|
Judy Foote, Opposition critic for the Department of Innovation Trade and
Rural Development and MHA for the District of Grand Bank, says Conservative
MHAs should be speaking out on behalf of the people in rural Newfoundland
and Labrador. Their silence shows a lack of interest in the serious issues
facing our rural communities. "These members must be aware of the
difficulty being experienced in rural areas of our province and they should
be taking a lead by insisting government be proactive and do something about
it," said Foote. "So far, their silence has been deafening on issues of
concern to rural Newfoundland and Labrador. There is certainly no evidence
that they have been putting any pressure on this government to get focused
on the issues affecting rural areas. Issues such as what is happening in the
fishery, in education, lack of access to reliable health care and
out-migration because of a lack of job opportunities.
"It should be clear now to everyone in this province that the current
government, contrary to their election statements, has no plan and they are
not taking any action to bring about economic development in rural areas of
this province. They have made a few statements of intent and are undertaking
a few studies while rural areas of this province are in serious trouble.
There is no sign of any initiative by this government to help revitalize
rural communities and secure employment for the people who live in them. On
the contrary, since this government took office, we have seen people leaving
their communities in search of job opportunities. In fact, 2077 people left
our province this past year. That is in contrast to what happened in the
last year of the Liberal administration when we saw out-migration cease and
our population increased by approximately 300 people.
"The government is in the second year of their mandate and it’s time they
stopped blaming the previous government or using the excuse that they are a
new government that has not yet had time to do anything. They got elected on
a promise to put in place a plan to revitalize the rural areas of our
Province, but all we have seen are cuts and neglect.
"This government has hired high paid outside consultants and it seems
that the people who were elected to take a leadership role and make a
difference in our province, the MHAs, don’t feel they have to be engaged.
"It is important for the official opposition to speak out on these
issues, but the government can easily dismiss our concerns, stating it is
just opposition members who are expected to be critical. If government MHAs
were to speak out, it would have an added impact and people would have no
choice but to take notice. Even one individual MHA speaking out might cause
the Premier and some of the Conservative cabinet ministers to take note and
realize that there are serious issues facing rural Newfoundland and
Labrador. Right now, if the government does realize the extent of the
problems facing our rural areas, they aren’t even acknowledging it let alone
dealing with it."
The Liberal MHA says part of the problem is that there are huge areas of
the province that have been left without cabinet representation and
obviously their problems are being ignored by this government. "While
cabinet ministers can point to cabinet confidentiality and the principle of
cabinet solidarity for not speaking out, government backbenchers have no
such constraints and should be more vocal in expressing concerns related to
areas they represent."
|