Province Législature Session Type de discours Date du discours Locuteur Fonction du locuteur Parti politique Nouvelle-Écosse 47e 2e Discours du Trône 28 Février 1962 Edward C. Plow Lieutenant-gouverneur PC Nova Scotia: Speech from the Throne, Second Session of the 47th General Assembly, February 28th, 1962 I am pleased to welcome you to this the Second Session of the 47th General Assembly convened in the Province. We have been saddened since the Legislature last met by the death of Roderick MacLean, the Senior Member for Inverness County, thus bringing to an end a long and useful public career both in the Provincial and in the Municipal fields. The Conference of the Premiers of the Atlantic Provinces was held during the year at Charlottetown, and a further meeting will be held during the coming year at St. John's, Newfoundland, to discuss matters of mutual concern and interest to the Atlantic Provinces. A Conference of the Premiers of the Provinces of Canada was also held during the year at Charlottetown to discuss matters relating to Provincial problems. My Government was represented at this meeting and the Conference is to be convened again during the coming year in the Province of British Columbia. While the past year has been difficult for some areas of our Province, it has witnessed a series of development that inspire confidence in our provincial economy. My Government has been officially notified that the 1st day of February of this year was the starting date of the mill operated by Nova Scotia Pulp Limited. You will be asked to authorize a lease of certain Crown Lands in the eastern part of Halifax County to furnish pulp wood to proposed newsprint mill at Sheet Harbour. You will be asked to authorize a lease of certain Crown Lands in western Nova Scotia to support the growing production of the Bowaters Mersey newsprint mill at Liverpool. You will be requested to authorize the Municipality of the County of Halifax to enter into an agreement concerning taxation of an oil refinery to be built at Eastern Passage in Halifax County by Texaco Canada Limited. Industrial Estates Limited has now assisted in establishing or expanding 22 industries involving a total commitment of $9,000,000.00 by the Company. The regulations governing loans made by the Fisherman's Loan Board have been revised by my Government following the increase in subsidies payable on steel and wooden ships by the Government of Canada. Orders for new wooden draggers from 92 to 110 feet in length have already created a shortage of yard space and skilled labour in our shipyards. The marked increase in livestock production during the year is expected to continue. It is proposed that continued and additional emphasis will be directed to a campaign for improved practices and increased production of forage crops, such being required by an enlarged and expanded livestock industry. Following the best tourist year in our history, my Government proposes to increase further its advertising program in the United States and Canada, and to establish facilities for providing and distributing tourist information in Ontario, in addition to Boston and New York. My Government believes that some of our basic industries would progress more rapidly if they adopted considered targets of expansion, and consequently you will be requested to authorize a Minister to work with such industries in planning and achieving objectives and to co-ordinate all development activities of my Government. My Ministers are encouraged by the growing response to the efforts of the Nova Scotia Productivity Committee. My Government is carrying on negotiations with Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation Limited concerning additional manufacturing facilities at Sydney. My Government is again participating in the Federal-Municipal winter works program and my Government has again offered to Municipalities a winter works incentive program. The immediate future of the coal industry in Nova Scotia presents serious problems. Unemployment in our traditional coal mining areas continues to give grave concern. My Ministers continue to explore possibilities of preserving existing and developing new markets for coal. The Nova Scotia Power Commission has continued its policy of close cooperation with coal purchasers in the Province and has utilized its thermal generating facilities to the maximum practical extent. More than 177,000 tons of Nova Scotia coal was consumed in the Commission's plants at Trenton and Maccan and these two plants produced nearly 50,000,000 kilowatt hours of coal generated energy for grid sales, most of which was sold to the Province of New Brunswick. The Nova Scotia Power Commission has continued to administer an agreement with the Government of Canada respecting subvention payments on Maritime coal used in the generation of power. Since this subvention system was inaugurated, more than $3,800,000.00 has been paid in such subventions and more than $1,000,000.00 of that amount was paid in the year ended November 30, 1961. My Government and the Government of New Brunswick are requesting an increase in such subventions in order to develop cheaper power, attract more industry and utilize our coal. My Ministers anticipate that the power study undertaken by Charles T. Main Incorporated will be completed by early summer of this year. The increasing and competing demands upon our water reserves and water courses and the dangers arising from water pollution are matters of growing concern to my Government and you will consequently be requested to amend the Water Act to assist in reaching solutions to this complex problem. My Government proposes to undertake a detailed study of United Kingdom Markets with a view of determining how these markets may best be supplied with agricultural products of Nova Station origin, in the light of conditions which may apply should the United Kingdom enter the European Common Market. The Department of Lands and Forests will continue to expand its programs in recreation and conservation. Fire losses during a very dry season were low