Mr. SINCLAIR (Queens):

I have the report here and if the hon. member questions my statement I shall be happy to demonstrate its accuracy. In further answer to his question I would say that neither the government nor the railway can act a year in ad-

The Address-Mr. Sinclair (Queens)

vance of a thorough survey by the engineers to determine the type of boat that is required. It would not be doing justice to Prince Edward Island to award a contract for a boat until a thorough survey of the existing conditions had been carried out and a suitable type of boat designed. The ferry boat which at present carries out the service does not meet the requirements of the present day, and the government are doing everything possible to meet that deficiency. I feel that it will not be very long, therefore, before even the exacting imagination of the hon. member for Piotou (Mr. Cantley) will be satisfied.

A further recommendation in the Duncan report was that a survey should be made of the three ports of Prince Edward Island with a view to providing transportation facilities, particularly for potatoes and other products. That recommendation has been carried out also. A survey has been made and contracts have been awarded. Two of them have been completed, and the necessary facilities thus provided at Summerside and Georgetown were in use this year. As a result hundreds of thousands of bushels of potatoes have been shipped by water to southern markets. The work at Charlottetown has only been partly completed. However, a contract for the construction of deep water facilities on the improved lines in connection with the railway terminus there has been awarded, and we hope those facilities will be available for taking care of the crop in the fall of this year. So it would seem that notwithstanding the complaints of hon. gentlemen opposite, the recommendations for better harbour facilities in Prince Edward Island contained in the Duncan report have either been fully implemented, or are well under way.

As far as the bonus for the steel industry is concerned we all know that when litigation was pending it was not an opportune time to carry out the proposal. In regard to coking plants, however, legislation was passed at the last session to give effect to the recommendation of the commission in that regard.

Mr. MACDOUGALL:

I do not wish to interrupt my hon. friend in the very excellent speech he is making. He has said that the litigation over the affairs of the British Empire Steel Corporation last year rendered the time inopportune for giving effect to the recommendation of the Duncan commission. Can he give us any assurance, now that the affairs of the company have been straightened out, that we can look for the required assistance in the budget when it is brought down?

56103-17J

Mr. SINCLAIR (Queens):

The question my hon. friend asks indicates that he accepts my statement that it was inopportune to take any action when litigation was pending. In regard to his question I can tell him that I have always found it a wise thing to look for things to those from whom we are most apt to get them, and that his desire for information will be fully satisfied when the budget comes down.

On page 41 of the Duncan report are set forth recommendations as to the action the government should take with respect to certain railway problems in the province of New Brunswick. In regard to the Kent Northern railway the recommendation is that negotiations be opened with the company looking to its being taken over. I understand that recommendation has been acted upon, and negotiations of the kind referred to have been opened.

On page 42 of the report the recommendation was made for the appointment of a deputy minister of fisheries. May I point out that legislation was passed at the last session of parliament for the carrying out of that recommendation.

Mr. HANSON:

Where is the deputy

minister?

Mr. SINCLAIR (Queens):

The implementing legislation has been passed, and it is for the department to carry out its provisions.

It was recommended also in the report that a geological survey be made of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, particularly in regard to the clays and road materials that are available for the building of roads in these two provinces, especially in the latter. During the past season the required survey was made to determine the quality as well as the quantity of the clays available. I am not so well posted with respect to New Brunswick, but as regards Prince Edward Island that recommendation was carried out by the mines branch during the past summer.

A further recommendation was that agriculture, in the case of Prince Edward Island, where it is the leading industry, should be deemed as under technical education. That recommendation has been carried out to the full by the Labour department in the administration of the Technical Education Act.

I think it is fair to say that on the whole the government have gone as far as it is possible for them to go in implementing the recommendations of the Duncan commission. I want to say to hon. gentlemen opposite from the maritime provinces that they have not given a correct account of conditions in the

Mr. DUNNING:

How are the people satisfied with the terminal work?

Mr. SINCLAIR (Queens):

I have had no complaints whatever in regard to the t'erminal work. I think the expenditure that is being made this year in providing standard terminals in the city of Charlottetown meets with the approval of all our people. It is really a necessary part of the standardization work; in order to use the remaining narrow gauge equipment and take care of the running expenses of the standard equipment that is now in use on a portion of the road, it was necessary to have that terminal work done at this time as decided upon and requested by the engineers of the road.

