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Oral
Questions
December 4, 2008
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| In the House | Question
Period
MS
JONES:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this morning
brought more news of the effects of the global economic
slide, the effects of it on this Province.
AbitibiBowater announced that, after 100 years of
operation, the pulp and paper mill in Grand
Falls-Windsor will close.
This mill is why people
settled in Grand Falls-Windsor in the first place, and
for the last two weeks we have stood in this House and
we have been asking the Minister of Natural Resources
what the status of the AbitibiBowater mill has been. We
have not gotten a response on anything, other than in
the economy everything is steady as she goes.
Mr. Speaker, I
would like to ask the minister today when she was
notified that this closure was coming for AbitibiBowater
in Grand Falls, and that the 1,400 mill workers and
forestry-related workers in Central Newfoundland would
be out of a job.
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
It is indeed a dark day
in Grand Falls-Windsor and the surrounding eighteen
communities that depended on that mill over the last 100
years for their livelihood.
We have been engaged with
this company and with the mill union in Grand
Falls-Windsor over the last number of years, Mr.
Speaker, as we worked through the downturn in this
industry and the impact that was being felt here in
Newfoundland and Labrador.
Everyone in this Province
knew that we were waiting for a decision from
AbitibiBowater on the future of the mill. They told us
that would come before the end of December.
This morning, when we
picked up The Globe and Mail, we saw that there
was a prediction that the mill closure would be
announced today. The Premier got a phone call at 9:30
from David Paterson, the CEO. I got a call, following
that, from Mr. Pierre Rougeau. We found out this morning
at 9:30 and 10:15 respectively, Mr. Speaker.
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, it is unbelievably that in this time of
economic crisis – and I said it yesterday – that the
minister sits in her office and waits for the phone to
ring every morning to find out what industry is closing
today, and how many jobs people are going to lose. It
happened with the IOC announcement, it happened with the
Wabush announcement, and today we are hearing it just
happened with the Grand Falls-Windsor announcement.
Mr. Speaker, I want to
ask the minister this, because in the course of the last
year that she talks about that she has been on top of
this file, we have not heard anything in the public
about the details that government has laid on the table.
We have heard them talk about the executives of the
company, talk about the company themselves, but we
have not heard the details of what government proposed
and offered to try and allow for the continuation of
this pulp and paper mill in the Province.
Why
don’t you tell us that today?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Mr.
Speaker, I respectfully suggest that the Leader of the
Opposition watch or listen to the news, because our
involvement in Grand Falls-Windsor has been very public.
Mr. Speaker, into that
operation goes, every year, $12 million worth of energy
from the Exploits River; $6 million that subsidizes the
mill in its operation, and $6 million they make in
profit from power purchase agreements with Newfoundland
and Labrador Hydro.
On top of that, Mr.
Speaker, the government has invested a further $11
million over the last three years in support to the
company during this difficult financial downturn. On top
of that Mr. Speaker, we have come back to the company on
a number of occasions and said: Can we enter into a
discussion with regard to repatriation of your chartered
lands which will put significant money in your hands for
reinvestment in the mill in Corner Brook? That is what
we have done in the last four years.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Right now, this
announcement is little comfort for the people in Grand
Falls-Windsor. People are going to want to know,
minister, what this government has placed on the table.
This is the second pulp and paper mill that has closed
under your Administration in Newfoundland and Labrador.
You have had a year working with this company. You
know what the result is today, so surely you would have
had some kind of effective and comprehensive plan in
place that you can roll out to be able to support the
local economy and those people that are affected.
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
In the two-and-a-half
years that I have been in this portfolio, Mr. Speaker, I
have met, on a regular basis, with the union of the mill
in Grand Falls-Windsor, I have met on a number of
occasions with the Mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor, as well
as the mayors of the surrounding communities; with
representation from the Regional Economical Development
Board, the Chamber of Commerce. The three MHAs for the
area have been engaged on a regular basis with all of
these same people. The people of Grand Falls-Windsor
understand what we have been trying to achieve. They
understand what is on the table. They understand what
has been asked of us and how we have risen to the
occasion. We have tried to mitigate any of the
challenges that the company has put our way. This is
beyond our control, Mr. Speaker. We wanted Abititi
Bowater to have a good future in Central Newfoundland,
another 100 years. The company’s mindset was not in
the same place, and thus we have arrived at this place
today.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
It is not about who
creates the problems, it is about who is elected to lead
and find the solutions in times of crisis, I say to you,
minister.
