Legislative Assembly

J. Sinclair Cutcliffe: Mr. Speaker, I’m not quite certain on that. I think if you’d bring that up in the question period the Attorney General would answer on it, How- ever, I do think anything that you legislate is good. The Government can play its role in safety but it can only play part of the role. Safety depends on you and I and every individual and every citizen in the Province. Going through there was driver education. This is an excellent thing. An excellent opportunity particularly for the young people to learn proper attitudes and this will lead to better and safe driving. Something that I would like to stress once again, and would like to see implemented some time in the future, would be that of re-examination of all driver’s licences and then maybe a follow—up of every five years you would have to requalify. We find a lot of the rules of the road change, and so on, from time to time. People have accidents in the meantime and they’re maimed or crippled or lose an eye or an arm or leg. Several of these things, and yet all they have to do is send in four dollars for their license for the next two years and they receive it by mail. This, I don’t think. Sir, is good enough. Maybe the Minister in charge would make some recommendations in the near future for some of these things to be implemented through his Department. I might say that a good many of these things were brought to light within the past couple of weeks during the safety seminar that was held in Charlottetown. The Red Cross, I believe, are responsible for co—ordinating this effort. There were representatives from industry through the Workmen’s Compen— sation Board to water safety, first aid, fire inspection service and the Motor Vehicle Department as well as the Prince Edward Island Safety Council. During this sem- inar, Sir, Institutes were there from different parts of the Province. women’s groups, who had won the Provincial Safety Awards, the county awards and now our Provin- cial ones are eligible to go on for the Carol Lane Safety Awards which represent all of Canada. I’m sure this Assembly would wish our Provincial winner well toward their success as a Carol Lane winner. In the past we’ve been very ably represented here winning the top honor in Canada three years for Prince Edward Island, twice by Marshfield Women’s Institute and once by Hunter River Women’s Institute. (Applause) To mention a couple of the statistics and maybe one or two that my Honorable colleague did not mention. I wonder how many of us realize that the ratio of accidents per registration, is one in twenty. Out of every twenty vehicles that are registered, whether it be a car, a truck, a bus or a tractor, or motorcycle, one out of every twenty of them is going to have an accident some time this year whether we like to face up to it or not. These are facts that hold pretty steady over the years. We were down in deaths last year in motor vehicle accidents but what is three or four less deaths when you have some twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven hundred vehicles involved in accidents? It could be twenty-five or twenty-six hundred deaths and it’s the number of accidents I think we should be concerned about trying to lessen, and get them down to a tolerable figure. I do believe one thing in statistics; I’ve heard it said that figures don’t lie but sometimes liars can figure. However, I do believe that when we look at the amount of miles driven per year, the increase in the sale of gasoline, number of gallons, then I do think that those of us do spend a great deal of time in safety are accomplishing something, otherwise these figures would be doubling every year instead of holding steady as it was over the last three or four years. In industrial safety, I know work- ing through and with people from the Workmen’s Compensation Board in industry and during their workshops, that they’re doing a great deal to promote safety, par- ticularly in the line of training, first aid training, as well as the wearing of the proper equipment and personal clothing and so on pertaining to different types of work. Helmets, goggles, steel capped boots and all of these things do help to reduce accidents and when a man puts on a safety helmet, as an example, to go out and go to work, it’s not only going to protect him from something that falls but while it’s on his head it’s going to keep him cautious and aware of the necessity of safety in what he does and how he does it. I think this is good because it’s a constant reminder. Fire was something that was brought very much to the forefront and I wonder if many of us realizes that the cost of fires per year? Last year, $885,967, not far from a million dollars lost in fires and we know when you estimate the loss of a fire you can’t estimate any more than an eighth or a quarter of it. Personal belongings and things that have probably no cash value but a very high sentimental value in the hearts of every one involved. These are some of the things that we should remember. In 1965 we had thirteen death in the Province due to fire. In 1966 there were four. In 1967, we had five. There have been a few already this year, Mr. Speaker, and we’re well on our way to accomplishing as many or more than

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