to this government that we don't want Sunday shopping, what is the justification to have a Sunday casino? Madam Speaker, there is no justification for a Sunday casino in this province. One can only conclude that the Premier, who has admitted concern about the hours of operation, that if the government says it is concerned about the attitudes of Nova Scotians towards its casino, that the hours must be dictated by the operator, ITT Sheraton. Let the government get control of the situation and let us get acceptable hours of operation for these casinos.
Madam Speaker, one of bright spots in this province is Trenton Works. Trenton Works has been for many years the centre of economic activity in Pictou County. And while that is less so, perhaps, today than it once was, it is still a key part of the economy of our end of the province. I would like to share with the members some of the history of the steel industry and the car making industry in Pictou County. I would like to provide the members with some information on how the Canadian steel industry was born in the County of Pictou. The centre of this activity was the Town of Trenton, but certainly in earlier times, other areas of the county as well.
Between 1783 and 1792, three settlers received grants of land totalling 1,300 acres, covering most of what would eventually become the Town of Trenton. The town's first industry was shipbuilding, on the site of the Nova Scotia Power Corporation generating station. Later industry would be a sawmill, three quarries and the operation of what is now Trenton Works.
However, the real purpose is to concentrate on the development of the steel industry in the County of Pictou. In 1828, the General Mining Association experimented with iron ore found in nearby MacLellans Brook. A blast furnace was built in Albion Mines, which is now Stellarton, and 50 tons of unusually hard pig-iron was produced. That is less than one pour of the electric furnace in Sydney. Some of this early steel was used to make stamps for a gold crushing mill in Guysborough County.
Railways were opening up and in 1872 two youthful blacksmiths in the New Glasgow shipyards formed a partnership, called the Hope Iron Works, capitalized by $4,000. They began production of railway car axles, railway spikes, and marine forgings. In 1878, the name changed to the Nova Scotia Forge Company and moved two miles north, to an area which was to become the Town of Trenton and the area where Trenton Works now sits. The secretary of the Forge Company, a Harvey Graham, brought home the name Trenton after a visit to Trenton, New Jersey. The two partners formed the Nova Scotia Steel Company, capitalized with $160,000, and installed a 15 ton capacity open hearth furnace, a 26 inch cogging mill, two bar-rolling mills and a plate mill.
In July 1883, they poured the first commercial steel ingots and in 1889, they merged the forge and steel companies. Initially, the company used Scottish pig-iron but later on acquired iron ore deposits further up the East River above Stellarton. Further expansion led to a railway, iron ore mines, limestone quarrying and a blast furnace using local coal and, as well, coke ovens and a coal washing plant. Pig-iron was produced from 1892 to 1904 in a local self-contained operation providing locally all the key ingredients to make steel.
The Ferrona Operation, just above Stellarton, employed up to 300 men. The East River iron deposits became depleted and in 1894 the extensive submarine deposit which outcrops at Bell Island on Conception Bay, Newfoundland, was acquired and so began the mining town of Wabana. It was found through experimenting that Cape Breton coal made much better coke and the company procured a coal supply in Cape Breton.
[1:30 p.m.]
In 1900, a composite of the old affiliated companies and their coal properties was formed under the name the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company capitalized at $6.2 million. For $300,000 Scotia Steel, as it would now be commonly called bought the leases and collieries in the Sydney Mines-Florence area, owned by the General Mining Association. Scotia Steel built a plant at Sydney Mines to produce steel ingots. The billet cogging, mill rolling, forging and spike making operation continued at Trenton.
In 1912, 40 years after MacKay and Fraser's modest beginning with the Hope Iron Works, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company Ltd. was a $14 million industrial giant. At the time, the Trenton based company was one of Canada's largest enterprises, and one of the world's few entirely self-contained steelmaking operations producing 50 per cent of the steel consumed annually in Canada.
Thus the claim of Trenton as the birth place of steel in Canada is a valid one. The company installed a 2,000 ton hydraulic forging press, the Big Chief, and being built during this period was the eventual jewel of the company's crown, the Eastern Car Company.
