| Last updated at 9:16 AM on 26/02/08 |
Plan for the future: Marshall 
Finance minister visits Bay St. George on budget tour
SABRINA SKINNER
the Georgian
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| From left are Finance Minister Tom Marshall, MHA Tony Cornect, policy analyst Lisa Ivey, Lorraine Sheehan, Shawn Tilley and Cynthia Downey at last week's pre-budget consultation in Stephenville.
Sabrina Skinner photo |
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Finance Minister Tom Marshall stopped by Stephenville last week on his province-wide pre-budget consultation tour and was met with a variety of spending recommendations.
Members of local municipalities, community and health groups, economic development officers and members of the general public came together for the two and a half hour long discussion. Each guest at the table was given five minutes to make their case for government funding or spending.
Lorraine Sheehan of the Bay St. George Status of Women resubmitted 22 recommendations made by the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women, noting she felt it would give them more strength.
Ms. Sheehan said there were excellent programs put in place since last year's budget, such as the career exploration program for women, but noted she would like to see more, particularly an adequate number of seats for Adult Basic Education programs around the province.
She also advocated for adequate housing, funds to help with home heating costs and better wages and benefits for home support workers in the province.
"We definitely need home support workers getting workers compensation benefits ... home support workers need to have access to sick leave, because they're sick and they're coming in and getting the people that they work with sick," she said.
Cynthia Downey came armed with recommendations on behalf of the Bay St. George Chamber of Commerce - from better roads in the area, support for Stephenville's airport, and consultation with communities on the spending of government dollars.
Ms. Downey said money spent on renovations to Stephenville Provincial Courthouse could have been better spent, as the building still has no wheelchair accessibility.
Peter Fenwick, Vince Parsons and Fintain Alexander spoke on behalf of their municipalities and local service districts.
One of the things recommended by Mr. Fenwick, representing the Southwest Coast Joint Council, was a change in municipal operating grants, which gives funds to communities based on their populations.
Mr. Parsons of Stephenville Crossing asked that a percentage of the provincial budget surplus, estimated to be about $880 million, go to municipalities to stimulate economic development, to create a heritage fund for the province and to develop the lower Churchill.
Laura Alyward presented on behalf of the town's healthcare action committee and asked for funding to recruit and retain new nurses, funds to operate the new CT Scan machine the hospital will soon be getting and funds to support a regional surgical plan.
"That would mean that general surgeries that are being done at Western Memorial would be done at Sir Thomas Roddick and more specified surgeries would be done at Western Memorial," she told the minister. "That would cut back on wait times for patients, as well as overtime for doctors."
Ms. Alyward also asked for funding to build a new long term care centre in Stephenville, and funds to expand the long term care centre in Stephenville Crossing.
"That facility was built in 1976, 32 years ago. There was an expansion in 1986 of 50 beds. Right at the moment there's 114 beds," she said. "As of last week, 40 percent of our beds in this new facility were taken up by long term care patients. People waiting to go to the home or waiting to go to their own home with homecare support services ... those acute care beds, as you know Mr. Marshall, are very very costly. With these new facilities it will free up these beds for new patients."
When the meeting came to a close, Minister Marshall told the Georgian that many of the issues he heard that evening were similar to those echoed around the province.
"... But it's important to get the context and the local flavour," he said. "A lot of what we heard tonight were policy issues that would really to the minister of health or the minister of HRLE [Human Resources, Labour and Employment], rather than to the finance minister, but it's good to hear what people have to say."
Minister Marshall noted while last year's budget was called the most generous in the province's history, it came with a plan that will be carried over to this year's budget as well - a plan to use some profits from non-renewable resources to pay down the current debt.
"I don't want to see us leaving to your children and your grandchildren, a province with all the oil gone, minerals gone and taken away, and leaving you with a big debt to pay off," he said.
"That's what I don't want to see."
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