Legislative Assembly

With respect to the Department of Municipal Affairs. During the past year, Mr. Arthur Hiscock, the new Deputy Minister, rendered very valuable service and assistance to me in this Department. His time is divided between administration of the Department of Municipal Affairs and the P.E.I. Water Authority.

Increased emphasis was placed upon rural fire prevention and assistance. Two new fire companies were incorporated under the Rural Fire Companies Act; these companies are located at West Point and Dundas. Three other fire companies were re-organized and incorporated under this new Act, namely, brigades in Vernon River, Belfast and North River. The Fire Marshall advises me that several other brigades will seek incorporation in the near future.

Twenty of the thirty-two rural fire brigades have been assisted by capital grants under the rural fire fighting assistance plan. Ten new or approved flre trucks were purchased during the year. Four new fire balls were built and six remodelled. Operational assistance grants were extended to 32 fire brigades. It is also ant-ici— pated that three new fire trucks will be ordered in the very near future.

The basis of the assistance program is to encourage and promote more effic- ient fire protection and extend this protection to all rural areas in the province. I feel that much progress has been made in the past year and in order to effect greater co-ordination the office of the Fire Marshall will be transferred to the Department of Municipal Affairs.

Now I would like to say a word or two on housing. The Minister in charge of housing, the Minister of Education, has already reported to the House, so I will limit my remarks chiefly to Co-op Housing. I am very pleased to say that the two new Manors at Alberton and Montague are now operating both to capacity and they mean a great deal to the elderly citizens in both areas who now call these Manors their home.

The Cvo-op Housing program has been left with the Department of Municipal Affairs for administration purposes during the past year, and I must congratulate the former government for having initiated this worthwhile program. I believe in the earlier program 108 houses were built; a few have since been sold at a consider- able profit, I believe, to the builders. But about 100 still remain as Co-op houses and there has never been any default in payments. All the Co—op Companies remain in good financial standing and the only thing that I cannot understand is why this Co-op plan was dropped or petered out; I just don’t understand why it was not continued. But in any event the idea appears to be sound, has a lot of merit, and it has a lot of merit for those who are willing to put the necessary work into the project. It assures the builder of reasonable financing and a home at much lower

cost than is otherwise possible.

The government is now trying to reactivate this program, and we believe that the time is now even more opportune because the cost of materials, and certainly the cost of interest and money, has gone up since the earlier effort, and this appears to be one reasonable avenue where a young couple can provide a home of their own. I asked Mr. Meggison, who is in charge of this particular field, and he mentioned 71/8% the other day; but he said that he was going to try to obtain the final rate that would be applicable this years and he’d know within a few days. But I just fear that this rate could go up; it still is much lower than the rate on ordinary mort- gages. We’ve held meetings in Montague, Wellington, O’Leary, Charlottetown and I believe that a meeting in Summerside is pending. At the most recent meetings, seventy-five families showed special interest and we look forward to giving assis- tance in this program in every way possible as it does seem to me to be a worth- while program, and one way that we could develop the housing in this province. Now, let’s refer to the Planning Division of Municipal Affairs. This division poses the most difficult problems in respect to administration. In some cases the planning administrator is blamed if he does and certainly burned if he doesn’t. It is simply a case where the administrator can’t possibly please everybody. Fortunately, however, the complaints have been few. Building permits issued during the year were 680, an increase from 399 the previous year. Some of this expansion in permits was due to planning being extended to all paved road areas in the Province. Of the 680 permits issued, 29 were for commercial buildings with a value of $476,000. 196 were for

—134—