During World War I, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal produced 14 million artillery shells. Ironically the Big Chief forging press, bought from Germany, produced the 18 pounder shell block. From 1914-1918, the plant contributed well to the war effort including plate for tanks and other supplies for war. The subsidiary shipbuilding yard in Trenton made the first steel steamers in Nova Scotia.
The steel plant peaked during World War I, at 2,100 men. A merger of Scotia Steel with the large Dominion concern occurred in 1920 to form the British Empire Steel and Coal Corporation, commonly called Besco. Local control of the local steel interests and the subsidiary Acadia Coal Company was lost. Besco control resulted in a dismantling of the cogging mill in Trenton and the steel plant in Sydney Mines was abandoned. There followed years of operation without significant re-investment in equipment.
In 1928, the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, Dosco, was incorporated specifically to take over Besco. By this time, Besco was debt ridden and drained by its promoters. The Trenton plants, like those in industrial Cape Breton were controlled from Montreal. Local officials were to do as they were told. Re-organization of the various companies resulted in all being subsidiaries either directly or indirectly of Dosco.
In the late 1930's, the car plant Eastern Car Company, was taken over by the federal government but repurchased by the company after the war. In 1943, the nut and bolt department was closed as was the rolling mill, putting 540 men out of work. During World War II, components of artillery pieces were produced in the gun shop and 2 million artillery shells were produced.
After World War II, the continent needed new railway rolling stock and a new mechanical manipulator was installed in the axle forge replacing human brawn. During the peak year, 65 thousand axles were forged. On a personal note, my grandfather worked 50 years in the axle forge completing his 50 years in 1957. I was working as a summer student in the testing lab and was present when the plant ceased production on a hot July afternoon for a ceremony to honour him for his 50 years of service. He retired a few months later.
In the 1950's, a 7,000 ton forging press, costing $3.6 million, with auxiliary furnaces and machine shop equipment was installed. This was the largest press in North America for many years. The ingots were produced in Sydney and shipped hot by insulated rail car. Ingots as large as 75 tons were handled in this way. This process was recognized by a full page colour photograph in Life Magazine. The end products were shafts for naval destroyers. The forging of an ingot, which was not allowed to cool after pouring, made a superior product and was a major world innovation.
In 1957, the A.V. Roe Company, a subsidiary of Hawker-Siddeley, acquired control of Dosco. The parent company, in 1962, changed its name from A.V. Roe Canada Ltd. to Hawker-Siddeley Canada Ltd. In 1968, Hawker-Siddeley withdrew from its steelmaking operation in Sydney and as well from its coal mining operations in Cape Breton and on the mainland. Thus beginning the long saga of Sysco with its most recent chapter beginning with the agreement of the province with Minmetals to a joint venture, prior to outright purchase.
The Trenton Works continue to be supplied with raw materials from the Sydney steel plant, now sponsored by the Nova Scotia Government. Growth came to the Trenton steel industry with local ownership and management and decline came with foreign ownership and absentee management. Many local businesses contributed to the early success of the local steel industry. William Knoll, Senior, general manager from 1942 to 1954, was noted for aggressive leadership in a time of an expanding economy.
Part of the Trenton complex, the Eastern Car Company, which does the rail car manufacturing, was a dream of Thomas Cantley. The company incorporated in 1912, capitalized at $3 million. The Four Shop Railway Car Construction factory was built in 18 months and the first box car rolled off the assembly line in 1913.
Mr. Alf Mason, a long-time resident of Trenton, was involved in the construction of the plant in 1912-1913 and later became a long-term employee. Mr. Mason, who still resides with his wife in his own home in Trenton, recently celebrated his 100th birthday and is the last living link with the birth of the Eastern Car Company. Mr. Mason reports that he helped dig the foundation for the large stack and participated in building the outer wall next to the stack.
The demand was so great that production of rolling stock began before the building was even completed. Mr. Mason was, over the years, an employee of the Steel Works and Eastern Car, retiring in May of 1964, 52 years after he first began with the company.
The Eastern Car Company has provided rolling stock to Russia, France, Argentina, Belgium, Indonesia and the North American market. At peak capacity the car plant employed 1,200 men, producing freight cars and cars for specific purposes.
