Legislative Assembly

province to stand up there and say we are not going to put up with this equalization appropriation. They should have taken a stand which simply told these people at Ottawa that this province, small as it was, is not going to stand for any kind of a brushooff of that kind. This was the conference, may I say, that was set up by the Dominion Government, the conference that was supposed to settle this question in the future regarding the allocation to the different provinces to carry on these ser- vices which I have intimated.

I am not saying that the Honourable Premier didn’t put up a good story. I told you this afternoon I could read from what his presentation was, in effect, about the same as we had made on previous occasions. But he didn’t get that recognition and I say in the light of that conference and its implications and the promises on behalf of the Prime Minister got that this was going to be something that was going to settle the demands of the various provinces.

Now, what happened in the October conference? This was the conference from which the Premier of this province came back and said we got 3.5 million dollars special money. Let’s see what happened in the October Conference? Again, in the September Conference Newfoundland was raised by 822.600.000.00. What happened in the October Conference? They were raised $32,000,000.00 in the October Con- ference. Does that look as if we got any special recognition? Nova Scotia went from $69,000,000 to $74,400,000 in the October Conference. They were raised to the extent of about 5.5 million above what the September Conference gave them. New- foundland got almost 11.5 million more. In Quebec they went up to $235,000,000 in September they were raised to $266,000,000 in October; $115,000,000 more, or $31,- 000,000 more than they got in the September allocation. Little Prince Edward Island comes in and they got $3,500,000. $3,300,000 more than was allocated to them in September. Who could ever come back to this province and say we got special treat- ment? The special treatment was on these other provinces and the figures are there and can’t be denied, and these come through the Minister of Finance at Ottawa. Does that look as if we received special consideration? Does the fact that Newfoundland received $32,000,000 more; Nova Scotia almost twenty-five; New Brunswick twenty- two millions or more, does that look as if we received special consideration with our little three and one-half million dollars special treatment! This was a disgraceful treatment, it was disgraceful in the light and the nature of that conference and I have no hesitation in making that statement in this House. The base was wrong, the formula was wrong; there was no consideration undertaken of our disabilities, of our needs in this little province. Our Premier and his associates went up and smilingly cheered the men who gave our neighbours gold dollars and a few pennies for Mr. Campbell to come home and rattle in his pocket. That was the story, and that story cannot be denied! But what about the whole package-deal from first to last? They don’t know. What about phasing-out? Their objective was to get out from under and cast responsibility unto the provinces on a federal level. At the moment this applies chiefly to education. Do they realize just what this is going to do for us? What is going to happen to this province after 1970 or 1971 where we will have vastly increased costs, where we will have perhaps double the enrolment in our Uni- versities and our schools. Are we to take the full responsibility for that? I ask you to look very carefully at what will our assistance be in the future years. We ask that the Government clearly outline this whole problem of what we are supposed to get in revenue from the federal government. Lay it down in black and white. Do you know what the future holds? No, nor the present either, they cannot tell. The Minister of Education was frank enough. He was there studying this matter of phasing-out on education; he was the man that I would suppose would have been closer in touch with education than the other two men. He came back and he told this country that he was frustrated, that he didn’t understand it. Other Premiers and their financial experts in the other provinces were not clear. Mr. Robichaud and Mr. Smallwood don’t know, but they are happy with their bags full of gold presented by their friends in Ottawa. The men in Nova Scotia are not sure. The honourable Mr. Smith in a statement to the Nova Scotia Legislature said in effect “I don't know whether we are a dollar better off or a dollar worse of ”. The Premiers and financial experts in other provinces do not understand it yet. Yet these mighty men of ours, I am sure when they walk down the streets of Summerside those wonderful build- ings that we put up there must tremble with the tread of these great men. They know but they couldn't tell this province and they can’t tell this House now, and I

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