Newfoundland Bulletin, vol. 02, no. 05 (May 1969)

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CONFEDERATION BUILDING
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND
MAY, 1969
NO. 5
L
Budget  69:
We are spending more than ever...but still not enough
The photograph shows the Minister
of Finance, Hon. H. R. V. Fade, as
he delivered the Budget Speech in
the House of Assembly on Wednesday, April 16, 1969.
It was an Anniversary Budget in
the sense that it came in the year that
marked Newfoundland's 20th Anniversary as a Province of Canada; and
it was an occasion to trace some of
the progress of these 20 years of Confederation.
The Budget Speech did that, and
gave a wealth of information and
statistics never compiled before.
In effect, the Budget summed up
our first 20 years as a Province of
Canada, and looked into the future.
It is of interest to all the people of
Newfoundland and Labrador, and
with this in mind it is being published in full in this issue of the Newfoundland Bulletin.
Government expenditures are
up, not down
Last Year
1968-69
This Year
1969-70
Education
3,390,000       $80,495,000
Health        57,774,000 59,354,000
Highways         60,201,000 54,545,000
Welfare         46,707,000 44,706,000
Municipal Affairs and Housing           7,101,000 8,854,000
Fisheries           5,715,000 4,557,000
Economic Development                  11,862,000 11,407,000
Community and Social Development                           7,170,000 6,426,000
Mines, Agriculture and Resources          8,710,000 7,911,000
Public Works         7,816,000 7,631,000
When all the above, and other Departments not mentioned above, are
put together the totals are as follows:
Last Year This Year
$341,958,000 $342,710,000
We have laid the foundation
for a great Province of Canada
MR. SPEAKER, this Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador stands
poised today for the greatest advance
of her history. She has had twenty
years of preparation for this great advance. These twenty years of Confederation may be regarded as constituting a launching-pad from which
Newfoundland may go swiftly and
boldly into greatness within the family of Canadian Provinces. What has
happened in the past twenty years
has been the laying of a firm foundation to bear the weight and to carry
out the structure of a great Province
of Canada.
The foundation is well laid indeed.
In almost every aspect of our lives the
improvements have been made, and
we are more ready than we ever
dreamed of being to assume the tasks
and responsibilities of a determined
thrust forward.
In the past twenty years we have
built twenty-two hospitals, and we
have spent over $75 million to do so.
In all of Newfoundland's hospitals today we have a grand total staff of
over 8,000 persons, of whom 1,700 are
professional men and women. In the
building and operation of our hos
pitals and other public health services
since Confederation we have spent
more than $400 million of public
money, as compared with $31 million in the twenty years before. It is
the simple truth to say that our people are healthier and in better physical condition than they ever were in
all their history. Certainly, from the
health standpoint, Newfoundland is
well prepared for the next twenty
years.
The same may be said of education. Since we became a Province
twenty years ago we have spent over
$500 million on education, compared
with $32 million in the twenty years
before. We have built and re-built a
thousand schools. Twenty years ago
there were only eighty-four schools in
all Newfoundland that had indoor
toilets: today there are 838 of them.
Twenty years ago we had not even
one school bus: today we have over
500 of them. Twenty years ago we
had 2,400 school teachers: today we
have 6,000. Twenty years ago, in the
whole of Newfoundland, we had a
total of 169 teachers with university
grade: today we have more than 1,-
400 of them.    Twenty years ago we
had no College of Fisheries, Navigation, Marine Engineering and Electronics. In the five years that we
have had such a College, 10,000 students have gone through it. Twenty
years ago on this Island we had virtually no vocational training. Today
we have twelve trade schools and the
technical college that cost more than
$27 million to put there. They now
have staff of over five hundred receiving $3 million a year in salaries,
which is about what we paid for all
expenses of all education in the whole
Province in the first year of Confederation. In the past seven years,
since these trade schools and technical college were started, some 25,-
000 students have gone through them
BUDGET INDEX
Page
Our assets as a Province 	
•     8
Our power policy	
"   10
Our  policy on  centralization
13
Our financial policy	
'  15
Government  expenditures   ...
•   16
Expenditures on education  ...
•   17
Tax changes for the
coming year 	
'   18
19
in the day time, and 28,000 in the
night, both figures being gross and
representing considerable overlapping. In the past seven years we
have paid more than $12 million in
allowances to the students who have
gone through these trade schools.
Twenty years ago we had 300 students in our Memorial University College. Today, after spending more
than $60 million to establish and operate it, we have a full-fledged University with 6,000 students in it.
At the coming of Confederation we
had twenty-six public libraries in
Newfoundland: today we have sixty-
five. At that time they had 64,000
books: today they have over 300,000.
I think it is realistic to say that
from the educational point of view
we are better prepared to face the
future than we ever were in the past.
In the field of transportation we
have made vast strides. We now
have a network of more than 5,000
miles of roads. In the whole history
of Newfoundland before Confederation the Government of Newfoundland spent a total of $36 million on
roads. In the past twenty years we
have spent over $475 million on them.
In the past twenty years the people of
Newfoundland have themselves spent
more than $800 million on motor cars,
trucks and buses. From the stand-
continued on page 5)