INVESTING IN OUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Health and Community Services

Mr. Speaker, by seizing the opportunities for economic development, we will generate additional revenue in our province to sustain our valuable social programs, such as health care, over the long term. No area of expenditure is larger or more important in this year’s budget than health and community services.

Last year, our government consolidated the province’s fourteen health and community services boards into four Regional Integrated Health Authorities. Boards will be expected to balance their budgets in 2005-06. While health boards have made some progress, the collective accumulated operating cash shortfalls remain high, totaling about $125 million by the end of 2004-05. Maintaining a high debt load over the long term jeopardizes our ability to sustain health services and limits our ability to expand current service levels. In this transitional year, our government will invest $20 million to stabilize the system, allowing the health authorities to balance fiscal responsibility with the need to provide quality, health services.

In September of last year, our Premier and his fellow First Ministers negotiated a ten year commitment, under the First Ministers’ Health Accord, to increase federal health funding to the provinces and territories in order to reduce wait times and improve access to services. As stated in our Blueprint, shorter wait times will better enable people to access quality health care they need when they need it.

This year, our government will be making several significant investments in new and upgraded medical equipment.

• We will provide $2.6 million toward a second MRI in St. John’s, delivering 2,500 new exams a year and reducing wait times by four months.
   
• We will provide $2 million toward replacing two existing CT Scanners with new multi-slice CT Scanners at the Health Sciences Centre and St. Clare’s Hospital, delivering 4,000 more exams a year and shortening wait times to two weeks.
   
• We will provide $1.3 million for new ultrasound equipment in Corner Brook, St. John’s and Labrador City, and replacement equipment at Carbonear, thereby delivering 16,000 more exams a year. Further, we will provide a new ultrasound cardiac package at Captain William Jackman Hospital.
   
• We will also provide a total of $6.2 million for four nuclear medicine gamma cameras in St. John’s and Corner Brook; four new mammography units in St. John’s, Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor; a new endoscopy unit in Corner Brook and an enhanced unit in Gander; along with new laparoscopic equipment in Corner Brook.

Our government will also invest in expanded medical services.

• We will provide $1.2 million to increase cardiac surgeries by 184 cases annually and improve access to echocardiograms, delivering 900 more exams each year.
   
• We will provide $3.5 million to increase surgical capacity for cancer patients, resulting in 740 additional surgeries a year and a 30% reduction in wait times.
   
• We will provide $2.6 million to increase surgical capacity for joint replacement at the St. John’s hospitals, resulting in an additional 340 surgeries each year for hip, knee and joint replacements.
   
• We will also provide a total of $1.3 million to support dialysis services in Gander and Carbonear; Visudyne, a new photo-dynamic therapy for macular degeneration; extended mammography and endoscopy services at Grand Falls- Windsor; enhanced cardio perfusion tests and bone scans at Gander; and extended access to chemotherapy and radiation at the Newfoundland Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation Centre in St. John’s.

More than 100,000 residents annually benefit from the Newfoundland and Labrador Prescription Drug Program. We do not want to deny beneficiaries of this program access to new, emerging treatments because the costs are beyond their means. This year, we are providing a further $7 million, adding 25 new drugs to treat people with arthritis, cancer, cardiac and lung disease and diabetes, among other illnesses. We have added drugs like Remicade and Enbrel, used to aid and control rheumatoid arthritis as well as Crohn’s disease. Another is Plavix, an important cardiac medication. This list was developed and prioritized by health care professionals. This represents a total investment in medications of $114 million.

Our government will keep a Blueprint commitment by investing in health technology, including the Picture Archiving Communications System (PACS), the Pharmacy Network and the launch of Selfcare- Telecare to improve access to services, particularly residents living in rural and remote areas. PACS is a computer system that allows diagnostic images to be digitally captured, viewed, stored and transmitted across the province. It replaces conventional X-ray film and greatly improves access to patient information by enabling referring clinicians to review patient images on computers anywhere in the province.

In this budget, we make provision to upgrade and build long-term care facilities as well as support personal and community care homes across the province. We will provide $2.7 million toward a new Corner Brook long-term care home to proceed with detailed design and initial site work. We will provide $1.4 million toward a new long-term care home in Clarenville to begin detailed design and site work. And we will provide $200,000 to begin planning and develop conceptual drawings for a new long-term care home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Our government recognizes that home support services are an important part of the continuum of care. Currently, more than 3,500 individuals throughout our province are in receipt of home support services. Effective April 1, 2005, we will provide funding of $5 million to increase the home support rate so that employers of home support workers, including both agencies and self-managed home-support clients, can provide a 50-cent-an-hour wage increase to their workers in recognition of the valuable contribution they make.

