Snow clearing operations

I rise today to address with my honourable members a very serious situation the province is facing right now.

As my colleagues certainly know by now, snow clearing equipment operators with the Department of Works, Services and Transportation are unionized members and are now on strike.

As per the essential services agreement signed with NAPE, the department has one employee operating equipment from each of the department�s 44 depots.

The weather over the past several days has put the department in a very difficult situation. The number of essential and management employees we have right now are not enough to cover the demand for snow clearing throughout the province.

My officials tell me highways and roads are closed in various areas of the province and that driving in most other areas from central Newfoundland east is extremely difficult. The forecast for the next day or so does not look promising.

Those employees now working are doing their best to keep roads open, but only so much can be done with limited resources. My officials in the Clarenville area, which is being particularly hard hit, had to hire the services of a contractor to assist in some areas, but the weather is making it extremely difficult to make much progress.

We are very concerned about this situation. Yesterday one of my officials contacted a union negotiator for MOS on a number of occasions and requested the allocation of additional essential employees to address the situation. We received a negative response to that request.

As of right now, we have not received an official response from the union, but have been told by a union negotiator that we can expect a response by the end of today. We have written the union again to expedite a response.

If we are not granted this request, we will have no choice but to engage the services of private contractors as necessary to try and address the situation. We are asking the union and picketers for life safety reasons, that if we have to go this route, not to interfere with this process. I believe they will understand the seriousness of this issue.

We have numbers in each of our regions people can call for emergency situations. We have personnel monitoring road conditions and available to take calls 24 hours a day. Or if there is an emergency, individuals can also contact their local police detachment.

Acting in the public interest is government�s number one concern right now. We have all available resources acting on this and are managing the situation. We are monitoring diligently and will do what is necessary to improve the situation.

2001 04 03                 1:45 p.m.