Mr. SPEAKER:

This bill provides for the appointment of a director of civil service whose duty it shall be to co-ordinate the staffs of the various departments.

As such an appointment would involve an expenditure of money, the bill must receive the recommendation of the crown before it can be entertained by the house. Section 54 of the British North America Act provides that it shall not be lawful for the house to adopt any bill for the appropriation of any part of the public revenue to any purpose that has not first been recommended by message of the Governor General and our standing order No. 60 states that all motions made for charges upon the people must be first referred to the committee of the whole before any resolution of the house do pass thereupon.

It seems therefore that the bill cannot be introduced by a private member. I kftow that I allowed it last session when the hon. member gave very little explanation on introducing it, but I should certainly have ruled jt out of order had it come up for second reading. I therefore rule that the present motion is out of order.

Mr. S. F. TOLMIE (Victoria, B.C.):

I

desire to ask the government if the report from Commissioner Martin with regard to the return of British Columbia lands has been received and when we may expect to have it laid on the table?

Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

The final report has not

been received. An interim report has been received, and I think I might undertake to have it laid on the table on Monday.

Hon. P. J. A. CARDIN (Minister of Marine and Fisheries):

Yesterday my hon.

friend from Cumberland (Mr. Smith) made reference to certain reports in regard to the

use of American coal for bunkering purposes on Canadian vessels. I caused inquiry to be made, but I have not yet the full details in regard to the matter. As soon as I get the details I shall communicate with my hon. friend in regard to it. In the meantime, I want it to be understood that it is the stated policy of the Canadian government to use Canadian coal on all our boats and I am very much surprised to hear that certain reports have been made along the line mentioned by the hon. member. The stated policy of the * government is to use Canadian coal and I shall see that that policy is put into practice. If an exception has been made, I shall see that the matter is corrected and that our policy, which is very well known, will be continued.

Mr. R. K. ANDERSON (Halton):

I

should like to ask the Minister of Finance (Mr. Robb) if I may have a copy of the final statement of the liquidator of the Farmers Bank showing the receipts and disbursements.

Mr. ROBB:

At the moment I can see no

objection to it. I shall inquire at the department and communicate with my hon. friend on Monday.

Mr. R. K. SMITH (Cumberland):

Mr. Speaker, I regret that, due to a railway tie-up on account of storms on the Canadian National railway between Montreal and Nova Scotia, I was not able to be present at the opening or to hear the mover and seconder of the address, I had occasion to read their speeches in Hansard and I think, with those who have preceded me in this debate, I can very sincerely tender my congratulations to those hon. gentlemen. Perhaps, I can go a step further with respect to the mover of the address, and say that the government of this country is to be congratulated upon paying a tribute to the province of Nova Scotia by selecting the mover of the address from that little province by the sea. I am sure the province will appreciate the honour and will also acknowledge that the mover of the address worthily upheld the capabilities of those coming from there.

150 COMMONS

The Address-Mr. Smith (Cumberland)

I do not know, Mr. Speaker, that I need pay attention in any specific way to the speech from the throne. It has been referred to by all those who have spoken as being of an empty character. I think it might be said that it was a Skilfully prepared document, closely and scrupulously evading anything of importance to the Dominion of Canada, and it probably will go down in history as a state document which would take first prize in respect of what it does not contain rather than for what it does contain.

I should like to make reference to the fact that the national fuel and steel question was omitted from the speech from the throne. The hon. member from Bow River (Mr. Garland) referred to this fact in his address yesterday, and made it clear that this matter has been long delayed by the parliament of this country. Definite action is an urgent necessity and the question should be taken into earnest consideration without further delay. I was pleased, Mr. Speaker, to hear the statement in the house to-day from the hon. Minister of Marine and Fisheries (Mr. Cardin) with respect to information received by me that Canadian government boats were being fueled with American coal at the port of Halifax. Yesterday afternoon I attempted to ask the question in the house and Your Honour ruled it out of order for what was probably a very good reason. The telegram I read to the house yesterday was followed by another telegram received by me last evening, and I am going to crave the indulgence of the house to read this second telegram now. The statement of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries is very refreshing to us and I am sure will be appreciated by all those who live in Nova Scotia. The last telegram I received reads as follows:

Suggest you raise in house question of authenticity of following statement which appears in Evening Mail Thursday February second:

"Unemployment conditions are serious in sections of the mining centres of Cape Breton; Workmen are idle, women and children are in want of food and clothing. The situation is due to the fact that there are not sufficient coal sales during the winter months to keep the Nova Scotia mines operating at full time. In the meantime on the Halifax waterfront to-day two Canadian government ships the Arleux and the Lady Laurier are having their bunkers filled with United States coal-coal mined by United States workmen and brought to the capital city of one of the greatest coal mining provinces in the world. Was there ever a greater outrage, was there ever a greater sham than the slogan of the politicians, 'Canada for Canadians' "?