When Stephenville mill
closed, the 300 workers had the option of looking to
Alberta for employment. Today, the 160 workers coming
out of Wabush and the more than 400 direct employees
coming out of the Grand Falls Bowater’s mill in Grand
Falls do not have the option to go to Western Canada to
find those lucrative jobs in Alberta.
What
is the solution for your government to ensure that these
families and these workers have an opportunity for
retraining, for adjustment and to be able to sustain the
economies of their communities along with their
families?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Mr.
Speaker, as we have worked with the people most directly
affected by this news today, they have been very clear
as to what their expectation is of this government. I
think that they can speak more powerfully than anybody
else that they are pleased with the way that they have
been treated and supported and communicated with.
We have made a commitment
to continue to walk that journey with them and to do
everything that we can to support them and to support
their communities. We have a task force in place, Mr.
Speaker, it has been in place for over three months, to
deal with any potential fallout of the decision making
around Grand Falls-Windsor.
Mr. Speaker, I will say
this much, the one thing that the union has been adamant
about is that we do something to correct the wrong that
was done in Star Lake negotiation under the former
Administration, that we will not give away resources –
that Abitibi-Bowater cannot continue to earn money
without operating a mill here in Newfoundland and
Labrador.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please.
The hon. the Opposition
House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
My question is also for
the Minister of Natural Resources.
The last few months we
have seen a pattern develop. Abitibi-Bowater announces a
capacity review; then they close Grand Falls-Windsor.
Wabush Mines announces their capital expenditure review;
they lay off 160 workers, slash 40 per cent capacity and
halt their $100 million maintenance upgrade. IOC
announces a capital review; then they halt their $800
million expansion. Now Chevron Corporation announced
yesterday – or, on Monday – that they are delaying
the release of their capital spending program to the end
of January.
I ask the minister: As
a partner in the Hebron project, what information do you
have, or has it been provided to you by the other
partners, on changes in spending or in timelines with
regard to the Hebron project?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I encourage the
Opposition House Leader to review Hansard, because I
answered this question the week before last. I met with
the vice-president for the Americas of Exxon-Mobil last
month. We had a long conversation about the Hebron
project, the Hebron agreement, and the go-forward plans.
Mr. Speaker, there are no
adjustments or realignments of planning that is taking
place. The project is proceeding as it was designed to
do. We will see the opening of the project office here
in St. John’s early in the New Year, and Exxon-Mobil,
who will be the operator for the Hebron project, does
not foresee any challenges at this particular time.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
We also learned today
that Vale Inco will be shutting down the Voisey’s Bay
Mine next July for a one month period. We have spoken to
the company and they have advised that there will be no
layoffs and no impact on the Long Harbour hydromet
facility.
I ask the minister: Does
government know what the financial impact of this
decision will be, what it will have on the Province’s
coffers, and has this been factored into the much
promised fiscal update that we are supposed to be
getting?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I happened to be in
Voisey’s Bay just a month ago, and I am happy to
report that I met with principles of Vale Inco this
morning.
Mr. Speaker, the way that
the shut down in July is going to be handled, everyone
who works in Voisey’s Bay is on a two-week rotation.
So, two weeks of July will be used as that rotation
piece and then everyone will be asked to take two weeks
holidays. So there is not expected to be a financial
impact, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Last week, IOC announced
a one month shut down of their operations in 2009, as
well as the delay in their Phase I and Phase II
expansion plans. The company has stated that this would
not impact their permanent employees but will have an
impact on temporary employees and students.
I ask the minister: Does
government know what the financial impact will be of
this shut down?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Natural Resources.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS DUNDERDALE: Mr.
Speaker, no, we do not know what the financial impact on
part-time employees or potential employees of IOC would
be at this point in time. I gave an undertaking here in
the House that I would ask IOC to provide that kind of
information, but they are busy, Mr. Speaker, at the
present time in trying to manage their way through the
current worldwide crisis that is affecting all commodity
markets as outlined by the speaker in his question.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Suspicions are, and have
been for some time, that government is in deep denial
over the state of the economy. This has been confirmed
by some of the responses to questions that we have asked
in this House. It is pretty clear that government is
perfectly content to sleepwalk through this economic
disaster.
