Legislative Assembly Of Manitoba DEBATES and PROCEEDINGS Speaker The Honourable A. W. Harrison Vol. VII No. 87 8:00 p.m. Monday, April 30, 1962. Sth Session, 26th Legislature Printed by R. s. Evans. Queen�s Printer for the Province of Manitoba� Winnipeg THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEll/IBLY OF MANITOBA .· 8:00 o'clock, Monday, April 30th, 1962. Prayer by Mr. Speaker: MR. SPEAKER: Presenting Petitions Reading and Receiving Petitions Presenting Reports by Standing and Special Committees Notice of Motion Introduction of Bills The proposed motion of the Honourable the Leader of the House. HON. GURNEY EVANS (Minister of Industry & Commerce)(Fort Rouge): Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if-'- were you proposing to call the Orders of the Day? MR. SPEAKER� Orders of the D.�Y- MR . EVANS: Before the Orders of the Day, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to lay on the table a Return to an Order of the House No. 34 in the name of the Honourable Member for Gladstone. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. MR . S. PETERS (Elmwood): Mr. Speaker, before the Orders of the Day, I'd like to di­ rect -- Go ahead. MR. GILDAS MOLGAT (Leader of the Opposition)(Ste. Rose): Does the First Minister know how many Orders for Return are still to come? And what disposition was made of them? HON. DUFF ROBLIN (Premier)(Wolseley): Mr. Speaker, I think that all the Orders for Return are in, with the exception of the inquiries about the Mississippi Parkway. Now in that instance we have had to write to the State of Minnesota to get their concurrence with respect to correspondence as a matter of courtesy. We have not heard from them and it seems unlikely that we shall; but I suggest that perhaps next time we meet the same order could be placed on the paper and we'll be able to gi\e �he information at that time. That's the only one I know of that's outstanding. MR. MOLGAT: Mr. Speaker, would it be possible when the reply arrives, if it could be sent to the member who requested the information? MR . ROBLIN: I have no objection to that Mr. Speaker, so long as I make it clear that t this is not a precedent because usually, in fact always when the House prorogues the orders die; but as a ��r of courtesy to the gentleman concerned we would not object to sending it alon� . MR. PETERS: Mr. Speaker, before the Orders of the Day, I'd like to direct a question to the Minister of Labour and I'm sorry that I didn't ask him sooner. If he wants to take this as notice he can tell me in private if he likes. I wonder if he could tell me if the Minimum - Wage Board has met yet and if they have, where they have met? If he wants to tell me in pri­ vate it's okay too. HON. J. B. CARROLL (Minister of Labour)(The Pas): Mr. Speaker, I can't tell my hon­ ourable friend whether they have met. They have been instructed though to meet and to conduct their hearings and presumably if they haven't met, they will be shortly. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. Adjourned debate on the proposed motion of the Honourable the First Minister that Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into a Committee of Ways and Means for Raising of the Supply to be granted to Her Majes­ ty. The Honourable Member for St. Boniface. MR. LAURENT DESJARDINS (St. Boniface): ...... to say that I asked for the adjourn- ment for my colleague. the Honourable Member from La Verendrye. MR. STAN ROBERTS (La Verendrye): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make a few very short comments on the Budget Speech. This I'm sure is not time for long speeches to be popular, but I think this opportunity should not be passed by. Referring to the government of the day, I'd like to point out that I was elected to this Legislature in 1958 at the same time as this government was, and for some time after the gov­ ernment was elected there was a wave of favourable impression left by this government, prob­ ably a wave of favourable impression towards the new broom attitude of the government. For­ tunately, I think that this new broom attitude, this impression of a government going busily April 30th, 1962 Page 313_1 (Mr. Roberts, cont'd.) .... about its way doing good work has gone by. I think the govern­ ment has lost its spark and I suggest that the Honourable the First Minister in his challenge this afternoon to call an election should carry it out, because it's obvious that this is apparent­ ly the way for the province to get good government. There's no doubt that there was a great deal of activity from the provincial government following the 1958 and 159 elections, but now we have come into a period of stagnation, a period where the government regularly throughout this session has been seeking out ways and means of avoiding making decisions on important issues of the day. In the field of agriculture in particular, we have Jthink, one of a more progressive Min­ ister's of this Cabinet; but I think he too at this time is being somewhat hesitant in stepping out, meeting the challenge of the changing times. We have great problems in Manitoba with the farm population, net income is way down this year. There are many things that a provincial government can do to help them out. The greatest role of course is the role of trying to keep the costs of production as .low as they can, of narrowing that cost�price squeeze. There are many ways in which provincial governments can help cut costs. For instance there is the problem which the Farmers' Union and the farm groups have been asking the provincial gov­ ernment to do for many years, a very simple thing, but its something that they have been avoiding doing, and that is the lowering of the registration fees, the license fees of trucks which are used only occasionally -- of elderly trucks only .used occasionally for hauling grain in the fall. This is only one move, but there are many moves like this the provincial govern­ ment could make towards keeping the costs down to the farmer. There are other ways in which the provincial government can help the farmers of Manitoba in improving their income. One way of course is in the assistance towards the orderly marketing of their produce. We've had orderly marketing of grain for some years in Western Canada; we still haven't any order­ ly marketing method of handling our livestock produce and vegetables and I think the provincial government could show a great deal of help, leadership in this field and by the same token, im-. prove the income of the farmer, and improve by that method the net income of the farmer. There is for instance -- has been -- a survey done of the southeast Manitoba, what is the future of this area? There's a real problem. This is an area which has a problem very much its own, a problem of many uneconomic farm units and an area in which this government set about busily to survey, and yet what do we see as a result of this survey. We have not had a report. We do not see any tangible evidence of programs under way. It all goes to add up to what I started out with a dandy new broom idea and gradually each year since then has slowed down in its activities and many of its pet projects have just petered out. Because the south­ east Manitoba has a big problem. The farmers of this area have a big problem. The farm problem is to develop as many economic farm units as yol.l can out of the farms that are lo­ cated in these areas. An d what is this government doing to help? -- Well nothing. They set up a crop insurance plan, but doesn't include this area. They put a farm credit plan into be­ ing, an Agricultural Credit Plan in the Province of Manitoba, but money will not be lent into this area from this agriculture credit corporation because the value of the land is not high enough in order to provide security for this kind of loan. They've refused to go on with the testing of tobacco through the area; a possibility. They haven't made any particular effort to grow trees; something that can be grown through this area. Other new crops that could be grown in the southeast they've made no attempt to experiment with. There's a world of po­ tential down through this southeast, potential of grazing livestock, of raising all sorts of special crops. This kind of program requires public assistance to get rolling. It requires experimental work being done by provincial governments as well as federal government, and it requires the help of a Minister of a department which is interested in helping out this area. Unfortunately, federally the Government of Canada has no more far-reaching policy than has the provincial government. The policy towards agriculture by the Government of Canada for the past four years has been one of patchwork, one of plugging holes, one of expediency. Wherever there was trouble, plug the hole; wherever there was a jam, let's do something about it.