Thursday, March 7, 1968

Hon. J. Elmer Blanchard: How can you verify it? Your making a statement.

J. Alban Farmer: Yes, I’m making a statement and this was done in my De— partment and I know what (’m talking about.

Hon. J. Elmer Blanchard: Who was the assurance given to?

M. Alban Farmer: Who was the assurance given to? The Mayor and Coun- cil came in the fall of, I believe of 1965, with their proposal.

Hon. M. Lorne Bonnell: Why didn’t you put it in the Budget for 1966 then?

M. Alban Farmer: Because we had our budget practically made up and we put on $2.00 a head. Yes, we did. We put on $2.00 a head and increased the grant from ten to twelve for the City of Charlottetown and you look . . . .

Walter R. Shaw: That’s right. That’s right. Hon. M. Lorne Bonnell: You gave it to all the other towns as well.

M. Alban Farmer: No, no, no. In 1965 there was $185,000; in 1966 we raised it to $223,000 and in addition to that, in 1966, we told them that we would contribute and we did contribute to the City of Charlottetown for the first time on School As— sistance and we paid $21,590 in 1966 on school construction costs. (Applause)

Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: For the first time, was it? M. Alban Farmer: That was the first time. Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: The first time.

M. Alban Farmer: Yes, That was the first time, so we had, as I said, and I repeat, when these various people came in we discussed this problem with them and they proposed this payment of taxes on Government property and we accepted the principle but we coudn’t put it in the budget because our budget was made up.

Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: Might I ask the Honourable Member for Sixth Queens the amount of money that this would have amounted to had you ever paid it to the City?

M. Alban Farmer: The study was initiated to find that out. Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: You don’t know the amount?

M. Alban Farmer: There was no amount reached. There were two proposals; one, the same across-the-board tax for the City of Charlottetown the properties of government in the City of Charlottetown that you would pay or I would pay. Then there is another one which is, as you may be aware, for instance, the Federal gov— ernment has a grant in lieu. There was no determination on either of these, be— cause the theory is that possibly you would have a certain number of those build— ings belonging to the Provincial government. For instance, this building here was one point. Should we pay taxes on it, probably not, I don’t know. But this was in the area of negotiation. It is the liquor stores where they are doing business. There is no question in my mind that those should certainly be made to pay. All the other places that belong to the City of Charlottetown, which require services.

Some Member: Why didn’t you pay it instead of studying it?

M. Alban Farmer: Because as I say they came in in 1965, and we did start on it right away.

Hon. M. Lorne Bonnell: All you did in seven years was study . . . .

M. Alban Farmer: No, no that’s not so at all. That’s not so and you are concerned on that one so all you can do is raise objections that it doesn’t answer the problem. And you can . . . .

Hon. J. Elmer Blanchard: It doesn’t answer the problem I’ll admit.

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