| TABLE OF CONTENTS | PAGE | ||||
| STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS: | |||||
| Educ.: Technology - Investment ($62 million), Hon. R. Harrison | 463 | ||||
| TABLING REPORTS, REGULATIONS AND OTHER PAPERS: | |||||
| Anl. Rept. of the Department of Community Services, Hon. F. Cosman | 466 | ||||
| GOVERNMENT NOTICES OF MOTION: | |||||
| Res. 260, Health: World No Tobacco Day (31/05/98) - Recognize, | |||||
| Hon. J. Smith | 466 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 467 | ||||
| NOTICES OF MOTION: | |||||
| Res. 261, Nat. Res. - NSRL: Board - Steve Parker Remove, Mr. J. Holm | 467 | ||||
| Res. 262, Health - Care: Deterioration - Respond, Dr. J. Hamm | 468 | ||||
| Res. 263, Educ. - Schools Construction: P3 Briefing - Min. Attend, | |||||
| Ms. E. O'Connell | 468 | ||||
| Res. 264, Commun. Serv. - Child Poverty: Social Investment | |||||
| (Gov't. [Can.]) - Encourage, Ms. Helen MacDonald | 470 | ||||
| Res. 265, NDP (N.S.) - Ramblings: Irresponsible - Reject, | |||||
| Hon. R. MacKinnon | 470 | ||||
| Res. 266, Health - Min.: Medical Education Course - Enrol, | |||||
| Mr. B. Taylor | 471 | ||||
| Res. 267, Justice - Crown Prosecutors: Dispute - Replacement Detail, | |||||
| Mr. Kevin Deveaux | 471 | ||||
| Res. 268, Wexford (Ireland) Bicentenary Commemoration (Comoradh '98): | |||||
| Greetings - Send, Mr. Charles MacDonald | 472 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 473 | ||||
| Res. 269, Health - Colchester Reg. Hosp.: Beds Shortage - Censure, | |||||
| Mr. J. Muir | 473 | ||||
| Res. 270, Dr. Rev. Donald Fairfax: Retirement - Congrats., Ms. Y. Atwell | 474 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 474 | ||||
| Res. 271, NDP (N.S.) - Gov't. Future: Coal Policy - New Devise, | |||||
| Mr. P. MacEwan | 474 | ||||
| Res. 272, Housing & Mun. Affs. - Mun.: Pty. Info. Charge - Eliminate, | |||||
| Mr. B. Taylor | 475 | ||||
| Res. 273, Environ. - Spray Progs.: Disputes - Mediation, Mr. D. Chard | 476 | ||||
| Res. 274, Leader of Opposition - Premier-Media Interview (28/05/98) | |||||
| Interruption: Behaviour - Condemn, Hon. R. MacKinnon | 476 | ||||
| Res. 275, Health/Commun. Serv./Educ. - Autism Soc.: Issues (07/05/98) - | |||||
| Respond, Mr. G. Moody | 477 | ||||
| Res. 276, Health - Yarmouth: Physician Shortage - Address, | |||||
| Mr. John Deveau | 478 | ||||
| Res. 277, Health - Physician Replacement Action: Real Myth - Recognize, | |||||
| Dr. J. Hamm | 478 | ||||
| Res. 278, Educ. - Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea: | |||||
| School Trips (Ont. & Que.) - Congrats., Mr. W. Estabrooks | 479 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 479 | ||||
| Res. 279, Health - Seniors Outreach Prog. (Valley View Villa-Pictou East): | |||||
| Student Placement - Arrange, Mr. J. DeWolfe | 480 | ||||
| Res. 280, Health - Care: Ills - PR Irresolution, Ms. Maureen MacDonald | 480 | ||||
| Res. 281, Culture - Andrew Cochran [Theodore Tugboat (TV Show)]: | |||||
| Success - Congrats., Mr. G. Archibald | 481 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 482 | ||||
| Res. 282, Fin. (Can.) - Bank Mergers: Effect (N.S.) - Evidence Marshal, | |||||
| Mr. H. Epstein | 482 | ||||
| Res. 283, Econ. Dev. & Tourism: Cornwallis Park Dev. Agency | |||||
| Dedication - Congrats., Mr. G. Balser | 483 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 483 | ||||
| Res. 284, Fish. - DDS Exports (West Pubnico): Euro Mission - | |||||
| Success Extend, Hon. K. Colwell | 483 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 484 | ||||
| Res. 285, Transport (Can.) - Bill C-9 (Sec. 25): Delay - Urge, | |||||
| Mr. D. Dexter | 484 | ||||
| Res. 286, Educ. - Porters Lake School Lease: Aud. Gen. Examine - | |||||
| Request, Mr. E. Fage | 485 | ||||
| Res. 287, NDP (N.S.) - Gov't. Future: Economy (N.S.) - Change Explain, | |||||
| Mr. P. MacEwan | 486 | ||||
| Res. 288, Housing & Mun. Affs./Lbr. - Metro Transit: Strike - Resolve, | |||||
| Mr. J. Pye | 486 | ||||
| Res. 289, Educ. - Cobequid Educ. Centre: Reach for the Top Team (Natl.) - | |||||
| Success Wish, Mr. J. Muir | 487 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 488 | ||||
| Res. 290, Customs House Inn (Pictou) - Access Awareness Week: | |||||
| Hour Glass Action Award - Congrats., Mr. C. Parker | 488 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 489 | ||||
| Res. 291, Tim Hortons Camp (Tatamagouche) - Operators/Customers: | |||||
| Contribution - Acknowledge, Mr. J. DeWolfe | 489 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 489 | ||||
| Res. 292, Educ. - Lantz School: Construction (15/06/98) - Urge, | |||||
| Mr. J. MacDonell | 489 | ||||
| Res. 293, Educ.: Dal. Law School (Emil Gumpert Award) - Congrats., | |||||
| Mr. E. Fage | 490 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 491 | ||||
| Res. 294, Housing & Mun. Affs.: Co-op Housing Assoc. - Min. Meet, | |||||
| Ms. R. Godin | 491 | ||||
| Res. 295, Transport. & Pub. Wks. - Wentworth Valley | |||||
| (Hwy. No. 104 Exits): Signage (Toll Free) - Consult, Mr. M. Scott | 491 | ||||
| Res. 296, Mary Pittman (Joe Howe Manor): Birthday (100th) - Congrats., | |||||
| Mr. P. Delefes | 492 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 493 | ||||
| Res. 297, Nat. Res. - NSRL: Chairman (Joe MacMullen) - | |||||
| Decision (Post-Election), Mr. J. Holm | 493 | ||||
| Res. 298, Transport. & Pub. Wks.: Lun. Co. (Woodstock Rd.) - Improve, | |||||
| Mr. M. Baker | 493 | ||||
| Res. 299, Educ. - School Libraries: Neglect - Deplore, Mr. D. Chard | 494 | ||||
| Res. 300, Transport (Can.) - Bill C-9: Changes - Min. | |||||
| [Transport. & Pub. Wks. (N.S.)] Demand, Dr. H. Bitter-Suermann | 494 | ||||
| Res. 301, Russel Metals (Lakeside, HRM): Excellence in Workplace | |||||
| Literacy Award (Natl.) - Congrats., Mr. W. Estabrooks | 495 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 496 | ||||
| Res. 302, Lbr. - Michelin Bill (1979): Principles - Endorse, Mr. M. Baker | 496 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 497 | ||||
| Res. 303, Nat. Res. - Sable Gas: NSRL Share - Funding Reveal, | |||||
| Mr. G. Archibald | 497 | ||||
| Res. 304, Educ. - Cole Harbour HS: Junior Achievement Co. - | |||||
| Success Congrats., Mr. D. Dexter | 497 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 498 | ||||
| Res. 305, Commun. Serv. - Emergency Need: Funding - | |||||
| Realistic Ensure, Mr. G. Balser | 498 | ||||
| Res. 306, Environ.: Sackville Rivers Assoc. (Anniv. 15th) - Congrats., | |||||
| Ms. R. Godin | 498 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 499 | ||||
| Res. 307, Kenny Campbell (Oxford): Medal of Bravery (Gov. Gen.) - | |||||
| Congrats., Mr. M. Scott | 499 | ||||
| Vote - Affirmative | 500 | ||||
| GOVERNMENT BUSINESS: | |||||
| GOVERNMENT MOTIONS: | |||||
| ADDRESS IN REPLY: | |||||
| Mr. D. Chard | 501 | ||||
| Mr. G. Archibald | 507 | ||||
| Mr. P. Delefes | 525 | ||||
| Adjourned debate | 532 | ||||
| ADJOURNMENT, House rose to meet again on Mon., June 1st at 7:00 p.m. | 533 | ||||
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. We will commence with the daily routine.
PRESENTING AND READING PETITIONS
PRESENTING REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
TABLING REPORTS, REGULATIONS AND OTHER PAPERS
STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Minister of Education. (Applause)
HON. ROBERT HARRISON: Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and excitement that I rise to share with the House an historic announcement made this morning by Premier MacLellan, Industry Minister John Manley and Senator Graham at Dalhousie. More than 150 educators, business leaders, university and community leaders joined the Premier, Minister Manley and Minister MacDonald as they announced an unprecedented investment in our province and in our people.
Let me share the details with all members of this House. We are investing more than $62 million in technology to benefit all corners of Nova Scotia. (Applause) This means, Mr. Speaker, that more than 4,000 computers for students from Cape Breton to Yarmouth and Internet and local area networks connecting classrooms and communities right across this province and thereby connecting them to the world and research links and development projects at universities and community colleges that position Nova Scotia as a stand-out province in the information economy.
This is about, Mr. Speaker, however, more than computers and hardware. This is about a world of opportunities for learners of all ages and for communities of all sizes. As clearly outlined in this year's Throne Speech, this government is committed to education for our students and when they finish school, we are committed to jobs for them here at home.
I met a dynamic young Nova Scotian this morning, just one Nova Scotian who, by combining innovation, love of community and the opportunities presented by technology - this man, John Ouellette, is making a difference for himself and for his community.
I would like to finish this ministerial statement with his words, "This Information Economy Initiative announcement is good news for communities in Nova Scotia.". He goes on to say, "It is affirmation of the tremendous work that has been done by committed leaders and volunteers bringing the knowledge economy home to citizens of this province. We are introducing businesses to electronic commerce, providing work opportunities for women displaced from the fishery and for people like myself who want to stay and work in our own communities.".
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ouellette's words say it all. Thank you. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Halifax Fairview.
MS. EILEEN O'CONNELL: Mr. Speaker, I did have the pleasure of attending the announcement this morning that was jointly given by the provincial government and Mr. Manley on behalf of the federal government.
You would have to be living on another planet, Mr. Speaker, not to recognize the value of this announcement to, particularly, industry in Nova Scotia, but possibly also to schools. There are, I think, qualifications that must be considered. The general impression this morning was given, and the minister even made a joke about it when he said that I had accused him in the House of being the Minister of Economic Development, well, this was certainly clear this morning when it was clear that there was a large business component in the schools, not just business but community economic development too.
However, I am not saying and we are not saying that that may not be a good thing, but I just want to point out the potential in the future and the need for careful monitoring of an initiative like this when it comes to schools, because the question rises since computers don't learn and computers don't teach, there is a potential in this whole exercise, Mr. Speaker, for the wrong engine to drive the train when it comes to education. Because this was an announcement about industry, it was an announcement about community economic development, it was an announcement about schools but my doubt, and I hope it is forestalled in the future, is about whether or not this was about education. Thank you very much. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Cumberland North.
MR. ERNEST FAGE: Mr. Speaker, this morning's announcement I think is a good news announcement. I don't think anybody can deny this isn't a good news announcement. (Applause) I thank the government benches for applauding my remarks, but I do have some reserves and some qualifiers to put on those remarks before they get carried away. (Laughter) (Interruptions)
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. FAGE: The deployment of technology in Nova Scotia, there is no question, it's of benefit to every rural community. (Applause) The additional 100 community CAP sites are going to be welcome news to a lot of communities. (Applause) But the problem, Mr. Speaker, is there are more than 100 rural communities in Nova Scotia; $6.8 million out of $62 million is too little.
Mr. Speaker, if this government is concerned with economic development in rural Nova Scotia, is concerned about keeping communities there, they would put that same type of technology investment into every school. When I tour schools across this province and when I tour communities, I am into many situations where I see a technology-enriched school where those students graduate, move on to the next level and there isn't anything there for them. Four computers where before four students had access to one computer. Now this is a good start, but it's time that this moves forward with concise action rather than political pandering. Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party on an introduction.
DR. JOHN HAMM: Mr. Speaker, I would draw the attention of members of the House to guests in the Speaker's Gallery. Those guests are Dr. Roy Stewart of Pointe-Claire, Quebec and Mrs. Sheila Burke of Kirkland, Quebec representing Canada Indivisible, a nationally incorporated, non-profit organization working to keep our country united. I would ask our guests to stand and receive the greeting of the House. (Standing Ovation)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Minister of Economic Development and Tourism.
HON. MANNING MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, could you revert to the order of business, Tabling Reports, Regulations and Other Papers for a moment? You missed the Minister of Community Services who wanted to table a report.
MR. 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.
TABLING REPORTS, REGULATIONS AND OTHER PAPERS
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Minister of Community Services.
HON. FRANCENE COSMAN: Mr. Speaker, I beg leave to table the Annual Report of the Department of Community Services for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1996.
MR. SPEAKER: The report is tabled.
GOVERNMENT NOTICES OF MOTION
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Minister of Health.
HON. JAMES SMITH: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Sunday, May 31st is World No Tobacco Day and tobacco kills nearly 10,000 people every day, worldwide, including 1,400 Nova Scotians annually; and
Whereas World No Tobacco Day is a deadline for high schools to complete their submission for the Nova Scotia Department of Health's Tobacco Control Unit and regional health board, public health services provincial smoke-free mural campaign; and
Whereas many other health organizations, including Smoke-Free Nova Scotia, are working to reduce tobacco use among Nova Scotians of all ages as well as to generate widespread awareness of the serious heath hazards related to smoking and second-hand smoke;
Therefore be it resolved that this House recognize May 31st as World No Tobacco Day and encourage and support Nova Scotians of all ages to stop smoking and live a healthier lifestyle.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
NOTICES OF MOTION
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Sackville-Cobequid.
MR. JOHN HOLM: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Corporate Communications has been engaged to represent the Irving interests in New Brunswick who compete with Nova Scotia for the purchase of natural gas and its use to gain an economic advantage; and
Whereas Nova Scotia's participation in the Sable Offshore Energy Project, through Nova Scotia Resources Limited, is supposed to give our province a seat at the table in gaining best advantage from the resources off our coasts; and
Whereas Steve Parker, President of Corporate Communications, has been appointed to the NSRL board despite his involvement with competing interests;
Therefore be it resolved that this House urges the Premier to make one more change to the NSRL board by removing Steve Parker in view of the apparent conflict of interest, and urges that board members be chosen both for their knowledge of the industry and their unhindered dedication to Nova Scotians' interests.
[11:15 p.m.]
