Legislative Assembly

refrigeration of this plant would be given to a concern three thousand miles away and which would cost sixty thousand dollars over the bid of a reputable and accepted concern close enough to the area to render complete service facilities? And this, Mr. Speaker. over the most vigorous protest of the contractor in charge of construc- tion of the total building. And in conjunction with that I would like to read to you a letter of Mr. F. Waye, Chief Engineer of the Pigott Construction Company, Dor- chester Blvd. West, Montreal.

“Dear Sir:

I refer to your letter of March 1 regarding the tenders for refrigeration for the Gulf Garden Foods Plant at Georgetown.

Following a meeting with Mr. Berger of Findus and Mr. Moe, representing Gulf Garden Foods, both Mr. Berger and Mr. Moe strongly recommended that Lewis Refrigeration Company Limited, be awarded the contract as their design, and specifications were more suitable than Frick’s of Canada.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Prince Edward Island Industrial Corporation today, I have been authorized to no- tify you that we are in agreement that Lewis Refrigeration be awarded the contract for refrigeration for the Gulf Garden Foods Plant at Georgetown in the amount of $498,000 plus Provincial Sales Taxe of $24,900.

As per our contract agreement with the Pigott Construction Company Limited, you are still responsible for the overall design of the plant, including the refrigeration system.”

Otherwise would the Honourable Minister force the signing of a contract of 7.8 millions of dollars from which was removed all safeguards such as performance bonds and other measures which would have protected the public money?

Why would he force signing the contract which enabled Moe to raid the public treasury of hundred of thousands of dollars?

In this respect you have seen the report of the Provincial Auditor where this resulted in the Fishermen’s Loan Board suffering an irrecoverable loss of $755,786 as a result of this wild contract.

There was a time, Mr. Speaker, when I was of the opinion that the stupidity of ministerial officials protected their integrity. I must say now, Mr. Speaker, that in any review of this hard business, even this last defense seems to be shattered.

We cannot help but be moved. Mr. Speaker, by the valiant but futile efforts of the junior member from Second King’s to plead for sympathy, to whitewash the deplorable record of his colleague, the former Minister of Fisheries. He speaks of how much his high—flying colleague has done for his own district. Why stop there, Mr. Speaker? Why stop there? Why does he not go on to draw attention to what this man has done for the Province, why does he not total up the staggering cost of the financial skullduggery that this Minister, his colleague, was conducting with Jens Moe. Don’t spare the truth, Mr. Speaker, tell the Whole story. Tell the good people of his district that their share of the cost of the horrible mismanagement which occurred at Georgetown is approximately one hundred dollars for every man, woman and child.

Don’t think, Mr. Speaker, that anyone in the world will be fooled by the outcry of the junior member of Second Kings against what he calls “yellow journalism” or his reference to the “rat” who wrote, whoever he meant.

Journalists merly write the record, they don’t make it. If the record is good, then they will write it; if the record is bad, they record this as well.

Harry Bruce, the author of the article from the Star \Veekly is a distinguished journalist and the Toronto Star Weekly is a distinguished news organ.

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