Wednesday, April 19, 1967

Walter R. Shaw: Oh yes, I am.

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: Are you?

Several Members: Don’t tell him, don’t tell him.

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: Don't tell him?

Walter R. Shaw: 1 am interested in ancient history at anytime. Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: A real “best-seller”, I will tell you that.

Mr. Speaker, the junior member from Sixth Queens, I am sorry he is not in his seat tonight, mentioned in a rather sarcastic manner that there was nothing in the Throne Speech but the promise of the Government to bring higher wages in this

rovince. Now in contradiction to that statement I would like to inform the House,

r. Speaker, that on the 28th day of March, 1967, the Dominion Bureau of Statis- tics released a statement that in Prince Edward Island there was an increase in labour income of 10.4% in 1966 over 1965, bringing wages on Prince Edward Island to a total of $74,000,000.00. This means an increase of over $7,000,000.00 in wages, which I would say is quite a significant increase. This is a greater percentage increase then the province of Nova Scotia and Manitoba show in the release where, I may say, there are Conservative administrations in power. The National average increase was 12.2%, so that Prince Edward Island compares very favourably in com- parison to the national average and I feel quite certain, Mr. Speaker, that no one in the Opposition can dispute these figures.

But getting back to Department affairs I would like to emphasize that since setting up the separate department, the past eight and one-half months have been months of achievement in the Departmnt of labour. Through long hours of detailed study, research, thought and planning we have developed a fresh new approach to labour management problems. Definite constructive and long-range policies have been formulated to guide the Department in its relations with labour and manage- ment. A new rapport has been established with both labour and management thereby regaining the confidence of both groups in the ability of the Department to handle industrial problems involving both groups. Our conciliation services have been expedited to maintain industrial eace in the province. The Labour Relations Board has functioned impartially and fectively, clearing up a great back-log of cases and at the same time earning the unqualified respect of both labour and management.

We have established a Labour Management Relations Council to explore and study the problems of labour management relations, and a proper set of records and files have been established. In addition, there are many other areas in which the Department has given its attention and on which I will elaborate in this address.

The question is often asked, Mr. Speaker, why does the Government have a separate department of Labour? Well, Mr. Speaker, I can give you a political answer to that question, and that is that the Liberal party promised a s to portfolio on labour and the Campbell Government will always- keep its section promises. (Applause)

Walter R. Shaw: That’s a joke all right!

Honourable J. Elmer Blanchard: But let us look at what prompted this plank in our platform. First of all, we have to look at the term “labour" in its broad sense and meaning. Labour includes wage earners at all levels, and cannot be re- stricted to the skilled and semi-skilled tradesmen and unskilled labour only, which I may say is the popular conception of the term labour. It includes civil servants, professional people, and in general anyone who receives a wage in return for his skill and work. So let us look at the number of persons who are wage earners in this province. According to the Census of 1961, there were 34,839 persons in the labour force in P. E. I. On the other hand the formula used by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics to determine the size of the work force in a province is thirty- five to thirty-seven percent of the population. This would give us a figure of 40,330 persons in the labour force on the basis of 109,000 population. We can, therefore, say with some certainty that our work force numbers somewhere between 34,000 and 40,850 persons.

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