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Petition
Presented November 25, 2008
Long Island Causeway
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise today to present a
petition on behalf of the Long Island Causeway
Committee.
Now, Mr. Speaker, this
petition has been circulated not just in Long Island but
in communities all over that district. It is regarding
the committee’s bid and lobby efforts to the
government to have a causeway built to Long Island as
opposed to a ferry service.
This causeway was
committed to under previous administrations and was
estimated at a cost of about $26 million to construct.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, under the current government, they
re-evaluated that and determined that the cost had
escalated and was no longer prepared to honour the
commitment that had been in place, and certainly made
that known to the people in the area – but the people
on Long Island are resilient people. They are like
people in all other outport areas within this Province,
and that is, when they see something worth fighting for
they will continue to fight. Such has been the case for
the last five years for the people on this tiny island.
In doing so, they have engaged the support of the
communities around them. Communities like Triton and
Brighton, and Pilley’s Island, and Springdale, and
King’s Point, and Grand Falls, and Windsor. All of
these communities, Mr. Speaker, and those residents have
signed this petition in support of this community. I
guess all of this came to a halt back in the summer.
Back in the summer, when
the Minister of Transportation, who did not go down to
Long Island to announce a new ferry service for the
people of Long Island and Little Bay Islands, and tell
them that you will not get a causeway – very cowardly
approach, I might add, but yet went down to Marystown,
where they thought they might build a ship, and made the
announcement. To me, that is totally disrespectful of
the people of this area when you are looking at
providing future services to them. The announcement of a
new ferry was far-far distanced from a new causeway that
they had wanted. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, the ferry
is reducing the service to the people who live on Long
Island.
When all of this came to
a head, the one who was left out of the loop apparently
in all this was the MHA for the area, who happens to sit
on the government side of the House. The member who sits
in the caucus with the minister was not informed that
Cabinet had made a decision; that the minister was going
out and making these announcements, that the bureaucracy
had already coerced all the facts and laid it out on the
table and sold the package inside of government. It was
the member who was left out in the dark.
Now, I do not know how
things function within that government. I guess I have a
little bit more insight today, that you do as you are
told and if you are not told, you do not do anything.
That is the only approach that I can see. Mr. Speaker,
in governments that I was a part of you were always
informed, you were always consulted. The people who
elected you had a real voice, your opinion counted. It
is obvious that on that side of the House your opinion
accounts for very little, if anything at all. Anyway, it
came to a head.
Now the petition that I
have has thousands of signatures on it. I will be
presenting this petition over the course of the next
four weeks that this House sits. Every day, that I have
an opportunity, I will stand here to advocate on behalf
of the people of Long Island because they are not
getting enhanced services, or better services, or
causeways. In fact, they are getting a new boat that is
going to downgrade the level of service that they have
been accustomed to, and that is not the right approach
for government to be taking. |
