Madam Speaker, I too am pleased to speak on the motion today. It is a timely issue, particularly in light of the economic stresses and changes impacting citizens in Atlantic Canada over the last while.
It also allows us to examine the performance of the federal government on this issue and related issues. I congratulate my colleague from Sydney—Victoria for raising the issue today.
The motion states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should consider the advisability of taking into account safety concerns and local economic spin-offs before proceeding with any further privatization of Marine Atlantic services between Cape Breton and Newfoundland.
It is important because it addresses the ferry service between Cape Breton and Port aux Basques as well as the summer service between Cape Breton and Argentia, Newfoundland.
While the impact of the service on Cape Breton is substantial, for Newfoundland it is essential for the ferry to provide a critical link between Newfoundland and the rest of Canada.
Also, as has been mentioned, the federal government has a constitutional obligation. One of the conditions of Newfoundland entering Confederation was that there would be a year-round ferry service between that province and the mainland.
On a number of fronts this is very important both to Cape Breton and to Newfoundland. An efficient and economical transportation system is vitally important to our Atlantic provinces. In any analysis or discussion about the economic opportunities in that part of the country, a timely, cost efficient and effective transportation system does become a very critical issue.
The marine Atlantic ferry and coastal services are a vital component of the maritime transportation network. With the new economic development such as Sable Island gas, the Voisey's Bay development, Hibernia and other economic opportunities, these ferry services and the ability of citizens to access different parts of the Atlantic provinces quickly and easily will become more and more important.
It has been very interesting to see how this whole area of privatization of the ferry services has developed. As many people are aware, privatization has not just taken place in the Newfoundland and Cape Breton end of ferry services, but there has been significant change in the Yarmouth to Bar Harbour and Digby to Saint John legs of the ferry service. This has caused a great deal of concern to many of the people in that area and rightly so.
I noted just recently in the October 16 Chronicle-Herald a very disturbing headline, “East coast towns suffer as transportation links are lost”. The big headline is even worse, “Yarmouth—A dead area, according to a lobbyist”. One can imagine for those Canadians who live in those areas how concerned they are.
We know that there are changes due to economic restructuring and positive changes as time goes on. Sometimes as some job opportunities are lost, others open up. Having said that, it is up to the government as the responsible party here to really examine the impact and planning that goes into these kinds of changes to minimize the negatives for the citizens involved. I think that is what my colleague from Sydney—Victoria mentioned in his motion and with which the government agrees, according to the government speaker, needs to be done.
It was interesting to talk to some of the people I personally know out in that part of the world and to get their comments on some of these privatization changes. I received a comment from a lady who was pretty pointed about things. She said, “In the current government's headlong rush to privatize, they have maintained consistency in the way they have handled all their other programs. Namely, they are consistent in their poor planning and in their failure to acknowledge long range considerations. They just do things and walk away from the consequences”. That really sums up how a lot of people in Atlantic Canada feel about some of these changes.
Sometimes there is a bit of a characterization of my party, the Reform Party, as being just in favour of privatization of anything and everything at all cost. That is certainly not the case. One of the founding principles of Reform, the principles on which we think public policy should be formulated, is principle 17. We believe that the legitimate role of government is to do for people whatever they need to have done but cannot do it all or do as well for themselves individually or through non-governmental organizations.
If Reform were looking at this ferry service and how it could be best run, the first thing we would look at is what would best serve the interests of the people who are being affected by the service, who are using the service, who are the end users of whatever government does here. We would examine whether this is a service that cannot be done by people, either individually or through non-governmental organizations, as well as government could do.
If it were decided that this was a service that government could do better than any other organization, then we would make sure that was delivered. If it was decided in consultation with the end users letting the people who are affected speak for themselves instead of the made in Ottawa solutions that so often take place, then we would make sure that the move toward delivering the service in that manner through a non-governmental agency was again done in the best interests of the people with long term planning, with careful steps and with an acknowledgement of the need to minimize the impact on the people who are using it.
It is interesting when reading the headline “Yarmouth area dead” to remember that Yarmouth has not only lost its ferry service but it lost the rail service and the air service. Also the highway down to that part of the country is in severe disrepair in many areas.
One wonders if the headline were “Shawinigan area dead” whether there would be the same attitude of this government as there is to the headline “Yarmouth area dead”. I suspect there would be a great deal of scrambling to make sure that the negative consequences for some parts of the country were a lot better looked after than they have been for the part of the country we are talking about.
The Reform Party has given a great deal of thought to ways and means to revitalize the economy of the Atlantic provinces. There have been a number of studies done in the Atlantic provinces themselves that point to the fact that the traditional approach of the old line parties simply has not worked at all in the best interests of Atlantic Canada.
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, itself based in Atlantic Canada, came out with a stinging report just a few months ago. It said that the traditional agencies of subsidy and political patronage that have been put into place in the past have actually been a real hindrance to economic growth and prosperity in that part of the country.
Our plan is based on a strong, vital transportation network as part of the plan to rejuvenate and revitalize the Atlantic economy.
We too support this motion. We feel it is an appropriate motion. We hope the government will take a long sober look at the best interests of Atlantic Canadians when making changes such as those the government has made in the past.