There is another feature of the speech from the throne to which I should like to make reference. In the last paragraph it says that substantial assistance and improved facilities will be provided for industrial and scientific research. That, Sir, will meet with hearty approval from our people in Prince Edward Island, because there is no doubt that the advance of scientific agriculture in our province has been quite rapid during the past few years. I feel that an expenditure along that line will mean a great deal for the pro-

The Address-Mr. Sinclair (Queens)

ducers of grain and root crops. I have in my hand a copy of an address delivered to the professional institute of the civil service of Canada at its meeting in the Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, on November 27th last, by Professor J. C. McLennan, of the University of Toronto, a noted scientist of whom Canada may well be proud. He says:

By the use of "off-peak" electric power we can obtain vast amounts of such gases as oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and such materials as phosphorus, magnesium and aluminium.

He says further:

It will be possible, too, with the large supplies of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus that we can secure by the use of our spare electric power, to build up immense industries for the production of artificial fertilizers, and these products can be used in ever increasing amounts to enrich our grass lands, to increase our hay and root crops and to increase -yes, double, at least in many places-the production of our grain fields.

That has a particular appeal to our people in Prince Edward Island. We have been growing our potato crop on artificial fertilizers. We have used considerable quantities of them, buying them in the markets of the world, but chiefly from Baltimore in the United States. Last year we used about thirty thousand tons of mixed fertilizers for the production of our crop. The amount in use has been increasing rapidly from year to year, and if fertilizers can be produced as here indicated from the waste energy of our electric power and the raw products of Canada can take the place of what we are now importing, it will certainly be a step in the right direction. By providing fertilizers for our people from our own natural resources, it will improve conditions generally in Canada, as well as help our trade balance. I think the action of the government in that regard is to be commended, and I hope that a liberal allowance will be made for the organization of an adequate research bureau in Ottawa.

Before closing, I might refer to a matter of probably local interest, which was also referred to last night by my hon. colleague. The speech from the throne speaks of the progress and development that has been made in Canada in aviation, particularly in regard to the carrying of the mails, and we are all glad to learn of that. My friend the Postmaster General (Mr. Veniot), of whom we are all proud in the maritimes, is to be congratulated upon inaugurating an air mail service in Canada and delivering the mail in a shorter time than it had been delivered previously. I am referring particularly to the weekly service that is now given the people of the Magdalen islands. No people in Canada were more

in need of being brought closer to the mainland of Canada than our good friends in the Magdalen islands, and we are all glad to see that they are getting this service. We have an idea that perhaps the minister might see his way clear to supplement that service by giving to us in Prince Edward Island a similar service, which would not entail any great expense, now that he has the plane and the equipment at Moncton. During this season of the year particularly, from the first of January until the ice goes away in the spring, our service is often interrupted, and we have especially during week-ends and on certain days during the week when steam communication is interrupted, quite a long time to wait for the regular delivery of mail. If some system could be devised by the Postmaster General by which an air mail service could be given to the people of Prince Edward Island, as an initial step, to carry our delayed mails, I am sure it would be much appreciated by the province in anticipation of a regular aerial mail service.

I see Mr. Speaker is becoming restless and that my time is up. I thank the house for its attention.

Mr. L. W. JOHNSTONE (Cape Breton North-Victoria):

Mr. Speaker, I should like

to make a few remarks on the subject before the house. We are now in the closing days of the debate, and the main subjects dealt with in the speech from the throne have been so thoroughly discussed that there is very little left for one to say.

First I should like to congratulate the mover (Mr. Ilsley) and the seconder (Mr. Beaubien) of the address on the very excellent manner in which they performed their respective duties. Especially do I congratulate the mover, who is a maritimer; and I am glad that the government saw fit thus to honour the hon. member for Hants-Kings, who is keeping up that reputation for oratorical ability which in days gone by was so ably displayed by many who sat in parliament, made laws, and came from the little province by the sea.

I do not wish to appear either over-optimistic or pessimistic, Mr. Speaker. Although I do not deny that prosperity may exist in some parts of the country, especially in the west on account of the great wheat crop, the same cannot be said of the eastern part of Canada, where unemployment is very great and our principal industry, coal mining, is stagnant and comparatively idle. Prosperity in that district during the past few years has been unknown. Only a few days ago the citi-

The Address-Mr. Johnstone

zens of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, clubbed together and raised a subscription of nearly S3,000 to help the mining district of Cape Breton. That district is in great want; certainly there is no wave of prosperity there.

I want the house to understand distinctly that our people are not looking for relief or for charity; they want work. We find a mine only working 180 days in a year, the average wage being about $4.50; and I ask hon. gentlemen, how can a man keep a family when he is working only about half time' to say nothing of paying the debts incurred in the winter season when there is no work for him?

