Legislative Assembly

I examined at some length the Liberal campaign against the Georgetown Industries.

I do not propose at the present time to repeat that examination, but I do mean to continue it and to bring it up to date. If I mention the Royal Commission and other persons from time to time. I do not want the Government to suggest that I am pre- Judgmg the Commission. That will not be so although I have every right to do that because the Commission is a creation of this Government, which in turn is the ser: rant of this Assembly. I mention this only because there seems to be some confusion about the position of the elected representatives of the people in the hierarchy on the Island and I should like it to be clearly understood by everybody that, except in matters under Federal jurisdiction, this Assembly is supreme in this Island and we will not tolerate any attempt to restrict our freedom to discuss any topic which concerns the welfare of the people of the Province. (Applause) I do not think that any dispute will arise because I am not going to deal with the competence of the Commission nor with an evaluation of the evidence, as the Minister of Industry did, TU)“ with their possible findings, as the Minister of Industry also did. I shall confine myself to the Liberal campaign against the Georgetown industries and the economic consequences of it. The Liberal plan of attack on the Shaw administration was well laid and the financial plight of the Georgetown industries offered an excellent oppor- tunity of putting it into effect. It is easy now to piece together the whole picture and to see their primary and secondary objectives. The first was to discredit the Shaw Government. if possible. and the secondary objective was to impute by asso- ciation, coupled with character assassination. The Minister continued that attack this afternoon. When one considers the financial situation of the Georgetown industries in the summer of 1966, it must be obvious to anyone that control of both companies could have been obtained quickly and painlessly. This could have been done by fin- ancial investment coupled with control of both Boards of Directors at both plants. Surely a dozen good businessmen could have been found in P.E.I. who could have taken a firm hand in the situation. Mr. Moe would not then be in control of the finances of both companies and it is even conceivable that his talents, which even the Minister of Industry admits are many and varied, could have been used in promo- tional work as was suggested by Mr. Cavanagh. But that course was never even considered. As long ago as 1964 there was mention of a Royal Commission in a let— ter to some Norwegian investors and I dealt with that at some length in the de- bates last year. Gulf Garden Foods plant was closed fifteen months ago and the Royal Commission was announced within three weeks of its closure. The Commis- sion‘s terms of reference were modified later by the Supreme Court and most of us are familiar with the evidence presented to the Commission. I have no comment to make on the accuracy of the evidence presented. It told a story of businessmen try- ing to take advantage of each other and of wholesale financial wheeling and dealing between them, with Mr. Moe usually coming out on top. But the Commission hear— ings showed something else. The parade of witnesses was chosen and arranged to bring forth a picture of the Shaw Cabinet being duped into investing money in an enterprise that was doomed from the beginning. The portrait is not a fair evaluation and, unfortunately, the whole story of the rise and fall of the Georgetown industries has not been told. As a matter of fact only a small part of the story has come out and the remainder will probably never be known. The two Liberal lawyers presented only those witnesses who could help the Liberal political campaign against the former administration and no more than those witnesses. I would conceive it to be the duty of the counsel for the Commission to bring forth as much information as possible to help the Commission arrive at a reasonable judgment but the Commission has heard only the story up to the time of the change of Government in 1966. There has not been one word of evidence presented concerning the collusion of this Gov- ernment with the Norwegians and other investors in the final strangulation of the

Georgetown industries.

Hon. Alex. B. Campbell: Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Honorable Member is not correct. The evidence. . ..

Number of Voices: Order.

Hon. Alex. B. Campbell: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, there’s false information given to this House.

J. David Stewart: That’s not a point of order at all. You know better than that.

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