Mr. Speaker, on November 4, I reminded the Minister of Human Resources Development that 300 miners in Black Lake had lost their jobs, that their average age was 52, that the region is suffering high unemployment, and that these workers were calling for a modified POWA program.
Louise Harel in Quebec is in agreement. Jean Dupéré, the president of Lab Chrysotile, is in agreement. Only our Minister of Human Resources Development in Ottawa is refusing to budge.
The minister should sit down and take a serious look at the issue of these men from the BC mine in Black Lake. Black Lake is four kilometres from Thetford, and the small a asbestos region is not the same as the large A Asbestos region. The guys from the BC mine are not workers from British Columbia, as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation claims.
Why does the Minister of Human Resources Development himself not reply to our questions regarding the creation of a modified POWA program for the workers of the BC mine? The department is completely adrift.
All the big shots in the Liberal Party are getting involved: the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation, and tonight, the reply will probably come from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.
That is why they think the BC Mine workers are from British Columbia and that is also why the minister himself is wrong in portraying the city of Asbestos as the capital of the asbestos industry.
The minister should leave the war veterans aside and take care of the BC Mine veterans. Furthermore, he should address the issue of cooperation between Quebec and Canada instead of letting the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation stumble in his place.
The people in the Black Lake region would be better served if cabinet knew that Black Lake is not Asbestos and that the BC Mine is in Black Lake and not in British Columbia.
Most of these workers are over 50 and they are entitled to a modified POWA because, on March 7, 1996, an application to that effect was submitted to the Minister of Human Resources Development; furthermore, the program must be modified because Jean Dupéré is ready to make his own contribution to this POWA.
So I am very eager to hear the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.