In 1941, Trenton Industries was formed. It produced naval guns for the war effort, employing 600 men and, in the post-war years, produced the Dosco continuous furnace. At the end of the war, the plant still was the largest producer of heavy forgings in Canada.
During the 1980's, the fortunes at Hawker-Siddeley were at a low ebb. Trenton was vying for CN car orders with National Steel Car of Hamilton. As CN was publicly owned, the National Steel Car felt it deserved one-half of the orders for CN rolling stock.
In 1984, one half of a large order won by Trenton Works was ordered by the government to be produced by National Steel Car, a political decision. The unfairness of the situation was underlined by the fact that CP had a company relationship with National Steel Car and National Steel Car got all CP's business.
In the late 1980's the Hawker-Siddeley President from London and the Chief Executive Officer from Montreal came to Trenton and stated they would "bulldoze the plant into the ground and turn the area into an industrial park." This industry, like Sydney Steel and Devco in Cape Breton, is a symbolic part of life for Pictonians that has been eroded by absentee ownership and politics. Were it not for the intervention of the federal and provincial governments in 1988, there would be no Trenton Works today. The assistance in 1988 took the form of early retirement for elderly workers, and capital over the next several years for modernization was provided and there was an attempt to arrange local ownership. The reduction in the average age of the work force allowed Lavalin to purchase the plant in 1988. The federal government provided two-thirds of the early retirement package and, as well, the money for modernization. The last $12.4 million was paid to the Nova Scotia Government in February 1995, the end of the agreement.
In 1988, the provincial government provided one-third of the early retirement package and the Town of Trenton, with that downsizing, lost a valuable source of tax income. Some 200 workers were involved in the so-called SORP Program. The Mayor and Council of Trenton were part of the negotiating process and part of the solution. The loss of the tax base guaranteed that Trenton would spend the next years on emergency funding awaiting the tax income from the biggest employer in the town, the Nova Scotia Power Corporation. This action in 1988 by the federal and provincial governments, with cooperation of the work force and the Town of Trenton provided the true salvation for Trenton Works.
When Lavalin went bankrupt in 1991, the Urban Transport Development Corporation of Toronto became the owner, and when the UTDC company was placed in receivership, the Ontario Government, as the main creditor, obtained control of the plant but had no interest in operating the plant as it was a rival of their National Steel Car in Hamilton. The Nova Scotia Government again stepped in, expressing confidence in the local work force and local management, and underwrote the operating loan at the Royal Bank, and a search for a new owner began.
The operating line of credit guaranteed by the Cameron Government allowed the company to bid on and complete contracts. In 1991, a 30 year plant veteran, Mr. John Fitzpatrick, became president and this aggressive local management, with a cooperative and skilled work force sponsored by the Nova Scotia Government, partnered to create the success to follow. The show of faith was not without some trepidation, as the plant in the 1980's was losing some $9 million a year.
In 1994, the Ontario Government turned ownership over to the Nova Scotia Government. The company's shares were placed in a holding company led by Mr. Earl Joudry and Mr. Gerald Regan. Mr. Regan and others in the town played a leadership role in the revitalization since 1991. Management and the labour force formed a powerful alliance, not without much pain on both sides, which gradually filled the order book in the 1990's, paving the way for a sale of the plant back into private hands. Diversification into filling military contracts helped the process and included the production of automatic mobile refuelers and wheeled military water carriers.
While this program did not pay immediate dividends, it allowed the plant to survive and open the door for the recent sale of the majority interest in the plant to the Greenbrier Companies of Portland, Oregon. This new ownership opens the door for increased business in the United States and provides financial stability to the plant. As well, Trenton Works Limited will be licensed to build certain Gunderson designs for Canada. Diversification of rail car manufacture allowed the plant to provide double-stack rail cars for the local container market. Improvement in rail car orders will require a second track to be set up, and employment over the next two months will be over 1,000. At present, the Pictou Campus of the Community College is upgrading the training of over 200 welders and many will be hired by Trenton Works.
The success today of Trenton Works is due to the confidence of government in the work force at Trenton and the current management. Ongoing support by the Nova Scotia Government and the federal government allowed survival in 1988. The support of the Cameron Government in 1991, in underwriting the operating loan for the company, without an interested owner, was a key decision.
