Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to have the honour to speak in the House of Commons. It is my first time speaking during a debate. While it is a bill about fisheries, I will speak to some degree to the fishery but as this will also be my maiden speech, I will be injecting some other discussions and comments.
I am pleased to support Bill C-62, the new fisheries act, which is long overdue. It is the first major rewrite of this act since 1868. Bill C-62 will make it possible for governments to work together with stakeholders to build the fishery of the future. If we have the will, together we can create an industry that is self-reliant and economically viable, an industry that will provide good incomes for both the large and small fishing enterprises.
Canada's fishery resource is the mainstay of hundreds of coastal communities. I have 24 communities in my riding spread along the coast of Labrador from L'Anse-au-Clair in the south to Nain in the north. That is a coastline of 600 miles or so. We all know how stock declines have devastated many of these communities economically. We are working to rebuild those stocks. We must also ensure that the stocks on both coasts do not suffer a similar fate.
It is my privilege and honour to talk about the relevant issues that tie in with the fishery and other developments in Labrador.
First, I would like to tell the House that I am the first elected native born Labrador person in the House of Commons. I was born in a small community on the coast of Labrador in a place called L'Anse-au-Loup. Its population is about 600. I grew up there and then I went to Memorial University in St. John's. I went back to Labrador and taught school. Fifteen years ago I moved into Goose Bay and launched a municipal political career. Thanks to the support from the good people of Labrador I want to do my very best to represent their needs here in the House of Commons.
Labrador is a big land. It consists of 300,000 square kilometres. It has 1,000 miles of coastline. There are 24 communities along the coast of Labrador. There are four communities in central Labrador, the Goose Bay area, Sheshatshit, North West River and Mud Lake. It has the mighty Churchill Falls, which have been so hotly debated. Western Labrador is the mining capital of iron ore in Canada, located in Labrador City and Wabush.
I am indeed very proud to represent these 33,000 or 34,000 souls, representing a voting population of about 18,000.
Labrador is very distinct. It has very diverse and distinct cultures. There is the Innu population of Sheshatshit and Davis Inlet. My colleague who is in the House was in Davis Inlet with me last week, as well as the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs. We signed an agreement to provide a better future for the people of Davis Inlet.
In addition to the Innu culture is the Inuit culture. The Labrador Inuit Association is their parent body. They are doing very well in moving along on land claims. Also the Metis people live on the south coast and in central Labrador.
We have the settlers who moved in from Europe and other places. In Goose Bay we have ancestors from Germany, Britain and Holland, as well as many other cultures. It is a very diverse land, a very big land and a great challenge for its member of Parliament to represent. I feel very honoured and very comfortable. Indeed, I feel poised to continue to serve the needs of the people.
I also want to thank my colleagues in the House. The Prime Minister made a personal visit to Labrador last summer. The Minister of Transport came with me and spent eight days performing official duties in Labrador. I want to thank my other colleagues who have travelled with me through Labrador and who continue to travel with me.
The natural resources committee went to Labrador last week to hear 12 presentations. I met with that committee again today and they were very struck and incensed by some of the comments they heard from the richest of people, in terms of economies in the west to some degree, and from the poorest of people. The extremities of life are found along 20 kilometres of the Labrador coastline. They include sectors related to the mining industry and so on.
I would encourage my colleagues to visit Labrador with me and to share the cultures and the great surroundings. It is a rural frontier riding. It is basically unknown in this House to a large number of people. I am up to the occasion. I welcome all my colleagues, as I have welcomed them in the past.
It is important to the people of Labrador to have members of Parliament visit. It is important to this House to share the great knowledge and wealth of understanding which Labrador has. I am going to carry forward the issues of the people of Labrador. I am one spoke in a wheel of 295, so I need support. I will go forward and generate that support in the way I have just outlined.
