Verbatim Report
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PROVINCE OF NEWFOUNDLAND THIRTY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NEWFOUNDLAND Volume 1 1st Session Number 26 VERBATIM REPORT Thursday, June 8, 1972 ..... , ...., SPEAKER : THE HONOURABLE JAMES M. RUSSELL June 8. 1972 · Tape 621 JM - 1 The House resmned at 8:00 P.M. Mr. Speaker in the Chair. MR. SPEAKER: Order please! On motion that the House go into Committee of the Whole on Supply, Mr. Speaker.left the Chair. HEADING V - PROVIJqCIAL AFFAIRS: HONOURABLE A.J. MURPHY(MINISTER OF PROVINCIAL A~TD LABI0J)OR AFFAIRS)_: Mr. Chairman, if I may before we get into the item by item discussion I would i rn~t like to make a s·hort statement with reference to the Department of Provincial Affairs. The department is not one of the huge spending departments of this government nevertheless it is responsible for the administration of over fiftv acts. It has a total staff of seventy-three persons. The department is responsible for the administration of acts dealing with1 for example, the Barbers and Hair Dressers, Shop Closing Act, Consmner Affairs and all types of consumer legislation. Some of the minor functions of the department are preparin~ proclamations, official documents, change of name, registration of companies, Nomenclature Act, commission of parole and so on and so forth. The main functions of the department are the administration of emergency measures, consumers affairs, historic sites, archives, museums, arts and culture centres at St. John's, Corner Brook, Grand Falls and Gander. You will observe from the estimates that the Emergency Measures Division will be voted a gross amount of $141,700 rluring the current financial year. This amount is broken down into various subheads and we will get to that when the items arrived. I would just like to say that of this amount 875,000 is directly .... contributed by Ottawa. While·we are on Emergency Measures, Sir, there is one thing I would like to clear up, in fairness to our Director of the Emergency Measures Organization and that is the publicity that 1921 June 8, 1972 Tape 621 JM - 2 was taking place in our papers for some time with reference to a young man falling over a cliff at Topsail. There was a lot of propaganda spread. I will not call it propaganda but perhaps publicity given,that were not the actual facts. So I got my director to just give me the facts as they were according to the knowledge of the department. Although the accident occurred before noon on that day the Emergency Measures _Organization was not summoned until twenty minutes to five in the afternoon. A rescue team was at the site j_n twenty minutes. The vehicle, a four wheel drive, was fu.llv equipped in all respects to handle this type of emer?,ency. The time taken to bring the bov down is considered reasonable in the light of the difficult nature of the task. }Te was placed in the ambulance at eight o'clock and conveyed to the city hospital. So basically instead of the ten hours that were stated, that took place between the time Emergency Measures were summoned and the actual rescue it was only from five o'clock to about eight o'clock, a matter of three hours. Of course there were other people as~istinr,,the RCMP and so on and so forth. But I would like in fairness to EMO to state the facts as they occurred. Some of the work we proposed to do during the current year: we are going to proceed with the restoration of St. Thomas' Rectory which is a cost~shared programme with Ottawa, the Federal authorities contributing $157,000 on this particular project. This was a very old building that · I think was called a commissary built somewhere in 1819 and 1922 June 8, 1972 Tape no. 622 Page 1 - MRW Mr, Murphy, lt is tied in with the Fort William Fort, where the Newfoundland Hotel is now built, It will be a very historic and I think a wonderful attraction for tourists visiting St, John's. The Cable Museum at Heart's Content is well underway, There are several people who are doing a tremendous job for us on this, veterans of the Western Union Company. I would just like to acknowledge here our thanks to them: Mr. Smith, Mr, Mackey, Mr. Star, Mr, Rowe, Mr, Randell and Mr, Parrott. I may say, Sir, that some of the equipment used at Heart's Content is now on loan to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington because it is the only equipment of its kind at present in the world. It is on use and when this Heart's Content thing is finished it will be brought back. They are also going to do more work on the Bonavista Lighthouse, as it is as well an historical exhibit, The Newfoundland Museum on Duckworth Street,which we had hoped to restore to some sort of a passable condition, is unfortunately going to cost an awful lot more than we anticipated because there has to be a full-wiring system done there. There is some money voted to begin that work, I would just like to pass a compliment to the Archives which has reconditioned the Old Colonial Building on Military Road. I think it is a credit to them the job they have done, They have almost completely renovated the building. I would like to invite any of the members to visit the place, A few weeks ago we were honoured to have His Honour the Lieutenant Governor visit the Archives and spend an hour and a-half or so there. He was very complimentary. There are preserved some of the oldest documents that you will find anywhere perhaps in North America and anybody for research - I think it is used quite frequently by students at Memorial University, _AN HON. MEMBER: <Inaudible) MR. MURPHY: The office is still there, I think, June 8, 1972 . Tape no, 622 Page 2 MR, MURPHY. The Arts and Culture Centres are working out very well. In the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John's there were 179 public performances and with an attendance of something over 152,000, _AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible). MR. MURPHY: There are no clowns over there otherwise,if there is an opening, I will let the honourable member know, There are also 250,000 persons who visited libraries during the year, adults and childrens. There was one great disappointment and that is the Grand Falls Public Building in Grand Falls where we had hoped to establish some type of a museum, We have one exhibit in the Observation Tower. There were as far as we were told two rooms reserved on the Fourth Floor, I say this for the benefit of the Grand Falls people. We were under the impression that the past member for Grand Falls had told us that there would be a room available for this great Beothuck Village, Unfortunately,to our sorrow, we discovered that there was only one room available on that Fourth Floor and this is used for exhibits. There was a second one that we thought we could get. Public Works say no because it was for some other purpose. There are some exhibits in one room on the Fourth Floor but there is another one across the hall that we understood was to be the Beothuck Village one, and we were getting the exhibits ready, Now we discover from Public Works that it was never designed for it. It is vacant and they are doing it up for som~ department of government at the present time. AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible) · _MR. MURPHY: No not the public building, that is Public Works. AN HON. MEMBER: (lnaudible) MR. MURPHY: This is the public building, not the Arts and Culture Centre in Grand Falls I am referring to. 1924 June 8, 1972. Tape 623. Page 1. Perhaps one of the things - one is operated by Public Works and one by the Provincial Affairs. I am just stating the facts that we were under the impression from the past government that this room would be available but we find it is not, There is perhaps one item here I would refer to, when we would get into any questions may be asked, that is the Book of Remembrance I think this was commissioned some few years a~o, to record all the names I believe of Newfoundlanders killed in the two World Wars and the Korean War. We are hoping to finish that book this year. There will be - This is a government book. They are hoping to present that Book this year. Then ·an Altar of Rememberance is going to he erected in the lobby and a copy of this Book will be placed there for visitors. So, basically these are just a few of the items that will come up, Wheri anybody has any questions,if I cannot give them the answers I will certainly look them up, MR.ROBERTS: Mr, Chairman, the Minister has very fully outlined everything that the department does, He, himself says it is not one of the action departmen~ in the Government really, It does some very useful work, but it certainly is not one of the departments that affects Newfoundlanders in every nook and cranny. He did not touch on one item, I can either raise it here or later,as the honourable gentle- man wishes, but 1it is one in which I have a personal interest, also one that affects my constituency in White Bay North, of course the north side of Lance aux Meadows.