Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm the lone opposition member from the west coast, and I want to set out why the official opposition opposes the proposed amendments dealing with Ridley Terminals.
We oppose this division because, in our view, the government has not made the case for privatizing it, nor have they told us why it's in the best interest of Canada to do so. After all, it's a profitable crown corporation. It's well managed. It serves the strategic and economic interests of British Columbia communities. It's been very efficient in its operation.
We don't understand why they want to sell it. Some people on Vancouver Island and my constituents have asked whether they want to do so, now that it's making money, in order to perhaps get some money so as to claim that the deficit is no longer there by 2015. We think it's just strange that the government would want to sell such a crown jewel.
I understand that one of Mr. Harper's first acts when he became Prime Minister was to cancel the sale of Ridley Terminals by the Liberals—it would have been sold for just about nothing. Now that the terminal is doing very well, why go ahead and get rid of it? We don't understand it.
Nor has the government reassured Canadians that the sale would go to a Canadian conglomerate or would continue to provide equal, open access to Canadian companies to get their products to market. The government has not even explicitly guaranteed that the sale would be in the best interests of Canadians.
For all of these reasons, we just don't understand why we should go ahead and support such an amendment.