Mr. Speaker, Stephen
Harper was quoted as saying some time ago, that he
thought the fundamentals are sound, and that is the kind
of stuff we hear from this government, i.e. everything
is stable, steady as she goes, and so on. Well, the
facts indicate otherwise. It is time for decisive
action, Mr. Speaker.
I would ask the Premier: Premier,
rather than simply responding when someone calls to
government with an issue, would you be prepared to chair
an all-party summit on the economy, bring together, Mr.
Speaker –
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: -
the business interest of this
Province, the labour interests of the Province, the
community leaders in this Province, so that there can be
a discussion - the more heads there are the better - and
hopefully you can map out together some strategy for
this impending crisis?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr.
Speaker, I chair a committee on our economy and that is
the Cabinet of this government.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
PREMIER WILLIAMS: That
Cabinet has met four times, I think, in the last four
days. We had a meeting scheduled this morning which we
cancelled because of the Abitibi situation.
It seems to be lost on
the hon. member opposite that General Motors and Ford
and Chrysler are in trouble, three of the biggest
American corporations, three of the bigger corporations
in the world. They are looking for a $28 billion
bailout. The American government has already put $700
billion in. I watched CNN last night. One of the
accounts basically said that the money is being spent so
fast and doled out so fast that nobody is keeping
account of it, and they don’t know where it is going.
This government is going
to ask responsibly, and we are stepping up. It just
galls me to listen to the Leader of the Opposition talk
about what this minister is not doing. She is working
around the clock. She is meeting with everybody
concerned. She is meeting with the corporations. Ask the
people of Grand Falls what they think of what we have
done on this particular issue with Abitibi. The union
will tell you we were there for them, the community will
tell you we were there for them, the members will tell
you that we were there for them, everybody, and the
company will tell you that we were there in discussions
with them.
You stand up and imply
that we are just not doing anything. Nothing is further
from the truth. This is not a Liberal Government, this
is a PC Government.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
The Premier knows that
there are more industries shutdown in this Province
since he has been the Premier than were ever started,
and record will show that, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, to switch
gears: There is an increasing concern and discussion
regarding the future of waste management and waste
management projects in our Province. The current
strategy of waste management sites is placing a
financial burden of a lot of towns in this Province,
especially the towns that are using the Robin Hood Bay
site.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the
minister today: What is the
status of the Greater Avalon Regional Waste Management
Program, and are communities continuing to participate?
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Minister of
Municipal Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS WHALEN: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
This government is
committed to the Waste Management Strategy, and we are
investing over $200 million into that strategy. We have
just put $40 million into the facility of Robin Hood
Bay, and we have a committee that is working to bring
about this waste management on the Northeast Avalon.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Towns such as Holyrood,
who were disposing of its own waste, were doing so and
earning a royalty on it by doing so for other towns, of
up to $160,000 a year in surplus in their budget; but
now, because now they have to take their garbage to
Robin Hood Bay, they are running a deficit and will run
a deficit again this year.
I ask the minister: What
is government doing to offset the increased cost to
these municipalities that are now having to truck their
garbage for a number of kilometres and pay high tipping
fees to dispose of it?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS WHALEN: Mr.
Speaker, my colleague knows that we cannot have a dump
in every community in this Province. This government is
committed to closing down incinerators in this Province
and having the proper waste management facilities. All
of the communities know full well that it is time now to
modernize those types of facilities, and they are
working towards that to do just that.
Thank you.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, it is not good enough for government to have a
Waste Management Strategy that tells municipalities you
have to now truck your garbage so many kilometres, in
some cases hundreds of kilometres, you have to pay
tipping fees that are doubling by the year, like we are
seeing in Robin Hood Bay, and provide no supports and
leave them on their own to do it.
I ask you, Minister: Is
your department or the MMSB going to provide any
assistance (inaudible)?
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Minister of
Municipal Affairs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MS WHALEN: Mr.