because of an intensive preventive effort. Projects for reforestation and stand improvement on Crown Lands under agreement with the Government of Canada have been increased. The work of improving the Province's highways has continued at a high level and by the end of 1962 every trunk highway in the Province will have been paved with the exception only of a short 16 mile section in Lunenburg County, and this section will receive early attention. Studies show that there remain only 225 miles of secondary roads which now carry sufficient traffic to justify regular paving. The paving of this additional mileage will be carried out at a substantial rate. My Government is experimenting with mixed asphalt and sand for the surfacing of certain secondary highways having a comparatively light traffic use and this experimental program will be continued at an increased rate. The practice of strengthening the base of our highways by combining cement with the base course will be extended this year and will be used for the first time an a major paving project between Amherst and Oxford. The extensive experiments being conducted by my Government to ascertain the most economical wearing surface to place wet the strengthened base course will be further continued during the next paving season. During the coming season my Government will undertake the work of Trans-Canada Highway by- passes around the towns of New Glasgow and Antigonish. An Agreement has been concluded with the City of Halifax respecting the entrance into the City from the Bicentennial Drive in the Fairview district. Work has already begun on the Provincial section of this undertaking and work within the City limits will commence this spring. My Government is making arrangements to increase the contract strength of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in this Province, with a view to meeting growing general law enforcement demands, and especially to augment by approximately fifty per cent the number of men available for highway patrol service. My Government proposes to improve and extend the Adult Probation Service by increasing the number of staff officers in this important field, and you will be asked to provide the money required for this purpose. You will be asked to consider amendments to the Judicature Act respecting the constitution and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Pursuant to the legislation passed at the last Session of the Legislature, the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission is making a study of the need of a bridge across the North West Arm and of an additional bridge across Halifax Harbour. Steps were taken by any Government during the year to provide suitable courses for increasing the opportunity of students continuing their education in secondary grades, and to offer additional educational opportunities for persons who have left the school system. A combined trade school and technical institute is now under construction in Halifax. This institute will make provision for technical education beyond secondary school level, for refresher and advanced training for tradesmen, and will provide courses for apprentices and for the training of unemployed persons. A new Vocational High School with trade training facilities is being erected in Cape Breton County, and negotiations are being conducted with municipal authorities in Pictou, Cumberland, Kings and Lunenburg Counties for the construction and operation of additional Vocational High Schools in those Counties. Plans are also in preparation for additions to the Vocational High Schools at Halifax and Yarmouth. The program for the training of unemployed persons was expanded in the autumn of 1961, particularly for the purpose of retraining persons displaced by the closing of mines in Cape Breton. My Government, in cooperation with the Government of Canada, has provided for an increase in the allowances to be paid to unemployed persons taking such training. My Government has initiated a program in the secondary schools to provide for special courses in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies for students who do not propose to continue their education beyond the secondary level. This program is now in effect in four schools, and is now being organized for other schools which will have an opportunity to employ it in the term commencing in September of 1962. The advisory Committee on Curriculum Revision established in 1948 was reorganized, giving proper representation from the Universities and from public bodies. This Committee will offer advice and suggestions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Division, which body is responsible for curriculum development. Special attention is being given by my Government to the development of new programs in mathematics and science for Grades seven to twelve, so as to keep pace with new ideas and changing content in these subjects. In the field of Municipal Affairs my Government has continued to increase the assistance it has been giving to Municipal officials in the conduct of their work. A correspondence course for assessors sponsored by the Department of Municipal Affairs and administered by the Institute of Public Affairs of Dalhousie University was inaugurated in September with a very satisfactory registration. Officials of the Department of Municipal Affairs have completed the valuation of property liable to municipal taxation for the purpose of determining the proportions to be paid by the Province and the municipal units towards the Foundation Program of Education. These officials are now engaged in preparing new valuations for the current year and it is intended that this revaluation be made annually hereafter. An increased interest is being shown in community planning throughout the Province and with the assistance of the Department of Municipal Affairs two Metropolitian Planning Commissions were created during the year. My Government proposes to appoint a Commission to inquire into the adequacy of the existing procedures regarding the changing of municipal boundaries, the