Legislative , Assembly

expenditures of the Charlottetown School Board. In the matter of salaries, the total payroll for the Charlottetown school system for 1967-1968 amounts to $1,189,000 of which the Provincial Government pays $842,769 or, as I make it, 70.9%. I submit, Mr. Speaker, that this is a very substantial contribution and in this past year the increased payments from the Provincial Government to the Charlottetown School Board have amounted to $287,874. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, since we are referring to the contribution of this Government to the City of Charlottetown, I might say that through various grants, per capita grants, grants in lieu of services, assistance in various forms, welfare assistance, teachers’ salaries and so on, that this Govern- ment contributes to the finances of this City somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.357.000. In this same connection, Mr. Speaker, I was rather surprised to sit here a week or so ago and listen to the pleadings of the former Provincial Treasurer, the Member from Sixth Queens, with respect to more financial assistance for the City of Charlottetown. From September, 1959, to July, 1966, he was in a most ad- vantageous position, as a senior adviser in the previous administration, to do some- thing for this City. So, for approximately 2,500 days my honorable friend did noth- in}.r with respect to this problem and then, all of a sudden, he becomes very con- cerned about his native city and deplores the financial condition of the Provincial capital. I am told, Mr. Speaker, that on four different occasions the Mayor and the Members of the Charlottetown Council appeared before the former Government, and before the former Provincial Treasurer, with respect to this problem and on four different occasions the former Provincial Treasurer said, “No, we are unable to assist you.” My colleague, the Minister of Labor, and I are just as anxious as any- one in this City to provide some relief from the heavy financial burden which exists. We reco'rnize some justification, as do other Members of this Legislature, in the request for a grant in lieu of taxes and, as I said before in this House, I confidently expect that before we meet together again in annual session some relief will be provided for Charlottetown tax payers with respect to their educational costs, and a more equitable system of taxation for education established throughout the prov- ince. Spending on education has quadrupled in the last fifteen years. As you can see from the statistics I have just supplied we lag behind the other Canadian Prov— iilces with respect to our percentage expenditure on education. In my opinion, Mr. Speaker, additional Federal funds must come to the rescue as an investment in the nation’s human and economic resources. As has been said many times, and em— phasized most forceably by Premier Campbell at the recent National Conferences. regional disparities of wealth in Canada are large and persistent. Our own financial burden is the greatest in all of Canada. Every hour of every day during the com— ing year we must find approximately $900 to pay for the use of the money which has been borrowed over the years. In my opinion, Mr. Speaker, if we are to get relief from such an overwhelming burden in the future, more attention must be given to education. Many of our citizens are not educated to their maximum ability and consequently are not making a maximum contribution to providing either for their families or for society. In many cases their talents are wasted, their lives blighted and they fail to contribute their fair share to our economy and our culture. Too many, in this Province, unfortunately, are content to sit back, draw unemploy- ment relief and exert themselves once a month while wending their way to the bank to cash a welfare cheque. I contend, Mr. Speaker, that the greatest disservice that has been rendered by successive governments to this Province is the indiscriminate provision of welfare payments. This type of handout stifles the initiative of many able-bodied individuals, gives their children the impression that this is the pattern for living in Prince Edward Island and serves as the greatest impediment to econo- mic and social progress which is so necessary if this Province is to surv1ve. As one of our national leaders said not very long ago, and I think he said it very well,.Mr. Speaker, “Lack of education breeds delinquency, dependence and despair. It is a prime cause of unemployment and the need for public welfare”.

J. David Stewart: Who said that?

Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: A national leader .by the name of Hon. John Turner. He will be visiting this city on Saturday of this week.

J. David Stewart: Is he your boy?

Hon. Gordon L. Bennett: He‘s one of them.

L. George Dewar: I saw him last night. He said he’d like to be Leader of the

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