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
DR. JOHN HAMM: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas now that the campaign is over, the Liberals have retreated into their familiar position of defending their health reforms with a claim that our health care system is working fine; and
Whereas despite the Premier's March 4th statement that the Liberals have listened and would respond to concerns over the current state of health care in Nova Scotia, his Minister of Health is once again saying, "The myth of the deterioration of Nova Scotia's health care system is a myth,"; and
Whereas yesterday in this House the minister shrugged off concerns about the deteriorating state of health care in Nova Scotia by referring to problems that exist in other parts of the county;
Therefore be it resolved that the Premier apologize to the people of Nova Scotia for his statements that his government has listened and would respond to their concerns over the deteriorating state of health care and, further, that he advise his Minister of Health to focus on what is happening here in Nova Scotia as opposed to looking to other parts of the country in an effort to excuse the sorry mess his government created here at home.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Halifax Fairview.
MS. EILEEN O'CONNELL: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas during the March 5th Leaders's debate the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party urged the Premier to drop P3 school financing because it means loss of public control over our schools; and
Whereas the Education Minister yesterday defended the loss of the school boards' ability to obtain the best computers at the best price and, thereby, put more resources into each classroom; and
Whereas the superintendent of the Halifax Regional School Board described a P3 agreement negotiated by this government as one that was not acceptable in the long term;
Therefore be it resolved that the Education Minister attend next week's P3 briefing with facts, rather than seven seconds of silence to answer the questions raised by the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in the March Leaders' debate.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Chester-St. Margaret's.
DR. HINRICH BITTER-SUERMANN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas in post-Communist Russia, a breast biopsy can be secured on the black market by bartering a dozen fresh, free-range-chicken farm eggs for a car battery, and then for fox fur matching the colour of the doctor's wife's wig; and
Whereas the Premier of Nova Scotia on May 28th, 1998, pleaded in the House with the member for Chester-St. Margaret's not to dwell on the failures of health care in rural Nova Scotia, but rather on success stories; and
Whereas the woman who had been denied a biopsy of a suspicious lump in her breast had asked the member for Chester-St. Margaret's for help, in sheer desperation, quite unaware of the Premier's sensitivity to bad health care news from the deep woods of rural Nova Scotia;
Therefore be it resolved that good news is around the corner inasmuch as after 19 unsuccessful long-distance phone calls by the woman's family doctor, but only one phone call from her MLA, an appointment date for a biopsy has now been set for June 5th, eight weeks after the diagnosis . . .
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. The notice of motion is much too long. If you can come up with a Reader's Digest version, we will take it back in again.
The honourable member for Cape Breton The Lakes.
MS. HELEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas an unanimous resolution passed by the House of Commons on November 24th, 1989, sought "to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000"; and
Whereas a non-partisan coalition of 25 national partners, including the Canadian Teachers Federation and across Canada network of 37 communities and provincial partners, recently released the Campaign 2000 Report Card; and
Whereas this Campaign 2000 Report Card reports that since 1989 the number of poor children has jumped by 58 per cent, 0.5 million more poor children;
Therefore be it resolved that this House encourage the federal government to make the social investments necessary to ensure that no children live in poverty.
I request waiver, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
I hear several Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable Minister of Labour.
HON. RUSSELL MACKINNON: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Leader of the New Democratic Party has publicly stated that he would immediately build six new schools in the province, regardless of how they would be funded; and
Whereas such a statement is nothing short of juvenile vacillation to his election commitment to a balanced budget and being fiscally responsible; and
Whereas recent statements regarding school construction by the member for Halifax Fairview and the Leader of the New Democratic Party clearly demonstrate a lack of substance on matters of economics and social policy.
Therefore be it resolved that this House on behalf of all Nova Scotians reject irresponsible, politically-motivated ramblings that do not even meet minimum socialist standards.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
MR. BROOKE TAYLOR: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas a patient in the Stewiacke Valley recently was diagnosed with cancer in his right kidney but was denied removal of the same for 15 days; and
Whereas the honourable Minister of Health when pressed on the quite unacceptable delay of surgery, which is curative only if done expeditiously, proclaimed in the House of Assembly on May 28, 1998, that the delay was not necessarily indicative of a flaw in the health care system but rather may reflect a lack of available OR time; and
Whereas the honourable Minister of Health may not know that OR time availability is an essential ingredient of efficient surgery;
Therefore be it resolved that the enrolment in continuous medical education courses at Dalhousie University is tax deductible and may aid the honourable Minister of Health in his efforts to get a firmer grip on the intricacies of tertiary medical care in Nova Scotia which he pretends to direct with help from Mr. Keating, Chairman of the Board of the QE II.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled but it is also excessively long.
The honourable member for Cole Harbour-Eastern Passage.
MR. KEVIN DEVEAUX: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas news reports of the law firms lined up without public tender to be ready to help replace striking prosecutors include Cox Downie, firm of Liberal campaign chair Fred Crooks; and
Whereas Boyne Clarke, firm of former Liberal Party President John Young, and Sampson McDougall, firm of Liberal Party Treasurer Robert Sampson, were also lined up; and
Whereas it is heartening to learn that the Liberals are so dedicated to private sector solutions that law firms with solid Liberal connections stood ready to provide strike-breaking lawyers;
Therefore be it resolved that this House urges the Minister of Justice to make a statement explaining exactly how the firms chosen for this dubious honour were chosen and how firms willing to undertake this work who lacked any prominent Liberal partners were treated.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There is a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I hear several Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Inverness.
MR. CHARLES MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the people of Nova Scotia are aware of the many ethnic groups that have created the proud heritage of this province; and
Whereas in the two decades following the United Irish Rising of 1798, refugees came to Nova Scotia making significant political, religious, social and economic contributions to our province through their own lives and through the lives of their many descendants; and
Whereas this year throughout Ireland, and in particular Wexford, celebrations are recognizing the 200th Anniversary of these events;
Therefore be it resolved that the Province of Nova Scotia send formal greetings to the Wexford Bicentenary Commemoration as a tribute to the participants and to the many emigrants who left Ireland and came to Nova Scotia.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There is a request for waiver of notice.
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 Truro-Bible Hill.
MR. JAMES MUIR: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Colchester Regional Hospital too frequently must turn away critically ill patients because of a lack of beds; and
Whereas too many patients who are admitted must spend up to 48 hours in a holding area before a bed becomes available; and
Whereas the Minister of Health refuses to take any action to remedy this deplorable situation;
Therefore be it resolved that this House censure the Minister of Health and the Liberal Government for their callous and uncaring attitude about the health needs of those served by the Colchester Regional Hospital.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: I hear several Noes.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Preston.
MS. YVONNE ATWELL: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Dr. Rev. Donald Fairfax had served 50 years in his community as a dedicated educator, religious leader and classical singer; and
Whereas Dr. Rev. Donald Fairfax received the Governor General's Commemorative Medal on the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada; and
Whereas Dr. Rev. Fairfax received an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity at the October 14, 1955 fall convocation exercise at Acadia University;
Therefore be it resolved that this House offer congratulations to Dr. Rev. Fairfax on his retirement.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried. (Applause)
The honourable member for Cape Breton Nova.
MR. PAUL MACEWAN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the honourable member for Halifax Chebucto has had some pronouncements to make on coal mining which are of interest to the Cape Breton coal miners and communities dependent on coal mining for their existence; and
Whereas the NDP Finance Critic and second-in-command, within the proposed unelected NDP Government, states that it is not necessary to rely heavily on coal mining for the generation of electricity in Nova Scotia, in his submission to the Westray Inquiry on Page 9; and
Whereas in his newsletter of 1996, The Environmental Year in Review in Nova Scotia, the honourable member called for a provincial scheme to compensate coal miners displaced by his proposals by moving them into other energy-related work such as putting up and servicing windmills; (Interruptions)
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. Order, please!
MR. MACEWAN: Therefore be it resolved that before the NDP seeks to form an unelected and unaccountable Government of Nova Scotia, they should first be challenged to devise a coal policy more in keeping with the wishes and needs of the people who depend on the coal industry for economic survival.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
MR. BROOKE TAYLOR: I wonder if I might make an introduction. Mr. Speaker, through you and to all members of the House, in your gallery, I would like to introduce Sue MacIntosh and Patricia Grant who are representatives of the Nova Scotia Dental Hygienists Association, and of course an individual who is no stranger to most of us around the House, the President of the Nova Scotia Denturists Society, Mr. Ken Edwards. I wonder if the guests would stand and receive our usual warm applause. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
MR. BROOKE TAYLOR: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas municipalities are charged $75 a month, or $900 a year plus an hourly rate of $15 for each hour after the first five, by this Liberal Government for on-line services regarding property information; and
Whereas the average municipality will not be able to subscribe to the on-line service because $900, plus the hourly rate, is an enormous amount of money for municipal units to pay; and
Whereas the Liberal Government should be ashamed for charging municipalities, who are their partners in land information business, for service that is essential in providing necessary and accurate information about housing and land;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs immediately look into eliminating this charge to the municipalities which this Liberal Government has become famous for.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Dartmouth South.
MR. DONALD CHARD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Environment Act provides for mediation to resolve disputes over environmental issues; and
Whereas there is considerable concern about the health and environmental impacts of large-scale spray programs;
Therefore be it resolved that efforts be made to resolve the concerns of woodlot owners, environmentalists and others, by bringing the various parties together for mediation.
[11:30 a.m.]
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable Minister of Labour.
HON. RUSSELL MACKINNON: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas yesterday outside this Chamber, the Premier was being interviewed by members of the media at their request; and
Whereas during the course of this interview, the Leader of the Opposition rudely interrupted the Premier while he was responding to media questions; and
Whereas this unprecedented, infantile behaviour is not what the people of Nova Scotia expect from their elected officials;
Therefore be it resolved that this House condemns this unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I think I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Kings West.
MR. GEORGE MOODY: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Liberals said no to a resolution introduced during the last session of the Legislature which called on the government to work with the stakeholder groups to reduce assessment wait times for children with autism and delay disorders, and to establish early intervention programs with specific time-frames for implementation; and
Whereas after repeatedly refusing to meet with representatives from the Autism/PDD Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, the government finally relented at which time it made specific promises to respond to several key issues; and
Whereas despite promises to respond, it is beginning to look like the government is now reneging on firm commitments it made to the Autism/PDD Society of Mainland Nova Scotia;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Health, Minister of Community Services, and the Minister of Education immediately respond to the issues it promised to address during their May 7th meeting with the Autism Society.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Yarmouth.
RESOLUTION NO. 276
MR. JOHN DEVEAU: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas this government cannot explain when or how it will make good its promises to have at least 25 more family doctors practising in Nova Scotia; and
Whereas residents of Yarmouth have been denied the opportunity of designation as an under-serviced area despite the critical lack of family doctors, creating health risks for thousands of people; and
Whereas Nova Scotia will soon mark the start of year six of Liberal health reform, with public confidence in the health care system at an all-time low;
Therefore be it resolved that this House urges the Minister of Health to take urgent action to address the physician shortage in Yarmouth.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
DR. JOHN HAMM: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas on Tuesday, the Minister of Health said, "The myth of the deterioration of Nova Scotia's health care system is a myth."; and
Whereas yesterday he said, "We have made great strides in Nova Scotia in physician replacement."; and
Whereas this is cold comfort to the people of Pictou County who are about to lose four more doctors, cold comfort to the people of Richmond, Amherst, New Ross and numerous other communities throughout the province where tens of thousands of Nova Scotians are without a family doctor;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Health recognize that the real myth, the only myth, is that his government is making great strides in physician replacement.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Timberlea-Prospect.
MR. WILLIAM ESTABROOKS: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas educational travel must remain an integral and important part of our school system; and
Whereas students, staff and parents have diligently worked on various fundraising campaigns throughout the school year; and
Whereas students gain immeasurably by visiting other areas of our great country;
Therefore be it resolved that the Grade 9 students of Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea Junior High, Tantallon Junior High, and Brookside Junior High be congratulated on their initiative for their respective trips to parts of Ontario and Quebec.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
I was wondering why the honourable Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture was standing but that is the correct practice in this House, but unfortunately we haven't been doing that of late.
The honorable Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
HON. KEITH COLWELL: Mr. Speaker, I would like to rise on a introduction, if I may. In the gallery opposite is a group of Grade 12 students from the Eastern Shore District High School and they are accompanied by their teacher, Dennis LeBlanc and a chaperone, Anna Norwood. I think it is very appropriate on this historic day, when the province has just
announced $62 million in technology benefits for all students in Nova Scotia, and 4,000 new computers going in our schools. I know the computers are badly needed in this particular school and we look forward to working with them and improving the schools as time goes on. I would ask them to stand and receive a warm welcome from the House. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Pictou East.
MR. JAMES DEWOLFE: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Minister of Health recently, in this Legislature, mentioned the success of programs undertaken at Valley View Villa in the constituency of Pictou East as a result of the Seniors Outreach Program; and
Whereas the success of the outreach program can be attributed to volunteers and the employment of a summer student every summer to work with seniors; and
Whereas the Minister of Health obviously does not recognize the vital role played by such people in this outreach program because his government has refused to find a summer student for the employment in this position for the Valley View Villa Seniors Outreach Program for the 1998 summer;
Therefore be it resolved that if the Minister of Health was so sincere about the success being enjoyed at Valley View Villa, he immediately undertake to speak with the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism and arrange for the placement of a student into this program right away.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Halifax Needham.
MS. MAUREEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Premier and the Minister of Health have told this House that there is nothing wrong with the health care system that a little bit of positive thinking wouldn't cure; and
Whereas the board of the QE II hospital wants to waste scarce health care resources on an ad campaign to convince Nova Scotians that all is well at that health care facility; and
Whereas Nova Scotians who have suffered through cutbacks, line-ups, user fees, premature discharges, bed shortages and other symptoms of Liberal mismanagement will not be convinced the soothing words of the Premier, the Health Minister and the advertising industry will deliver;
Therefore be it resolved that this House advise the government that putting on Liberal rose-coloured spectacles will not cure the ills of the health care system in Nova Scotia.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Kings North.
MR. GEORGE ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Andrew Cochran, a Nova Scotian of great ability and imagination, developed the much-loved children's television show, Theodore Tugboat; and
Whereas 25 Theodore brand items, including his pals, Emily, George, Hank and Foduck will be sold to the delight of thousands of children around the word this fall; and
Whereas Halifax and its landmarks are featured as the backdrop for Big Harbour where Theodore and his pals engage in heroic rescues, occasionally get into trouble but always learn important lessons about friendship, responsibility and cooperation;
Therefore be it resolved that members of this House congratulate Andrew Cochran and the employees of Cochran Entertainment, Random House Children's Publishing, Iowa-based ERTL Company and the Swedish toy maker, BRIO, for their contribution to our culture and enjoyment.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask for waiver of notice for this resolution and I also would like to mention that Andrew Cochran's parents, both his mother, Maxine, and his father, Bruce, were former members of this Chamber.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Chebucto.