establishing of new municipal units and the revision of boundaries of polling districts within municipalities. My Government has established a committee to review the cost scales in the Foundation Program and the formula for distributing grunts established under the legislation of 1955. Following submission of the committee's report discussions will take place with the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities with a view to determining the extent to which view cost scales in the Foundation Program can be implemented. In the field of civil defence, the training program was continued and substantially expanded and fifty- one of the Municipal governments now have some form of civil defence organization. During the year, my Government constituted an organization known as Emergency Measures Organization (Nova Scotia) to make for the continuity of government services and for the preservation and storing of essential records. A full-time medical officer has been appointed to the civil defence staff. This will enable my Government to participate with the Government of Canada in the stock piling of Emergency Health Supplies including about twenty pre-packaged 200-bed emergency hospitals. In January of this year, a meeting was held with the Wardens and Mayors of the Province, to discuss the role of the armed services and the roles of the Government of Canada and of the Province in either a war-like or natural disaster. The first production, for several years, of copper, lead, zinc and silver occurred in 1961 and the results are now being analyzed and a substantial increase in the production of at least some of these metals can be anticipated. The production of gypsum barite, anhydrite, salt, silver, lead and peat moss should be appreciably higher during the coming year. My Government continues to assist in the provision of new and additional hospital beds and nurses' residence beds and training school facilities and construction to provide 375 additional hospital beds and 300 nurses' residence beds is now in progress. Effective April 1, 1962, my Government will increase the insured out-patients services so as to include, among other services, procedures done under general anesthesia, nerve block, electroconvulsive therapy and basal metabolic rate. The addition of these insured services to the people of the Province will lessen the demand for hospital beds and provide this additional free hospital service for our people. Another community mental health clinic has been opened to serve the western part of the Province and it is expected that one or more additional clinics will be opened during the year in those areas not now served by such a clinic. The Cape Breton Mental Clinic has been authorized to employ three psychiatrists for service in that area. A new Municipal Mental Hospital is now under construction at Waterville in Kings County. The construction of this hospital is being assisted by both Federal and Provincial Construction Grants. The first trial in Canada of monovalent Sabin types Poliomyelitis Vaccine was successfully carried out in the Wedgeport area during the year. The Alcoholism Research Commission report will be tabled. My Government proposes to implement its recommendations respecting the establishment of an alcoholism clinic. You will be asked to consider a revised Public Health Act which will lead to the Department of Health assuming greater responsibility for the enforcement of Public Health regulations, heretofore the responsibility of municipal Health Boards. My Government will provide assistance for the long-term treatment of Phenolketonuria, an uncommon disease of infancy, but one which if untreated can result in mental retardation. The Government of Canada has amended the Old Age Assistance Act, the Blind Persons' Act and the Disabled Persons' Act so to increase to $65.00 a month the maximum amount which may be paid under those Acts, and also to increase the amount of allowable income before disqualification by $180.00 a year in the case of unmarried persons and by $360.00 in the case of married persons. My Government proposes to enter into an agreement with the Government of Canada to provide the corresponding Provincial payments under these Acts. The number of persons receiving Disabled Persons' Allowances has increased substantially during the year and in addition, Social Assistance is now being paid to 850 disabled persons who do not qualify for the Disabled Persons' Allowance. You will be asked to provide increased financial assistance for the maintenance in foster homes of wards of Children's Aid Societies and legislation will be introduced to change the method of computing aid to Children's Aid Societies and to enable my Government to pay these Societies on the basis of services rendered by them. You will be asked to consider a measure to provide assistance for approved housing projects for senior citizens. During the year the Government of Canada, acting on the request and recommendation of my Government, proclaimed the Juvenile Deliquents Act to be effective throughout the whole of Nova Scotia. The Report of the Royal Commission on Labour Legislation will be laid before you. The Provincial Elections Act as recommended by the Royal Commission on Election Practices will be presented for your consideration. Legislation will be introduced to amend the Motor Vehicle Act, the Domestic, Dominion and Foreign Corporations Act, the Credit Union Act, the Insurance Act, the Nova Scotia Teachers' Pension Act, and other Public Statutes of the Province. The Public Accounts of the Province for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 1961 will be placed before you. An interim statement showing revenues and expenditures for the current fiscal year as presently estimated will be furnished to you. Estimates for the fiscal year to commence April 1st, 1962, will be presented to you for consideration. To these and all other matters which may come before you I ask your most careful attention, praying that Divine Providence may guide you in all your deliberations and decisions.