Province Législature Session Type de discours Date du discours Locuteur Fonction du locuteur Parti politique Ontario 26e 2e Discours du Trône 22 novembre 1960 John Keiller MacKay Lieutenant Governor Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario Mr. Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: It is a pleasure to welcome you to this Second Session of the 26th Parliament of Ontario. Each year, with the growth in our population and the extension of services, your duties and responsibilities have become heavier. This year, for the first time in the recent history of the Province, the Legislature is commencing its Session in the autumn. There will then be a recess from mid-December until after the beginning of the New Year when the House will resume its sittings. It is hoped that this procedure will expedite the business of the House as well as ensure for it the careful consideration that it requires. With the changes we are experiencing in our economic climate the Government's policy of expansion and development has assumed new importance. At this Session expansion and development must be our watchwords. As a great producing Province in manufactured, agricultural and other primary products our goal must be expanding markets. The responsibility for achieving that goal is not the exclusive responsibility of any one sector of our economy, but rather it demands the concerted action of all levels of government labour and industry, and in fact of ali Canadians. Faced with growing competition in a changing world we must re-assess our position and develop our opportunities. At the same time it is wise to keep matters in perspective. For the past fifteen years we have enjoyed extraordinary prosperity, with a rate of industrial expansion unprecedented in this country and envied throughout the world. This year, while there has been an ebb in some lines of activity, there has been marked expansion in others. As a result there have been more people employed in the Province than ever before and the total income of these workers is greater than ever before. Capital investment has been maintained at a near record level while the value of output of our mining, forestry and consumer goods industries and the activities of our service industries have achieved the highest level in our history. Although there has been an increase of 50,000 jobs this year -- which corresponds to the average increase of recent years -- the expansion of our industry, particularly secondary industry, has not kept pace with the growth of our work force. This situation is largely attributable to the increased competitiveness of the world economy. We are now in 8 buyers' market. Many countries in both Europe and Asia have modem, highly efficient equipment which matches our own and they have substantially lower labour costs, together with a structure of exchange rates, controls and export arrangements dedicated to strengthening their industries and expanding their sales abroad. Consequently, this is not a time for complacency. We are operating in a world which is becoming increasingly competitive. For a Province that lives on trade there can be only one solution: we must increase the sale of our goods at home and abroad. In order to do this we must be able to compete with the producers in other lands. It must be recognized that while public works at the federal, provincial and municipal levels are of high importance, they do not in themselves provide the fundamental answers to the problems and challenges of today. The emphasis today must be on the expansion of our secondary industries--and therefore our objective must be to adopt those long term solutions that will maintain our economy on a sound, competitive footing with the producers in other lands. The ability of our manufacturers to sell their goods at home and abroad in the face of increasing competition is essential to the balanced development of the Province and the Nation. It is recognized that many of the most important matters relating to the expansion of trade and commerce lie within the competence of the Federal Government. Nevertheless, the Province is vitally concerned. The situation is one that requires a concerted effort on the part of all levels of government as well as of labour and management. This means we must be adaptable, imaginative and enterprising. The maintenance of a provincial and national economy that fosters economic well-being and creates opportunities for interesting and rewarding employment that will absorb our growing work force is of fundamental importance. To this end the Government will submit for your consideration and approval a many-sided programme. This will consist in part of the following: 1. It is proposed to augment and strengthen The Department of Economics in order that it may more fully develop its methods and techniques of analysis and extend its studies of the Ontario economy with a view to supplying economic services for all departments of the Government and assisting them to cultivate and enlarge the opportunities for the Province's expansion, and development. Special studies will be made of various phases of our relations with the United States with particular reference to ways of reducing the imbalance in our commodity trade and tourist travel accounts as well as of the methods employed in other countries of promoting secondary industry. 