Legislative Assembly Walter R. Shaw : Both these statement* were greeted with applause from the Liberal benches! That is the stand you took and in addition, it has been stated that correspondence from a high-ranking Liberal from this province reached interested in¬ dustrialists in Norway , which threw grave suspicion upon the Georgetown operation and the activities of the government of this province in financing these operations. What did the Kings County members do during these attacks from first to last and especially the Cabinet Ministers who should have been deeply interested in this de¬ velopment. Where did they stand? They never opened their mouths, as far as I am nware, in defence of this fine project, in which large numbers of their supporters were employed. They stood by and watched the rape of Georgetown and the destruc¬ tion of industrial expansion in Kings County and this province without offering one word in its defence. They stood by and watched some hundreds of people fired out, a Christmas present of dismissal, at a time when they needed extra money for Christ¬ mas purposes. Their stand related to industrial development is there clear and dis¬ tinct and all the waters of Niagara cannot wash out or change that record. Now you are backed by their pious professions of support but they cannot erase what they have already done. The Georgetown project was one that exerted a tremendous influence in this area, there is no question about that. We all recognize that this was a type of plant that would take some time to get underway, it was different to other types of plants. They have facilities for fifteen or eighteen shifts there, facilities to handle seventy million pounds of fish, almost the largest in the Maritime when that thing was closed. Strange to say the Liberal Party who attacked industrial operations kept silent during that election campaign and where were the four Kings County members of the Cabinet, and what did they have to say? Especially the representative for Georgetown who is not in his seat at the present time. At the time of closing Foods, working as I say at less than one-quarter of its capacity, and it was during this period that operations were handicapped by the lack of working capital to keep going, and it was at that time that the greatest consideration should have been given by any government of this province to keep that plant open and operating. The processing plant at Georgetown now is one of the most modern of its kind in Canada . It was completed in 1964 and started limited production in September 1965. Industrialists were brought in from Norway , from the Old Country, from the United States, and from parts of Canada , and it took nearly three years on the part of the promoters with every assistance to develop what is considered one of the finest projects of its kind on the coast. The plant is designed with the latest technological skill. It was operated with a skilled labour force and with a special training service where employees could be instructed in the latest plant practices and techniques. As I said, there were only four boats where we should have had twelve or fifteen but these were boats of mar¬ vellous technical qualifications. They were new and I believe someone told me that the boats have been recognised by those who study this thing as being the best type of boat that is put out by any ship-building plant on this coast They are superior in size and seaworthiness to the old ships that were designed and in opera¬ tion formerly. Foods and Bathurst Marine, at capacity, would have a turnover of money in this province of over twelve millions of dollars each year with an em¬ ployable capacity of between seven and eight hundred people. Think of itl The gov¬ ernment of the province provided substantial assistance to the PJ5. Island Industrial Corporation, which now holds its mortgages on these plants, a policy somewhat sim¬ ilar to that applied in the province of Scotia and other provinces. Further as¬ sistance was given through the Fishermen's Loan Board to Bathurst Marine in the form of construction, progress payments for which arrangements were made with the company. No working capital grants or loans had been given to either company at any time as far as I am aware of, and it is interesting to note that both these companies are not in default to the government for their payments. Bathurst Marine had a debt to the government of I believe it was something over $400,000.00, has re¬ duced that indebtedness to about $880,000.00. One of the difficulties has been the problems that I have already indicated of maintenance costs. These, by the way are common experiences, Mr. Speaker , with new industries that have not reached the full potential of production capacity. Working capital was however coming in, and indica¬ tions at the time the government struck and closed this plant was that further oper¬ ating capital was on the way. But what happened? There was a revival of criticisms