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

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

I rise today to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Cape Ray in the District of Burgeo & La Poile and, of course, this is another petition further to what I have already entered here concerning the road that leads from the community of Cape Ray to the provincial park. The provincial park is operated by this provincial government and maintained by it. The petition reads:

WHEREAS the Department of Transportation and Works of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is responsible for the funding and maintenance of roads in the community of Cape Ray, in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and

WHEREAS the roads at Cape Ray are in deplorable condition, including the road leading from the community of Cape Ray to the J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park; and

WHEREAS the citizens of Cape Ray demand that the roads be upgraded;

WHERUPON the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call upon the House of Assembly to urge government to provide sufficient funding to complete the necessary repairs to the roads at Cape Ray.

Mr. Speaker, as indicated, this is not a lengthy piece of road but it is a very valuable piece of road, very functional piece of road, that is utilized not only the citizens in Cape Ray but also by the very Department of Transportation and Works which this minister operates his equipment on that road. Part of the reason that it is in the deplorable condition that it is, is because of the equipment that his department is utilizing on the road.

The citizens certainly feel, quite rightly, that if the department are going to use the road, they ought to maintain the road. You cannot expect the people to have this deplorable condition when part of the condition is, in fact, caused by the department that is suppose to maintain it.

As I say, it would not be an expensive proposition; we are talking approximately one point five kilometres. Albeit it is only a fairly short piece of road - it is a gravel road - they are not asking for pavement, they are asking that a few dumps of fill be put on there and graded. The equipment is in the area. The fill that they would have to put on the road is actually within the community, yet the minister will not allow the department that is out in the area that maintains the adjacent park road to put fill on this one point five kilometre stretch of road. It is absolutely incomprehensible as to why this would be in such a deplorable condition.

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I have no problem bringing these petitions here. The minister needs to be made aware of it, maybe he does not communicate with the department on the West Coast. We have certainly written the letters, we have certainly had the petitions here, and hopefully we will get a response from the minister. This is not a big humungous project that we are asking for here, yet some of these little things as they would appear in the big picture are so important to the residents who live there. Also, to the tourists who visit this area; they pull travel trailers. We want them to come here, yet we expect them to use roads that are not fit to drive on. It is just inconsistent.

I am sure the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, if he were to look at this, would say: How can we expect anybody who comes here and spend their hard-earned dollars to travel on such a stretch of road in the condition it is in?

Again, we implore the minister: Please take it under hand, talk to someone, and get this done. It is not moving mountains; it is a matter of grading a road with a few loads of fill.