2. It is proposed to reconstruct from our Department of Planning and Development a new Department of Commerce and Development. One of the purposes of the reorganization will be to provide more direct collaboration with Federal departments with a view to stimulating business, increasing production, and extending trade. While control over international trade arrangements, import duties and valuations, exchange rates and the whole field of banking and credit is under our Constitution vested in the Federal Government, nevertheless Ontario will co-operate fully in helping create the common front that is necessary to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of this changing world. 3. As part of the reorganization, a Products Research Division will be set up to complement the Government's present commercial and industrial development activities. This new Division's main function will be to stimulate production and employment in existing manufacturing industries of Ontario and to increase the processing of raw materials in Ontario. New products will be sought out and defined which can be manufactured by Ontario companies. A primary objective is to find replacements for present importations. Additional services will also be provided to the seven Development Associations operating in Ontario. All this work will be co-ordinated with that of the Ontario Research Foundation. Provision will be made for the expansion of this Foundation in order that it may play a fuller role in the development of manufacturing in Ontario. 4. Also under way is the formation of a Market Development Branch within The Department of Agriculture, with the task of exploring additional outlets for Ontario farm products and promoting marketing. A Committee representative of various branches of the agricultural industry and The Department of Agriculture has already visited the United Kingdom and has made encouraging progress in the marketing of Ontario farm products. The Government proposes to hold discussions with national and other farm marketing agencies with a view to co-ordination of effort. You will be asked to approve a review of the services provided by The Community Centres Act in order to bring them into line with the wide range of conditions presently existing in Ontario communities. 5. There will be placed before you a comprehensive programme of planned public projects and job-creating winter works. The extension of our capital stock through the endeavours of the Province and its municipalities and various boards and commissions not only provides indispensable services without which industry could not expand nor communities grow but also operates as a stabilizing agent in the economy. The effects of what we are now doing are apparent across the face of the Province in the form of the creation of new physical assets and the employment on essential projects of a large segment of our labour force. This capital programme will be expanded. The Department of Public Works will undertake a large construction programme based on long range planning to meet the essential needs of our people. This will include schools for the deaf and for retarded children, hospitals, administrative offices and departmental facilities, reform institutions and training schools, and conservation projects -- all of which are necessary to meet Ontario's growth requirements. Wherever possible, action is being taken to ensure that the contractor will maintain work schedules through the winter months to alleviate seasonal unemployment. Plans for the construction of additional flood control and water conservation projects have been advanced. Major provincially approved schemes on the Upper Thames, the Ausable, the Moira, and on the water courses in the Metropolitan Toronto region involve a vital cost of $47.2 million. From its inception in 1956, the Ontario Water Resources Commission has concluded agreements with various municipalities for 130 water works and sewage disposal projects at an estimated cost of $52 million. Rapid progress has been made in the construction of these projects and in the Commission's industrial water treatment work. Major sewage plants have been opened in Kitchener, Waterloo, Brantford, North Bay, Streetsville, Trenton Port Arthur, and other centres. The Commission is continuously engaged in negotiating agreements for other projects. You will be asked to vote funds to continue this programme of abating water pollution and increasing the effective use of Ontario's fresh water supplies. Immediate steps will be taken to facilitate the participation of municipalities in the Federal Government's plan to combat pollution which has become a by-product of our growing industrialization and urbanization and is in many ways a national problem. The Government is vitally aware of the need to accommodate the growing number of motor vehicles, including those of tourists, which are using our highways. The improvement of old highways, the construction of new highways, bridges and skyways, and the opening of vast areas of Northern Ontario are all part of creating an environment conducive to expansion. You will therefore be asked to authorize a volume of work exceeding that of the extensive programmes of the previous two years. Rapid progress in highway construction is evidenced on all sides. The Lake Superior Route of the Trans-Canada Highway is now being supplemented by the St. Mary's River Skyway at Sault Ste. Marie, which is planned for completion in 1962. It is planned at the same time to complete the new link between