Thursday, February 29, 1968

parts of the Island and also in other parts too. I talked with people who stayed in some park in Maine and they complained very bitterly about the way that they were chased out by the mosquitoes. .So we’re not the only ones that have problems of that nature. I think the Government should do more research on the control of insects of this nature. I think it would pay off as far as our tourist industry is concerned. Now, I suppose I should consider the Speech from the Throne. Actu— ally it’s a rather disappointing document. There is nothing very inspiring in it. There is nothing very new. There’s probably a couple of items that should be men- tioned. Grants to the Vanier Institute, of course, is a new item and this is a worthy object. The opening paragraphs, of course, are quite in order. The In— ternational Year for Human Rights is certainly a worthwhile idea. It mentions the conference on Constitutional Rights which is also an important think. But when you go through the different items it is certainly a rehash, or a thrashing of old straw as far as any new matter is concerned. I would like to briefly comment on two or three different phases; the Premier mentions agriculture and education and medical care and I think he probably puts them in that order. Although I was in- clined to consider education first, probably I would like to say a few words although there has been a lot of talk about agriculture, a lot of discussion, and I think that is right because I think agriculture is the foremost problem on this Island today and one which every Member of this Legislature should be concerned with. Our deliberations here should be unanimous in the search to find, to do something to help the farmer-producer on Prince Edward Island because, if this is not done, I am afraid that the family farm or the rural farm homestead on Prince Edward Island will rapidly become an uneconomic proposition. Unless something is done we’re going to have a great many deserted homesteads throughout this Province. We’re going to have fields growing up with weeds, blightened communities and the prospect one of our great assets here on the Island, is the delightful prospect for summer visitors when they come to the Island, and unless something is done to help maintain the rural economy in this Province we’re all going to suffer, whether we’re laborers, or whether we’re professional people, or whether we’re Members of the Government because without an agricultural background it is going to be very

difficult to maintain any kind of an economy on Prince Edward Island. ‘Of course, agriculture changes. We all recognize this and we have to move with the times. If the Premier can get the Economic Development Corp. to come up with a plan that will revive and sustain the economy of our rural people, then I say, let him go ahead. Let him get a plan. I don’t care who prepares it or who brings it together. I would like to see Islanders working on it but if he can’t get Islanders and he can get somebody competent to do it, all well. Go ahead, (Applause) but you cer- tainly do need to take very close scrutiny of the situation because of the fact that I believe that the only basis for survival of the rural farms today is an economic basis. Years ago when the pioneers settled in this Province where was another basis for the family farm? It was a matter of providing security. Security in a good many different ways. It was a method of getting food to live on for survival. It was a matter, very often, of their clothing and of their shelter and it was a

matter of security for older people. Years ago on the farm they had some place in their older days, the family would carry on the farm and that was the security. Today a great deal of the food, and most of the clothing, all the clothing we could say, and a great deal of the shelter is found by the people that live on the farm. They have to be able to buy a great many of these articles. Security is a different matter today. There is the Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Pension, the Canada

Assistance Act and the Canada Pension Plan and a great many of the older people no longer depend on the farm for their older days. A great many of them now move off. They move in to a village or a town where they can live very comfort- ably so I would like to point out that something has to be done to make farming profitable, to make it a profitable economic venture or else there’s no reason for anybody staying there and I think the sooner that this is recognized, the sooner we get to work and do something about it, the sooner this Province will start to prosper and progress again. I think the farmer is having a difficult time today.

He has, at the present time, poor prices for a great many of his products. He has an increase in cost of living which is hard to measure exactly, but it is tremen- dous. There is inflation on every side. Everything is going up in price except what the farmer sells. The cost of what he buys is increasing tremendously and there

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