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Premier Danny Williams
Response to the Speech from the Throne 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006


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Fellow Members of the House of Assembly: I rise this afternoon, first of all, to thank His Honour the Lieutenant Governor for his usual impassioned and eloquent delivery of the government Throne Speech today. 

I also want to extend my personal thanks to the mover of the motion of the Address in Reply, the Member for St. John�s Centre, and the seconder, the Member for St. John�s West.  These two individuals are representative of all members of this honourable House who work tirelessly, tenaciously and effectively on behalf of their constituents.   

I also want to thank the Leader of the New Democratic Party for his usual gracious and constructive remarks.  He has responded to many Throne Speeches during his tenure as NDP leader. 

I wish him well, on behalf of all members and all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, as he prepares to pass the mantle of leadership to a successor. 

I also want to thank the Leader of the Official Opposition for his comments, and the Leader of his Party in the Gallery.   

I would like to extend a warm welcome to our distinguished invited guests some of whom have taken their leave due to other commitments, and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador who are with us in this Chamber today and viewing us through televised proceedings.  

I would like to acknowledge the loved ones of the late Heather McDonald, the music teacher who was lauded in the Throne Speech for her dedication and the inspiration she gave us to proceed with a Cultural Connections strategy in our schools.  

As we focus on education this year, may we acknowledge the efforts of the many teachers who put their hearts and souls into helping our young people become all that they can be. 

Our attitude makes all the difference to our approach and our success. 

Two years ago, we entered office with an eight-year prosperity agenda, a blueprint for sustainability and self-reliance and a new approach based on confidence in our ability to make it happen. 

Two years in, not only are we reporting significant progress, but there is a new attitude at play in Newfoundland and Labrador as people see things begin to turn around.  There is increasing confidence and growing optimism, and that optimism is generating momentum that is driving further growth. 

Listen to this piece in last Wednesday�s Globe and Mail Report on Business (March 15).  Headline: �Revival on the Rock.�  The opening line reads: �It�s been a good year to be a Newfoundlander.�  It goes onto state that: �A recent report prepared for Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada, funded in part by oil companies and the Newfoundland government, concluded Newfoundland's economy isn't just surging; it has been transformed. Companies are now more ambitious, more competitive and more confident.� 

This is the kind of story that is being repeated across Canada and beyond.  People are finally talking about how good it feels to be a Newfoundlander and Labradorian. Our province is now seen as a place on the move and an ideal place to do business.   

People want to come here and invest here, and we are doing things to help bring them here and fuel the momentum. 

That new confidence and pride in who we are is what motivated our people to stand firm in seeking a fair agreement on the Atlantic Accord. 

It�s what motivates our people to stand up for the sealing industry. It�s what we feel as we celebrate our team�s gold-medal victory at the Olympic Games. 

As a government, we are ready to harness that confidence in order to bring new opportunities to Newfoundland and Labrador. Our goal is to transform Newfoundland and Labrador into a repository of energy projects.  We want to harness power from wind, hydroelectricity and natural gas.  We want to make Newfoundland and Labrador known far and wide as an �energy warehouse�. 

We have already moved to restructure and expand the mandate of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.  With Ed Martin at the helm, we are now reviewing the feasibility of various development options for the lower Churchill.   

Our goal is to make a great deal more money and create value for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, who are Hydro�s shareholders.   

We are not approaching lower Churchill negotiations with a defeatist attitude, worried about a repeat of the upper Churchill fiasco.  We are moving forward to develop this gem of a resource with the same confidence that is driving a resurgence of optimism in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Our government is working diligently and sincerely to make this province a better place and I would like to ask you to bear with me for just a few moments as we reflect on what we�ve accomplished in the past two and a half years. 

One of our greatest achievements was taming the fiscal giant that was threatening our province�s social programs and frankly our investment reputation.  Two years ago, budget surpluses and solving the unfunded pension problems would have been unthinkable.   

I want to thank our people and particularly our public employees for working with us to put our finances on a more secure footing so we can afford to invest in infrastructure and strategies to get things really moving in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The next step was laying the foundation for economic growth.  We created new sources of capital for investors including the Small and Medium Enterprise Fund and the Regional Sectorial Diversification Fund, and we have made important new investments in the Industrial Research and Innovation Fund.  

We set to work on a Red Tape Reduction Initiative, a branding strategy, and a comprehensive review of government�s business development programs and other initiatives designed to make Newfoundland and Labrador an attractive place to do business.   