Speaker, for my hon. colleague there, I have just
repeated that this government has been committed to
waste management in this Province. It is time now that
we come ahead in the modern – it is a type of strategy
that has had to take a $200 million investment to bring
this Waste Management Strategy to modernize facilities
across the Province, and there are committees of members
from various municipalities serving on the boards to do
just that.
Mr. Speaker, I have to
say to the hon. member that this government – her
prior government brought in this strategy - we are the
ones implementing it.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
May I remind the minister
she is the government. You have been the government for
five years. You make the decisions in this Province, Mr.
Speaker. You make the laws in this Province - not over
here! Not over here - and this was a law they made!
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, while the
government is forcing towns to truck their garbage
hundreds of kilometres, pay high tipping fees, and
giving them no subsidies, they are also allowing the
MMSB to sit on $11 million in their bank account.
Minister,
why not use that money to implement recycling programs
in these towns so they will have less garbage to truck
and less garbage to dump?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Acting
Minister of Environment and Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I would advise the Leader
of the Opposition to just keep an eye on what is going
to be happening with the Waste Management Strategy in
this Province.
I can guarantee you, Mr.
Speaker, that at the end of the day this government will
bring waste management a darn lot further than they ever
brought it.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: And,
Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that at the end of this
strategy there will not be 250 dumps left in this
Province. I just ask her to stay tuned and see what the
result will be. We will have a Waste Management Strategy
in this Province that will be comparable to anything
else in this country, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The Chair is having great
difficulty in hearing questions asked and answers given.
It causes concern, not only to the person asking the
question but to the minister trying to answer the
question.
I ask members for their
co-operation.
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I suggest that the
minister needs to get a move on if he is going to get
all these things done that he speaks of today.
Mr. Speaker, what we have
seen from the MMSB is glossy advertising and educational
campaigns that tell how to recycle, what to recycle,
what we can recycle, but it does not provide for the
programs in the Province.
I ask you, Minister: When
are you going to step up, and start using that money to
provide for appropriate recycling programs in
Newfoundland and Labrador?
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Acting
Minister of Environment and Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: Maybe,
Mr. Speaker, it is time that we give them a glossy
education about what waste management is all about.
If she wants to talk
about programs, go and speak to the schools. For every
recycled dollar that the schools bring and circulate,
they receive an equal dollar. It is no good to tell me
that the education campaign has not worked. If I say to
people: Get to Half, what does it mean? - Practically
everybody in the Province knows exactly what that means.
Mr. Speaker, the MMSB
does not provide operational costs. That has been asked
about in the media. That is going to be sustained by the
community. What we are talking about here, the MMSB, the
Waste Management Strategy, will invest in the
infrastructure. That is what the $200 million is about.
I would ask anybody to
take a look at Robin Hood Bay, where it is today
compared to where it was two or three years ago. Speak
to the people and see the advancements that have been
made out there; and in another couple of years, Mr.
Speaker, there will be something out there that will not
look like anything as it was in the past. It will be an
engineered landfill site, not a dump, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, I say to the minister, the people in Holyrood
are looking at Robin Hood Bay. Last year they looked at
it for $23 a load when they dumped; this year they are
looking at it at $50 a load when they dump, I say to
you, Minister.
I am glad to hear the programs in the schools are
working because it was an initiative of the Liberal
government that started the program in the schools on
the recycling, Mr. Speaker.
Let me ask the minister
this. He is the government. Just because the MMSB does
not have a mandate today, he claims, to provide for
recycling programs in the Province, there is no reason
why they cannot have that mandate.
I ask you, Minister: Will
you bring forward a change to see the $11 million that
is sitting in a bank account in this Province put to
good use to clean up our environment and put good
recycling programs in place?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Acting Minister of Environment and
Conservation.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: Mr.
Speaker, I cannot tell you exactly what all of the money
of the MMSB is being used for, and I do not know what
the mandate will be in the future. That remains to be
seen.
I can tell you one thing:
the money is not sitting idly. Go to Central
Newfoundland and ask the Central Waste Management
Strategy what they have done.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: There
was $500,000 allocated to them just a short while ago.