MR. HOWARD EPSTEIN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Minister of Business and Consumer Services, in an address given this week to the Credit Union Central of Nova Scotia has joined the very many Nova Scotians who are critical of the proposed bank mergers because of the likely loss of Nova Scotia jobs; and
Whereas two-thirds of the members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business also oppose the mergers and a recent U.S. study found that bank mergers were accompanied by reduced lending; and
Whereas this week Informetrica reported that rural residents were among the most likely to face restricted services and higher services charges while potential job losses are greatest in small- and medium-sized towns;
Therefore be it resolved that this urges the government to marshal evidence of the effect of these mergers on Nova Scotia, and use that evidence to take a firm position against the bank mergers' destruction of jobs, higher costs and restricted lendings.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
AN HON. MEMBER: We want to ask for waiver.
MR. SPEAKER: I'm sorry, I didn't hear a request for waiver.
There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
AN HON. MEMBER: I want to debate it.
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
The honourable member for Digby-Annapolis.
MR. GORDON BALSER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Cornwallis Park Development Agency has helped to create 450 year-round jobs at the park; and
Whereas Mr. Tom Bell, the General Manager of the Cornwallis Park Development Agency, expects by July that there will be 866 people working at the park; and
Whereas the hard work and promotional initiatives at the CPDA appear to be paying off, with the result that there is a much stronger economic base for the economy of Digby-Annapolis;
Therefore be it resolved that the members of this House extend their congratulations to the members of the Cornwallis Park Development Agency for their hard work and dedication.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
HON. KEITH COLWELL: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Captain Hamilton Carter of DSS Exports Limited, a ship-building consortium out of West Pubnico, is taking a multipurpose and fully functional 45-foot fishing vessel across the Atlantic Ocean; and
Whereas the boat will cross aboard the Coast Guard vessel Louis St. Laurent, which sails out of Halifax this weekend as part of the Ocean Tech 98 Trade Mission to Europe, sponsored in part by the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Economic Development and Tourism; and
Whereas DDS will market the boat itself, as well as individual component parts of the boat constructed by eight different Nova Scotia businesses, as the Louis St. Laurent makes stops in Norway, Sweden, Germany, England and Portugal;
Therefore be it resolved that this House wish DDS the best of luck as it promotes Nova Scotia boat-building expertise in European markets, where there is a high demand for fishing, port transport and harbour policing boats.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
That notice of motion is also rather long.
The honourable member for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour.
MR. DARRELL DEXTER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Senate has given approval to Bill C-9, the Canada Marine Act, which now becomes law and will seriously threaten the future of the ports in Nova Scotia; and
Whereas the only way to preserve the federal government's ability to provide financial support for development of port infrastructure is for the federal Cabinet to delay proclamation of Section 25 of Bill C-9; and
Whereas it is clear that such a delay is necessary while a full study is completed of the economic impact of Bill C-9 on Halifax and other ports;
Therefore be it resolved that all Parties of this House unite to urge federal Transport Minister David Collenette to delay the proclamation of Section 25 and the full implementation of Bill C-9.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Cumberland North.
MR. ERNEST FAGE: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the P3 school construction initiative undertaken by this Liberal Government, highlighted by Horton High, has been a financial nightmare for the Liberal Government and all Nova Scotians because of the minister's failure to implement financial guidelines and regulations that protect the financial interests of Nova Scotia taxpayers; and
Whereas this Liberal Government is evidently blindly jumping into additional P3 initiatives before ever asking the Auditor General to review the present mess they are in with the P3 agreements; and
Whereas the list of additional P3 projects under consideration include energy performance contracts for certain government buildings, the provincial park system, as well as the Registry of Joint Stock Companies;
Therefore be it resolved that this Liberal Government immediately request a special review of the Porters Lake school project by the Auditor General, for the purpose of determining the financial soundness to the taxpayers of Nova Scotia in regard to future construction and long-term service contracts.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Cape Breton Nova.
MR. PAUL MACEWAN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas those who seek to become an unelected and unaccountable Government of Nova Scotia become somewhat sensitive when their affiliations to international socialism are discussed; and
Whereas another item on which the New Democratic Party has not been candid is in its fundamental commitment to replacement of the market economy with a planned and state-directed economy; and
Whereas principle number one of the six principles on which NDP economy policy is based, is that "production be for use, and not for profit";
[11:45 p.m.]
Therefore be it resolved that before this group is made the unelected and unaccountable government of Nova Scotia, they should first explain how replacing the market economy with the planned economy directed to production for use rather than profit would impact on existing levels of employment and investment in Nova Scotia.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Dartmouth North.
MR. JERRY PYE: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas issues created by the dictatorial amalgamation of Dartmouth, Halifax, Halifax County and Bedford are items that remain unresolved in the current Metro Transit labour dispute; and
Whereas this Liberal Government must take responsibility for that amalgamation, its consequences, and its promises of a better government at a lower cost; and
Whereas this government should, in particular, have addressed all issues of the bargaining unit definition and representations that were created by amalgamation;
Therefore be it resolved that this House urge the Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Minister of Labour to use their offices to help speed resolution of all amalgamation-related issues that are prolonging the Metro Transit strike.
Mr. Speaker, I move waiver.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Truro-Bible Hill.
MR. JAMES MUIR: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Reach for the Top national playoffs will be held in Halifax, May 29th to June 2, 1998; and
Whereas one of the two teams representing Nova Scotia is from Cobequid Education Centre in Truro and members are students Mark Pearce, Daniel Smith, Dan Retson, Beth Scammell and Danielle Thibadeau, and coaches, Marian Retson and David Higgins; and
Whereas the Reach for the Top national's coordinator, Hans Budgey, is a graduate of Cobequid Education Centre;
Therefore be it resolved that all members of the Legislature extend their best wishes for success for the Cobequid Education Centre team and congratulate the Reach for the Top nationals' organizing committee for a job well done.
Mr. Speaker, I would seek waiver.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
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. CHARLES PARKER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas this week in Nova Scotia is Access Awareness Week; and
Whereas a 1998 Hourglass Action Award was presented to Erika Morrisey of Customs House Inn of Pictou at this week's Access Awareness Legislative Breakfast; and
Whereas Customs House Inn showed leadership in accommodating the disabled by building ramps, improving bathrooms and widening doorways;
Therefore be it resolved that all members of this House of Assembly congratulate Customs House Inn of Pictou for their foresight in helping the disabled.
I request waiver, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
Is it agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Pictou East.
MR. JAMES DEWOLFE: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Tim Hortons Camp Day was held earlier this week giving underprivileged children from across the country a chance to attend camp; and
Whereas Tim Hortons sends children by plane to a camp away from his or her local area for the adventure of a lifetime; and
Whereas this national event happens in every town, including Westville, that has a Tim Hortons, and has been very well supported by volunteers and employees alike;
Therefore be it resolved that all members of the House of Assembly offer warmest wishes for a fabulous time to the many kids taking part in this great camp experience and also give a special thanks to the people of Tim Hortons and their many loyal customers for making the dreams of young Canadians come true.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for a waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
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 Hants East.
MR JOHN MACDONELL: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas this government has daily refused to stand behind its own latest deadline of June 15th to finally start construction of the much needed Lantz school; and
Whereas the only political Party in this House that has not made a commitment to the June 15th start date is the Liberals; and
Whereas Lantz is just one of many communities where the Liberal Government has unreasonably delayed school construction while it adopts a trial and error approach to financing new schools;
Therefore be it resolved that this House urges the government to respect the voters' March 24th mandate by agreeing that it will start construction of the Lantz school no later than June 15th, regardless of how that construction will ultimately be financed.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Cumberland North.
MR. ERNEST FAGE: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Dalhousie University has become the first Canadian law school to win the Emil Gumpert Award for hands-on legal education; and
Whereas the award which was presented to dean Dawn Russell by the American College of Trial Lawyers with a cash prize of $50,000 American funds has previously been awarded to Harvard, Yale and UCLA; and
Whereas winning these honourable awards usually means prestige and more interest in the school as well as international recognition;
Therefore be it resolved that all members of the House of Assembly congratulate the faculty of Dalhousie Law School on their significant achievement and wish them every success in the future.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Sackville-Beaver Bank.
MS. ROSEMARY GODIN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas members of the Co-operative Housing Association of Nova Scotia provide quality, affordable mixed-income housing; and
Whereas co-operative housing was recently turned over from CMHC to provincial jurisdiction; and
Whereas the association has expressed its interest in forming an independent body of its own members to manage and administer its housing co-ops;
Therefore be it resolved that this House call on the government, specifically the Minister of Housing to meet immediately with the Co-operative Housing Association of Nova Scotia to begin deliberations that will start this process of autonomy and self-management by the co-ops.
MR. SPEAKER: Is there a request for waiver?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Cumberland South.
MR. MURRAY SCOTT: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the residents of the Wentworth Valley have been put into limbo with regard to their future by the opening of the Cobequid Pass; and
Whereas the Valley area is without proper signage to inform tourists what is available for services in Wentworth; and
Whereas the Wentworth Valley is dependent on the travelling motorist to be able to sustain itself;
Therefore be it resolved that all members of this House encourage the government to work with the Wentworth Valley residents to ensure that signage is installed at Exits No. 6 and No. 11 on Highway No. 104 to inform the public that they are able to travel the Wentworth Valley free from tolls.
Mr. Speaker, I seek waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Halifax Citadel.
MR. PETER DELEFES: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Mary Pittman of Joe Howe Manor is celebrating her 100th birthday on Sunday, May 31, 1998; and
Whereas there will be a gathering of family and friends at Canadian Martyrs Parish Hall on Saturday, May 30th, to celebrate the occasion of Ms. Pittman's centennial birthday;
Therefore be it resolved that the members of this House extend birthday wishes to Mary Pittman on the occasion of her 100th birthday.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Sackville-Cobequid.
MR. JOHN HOLM: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas one of this Liberal Government's most spectacular errors was the unfair firing of the former president of Nova Scotia Resources Limited, costing this province a knowledgeable public servant and more than $0.5 million; and
Whereas personal loyalty is now the qualification for senior positions at NSRL with the appointment of MacLellan's leadership campaign agent, Joe MacMullin, to chair this key corporation; and
Whereas the Premier wants Nova Scotians to rely on NSRL for the supply of natural gas needed to boost our economy;
Therefore be it resolved that if the Liberal plan was to entrust the economic potential of natural gas to Premier MacLellan's leadership campaign, they should have said so before March 24th and let the voters decide.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Lunenburg.
MR. MICHAEL BAKER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the public highway which leads from Walden to Mahone Bay in Lunenburg County, known as the Woodstock Road, is barely passable due to the number of potholes and the collapse of the road bed; and
Whereas many people living in the Walden area require this public highway to commute to work and to access public services; and
Whereas there has been a failure to adequately maintain and improve this important rural road;
Therefore be it resolved that the House of Assembly request the Government of Nova Scotia to take immediate steps to improve the Woodstock Road in Lunenburg County.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
Is it agreed?
I hear a No.
The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Dartmouth South.
MR. DONALD CHARD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the government has in the Throne Speech affirmed its support for public libraries; and
Whereas the government has committed itself to improve public education; and
Whereas school libraries are an important component of public education;
Therefore be it resolved that this House deplore the neglect of school libraries and call on the government to put school libraries in Nova Scotia on the same footing as school libraries in provinces such as Prince Edward Island.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Chester-St. Margaret's.
DR. HINRICH BITTER-SUERMANN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Minister of Transportation and Public Works said on May 27th in this House that he was lobbying the federal government for changes to Bill C-9, the Canada Marine Act; and
Whereas the minister's letter writing efforts did not result in changes to Bill C-9, meaning ports such as Halifax, Sydney and Canso are now unable to get loan guarantees provided to them by the federal government; and
Whereas the federal Liberal Government used a brand of arrogance bordering on contempt in ramming this legislation through Parliament while ignoring common sense solutions to improve the legislation;
Therefore be it resolved that the Premier immediately have his Minister of Transportation stop licking stamps and demand a meeting with the Prime Minister and inform him that passage of Bill C-9 in its present form is completely unacceptable to the Province of Nova Scotia and demand that changes be brought forward.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Timberlea-Prospect.
MR. WILLIAM ESTABROOKS: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas we must continue to encourage the establishment of small businesses in our province; and
Whereas it is important that Russel Metals, a Lakeside company, responded to its employees' desire to raise their basic skill levels; and
Whereas Russel Metals implemented a workplace education program in which 26 of its 70 employees have thus far participated;
Therefore be it resolved that this House offer its congratulations to Russel Metals and its employees for selection in the small business category for a National Award of Excellent in Workplace Literacy as sponsored by the National Literacy Secretariat of Human Resources Development Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Lunenburg.
MR. MICHAEL BAKER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas a piece of legislation has been passed by this House, commonly referred to as the Michelin Bill; and
Whereas Michelin Tire (Canada) Limited has proven to be an excellent employer, which has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the Nova Scotia economy while employing thousands of Nova Scotians in their plants at Bridgewater, Granton and Waterville; and
Whereas the Michelin Bill maintains the rights of workers to collective bargaining;
Therefore be it resolved that the House of Assembly continue to endorse the principles contained in the so-called Michelin Bill and congratulate Michelin Tire (Canada) Limited on its record of job creation in the province.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
Is it agreed?
It is agreed.
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay. (Interruptions)
Order, please. Order, please. Order, please.
The motion is carried.
The honourable member for Kings North.
MR. GEORGE ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
[12:00 p.m.]
Whereas the Premier refused to tell reporters on the campaign trail how the government was going to pay NSRL's $170 million share with $2 billion Sable natural gas project; and
Whereas the Premier said in Houston, Texas, on May 5th, Nova Scotia's generic royalty regime for future oil and gas would be flexible enough to account for financial risks among offshore projects; and
Whereas NSRL must come up with their millions before the gas starts coming ashore in November 1999;
Therefore be it resolved that since the Premier has already said several options are available to the government to finance the project, the Premier make it clear to Nova Scotians where the $170 million is coming from to pay NSRL's share of the Sable natural gas deal.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour.
MR. DARRELL DEXTER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas 26 students at Cole Harbour High School operating Cava-Candy, a retail candy store, were named the Student Venture Company of the Year at the 29th Annual Junior Achievement Awards and Recognition Night; and
Whereas Kerri Williams, a participant in the venture, was awarded the Student Venture Merit Award; and
Whereas the students did a market survey, prepared a business plan and raised capital privately through the sales of shares;
Therefore be it resolved that the Nova Scotia House of Assembly congratulate teacher, Helen Radford, President Patrick Wight, Award Winner Kerri Williams and all the participating students on the receipt of this award.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver.
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 Digby-Annapolis.
MR. GORDON BALSER: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Canada Pension Plan disability benefit amounts are based on life earnings; and
Whereas these earnings are rarely sufficient to assist with extraordinary medical costs; and
Whereas community-based assistance offices are with the implementation of single-tiered assistance support no longer able to exercise personal judgment to resolve urgent need;
Therefore be it resolved that the Minister of Community Services act to ensure local assistance offices are given some realistic level of discretionary spending so as to be able to help people in emergency need.
