Wednesday, February 28, 1968

people in Prince Edward Island. Forgotten has been the plight of the fishermen over the last few years, and the needed financial assistance to help them in certain areas. Fongotten in the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition were the problems of fusarium rot which beseiged farmers in the early 1960s. Forgotten were the cole crop problems of 1965; forgotten were the poor potato prices in the early 19605, when the policy of the government at that time, enunciated by the then Minister of Agriculture, were to hold on for better prices. And hold on did the farmers of the Province long enough to dump them in the woods in the springtime. Well enough is it for the Leader of the Opposition to score this government for the failings. We acknowledge the problems in this Province, Mr. Speaker. They have been outlined, and we have been reminded of them; we are quite cognizant of them. The fact is that these problems cannot be resolved by the policies of the former government. The policies of the former government are quite inadequate to meet the marketing, the agricultural, fisheries, industrial problems which beset this Province today. And so this government has had to do some very serious and long-ranged thinking into the whole spectrum of our economy. And this govern- ment has been evolving, through means of appraisal, a program which, unfortunately, cannot be announced to this House today or tomorrow, but which, in the final analysis, and with the assistance of the funds of the Regional Development Pro. gram will, we expect, and we are quite confident of this, Mr. Speaker, attack many of the problems to which the Leader of the Opposition referred today.

I read with great interest, further on through the speech of the Leader of the Opposition where he referred during his administration to the fact that for the first time in the history of the Province there was a program of industrial expansion. “We established between three and four thousand new jobs.” He doesn’t know how many there were, three or four thousand —- give or take a thousand, in this province during that period and added the comment, “money was in free circulation". Never before was a more truthful statement given to this House. “Money was in free circulation.” That was one of the problems that led to the serious financial crisis in this Province today, Mr. Speaker. Then he talked about the travelling and the Ministers and so on.

Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition or any member of his G0vernment had been present while I was giving evidence he would have heard very clearly, during three hours of evidence, an account of the events and the government actions and activities since July 28th, 1966, in connection with that particular problem. I am not impressed with the statement which the Opposition now delivers this House that it has considered the whole matter and decided that it would not be appropriate for them to give evidence to the Royal Com- mission. I am not impressed with this view. I would be much more impressed, Mr. Speaker, with any statements members of the Opposition would have to give the Royal Commission to help the Royal Commission, under oath and subject to cross- examination, rather than the kind of evidence that they have been offering to the public by means of the immunity of this Legislative Assembly. So I’m not going to discuss Georgetown at any further length. It’s been a most vexing problem. It has been one that has taken a great deal of time and attention on behalf of the Government but let me say this, Mr. Speaker, the Opposition might very well in- terest us in delivering more of the evidence on Georgetown. The Royal Commis- sion didn’t want to get involved in the partisan nature of it and, therefore, only about ten percent of the evidence is made public. The other ninety percent is available and we might be encouraged, we might be interested in giving it to the Opposition if they wish to have it. Now, what else is here in the Opposition Minister’s speech? :He talks about takin over office in 1959, saying that he was not in power three weeks until he and his collegues had reassessed the situation and they started the wheels of development going. That speaks well of the ad- ministration that had left office before him because in a matter of three weeks the tlizng was rolling along. Perhaps it speaks poorly, however, of the assessments which the former Government made because policies were not then evolved that would serve this Province for any length of time. Only a few years later the signs of more serious cracks in the foundation of our economy began to develop. The signs of more serious problems facing our farmers and our fishermen and our laborers

_45_