If that report is true, Mr. Speaker-and 1 have no reason to doubt it-it seems to me that, as stated in the telegram, the slogan, " Canada for Canadians," is certainly a sham [Mr. R. K. Smith.}

of the worst character. The coal districts in Nova Scotia are in a very bad condition at the present time as far as employment is concerned. In the isle of Cape Breton, which is part of the province, thousands of workmen are idle and their families are in destitute circumstances, due to the fact that the operators cannot find a ready market for their coal at this season of the year. And yet boats owned and operated by the government of this country are being fueled with American coal at the port of Halifax! It seems to me that immediate steps should be taken not only to ascertain whether this is being done, but, if such is the fact, to have the practice cease without any delay, because as long as it is allowed to continue-and I understand that it has been going on since 1921-you will lose entirely the respect of the people of Nova Scotia. And let it be remembered that one-fifth of the population of that province is directly dependent upon the coal and steel industry. Therefore any action that tends to prevent employment being secured by the miners of Nova Scotia is deeply resented by all.

Now, with respect to the coal industry in Nova Scotia, let me remind the House that this is not a new question. In 1924 a delegation came to Ottawa headed by the then premier of the province, the Hon. Mr. Armstrong. That delegation presented their views and their claims to the government of the day and in no uncertain terms stated that unless some immediate steps were taken to remedy the then deplorable situation in the coal fields of the province calamitous results would follow. After that, Mr. Speaker, came the recommendation in an addendum to the report submitted to the provincial government by Sir Andrew Rae Duncan-not the Dominion Duncan report, but the provincial. In that addendum Mr. Cronyn, one of the commissioners, recommended to the government of Canada that this industry be placed on some sort of stable basis, insisting that it needed more tariff protection in order to compete with imported coal. I should like to say, sir, that this recommendation was not taken seriously by the government.

Then came the famous Duncan report that was submitted to this parliament last session. In that report by implication, if not expressly, we were told that the tariff on ooal was not sufficient. Those are not the exact words; the language used was something like this-that the question of the tariff on coal should receive' the immediate attention of the tariff advisory board, and they recommended that it be placed before that board without

The . Address-Mr. Smith (Cumberland)

delay. Well, the subject could not logically be placed before the tariff board for any reduction in duty; the duty is far too low now; it could only be placed before the tariff board for a substantial increase in duty. So I say the question of the coal industry, so far as the east is concerned, has been completely neglected by this government, and no effort has been made to see that it takes its proper place as one of the greatest basic industries of the Dominion.

It is not difficult to discover what the policies of the different parties in the Dominion are with respect to the coal industry. I have before me the remarks of the Liberal candidate who was contesting the county of Cumberland in 1921. Addressing a meeting at Amherst on October 5, in the presence of the Prime Minister, who was then the leader of the opposition, the Liberal candidate said:

Free trade is not the policy of the Liberal party. If it were I would oppose it because I believe it would briug disaster to our industries and remove from the farmers the home market which is practically the only market they have left. Free trade may be all right from the wealthy grain growers of the west whose wheat goes to the foreign markets and who do not have to worry about selling their produce at home, but it would mean paralysis in the maritime provinces. Also, I am a firm believer in the establishment of a national coal policy for Canada-no country, especially a country with cold winters, which depends on a foreign nation for its fuel, can claim to be independent of that nation.

Then he announced his policy:

Every pound of coal purchased by the government should be mined by Canadian miners and transported over government railways to the points of consumption. Coal required by other consumers in Canada should be carried at cost.

This is reported in the Halifax Chronicle of October 6, 1921. As I have said, on the platform at the time was the present Prime Minister of this Dominion. Therefore, I take it, Mr. Speaker, that so far as the coal industry of Nova Scotia is concerned that was the Liberal policy in 1921.

Mr. LAPOINTE:

It did not have much

success.

Mr. SMITH (.Cumberland):

Not very

much.