Personal care and community care home operators make an invaluable contribution to the long-term care continuum looking after the needs of our seniors and our most vulnerable members of society. In recognition of their role, we will review the rate structure in the coming months.

Last year, our government began to act on recommendations of the inquiry into the deaths of Norman Reid of Little Catalina and Darryl Power of Corner Brook. To build on last year’s $1-million commitment, we will invest an additional $1 million this year for Primary Mental Health Services.

The impact of addictions on individuals and their families can be devastating. I am pleased today to provide an investment of $1 million to assist those who are suffering from the misuse of prescription drugs. The initiatives the government is outlining today are consistent with the advice of the OxyContin Task Force.

In addition to substance abuse, gambling addiction is a major concern of our government. Accordingly, in cooperation with the VLT operators and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, I am announcing additional investments totaling $740,000 to improve gambling addiction services and awareness. Further, our government is acting to freeze the number of VLT units in our province immediately and to reduce the number by 15% over a five-year period. At the end of this period, no location will be permitted to have more than five VLTs. To assist our bar and club owners, we will phase out, over the next four years, the levy that we apply to liquor purchases for these operations. We are demonstrating that we are willing to work cooperatively with employers to help sustain their enterprises.

Medical travel is particularly expensive for residents of Labrador. In that light and in keeping with our Blueprint commitment, we will provide for the Labrador Medical Travel Assistance program to subsidize Labrador West residents who use commercial airlines to access CT scans and laparoscopic procedures in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The program will pay 100% of a resident’s air travel costs in excess of $40  Under a second measure, the province will pay the first $500 of travel expenses per resident annually on eligible medical travel claims, while all remaining reimbursable expenses will be costshared 50-50. This measure will benefit approximately 500 Labrador residents.

Human Resources, Labour and Employment

Mr. Speaker, health challenges are not the only barriers to opportunity that many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians face. Poverty is another barrier that we have an obligation to address. We must find imaginative and effective ways to lift people from poverty so they can pursue their goals under their own steam.

The Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment will support our government’s goal to reduce poverty in Newfoundland and Labrador by leading the development of a Strategic Poverty Reduction Plan. The department will take a comprehensive, integrated approach that will address the connections between poverty and gender, education, housing, employment, health, social and financial supports, and tax measures, as well as the link between women’s poverty and their increased vulnerability to violence.

Our government took action last year to invest in several measures to improve the situation of many of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens. We announced a Low Income Tax Reduction which will be implemented starting in the 2005 tax year. This year, we will build on those initiatives with specific measures to combat poverty. For example, last year we invested in indexing the Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit for low-income families. This year, we will increase the first-child benefit rate to further improve the situation of low-income families with children.

We will also increase income support benefits for couples without children and single individuals. Not only have these clients not received an increase in benefits in four years, but they have not been helped by recent increases in benefits for families with children. In that light, we will provide families without children and single income support clients with a 2% increase in their income support benefit rates, incrementally over the coming year: 1% on July 1, 2005 and another 1% on January 1, 2006. This will cost an incremental $1 million in 2005-06 and $1.8 million annually.

This year, we will introduce a second Supported Employment Pilot Program for Single Parents, and in a region outside the St. John’s area. The initial pilot program has enabled single parents receiving income support to achieve increased financial independence by helping them prepare for, obtain and maintain employment.

Our government is deeply concerned that many of our province’s young people are resorting to the income support system. We want to help our young people find new ways to stand on their own feet and feel the pride that accompanies self-reliance. To that end, we will focus our efforts to ensure we are able to offer young people better alternatives.

Again this year, we are providing $6.2 million to the Student Investment and Opportunities Corporation for youth employment and career initiatives. These programs play an important role in helping reduce student debt, offering career development initiatives and supporting our government’s commitment to reduce poverty.

