Thursday. April », 1W Keith S. Harrington: Lo and behold, in this Speech from the Throne there is no mention of it, Mr. Speaker . I know the people who were the candidates in my District and they went from home to home promising people that If they were elected to power that there would be $1.25 per hour for their wages. How much better off they would be! But I want to say this in all fairness to the Premier of the Province. He did not make that statement, he did not make the statement, bat others, and through the press we were led to believe that there would be no more poor times, there would be XI .25 from now on. Now. Mr. Sneaker , that's on* I think the Honourable Minister of Labour, who has just spoken, has got to consider Tory ser¬ iously. If he is as sincere and as conscientious to work on behalf of the people of this orovince, he will see that they get a better deal. At a meeting in ■hayofue too, the Honourable Premier promised a low-cost rural housing scheme for tat fishermen and the farmers. Now, we have the truth. We are told at the present time that this is not possible, it is an impossibility to implement this program. I dont blame the Minister who administers the housing scheme because others have probably brought him into this embarrassing situation. They said they would have better control of spending. I wonder if this is so ? What a disappointment for the people of this province when they were promised this Liberal Eutopia and they didn't get it. Now. Mr. Speaker , I have not spoken this for mere criticism. That is not so. The people of this province were promised that. (Applause) And I stand here and ask the government to do it, (Applause) to fulfill their promises to the people of this province. I will say this much too: there is a lot of merit in that program, there are a lot of good points, but the people of this province are denied it and they should not be. We have in this province three different sources of income. Our earning power comes chiefly from agriculture, fishing and tourism, but of course the greatest of all is the resource of agriculture. Agriculture is becoming big business in this prov¬ ince and everywhere, and it is requiring large sums of money to operate on. Large sums of capital investment in order to meet today's expanding condition and chang¬ ing conditions. I think there should be a change of attitude. Over in Nora Scotia , for example, that province is now considering, and I believe that their policy is to give capital grants to farmers in order to help them to modernize and to meet today's conditions. But the unfortunate part here, and everywhere across Canada , the farmer is not only expected to pay not only the 11% federal sales tax---- Some Member : Twelve percent. Keith S. Harrington : ___twelve percent federal sales tax as well as the pro¬ vincial sales tax. I think that the Honourable Minister of Agriculture should con¬ sider that this should be a concession in order that the people, the farmers of this province, may have an opportunity to expand in the light of today's conditions. (Applause) And I hope when the Budget is brought down, that there will be in¬ creased expenditure for the Department of Agriculture. (Applause) In any busi¬ ness, if we are going to make money, we first have to spend it, and I beHeve we have to spend a lot in the Department of Agriculture to stimulate oar agricultural industry. Now perhaps I sounded quite critical to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture but he has an awful lot of good points and he does some good things, and the good things that he does I would like to congratulate him for. I would like to congratulate him on the policy that he is going to bring out in helping to subsidize the construc¬ tion of silos in this province. If there is anything we need it is cheap livestock feed, if we are going to maintain competition in the livestock industry and to keep up our livestock population. Our livestock population, as he has said, has dwindled con¬ siderable over the past year, and unless we get cheaper feed it is hard for the farm¬ ers of this province to compete in such a competitive field as that of sericulture. I was disappointed when the Honourable Minister did not outline just exactly how this policy is to be applied. I was looking for that. I congratulate him, too, on the appointment of a Director of the Potato Industry, something that has long been overdue. I believe the Honourable Minister's thinking, and what he has said he intends to do, are very sound suggestions and I believe, if carried out, will do much to eliminate the objectionable disease in our potatoes that we have at the present time. This is necessary if we are to protect this vital potato industry, so essential —282—