MR. SPEAKER: Further petitions?

The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

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

I would like to table this petition on behalf of the residents of the Cape Ray area in the District of Burgeo & La Poile.

The petition of the undersigned residents humbly sheweth:

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

And as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, for the last couple of years we have been approaching government, particularly the Minister of Transportation and Works and the personnel who he has on the ground working in Western Newfoundland about the road condition in Cape Ray. It is not only this member presenting this petition on behalf of his district; we have seen here today the Member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, for example, has a similar type issue in her district.

Despite the fact that government are saying they are putting super amounts and record amounts of money into infrastructure and roads and so on, there are still a lot of problems that exist in this Province that are not getting dealt with. You just cannot ignore people who have these needs by saying we are fine when it comes to St. John’s.

I heard the Minister of Transportation and Works on the radio out in central talking about the four major projects that are underway here in and around the Outer Ring Road. Well, the Outer Ring Road does not help people who live out in Western Newfoundland and South Western Newfoundland, and places like Cape Ray. They have needs as well in their communities, and they ought to get their fair share of the pie.

Now, I know we have some government members here who will not stand up and speak for their districts, but we have to stand up and speak for our districts. That is why we are here, Mr. Speaker. In particular, the justification that government has in the classification – not the community of Cape Ray, but the road from the community to J.T. Cheeseman Park, which is, by the way, a provincially-funded, provincially-operated provincial park. People go in through one end of the park, they drive around through the community of Cape Ray, yet, the road that connects the park to the community is absolutely deplorable. Government will say, oh, we are doing this for tourism; we want to attract people to the area. They attract them in through the front door of the J.T. Cheeseman Park with a nice paved road, no problem, but you kick them out through the back door of the park onto nothing but ruts; inaccessible.

I call upon the Minister of Transportation and Works to get your head around this topic, for God’s sake, and try to do something for these people, not only who live in the area, but people who come here and put money into our economy as a result of tourism. If we are going to have a good product, make sure that it is a good product and that it is useable. It is great to have fancy ads and everything else on TV to get people here, but once we get them here we have to give them roads fit to drive on.

So, Mr. Speaker, this is just my one of many I will be introducing throughout the remainder of this sitting, and I appreciate the indulgence of the House for allowing me this opportunity to present this.