[1:45 p.m.]
The honourable member for Cumberland North, while Minister for the Economic Renewal Agency, is to be congratulated for his support of Trenton Works. That minister, in August 1993, supported Trenton Works and continued the program of operational loan guarantees begun by the Cameron Government. The minister participated in that decision when the current government made the decision as to whether or not they were going to continue sponsorship of the company. They did continue to guarantee the operating credit in the manner begun by the previous administration. This decision to continue was paramount to the eventual sale of the plant.
The outlook today at Trenton is bright. In January the open die forge shop was the first in Canada to be awarded the ISO 9002 registration from the Quality Management Institute. This is a tribute to their labour force. The company has prospered since 1991 under the new management, with sales in 1994 of $54 million and with anticipated sales in 1995 of over $100 million. The company is bidding on Defence Department work, having previously completed orders, and recently received the largest rail order in the history of the plant.
In 1988, when the federal and provincial governments stepped in to save the operation, there were 100 persons working. At present the plant has enough orders to guarantee full employment into the middle of 1996 and, as I previously stated, in the next two months the work force will reach 1,000. The faith of government in Trenton Works since 1988 is providing the rewards northern Nova Scotians are receiving today from the success at Trenton Works.
Madam Speaker, in concluding my remarks in my Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, I again emphasize to the government that we have an economy based on industry. It is an economy that in bad economic times is extremely fragile. Over the last number of years, however, we have diversified and there is strength in diversification. But we continue to require the interest of government, to ensure that our industries continue to prosper.
You have supported Trenton Works and, on behalf of Pictonians, I thank you for that. But bear in mind that we need your continued support and I will be looking for it in the days and weeks and months to come. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable member for Pictou East.
MR. WAYNE FRASER: Madam Speaker, it is with great honour that I stand before you and members of this Chamber here today to respond to the Speech from the Throne. First of all I would like to thank our Lieutenant Governor, His Honour James Kinley, for presenting our government's agenda to the people of Nova Scotia.
I would like to begin by thanking the constituents of Pictou East for their support shown to me over the last year and the support shown to my government. Madam Speaker, during the past year many good news announcements indicate a strong and successful future for all residents of Pictou East and Pictou County. There have been a range of positive projects impacting on our local economy, from the funding arrangements for the Plymouth Bridge to the new ownership of the Trenton Works facilities.
The Plymouth Bridge completion means that traffic flow will be returned to normal levels and residents will gain easier access to Stellarton and surrounding areas. I would like to commend our Minister of Transportation, Madam Speaker, for his support of this project. The replacement of the Plymouth Bridge was under review for many years and a degree of cooperation was required between all levels of government. I am pleased to be part of the government that was finally able to bring this to a successful conclusion.
Trenton Works, Madam Speaker, continues to be a strong, viable employer in our economy. I applaud the efforts of our former Minister for the Economic Renewal Agency, Ross Bragg, for taking a leadership role in the support and sale of Trenton Works. Mr. Bragg and Mr. Brown were instrumental in the successful purchase of Trenton Works by the Greenbrier Companies and I applaud both gentlemen.
I also extend congratulations to the new owner, the Greenbrier Companies, for their investment in the people, our local communities and the Province of Nova Scotia. Many of my constituents, Madam Speaker, who were formerly unemployed are now gainfully employed at Trenton Works. I am proud of this government's involvement in assisting Trenton Works with the implementation of a new training program, and I applaud the Minister of Education, John MacEachern, for his support in upgrading our local welders and thus maximizing local employment at that plant. This initiative will also have long-lasting impact by upgrading our local work force skills.
Madam Speaker, I would like to compliment the management and the employees of Trenton Works; already there are over $100 million worth of orders on that company's books. This will have a positive impact throughout Pictou County, as a result of the many jobs and spinoff opportunities it will create.