the lake Superior and Northern Routes of the Trans-Canada Highway by way of the completely new highway under construction from Wawa and Chapleau to Foleyet, Timmins and the Northern Route. Highway 401, a tans-Ontario four-lane highway, is being pushed forward to completion ahead of schedule. The new international bridge at Queenston which improves our connections with the American highway system and the Subway at Homer over the Welland Canal are under way. Highway 400 is being pushed through to serve the large recreational areas of the north. The Roads to Resources programme is also being accelerated in order to open to development new areas in our great northland. The winter works programme projected in conjunction with Federal and municipal governments is being expanded to meet this winter's conditions. Full details will be presented to you. By arrangements with the Federal Government the starting date this year has been advanced a month and a half, from December 1 to October 15, in order to give the municipalities more opportunity to prepare their projects. The proposed programme has been extended to include not only roads, municipal parks, playgrounds and picnic sites, but also works which will materially increase the employment of building tradesmen and workers engaged in the production and handling of supplies. 6. You will be asked to authorize the implementation of a new approach to the provision of public low-rental housing and the expenditure of funds for financing it. Plans in the field of urban redevelopment will be placed before you. Authority will be requested to carry out additional land assembly projects to provide low-cost service lots for prospective home owners. You will also be invited to give attention to the provision of additional accommodation for elderly persons. 7. The Department of Lands and Forests will extend its forest management programme to ensure future supplies of forest products. Additional steps will be taken to improve natural generation. The reforestation of Crown lands will this year include the planting of more than 42 million trees. Measures are being adopted to improve and extend the propagation of fish and wildlife. Reports will be submitted to you of the encouraging progress made by the Great Lakes Commission relative to lamprey control in Lake Superior. 8. The expansion of Ontario's Provincial parks system has been spectacular. In addition to 17 new Provincial parks made available to the public this year, nearly 20 are in the course of development and other potential park areas are under study. There are now ~2 Provincial parks in operation, 45 conservation areas containing parks that are in use, as well as the 13 parks in the Niagara Parks Commission and the St. Lawrence Development Commission. This year over 15 million visits will be made to our Provincial parks system. including nearly 750,000 campers who use the park facilities for considerable periods of time. The number of roadside camps and picnic areas will be increased. 9. Plans will be submitted to maintain Ontario's high level of mineral production. The maps compiled from the information gathered in the airborne magnetometer survey carried out last year have been released in groups as quickly as they can be prepared. Negotiations are being carried out to have similar surveys conducted throughout the whole Province. All of this will stimulate the development of mineral resources. 10. In the field of energy resources additional progress will be made. You will have an opportunity to review the work of the Ontario Energy Board with respect to natural gas rate hearings and other matters. Studies are being made on natural gas storage, and a further review of safety regulations is in progress. The first stage of a programme of licensing and training those who install gas appliances has been implemented. Work is in progress which will lead to the adoption of a Provincial heating code. A report will be given as to off-shore drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes -- a matter which has been under study by the Committee on Oil and Gas Resources. The Nuclear Power Demonstration Plant (N.P.D. 2) will begin producing power in 1961. Work on the 2000,000 kilowatt Douglas Point Nuclear Power Station (CANDU) has started. Reports will be made to you on developments in the fields of atomic energy, isotopes and other related matters. 11. Further advances will be made in the field of education. It is estimated that we shall have to provide accommodation in our elementary schools for nearly half a million additional children by 1966, at which time our school enrolment will be approximately three times what it was in 1945. This immense increase in enrolment will have its effect upon secondary and university accommodation. This underscores the formidable problem which the Province will face in education during the coming years. Curricula are constantly being reviewed and revised for use in our schools, with science courses receiving a full measure of attention. It is planned to introduce new science courses in Grades 7 to 10. Progress has been made in increasing the number of teachers required by the rapid increase in the number of classrooms in elementary and secondary schools. The summer courses for secondary school teachers conducted at London and Kingston for the first time this year have met with great success. Winter courses in centres other than Toronto are now being considered. Plans