Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the Reform Party motion.
I will talk a little bit about the actual facts in the motion, the Churchill Falls agreement. I want to talk about what has been discussed over the last few minutes, exactly how much support the federal government has provided to Newfoundland and Labrador. It is indeed significant.
I will also talk about the absolute political inconsistency and hypocrisy of the Reform Party in bringing forward this motion some few days before a byelection takes place in Labrador, an area which before the byelection the Reform Party hardly new existed.
I will be quite straightforward. A contract exists in respect of Churchill Falls that was freely entered into and which has been ratified by the Supreme Court. That is a reality. In hindsight one might suggest it was not necessarily a good contract to enter into. Coming from the financial business area, I can say there are a lot of contracts that one could look back on and ask: I wonder why I ever did that. Unfortunately, one rule of law, one of the tenets we have in Canada and something that keeps us going is the fact that we respect contracts. In this case, the contract has been ratified by the Supreme Court.
The member is right. Things have changed a lot since the contract was signed. At the time it probably seemed like a good deal. Energy costs were low. The only practical way to deliver power from Labrador is through Quebec. Quite frankly, when the project was being developed thousands of jobs were created for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. However, hindsight is 20-20. An oil crisis ensued shortly after that and there was an increase in the cost of energy. I guess we learned that long term contracts are probably not always the best way to go. The Supreme Court spoke to this matter and clearly stated that it was a firm contract.
The Reform Party knows and consistently insists that natural resources and the management of natural resources is not the purview of the federal government but is the purview of provincial governments. That is something the Reform Party not only wants to see continue but it also wants to see it enhanced.
Quite frankly, the federal government does assist Labrador and Newfoundland in developing its natural resources. It has worked with the province in the hope of finding ways to develop on the lower Churchill. It went on record in 1975 of offering financial assistance in the development of a transmission link to the island. It is now working at Voisey Bay to find the tools we need to find ways of streamlining the regulatory regime. In fact the member who put forward this motion has worked closely with the natural resources
committee and signed off on a unanimous report on finding ways to ensure that we can assist in the important development of Voisey Bay to make sure that it can come on stream, that it can be a reality and that jobs will be created in Labrador and Newfoundland.
Not just as the federal government have we supported that province through the natural resource sector, in Labrador today there is the Canadian forces base at Goose Bay which adds $128 million to the local economy. That is more than fish harvesting and trapping; it is about the same as what pulp and paper and agriculture together supply. The federal government through the establishment of CFB Goose Bay adds tremendously to the economy.
Other types of assistance are provided. There is the whole issue of transfer payments from the federal government to the provincial governments. I know that my Reform colleagues across the way might suggest it should be equal for each province, but we feel a little differently over here. Areas of the country which are most in need require greater assistance than some of the other areas. That is borne out when we look at the fact that Labrador and Newfoundland has the highest per capita rate by which we provide transfers to the provinces. That is the way it should be. It is the way the Reform Party would want to see ended.
Let us talk about the Reform Party and Labrador and Newfoundland. First, it was very difficult in fact near impossible to find that subject in the 1993 Reform Party campaign literature and campaign platform. As I said at the beginning of my speech, this discovery of Labrador and Newfoundland seems to have occurred only with the advent of a byelection in that area. If one goes through the record of this House and looks in Hansard for a reference to Labrador by the Reform Party, it will be a very thin record that will be found.
Let us talk a bit about the Reform Party and what great things it will do for Labrador. I notice the finance critic was one of the architects of the 1995 Reform budget. Unfortunately the Reform Party did not get around to doing a 1996 one. I will touch on some of the things Reform suggested and the impact they would have on the people of Labrador.
Reform would get rid of the Canada pension plan. It would give up on it and replace it with private RRSPs. This is great if one happens to have a lot of money. Those who earn a lot of money can establish their own RRSPs. With the Reform budget, those who are not that fortunate to be at the upper end of the income scale are simply out of luck.
A $20 billion suggestion on reductions in social programs was in the Reform budget of 1995. I wonder how that would play out for the people of Labrador. I doubt that it would be a real positive thing for them.
Besides looking at the Reform budget and campaign literature, perhaps we should move right to what the Reform leader had to say about Labrador and Newfoundland. I understand the leader was in that area in September 1994. I happened to look at a couple of newspaper clippings on that visit. I want to make sure the people of Labrador know exactly what the leader of the Reform Party had to say. On another issue affecting Newfoundland he said: "The unemployment insurance system should be reformed so that seasonal workers are taken out of the system". My goodness, the leader of the third party is suggesting that seasonal workers, on whom we depend so much in rural Canada and in Labrador, should not be included in the UI system. I hope the people of Labrador know that is the position of the leader of the Reform Party.
We know from many exchanges in the House that the Reform Party does not believe in regional development agencies. That is certainly shared by the Reform leader when he goes on to say in that article that the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency should be disbanded.
The Reform Party is suggesting all the assistance that has been provided over the years has not been the appropriate way to go, regardless of the fact that there might be an economy that is in need of special assistance so that the private sector can do its job. I agree with him that long term job creation will come from the private sector but sometimes the private sector needs assistance. The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency does that but the Reform Party would see it eliminated.
There are some inconsistencies between what is being put forward by the third party today, what its policy seems to be suggesting in this motion and what in fact it says on an ongoing basis. Earlier we talked about natural resources. The Reform Party's policy states clearly that the federal government ought not to have a role in the management of natural resources. What did Reform do today? It put forward a motion that suggested the federal government should intervene in it. This is totally inconsistent. Reform cannot on the one hand say we do not have any business there and then on the other hand say we should intervene.
We have here a party which prides itself on being the party of free enterprise, the party of the private sector, and all of the stuff that goes with that. Yet the Reform Party says a contract that was freely entered into, probably as a mistake by some of the parties, and confirmed by the Supreme Court should be set aside. That seems a very strange position to be taken by the Reform Party.
We should see this motion for exactly what it is: a crass political attempt during a byelection to gain political support in a part of the country the Reform Party historically has ignored. It is a party
whose policies are certainly not in the best interests of the people of Labrador and Newfoundland.
Reformers talk about doing politics in a new way and bringing something new to this House. All we have seen is old politics, the old way of trying to take advantage of the situation and the old inconsistencies.