Wednesday, March 27, 1968 It is not my intention, Mr. Speaker , to go into the finances of the Province for the last twenty years or for the next twenty years. It is this year's budget that I propose to talk about, and it is this year's budget that we are debating and I think there has been enough said concerning the past. I think we will think about the present and the future. In our estimates for the fiscal year, which is now coming before us in my Department, we will find some changes which are worthy of note. Probably one of the biggest changes that we will find is under Administration. In the Department of Welfare last year we asked for $49,000 on salaries, and this year we are asking for $92,730 for salaries. This, Mr. Speaker, sounds like a terrific raise in salary, and sounds like a big increase in administration costs of our department. I would like to state that the reason for this is not any increase in salaries other than the regular increments, but rather that all the administration of all the different branches for the Department of Welfare such as, Old Age Assistance , Mother's ¬ lowances, and so forth were all categorized separately under different headings in other years, and this year all these employees are put in under general administra¬ tion and as a result there is a substantial increase in the administrative costs if the whole Department. There are three other items which you will find in our Budget, which weren't there last year. , which wasn't in mir bud¬ get last year, , and . These three new institutions will now come under the Department of Welfare for administrative purposes. The one in Alberton . and the one in Montague. Riverview ManT. have been under the Department of Welfare since they were onened. Rut the one in S «m- merside, , has been run by the Senior Citizens Housing Corno'-atiin, and, as of April the first of this year, it will be run by the Department of Welfare. One thing that I think we should give serious thought to and that is giving the people in . and the pos¬ sibility of becoming members of the Civil Service, so that they could receive the benefits of civil service, after all they have been working in these Manors. Appar¬ ently, under the present legislation of the Housing Authority, they do not get Civil Service benefits, and these people in these three Manors are doing a wonderful job and I would think that something should be done in order to give them the rights and the privileges and benefits of our Civil Service legislation. There is another substantial increase in my Department under the Division of Child Welfare , and the reason for this increase is that we are now planning, as of April the first, to raise the rate of board that we are paying to our citizens through¬ out the Province who are boarding many of these foster children. We find that the board hasn't been raised for three or four years and it is now very difficult for peonle to board out these boys and girls at the former rate. We are now raising the rate to $45.00 per month up to 12 years of age, and $50.00 a month if they are over 12 years of age. Resides this increase which was about $30.00 and $40.00. it has gone up about ten dollars per month. Resides this increase in board rates which we will not be paying we will be negotiating a board rate for certain children who are handi¬ capped or retarded or have some disability and as a result of their handicap it will cost more to board these children than others, and a rate will be negotiated for each child which is handicapped with the boarding place or lady or whoever boards these children. In these cases there will be special negotiations which could be as high as $75.00 or $80.00 a month. Another item in our program for this year: you will find $250,000 for Rlue Shield- coverage. The present Rlue Shield Plan which we now have in effect in Prince Edward Island expires on the last day of April 1968, and we are now negotiating with the Blue Cross-Rlue Shield, and the Prince Edward Island Medical Society for a new plan. Our plan that we had in effect for the last year and one-half covered most of the medical fees and general practice rights, but cer¬ tain specialists fees were not covered, which meant that the Medical Society felt that the specialists in our Province were subsidizing the plan, because they could only charge a general practice rate of fee. Now it must be understood that the Prince Edward Island Medical Society have agreed to accept the rate that was set out in the plan by Rlue Cross-Rlue Shield. During this month of April there was no money left in the plan, the medical prac- —325—