Quite easily, Mr. Speaker. It is very simple. The days of Devco have gone by. Cape Bretoners, Nova Scotians and Canadians cannot afford a crown corporation to mine coal at a loss any longer. It has to stop somewhere. It is stopping here. The government has made the right decision.
I do not agree with how it has implemented the decision. I do not agree with a number of things about it. We have tried to improve it and not just simply to provoke the government trying to get our name in the paper over it. We have tried to make legitimate improvements to this legislation. We have worked tirelessly to do that.
At the end of the day, when the sun is going down, there will be miners at work mining coal in Cape Breton. Prince Mine will continue to operate. Phalen Mine, I suspect, will be reopened in the upper collieries. There is still potential in Donkin, but there is no potential there if the federal government continues on that mine. There is no support from Canadians and the federal government cannot do it. It is time to move it on to private enterprise. It is time to dissolve and divest ourselves of our interest in Devco.
Quite simply, there other alternatives for Cape Breton Island. If we put the same money into Cape Breton Island that we put into the Devco mines, we would have a lot more than 500 or 600 people working there in the months to come.