MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It gives me great pleasure again on behalf of the residents of La Poile and the people of Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou, indeed anyone who uses the ferry service that runs between Rose Blanche and La Poile.

The petition reads:

WHEREAS the people of La Poile must use the provincial ferry system in order to travel to and from La Poile; and

WHEREAS the people of La Poile and visitors are required to wait at the Town of Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou from time to time for the ferry services; and

WHEREAS there is no restroom, waiting room area at the Town of Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou where users of the ferry service may utilize washroom facilities; and

WHEREAS citizens of all ages including men, women, children, seniors and disabled persons require washroom facilities as a basic human need in the course of their travels and particularly while awaiting the provincial transit systems; and

WHEREAS it is an abuse of human dignity as well as health and safety regulations to allow such degrading and dehumanizing circumstances to continue;

WHEREUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge Government to immediately construct and operate a waiting room, restroom facility at the Town of Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou such that all users of the provincial ferry service which operates out of La Poile may be able to utilize such waiting area, washroom facilities.

As in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, we went through this in this House a multitude of times back some months ago when the residents of Grey River, Ramea who use the service to Burgeo had the same problem. Anybody who lives here in Newfoundland and Labrador knows that our weather is bad enough sometimes in the best of times, but in the wintertime it is particularly bad.

If you are travelling, for example, and you have been up to Port aux Basques for a medical appointment or a shopping excursion, and you have to get back to catch the ferry which goes back to La Poile at 3:30, you obviously have to judge yourself, given the weather. You do that to be safe and prudent. You find yourself on the wharf in Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou, the ferry may be delayed, and you have to wait for her. You cannot get on board to use the washroom. People in those circumstances actually have to go out behind the bushes, behind the rocks, behind the old building that is there to actually look after their human needs. Now, that is just not acceptable in this day and age.

I hope the current Minister of Transportation does not deal with this issue the way the former Minister of Transportation, the Member for Lake Melville, dealt with it. When I raised the issue a few months ago, years ago, actually, for the Ramea-Burgeo ferry, the next day he popped up two porta-potties. Now, that is the kind of human respect and dignity they were shown down there. Here is a couple of blue, no doubt, porta-potties, stuck out on the head of the wharf for people to use in the dead of winter. No toilet paper, nothing else in there, no hand cleaners, nothing. Now, that is the kind of response this government took to a degrading problem. Well, they fixed it there, Mr. Speaker, and I implore the current Minister of Transportation to do likewise and fix it for the people of La Poile.