Dollar Mark." Now, in the paper which the headline relates to, further down on the page, it says “The Island Industry worth twenty-five million here" and this year the whole agricultural income is thirty-six million. It was worth twenty-five million _here that year, potatoes alone without the pork the cream, the beef, the many other things. I am quoting from the article; “Prince Edward Island Potato Producers are receivmg a price of $4.00 per bag bulk and the industry has been estimated at twenty-five mil- lion to the Province for the current crop year. The price of $4.00 came to the pro- ducer early this morning from a prominent Charlottetown potato dealer, E. D. Reid.” And it goes on in some detail to further describe the situation.

Some Member: Ask him what is the price of Oats?

Lloyd G. MacPhail: It does not say in this article and I assume at the present time it must be very low from what we have been able to hear. However, we do know, without accepting blame or anything else we do know that the producers in this Prov- ince to-day are receiving a price less than three-quarters of a cent per lb. for the contents at their storage, and while at the same time the consumer in Charlottetown are paying twenty-nine cents for five lbs. which is 5.8 cents per lb. This is a situation that is indeed hard for the tato growers of this Province to swallow. However, the Minister of Agriculture an a number of others including myself were at a meeting the other day. It was on April 6th at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. It was to meet the experts having to do with tato romotion and a very fine meeting, a very fine program they had. Unfortunate y, unli e the Minister I wasn’t able to be there for the entire period, but I did hear some of the speeches which were made and saw some of the demonstrations which were given.

I was interested to hear a man by the name of Mr. J. Crane from Ontario who spoke on potato production. Among other things he said that he had quite a large potato acreage himself along with being a grower, packager and distributor. But when he was talking about other things, he happened to mention the prices received at that time, about two or three weeks ago, by the producer in other parts of Canada. I realize that Canada is a big country and there are considerable variations because of freight and because of local scarcity or local surpluses. In any case. he was quoting, and these are his figures and I did not verify them but he was quoting these figures, in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba the price received was about $1.75 to $1.90 while in Ontario they were tting $1.00 and of course further east we were getting less than that. Anyway, r. Speaker, I submit that this is a situation which the Government says they can do little about. But I do remember at a time when Mem- bers whose allegiance belonged and indeed were and still are with that party, said there were things that government could do about it. I refer, of course, to two men who ran as Liberal Candidates in Queens County in 1963. I think, in fact I’m sure, their names were Mr. Lewis and Mr. Gillis. I don’t think the present Minister of Industry was a candidate at that time, I think that was one he sat out. But anyway, these men claimed that the had solutions to certain problems. They said that they could blast their way into t e markets of England and this would be a great habit so we were told. They said that the only thing that presented this great invasion of Prince Ed- ward Island potatoes in England was because of the onservative Government in Charlottetown and the Conservative Government in Ottawa. Well, Mr. Speaker, both these Governments have since been removed and the need of this at exodus of Prince Edward Island potatoes to England was never more evident t n it was this present year, and I’m sure if there was any validity in the statement of these people at that time that they should have brought forth these things now when the condi- tions have changed. But you know there may be things that Government cannot do, there fsedthings that Government can do Sir, and there are things that this Govern- ment i 0.

At a special session last fall, they put in a tenth Cabinet post. Some Member: No, eleven.

Lloyd G. MacPhail: And indeed this post could be thought of as one to accom- odate a very deserving Liberal Politician, and of course he doesn’t have much power as he does not have a Portfolio. We have heard rumours, reports and some have not been denied that the can establish new jobs with very high salaries for people both within and without e Province, people who do not take Civil Service exams and who indeed in many cases get higher salaries than many dedicated and loyal Civil Serv- ants who have toiled for this Province for many years. I think this Government is too

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