IiegislativefiArssembly

estimated that a grant in lieu of taxes to the City of Charlottetown if it were to be adequate and equivalent to what is being obtained in other Provinces would amount to about $300,000. Instead of that they get next to nothing and in addition they have to prov1de fire protection and police protection for those buildings and receive nothing in that respect either. It seems to me that, as the Assemblyman from Sixth Queens has already mentioned, the citizens of Charlottetown are being treated as second class citizens and I think it is time that the Government recognized its obliga- tions toward them and gave them some relief in this method of taxation. There’s one other point that I, which is a minor point but I’d just like to mention and that is that the City of Charlottetown plows the Trans-Canada Highway, for example,

through the city from the Hillsboro Bridge out to Elm Avenue and doesn’t even get paid for that.

Now I want to speak for a moment, Mr. Speaker, about the question of fin- ancing of hospitals. Last year the hospital budget was slashed by five percent by the Treasury Board and the result was that we lost a few of our well experienced nurses in the Province who went elsewhere. We did get some more back, however, new graduates and that sort of thing. Recently the hospital budget has again been slashed by Treasury Board, this time by ten percent. The net result is that the nurses in this Province are not going to get any increase this year and they are already well below the income of other provinces. I have a chart of the incomes of the nursing profession all across Canada with the other pension plans, overtime, credits and so on which they get in various places and I can tell you that Prince Edward Island is way, way down on the list. The starting salary for a nurse on Prince Edward Island is $326.00. In Newfoundland it’s $400.00, in the Province of Quebec it’s $450.00, in Ontario it’s $400.00, in Manitoba it’s $375.00, in British Colum- bia it’s $390.00 and there are other numerous benefits which are added from time to time. I think that we are in serious danger of losing a large number of our nursing personnel unless they get the increases which I think they are entitled because we must remain competitive with the other provinces, otherwise we’re going to loose the best of our personnel. It is no use to say that things are different here and that we are a poor province and so on and so forth. The people whom we want to attract here and the people who we want to keep here are not going to be swayed by that argument. It may be a patriotic argument so far as the Island is concerned but where salaries and wages are concerned and a person can get as much elsewhere with the equivalent benefits, equivalent living standards, they’re going to move there. I would appeal to the Minister of Health to take up the cudgel again with the Treasury Board to see if he can’t re—instate this ten percent slash which has been made in the hospital budgets for next year. I note in the Throne Speech that they promise a 500 bed chronic care unit. I think that’s contained in Paragraph 22, yes. “And plans for the construction of a 500 bed nursing home are now under considera- tion". It seems to me that this is a retrogrcssive step in the provision of a 500 bed chronic care unit when we do not have adequate facilities at the present time for the care of acute cases in the practice of medicine. It is no secret that the two hos- pitals in Charlottetown have been trying to get together to build a new large modern unit in the city of some 500 beds and, as has already been suggested to the Govern- ment that the two present institutions could well be used as chronic care institutions or nurses homes, either one or the other. The new hospital should be built on a separate site with all the modern facilities. This would enhance and improve the quality of medical care throughout the whole Island and it would, in general, be a good thing. I cannot see any reason for not going along with the worthy plans of the boards of both hospitals and I’m surprised that this item is included in the Throne Speech. I can think of no reason for it being in there except for possible politlcal advertisement. They are not having the welfare of the Province in mind when this is being done to the detriment of hospital care in general. Now, Mr. Speaker, I’ve only a few more things to say about this Throne Speech. Paragraph 35 says. “The inadequacy of our present marketing arrangements and the requests expressed by the Federation of Agriculture for improvement in marketing techniques and facili- ties have encouraged an exhaustive study of our marketing. transportation and ship- ping needs. My Government is now developing policy and legislation to meet these needs.” Now, Mr. Speaker, I think that that paragraph is just so many words. We have had no evidence of anything like that and I should like to move an amendment to that Section to the effect that the present marketing arrangements of farm produce are inadequate and that this Government has not been able to improve marketing

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