Thursday, March 16, 1967

this: We put up a thundering fight down there to get 20% of that extra ten million. Do you know what they said? “What are you talking about? This has been settled and agreed to by the government in your province and that's it." And that was it; through the carelessness of a Liberal Administration we lost 3.5 million dollars on the division of that special Atlantic Provinces grant. Yet this gentleman comes back boasting about 3.5 million that he received on his trip to Ottawa.

Now, Mr. Speaker. I think I will call this a day because I am not going to finish this evening and I would like to divide this up as eauitably as possible and give it to the members of this House as frankly and reasonably as possible.

Now, I wonder, Mr. Premier, I didn’t get a chance to discuss this with you,

but we have a very, very bad storm and it will be difficult to get to our homes and

. hotels or wherever domiciled for a meeting here tonight and I would suggest to you

that we adjourn until tomorrow morning. I don't think that is going to be any par-

ticular disability. It is just a matter of one of these things that you cannot prophesy,

the weather, very far ahead and if it is agreeable I would be willing to move the adjournment of the debate until tomorrow at ten.

Honourable Alexander B. Campbell: Mr. Speaker, I have discussed this matter with some members of both sides of the House and because of the atom it is not likely that any members will be travelling the roads this evening to get home. The Leader of the Opposition is making such a fine contribution to the Debate and so on here that it is felt that we might as well utilize the time because we feel that this Debate is going to be long enough. There is much business to be done in this House so we would suggest that perhaps we do adjourn until eight o’colck.

Walter R. Shaw: Mr. Speaker, when we adjourned this afternoon I was deal- ing with the question of the financial conference at Ottawa and certain developments and supposed settlements that were made there with the Province of Prince Edward Island. and that was involved chiefly in what the Premier of this province stated was a most marvellous settlement with this province. 3.5 million dollars of a special grant. 8.5 million dollars more than what? 3.5 million dollars more than practically nothing that was allocated to the Province of Prince Edward Island in the September con- ference. No question about that. Where was there any favourable development at that time? Here was the province, the weakest in Canada, the province that had practically the lowest per captia revenue of any province in Canada with very little of an outlook or immprovement in that revenue. We were not in the same position as Newfoundland where they have a tremendous potential and a tremendous future as far as earning power is concerned. We did not have that; we were dependent on a cry narrow bracket of earning power from the farms, and from the fisheries and th the hope which we had of industrial development that might bring in greater wealth to this province. But let us look at that statement of the September settle- ment where we were given practically nothing. Here is a statement and it is a statement which under the arrangement of 1966 and 1967 Newfoundland as securing around $37,000,000. But their proposed new arrangement on the sis of the September allocation gave Newfoundland $22,600,000 more. Nova Scotia t $18,800,000 more. New Brunswick got $15,700,000 more, Quebec got $85,900,000 ore, and Prince Edward Island got the skunk bounty $200,000! The province that eeded it the most was brushed off under that arrangement that was made in Ottawa 'th practically nothing. The stand that we took at Ottawa in any of the previous onferences was that we should have special consideration on the basis of fiscal eed. With only a hundred or a little better than one hundred thousand people en. eavouring to provide the facilities, the services as they have in other provinces on reasonably equitable basis. And I think that was recognized in previous confer- nces, it was recognized under the Diefenbaker government, it was recognized as a atter of fact under the Liberal Government in the first conference that I attended ere, I believe in 1964, and we were treated, while not in comparison with what they eceived in the other Atlantic Provinces, with a reasonable measure of encourage- ent, and it was because of the strenuous objections that we made at Ottawa in hese conferences that they treated us perhaps with a little more consideration than therwise would have been the case. But here $200,000.00 more against from $15,000,000

$22,000,000 more for the other Atlantic Provinces. The most ridiculous thing that we ever heard tell of and I think that was a time for the representatives of this

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