MR. SPEAKER: The notice is tabled.
The honourable member for Sackville-Beaver Bank.
MS. ROSEMARY GODIN: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas the Sackville Rivers Association is a volunteer organization of over 100 members committed to protect the environment of the Sackville Watershed; and
Whereas its members have worked tirelessly to heighten awareness of the environment in Sackville and surrounding areas; and
Whereas this association promotes environmentally responsible development in Nova Scotia;
Therefore be it resolved that members of the House Assembly congratulate the Sackville Rivers Association on its 10th Anniversary and express its gratitude to the members for their continuing commitment to their mandate of environmental protection.
Mr. Speaker, I request waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 Cumberland South.
MR. MURRAY SCOTT: Mr. Speaker, I hereby give notice that on a future day I shall move the adoption of the following resolution:
Whereas Kenny Campbell, son of Frank Campbell and Barbara Ferdinand of Oxford, Nova Scotia, through his gallant efforts was able to rescue his brother, Kevin, from their burning home in Oxford, Nova Scotia; and
Whereas Kenny was recognized by his peers in the local community and had his name submitted for further recognition; and
Whereas Kenny Campbell will be travelling to Ottawa to be decorated by the Governor General of Canada with the Medal of Bravery;
Therefore be it resolved that the members of this House congratulate Kenny and wish him all the best in the future.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for waiver of notice.
MR. SPEAKER: There has been a request for waiver of notice.
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 East.
MR. JAMES DEWOLFE: Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an introduction, if I could please. It gives me great pleasure to introduce the Grade 9 class of Stellarton High School with teachers, Barry Ovens and Bob Boardway. They are joining us in the west gallery. I would ask them to rise and ask the members of the Legislature to join me in welcoming them in the traditional way, please. (Applause)
GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. MANNING MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, would you please call the order of business, Government Motions.
GOVERNMENT MOTIONS
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. MANNING MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I move that the adjourned debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne be now resumed. I believe when we adjourned, it was the honourable member for Dartmouth South who had the floor.
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Dartmouth South.
You have approximately 55 minutes remaining.
MR. DONALD CHARD: Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to make some introductory comments last night, and as a firm believer in the expression that brevity is the soul of wit, I will probably not take the full time remaining to me.
I would like to move directly to the Speech from the Throne. I would like to congratulate the government for acknowledging, in the Speech from the Throne, that there are so many problems in key areas such as health care and education. Unfortunately, there are too many vague promises and questionable solutions in those areas covered by the speech while little is said about gambling and nothing at all is said about the environment. Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment on these issues and their impact on Nova Scotians, as a whole, as well as how they affect my constituents in Dartmouth South.
Mr. Speaker, in the area of education, the government seems to have lost its way. Over the last five years it has slashed support for school boards so much that they have been pushed into privatizing school bus operations and forced to consider contracting out maintenance operations. We have seen an apparent paradox involving privatizing of school bus operations. Dartmouth drivers earn more per hour but their annual income has been reduced to such an extent that it is now not much above the poverty line. If this is the minister's vision of public education, it is grossly inadequate. It is a sad comment on our values that school boards are reduced to treating loyal employees in this manner.
Now the government would have us believe that school buildings, themselves, should be built and owned by the private sector. The government would do well to remember the words of an eminent Nova Scotian who has this to say many years ago about the role of the state in advancing the interests of the people, "It is the first duty of a government to take the front ranks in every noble enterprise; to be in the advance of the social, political and industrial energies, which they have undertaken to lead.". Speaking specifically about education, this individual stated, "The subject of education . . . is one of the most important which the Legislature can be called upon to consider. Compared with it, questions of roads and fisheries and of politics, sink into insignificance. For if the people are intelligent - if they are educated - they will not be without the means of raising money, of making roads, of forwarding enterprise and regulating matters of trade . . .". In case the honourable members on the others side of the floor assume that these were the words of a member of the New Democratic Party, let me make clear that they were not. They were the words of that great Nova Scotian, Joseph Howe, written some 150 years ago.
It is noteworthy that the government has placed so much emphasis on education in the Speech from the Throne. It has failed, over the last five years, to address many problems in this field and now we are reaping the consequences. I would hope that in the days to come we will find out just how the government will address deficiencies in areas such as special education.
When I was a member of the Dartmouth District School Board, we had 500 students with special needs receiving assistance with their problems. There were another 500 students on the waiting list for help. That was almost 10 per cent of the student population of Dartmouth. The major reason for this sad situation was the fact that the funding formula used by the Department of Education did not recognize that there are proportionately more students with special needs in the metropolitan area than in most parts of this province. This is because their families come here for other services that are available in metro.
Officials of the department have acknowledged the flaws in the formula but have done little to change it. As a result of these shortcomings, many students are falling through the cracks. The system is failing them, we have shockingly high drop-out rates in our high schools. Some students drop out of school and end up in institutions such as Waterville at a cost of over $90,000 a year. From there, some have regrettably progressed to our prisons.
Many of these individuals have learning disabilities which have gone undetected or untreated. Parents of these children are in despair. Just the other day, I spoke to the mother of a seven year old student, who when he started Primary, lasted one day. He was sent home, and the mother was told the school would be in touch with her about her child's problem. It took a month to get that child back into school. The school board has tried to address that student's needs, but one of the obstacles is that it just does not have adequate resources to do the job. Today that child is in foster care, and the mother has had a nervous breakdown.
This is the price we have had to pay in education, the consequence of cutbacks, the failure to redirect funds to the classrooms and to those most in need. Meanwhile, senior employees of the Department of Education have been going around bragging about their junkets to places like China. Where is the benefit from such junkets? How have they improved public education in Nova Scotia? This is not to say that public education is a total disaster, far from it. No one who has attended graduation ceremonies at Dartmouth High, as I have done for the past three years, could fail to be impressed with the achievements of the graduating class, at the numerous awards, scholarships and other distinctions achieved by students there. No one can fail to be impressed by the efforts of teachers and parents alike to work together to provide a high-quality public education.
Only a few weeks ago, the students of Hawthorne Elementary School in Dartmouth, working with teachers and parents, put together a most impressive art exhibit. Our schools are increasingly hard-pressed to make progress in areas such as these, given the tight budgets under which they must operate, and the financial problems with which many families must contend. We hear much about the government's intentions, but we know what the road to hell is paved with. We hear much about the government's plans or its intentions to bring in plans, but in the words of the noted actor and entrepreneur, Paul Newman, speaking in his guise as salad dressing king, and I would quote here "If we ever have a plan, we're screwed".
Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment next about health care. I am pleased to see that it is high in the priorities of the government. There is much that needs to be done to address the damage caused by the cuts of the last five years, euphemistically called health care reform. In my own constituency, I have had members of the public come to me with concerns about long waits in the emergency room of the Dartmouth General. I have had nurses tell me how short-staffed our hospitals are, and how patients are not receiving adequate care there and in nursing homes. I have had doctors talk to me about the difficulty they have had in finding other doctors to take over their practices when they have started preparing for their retirement.
I have also seen a friend, who had a heart attack, die while he waited for an appointment to see a cardiologist. I have a neighbour who suffered a detached retina last year. It took so long for the system to provide her with treatment, that she has suffered a permanent vision loss and is now legally blind in that eye.
Mr. Speaker, this government is like the Bishop of Rupert's Land, who was once travelling on a train in Saskatchewan. The conductor came along to punch tickets, but the bishop could not find his. That's all right bish, said the conductor, you take your time looking, and I will stop on the way back. Eventually the conductor returned, but the bishop was obliged to confess that he had been unable to find his ticket. The conductor said, well, I guess it is all right. I am sure you wouldn't be travelling without a ticket. It may be all right for you, young man, retorted the bishop indignantly, but what about me? How do I know where I am going?
[12:15 p.m.]
Mr. Speaker, I realize that it will take care, it will take money to correct some of these problems, but the ills of our health care system and of our education system are not all caused by a lack of money, nor will they be corrected just by throwing money at the problem. As a number of health care workers said to me during the election campaign, this crisis is not just about money, it is also about how people are treated. It is about the lack of respect health care workers receive from a system in which there is inadequate consultation.
The government would do well to look at what organizations such as the RCMP have done to address problems there. A few years ago, the RCMP took a good, hard look at themselves and decided that they did not like what they saw. There were too many employees out on sick leave and stress leave. The traditional grievance system was not working; it was just addressing the symptoms of problems rather than getting at the real issues. The RCMP have addressed the problem by instituting a system of alternate dispute resolution based heavily on mediation. It works; the RCMP are saving millions of dollars, across this country now, on sick leave and stress leave.
Mr. Speaker, this government does not appear, to judge from the Throne Speech, to know where it is going in matters such as education, health care, and I might add, gaming. The government has promised - and I quote here from the Throne Speech - "Five more clinical therapists across the province to combat alcohol, drug and gambling addiction.". Meanwhile, as constituents in Dartmouth South have noted, the promotion of various forms of gambling continues unabated, and practices at the Sheraton Casino in Halifax are designed to extract the maximum amounts of money from patrons in the shortest possible time. In addition, it continues to be legal for street corner stores to take bets from children on professional sports.
Mr. Speaker, the government would do well to pay heed to the words of John Ralston Saul who wrote a few years ago in his book, The Doubter's Companion, "When governments raise money by acting as croupiers, the systems they manage are degenerate and are closer to their end than to their beginning. The Burmese, for example, could always tell when a dynasty was close to falling; it would set up a state lottery . . . From the moment a government encourages its citizenry to finance the state by gambling - which means by idle dreaming - instead of through creativity, work and productivity, that state is in an unacknowledged crisis.". Sadly, we in Nova Scotia, have Leaders whose response to the problems of compulsive gamblers is to say that they - our Leaders - are compulsive about balancing the budget. Small comfort to the co-worker of a neighbour of mine whose husband gambled away the money they had saved for their son's education.
Mr. Speaker, we have already heard from several members about the BST. I won't repeat what they have said, but I would like to comment on the fact that this tax is regressive and hurts people in various ways. I met one elderly gentleman during the election who told me that back in 1940 his father told him either to vote Liberal or to stay at home. He told me that he had never stayed home. I nearly jumped to the conclusion that I would not be getting his vote when he informed me that he would be voting NDP this time. His reason was the BST. He had recently buried his son and had to pay several hundred dollars in BST on the funeral. If there is any shame, it is in a government that enacts a system that extracts money from elderly citizens when they are burying their children.
Mr. Speaker, I would note that the Speech from the Throne has little to say about the environment. I am assured that this government is committed to protection of wilderness areas in this province and I am pleased at that commitment. I trust that we will see some consistency from government and an equally strong commitment to dealing with problems such as the Kings County regional landfill. This 30-year old dump, it should not be called a sanitary landfill, that is a misnomer if there ever was one, has been a source of leachate flowing into the Cornwallis River and has apparently been a source of contamination of wells in the adjacent neighbourhood of Meadowview. In fact, residents of that community believe that there are also high cancer rates in that community and that there is a link with the dump.
Mr. Speaker, we have made progress in dealing with some of the environmental issues confronting us. I am pleased that raw sewage no longer streams into Dartmouth Cove in my riding. Residents of the area, such as Marjorie Gibbins and Don Lawrence, are to be congratulated for their persistence in calling for action on this matter which eventually resulted in the consolidation of the outfalls that formerly fed sewage into Dartmouth Cove and led to basic treatment of the waste. Let us hope that this is just the first step towards the eventual treatment of all of metro's sewage in a cost-effective environmentally appropriate manner.
I would also hope that this government will see fit to pursue a dialogue with those members of the public who are interested in the future of our forests. The Speech from the Throne is silent on the government's plans to embark on a massive aerial spray program to deal with the problems created by the white-spotted tussock moth. Yet there are concerns being raised about the need for this spray program and about the impact of the spray on people and on beneficial insects. Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns of Nova Scotians about the health of our forests but the province is obligated, the government is obligated to explain discrepancies in some of its own publications on this subject, to which I drew reference yesterday in Question Period.
My constituents are very concerned about these matters and about the problems of our towns and cities. My constituency includes downtown Dartmouth. Downtown Dartmouth is a surprisingly diverse and vibrant area considering the competition it is up against from so-called industrial parks in metropolitan Halifax, parks whose development has been highly subsidized by taxpayers, parks that are occupied in many instances, instead of industrial enterprises, by Wal-Mart and other big box retailers. When can we expect to see some leadership from this government and more adequate support for small locally-owned businesses? How much longer do organizations such as the downtown Dartmouth Development Corporation have to struggle against this unfair competition?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to move on to make a few comments about municipal amalgamation. This was a major issue in Dartmouth South and indeed in most of the Halifax Regional Municipality. People are unhappy about the costs, about changes in services, and the way amalgamation came about. The Speech from the Throne is silent about this issue. The public was not consulted about amalgamation before it was imposed. Communities have lost their identities because of this arbitrary measure. In effect, communities have been denied the principles of self-determination. Amalgamation has turned the concept of local government on its head with municipal councillors now representing unrealistically large areas and large populations. Local government has become remote from the average citizen. Amalgamation was promoted as a way to reduce the costs of municipal government. It was supposed to save around $10 million. Instead, the cost of operating the Halifax Regional Municipality is now more than $25 million more than it was before amalgamation. Of course, if the province had picked up the cost of social services in HRM when it said it would, the cost picture would be
different. Amalgamation was also promoted as a tool for economic growth. Where is the evidence that amalgamation has led to growth?
The residents of Dartmouth South haven't seen the economic benefits, instead they have seen higher taxes and reduced services. They have seen reduced services at their libraries and cuts in police and fire protection. Even the regional cultural museum is threatened with closure.
I would at this point, Mr. Speaker, like to pay tribute to some of my constituents for their efforts to improve the quality of life in Dartmouth. I would like to acknowledge the work of Bea McGregor at the Downtown Dartmouth Development Corporation; of the Penhorn Residents Associations, which has worked tirelessly to safeguard and improve the quality of their neighbourhood; and I would like to acknowledge the work of the churches of Dartmouth South, which have worked hard to feed and clothe needy members of the community.
I would also like to pay tribute to the late Canon Jim Puxley, who died in March 1998. Canon Puxley, a resident of Dartmouth South, was a former president of the University of King's College here in Halifax, an institution which several of us who are members of this Legislature attended during his tenure as president. They include the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, the Premier, the honourable member for Queens and myself. Canon Puxley set an example of service to others that inspired many in his community.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by referring to another work by John Ralston Saul, a book called, Voltaire's Bastards. Saul's book goes a long way towards explaining why so many governments today have accepted the corporate agenda and have neglected the greater public good. He points out that the free market has not historically been interested in the public good and one example of this which he uses is the provision of proper sanitation in France. Proper sanitation in that country was opposed by the free market. It was opposed by property owners such as the property owners of Paris who had to be forced to accept garbage cans, saying this is government interference in the right of the individual to throw his garbage into the street.