We have nurtured important relationships with Ireland and the United States, and especially New England.  We moved forward with a Broadband Infrastructure for government programs and established the Office of the Chief Information.  We established a Rural Secretariat and set to work on a Comprehensive Regional Diversification Strategy to bring new opportunities to rural areas. 

We understand the role of infrastructure and we have been determined to address the sad state it had been left in over the years.  So we have been developing a comprehensive Infrastructure Strategy.   

We increased the provincial roads budget significantly, proceeded with the Trans-Labrador Highway, worked with Ottawa to expand the National Highway System to include the Trans Labrador Highway, and moved forward with multi-year municipal capital funding. 

We created a new Seafood Diversification and Development Division, established a Sustainable Fisheries Resources and Oceans Policy Division, developed a renewed Fish Processing Policy Framework and set to work to enhance the Quality Assurance Program.   

Sure we had a set back last year when a bold new initiative like RMS was launched, but we heard the objections, we listened and we moved on. 

When communities were in trouble, we intervened to help the people in those communities, including in Arnold�s Cove, St. Alban�s, Harbour Breton and Stephenville.   

An important part of this has been identifying and realizing opportunities for exciting new growth in areas like the aquaculture industry. 

We invested in the agrifoods sector to increase its value.  We invested in silviculture, provided support for value-added wood products manufacturing, expanded forest resource roads, and developed new five-year forest ecosystem management plans. 

We significantly increased our tourism marketing budget and made strategic investments to enhance the industry.  We completed a Strategic Cultural Plan which will be rolled out very soon, and made investments in our cultural industries and cultural education.  We know that the most precious resource of all is who we are as a people.  Our essence.  

As John F. Kennedy once said, �We celebrate the past to awaken the future.� 

And so our government is investing to ensure we never lose it.  Indeed - we celebrate it. 

We established a Ministerial Council for Early Childhood Learning and a Division of Early Childhood Learning, invested in school buildings and buses and physical education equipment. 

We have introduced a new Newfoundland and Labrador history course, expanded cultural curriculum and support, supported a Safe and Caring Schools Policy to combat bullying, and capped class sizes beginning in Kindergarten and Grade One.   

We invested in Adult Basic Education, released and began to implement the White Paper on Post-secondary Education, invested in studies to establish a new Centre for Environmental Excellence at Grenfell, and maintained a tuition freeze for students at Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic. 

My colleagues and I fought for and got significant new health funding at the First Ministers� level.   

As a result we were able to invest in significant new health equipment and improved services across the province.  This helped to reduce wait times in several key areas.   

We have invested in mental health services and addictions support, provided coverage for more medications, and invested in various measures to support rural practitioners.  We established a provincial Advisory Council on Aging, a Ministerial Council for Aging and Seniors, and a Division dedicated to Aging and Seniors.   

And we are moving forward with badly needed long-term care facilities for Corner Brook and Clarenville, Happy Valley Goose Bay and renovations at Grand Bank.  We provided cash for low-income seniors and indexed the Seniors� Benefit.  

We indexed the Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit, introduced a Low Income Tax Credit, provided a Child Care Services Subsidy, raised the minimum wage and increased home heating rebates. 

We proceeded with dramatic and meaningful insurance reform that was unique in Atlantic Canada by protecting people�s rights but still giving them the desired savings. 

We invested in Women�s Centres and set to work on a Violence Prevention Strategy.  We expanded the victim services program to cover children and young people, invested in court infrastructure, and provided funding for new police officers which we began to train here at home at Memorial University. 

We worked with our province�s Aboriginal people on several important initiatives, including working side-by-wide with them at the First Minister�s meeting on Aboriginal issues.  

In Labrador, we improved the coastal ferry service, announced our plan to complete the Trans-Labrador Highway and did an aggressive job of marketing 5 Wing Goose Bay in Canada and abroad.   

We told Labradorians we would meet their needs, and we are proving that we are � year after year.  We are investing in Labrador in a manner and quantity unlike any previous government. 

And those are just some of the things we have done in the past two years. 

Our approach is a new approach that plans for the future because it�s based on the belief that Newfoundland and Labrador HAS a tremendous future.  We�re not waiting for a brighter future to fall out of the sky.  We�re working strategically to build that future from the ground up.  To be masters of our own destiny. 

When we started, we anticipated needing eight years to implement our blueprint and see results, but in just two and a half years, we are beginning to see such a turnaround that even we are surprised by how much we have accomplished in such little time. 

Our opposition terms this as lucky; but we attribute it to strategic thinking and hard work. 

This is the difference that planning and confidence make.  This new approach is all about having the vision, the strategies, the leadership at every level and the cooperation required to turn our opportunities into success stories. 

