1- -r "-7 V-.«--7 r-‘,o‘~ .¢....us.. . 3.1.“-V.-.-.'-.5. I I ,i I ‘therein there were Page 14. The Guardian c Wed., April 9, 1958 Treasurer (Continued from page ll and one-half million dollars to the Province of Prince Edward Island. “12. In its application to the l'I.acal year commencing on the I-1 day of April, 1958 par: aph lft of subsection ll) of Section 2 shall, for the purposes of this c‘., and any tax renl;al agree- ment, be read and construed as if for the words “ten per cent” substituted the words ‘thirteen per cent’. PURPOSE OF SECTION “The purpose of the proposed new Section 11 “Mr. MacDonald mattained", was to provide for financial assistance to the Atlan- tic Provinces in the amount of $25 million per annum for the next four years. The purpose of the proposel new Section 12 was to increase the percentage to thir- teen in the standard individual income tax payment to the pro- slrs HE - I '5 WITE HUNTER" CAN vinces under the federal — provin- cial tax agreement. “I shall first of all deal with the new Section l2 increasing the provincial share of personal in- come tax from 10 per cent to '13 per cent, because the resul- “I should now like to ask my'on the Atlantic Provinces" Assis-l ,f1‘ien(Is on the opposite side of the . tance Grant of $20 million, of ‘he UrOV'€l'l1i'I1e11t. of (ganada Chang “”"‘ ilrlouse, to try and explain to tiliiswvliicli this Province received the ‘House the change in their D31'tY’Si Sum Of 1W0 and 01}9'ha1f minim! .views since the election of isstdollars, I should like to June. Do they agree with their federal _ distribution of over $62.000.000- 15 ‘based on sound reasoning and e- lquity, where the smallest and ‘most needy province of all re- .tant distribution of the estimatedlceived nothing? H0“, Well I I_e_ iadditionial payment of over-sixty—; .two million dollars proves, as we ]pointed out in our brief, the ‘weaknesses inherent in the pres-L ent method of federal assistancesl to the provinces under the Tax-— Sharing formula. I Under the new’ra-te adjustment .all provinces except Prince Ed- ward Island, received a substan- tial increase ranging from $1,- 686,000. for Newfoundland to 22.31 million dollars for Ontario. Even the wealthy Provi ce of Alberta; is to receive an dditional $4.62 I million, while the Provinces of British Columbia and Quebec each share $2.8 and $18.9 mil- lions, respectively. , QUOTES OPPOSITION YOU UP TO ‘call the words of the opposition’s financial critic of this House, the’ fhonourable member from Second‘ Prince, in reply to the Budget llast spring. These are his words: “Prince Edward Island was the provinc most discriminated a- gainst in all of Canada." I wonder if we are not in the midst of a squeeze to force us to join some other province and so eliminate our fiscal needs altogether.’ “I know, Mr. Speaker, before they rise to take part in this de- bate, what their reply is going to be. Our Government at Ottawa gave you $21.6 million, what more: do you want? “Before I proceed to comment The contemporaries that t:he‘0n the Speeches jing his own budget to this As- fsembly is quoted in The Guard- quote ;from a few newspaper clippings of this House ilast spring. NOT SATISFIED g “On April 3rd. 1957, the Lead- er of the Opposition in introduc- ian newspaper as saying he was not satisfied with the budget brought down by the Provincial Treasurer and more than a week ago had prepared an alternative budget in its place. It would call for an additional grant from Ot. tawa of $5,000,000. Further on in the clipping he is quoted ‘why is Ottawa so stingy with us at the present time.’ _ “In the same budget speech he IS quoted as saying “do we have to go to Ottawa and get down on our hands and knees and beg for what we deserve" and “some thing will have to be done. you will have to have someone ‘from the opposition go with you.” "WHITE HUNTER" DOOD It;Again ANOTHER FE.ATU 5' .,_.t\ ' . 0 to o "Well. M1‘. Speaker. since thenl pose of the meeting was not to,/ward Island the highest per capl-; tive budget of last spring "It Ital payment in recognition of her ed and, as I stated before, we presented our submission reques- ting the new federal government to consider our needs and fiscal ability and grant us annually $5 additional million to assist us in maintaining services which mod- ern requrements demand. ADJUSTMENT GRANT “By amendment to the Fed- eral - Provncial Tax-Sharing Ar- rangements Act the Federal Gov- ernment allotted $25 million to the Atlantic Provinces without re- convening a federal provincial conference to ascertain what were the actual fiscal needs of the four provinces in question. Neither did they consult the pro- vinces on a ministerial level but, in accordance with instructions from the Minister of Finance, ar- rangements were made