Legislative Assembly

recommended forty-five schools, Regional High Schools, so we really cut it down by 200% which wasn’t a bad slash. So I think the Minister of Health should read the LaZerte Report again and actually except for one area, high schools were operaflng in every one of those areas when he was Minister, and he inaugurated man of those schools, perhaps most of them on a high school basis. So he couldn’t crl

me because I was just following what he had already set up. All we did was d

it on a regional basis, and gave all the children in the regions an opportunity to cue in and take advantage of these centers of higher education, instead of having to run around and ask the village school or board permission to bring their students in. We organized a transportation system whereby they could all be brought in every by on a regular basis and receive their instruction. I am not too impressed with fie fact that there may be busses, two busses meeting, because when they arrive at file school, if they are loaded it doesn't make much difference what road they travel over. That is not a serious matter at all.

Now, I am pleased to see that the vote for an enquiry into a system of taxa- tion has been put back in again: the vote of $7500.00 that we passed last year of which not one cent was spent. I see they have put it up to 38.000.00 this year. The promise was made at the time of the election that there would be a commission ap immediately but I don’t think that eight or ten months comes within the m or interpretation of the word immediately. I would certainly advise the Minister, he doesn’t want me to come back next year and read this promise all over again, that he had better get his commission appointed and get them enquiring into how he is going to do away with urban and rural taxation. That is going to be a problem.

I just want to say a few words about the debt. There have been certain pro- nouncements made about the net debt of the Province. You know, you can come up with almost any figure and say it is the debt. It is the most amazing thing. Some- thing like the men of Hindustan who went to see the elephant, though all of them were blind, and they all came up with a different interpretation of what the elephant was like. That is the way with the Members of the Government, they all come up with a different interpretation of what the debt is. They are all partly right and maybe all in the wrong, however. The funded debt on the 28th of July 1966 was “8,846,000.00, according to the auditors report. Less sinking funds, cut it down to

342.000.000.00. According to the same report on the slat, of March the net debt was “9,000,000.00.

Some Member: Six hundred and seventy thousand.

L. George Dewar: And mostly through the effqrts of the present Provincial Treasurer this net debt of “9,000,000.00, which I think is the important figure to use, you can say that the total liabilities of the Province are $102,000,000.00. And if you add in the guarantees you get a $120,000,000.00. So I could say the debt is $120,000,000.00 at the present time, but I wouldn’t be telling the whole truth. I could go to work and cut it down by using all the assets that we have but if we use the net debt figure, we find that it was “9,000,000.00 on the 3lst of March and it is now 361.592.000.00 or an increase estimated at some ”2,000,000.00 by the present Provincial Treasurer.

Frank Myers: $2,000,000.00 of an increase in the net debt during the ad- ministration of this Government.

Honourable T. Earle Hickey: What was it the 28th of July?

L. George Dewar: 0n the 28th of July I took exception to some of the figures that were included. And I think the Provincial Treasurer had better look into it himself, because I don’t think they are altogether correct.

Honourable T. Earle Hickey: There is nothing wrong with those figures. Honourable Alexander B. Campbell: Will you take an affidavit on it?

L. George Dewar: Yes, take an affidavit on it. I think of one item that I men. tioned the other day with regard to the Senior Citizens Homes.

Honourable T. Earle Hickey: Well, that is going to be a debt in any case.

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