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plants in Eastern Canada and will be modern fifteen years from now. The govern- ment talks about the plant not having proper equipment. Their own consultants did not agree with them on this. For example, the fishmeal plant, condemning the fish— meal plant and the fishmcal plant never turned a wheel. How can they. in con- science. get up and condemn a piece of equipment that has never worked. that has proven in other provinces and other parts of Canada and Europe that it is a (mod piece of equipment. They paid good money for reports by two people. Mr. Speaker. and sat on it, they refused to give those reports to the people most concerned. and that is to the two companies. You would think they would be interested and de- lighted to give the reports to the companies so they could capitalize on the advice that was contained therein. And they refused to give it even to the House until we

gught a Resolution on and forced the government to give the information to this ouse.

The potential of that plant was the sale of about $12.000.000 a year. Now

this is pretty good when you figure that the total agricultural sales of this Prov- ince are thirty-five to forty million dollars.

Hon. Robert E. Campbell: Do you really believe what you are saying yourself?

Leo F. Rossiter: They would have employed four, five. six hundred people. Mr. Speak- er. Both plants received government loans for capital construction. The Federal Government must have thought it was a viable plant: they put money in it. They allotted a million dollar wharf, also the use of the potato warehouse on the. wharf. they invested over a million dollars in water and sewage. and they. indeed. thought it was a viable one and it would have been successful if this government hadn’t strangled it in its very infancy and when it was trying to get off the ground.

(Applause)

I would just like to point out, Mr. Speaker, the cost to the taxpayer and this government of keeping that plant closed. Insurance has to go on whether the plant operates or not. Depreciation goes on whether the plant operates or not and the boats operate or not. Wages, the average of the wages there is about twenty or twenty-five people down there where two or three could take care of it. Political appointments. Down there.

Hon. Cecil A. Miller: All your fault.

Leo F. Rossiter: Taking the average of about $6,000 a month, perhaps $10,000 a. month now. A loss of the boats operation, a loss in the operation of the boats from Nova Scotia last year amounted to a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Repairs to the boats when they came back after winter operations, $225,000. A proposal to the creditors of Gulf Garden Foods, $275,000. The return of the down payment. which they had absolutely no business in returning, it was part of the assets of Gulf Garden Foods, $391,000. Return of the down payment of the lawyers fees, lawyers fees, including Mr, Nicholson’s and Mr. Sigsworth. 587.000, and Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Sigsworth I suggest could run about $30000 -$35,000 on top of that. The total cost of keeping these two plants closed, Mr. Speaker, exceeds the total cost of both plants put together. This is what it is costing to keep them closed, Mr. Speaker.

Put people out of work, there was a payroll down there, loss of wages about $800,000.

Hon. Cecil A. Miller: Are you taking into consideration the Mack Truck?

Leo F. Rossiter: Workers were fired out of their jobs by this government and some of them were put in pretty bad straits. The solution for this, Mr. Speaker, last year this House. on this side of the House Committee three times tried to get a. House Committee to help the government to solve these problems. We know that they couldn’t solve the problems, the Minister of Industry couldn’t do anything about it, and his legal counsel was worse than he was. So, as a result. there was nothing done. Only bickering and any political gimmick that could be pulled; played politics right down the way. You will hear more about that when we bring our fiscal report in; played politics. Fired people out of jobs for political gain: many hundred of people were fired out of jobs down there for political gain. I don’t accuse all the Members of the Government but I do air part and parcel of it but I’m sure there’s

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