are proceeding for a second School for the Deaf at Milton. You will be asked to approve appropriations to provide scholarships, bursaries and loans to students. The programme of Ontario Scholarships, awarded to students achieving 80 per cent or higher on eight papers in Grade 13, has proved very successful. You will be asked to vote funds to ensure that no student who has the talent and ambition to attend university is deprived of the opportunity through lack of financial means. The problem of financing the cost of our universities, made acute by the mounting tide of enrolment, will be submitted to you for your attention and study. To deal with the increasing responsibilities involved in coordinating the Province's assistance to universities, the University Affairs Committee will be reorganized and representatives appointed from outside the Government. 12. The mental health programme will be expanded. Before the close of this present Session, the new hospital school established at Cedar Springs will be completed and ready for occupancy. The former sanatorium at Gravenhurst, purchased for The Department of Health, is fully occupied by 300 patients transferred from the Ontario Hospital, Orillia, in order that a great programme of reconstruction may be undertaken there. The second of the buildings at Byron will soon be occupied by the London Children's Psychiatric Hospital to allow for further expansion of the programme there. Renovation and remodelling of buildings at the Royal Ottawa Sanatorium is now going on in preparation for the establishment there of an out-patient unit and short-stay active treatment in-patient service for the City of Ottawa. This is an entirely new undertaking, the first of its kind in Ontario. Construction of the first of three infirmary and community mental hospitals is now under way at Goderich. Two others will be begun in 1961 at Owen Sound and at Palmerston. Legislation will be proposed for the setting up of a Mental Health Research and Special Treatment Foundation, with a view to stimulating and encouraging greater community participation. In order to assist in meeting the nursing problem in our hospitals, the number of nursing assistants will be increased. A report on the operations of the Ontario Hospital Services Commission, as well as on trends in costs, will be referred to the Legislative Committee an Health and Welfare for review and consideration. You will be requested to approve additional funds to meet its compelling needs. 13. Additional funds will be paid to the municipalities, school boards and other local agencies to assist them in providing new facilities and services. Staff additions are being made to The Department of Municipal Affairs, particularly in the legal and finance divisions, and shortly its new quarters will be fully occupied and the Department will be functioning from one building. Far-reaching policies in relation to the municipalities, the school boards and subsidies for local roads and thoroughfares will be presented to you. 14. You will be asked to consider a further modernization of our programme of reform institutions. Construction is under way, or will be very shortly, for a new training school for girls and, as well, a new training school for boys. A large-scale programme of rehabilitation and improvement will be conducted in a number of the present institutions, and a new institution will be erected at Elliot Lake. You will be asked to consider plans to establish a pre-release centre for juvenile boys, the first of its kind in Canada. 15. In recognition of the services rendered by Tourist Associations, matching grants will be made to approved regional tourist organizations to encourage the more effective development and promotion of Ontario's tourist industry. The foregoing, representing a comprehensive approach aimed at the advancement of the Ontario economy, involves a huge programme which will require careful study and consideration. But in addition, there are other parts of our programme designed to reinforce the social fabric of our economy and contribute to its effective operation. among these, of course, is welfare. You will be asked to authorize homemakers' and nurses' services for an increasing number of municipalities. The construction of suitable modern homes for the aged will be continued. A major study is under way dealing with the specialized needs of children who require care in an institutional setting. A review of the policies of Children's Aid Societies is also being undertaken so that the best of current trends and knowledge in child welfare may be brought to bear on the treatment of under-privileged children. Under enactments passed last year, it is anticipated that the number of Indian bands that are DOW administering relief assistance to their community members will be increased to twenty-two. You will be invited to review the provisions for those who qualify for direct relief and also to vote the funds. Funds will also be required for the new Rehabilitation Division set up in The Department of Health to deal with the many families coming to Canada as special refugee cases and to provide other services and facilities for physically and mentally ill and disabled persons in the Province. Co-incidental with the development of Provincial highways and municipal thoroughfares, traffic safety activities will be increased. Driver instruction as an extra-curricular activity in secondary schools is receiving wide