MR. SPEAKER:
The hon. the Member for the District
of Port de Grave.
MR. BUTLER:
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
It is a pleasure today to stand
and present a petition on behalf of some 2,100-plus
residents of the Towns of Centreville, Trinity-Bonavista
Bay, Wareham, Dover, Hare Bay, Badger’s Quay, Greenspond
and Indian Bay.
Mr. Speaker, before I read the
pray of the petition I want to say I had this petition
for a while and I thought maybe some hon. members from
that area would present them. I do not know if they had
copies or not but if they did they probably just passed
them on to the ministers.
It reads:
WHEREAS
the construction of a Gambo bypass road for the
Bonavista North area would create prosperity for the
towns; and
WHEREAS
the economic development would be increased and
therefore keep residents in their own towns instead of
going elsewhere for employment; and
WHEREAS
this alternate route would result in a quicker response
to and from James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander;
WHEREUPON
the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call
upon the House of Assembly to urge government to move
forward with the construction of a Gambo bypass for the
Bonavista North area that would help grow and create new
economic development opportunities for the region;
And as in duty bound your
petitioners will ever pray.
As I stated this petition have
some 2,100-plus names on it. The concern that they have,
they feel that there should be a bypass road. Maybe what
prompted this from time to time was, I know a couple of
occasions which nobody has any control over, the TCH had
been washed out and those people had to travel quite a
distance down around, but they also feel that it is an
injustice to their communities and to the business in
those areas. They are looking for ways to make their
towns more prosperous. They feel this is one way that
this would happen and it would also, they believe, stop
out-migration of their young people who, if there was
greater economic development in the areas, would be able
to stay at home.
Mr. Speaker, this petition, as I
have stated, is from those various communities
throughout the area, and I want to say it is a pleasure
to present this petition to government on their behalf.
Hopefully, government will give consideration to this
bypass road which they believe will be nothing only a
tremendous asset to the people who live in that area,
and give them at least another access out if something
should go wrong again, and also provide a better,
quicker, transportation mode; because they do their
banking, government business, and attend the hospitals
and the ambulance all through to Gander. So, Mr.
Speaker, it is a pleasure to present this petition on
their behalf.
