WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

A big concern here is that if this matter goes on until the end of February next year, that we are going to have trouble, as a government, trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. - Premier Williams

Has Cabinet - The Government already made up its mind on the request by Justice Cameron for an extension for the inquiry? I am not sure what to read into this comment from the Premier. Obviously the decision has not been made but concerns about the impact on the health system of a prolonged inquiry are very much on his mind.

Last Friday the Minister of Justice said the request would be considered by cabinet. He warned that costs were a consideration as was the time-frame.

Other comments made in the House of Assembly today that cast doubt on the very validity of the inquiry include:

Mr. Speaker, we have to look no further than the top corner of The Telegram today - and I will not read from The Telegram, but I will paraphrase what was said in that top corner. It came from a second year medical student. He basically said: "Watching fantastic physicians having their good names and reputations called into question is not a ringing endorsement of our province as a place to start a career."

Mr. Speaker, as we stand here today, there will be forty graduates - forty-three, I think, if I remember correctly - oncology and pathology graduates that will graduate in all of Canada this year. Ontario needs fifty - that is one Province.

So we are a Province here that is going through this inquiry, going through a difficult time, under extreme scrutiny. We have three pathologists that have already left. Perhaps the indication from these physicians that in fact more are going to leave, and what we are really trying to do is to make sure that this service is provided, and the best possible service in this division is provided for patients in Newfoundland and Labrador on a go-forward basis.

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Mr. Speaker, we called this inquiry ourselves. I stood outside this House and admitted liability, and a question that was put to me by a reporter as to whether we would have a defence on liability in this matter, we indicated that - I indicated that no, I did not feel there would be a defence to liability.

So we have done everything we can here to facilitate the patients, to make sure that this is wound up as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible. If, in fact, this inquiry now goes on until February of 2009, it will be delayed even more. These patients will be even longer getting the answers. The lawsuits that will follow from that will take even longer, their compensation will take even longer.

What we are trying to do is to get the answers as soon as possible, nothing more than that. There is no other intention here, but what I am taking advice, or I guess guidance from, was the meeting that we had with the doctors, whereby these very doctors, that the hon. Leader of the Opposition quotes, indicated to me that they are very, very concerned that if this type of scrutiny continues in the manner in which it is being done, we will lose even more doctors in this Province.