Legislative _Assembly

Hon. T. Earle Hickey: The gross debt on July 28, 1966, was $73,559,579. On March 3lst it was $84,570,000. That is an increase of $11,000,000, of which $5,000,000 was an increase on our part including 3.5 million loaned to the Industrial Corporation and the Fishermen’s Loan Board for Georgetown. $883000 was to provide for a loss on hulls 16, 17 and 18. $4,200,000 was for the completion of paving projects. $1,000,000 was supplementary assistance. And I would like to add, too, that this was pretty close to the estimate which was in the audit report of July 28th. In fact I think it is only out a few hundred thousand dollars. Less than $500,000.

(Applause) Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: I don’t see them marking that down. Hon. Alexander B. Campbell: Didn’t make a scratch over there.

Hon. T. Earle Hickey: I would like to bring to your attention the unfortunate fin- ancial position of this Province. We could talk about where the blame lies, and we. could give you chapter and verse of how this money was spent, and when it was spent, and where it was spent. (Applause) But the fact is that we are in a bad financial state. We have trouble borrowing money and if we don’t show reasonable fiscal responsibility we are going to be in trouble. We made certain commitments last year that we would reduce our debt over a period of three years. This we are trying to do and when you get the budget you will know what we propose to do and you will see what our estimates are for the current year.

I would like to ask, and I would expect, all members of this Legislature to realize the position of this Province and when they get up and demand that we do this, and we do that, put money here, put money there, that they would think ser- iously before making such a request and pause to ask themselves, and they know as well as I do how and where we have to get this money, there is only one place for the money to come from, that is from your pocket and my pocket and the farm- ers pocket. And when people get up making ridiculous demands to spend money here, spend money there, it is not the responsibility that should be expected from the re— presentatives 0f the people of Prince Edward Island. (Applause) Measures are going to be taken, which nobody is going to like, but we have to do it if this Province is going to survive we have to take these measures, and we expect every member of this Legislature, every person in Prince Edward Island, every community in Prince Edward Island including Charlottetown and Summerside, to understand our position. They can blame the Provincial government for not giving them money—maybe it is truewwc can blame the Federal government for not giving us money, but the point is, we are faced with a certain condition here and we have to do our best to resolve it. (Applause) This is What this government proposes to do and whether or not it is liked is not a question; it is a necessity, there is no choice. (Applause)

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