It does seem peculiar, Mr. Speaker, with the large coal fields in the west and in the east, that $100,000,000 of Canadian money should be spent on foreign coal. Why should not that money be kept in our own country? What a difference it would make in the matter of unemployment! I know of many miners from Cape Breton who are working in the coal fields of Philadelphia and being paid in American money for sending coal into their native country. Something must be wrong, and' something ought to be done. The board of trade in Halifax has passed the following resolution, which has been confirmed by all the other boards throughout the province, composed as they are of all classes and creeds, political and otherwise:

Whereas in the calendar year 1926, Canada produced 16,457,484 tons of coal and imported 18,056,139 tons, including 4,242,932 tons of anthracite, and indications are to the effect that importations for the year 1927 will exceed those of 1926. The importation means the export of over $100,000,000 in payment therefor: and

Whereas in the year 1926 the steel plants of Canada produced only 649,390 tons of iron and steel products (which is less than one-half of their capacity output) while in the same year 922,482 tons of foreign iron and steel in directly competitive forms were imported into Canada, and about $50,000,000 exported in payment therefor;...

Therefore be it resolved that the parliament of Canada should adopt a national fuel-steel policy which recognizes Canada's need of these commodities of coal and steel and Canada s ability to fill that need, the aim of which policy should be to produce in Canada the coal and steel consumed in Canada so far as that is presently possible, and to take all steps necessary to ensure expansion of these industries so that they may ultimately give complete fulfilment to this national policy.

That was the resolution passed by the board [DOT]of trade of Halifax, and which was sent to and concurred in by the different boards of trade throughout the country. What is the solution of this annual lack of employment in our coal centres? Last session we thought we had found a solution in the coke oven bill, but apparently we did not-and why? The

answer is that these coke ovens are using American coal instead of Canadian coal, because the American coal comes in practically free and owing to the cost of transportation can be purchased more cheaply than Canadian coal. Now, Sir, I do not think that the way to build up our country is to close down our own industry and import our products from a foreign country. There are only two things I know of which will -provide a remedy, namely, tariff and railway rates. We must have such railway rates that we shall be able to ship our coal by rail during the winter months, thus giving employment to our miners in Cape Breton. Let me quote a statement prepared by the Hon. G. S. Harrington, Minister of Public Works and Mines for Nova Scotia, with regard to a national fuel and steel policy:

That the Dominion of Canada adopt a national fuel and steel policy the aim of which is to produce in Canada the fuel and steel consumed in Canada; that the recommendations of the Duncan commission framed towards this end be made effective forthwith; and that all steps necessary from time to time to give full effect to this policy be taken by the parliament of Canada.

Present steps recommended:

1. Coking plants.

2. Subventions for carriage of coal west of Montreal.

3. Tariff consideration for imported coke, anthracite screenings and bituminous coal.

4. More favourable transportation rates.

5. Abolition of customs drawback for foreign coals entering Canada for coking as now allowed.

If this policy were put into force without delay the money now sent out of the country for the purchase of foreign coal would be spent in Canada, and in the next speech from the throne the government would be able to say truthfully and honestly that there was prosperity throughout the land.

The speech from the throne makes mention of the celebration during the past summer of the sixtieth anniversary of confederation. I wish to congratulate the government upon the success of the celebration. The organization of committees and the carrying out of the various plans were all that could be desired, and I think it was a great thing for Canada. When we recall the unanimous character of the demonstration, extending as it did from east to west and including every little hamlet, village and town we see how strongly the patriotic feeling prevailed; we realize that it showed plainly to other countries that Canada is essentially patriotic, no matter what a few propagandists or secessionists might say to the contrary.

With reference to the Dominion-provincial conference, I believe it will be a good thing

The Address-Mr. Johnstone

if the terms of that conference as agreed upon are properly carried out. If not, it is useless and a bill of expense. I am convinced that much good must have been accomplished by the representatives of the different provinces meeting and discussing matters with the federal government.

I have very little to say on chat very important and well discussed matter of immigration policy. I am in favour of a commission to go into the whole business in order to find out what is the right policy to adopt. I do think that a certain number of immigrants might be turned to the maritimes. In Cape Breton we have splendid, fertile farms with no one to work them. I believe the local government is trying to formulate some scheme to relieve that situation. As I understand from the speech delivered by the Minister of Immigration (Mr. b'orke) yesterday a conference with the different provinces is contemplated in the near future; I hope it will be productive of some good.

I do not wish to detain the house any longer, but I trust that, if not all, at least some of the few suggestions that have been offered to the government will be taken notice of, that our country will continue to prosper, and that this prosperity will extend over all parts of this fair Canada of ours.

Mr. HUGH ALLAN (North Oxford):

will diligently apply itself to the tasks which confront it? Thus shall we perfect the vision of those illustrious men whose deeds we celebrated last year and hand down to posterity a heritage worthy of the age in which we live.

On motion of Mr. Veniot the debate was adjourned.

On motion of Mr. Dunning the house adjourned at 10.30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 8, 1928