As promised in our Blueprint, we will enable more income support clients, our young people in particular, to participate in employment planning and benefit from an aggressive approach to job recruitment and placement. Beginning with an extra $500,000 this year, we will commit a total of $2 million in new funding for this initiative over the three years ahead. In this way, we will increase the number of income support clients who can access these employment services from 4,200 in the past year to 5,800 in the year to come. By helping clients to find jobs, we will reduce reliance on the income support program.

A primary reason that some young people end up on income support is that they drop out of school and find their range of job prospects very limited as a consequence. To encourage young people to complete their high school education, we are undertaking a creative initiative. Currently, all low-income families lose both the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit when a child turns 18. Beginning in September 2005, we will establish a Stay-in-School Incentive Allowance to offset the loss of child benefits for families receiving income support and to encourage youth to complete high school.

Children cannot learn properly when they are distracted by hunger. We will provide $250,000 to the Kids Eat Smart Foundation this year to enable them to continue the important work they do to feed our school children. With a surplus remaining from last year, they are well positioned to meet the needs of a considerable number of students; and we are prepared to revisit this initiative next year.

We will also adjust income support policies in ways that will help people ease themselves off income support more gradually. Currently, income support clients who work can earn up to $75 per month for singles and $150 per month for families without having their income support benefits affected. Earnings beyond this level are deducted from clients’ income support entitlement, which discourages clients from seeking more hours of work and additional earnings. Under new measures to support working recipients of income support, we will allow clients to keep 10% of earnings beyond the current cutoff.

Persons with disabilities often face greater obstacles to opportunity. We want to help these individuals capture opportunities for employment and self-reliance. To that end, we are providing an additional $411,000 this year under the Labour Market Development Agreement for Persons with Disabilities to help these individuals enter the work force and maintain employment.

Women’s Policy

Mr. Speaker, some women in our province face difficult social and economic circumstances. To support services for these women, our government will increase funding to eight Women’s Centres, where a fountain of practical help and moral support is available. This represents a 30% increase from 2003-04.

As promised in our Blueprint, our government is also committed to respecting women’s perspective and rights in formulating public policies and practices by developing a plan of action to address women’s issues.

I would also like to say that addressing Aboriginal women’s issues will be a key priority for our government over the next twelve months. There will be funding to provide for an Aboriginal women’s conference to advance their recommendations about the social and economic needs of this population group.

We will also continue our commitment to violence prevention through a new violence prevention program with new management and leadership; new funding to fight violence against Aboriginal women in Labrador; and new funding for a much-needed women’s shelter in Hopedale.

Justice

Mr. Speaker, the justice system is one of our society’s most important institutions. Like other public institutions, it faces challenges. This year, our government will make strategic and sustainable investments to enhance justice services with improvements in technology, infrastructure planning, and  security. We will build on the measures we commenced last year to enhance policing services and strengthen our justice system.

To better protect the public, we are providing additional funding this year to create and support four additional RCMP positions.

We will also be allocating $183,000 this year to support the National Sex Offender Registry by providing designated resources to administer and investigate noncompliant offenders in our province. This initiative will add one officer to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and one officer, along with a public service employee, to the RCMP.

We will expand the Court Security Program to include the Supreme and Provincial Courts in Corner Brook and the Provincial Court in Stephenville, at a cost this year of $183,000.

We will also provide $400,000 to plan and design a new combined Supreme and Provincial Court facility in Corner Brook.

In addition, we will provide seven new Supreme and Provincial Court support positions to improve transcript production and reduce workload pressures for existing staff.

Our government is working diligently to enhance the responsiveness of the justice system to the particular needs of Aboriginal people. This year, we will increase the grant to Labrador Legal Services for the Native Court Worker Program, which will benefit Aboriginal people who need justice services.

We will create a Victim Services program for children, which will strengthen justice services for victims and witnesses under the age of 16 who testify in criminal proceedings. This program will be self-sustaining through the implementation of a 15% Victim Fines Surcharge on various provincial offences. This budget will provide $255,000 to support implementation. This initiative is long overdue, and will strengthen the role of child victims in the criminal justice system.

Education

Mr. Speaker, in many respects, this year’s budgetary program is about our children and youth. We are investing in measures to curb poverty and advance wellness in order to better prepare our children to grow to reach their potential. We are investing in infrastructure, economic growth and sustainable development to create the economic conditions that will enable our children to stay here and prosper here. And we are investing in our education system to ensure our young people are ready to seize the opportunities and build a future for themselves that is worthy of the legacy we have all inherited from those who made Newfoundland and Labrador what it is.

