Legislative Assembly

union are worth studying but the administrative economy of Maritime Union has quite likely been very much over-rated. As I mentioned last evening, Mr. Speaker, I doubt very much that a Maritime Union would save costs in the long run because of the need of placing in the structure somewhere a municipal form of government. However, we do not need political union to get most of the economic and adminis- trative advantages and we shall urge therefore, Mr. Speaker, a much closer co-opera- tion, and endeavour to achieve this co-operation, among the Atlantic Provinces Pre- miers. It remains an annual one-shot proposition at the present time, through the medium of the Premier’s Conference, and the full-time res nsibility of no one. We have at the present time, Mr. Speaker, some two hund agencies in the Atlantic Provinces doing one thing or another, religious, cultural, economic and so on. There is a great area of possibility here from the administrative point of view of national and regional programs we can think of. One major computer operation could handle our needs. A few matters I might suggest he handled in this way on the Atlantic Provinces level would be the hospital plan, Medicare. There is no reason why we couldn’t have the same license plates instead of having a Prince Edward Island licensc plate that costs us some 30c more than Nova Scotia because of the limited quantity we buy or 85c more if it has the reflectorized quality. Car registrations, vital statis- tics. These are things that could be handled on a Maritime level at greater economy, and we could work for a fully integrated education system. The need for uniformity in courses and school books is pressing and becoming more and more urgent as the cost of supplies and other educational equipment rises. And we can continue to work for uniformity in legislation within the Atlantic Provinces as well as within the framework of Canada as well. We can see some very substantial economic advantages to be gained, Mr. Speaker; controlled purchasing power of the combined governments could be used more effectively as an industrial development instrument. Mr. Speaker, the Atlantic Provinces are spending one billion dollars in Central and Western Can- ada each year and this money could in most cases be equally well spent for own advantage here, and to serve the future development of industry. Industrial develop- ment, rationalized regionally, would not need four separate agencies competing one against the other. This unfortunately is sometimes the case, Mr. Speaker, and to the better “deal” goes the prize. Economic planning will require some regional mach- inery to work with the Atlantic Development Board when their plan is done. The Atlantic Development Board is carrying out a research program at the present time.

Mr. Speaker, I see the time is running out and I still have a few pages to go and perhaps I can restrict my remarks to some extent. But I am afraid that this is a year for reassessment of the Causeway as well. There is no need for any one of us in government or in Opposition to believe that a second hard look won’t be taken at the results of the first tender called. The government, Mr. Speaker, has been bracing itself and preparing itself, and I may say, Mr. Speaker, over the last week we have had some ex erts and the Maritime Transportation Commission doing some homework for us an preparing some statistics. That’s all I want to say on that subject at the present time. Except, Mr. Speaker, that we believe that the Causeway will be a vital economic link with the rest of Canada in the second century of our history, and we as a Government, Mr. Speaker, will fight for that Causeway and we will not stand by and allow any decisions to be made, through our quietness, to abandon the causeway project. We will fight for that Causeway, Mr. Speaker.

This has been a year, Mr. Speaker, for reassessment in another area as well. Reassessment of the position of the Atlantic Provinces in the scheme of things in Canada. This is a year, Mr. Speaker, when attitudes of Canadians, which are ex- pressed by men such as Gordon Sinclair, will want to be answered not only by per- sons living in the Atlantic Provinces but by the hundreds of thousands of persons in the rest of Canada leading the industrial, cultural, social and all other aspects of life in the other provinces and in the New England States by Maritimers. Our main export has been brains and we have been exporting them for a long time, Mr. Speaker. Those brains are being used today to develop the Canadian economy and more par- ticularly for the advantage of the centralized and industrialized areas of Canada. The Maritime Provinces, or the Atlantic Provinces as we should call them in the context of today, have been standing on the outskirts too long and our viable economy of one hundred years died soon after Confederation. We have not received the treatment or the emphasis or the recognition for the economic roblems of the area during the latter part of the first century of our Confederation. e trust, Mr. Speaker, that we can argue successfully for more adequate and proper recognition of the needs

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