Item agreed to. For assistance to cold storage warehouses and precooling plants, further amount required, $40,000.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
When did the minister
decide he wanted this money?
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
It is the same
amount we had in last year for pre-cooling plants, principally in British Columbia. One was established at Kelowna, another at Salmon Arm, and another in Chilliwack.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
This is for cooling previous to shipment?
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
Yes. These packing plants are already established, and this is for installing pre-cooling rooms in the packing plants.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
Why was not this in the main estimates?
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
We did not have
it in the main estimates last year, and we were discussing this matter with the Fruit Growers' Association to see whether they would require anything further than was done last year, and we found that they did.
Item agreed to. Agriculture-salaries, $711,855; contingencies, $135,000.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
The minister is going
about his estimates back foremost. Has he any object in that?
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
No. There is a
decrease of nine, but the personnel is practically the same. [DOT]
Mr. MEIGHEN:
But the minister's work has decreased in greater proportion than that, because the general vote is away down. The work of the department has contracted a great deal more than the personnel.
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
I do not think the worfc has contracted. In certain particulars it has expanded, particularly in the Health of Animals branch in connection with the export of cattle.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
What about agricultural education?
Mr. MOTHERWELL:
Yes, but that did
not take very many men. That was a straight grant to the provinces, and they administered it.
Item agreed to. Justice-salaries, $226,355; contingencies, including $2,000 for the Solicitor General's office, $32,500.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
Has Mr. Edwards been made deputy minister?
Mr. LAPOINTE:
Yes.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
With the full approval of the Minister of Trade and Commerce?
Mr. LAPOINTE:
I have not consulted my colleague as to that.
Mr. MEIGHEN:
I think the minister was well advised not to ask him. Does he draw the same salary as Mr. Newcombe?