Fourteen of the dump sites that have been closed out and
recapped, so on and so forth, the money from the MMSB
has gone to that. It goes to education. It goes to
recycling, the school program – I regret that I
mentioned that now, Mr. Speaker -
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. JACKMAN: -
seeing that it was an initiative of theirs. But I can
tell you, Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day this
government will go on record as being much more
progressive than the people opposite.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please.
The hon. the Member for
the District of Signal Hill–Quidi Vidi.
MS MICHAEL: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as has
already been pointed out in our Question Period today,
today we had more announcements, one in particular with
regard to Grand Falls-Windsor, that are very serious and
that will affect the workers in our Province and
potentially, the Province’s own fiscal situation. Mr.
Speaker, the people of this Province deserve answers
from this government on what it is going to do to
protect them in this time of economic downturn.
So I ask the Premier:
What economic stimulus programs does your government
have, and what are you developing to deal with the loss
of jobs in the natural resource sector in this Province
and the potential of workers returning to this Province
without jobs because of the slowdown in natural resource
activities elsewhere in Canada?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr.
Speaker, there are significant projects that are still
going ahead. There is the Hebron project, of course,
which is on stream; there is the hydromet project, of
course, which is still on stream; the Lower Churchill is
moving forward very favourably.
As a matter of fact, on
the Lower Churchill, what we will be doing is attempting
to draw into some of the green infrastructure money, the
rapid, accelerated infrastructure money that is going to
come from the federal government.
I have a meeting of the
Atlantic premiers now on Sunday and Monday in Summerside,
Prince Edward Island, so we will be looking at that.
As well, it should not be
lost on hon. members as well, that we have a very
generous wage package out right now to public sector
workers. We are offering a compounded amount of 21.5 per
cent to our public service employees, and I am really at
a loss to understand why they are looking this gift
horse in the mouth and not taking it because we have
indicated that we can hold this until we get to the
Christmas period, but going into next year, we are not
certain as a government whether we will be able to
maintain the obligation of a 21.5 per cent raise hike.
So we are doing everything we can and.
In addition, I have also
asked for an update on our infrastructure program.
Infrastructure projects that we have on the hopper right
now are calculated at approximately –
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please.
I ask the hon. Premier to
conclude his answer.
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
- calculated at
approximately $3.5 billion to $4 billion. So we are
taking any of our surplus money, we are putting it into
our workers and we are putting it into capital
infrastructure and creating jobs.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for the District of Signal Hill-Quidi
Vidi.
MS MICHAEL: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the large
projects that are on the books, these long-term
projects. I cannot deny these. I know that they are
there, I know they are being worked on, but there are
many people who right now in the present are not going
to benefit from what is happening, especially because of
the shutdowns that we are talking about and many people
are going to be suffering because of the economic crisis
that we are in.
So I ask the Premier:
What concrete steps is your government taking and what
can we expect to see in the economic report that we are
going to get to mitigate the negative effects of the
current economic crisis as it unfolds in our Province,
not what is going to happen in ten years time but what
you are going to do now?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
PREMIER WILLIAMS: The
effects of the economic crisis are really starting to
trickle down to us now, as we have seen really with
regard to commodities; with iron ore and steel, with
nickel, with oil and gas, in the pulp and paper
industry. That is obviously having an effect, and the
most direct effects right now have been to the workers,
of course at Wabush, and as well, now our workers in
Grand Falls through Abitibi.
So we do have a task
force set up, which the minister just talked about
before. It is three months in the works right now, which
is up and running, and is ready to hit the ground
running again tomorrow. That will be going into Central
Newfoundland, working with the community, working with
the union, working with people in the communities to
decide on what they think are the best things for that
particular area.
As well, we will continue
to spend. We do not intend to pull back on our spending.
We are just trying, as we look out two, three or four
years, we have to look at where our deficits are going
but we are going to continue to infuse spending into the
economy to make sure that the people get the benefit.
We are, as I have said
before, in a very good, financial position. Now, that
position unilaterally drops as every province gets hit
harder and harder by the world economy.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask the hon. Premier to
conclude his answer.
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
But we will be at the top
of that heap, or very close to the top of that heap. So
as a result of our surplus this year, which the minister
will be discussing in the very near future regarding the
economic update, we can give an assurance to the people
of this Province that we will be spending that money in
their best interests. |