We will invest a total of $26 million this year to finance school construction and to cover urgent repairs and maintenance. Specific initiatives this year will commence the redevelopment of Herdman Collegiate in Corner Brook and a Grade 7-12 school in the Mobile area. In order to address major issues with aging infrastructure, we will provide $12 million plus $4 million carried over from the previous year, for a total of $16 million.

We believe it is time for the government to undertake a comprehensive review of school facilities and develop a long-term plan to address educational infrastructure needs. This year, we are committing $250,000 to undertake this review; and when we have the results in hand, we will be in a much better position to tackle the challenges with a long-term facilities plan.

No less important than our school buildings are the buses that bring many of our children to and from school. To promote greater school bus safety, we will invest $3 million in school transportation: $2 million to gradually reduce the maximum age of our buses from fourteen years to ten, and $1 million to address maintenance and bus driver training issues. This means 53 brand new school buses for our children.

In our Blueprint, we pledged to reduce class sizes one grade level at a time. Our commitment was grounded in the recommendations of the Sparkes-Williams report on Educational Delivery in the Classroom. This year, we will reinvest $1.8 million to return 52 teaching units to the education system in order to reduce primary class sizes. On an annualized basis, this represents a reinvestment of $3.1 million in our education system. Currently, 92% of K-1 classes have twenty-five students or fewer. This reinvestment will provide learning resources to enable school boards to further reduce class sizes in our primary grades.

In our province’s schools, no area of curriculum is more important or more exciting to our government this year than our new Fine Arts and Culture Strategy for Schools, called “Cultural Connections”. In keeping with our Blueprint commitment, we will provide approximately $3 million a year for each of the next three years to implement a comprehensive, sustainable fine arts and culture strategy in our schools. Components of this strategy include an additional twenty-three teaching units to support enhanced music programs; new enrichment opportunities, including an Artists in Schools Program, new musical equipment, support for arts festivals and the promotion of our students’ artistic activities; funding for new curriculum materials incorporating more local resources; and funding for teacher professional development initiatives to support this strategy.

As a result of our strategy to reduce class sizes and enhance the range of learning opportunities in the fine arts, we will be reinvesting on an annualized basis an additional $4.5 million to redeploy a total of 75 teaching units that otherwise would have been lost under the new teacher allocation formula.

We are also providing an extra $2.5 million in fiscal year 2004-05 over and above the $4 million base budget to support the purchase of new learning resources to ensure the province’s curriculum remains current. The funding will enable the Department of Education to revise the outdated social studies curriculum, fast-track the implementation of new science curriculum, complete implementation of the new mathematics curriculum, and provide Technology Education modules at Grades 8 and 9.

In concert with our Aboriginal Children’s Agenda, we will invest $500,000 this year to begin the process of addressing issues identified in a federally-commissioned report on Innu education, commonly known as the Philpott report.

We are also determined to foster in our schools an attitude of health and wellness that we hope our young people will carry with them throughout their lives. To this end and in keeping with our Blueprint commitment, we are providing $1 million for the purchase of physical education equipment for schools. This allocation will support the new, mandatory physical education curriculum at Grades 10 to 12; but it will also substantially benefit many students in the lower grades as well.

Our investment in education must not and will not end at high school. More and more, our young people require a post-secondary education to find jobs and ground solid careers. Last year, our government announced a White Paper on Public Postsecondary Education. With work on the White Paper about to conclude, we are notionally allocating $14.7 million this year to implement its recommendations. We are expecting to release the White Paper this spring.

To ensure our public post-secondary institutions are affordable and accessible to our young people, we will provide the necessary funding for Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic to extend the tuition fee freeze at these institutions. This freeze means tuition fees in this province will remain the lowest in the country and 40% lower than the national average.

Our government last year invested $5 million for research and development initiatives at Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic, funding that they will use this year and in future years to access federal and private sector research and development funding. For every dollar invested by the province in these initiatives, we bring an additional four to five dollars to our province.

Finally, we will provide $230,000 to continue funding previously provided by the federal government for its share of the Adult Basic Education Level I pilot program. This funding is in addition to the $300,000 currently allocated to support adult literacy programs. We want to ensure more of our people have the tools they need to rise to the level of their potential.