His Honour has outlined today just some of the many initiatives we will be undertaking this year as we continue to follow through on our mandate to usher in a new era of strong and sustainable economic growth throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.  More details will be announced in the budget and fleshed out in the weeks and months that follow. 

We are preparing to move forward this year with several initiatives that will continue to build upon our successes; initiatives that will build our dreams and our vision for the future. 

We will move forward with our Infrastructure Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Cultural Strategy; Immigration Strategy; Provincial Wellness Strategy; a Healthy Aging Framework; a new Mental Health and Addictions Policy; and a Poverty Reduction Strategy.  

I know this may sound like an awful lot of strategies � and sometimes our critics complain that we do too much strategizing and not enough doing.  Well let me tell what good strategizing does. 

Good, well thought out and executed strategy brings home the Atlantic Accord.  Smart strategy gives you a multitude of options for developing the lower Churchill as opposed to just one.  Good strategy takes a kid from Burlington and propels him onto the Canadian pop music stage.  Good strategizing brings home Olympic Gold.   

There is no luck in that! 

So I don�t think our government will ever apologize for being strategic in our thinking! 

I don�t want to steal too much of the Finance Minister�s thunder as he prepares to bring down this year�s budget.  But we are bursting at the seams with new initiatives, and already we have rolled out some of them. 

In Labrador, we announced a range of initiatives totaling some $47.3 million in this year�s budget with new infrastructure commitments totaling at least $175 million.  These included capital money for health care, education and transportation. 

One main focus of our budget this year will be education.  We know that education is at the very foundation of our future; at the foundation of our economy; at the foundation of career growth and investment potential; at the foundation of innovation, diversification and rural development; at the foundation of self-reliance and sustainability; and at the foundation of the attitude that will advance our prosperity agenda.  It all begins in the classroom. 

Henry Ford once said that: �If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.  The only real security�.in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.�  

We are laying the foundation in knowledge and skills development in order to ensure that our students are optimally prepared to seize the opportunities that are before us.  And while government can provide the money � only our teachers can get the job done.   

Yesterday, the Minister of Education announced initiatives designed to address the critical issue of teacher workload.   

We know that our teachers have our children�s best interests at heart, and everyday we send our children off and entrust them to our teachers. 

So it is absolutely vital that we ensure these hard-working men and women across this province have the tools necessary to succeed in our classrooms. 

Leaving teachers in our system and reviewing burdensome daily work, is a first step to ensuring that our teachers have the time and energy they need to educate our children to embrace the bright future we are building for them. 

Throughout the past few months, we have been consulting with stakeholders at the grassroots level in the education system.  We have endeavoured to get a solid understanding of the circumstances, the challenges, the opportunities and the solutions.  We are moving forward this year to make the system better, stronger and more effective. 

We are also taking steps now to address a challenge that is looming on the horizon.  And it is indeed an exciting challenge to have to face.  And that is a skills shortage.   

It is something that is being faced in many areas of our country and indeed around the world.  With many potential major new industrial developments in the future, this province may very well face a shortage of workers.  

We must prepare now to turn the challenge into greater opportunities for our people, and we must ensure that our people have the proper knowledge and the right skills, and we will very soon be announcing a plan to address this issue.   

My personal motta has always been if you don�t anticipate the future, you will not be a part of it.  Your government is anticipating the future and your province will be very much a part o fit. 

It promises to be another exciting year that will move us closer to achieving the goals that we as a province have set before ourselves.  Since forming government in 2003, we have successfully passed approximately one hundred and forty pieces of legislation in this legislature. 

We anticipate another significant number of bills to be tabled in this session, and I look forward to another productive, worthwhile, energetic and constructive session of the House of Assembly. 

Our government and our province have made substantial progress in the past year.  We have also faced many challenges, and the people in many of our communities have faced challenges.   

But as our Minister for Innovation, Trade and Rural Development said so eloquently yesterday, we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with these communities to find resolutions and solutions.  To find opportunities and hope.  It will not always be easy, but it will always be our number one priority.  And I believe there is great reason to be hopeful. 

It has taken a great deal of work, effort, cooperation and some pain along the way to get where we are today; however we are here. 

I want to thank all stakeholders � the public sector, educators, health care workers, business, labour, the cultural community, the voluntary sector, community groups, and my caucus, and each and every individual citizen of this great province � for your cooperation, your patience and your sacrifice as together we have built the foundation for our province�s success.   

I would like to close with another quote from JFK.  He said: �It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before us, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.� 

That is the legacy that I hope our government leaves for the children and grandchildren of this province. Thank you.


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