THE RIGHT CHOICESBuilding Rural Regions
Mr. Speaker, measures such as these, coupled with our other
investments in education and the Innovation Strategy, will do a
great deal to promote diversification and growth in our rural
communities. Many industries offer tremendous promise in rural
Newfoundland and Labrador.
None are more exciting than aquaculture. In order to spur
private investment in aquaculture, we will make significant
public investments in the industry over the next five years. Our
aquaculture growth strategy includes a new, three-year, $10
million Aquaculture Capital Investment Program, with a
commitment of $3.5 million in 2006-07; and also the
establishment of a cod aquaculture demonstration farm and an
enhanced aquaculture industry support initiative. We intend to
become a leader in this growth industry.
Innovation also offers promise in the fish processing and
marketing industry, particularly as we invest in
diversification and maximize every opportunity. We will increase
our budget for the Seafood Development and Diversification
Program by $250,000 a year for the next five years and invest in
seafood market development, an international seafood trade
development initiative, and strategic infrastructure to improve
the efficiency, product quality and safety of our fish landing
and handling activities.
We are also looking to the future of our fisheries. We will
invest $350,000 over two years to increase the province�s
capacity for coastal and oceans management and to prepare an
oceans strategy and policy framework. We will also invest
$100,000 for a sealing industry communications strategy to
counter the fiction and fabrication with facts, and $300,000 a
year over five years to implement the cod recovery strategy in
partnership with the Government of Canada.
To bolster our fish processing sector and help protect jobs in a
time of resource decline, strong international competition and a
high dollar, we will reduce the financial burden on the industry
by reducing processing licence fees. Effective immediately, we
will eliminate fee increases planned for 2006-07 and 2007-08 and
also the planned species surcharge increases planned for
2006-07.
Agriculture is another sector that holds tremendous
promise in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. We are providing $4
million this year to establish an Agrifoods Development Fund
that will support large-scale, strategic and targeted
investments in agriculture and agrifoods projects by companies
with proven track records that are prepared to make investments
of their own. We are providing $2 million to the Provincial
Agrifoods Assistance Program, which promotes and supports
primary production and secondary processing in the sector. We
will invest $2.3 million, primarily for the acquisition of
farmland and for the construction of agricultural roads,
particularly to support expansion in the dairy sector, and
invest in agricultural limestone to support expansion in the
dairy and sod sectors. We are also providing $1.3 million based
on a review of the Animal Health Division to address growing
concerns in the area of animal and human health interaction and
to support front-line veterinary services and laboratory testing
for our growing farming industry.
Yet another industry that continues to be very important in many
rural areas throughout our province is forestry. To
ensure a healthy wood supply, we are providing $800,000 in new
funding to conduct a forest inventory, a $1 million increase in
each of the next three years for silviculture initiatives to
replenish our resources, and a $1 million increase in forest
insect control and fire suppression funding.
Our mining industry also offers tremendous promise in
rural regions. To boost these opportunities, we are investing
$2.5 million in the Mineral Incentive Program, an increase of
$900,000, in order to promote mineral prospecting and
exploration activity in the province. These direct investments
enable junior mining companies and prospectors to leverage
significant additional private-sector investment and provide a
solid foundation for new business and employment opportunities
for our people. We are also committing an additional $500,000 to
conduct even more regional geological work in order to provide
timely geoscience information that accelerates mineral
exploration activity.
Our offshore oil and gas industry continues to offer
tremendous promise for larger centres but also for rural regions
of the province. Petro-Canada�s decision this year to build the
Additional Living Quarters Module for the Terra Nova FPSO at the
Bull Arm site is a testament to the site�s value and the need to
maintain the site in a state of readiness for future work. We
will provide $1.1 million this year to the Bull Arm Site
Corporation both to manage the site and to help us attract even
more offshore fabrication and construction work to our province.
In order to preserve and protect the resources that our
industries, communities and future generations will need for
years to come, we will continue to promote conservation and
sustainable development initiatives. We will continue to
fund the Inland Fisheries Enforcement Program and move ahead to
draft a Sustainable Development Act.
|
