Wednesday, March 13, 1_968_

IIon. Cecil A. Miller: Mr. Speaker, I ask for a fair deal and I ask that you instruct the Honorable Member from the Fifth District of Kings to withdraw the remark that somebody wrote what I delivered here. They were my own thoughts, they were my own writings, good or bad, every one of them.

Walter R. Shaw: Cicero’s too. J. Cyril Sinnott: Mr. Speaker, I retract the statement.

Hon. Cecil A. Miller: I think I’ve read as much of Cicero as you have, and can inter- pret it as well.

J. Cyril Sinnott: Well, sit down. Mr. Speaker, I retract the statement but he seems woefully inadequate in regard to his knowledge of Cicero and his orations. (Laughter) To hear a Minister of the Crown stand up this afternoon and not only deliver a tirade against two Members of the previous administration and impute them of guilt by association but also not to say anything about his own department during the past year. We in the Assembly have every right, I think, to have at least a report from the Minister on the various activities in his Department or Departments for the past year. (Applause) Apparently, Mr. Speaker, we are not going to get a report from the Minister on the activities of his Department this year and we will have to drag it out of him in Committee, I suppose, but we will do it nevertheless. We'll get a report some way. Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to take a quick look at this remarkable document which was presented to the Assembly on the 22nd of February, 1968. There are 56 paragraphs in this document and they could be reduced to about half a dozen and still say just as much. For example, Paragraph 2 states that the fame of our Island Province, the richness of its cultural heritage, and its many achievements have been portrayed across the Canadian nation by the commendable activities of our citizens. Well, that is just so many words. It simply isn’t true unless the Premier is thinking of the T.V. address last fall in which the Island was portrayed as a sort of astro, society living in the 18th or 19th century. But I would not be surprised if this, in fact, was what the Government had in mind when this paragraph was written. Their activities in the last eighteen months lend some cre- dence to the suspicions that they are, in fact, trying to reduce this Province to such a pastoral state. Paragraph 3 is no better. “As a consequence of two National Con- ferences on Canada’s future and more importantly, this Island’s future, the signifi- cant result seems to be the seeking of our approval of the recognition of the French language as an official language in this Assembly.” There is no one in this House who would quarrel with that, unless it might be you, Sir, because you are the one who will be subjected to a lot more “fractured” French before the session ends. I would have thought that the Throne Speech would promise us a report on both con- ferences but except for a few platitudes, there hasn’t been a word about that since the session began. Apparently this Island does not have a constitutional, political and economic position in the new Canada. Well, we’d better get one and get one quickly or we will find ourselves signed in to another century or two of depression. I cannot help but contrast the present position of this Island with that of 1864 to 1873 and I will have more to say about that later. Right now I want to continue with this re- markable document which they’ve presented for our consideration. Paragraph 5 states that the Economic Improvement Corp. is still engaged in preparatory work and, mind you, it says, actively engaged, and it is still expected that an agreement will be signed with the Federal Government soon. I am reminded that last year, in this As- sembly, the Premier said that he expected that an agreement would be signed with the Federal Government no later than May, 1967, in order to launch the plan of the Economic Improvement Corp. But nothing has been done in this regard since. It is still “expected” that such an agreement will be signed. The Leader of the Op— position has dealt with this at some length and I do not need to repeat what he said but further discussion of this very question is necessary at some time before we recess and I intend to have something to say about it some time later. The rest of this Speech from the Throne are promises to continue the measures already in- stituted by the Shaw Government along with two or three items which I will examine

further later on in this Assembly.

Well now, so much for this remarkable document at the present time and as I said, I will return to it later, but right now I have another much more important topic to discuss and I refer to the Georgetown affairs. A year ago, Mr. Speaker,

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