MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of The Straits & White Bay North.

MR. DEAN: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again today it is my pleasure to stand and present a petition in this hon. House of Assembly on behalf of the residents of my district who are requesting that we maintain our air ambulance service there.

It reads: The petition of the undersigned residents;

WHEREAS it has been brought to our attention that the air ambulance service is being removed; and

WHEREAS St. Anthony Airport can provide the most optimal service to the whole of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and

WHEREUPON the undersigned your petitioners humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to support and maintain the air ambulance service in the St. Anthony area and furthermore will proceed with strengthening the service with the placement of a flight team specialist located in St. Anthony.

And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

It is my pleasure to present that this afternoon. I go back again to the letter from the Mayor of St. Anthony that has been so discredited here this afternoon in the House of Assembly by our Premier suggesting that basically it is a pack of lies what is stated there.

Again, not being consulted properly further speaks to the insignificance and the injustice that is contained in this report that has been the premise of the Minister of Health’s decision. For a delegation of professionals, retired school teachers, business people and other people who serve as volunteers on a town council, for them to be invited to this city, along with one of the professionals from the health care in operating the air ambulance program there, for them to be invited here and to be intimidated, accused and so on, as they were by the Minister of Health, I think it is a very sad thing. It speaks to the process, it speaks to the (inaudible) of it, it speaks to the incorrectness of it. I want to quote from that letter from the mayor, which I am willing to table.

It says, for the most part - and I speak truly, sir, in his reference speaking to the Premier. He says: We all felt as though we were on trial for a crime which we knew nothing about. If this is a fabricated story, then I want to suggest to this House today that it certainly would be out of character with Mayor Simms to put forth those things and to have the support of the town council. He talks about the arrival for the meeting on April 13 and 14 with the minister. In fact, he says: At 2:00 p.m. we met with Mr. Kennedy and honestly, he says - and here is a man who is sixty years of age or so, retired from his teaching career. He says: Honestly, I have never witnessed such an outburst of sarcasm, insinuation and accusations in all my life. We felt threatened, as I mentioned a moment ago, and one of my councillors actually broke down and cried.

I had the privilege of speaking to that councillor who cried that afternoon in a meeting with a minister of this government. I can tell you that she was very taken back by what took place and so on.

Again, on the second day - after having to leave and come back and to kind of help get some statistics to agree with the statistics of the department and so on. Coming back on the second day they again referenced the fact that they were severely attacked and Mr. Farrell was asked by Mr. Kennedy to put his job on the line for his beliefs regarding his response and presentation. Again, he says, you can probably understand why we felt as if we were on trial.

Mr. Speaker, the intensity and the fierceness of the attack was something that would be –

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

I remind the hon. member that his time for presenting the petition has expired.

MR. DEAN: - not something this government would want to take forward.