support. Twenty-one driver examination centres have now been established in the Province and this programme will be expanded. Apprenticeship courses under the supervision of The Department of Labour are being expanded. The Department of the Provincial Secretary will be reorganized as The Department of the Provincial Secretary and Citizenship. During the coming year the Ontario Anti-Discrimination Commission will continue to undertake an active educational programme reaching into communities in all parts of the Province. This work, which has elicited a most heartening response from our people, involves the preparation of literature and educational materials and the co-operation of churches, schools and local organizations of all kinds. The objective will be to continue to acquaint our people with the aims of the Province's Human Rights legislation and to win adherence to the principle that every person is free and equal in dignity and rights regardless of race, creed or colour. The Legislature will have full opportunity to discuss these matters. The Department of the Attorney-General has been undertaking an intensive study with a view to placing into operation a new system of dealing with repeaters before the Courts for drunkenness, recognizing that this weakness is more deserving of treatment and cure than penal service. Arrangements are being made with certain Magistrates' Courts and appropriate legislation will be introduced. This work is being carried out in collaboration with the Ontario Alcoholism Research Foundation, various Departments of Government including Health, Welfare and Reform Institutions, the Magistrates' Courts, and a representative committee of citizens. The several Select Committees which have been carrying on their work since last Session are still engaged in their very important assignments. If final reports from these Committees are not available, interim reports at least in some cases, will be. The special technical committee studying portable pensions will be making a report during this Session of the Legislature. It is proposed to refer this report to a committee of the Legislature. It is also anticipated that the technical committee studying the problem of public lands and mineral resources thereon will report and thus enable the Legislature to study its report and recommendations. During recent months, discussions of far-reaching importance have been held with the Government of Canada and the other provinces in seeking new arrangements with which to replace the existing tax-sharing arrangements following their expiry on March 31, 1962. Two sessions of the plenary Federal-Provincial Fiscal Conference have been convened, one in July and the other in October, and legislative action will be needed arising from the outcome of these important meetings. The provinces are constitutionally entitled to an equal share of the major fields of direct taxation. My Government has pressed, and will continue to press, for the just recognition of Ontario's rights and responsibilities. Our financial problems in the fields of these direct taxes in question stem from the concentration in the Federal Government of powers under wartime conditions and the unsound conception of centralization which emerged from the Conference of 1945. There are very agreeable indications that the fundamentals of our federal state will be recognized. The fullest opportunity will be given to discuss these very important matters. Ontario has also been engaged in discussions with the Government of Canada and the other provinces in seeking a mutually acceptable procedure for amending the Canadian Constitution solely in Canada. The Committee of Attorneys-General, which was set up after the July session of the plenary Federal-Provincial Conference, has made excellent progress. The Government is confident that further discussions will lead to agreement on the amending procedure and thus make possible the domiciling in Canada of the power to amend our own Constitution. Much new legislation will be introduced. Among the proposed Acts to be amended are the following: The Absentees Act, The Administration of Justice Expenses Act, The Coroners Act, The Credit Unions Act, The Evidence Act, The Fire Marshals Act, The Judicature Act, The Juvenile and Family Courts Act, The Law Society Act, The Lightning Rods Act, The Liquor Control Act, The Mortgage Brokers Registration Act, The Mortgages Act, The Police Act, The Public Libraries Act, The Public Schools Act, The Real Estate and Business Brokers Act. The Schools Administration Act, The Secondary Schools and Boards of Education Act, The Separate Schools Act, The Summary Convictions Act, The Trustee Act and The Wages Act. A new Act -- The Hypnosis Act 1960-61 -- will be introduced and The Bailiffs Act will be completely revised. Upgrading and improvements in Civil Service categories and classifications have been carried out. The Civil Service has given fine service which is its tradition and for which the people of this Province are grateful. The Public Accounts, the Treasurer's Budget Statement and the estimates of the various departments will be presented to the Legislature for consideration and approval. These presentations will enable you to assess the magnitude of Ontario's financial requirements as well as those of the municipalities -- to which over 45 per cent of the Province's revenue resources are committed. I pray that Divine Providence may guide your deliberations.