As Saul notes, and I would like to quote him, "Put in contemporary terms, the market economy angrily and persistently opposed clean public water, sanitation, garbage collection and improved public health because they appeared to be unprofitable enterprises which, in addition, put limits on the individual's freedoms. These . . .", Saul goes on to state, ". . . are simple historical truths which have been forgotten today, thus permitting the fashionable belief that even public water services should be privatized in order that they might benefit from the free-market system.".
Mr. Speaker, it is hard to have confidence in a government that shies away from genuine dialogue on the great issues of this day, that is afraid to debate the future of its forests, of its fisheries and is busily handing control of its schools over to big business and has, as many Nova Scotians have pointed out, limited effective community input into health care decisions and handed power over to a bloated bureaucracy remote from the hospitals, nursing homes and patients the system was intended to serve. What is the solution?
John Ralston Saul points to Thomas Jefferson's analysis that men are divided into two groups: on the one hand there are those who fear and distrust the people; on the other hand there are those who identify with the people and have confidence in them. Our civilization has increasingly put those who fear and distrust, in power over the people. We must stop this, we must listen to the people and we must stop seeking simplistic answers to complex problems.
Mr. Speaker, given the failure of this government to keep its promises and to deal effectively with the needs of the people of this province, I have no choice but to support the amendment to the motion on the Speech from the Throne; it is not possible to have confidence in this government. Thank you. (Applause)
[12:30 p.m.]
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Kings North.
MR. GEORGE ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, it is so nice to see you sitting in your rightful place in this Chamber. I can't think of anybody, in fact there isn't anybody in this House who is as qualified as you to occupy that honoured Chair. There have been many people throughout our history who have been Speakers of this Legislature, but none understood the Legislature, the workings and had a greater sense of fair play than you. I am looking for many great, fair and true judgments to come from you, because you certainly are worthy of the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the Deputy Clerk of our Chamber; I think it is marvellous that he isn't acting anymore. I thought he was the real thing always. (Laughter) But nice to see you there and congratulations, Mr. Fordham. Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Doug Giles, it is lovely to have you as the real thing now. So it is great, we have a Sergeant-at-Arms and we have a Clerk and, of course, we have always had a permanent Clerk but now we have a Deputy Clerk as well. So I think those were two very good appointments that were made by the government yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank the voters of Kings North for allowing me to represent them again. I have more than one election behind me and I always sort of enjoy electioneering because it gives you the chance and the opportunity to go out and knock on everybody's door and you get to see where everybody lives and you say hello. Most of them are pretty darn glad to see you; even if they are not going to vote for you, they are pretty darn
happy to see you anyway. A lot of people are just glad to see anybody on their doorstep. It is great to get around and say hello.
What surprised me more about this election than any other election was the number of people who called on the phone and said, look, what can I do to help you? I want to help you; we have to get rid of those devils in government now. So we had more young volunteers than we have ever had and, Mr. Speaker, I want you to know that I appreciate each and every person who did lend a hand and assist us. Some people were there for a day, some were there for days on end, and it was marvellous to see them all working together.
I do know, Mr. Speaker, from having group meetings around the constituency during the election that we weren't the only Party that had volunteers working and, really, I would like to congratulate the workers for the other Parties as well. (Applause) What makes the political system work is all of the good people who stand behind us. We are here as 52 people, but behind the 52 are thousands of Nova Scotians whose primary concern is good government, fairness, and I hope that each member remembers that as we go through the deliberations on this Throne Speech debate.
Mr. Speaker, any time there is an election, there is always a problem because you look around you and some of your friends and associates aren't here anymore. Fellows like Bill Gillis, I will miss Bill. Remember when Bill was sitting right over there in Opposition? Every time there was a vote - there were six Liberals and 42 Conservatives - Bill would chime out, roll call, ring the bells and, my soul, he would ring those bells on every vote. I learned a lot from that man and I learned that it is worth ringing bells to kind of take time. I must admit, though, the good doctor was better in Opposition, I think, than he was in government and I would that he had stayed there.
There are other great people, Mr. Speaker. Some of our colleagues who chose not to run in this election and others who wanted to run and weren't successful, to each of them I thank them for their interest in politics. It takes a certain amount of courage, I guess, to put your name on the ballot - hopefully you will win and perhaps you won't - but most people don't win so it does take a lot of dedication and a lot of community foresight to just become a candidate for election.
You know, the Kings North executive that helped me get elected, Mr. Speaker, they truly are the finest executive in all of Nova Scotia. They meet regularly, they offer advice, they help and it is a real team effort because I couldn't get elected on my own. I need all the help I can get and those people, fortunately, give it to me. Of course, the other person who helps out is my wife, Kate, I really and truly couldn't be here without her. She attends so many meetings on my behalf when the House is in session and she returns phone calls and takes phone calls and for five weeks she was campaigning as well as I was. I believe in the ridings that she went to, we got more votes from those ridings than the areas I did all by myself. So she truly is a big help.
In Kings North, Mr. Speaker, we truly have one of the greatest constituencies in all of Nova Scotia. Do you know, when you think of Kings North, I bet the first thing you think of is agriculture because there are more farmers in Kings North than there are in any other area in Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia's agriculture farmgate receipts are over $300 million per year. There is over $100 million per year going into the farmers' pockets of Kings North and this indicates that really and truly one-third of the agriculture is taking place in the Kings County area and a great deal of that is taking place in Kings North. Agriculture generates $300 million at the farmgate but when you look at the multiplier effect, it gets huge. We are looking at an industry that is employing over 15,000 Nova Scotians, providing food for hundreds of Nova Scotians every day.
Now one of the things, Mr. Speaker, that I was looking for in this document that we are discussing, the Throne Speech, I was looking in there for some good things on agriculture and do you know what? I am still looking because they are not here. I thought maybe we would have . . .
AN HON. MEMBER: They are coming.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Well, the Minister of Agriculture said they are coming and Mr. Speaker, he is right and so is Christmas. Now whether he gets to bring them in or somebody else gets to bring them in, we cannot tell for sure but I hope the minister is right when he says they are coming because we have been driving them vigorously as sort of the quarterback of this Legislature when we have a government of a few members and an Opposition of a few more and we are sort of the guys in the middle. We are steering them and we have been telling them what we want and we gave the Premier our policy document and in our policy document it was very clear, there are some very basic needs of Agriculture and this government should truly address them because there are 14,000 Nova Scotians who find them important.
Mr. Speaker, why didn't it say in here, Nova Scotia first? We are going to buy Nova Scotia produce first. Why didn't this document say we are going to insist that the Nova Scotia Farm Loan Board maintain its independence from any other board so that farmers in Nova Scotia can have a feeling of self-worth and a feeling of confidence when they want to borrow money from a loan agency. Why wasn't there a program that said, look, we need young people and we need new farmers? Why wasn't there a program that said we are going to support the new entrance to agriculture? I don't know why it isn't in this document, Mr. Speaker, and probably you don't either. The only person who knows is the Lieutenant Governor and he is not here today but I think the Premier could have said, now look, Lieutenant Governor, I want you to say a few good things about agriculture and say how important it is but, I don't know, they sort of forgot agriculture but hopefully they will remember agriculture very soon because the farmers have been very demanding.
We had a very large debate in Kings County during the election campaign. All the candidates were there except one. One person didn't come, I don't know why. We talked about agriculture and do you know the statistics were startling of the lack of interest from this government in agriculture over the last five years. The programs that just sort of disappeared, Mr. Speaker, one after the other. You know the farmers, you haven't seen them driving their tractors down the highway, you haven't seen them barricading bridges. Farmers haven't been doing that. They said look, if there truly is a restraint program, we are willing to be part of it.
Mr. Speaker, the farmers are tired of being the only ones, really, fighting this all by themselves because the programs cuts have been much too great and I hope that this government will see the error of its ways and help and assist agriculture. I know the minister, from our talks with him, wants to help agriculture and help make it grow in Nova Scotia. I have every confidence that this Minister of Agriculture will make some difference and will start to get agriculture back on the road where it was a few years ago.
Now, Mr. Speaker, in Kings North, poultry plays such an important role, because we have two very large processing facilities, Maple Leaf and ACA in the Industrial Park. Both are located in the confines of Kings North and they both make a tremendous contribution to the well-being of Kings County. They employ over 300 people at their various locations throughout Kings County and those are jobs that we desperately need. It is interesting to note that ACA Co-op has started a new brand label, it's called Eden Valley, and I know from purchasing it in the stores that it is very successful. You can buy this product and it is all ready to cook with spices and everything else and it is very nice, and going over very well. In fact, it was featured in the Maritime Business News not long ago.
The Maple Leaf Poultry Company is undergoing a tremendous expansion now, just a couple of miles from where I live. They have increased the size of their facility, and they're modernizing it some more; not that it needed to be modernized because it was pretty darn up-to-date before, but they are putting in more equipment to make it even more modern, more efficient so it can deliver exactly what the consumer wants. Agriculture today is an industry that the farmers aren't just standing around saying, well, I guess I'll grow a few chickens and they're not growing 50 pound chickens, they're growing exactly what the consumer wants. Their processors are producing exactly what the consumer wants for both convenience and for profitability. It is a great partnership between the consumer, the processor and the farmer.
We have to also think of the dairy farmers in Kings North, because they are a very active group, and they are making a tremendous contribution. The beef farmers, we cannot forget them, because they've been having a heck of a hard time lately. They lost hundreds of thousands of dollars last year in Nova Scotia, through the drought, the prices were lower now than they were 25 years ago. I mean, can you tell me anything you could buy cheaper today than you could buy it 20 years ago. I mean, a T-bone steak will cost you fewer dollars today than it would 25 years ago. This is bizarre. Go buy a car, the car 25 years ago has gone up
probably 10 times, and the poor old beef farmer, he's stuck in the 1970's because the prices have been so low.
They have been asking for some assistance, the government put forth a plan, they have 22 recommendations and they're hopeful. That's what farmers are, they're hopeful, Mr. Speaker. They hope that this Minister of Agriculture will adopt some of the recommendations that they brought forth and presented to him a couple of weeks ago, so that, there will be some stability and there will be some sustainability to the beef industry in Nova Scotia. The beef industry in Nova Scotia could be $50 million to $60 million, right now it is about $15 million or $20 million and going down.
So the Minister of Agriculture has his work cut out for him and I know he's interested, because the Minister of Agriculture is probably one of the most successful beef farmers in Atlantic Canada over the last many years; he is not as active farming now as he was. His son does the farming, but when he was a beef farmer, he was a going concern.
In Kings North, we have a lot of hog farmers. In Kings West, we have the processing plant called Larsen's. Now, any of you who are consumers, know the quality of Larsen Packers. As a government, in 1990 or so, we helped rebuild the Larsen factory, and when we did that we had no idea of the success that it was going to enjoy. Larsen Packers, have come forth with a new product line, they have changed, they have altered, they have refined the way the consumer can purchase pork products in Nova Scotia, and with great and tremendous success. They are adding value to the pork chop. They are adding value to the bacon, and to the roasts. They are truly leading the country in providing what the consumer wants to buy for their dinner table.
[12:45 p.m.]
We have some great folks in the Valley, and this is the particular time of year that everybody should be thinking of them because this is the season of the Apple Blossom Festival. It has been going on for 66 years, and that is longer than anybody has even been a member of this House. It is longer than most of us have been alive even, but it is successful and there are thousands and thousands of people in the Valley who every year get together about this - actually they start about August 1st preparing for the next year - and this time of year, Mr. Speaker, Ted Nicholson and his committee of volunteers are putting on events from one end of our Annapolis Valley to the other and, truly, all Nova Scotians would benefit just by attending the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival, whether it is the street parades, the concerts, the dessert-tasting competitions, or the orchard tours. There are so many events.
They will choose one of our public relations experts and she will be Queen Annapolisa 66th, and Queen Annapolisa and her Royal Party travel from school to school and they meet the youngsters and, you know, Mr. Speaker, the young people really and truly enjoy meeting Queen Annapolisa. They go to senior citizens' homes, and there are teas. It is really a very
festive time of year to be anywhere in the Annapolis Valley. It is a huge success, and the only way the Apple Blossom Festival is such a success is by having so many people volunteer to put it on, and the thousands who drive from all around Atlantic Canada to take part and enjoy it.
Mr. Speaker, one of the great things that has happened in the last seven, eight, nine years, has been the phenomenal growth of the vegetable industry in the Annapolis Valley. For years we always had the pea and the bean industry. I grew them myself and they always went to Avon and Graves and they made canned peas and frozen peas, but it has expanded beyond that. Now we are growing onions. Onions are a very difficult crop to grow and store over winter, but Dykeview Farms have figured out, at a great expense, with assistance from the Department of Agriculture, how to properly store the onions over winter so that they can deliver year-round supplies. We have cauliflower growers and we have broccoli growers. Broccoli is another very difficult crop to grow because of the handling and the storage and trying to get it to market in the best possible condition, so that it will look nice and fresh and the consumer will want to buy it.
Mr. Speaker, we have a very large potato chip factory, operated by Frito Lay, and that involves several thousand acres of potatoes every year. Carrots, the largest single carrot grower in North America is operating in Nova Scotia, up at Oxford, and some of the carrots are grown in the Annapolis Valley and they find their way to Oxford Frozen Foods. We have some tremendous opportunities in Nova Scotia. What you notice when you see these opportunities and the successes, is one person had an idea and he started growing a few and, by golly, pretty soon they are growing a whole bunch and they are employing people. That is the way it is. It takes one spark plug to make things happen, and we must encourage those spark plugs because that is what we need in Nova Scotia.
Mr. Speaker, I remember a government many years ago that had problems with strawberries down in Digby County, but as much as the beginning of the strawberry industry might have been fraught with difficulty, we now have an industry in Nova Scotia that is providing hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of jobs for Nova Scotians. We are an exporter of strawberry plants as well as an exporter and consumer of strawberries. So, strawberries are very important, and we have some growers of strawberries in Nova Scotia, and they send their plants to Florida in the fall, and you know what, we bring the berries back here as consumers in the spring. So, it's really kind of a complete circle. We start the plants, and then we finally get the berries from Florida later on.
You know, the further processing that is taking place in the Annapolis Valley with regard to Agriculture, I know is putting this $100 million return to the farmers, I know that it is increasing the value in our community into probably $800 million, maybe even close to $1 billion. There are so many jobs created by agriculture. The service industries that depend on agriculture, the farm machinery dealers, the fertilizer dealers, the land clearing, the
accountants, the lawyers, they're all there, and they all depend on a healthy and vibrant industry.
Now, Lloyd Murray, one of our great Kings County residents who has done so much to help others over the years, used to sell international trucks. I was campaigning in there years ago, and he said one day, you know, when the farmers are doing well, Kings County is doing well. That hasn't changed over the years. When the farmers are getting decent returns on their investment, all of Kings County benefits. So, we do have to make sure that we have a good Department of Agriculture and a government that's interested in looking after the farmers. Now, I know that the minister is working very vigorously and hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we'll see the proof of the pudding in the budget.
