LegiSJatiYe Assembly

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: Now in addition to the figure I have given you, in addition to the improved land, the forage land and the unimproved pasture, there are 389,000 acres of land which are cleared or covered with light scrub, which is admirably suited for agricultural production of one sort or another. It won’t be necessary, Mr. Speaker, to go out as the Leader of the Opposition suggests and desecrate the country and pull down all the trees, and dry up our water, and dry the land to sea, and see the population dry up to find this 400,000 acres of land. It is here, it is vacant; most of it is cleared, and most of it is good agri- cultural land.

Walter R. Shaw: Oh, now, Mr. Premier, who made that statement out for you ?

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: I am passing this along, Mr. Speaker, as infor~ mation to the people of this Province.

Walter R. Shaw: Its crazy, that’s all.

Hon. Alexander [3. Campbell: They have been listening to somebody else for a number of years. The Leader of the Opposition says, “where are you .going to find vacant land in this Province today?” And I will Venture to say to him that if he had taken the trouble to run around this country with his head on while he was Premier that he would have found many vacant farms in this Province. (Applause) Now a commotion about clearing more land. There is all kinds of it cleared around the Province, Mr. Speaker.

Walter R. Shaw: 1 had forgotten more about this matter when you were on the end of the bottle.

Several Members: O‘HHHHH!

Hon. Alexander 8. Campbell: There is lots of cleared land in the Pro— vince, Mr. Speaker.

Walter R. Shaw: Not necessarily, big shot.

Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: Much of it was vacated during the term of office of the former administration. Now he says, “what are we going to do with all this land? What are we going to do with all this land?” And he talks about the grand industrial expansion that he encouraged. We have three processing plants in the province — three major ones. One is the Frosted Foods Limited, and I understand that it was started by Premier Alex Matheson, as he then was, before the Conservative Government assumed office.

Walter R. Shaw: And we extended it.

Hon. Alexander 8. Campbell: And we congratulate you, Sir, on your wis— (lom of extending excellent Liberal Government policy. (Applause) So much was said over industrial development during the last few years that it was gen— erally forgotten, or generally overlooked, or was generally hidden, that the former Liberal Government of this Province also had an interest in agriculture, the farm- ers and in industry, and started the food-processing industry in this province. That plant today, Mr. Speaker, is operating at fifty percent capacity, and that is twice as much production as it is able to gain at the present time. At New Annan, where my honourable friend established the processing plant, that plant is operating at one hundred percent capacity, although they have been expanding recently and wish to expand to accommodate the even greater production from the farms of this Province to meet the market opportunities that are available to them. In Montague, at another plant established during the administration of my honourable friend opposite, these are the figures that are available to us. The plant was originally rated at twenty million pounds production. The management believe that the plant can handle thirty million pounds of production. Its present production is ten million pounds. So its present production is from thirty percent to fifty per- cent of the actual capabilities of that plant, and we are told that they want more production as well. There is evidence that the former government was aware of

—62—