Legislative Assembly

the Causeway, and none of these were even mentioned, either in the Throne Speech or in any of the debates, and these, in my opinion, are important items. The Govern- ment will have to face all these problems sooner or later and the people of the Pro- vince have a right to know what policy or policies are to be proposed by the Govern- ment, if indeed any are forthcoming. For example, we may expect a larger number of tourists after the Causeway is completed — if Ottawa agrees to go ahead with it at all. There will have to be a sensible overall plan for accommodation. recreation, etc., if we are to prevent this Province from being turned into a Coney Island. There is also the rapidly mushrooming problem of foreign ownership of our shore

perties, for an acquisition is taking place at a large rate and if something is not done soon, we could easily find that most Islanders will become domestic servants of foreign ownership. There are other less important side effects of the Causeway which

require our consideration and I would urge the Government to start thinking about them in the near future.

I turn now to the second important item which I mentioned and that is econo- mic development. The Government introduced a White Paper on Economic Develop- ment. It was, in the main. a recital of well known difficulties and offered no solu- tions. It was vague and couched in language that can only be referred to as nebulous, indefinite and deceitful. Every since it has been introduced, I have been asking my- self the auestion, why should it have been done, and I have been unable to find an answer. I suggest to you that there is no answer. except possibly that it is calculated to mislead and fool our people in this Province. The Government, because of its many past reference to some such big development found it expedient to introduce this nebulous phantom. It even went further: they tried to give it an air of authenticity and respectability by passing some legislation regarding it. But as everyone knows economic development can’t be legislated. Governments do have a role to play in encouraging and fostering economic development as well as promoting this Island as a place where industry should be located. An article in the Financial Post has some advice for the Maritime Provinces in this regard. The writer is a Professor of Com- merce at Dalhousie University and the date of publication is April 2nd, 1966. He is of the opinion that one of the chief reasons for industry not locating in the Maritimes Provinces is lack of promotion and our failure to advertise some of our natural ad- vantages. He states. the factors which lead to a choice of site of an industry are, and I quote, “The Federal Government, provincial and municipal Governments of the Atlantic Provinces and agencies of all these Governments, are preoccupied with the

task of trying to steer manufacturing industry toward the Atlantic region. Their efforts have met with some success.”

He goes on to say that out of 349 new industries established in Canada be- tween 1959 and 1962. only seven considered establishing in the Maritimes, and of these only one gave P.E.I. a cursory glance before reiecting it. He attributed this to our lack of recognition of the key role played by public relations. and the absence of any incentive to establish here or elsewhere in the Maritimes. Premier Shaw and his Government recognized both of those principles and he was successful in having established six major industries as well as many minor ones. Now we are trading these for a mirage which have been given the legitimacy of legislative sanction. Premier Stanfield also recognized these principles of good public relations and at» tractive incentives. He has been successful in attracting fifty new industries to Nova Scotia, with government participation of approximately sixty million dollars. All of you have read about the fantastic new heavy water plant at Point Tupper, as well as the big oil refinery in Cape Breton. Recently Premier Stanfield said that I.E.L. was so successful because it was established on the following principles, and I quote from the Chronicle-Herald of February 14, 1967;

“The general run of businessmen engaged in manufacturing were happier deal- ing with other businessmen than with government officials. It was safer to own or have an interest in a factory than to invest in shares of a company operating a fac- tory. It was desirable to harness the ability and energy of your own business com- munity in promoting industry, and therefore to provide the independence of action required, always within well defined terms: and Co-ordination and liaison could be provided through the Minister of Trade and Industry serving as a director.”

Mr. Stanfield referred to the 3,000 new jobs already created and with more to come. Nova Scotia is now showing a new light to the rest of Canada and to the

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