We are fortunate in Kings County with some of the most beautiful communities and some of the greatest people around. Port Williams is one of the most active communities in Nova Scotia. There is a feed mill, Allen's Juice plant is there. But you know, Mr. Speaker, they applied for an infrastructure grant. Guess what? Didn't get it. Does that surprise you? It surprised me. It was an excellent application, properly filled out, all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed, and they needed the grant. But guess what? They didn't get it. Funny, but it's not. It's peculiar. This was an infrastructure program that was there to help aid and assist municipal units, and they needed help, and they're still waiting.
You know, the Town of Kentville is truly a great town. Marvellous place to live. There is over 5,000 people, and there are more houses being built there at the present time. There is a new subdivision that is expanding and more lots are being sold. That's very positive. But you know, same thing, Kentville applied for the infrastructure grants. I think they were looking for $400,0000. They were told over the phone, about this time last year, yes, you've got it, don't worry about that, go ahead. So they went ahead. But guess what? When the written letter came, they weren't approved, they didn't get their money. But they had already spent half the money, because of a verbal, over-the-phone. That wasn't very nice, and hopefully the government won't do things like that anymore.
Kentville is known as the shiretown of Kings County and it is a busy town. Busy with successful businesses, law firms, doctors' offices, great stores. You know they have Phinney's, where I bought this lovely suit, shirt and tie I'm wearing, and I always say if you can't buy it at Phinney's, you don't need to wear it. Even my shoes, which you can't see, but they are very nice, and I bought them there too. Kentville is really a complete town and a marvellous place to live. In Kentville, we have the volunteer fire service, as most communities do. Kentville's fire service is so successful, they have outgrown their garage. The health and safety fellows come around from time to time and they peek around corners and they look under trucks and the look up in the ceiling and they're great. I love health and safety, but boy they are expensive.
Anyway, the Kentville fire service needs an expanded service because the trucks can't all fit in there conveniently and safely. So they do have to expand their facility and that's going to cost a lot of money. Not just because of the health and safety inspection, but just because they have more equipment now and they need more equipment now. They are fighting fires now with chemicals and they have heat vests they wear and all the paraphernalia that they have now. They even need a bus to take the firefighters to the fire, because you can't ride on the back of the trucks. I always remember, the guy used to grab on with one hand and they were putting their coat on with the other and the truck was going 100 mph down the road. But you can't do that anymore, it's not safe. You sit inside the truck or you go in the little bus they have. So, it's more expensive to operate a volunteer fire service and we're some lucky that they have it. They are running the bingos, they're running auctions, they are always working. Monday nights they are in the fire hall taking training, weekends they are off taking training and some of them take their whole darn vacation so that they can go to the fire school. I hope that the fire school continues to operate, it needs adequate funding from this government and I hope they get it. So, we do need a larger fire hall. They have to expand the fire hall in Kentville and I think it is great.
Around the corner from the fire hall is the legion hall and I always look forward to going to the legion hall and meeting with the people who operate the legion. My golly, the good they do in the community (Interruption) Yes, and the Minister of Economic Development showed me his legion pin and I think that's good, he is a good man if he belongs to the legion, because if he wasn't a good fellow, they wouldn't let him join. But the legions do so much work in the community, with young people, with seniors and veterans, that how would we get along without them, Mr. Speaker? We really would have a great hardship.
When you leave Kentville it is a real conundrum if you happen to be a tourist, because what do you do next? You get to the bridge and you can go that way to Port Williams and that way you are going to go to Canning but if you get halfway there, my soul, you can go to Halls Harbour and all of those locations are so lovely, but let's first go to Scots Bay. So you whip along and you get to Scots Bay, and truly, Scots Bay is one of the wonders of the world. Scots Bay, I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, I have it in my heart, even better now than ever, I have always loved it there but now I really love it because the first time since Confederation the poll in Scots Bay, guess what they did, they voted Conservative. They never ever did that before. So when I saw the votes come in election night, I didn't rest until I saw what happened in Scots Bay and when I saw Scots Bay, where we won it quite handily, I said, boy, even if we don't win the rest of them I am going to feel pretty darn proud because we have finally won in Scots Bay.
Scots Bay, Mr. Speaker, is unique and it is beautiful and it is full of resourceful people. They wanted a fire hall because in the winter it could take one-half hour or 40 minutes to get from Canning to Scots Bay if there was fire, so one of the people in Scots Bay bought an old fire truck, a second-hand fire truck that looked pretty shabby but they brought it home, they saw it last July and it was a fire truck but not one that you would want to put in a parade. But
over the winter they tidied it up and did the body work and it looks like a nice truck. But then, my golly, you need a fire hall. The people in Scots Bay, together with an infrastructure program grant, they went ahead and guess what they did, they built a fire hall right around this truck and it really works. It is saving them insurance and it is also letting them sleep better at night knowing that they have a full tanker, fire truck waiting in their community.
When you get down through Scots Bay and you make the left turn out towards Cape Split. Anybody here ever been to Cape Split? It is a nice walk. Mr. Speaker, on nice days, particularly on weekends, there are literally hundreds of cars parked on both sides of the road on people lawns, all over the place by people hopping out of their cars and walking to Cape Split. Now, Cape Split is a bit of a hike. It is not government land. It is land that belongs to, I think it is Minas Basis but I am not sure, and you walk across the path and you get out and look down the cliffs. It is worth the walk. It is absolutely breathtaking.
[1:00 p.m.]
One of the things we should do as taxpayers, and as Nova Scotians, is have a look. I think it is time that we started thinking of Scots Bay, Cape Split as the location for a provincial park, because the province has to, at some point, with the increase in hikers and walkers. Years ago nobody wanted to hike or anything, all we wanted to do was sit around and look at television, but now all of a sudden everybody wants to be active; that's the name of the game. So with everybody being active and running and jogging and walking, Scots Bay, Cape Split is even more precious. There is greater stress on the environmental concerns of Scots Bay than there ever was, so the government, I feel, should really be taking part in the conservation of Scots Bay and providing stations along the way for people, and they have to have some kind of little road for an ATV or something to get in so they can bring out the garbage and clean up around because it is starting to take a toll on Nova Scotia's truly most beautiful location.
If you ever think about people in communities really getting at things, the people in Scots Bay needed a wharf. What do you suppose they did, Mr. Speaker? They came to see me. I am not much of a wharf builder, but together we persuaded the federal government to provide the material and then they built it themselves. It is a tremendous addition to their wharf. I think they put 90 feet at the end of the wharf and it is fantastic. This shows what a community can do when they all work together.
When you come back from Scots Bay, you hit Canning and when you arrive in Canning, Mr. Speaker, the first thing you see is the Bruce Spicer Park. Bruce Spicer is a war veteran and for years and years, Bruce Spicer was the person who looked after the wells and public works in the Village of Canning. Boy, he did a great job and I don't even know if they paid him; I doubt if they paid him very much if they paid him anything. He did such a tremendous job that they named the Bruce Spicer Park after him. Why shouldn't they? Bruce Spicer built
the park and it is a memorial to the Canning shipyard. Now, if you can believe that Canning built ships, but it actually did. So, they named the park after him.
He is a great man. In fact, I just saw him a couple of weeks ago. He dropped over some tickets for me to sell on behalf of the Canning library. They are having a ticket sale this year to buy fuel for next winter and Bruce is the champion ticket seller. If you have need for some tickets, Mr. Speaker, I will see you later. Anyway, I urge all members to come see me later and I happen to have a ticket or two from Bruce to sell. But it is people like Bruce Spicer who make our communities vibrant and people like Bruce who make our communities work. It is people like Bruce who get me elected because he works very hard on my behalf, and I think that's very nice.
They have a waterfront park in Canning, the wharf and the river is behind and the Department of the Environment shored up the banks so that the storage wouldn't fall in the river anymore.
It is kind of interesting, we used to have - what was it called, again? - a Mainstreet Program. I forgot the name because this government cancelled it. It was a good thing so they cancelled it. Maybe they will revive it. But they had a village square program, too, and Canning took part in that. The difference $10,000 made in that community is like day and night. It gave people a chance to get together and say, look, let's haul ourselves up, let's do more, let's tell everyone what a great place Canning is. Do you know, Mr. Speaker, it has worked, because there are more stores there now than there were before and there is interest that didn't exist before.
There is the Field Wood Heritage Society. They meet three or four times a year, publicly and openly, and the rest of the time they are working away at the museum, and they are always there. Then they said, gee, Canning needs a library. They bought an old house - it is older than Methuselah - fixed the old place up and now they have a library. The only problem they had with the library is they were so successful gathering up books that the Library is not big enough. Upstairs in the library they are going to build a museum for Wilf Carter. Now, Wilf Carter grew up in Port Medford but then he spent his early years living in the Canning district. His father was the Baptist minister in Pereaux. The house where he used to live is still standing and Wilf is a part of the Canning community. So the museum will be there and they have a set of chaps that Wilf sent down to them a few years ago. They have an old saddle that Wilf sent down to them as well, photographs, records and other memorabilia. The nice thing is Saturday night of the Apple Blossom Festival every year they have a Wilf Carter concert and people come and play songs and pay tribute to Wilf Carter and it is worth seeing.
They also have a very active theatre group, Mr. Speaker, Two Planks and a Passion. They are a very successful travelling players group and their plays are fantastic. Everybody who sees them, enjoys them.
The Canning Lions, the Lions Hall, my gracious, Mr. Speaker, it was just two weeks ago there was a lovely photograph in their local newspaper of three Lions, the high school principal and a bunch of the children because they were thanking the Canning Lions Hall for all of the help and assistance that they provide over the years.
Apple Tree Children's Centre, in Canning, is kind of unique, Mr. Speaker. It is a place for youngsters to go after school and during school hours. They get guidance and help and it is kind of unique. There is not another one like it anywhere. They also, in Canning, have something else. They have a toy library. Now, you have heard of a book library but Canning also has a toy library. That is a great thing because youngsters want to play with a toy for a little while and then they get bored with that one. Well, gee, rather than go out and spend $20 to buy them a new toy, you can just take it back to the library and get another one. That way the kids never get bored with their toys because they are just zipping them right along and it works very well. When your youngsters are through with the toys, if they are not smashed up, you can take the toys down there and let some other young person play with them.
Mr. Speaker, there are so many things you could say about our communities. In Canning, we even have a racing car driver. Mark Cruickshank races his open-wheel car all over the place and he is doing very well. In fact, last year I think he was first and second most of the time. The legion is very active there. A few months ago we had a big expansion at the hardware store in Canning, the Tru Value, Bill Lyons' store, my gracious, a beautiful, beautiful expansion. When you walk in the store, you would think you are in New York it is so nice. It is big. Things are happening in Canning and it is great.
Over in Halls Harbour, the lobster pound, Mr. Speaker, has been expanded and the capacity is just about double now from what it was a year ago, just tons and tons of the most - I would have to tell you, the lobsters that you get there are really without question the finest lobsters available anywhere - I think it must be the beautiful water that is in the neighbourhood and the big rocks that they live on but for some reason those are the tastiest lobsters anywhere.
Katimavik, Mr. Speaker, you have probably heard of that group. They go around, a group of youngsters, they come around and help out and work around. Anyway, Halls Harbour said let us get a Katimavik group in here. We want to build a walkway around the harbour and a path through the woods. We want to do some of that stuff and we want to build a wharf. Now, can you imagine, a bunch of kids, 15, 16, 18 years old, telling them to build a wharf? Well, I saw it with my own eyes. I would not have believed it. Those youngsters built a wharf. It is a marvellous wharf, a replica of the old lighthouse wharf that used to be in Halls Harbour and it washed away years ago and they put it back. It is going to help prevent erosion in that area. It is just marvellous all the great things that they did. They even built a dory. Most of these Katimavik kids were from across Canada. Most of them had never seen salt water before and they had never built a dory, never been in a dory but anyway, by golly, they built a beautiful dory, painted it red and white, and they donated that to the
Halls Harbour Volunteer Fire Service and that is handy because when you are servicing an area right near the water, maybe you better have a boat. So now they have a beautiful red and white dory built by the Katimavik young people.
Last year there were over 50,000 visitors, tourists, dropped into Halls Harbour. They have a new museum, a lot of this stuff that used to be in Fred Parker's store they just put it in the museum. They have photographs and ice chests and all kinds of old memorabilia from when Halls Harbour was at its heyday.
Mr. Speaker, Halls Harbour's wharf fell apart. It is a very long wharf and it fell apart right in the middle, so the middle washed out. Boats couldn't get in, boats couldn't get out of the harbour - and there are fishing boats there. So during the election campaign I called the Minister of Economic Development, I wrote him a letter and I said, please, help, we have a serious problem and the Minister of Economic Development wrote back and said, what I am going to do is set up a committee of interested people involving our staff, ACOA and the people in Halls Harbour and we will see what we can do. They built a presentation and they made it to ACOA and hopefully ACOA is going to accept it sometime soon, maybe they did already. The last time I talked to ACOA, they thought they were within weeks of accepting the recommendation that they do the repair and patchwork in Halls Harbour and I hope that they come through and do that.
Centreville, just down the mountain from Halls Harbour, Mr. Speaker, is one of the fastest growing communities in our province, I believe. Every time you go to Centreville, you see new houses. There is always one more house built. Where did that come from? And they just build it, and another and another. That's because the people, the community group, they have ball diamonds and soccer fields and tennis courts in a little clubhouse affair and they keep working with the people. It was so ironic last year, there were 200 youngsters signed up to play soccer and 150 signed up to play baseball and they applied for a student to help out with the organization of it, and do you know what? It wasn't approved. The government said, no, you can't have one. I said, my goodness, I don't believe this. For years, ever since they had a student employment program I said the government always gave a student, and we used to give two, but I said there was always at least one to Centreville so that they could have the sport programs and so on. But by golly, no. So I got involved and I went to see the minister and the minister said, nope, can't do that. It was a shame because they really needed that person. What happened was that person was hired to do the work and people in the community picked up the tab and that was a little unfair.
Now, this year, they were very careful in filling out the application form and they have got back into the good graces of the government and they do have a summer student there, Mr. Speaker, but last year they didn't get one. It was hard to believe.
I tabled a petition here the other day, Mr. Speaker, from the people living on Sherman Belcher Road and they need a sidewalk. There are so many youngsters in the ballpark, so many people going to the park and walking around, they need a sidewalk. All they have now is a road and it is kind of full of cars and trucks and buses and stuff, so they would like to have a sidewalk out there. They have applied to the municipality, they have applied to the province and things unfold, eventually we will have a sidewalk. We almost had one a few years ago but something happened.
Anyway, Woodville, you have to watch the papers, because in Woodville you don't want to miss their suppers. My golly, I don't know what they do in Woodville but there is nobody anywhere, Mr. Speaker, that can make a turkey dinner the way they do it at the Woodville Community Hall. I want you to know I really and truly look forward to that. (Applause) Now, usually, I go to the Woodville hall with my friend and colleague, the member for Kings West because he likes good turkey dinners too. He really and truly wouldn't miss a supper in Woodville.
