Thursday, February 29, 1968

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: Mr. Speaker, I don’t propose to speak very long today, haVing covered much of the territory that I had intended to during the Throne Speech yesterday afternoon. Perhaps it might be useful for me at this time to outline in greater detail the intent of the government with respect to that paragraph of the Throne Speech which reads, “My Government proposes the establishment of a Secretariat to further encourage and facilitate the co-operative efforts of the Atlantic Provinces in dealing with regional problems of mutual con- cern. A resolution will be submitted seeking the encouragement of further measures for joint governmental action.”

Mr. Speaker, it is becoming increasingly evident as the years go on that many of the problems of Prince Edward Island are also the problems of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, and that we have traditionally en- deavoured to grapple with many of these major problems, such as transportation or marketing or what have you. We have found that we are a relatively small delega- tion when going to the national government endeavouring to work out some solu- tion that would suit the purposes of the Province of Prince Edward Island. In more cases than not we would find ourselves the recipients of federal programs designed by the federal government for application across the nation. And we would find ourselves as Prince Edward Islanders being fitted into a program that did not exactly suit our requirements and did not exactly resolve our problems. There has been necessity over the years to adapt to federal national policies, be they Liberal or Conservative or what have you. National policies that have not been developed with a special interest on problems of the Maritimes and those of Prince Edward Island in mind. They are, perhaps, directed more to the more pressing or necessary problems of Toronto, British Columbia, Montreal, and so on.

We now see the need, Mr. Speaker, to join forces within the Maritime Pro- vinces in putting together policy recommendations for transportation of the future. We have now seen and read with great interest the report of the Atlantic Provinces Transportation Study. That study was undertaken by the Atlantic Development Board; it examined in great detail many of the transportation facilities throughout the Atlantic Provinces. Never was it intended that this report would deal with solutions but only with the problems. It left to us, and it left to the Federal gov- ernment, the matter of deciding policies that would meet the real transportation requirements of the Atlantic Provinces, as desperate as they are at the present time. And so it makes sense to the Government of Prince Edward Island, Mr. Speaker, that we engage in joint efforts with our sister Provinces in advancing policy sug— gestions to the Federal Government, before the Federal Government has announced final policy. There will be greater assurance that whatever the end result may be, the final policies will, at least, have been made in the light of the recommenda- tions that came from the Atlantic Provinces.

Sometimes we find ourselves and the Federal Cabinet arguing between our— selves as Atlantic Provinces; this is to be expected as our needs are sometimes at variance. But in some areas today, Mr. Speaker, there is room for greater co— operation, more research between us than has been the case in the past. I under- stand that there are some two hundred agencies. organizations, groups, commissions, boards and so on in the Atlantic Provinces, which have some common connection. The Maritime Provinces Board of Trade and the Atlantic Provinces Economic Coun- cil are but two examples. Yet many of these agencies were designed to meet the needs of ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty years past, and there is a general consensus among representatives of the Atlantic Provinces today that the Atlantic Provinces Research Board should be completely redesigned to meet today’s needs, and to— morrow‘s needs. There is consensus that APEC, the AtlanticProvincesEconomic Council, might serve a more useful purpose than is the case at the present time, although we very much appreciate the annual report and the economic surveys that they are doing for the industry and the Atlantic Provinces generally at the present time. APEC, in their last annual report, made some comments about economic farming within the Atlantic Provinces. They observed, in Nova Scotia, that the voluntary economic planning group in that Province was well advanced in their plans to develop an over-all Provincial Development Plan. They observed that while this was going on ARDA was, in the Eastern section of the Province, also suggest- ing a development program. They realized that the Atlantic Development Board

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