Legislative Assembly Nova Scotia without consultation, and perhaps running at odds in various phases of the planning. I, Mr. Speaker , believe that with the Atlantic Development Board now proposing yet another development strategy, and another development design for the Provinces, we in the Provinces, we governments in the Provinces, should very definitely have some part to play in the planning of the development schemes of the Atlantic Development Board will eventually finance. This has been one of the messages which I have talked about and tried to solve with the Federal Government during the last eighteen months. This is a principle which I feel is most vital to this Province, or to the Provinces, if we are to achieve the development of our resources which we believe necessary in the days and years ahead. We in the Maritimes now want to be at the planning board with Federal Government agencies so that we have some opportunity of ex¬ pressing our ideas and our suggestions in matters of Federal Government policy. This is why I suggested the establishment of a secretariat, a small group of persons close to the Premiers of the four Provinces, a small group that could be in weekly touch with each other, and work together in areas of concern, those areas of development, those areas of planning, those areas of research which could work to the mutual advantage of each of the Provinces, in the matter of generation of electric power, in the matter of collection of statistics, in the matter of transportation, in the matter of major development of all-weather ports. In so many of these areas, Mr. Speaker , there is need for greater co-operation and joint planning between the Provinces. Reception of the idea has been somewhat enthusiastic. Our neighbouring Provinces have allocated personnel to the secretariat and they have recently been in Ottawa meeting with the Atlantic Development Board and preparing the ground work for the planning that will take place under the auspices of the De¬ velopment Board. Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition told this House to forget about Mari¬ time Union, suggesting that we were trying to beat a dead horse, and that the Premier was wasting his time on the subject. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Speaker , has apparently not been reading reports of my speeches because as long ago as thirteen or fourteen months I suggested to the Maritime Provinces Board of Trade annual meeting that Maritime Union would not likely be a realistic solu¬ tions to our problems in Prince Edward Island . In any event it would not be politic¬ ally acceptable to Islanders for at least a decade. I have suggested on the other hand this matter of co-operation between governments, and I would suggest for example, Mr. Speaker , that one thing I found was the Department of Agriculture in Nova Scotia doing studies on forage crops and also on hay-making. Here we are in the Department of Agriculture in Prince Edward Island pursuing the same study, doing the same work, but each of us duplicating much of the common work involved in the research. Each of us will be publishing booklets on the results of that work at approximately the same time. These are some areas and there are many more in our fisheries, in agriculture, in our manufacturing, and in our trading that we could achieve much greater results through this type of co-operation. We have not been beating this drum of Maritime Union, as the Leader of the Opposition suggests; we have been emphasizing the need for greater co-operation and I am happy to report to this House, and to the members of this House, that there has been genuine success in this area. There has been general agreement between Premier Small- wood of Newfoundland , Premier Robichaud of New Brunswick , and Premier Smith of Nova Scotia and myself that we will take advantage of any of these areas where our joint efforts would serve the interests of the Provinces. I will introduce a resolution later, Mr. Speaker , in this Session asking for support of this principle. It is known that Premiers' Smith and Robichaud are anxious, and the Legislatures of both provinces have authorized the study by "top- notch" Canadians of the merits and the weakenesses of the proposal of Maritime Union. When I was asked by them if Prince Edward Island would be interested in such a study my reply was that, naturally, Prince Edward Island would be inter¬ ested in knowing what this study would recommend; naturally Prince would like to know whether it would be a good arrangement for us to join —58—