Mr. Speaker, the great thing about the Valley is all the communities of interest. I had a friend of mine visiting one day, not from Nova Scotia, and off we went to the community supper and he said, I don't believe this, because where he lives in western Canada, they don't have community suppers and the great thing is, when community supper season starts every Saturday night some community in Kings North is having a dinner and once in a while I get real lucky and two communities are having a dinner and so you have to try to go to the 4:30 p.m. sitting at the first and the 6:30 p.m. at the second one. Occasionally, Kate and I aren't the only two that are doing that you know, a lot of people just enjoy the suppers, the camaraderie and the friendship that they meet when you're at the suppers in Woodville, Canning, Port Williams and Kentville. It's just marvellous. We are so fortunate that we have communities with volunteers who keep things going.
[1:15 p.m.]
One of the neat things that the churches in the Canning-Centreville area and Port Williams started doing last year was they had Lenten lunches. Every Friday, during Lent, you could have a bowl of soup and a piece of bread with molasses. I was amazed; they were so popular and so crowded, you had to stand in line. Our leader, John Hamm came down - was it one or two? - at least to one Lenten lunch he came with me. We had a great time visiting with everybody, it was a Friday at lunchtime; it was great.
One of the things that was a real issue during the election campaign - and I hope it's rectified soon - is the difficulty we are having just outside Kentville at Meadow View. Now Meadow View has been the scene of a landfill site for over 100 years, and the people are getting sick of it. They said enough's enough guys, come on, go put it somewhere else. The municipality said we're going to close it and it will be closed by December 31, 1984. Guess what? It's 1998 and it's still open. What they did was they closed the gate and they moved
it down the road about two miles so, in a way, they closed that gate, but they opened another one so you just go into the back of it. A lot of people think that's fine; it is out of sight, out of mind, doesn't smell bad but, you know, it isn't good. The people have been promised.
It's in sand. Can you imagine, putting a landfill site in a sandpile in this day and age? Nobody who knows anything about landfills would ever even suggest that, but that's where it is and that's what's going on. It's time that the province - I know landfills are a municipal problem and, boy, if I was Minister of the Environment, the last thing I would want to do is get tangled up in somebody's landfill - but, by golly, it's time for provincial leadership. The people in Meadow View have seen some signs of leadership from the municipality. The municipal unit has said, we will give you over five years, $750,000 to spend on community upgrades. Already they've upgraded their community hall and it's very nice. This summer, they're going to be doing some roadwork on Tupper Road, Spencer Road and a couple of the other small roads in the area, to make them more accessible and more passable.
The province has an opportunity to settle this. There is a lawsuit ready to be filed, and to defend themselves the province is going to spend a great deal of money. I've written a letter to the Premier on behalf of the residents of Meadow View suggesting that perhaps the Premier would sit down and have a chat and solve this problem once and for all. He hasn't done it yet, not during the election campaign as you can well imagine. It was one of the candidates who said, you vote for me and I'll solve this in the morning, but, she couldn't get the Premier to come down and agree to that. It was interesting.
So, hopefully, very soon, we will have a conclusion to the Meadow View landfill issue because, if we don't, we're going to have a lawsuit, and who in the heck wants to tie that up in the courts for years and years? All it's going to do is make a lot of lawyers rich. I'm not worried about making lawyers rich, I'd like to make the people of Meadow View happy. So let's work on the people in Meadow View and forget the lawyers. So, Mr. Premier, meet with the people in Meadow View as soon as possible and we'll work out a solution to this problem.
One of the interesting things in Kings North now is a school issue. We have a high school in Canning called Cornwallis and we have one in Kentville called KCA. The Department of Education, through the minister's office, indicated that we weren't going to have those two schools any more, what we needed in Kings County was one school. So they're going to put two schools into one. It's very exciting because everybody wants to sell them a piece of land. You know, the last guy who had a piece of land for sale they built a school on, he got over $600,000 for it, plus a road and water rights to an eight-inch water pipe that the government put in right through the site. As you can well imagine, Mr. Speaker, I am very regretful that I don't have a piece of land to sell because, boy, $600,000 for a $20,000 piece of land, there is a lot of interest. But seriously, there is interest from parents in Canning and parents in Kentville, where are the children going to be going to school, what's the school going to be like, how much is it going to cost?
When we get into the P3 business that the government started, we all thought we were going to get $30 million schools for $20 million. But what is happening now is we are getting $20 million schools for $30 million and that is not really what it was going to be like. So perhaps it was the learning curve, but it is certainly quite a school. I drive by it all the time back and forth to Halifax and, boy, it just gets bigger and bigger. It looks like a shopping centre it is so darn big, and the parking lot is even bigger than a shopping centre. You want to talk bells and whistles, they have the bells and the whistles and they got the parking lot. (Applause)
Mr. Speaker, we have to concern ourselves with this Throne Speech, I don't know why. I guess we will put it down again. But we ran an election campaign a little while ago and there was a big thing with health care. We talked about education; rural Nova Scotia talking about roads. I have written a letter and I have talked to the Minister of Transportation, and I can tell you that if he doesn't fix some of the roads in Kings North, I am not going to like him anymore and I am not even going to speak to him anymore. (Laughter) So, hopefully we are going to get some action on the roads this year.
AN HON. MEMBER: He will lose a lot of sleep over that, George.
MR. ARCHIBALD: He will. Don't you worry there, Mr. Speaker, you know what happens to fellows who fool around here, the former Mr. Speaker, yes, you know better than anybody what happens. So, let's get the roadwork going. (Interruptions)
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, we need roadwork. I was on the road the other day and I went up to see a friend of mine, Harold Sanford - I think he is about 92 or 93 years of age - and Harold is one fine person. He has lived on that road all his life and he said, look, I have never seen such a road. Why don't they fix it? I said, I don't know why they don't, but I am going to try to get them to and I have written and I have asked and I hope they will.
I have a lot of confidence in the new Minister of Transportation. I think he is forward-thinking and I think he wakes up every morning, looks in the mirror and says, I want to be helpful, and then he thinks Kings North. (Laughter) So, I am looking forward to seeing some roadwork, not just in Kings North - by golly, I would love to be Minister of Transportation, because I would have had more friends and they would be the contractors because the contractors should be sending you roses pretty near, because they are going to be so busy. If it isn't this year, it is going to be next year, because you can't put off maintenance forever. So, spend your money and fix up the roads.
I have been in the Legislature, I sat over there once and then I sat over there and now I am over here. Next one I could be out in the woods. (Laughter) But I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, it doesn't matter where you sit in the Legislature, you are one of 52 and there are
not many who ever get here, so it is a real honour. But you know, it sure is different having a minority government. Look at them over there, they have all the room, they are spread out, you would think they were on a cruise ship they have so much room among them. We are jammed in here and you would think we were in a sardine can. This is the economy side over here and that is executive class. (Laughter)
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. ARCHIBALD: We are a minority government, Mr. Speaker, and it is not easy being a member of the 13 - because we lost you - who are trying to negotiate. I get calls from people all the time and they say, throw them out and I say, do you want me to put in the NDP? Oh, no, don't do that. I say, what do you want me to do? So you see, those are the calls. Then you get calls that say, support the NDP and throw those rascals out. You know, this is part of the difficulty of having a minority government, that there is a fine line that the government must tread so that they can stay in power, because we cannot (Interruptions) Oh, look, there is a guy who can't wait. He has got his Cabinet seat all picked out.
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please. The member will address the Chair.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, it is not something you can go to school and study on how to work with a minority government. You cannot call up your cousin or your brother and say, how do you do this because nobody has done it in the province before. We have never had . . .
AN HON. MEMBER: Yes, we have.
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Why do you not go fall in a hole? We have never had a situation like this, Mr. Speaker, never in the history of the government. So we are all going down a road and we are going to find out very, very soon which road we are going down. Our Leader, Monday night, spoke very eloquently, very succinctly, and I think everybody understands the message that our Leader presented. The Leader has not changed. I have a lot of faith and I am going to have to follow his judgment because, Mr. Speaker, he is the only game in town. He has been trying to work with the government. He does not want to force an election.
Mr. Speaker, where it is very fragile in Nova Scotia and elections cost money. Are you telling me I am almost out of time?
MR. SPEAKER: You are getting there.
AN HON. MEMBER: Can we have a resolution to extend his time?
MR. ARCHIBALD: Yes, by unanimous consent they can let me finish my speech, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Agreed.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, the union-led NDP is very attractive to a lot of Nova Scotians but I have got to tell you, the unions are very, very peculiar. The NDP was flat broke in December. By March they had $1.5 million to spend on an election campaign. Who do they owe for that? In my constituency of Kings North, the NDP Office was operated by one union representative from the federal government. His salary is being paid by the federal government union. The other one was put in there by the Canadian Auto Workers Union. I didn't complain.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Shame, shame.
MR. ARCHIBALD: In fact, you are the first guys I told about it. But I have got to tell you, Mr. Speaker, what would the people on - actually I will have to stand this way, on the left - left, Mr. Speaker, have said if the Royal Bank, or the telephone company, or Nova Scotia Power had sent down one of their people to run my campaign, not one but two, to run my campaign for me? It would not have been fair, would it? But they can have professional electioneers and it is great but, you know, that bothered me because all of my workers were volunteers and we were competing against people who were paid. I do not even know if they voted for them because, you know, they were paid to be there. I would trust a volunteer more than a paid worker and it worked better. (Applause)
Mr. Speaker, I did not even get warmed up. I wanted to talk about a visit I paid last week. I went on a visit to a very large woodlot in Nova Scotia operated by J.D. Irving. I wanted to talk about some of that. I wanted to talk about two letters I have received lately, three actually, from somebody who was injured, a friend of mine, Russell Saunders wrote me yesterday. He says we have built a two-tiered health care system because he was injured. He recovered from his broken leg. He needs physiotherapy. His doctor said, great, where does it say this? He has to wait six weeks, six weeks, before - or he could go and pay his own way and get physiotherapy right now. He says "It really gets to my craw that the Liberal Government has created a two-tiered health system in Nova Scotia - those who can wait six weeks and those who have the money to pay for somebody.".
I have received another letter about health care, and I am glad to see the Minister of Health is here. This letter, Mr. Speaker, I have had for a couple of weeks because this is a 911 emergency call. The ambulance attendants arrived at the woman's house. They picked her up off the floor and they cleaned her off and they said there is nothing wrong. You do not need to go to the hospital. Stay in bed. So they called the VON nurse. The next-door neighbour came over with a car, took this lady to the hospital. They kept her there for six nights. She had pneumonia but at the same time she had pneumonia, the ambulance attendant said,
nothing wrong with you. You know, what kind of a system has this minister - well not this one - but the previous Minister of Health developed in Nova Scotia? I was really annoyed. This was a very close friend of mine. The letter was the middle of April; she has since passed away.
[1:30 p.m.]
Her family, her friends were very concerned, and I am too. Her husband was a veteran, and they didn't deserve to be treated like that, to be told, you don't need to go to the hospital, stay home. They wouldn't have called if she hadn't been sick.
AN HON. MEMBER: The ambulance got there, when you fellows were here the ambulance . . .
MR. ARCHIBALD: Well, the ambulance got there, one of the ministers just said. Well of course it got there. Before the government spending an extra $12 million a year on ambulances, we used to have about 15 ambulances in Kentville, all private sector, all at no cost to the taxpayer till they turned them over to Iran, and there was never an attendant who said you can't go to the hospital. (Interruptions)
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, they really squawk when you tell them the truth. They know better than anybody that their health care system is a failure. One of these sooky letters that was in this disgraceful Throne Speech - where is that letter? (Laughter) - I just about fell off my chair when I heard it.
MR. SPEAKER: Order, please.
MR. ARCHIBALD: I'll sit down in a minute. Mr. Speaker, if I could. This little letter on Page 15 - I mean, they didn't even get into health care until they hit Page 15 of a 17-page document. That's their priority - look at the letter. Holly hurt her neck in the gym class and she went to the hospital for an X-ray at St. Martha's, Antigonish - let me see, where did it go? - oh, they used the TeleHealth Network (Interruptions) It's in the Throne Speech, you clown. (Laughter)
The Minister of Education wants the Throne Speech tabled. Where's he been; where has he been? I know why education is such a problem. Table it, he says, table it.
Listen, I'll tell you about Neils Harbour. My niece was skiing at Smokey. She hit a tree at Smokey, put her hand over her face, broke bones in her hand, broke bones in her cheek, broke her leg, on the snow. The attendants arrived from the ski hill, they called an ambulance, they put her in the toboggan, they put her with a neck brace, and they said, we're heading to
Neils Harbour, it's the closest hospital. So they bumped down the bumpy old road. They got to Neils Harbour. They called ahead. Is there an X-ray technician there? The X-ray technician is here, bring her in. They bumped down the road; they got all the way to Neils Harbour. Oh my, a neck injury. I can't do an X-ray like that, because I can't read it. I'm sorry.
They called the Medevac, the helicopter, and they said oh, no we're in Yarmouth, we'll be there in about six or eight hours. This little girl was in dire straits. They loaded her back in the ambulance, the ambulance driver said look, I don't want to drive to Sydney, the roads are rough. Anyway, they did, and they bounced all the way to Sydney; you know, its terrifying.
The health care system isn't working very well. They got all the way to Sydney and they did the X-rays. She stayed there for three days. She'll be fine. Her hand's getting better and the bones in her face are healing and she'll be fine, but why did they go to Neils Harbour and there was no X-ray person there? Why didn't they tell them over phone, don't come here, we can't take your pictures, go to Sydney. You see, when they write these little things that make your heart go faster, they try to make it look as if things are good, and they are not. I have another letter here that . . .
MR. SPEAKER: Before you commence your next letter, we're out of time. You're about three or four minutes over at the present time. If the members agree, with unanimous consent . . .
MR. ARCHIBALD: Mr. Speaker, I will sit down, but first I would like to thank you for your indulgence in giving me a minute or two over.
I have a great deal more I wanted to cover. I don't know what happened. I want to talk more about health care because there are more crises in health care. I want to talk about the crisis that we're having in the offshore, the unfairness to Nova Scotians and the agreements that have been signed. I do want to tell you that I was disappointed in the Throne Speech, as are 99.9 per cent of Nova Scotians. The only ones who aren't are probably the few over there, and even the Minister of Education hadn't read it, because when I was quoting from it he said, would you table it. (Laughter) I will give him my copy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Halifax Citadel. (Applause)
MR. PETER DELEFES: Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to sit in this Legislative Assembly representing the people of Halifax Citadel. This is a responsibility I do not take lightly and I shall do my best to serve the people of this riding and to act in the interests of all Nova Scotians.
I take this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr. Speaker, on your election to the very important position of Speaker. I must admit to one regret in this regard, we shall not have the same opportunity to hear your eloquence on the floor of this House. Over the years, I have attended sessions of this House, seated in the visitors' gallery, and have listened to you speak with great conviction and eloquence on many an occasion. I have also witnessed your performance as Speaker of the House in bygone years and thus far in this session and know that we will be well served by your wisdom and judgment in that capacity.
I also wish to congratulate the member for Dartmouth South on his election as Deputy Speaker.