Many of my colleagues, if not all of them, who have travelled to Labrador in the past, have shown interest in coming back in one capacity or another, with family, friends, to do some fishing, to tour around, to look at the historic sites or whatever the case might be. That speaks well of Labrador. We have a lot to offer and I think the rest of Canada must know that. I plan to make sure they know it. Mr. Speaker, you have heard me and will continue to hear me in caucus, in this House and around Parliament Hill supporting and taking pride in my riding.
In promoting Labrador I want to mention that I speak often about the trans-Labrador highway. I spoke today on the trans-Labrador highway. I will be speaking again in the late show, in the four minutes allotted, one of these evenings. I speak often in the Atlantic caucus and the national Liberal caucus on it. I try to promote it wherever I can and I will continue to promote it. It is a must that the road become a reality in Labrador: a trans-Labrador highway through Quebec, through Baie Comeau into Fermont, Labrador City, Wabush, Churchill Falls, Goose Bay, down to the coast of Labrador and on into Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. That circular route is a must.
It is my task to make sure that my colleagues understand that issue and at some point in the near future it becomes a fast track reality. It is a must. It is my number one priority. I will not settle, slow down or take a back seat to anything but promoting that highway and making it a reality.
I mentioned the fishery in my initial remarks. I want to mention it again. As I stated, I am a member of the fisheries committee. I am honoured to say that I come from a very strong fishery riding. Off the coast of Labrador there are 17 shrimp licences which are shared among the Atlantic provinces. The people of Labrador get three and a half of those licences. We like sharing with people. We like sharing with our colleagues. These licences are worth $180 million annually to the economy.
In addition to that, we have thousands of tonnes of turbot, scallops, crab and God knows how many seals. There are millions of seals. One of these days we are going to come to our senses and realize what they are doing to the ecosystem of the North Atlantic and deal with that in the true context.
The point I am making is that the resources are there. I am proud to say that the minister of fisheries, his colleagues and his staff are working with me to put together a plan whereby the people on the coast of Labrador can further benefit from the fishery, so we can keep our plants open and the workers can go on to have sustainable incomes.
Our people do not want to be on employment insurance or anything like that. They want sustainable incomes and a sustainable economy. We have the resources. It is a matter of how they are managed. Management, development and working in conjunction with the minister of fisheries and the government, I know that Labrador will have a much more successful future than it is currently encountering.
In the fishery we also have the Atlantic salmon issue which is an ongoing debate and one which the conservationists say we have to close down and so on. It is an ongoing debate. I am very pleased that the hon. minister of fisheries has seen fit, based on discussions with me and the people in my riding, to put together a task force to look at the implications of the salmon fishery. Hopefully we can rationalize this issue and come to some common understanding for the betterment of all concerned.
I want to mention the Department of National Defence as well. Goose Bay is the low level flying capital of Canada. The German air force, the Dutch air force, the Royal air force from Britain and of course the Canadian air force fly out of Goose Bay doing advance low level flights.
The allied countries of Europe are contributing in excess of $100 million a year to our economy. It is basically the mainstay of the economy of Goose Bay and the surrounding area. We want to make sure that we keep that economy and we forge ahead and develop that industry whereby it will be on the positive side for Canada, Labrador and for the people of Happy Valley, Goose Bay. With the onslaught of Voisey's Bay in my riding, Goose Bay will benefit as well as Labrador City, Wabush and other coastal communities.
We have a very good future. It is a matter of how it is managed, how it is looked at by leaders, organizers and planners, how it works with government perspectives relative to provincial, municipal and federal governments and the economic giants of the world like Inco.
My colleague from Nickel Belt and I are planning a business partnership exchange. We hope to exchange business views that
have taken years to accomplish in Sudbury with our friends, my supporters, voters in the good riding of Labrador. I think it will benefit Sudbury, Nickel Belt, Labrador and all of us generally. That is why this country is so grand, so great and why we can do things to help each other.
