Legislative Assembly

Honourable Gordon L. Bennett: Good. I hope you can do the job from the die- tionary.

Lloyd G. MacPhail: I am coming to that, Sir. These books are not free and in the regulations that were issued to the teacher stressed the fact. I read here on the very top of the page, it says. “the books are valuable and expensive" and it goes on to point out that “a book assigned to a pupil is not his property and it.must be returned,” mind you “in good condition" and the regulations provide penalties for a book not returned. These books are not free. In some cases, if they are kept in good condi- tion, it can be said that they are rent free. Otherwise new books must be returned and a non-subsidized cost which in many cases is double the former price which the parent of the pupil paid for this book in this Province previous to this present school year. So I wonder, Mr. Speaker, what is the alibi in this case.

Now, there are other promises. Let us refer to just one more the Premier des- cribed this one as a firm guarantee. Now I am quotin from a letter dated Summer- side, May 25, 1966 and addressed and circulated to, an I quote; “Dear Residents of Georgetown," and with the name Alex B. Campbell under the word signed at the bottom. Paragraph four of this letter reads and I quote, “I want to give you my personal assurance that as Leader of the Liberal Government, I will do everything possible to support the Georgetown Industries. This is my firm guarantee. At the same time I wish to ensure all the workers at Georgetown that in no way will their jobs be changed or interfered with in any way when a Liberal Government is elected. Anyone who suggests any such thing is only trying to mislead the people.” Well, I wonder, I wonder who mislead the people? Mr. Speaker, I intend to deal with this and related matters in considerable detail and I am sure that all relative questions will be answered if you will listen carefully to what I have to say.

Honourable Gordon L. Bennett: Great at asking them, but you won’t answer them.

Harold P. Smith: Mr. Speaker, does the Government feel that this letter influ- enced the workers at Georgetown? Does he feel that this influenced their voting?

Lloyd G. MacPhaiI: I am quoting from the letter, I am not making any refer- ence as to whether or not it influenced the voters, what I do say is, this was as it is described in the words of the rson who wrote the letter, at the bottom of which Alex Campbell’s name appeared. e words “firm guarantee” are used and it seems to me that this was not lived up to in view of recent developments, and I am certainly going to tell you more about these developments in the next few minutes.

Honourable Gordon L. Bennett: How do you define “firm guarantee?”

Lloyd G. MacPhail: Mr. Speaker, as you know and Honourable Members know I don’t make a habit of interupting when other Speakers have the floor and I expect, I hope, it is not too much to expect, reciprocity as far as this is concerned. However, like I say, I very seriously question whether the interpretation that many people would take from this letter was indeed what the Premier and the Government subsequently did. We learn from the morning paper, the Guardian, of December 3, 1966, that Gulf Garden Food had been closed down and then on December 27, we read as well that Bathurst Marine was closed. This in spite of another statement by the Minister of Labour and the Premier in early December stating that. and I quote “Shipbuilding operations would continue despite the closing down of Gulf Garden Foods”. Now, these actions threw hundreds of people out of work at the Christmas season. Since then and durin the time which has since intervened, one of the few voices raised in defence of the rig ts of these displaced workers, voices raised in defence against these inde- fensible actions of this Government in allowing the situation to occur, was the voice of the new Conservative Member from Fifth Kings, who repeatedly and effectively, in a most refreshing manner, upheld the rights of these people. Why, at one stage, we were reading in the Eastern Graphic that the resent Minister of Industry and Fisher- ies issued instructions to the R.C.M.P. to axe ude Mr. MacNeill, the publisher of the Eastern Graphic from a meeting. This was the famous meeting in which two Cabinet Ministers were reported to have distributed cheques in Georgetown. Now this is all the more amazing, Mr. Speaker, in view of the report which was published in the same paper at the same time that a representative from another newspaper had no problem gaining admittance and I have never heard this report being repudiated by any of the Government people involved. It seems, at times, that there is a plot against many

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