I should also congratulate all the members of this Assembly on their elections and re-elections to this House on March 24th. Despite our political and philosophical differences, we all share the same conviction that we are here to serve our constituents and to try to make this province an even better place in which to live. I have heard it said many a time that in terms of nervous energy used, 5 years in public life equals 10 years of normal wear and tear. Based on my very brief experience of the last two months since the election, there appears to be some truth to that statement. No doubt there are sacrifices to be made when one enters public life, however, there are many compensations. The most important of which is the chance to make some useful contribution to a society and I know that is why we are all here.
I want also to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to express appreciation to the staff of Province House for helping those of us who are first-time MLAs, to help us feel at home and for helping us become acquainted with the policies, procedures and routines of the House. I refer here to the director of operations for the Speaker's Office, the House of Assembly operations staff, the Legislative Library staff, the Chief Clerk and Assistant Clerk and to the commissionaires and Sergeant-at-Arms for their assistance and cheerful greetings as we enter the building each day.
I would also like to pass along a special word of thanks to the member for Halifax Bedford Basin, who in his capacity as Speaker-designate participated in two orientation sessions for new members, one in the Red Chamber and one in this Chamber. I found those seminars most helpful in preparing me for the sessions of the House of Assembly and I do thank the member for his assistance in that regard.
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to the many people who worked on my behalf and that of our Party in Halifax Citadel in not one but two election campaigns within the space of a five month period.
I wish to pay tribute to one man, Allan O'Brien, who was an adviser, a mentor, a colleague and a friend to me through the by-election and the recent general election. Regrettably, Allan died suddenly on March 12th at the age of 75. The Leader of our Party in his Reply to the Throne Speech made reference to the contribution of Allan O'Brien to our
Party. He was a lifelong social democrat who tried to practice what he preached through his involvement in business, as a former mayor of the City of Halifax, as an NDP candidate and as a university teacher of local government. In the estimation of many, he was blessed with what sociologist James Coleman refers to as social capital: trust, civility, fairness, compassion and civic responsibility. He is sadly missed by those of us who knew him but his legacy to us is that by precept and example he has inspired us all to strive for excellent in public service.
Mr. Speaker, I should also like to pay tribute to the Leader of our Party, the member for Halifax Atlantic, Mr. Robert Chisholm. Under his leadership in the election campaign, we focused on the issues that were important to Nova Scotians. I share the view of all that I have met in our Party who were affirmed in the recent general election that he is a Leader who inspires confidence because of his vision, his humanity and his good sense.
I would also like to make mention of one of my constituents who is known to most members of this House, where she served as Leader of the New Democratic Party for many years. I refer, of course, to Alexa McDonough, the Leader of the federal New Democratic Party and MP for Halifax. Alexa is greatly respected by Nova Scotians for her dedicated service to the people of this province. Mr. Speaker, as many members of this Assembly will recall, for a period of time - from 1981 to 1984 - she was the only member of our Party in this House, yet she was relentless in the pursuit of issues which reflected the concerns of ordinary Nova Scotians, issues which would not have been raised and considered had it not been for her. The outstanding results of our Party in Atlantic Canada, in the June 2, 1998 federal election, attest to Alexa's leadership and popularity and to the confidence that Nova Scotians have placed in her and the five other New Democrat MPs from this province.
Mr. Speaker, as I have already indicated, I am fortunate to be the representative of the people of Halifax Citadel in this Assembly. As the members are aware, Province House is situated in the constituency of Halifax Citadel, which includes most of downtown peninsular Halifax. If I may speak on a personal note for a moment, I would like to mention that my family and I have had long and close ties with the constituency and its residents. My grandparents came to this city from remote villages in Greece in the early years of this century, and for many years ran a family business on the corner of Morris and Barrington Streets, just a few blocks south of this building.
I can proudly say that I am the first person of Hellenic or Greek heritage to sit in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Being of Hellenic heritage, I would like to think that I have a connection with those ancient Greeks who were the first to conceive the notion of democracy. As we all know, the word democracy is a Greek word meaning, rule of the people. The architect who designed the exterior facade of this beautiful building with its pediment, its columns and its Corinthian capitals, drew architectural inspiration from the classical buildings of ancient Greece. The fluted pilasters and the Corinthian capitals on the walls of this beautiful Chamber also reflect the architecture of the classical period.
Mr. Speaker, as a result of my long association with Halifax Citadel, I believe I have a good understanding of the local community and its people, whom I have the good fortune to represent here. I attended public school and university here and later as a teacher and school administrator, worked in several schools in the area. I have been associated with many social groups and community organizations in the riding and have, through my children, become acquainted with their friends and their families and the people in the various groups, teams and associations with which they are involved.
I would like, Mr. Speaker, with the indulgence of the members of this House, to provide a thumbnail sketch of the make-up and character of this riding, for it will help in understanding the political concerns and the aspirations of the people who live here. Halifax Citadel is unique in that, within a relatively small area, it includes the heart of a bustling metropolis, as well as parks, gardens and peaceful tree-lined residential districts. Beautiful vistas of the harbour can be had from Citadel Hill and of sailboats tacking across the Northwest Arm. The riding contains the business and financial centre of the city, along with several universities, hospitals, museums, arts and entertainment facilities, parks and gardens, libraries, restaurants, hotels, the ocean terminals and the container pier. The police department, train station, one of the harbour ferry terminals, several government buildings - including this beautiful edifice - and Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, are also located in this riding.
Thousands of people swell the indigenous population daily, arriving to work and to enjoy the many amenities that the riding has to offer. At night, the area is alive with people attending the theatre, cinemas or taking in sports and other events at the Metro Centre. Many avail themselves of the fine eateries in the area, while others are just out to enjoy an evening stroll along Spring Garden Road or a walk along the historic waterfront area. Throughout the year many people work out at Dalhousie and Saint Mary's sports complexes and from early spring on, hundreds of soccer players make use of the artificial turf on the soccer fields at Dalhousie and Saint Mary's Universities.
Mr. Speaker, the inhabitants of Halifax Citadel are as diverse as the architectural landscape of this area. Many of the province's business leaders and entrepreneurs live in the riding. Several universities and institutions of higher learning such as Dalhousie University, the Technical University of Nova Scotia, or Daltech as it is now called, Saint Mary's University, University of Kings College, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Atlantic School of Theology are all located in this riding. Because of the presence of so many colleges and universities there are thousands of students living in residences and apartments throughout the district. As well, many of the professors and staff of the universities reside in the area as do doctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital workers because of the presence of the QE II hospital complex, the IWK-Grace hospital and the other medical facilities.
Many families with young children have located in Halifax Citadel because of the proximity of schools, universities and the many cultural and recreational facilities available here. We also have a number of senior citizens' homes in the riding. Because public transportation is readily available, usually, and everything is within easy walking distance and hospitals are close by, many older people choose to live here.
When I was growing up in Halifax after the war, there were few apartment buildings in south-end Halifax. Today there are over 8,500 apartment units in the riding so that a large percentage of the constituents are apartment dwellers. Some of these are older people who live in condominiums but there are many young people who like to live downtown, close to work and to the entertainment scene. There are also a number of low-income people residing in the area in small flats and rooming houses. As older houses are renovated and gentrified or demolished to make room for new apartment complexes, the availability of lower cost housing in the area is becoming scarcer.
Mr. Speaker, the people of Halifax Citadel place great stock in education, arts and culture. The constituency has many of the city's major performance venues like the new Neptune Theatre complex, the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium and the Metro Centre. The riding contains Nova Scotia's only higher education facility devoted entirely to the arts. I am referring, of course, to NSCAD, or the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. The riding is home to the Nova Scotia Symphony, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is receiving widespread attention of late because of its popular Titanic exhibition. In addition, we can look forward to the Pier 21 Centre which will open in the spring of 1999. This international centre will extol the Canadian immigration experience because through this pier on the Halifax waterfront 1.5 million immigrants entered Canada between the years 1928 and 1971. Halifax Citadel is also the home to the new Electropolis sound stage which houses four sound stages for the making of films.
I would also like to draw particular attention to two great events produced this spring by two of these institutions, both celebrating the Black Community of Nova Scotia. NSCAD's Anna Leonowens Gallery presented the exciting exhibition, Black Art in Nova Scotia, now touring throughout Nova Scotia, and Neptune Theatre's production of Gospel at Colonus which brought together an all Black cast for an unforgettable musical production. Both these productions attracted wide media attention, both provincially and nationally.
Mr. Speaker, the citizens of south-end Halifax are well served by an important community organization called the Peninsula South Community Association. The stated purpose of the association is put simply: to ensure that the people of south-end Halifax have a good place to live. Through a system of neighbourhood representatives and regular public meetings the organization keeps abreast of such local issues as air pollution, traffic, noise, litter, parking and municipal planning. There are also committees dealing with community health and university relations and groups which monitor the municipal and provincial
governments. The association is currently chaired by Mr. Hugh Pullen. The presence of this association reflects the interest and involvement of its members in the community. As the MLA for Halifax Citadel, I plan to remain an active participant in the association so as to be well informed of community concerns at the grass-roots level.
In Halifax Citadel we are fortunate in having many heritage buildings and sites, such as this Assembly building where the Nova Scotia Legislature has met since 1819. The original town site for Halifax was in the riding and many of the buildings erected in the 19th Century have been preserved and maintained as part of our rich legacy. Many people in the constituency want to ensure that in the process of developing and revitalizing the downtown core area of our city and in particular, the waterfront area between Sackville Landing Park and the Electropolis, we take care to ensure that such development is consistent with the historic nature of the area.
A provincial Crown Corporation, the Waterfront Development Corporation Limited is charged with planning, co-ordinating and promoting the development of the waterfront area of greater Halifax Harbour. Many residents of the constituency and indeed other Haligonians have expressed concern about a proposal by Southwest Properties for a large residential development called Bishop's Landing on the property across from the Brewery Market. I raise the issue here because the Waterfront Development Corporation, which comes under the aegis of the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism is actively promoting this development in concert with Southwest Properties.
Interested citizens at public meetings involving this proposed development have expressed the view that they want the waterfront area to remain accessible to the public, that there must be abundant open space, and that any buildings are aesthetical pleasing and do not overpower the site. In the interest of ensuring that this very unique and precious stretch of waterfront is thoughtfully developed in the best interests of all our citizens, it is essential that the Waterfront Development Corporation ensure there is adequate consultation with the public on this proposed development and that a vision and plans for the development of the entire waterfront area be prepared before proceeding with any piecemeal development of the waterfront area.
Mr. Speaker, in two election campaigns, the by-election campaign in November and the general election campaign in March, I had the opportunity to visit, speak with and listen to many people in the riding. I participated in debates, public forums, call-in radio shows and panel discussions. There is no doubt that the political issues, which are of great concern to most Nova Scotians, pertain to the quality of our health care system, the slashing of our public services, the deterioration of our educational programs and the chronic problem of joblessness in some parts of our province.
With respect to health care, we must ensure there is no further erosion of our health care system such as that which occurred through the ill-planned restructuring and downsizing program undertaken by the Liberal Government. You don't have to go far these days to encounter someone with a horror story about the health care system. People in the system, including doctors, frequently use words like crisis and chaos to refer to the state of health care in this province. We must conduct a full and public assessment of the impacts of health care restructuring and then, through consultation with all the stakeholders: medical practitioners, hospital administrators, employees, voluntary health organizations and community members, come up with a health reform plan to ensure there is a first-rate health care system in this province.
As I indicated, Mr. Speaker, university students comprise a large community within the riding. Since 1986, there has been a 140 per cent increase in tuition fees, while the cost of living has risen by 33 per cent. This year's tuition increase was 11.8 per cent. Provincial grants for a student in Nova Scotia are the lowest of any province in Canada, and university tuition fees in Nova Scotia are the highest in Canada. During the two election campaigns, I spoke with hundreds of students in residences and apartments. Many expressed concern over the high debt load they were carrying, they wanted to know what could be done to help them. They didn't expect their debts to be written off, they wanted to see tuition fees stop escalating, and they were asking for summer employment opportunities to help defray expenses and prevent the accumulation of debt. For many who are in over their heads financially, there was a sense of hopelessness about their predicament.
The average student alone is now $6,300 per year and upon graduation the average debt load that students are saddled with is a staggering $24,000. I am very concerned that such a high debt load will lead to insolvency or will take such a long time to pay down that it will mortgage the lives of our young people. Repayment of their student loans will impose such a financial burden on our graduates that many of them may be unable, for some time, to purchase a car or a house or to plan a family or to set aside income for retirement. There is little in the Speech from the Throne to provide students with any hope of managing their debt burden, indeed, there is the expectation that tuition fees may continue to increase causing the accumulation of even more debt.
Mr. Speaker, the importance of our post-secondary institutions cannot be overstated. We are fortunate to have 11 world-class degree-granting universities, colleges and institutions in Nova Scotia; 5 of them are located right here in Halifax Citadel. When the provincial Liberal Government swept to power in 1993, the federal Liberal Government had already been cutting back federal support to the provinces for education, health care and community services to the tune of $7 billion. The cuts to education alone totalled $2 billion, nationally. Our provincial government followed lock-step with its federal counterparts by reducing funding for universities and schools in Nova Scotia. In the past five years alone, grants to universities have been cut by 15 per cent.
In a letter to the Premier of Nova Scotia, Mr. Russell MacLellan, before the general election, the Council of University Presidents highlighted the need to increase government grants to universities. I quote from this letter, "There is an urgent need to increase government grants to universities. Cuts in recent years have passed the point of prudence. The threat to the quality of Nova Scotia's highly regarded universities is imminent. Good universities take years to build; they can be destroyed in a much shorter period.". I cite this excerpt to indicate that the quality of programs and instruction has been seriously eroded by the decrease in funding to universities.
The Throne Speech indicates that the government plans to increase investment in our universities in each of the next three years, such that increases in tuition fees may be eliminated. Mr. Speaker, at face value that is a very encouraging statement, however, one cannot be faulted for being sceptical regarding this promise since the funding priorities of the previous five years were diametrically opposite to that proposed in the Throne Speech. I guess we will have to wait to see what is actually available for universities when the budget is presented.
A short while ago I had the opportunity to meet with the dean of the Dalhousie Medical School, the associate dean of research and planning at the medical school and with the head of the university's department of immunology about support for medical research in this province. It was apparent at that time that there was a lack of appreciation by our provincial government of the importance of medical research in Nova Scotia. There is no health research foundation in Nova Scotia as exists in other provinces.
MR. SPEAKER: I would ask the honourable member if he would please move adjournment of the debate.
MR. DELEFES: Mr. Speaker, I would be pleased to move the adjournment, sir.
MR. SPEAKER: Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
The honourable Government House Leader.
HON. MANNING MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I realize that the honourable member was on a roll over there and I was really interested in hearing what he was saying but I am sure he will pick it up again Monday night.
Mr. Speaker, the House will sit on Monday evening between the hours of 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. and the Address in Reply will be the order of business Monday evening with the continuation by the member.
MR. SPEAKER: Is the House ready for adjournment?
Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye. Contrary minded, Nay.
The motion is carried.
We stand adjourned.
[The House rose at 1:59 p.m.]