On a further point with regard to the smelter at Voisey's Bay, the people of Labrador are currently experiencing a number of unanswered questions vis-à-vis smelters, mines, mills et cetera. As the days move along I think in the next few weeks some answers will become evident. I hope and pray that the corporate giants such as Inco and Voisey's Bay Nickel will be making decisions bearing in mind the importance of the question of adjacency and how it applies to the social and economic fabric of the people I represent in my riding.
At the end of the day we will come out of this happy, partners, and maybe we can all do better in sharing our great resources.
I am particularly concerned with the people who are on welfare, untrained or who need literacy training. I am interested in looking at the youth. I see the pages in this House and they are looking forward to university and a new career. The people in my riding are no different. We need something to come back to. Too many people are leaving Labrador because there are no jobs. It is a shame we do not have jobs when we have so many great resources, so many great developments, and we wonder why we cannot continue. I know the people will be trained. I know Voisey's Bay Nickel, the good institutions of Labrador, the province and Canada generally will provide for the youth. They will be back and they will be happy and we will sustain a great Labrador into the future.
I want to mention a few other points. The environment is extremely important. We need sustainable development and it has to be environmentally friendly because we have a very pristine environment in Labrador. Without a good environment no one gains.
I want to reiterate my support for the land claims process that is currently under way by the Labrador Inuit Association and the impending claim for the Labrador Metis Association.
I would be remiss if I did not mention Churchill Falls as it relates to the ongoing discussions nationally. I support the discussions currently under way by the premiers as they relate to contracts. We have to honour the legal jargon relating to the signing of deals and so on. I do feel that we need to benefit from Churchill Falls, the upper Churchill. I think we can also develop the lower Churchill and other hydro generation in Labrador; 5,000 megawatts have been developed and I think there are another 4,000 or 5,000 available. I am sure that in due course we will proceed along these lines.
The Labrador west situation, IOC, Wabush mines, Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway are great boosts to the economy. As I said, it is the iron ore capital of Canada.
When there are situations where 65 per cent of the railway is in Labrador and 100 per cent of the ore coming out of Labrador and of the 140 jobs only 10 are people from Labrador, I have reason to be concerned.
These are the kinds of inequities that I have to address and work with the corporate giants of the iron ore companies, Inco and all the others in the world, to make sure there is some balance in their thinking, some balance in their training, some balance in the planning and in their priorities so that the people of Labrador and the people of the rest of Canada will all benefit without too much frustration.
In retrospect, the mood in Labrador is to forge ahead in terms of socioeconomic, culture, training, education of our youth and various other things. Certainly infrastructure is a priority. I would be remiss if I did not mention that while health care is a provincial matter, we are in critical need of a major health facility in Labrador. It was nice to hear the vice-president of public affairs for Inco mention the need for a health care facility for Goose Bay. In all probability Goose Bay will be a staging point for the mine and mill in Voisey's Bay. I found that very encouraging. We will get on with the issues and forge ahead with the province and the federal government to make sure we get our fair share.
We in Labrador are not looking for anything more than is reasonable. Labrador has been a great contributor to the Canadian economy and will continue to be a great contributor to the Canadian economy. With the support of my colleagues from both sides of the House we can work this through the various departments and cabinet. We can come to some rational decisions affecting Labrador to the benefit of Canadians.
I have a couple of concluding comments. I would be remiss if I did not mention that I heard the Prime Minister announce that there will be parks in northern Canada, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. We have a great potential for parks, to which my colleague for London-Middlesex can attest. One is the Torngat Mountains north of Nain and the other is in the Mealy Mountains just south of Goose Bay.
It is my hope that some day soon by working with my colleagues collectively we will be able to make an announcement that Labrador has its first national park. It is very important to Canadians and to the culture of Labrador, the pristine areas, to develop at least one national park as soon as possible. Tying in with that would be other national historic sites like the site of Hebron, Hopedale, down the coast in Battle Harbour and Red Bay. We have
some fabulous areas which I want to make sure are brought into their proper perspective.
In conclusion, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today. I feel very comfortable working in the House and with all colleagues from all parties.
I take support wherever it comes from but I take advice as well.
