MR. SPEAKER:
Further petitions?
The hon. the Opposition House
Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise to enter a petition in this
House on behalf of the residents of La Poile and the
residents of Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou and anyone else
who might be travelling in our Province as tourists who
from time to time, visit the South Coast, which many of
them do. The petition reads, Mr. Speaker:
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
services may utilize washroom facilities; and
WHERAS
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 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 and washroom
facilities.
Mr. Speaker, I actually have
several e-mails from someone because I have entered this
petition in this House several times and when I do of
course it sparks more petitions from those particular
residents and from that particular area. I have received
e-mails from people in and around this Province who
simply cannot believe that in this day and age an MHA is
standing asking that a washroom be constructed by the
Department of Transportation and Works, which operates
the ferry system. They just cannot believe that we live
in such Third World conditions here in Newfoundland and
Labrador.
If you get on the ferry to go to
Bell Island, for example, and you have to use the
washroom, you have washroom facilities available. You
get on it to go to Fogo, you have them available. Thank
God we have it now if you are going to Grey River or
Ramea but only due to seventy-one petitions that were
brought forward in this House, until the minister became
tired of hearing from me. He put one down in Burgeo just
to shut me up basically, Mr. Speaker. I hope he shuts me
up again, because it is direly needed. Surely, he can
find enough money to put a washroom facility there next
and adjacent to the ferry so that people who are waiting
for the ferry in all kinds of weather, all through the
year, will have the basic human needs satisfied, that
you can go to a washroom rather than have to go up
behind a rock or behind the old fish plant that is
there. It is absolutely degrading, dehumanizing and not
necessary. It should not be in what we today are
referring to as a have Province.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
