The following statement was issued today by Beaton Tulk, Government House Leader. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

There has been some concern raised whether there is sufficient time during this fall sitting of the House of Assembly to discuss and debate legislation.

I want to assure the people of this province that this government plans to give every bill the attention it deserves.

There will be fewer than 25 bills presented this fall, as opposed to the 40 reported by the Leader of the Opposition. The vast majority of these bills are housekeeping and administrative in nature.

The two key bills we hope to deal with concern education reform and GST/RST harmonization. And, because of factors beyond our control, these key pieces of legislation could not be dealt with until this time.

The Memorandum of Understanding on sales tax harmonization was signed on April 23, 1996, and set out the broad parameters for the negotiation of a comprehensive agreement on sales tax harmonization over the following six months.

Intensive negotiations were held over the six months following the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement resulting in the signing of the Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement on October 18, 1996. The signing of the CITCA was announced on October 23, simultaneous with the release of a technical document which outlines the operation of the proposed harmonized sales tax.

Since the signing of the CITCA, the participating provinces and the federal government have been working together on the development of draft legislation to implement the agreement.

Implementation of the agreement requires complementary federal and provincial legislation and considerable analysis has been expended to ensure a seamless legislative package.

In spite of these facts, Newfoundland will be the first of the four governments to table legislation respecting sales tax harmonization. It is our understanding the federal government will table legislation in early December. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are not expected to table legislation before the new year.

Government plans to proceed with its education reform bill immediately upon passage of the Term 17 Amendment in Ottawa.

Also, government recently completed an extensive public consultation process on key elements of the reform. The new legislation will reflect the results of this consultation.

We are ready to proceed with this legislation once the federal system decides how it plans to answer the wishes of the people of this province and its legislature.

Given that the timing of the federal decision is not certain, we will ensure that there is sufficient time to adequately consider the legislation, even if the House of Assembly has to be reconvened early in the New Year.

To repeat, there will be fewer than 25 bills presented this fall, most of which are housekeeping and administrative in nature. However, should it be necessary, we would be more than willing to open the House of Assembly in January to conclude discussion of these bills.