Ifigislative Assembly

"Some'Members': Terrible! Terrible!

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: Since the Department was organized in 1965, we learned that there were fifty-six orders of certification, decertification, and amendments to certifications. But we were able to find only thirty carbon copies of those fifty-six originals in the records. 0f the remaining twenty-six, twenty-five originals have been borrowed from which certified copies have been made. This leaves still one to be tracked down. This is a sad commentary, Mr. Speaker, on the miserable kind of records the previous government kept in this department.

Seven] Members: Terrible, terrible, terrible!

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: To indicate the lack of interest and attention paid to the Labour Department by the previous administration, I took the trouble to see what previous Ministers talked about in the sessions of the Legislature from 1962 to 1966, the years in which Speeches of the Legislature are available. In 1962 the Minister had seventy paragraphs in his speech — there were six on labour. In 1963 there were fifty-two paragraphs, with six on labour. In 1964 there were thirty- six paragraphs, with eight on labour. In 1965 there were fifty paragraphs with ten on labour. In 1966 a new Minister of Welfare and Labour was appointed and he turned out to be a real windy fellow. His speech was 180 paragraphs long and he had thirty-six on labour. (Applause)

Walter R. Shaw: Good boy!

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: But in all of the above speeches closer ex- amination shows that, even when those paragraphs were relating to labour,a agreat many of them had to do with Winter Works projects. But their speeches indicate that they had absolutely no conception of the many basic problems of labour and management in this province and one can only infer that they didn’t care.

Walter R. Shaw: How many did you have this year? Honourable 1. Elmer Blanchard: I have forty pages here.

1 ho Yalter R. Shaw: How many paragraphs in the Speech from the Throne on a ur.

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: A goodly number, Sir.

Walter R. Shaw: You had eighty-three and I don’t think there was any on labour?

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard. Well you can’t read, Sir.

Honourable Alexander B. Campbell: You should read that Speech from the Throne one of these days.

Walter R. Shaw: I got half way through and I got tired. (Laughter).

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: Even in this present Session of the Legis- lature the questions directed to me as Minister show a complete lack of interest or a superficial knowledge in labour-management affairs. All of these questions have been centered around the Winter Works program, and have even involved questions on lotteries or some other insignificant matters, which have no real bearing onthe labour problems that exist here. The only criticism I have heard yet is that my office was supplied with new furniture. But I can tell you something about what I found in my old desk when we replaced our furniture. It made rather interesting reading but I suppose the Opposition would not be interested to know what it was.

Walter R. Shaw: Only interested to know what you are going to do from now on.

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: Yes, I figured that. You are going to hear :0? ofd what I am going to do from now on, Sir. You’re still not interested in what oun 1’

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