Wednesday, February 28, 1968

Walter R. Shaw: Sigsworth . . . .

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: So our program, Mr. Speaker, has not been as progressive, has not been as well announced, has not been aired in the headlines every day. But it is eVery bit as vital, if not more important, than the simple con~ struction of a building. Coming back to the business of processing plants, Mr. Speaker. It is just as important for the Extension Department of the Department of Agriculture as for the industry itself to work with that farmer and to help that farmer to get good returns from his crop, because then there are several farmers in this Province who are not complaining about the price or products delivered to the plants. But the chap who is only getting half the products in his field, half the yield per acre is not getting the returns. And this is one thing that was lacking in the program of the former government. Insufficient work amongst the farmers in helping them. You don’t need two or three hundred or thousand acre farms for this purpose — twenty-five acres is enough. The suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition that we are going to phase out all the small farmers, or the medium farmers, or the large farmers, of the family farmers.

Walter R. Shaw: You are doing it!

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: . . . and have about two thousand commercial farmers in this Province is utter nonsense.

Walter R. Shaw: That’s what the Federation of Agriculture delegation told you the other day. That they are going out.

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: I do not propose, Mr. Speaker, to deal with the items which are more properly dealt with by the Ministers responsible for cer- tain departments. I am leaving consideration of many of the matters referred to in the Speech from the Throne to those Ministers. I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, how proud I was as Leader of the Government, how proud my colleagues were dur- ing our Centennial Year with our association with the many thousands of people in Prince Edward Island whom we had the privilege and occasion to associate dur- ing the celebration of this nation’s one-hundredth birthday. Not only were we im- pressed with the many works undertaken to commemorate the nation’s birthday, we were also impressed with the hospitality which was extended to us in each of the communities. And to the people of Prince Edward Island I extend my con- gratulations for the many excellent ways in which they have celebrated our coun- try’s birthday.

I want to say as Attorney-General of the Province, Mr. Speaker, that the breathilizer testing machine will be in operation as of the first day of March of this year. And I want to clerify what appears to be a misunderstanding with re- spect to this machine.

A person may request the use of the machine if he wants to, but the RCMP, who employ the machine, cannot ask a private person to subject himself to a test on the machine unless the RCMP Officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is intoxicated. If he is under the influence of alcohol, and he is asked to take a test, and he takes the test, then the result of that test will work either against him or for him as one of many other bits of evidence before the Court. Where mis- understanding seems to have occurred is when the individual refuses to take the test when requested by an RCMP Officer. His refusal means an automatic convic- tion, not for impaired driving, but an automatic conviction for refusing to take the test. He will not be convicted of impaired driving as a result of his refusal to take the test, but he will in all likelihood be charged with impaired driving and taken before a magistrate. The magistrate will proceed with the trial in the usual way, and the fact that he refused to take the test will not waiver for or against him at his trial for impaired driving. In other words, the breathilizer machine, which is designed to give a scientific measurement of the content of alcohol in a person’s blood stream, can very well work to save a man improperly charged with impaired driving. Or it can work to convict him if the machine registers a high enough per- centage of alcohol content in his blood. The percentage used is .09. I understand that the Federal Act, Mr. Speaker, provides for .1. In other words, the Federal Act, when it becomes effective and when it applies to Prince Edward Island, will be

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