for repre- sentatives to meet with represen- tatives of the Atlantic Provinces at a technical level to discuss possible methods of distributing an Atlantic Provinces adjustment grant of an unknown amount. It was emphasized that the pur- determine actual amounts but ra- ther t.o attempt to reach agree- ment among provincial represen- tatives on a suitable method of distributing any amount that might be made available by the -, Federal Government. Discussions ‘stemmed from the New Bruns- wick formula which had been presented to Federal - Provin- _,cial Conferences and on varia- ,tions thereof that had been de- ;veloped by the Federal Depart- 'ment of Finance. None of the‘ formulas submitted at previous Federal - Pronvicial Conferences were acceptable to the Province of Prince Edward Island for the reasons outlined in our Submis- sion of November 25, 1957. UNSOUND PRINCIPLE The result of the negotiations, at technical level. was a tenta- tive agreement of 30 per cent to each of the Provinces of Nova S e o t i a, New Brunswick, New- foundland, and 10 per cent to Prince Edward Island. Regard- less of the fact that the other representatives at this meeting contended that it gave Prince Ed- special position as a small pro- vince, and likely loss of stabili- zation payments under a gener- al formula revision, we cannot help but be critical of the me- thod taken by the federal govern- ment to determine the actual a- mount and the distribution there- of. We strongly feel that the pro- per calculation of the addition- al tax monies and assistance grants should have been based upon a sound principle as a matter of right. "Mr. Speaker, I do not want to be misunderstood that we feel ungrateful for what we received, nor do we deny that the addi- tional amount of $2‘/2 million rev- .enue will be of great assistance towards meeting our annual over-all deficit. “But it is far from our actual needs and fiscal ability when one employs this Province’s tax po- tential and tax collectibility fac- tor in relation to personal income per capita. As the Leader of the Opposition of this House so vigor- ously expressed in his alterna- RAINLOAD 8 “AT OFF THE CAR PRIC j 1958 ’ factory-fresh, B Just write or phone or call. we sell from Tignish to East Point. Terms to I surf any customer, do if now! You will save all the handling costs. buy right off the car. it will pay you. ' I E i would call for an additional grant from Ottawa of $5 million." NOT LOST HOPE “Disappointed as we are over. the amount of the additional fis- cal payment we may expect to receive from the’ federal govern- ment, for the next four years, we have not lost hope that the com- ing fiscal year, commencing Ap- ril lst, 1958, will see some appro- priate action taken to find a more realistic and equitable plan or formula that will give adequate financial assistance sufficient, not only to meet the provinces needs but also provide funds" nec- essary for the expansion of ex- isting services and development projects. A plan that is not bas- ed on per capitas, or theoretical calculations, but actual require- in e n t s of provincial govern- ments, linked with tax potential and tax-ability. “We still maintain that any proposed plan for payment of unconditional grants should only be adopted after a thorough re- assessment of the relative needs and resources of the various gov- ernments. provlncial and muni- cgpal. Evaluating present and future demands 4 for five gum- periodsl and then determi‘.1in:g the annual payment to be made to each government sufficient to enable it to meet those dfj mands is, in our opinion, the most realistic approach. It is tn}, only exact method that will fig. sist Prince Edward Island ti; solve her fiscal problems Compgf. ible with present conditions and tax-ability. Unfortunately. the new Tax, Sharing Arrangements do not fa. vour this Province and I sin. cerely urge you to carefully study your Province’s submission to the Federal - Provincial Conference of last November I feel confi. dent, that after having done so_ you will all have a better under. standing of your Government’; reasons for a readjustment of the present fiscal arrangements, and our continued effort for recogm‘. tion of the principles that we, and prominent writers on public finance believe to be the best me. thod of fiscal relations between federal and state governments.” 91.. rand New REFR|(iE,RATORS; RING supremacy in fine design and workmanship qualify and economy 5 year warranty / all the beauty and convénience you ever wanted in a refrigerator the refrigerator you wonf—or the price you wont! hop down to Firestone NOW—DON'T DELAY “SEE FT on we BOTH LOSE” I’ DON'T DELAY Come In TODAY V SEE THE BIG FARM FAMILY 12 CU. FT. 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