News Release

Anyone listening only to government talking points could be excused for thinking that Budget 2017, delivered last week, was good news. However, aside from, some relief on the new gasoline tax, everything about the new budget is the same as the old one.

St. John’s Centre MHA Gerry Rogers is hosting an event billed as a “Town Hall Mash-Up” tomorrow evening. The event features “seniors and youth in conversation about where our province was, is and needs to go,” says Rogers.

The sale of publicly-owned property has been in the news lately, including the sale of the former Hoyles-Escasoni buildings and land in St. John’s, for just $650,000. Today in the House of Assembly, NDP MHAs tried to get answers on government’s stewardship of real estate assets.

As Budget Day looms in Newfoundland and Labrador, the NDP caucus is concerned there will be a repeat of last year’s kneejerk, short-sighted decisions that cut expenditures without any apparent regard for the future societal and economic harm that would be caused by the cuts. MHAs Lorraine Michael (St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi) and Gerry Rogers (St.

Late last week, the federal government announced massive reductions in the quota for northern shrimp. Harvesters and plant workers alike say it will be a severe blow for the industry.

As the province’s Supreme Court considered a challenge on the provincial government’s decision to release Grieg Aquaculture from an additional environmental assessment, NDP Environment Critic Gerry Rogers (MHA, St. John’s Centre) was asking questions in the House of Assembly.

NDP House Leader Lorraine Michael (MHA, St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi) delivered the caucus’s response to government’s Speech from the Throne today in the House of Assembly.

She says there is little contained in the lengthy document to indicate the Liberals plan to change course from the first 15 months of governing, which Michael describes as “disastrous.”

On Friday, March 24, 2017, we saw the culmination of a project inspired by an NDP Private Member's Motion. When St. John's Centre MHA Gerry Rogers proposed an All-Party Committee on Mental Health in 2015, it got the support of every member present in the House of Assembly that day. Two years later, with an intervening change of government, a lot of hard work has been done.

The Come by Chance oil refinery laid off more than 100 workers last week; concerns about the implications of the layoffs, including health and safety and issues arising from the reduced staffing levels, are swirling. Today the NDP Caucus brought some of those questions to the House of Assembly, looking for some sign that government is taking the issues seriously.

It’s not unusual for the House of Assembly to pass an interim supply bill in March. What is unusual, says NDP House Leader Lorraine Michael, is for a government to have no other legislation prepared for debate. Currently in the House, MHAs are standing in succession to speak on a bill that every member will inevitably vote to support.