The Department of Natural Resources provided funding to improve the facilities at Melmerby, Powells Point and Lighthouse Beach. The funding, Madam Speaker, is gratefully appreciated at Melmerby, for the construction of a boardwalk, storm damage repairs and dune restoration. At Powells Point, new change rooms have been built and funding for Lighthouse Beach went toward beach management. In addition, these projects provided a number of jobs for Pictou County residents.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Plymouth Mine Site Reutilization Committee for recommending the feasibility study on the Westray site. The committee will determine the long-term viability of establishing a world-class facility at this site. Again, Madam Speaker, the potential for more jobs in Pictou East and Pictou County.
In the last year, Madam Speaker, Pictou County residents benefitted from several Canada-Nova Scotia infrastructure projects. One of them included the Museum of Industry, to celebrate one important aspect of Nova Scotia's proud heritage. The establishment of the museum was through the cooperative efforts of all three levels of government and the Friends of the Museum. I would like to say a sincere thank you to our federal representative, Roseanne Skoke, for her steadfast support of this project. The Government of Nova Scotia and the Minister of Education also recognized that the Museum of Industry represented an enormous stimulus to the economy, employment and tourism industry throughout Pictou County and, indeed, Nova Scotia.
Madam Speaker, our government has worked hard to create jobs, both locally and across the province. Through such initiatives as the local housing projects, funding was directed towards repairing and upgrading many family and senior units in the county through the Pictou Regional Housing Authority. Not only did this project put people back to work, but it has stimulated the economy by the purchasing of materials locally. The Department of Housing and Consumer Affairs created 13 jobs at the Pictou Regional Housing Authority through the Winter Works Program and, although these jobs were short term, they provided much-needed relief during the winter months. This employment boosted the local economy, while enhancing the self-esteem of both the people working, and those living in our public housing.
Madam Speaker, 1994 was a turning point in the province and in the riding of Pictou East. We can see some of the ways our government is working to help renew Nova Scotia's economy: First, by creating a stable fiscal environment for investors; and secondly, we are working with local businesses to help them improve. Last year, in 1994, Nova Scotia's job gross was the third highest in Canada. At 3.2 per cent, our year over year increase was well above the national average of 2.1 per cent. At 12.3 per cent seasonally adjusted, Nova Scotia's unemployment rate is currently the lowest in Atlantic Canada. And, Madam Speaker, now the best part. In the northeastern region, in my region, the regional unemployment rate has dropped significantly, from 16.9 per cent in February 1994, to 12.8 per cent in February 1995. That is a 40 per cent drop in one year and I am extremely proud of my government's record on that.
Madam Speaker, together, this government with the people of Pictou East are making a difference. The people who live in my riding are hard-working, industrious people who are optimistic about the future of this province. With Premier John Savage and the people of Pictou East, I believe that together we will create a more confident government, economy, and future for all Nova Scotians. And that is why, Madam Speaker, I will be voting in favour of the Throne Speech. Thank you.
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable member for Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage.
MR. DENNIS RICHARDS: If I may, I would like to make an introduction. Madam Speaker, seated in the Speaker's Gallery today are two members from Halifax County Council, Councillor Rankin and Councillor Giffin and I wonder if the House would extend to them the usual warm welcome. (Applause)
MADAM SPEAKER: Are there further speakers on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne?
The honourable member for Halifax Atlantic.
MR. ROBERT CHISHOLM: I would like to suggest now that, given the lateness of the hour, we adjourn the debate and reconvene on Monday.
MADAM SPEAKER: The motion is that the debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne be adjourned.
The motion is carried.
The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, I wonder, could we revert to the order of business Tabling Reports, Regulations and Other Papers.
TABLING REPORTS, REGULATIONS AND OTHER PAPERS
MADAM SPEAKER: The honourable Minister of Finance.
HON. BERNARD BOUDREAU: Madam Speaker, in accordance with the provisions of the Provincial Finance Act, I beg leave to table the Supplement to the Public Accounts.
MADAM SPEAKER: The Supplement is tabled.
The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. RICHARD MANN: Madam Speaker, I would advise that we will be sitting on Monday from 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. and the order of business, following the daily routine, will be the resumption of the adjourned debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.
I move we adjourn until 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
MADAM SPEAKER: The motion is carried.
We stand adjourned until 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
[The House rose at 1:58 p.m.]
