Mr. Speaker, the motion before us today reads:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should take action to develop the Donkin mine as a crown corporation.
I have said before, and I will say it again, that I believe mining falls under provincial jurisdiction and not under federal jurisdiction. Government intrudes far too often in provincial areas and it keeps on doing it.
Let us take a look at what is happening with regard to Devco.
One problem that Devco had was that it was saddled with the unfunded liabilities of its predecessor, Dominion Coal, including some $77.5 million for pensions, $117 million to clean up acid water drainage, reclaim tailings, and workmen compensation claims.
It went along not too badly, as was mentioned by the member from the Conservative Party, with regard to the shipment of coal overseas. This worked out all right until the government representative for Devco decided to torpedo any exports of coal. One main reason they had was Phalen was to come on board and supply coal to Nova Scotia power.
At that time I questioned the feasibility of cancelling any overseas contracts we had with regard to coal. Once an overseas contract is cancelled, it is very difficult to get that share of the marketplace back.
We know that there is a private group which has put forward an offer for the Donkin mines. It is currently being reviewed by the Senate. There was some $400,000 spent on a feasibility study done by John T. Boyd Co. from the United States. Out of that $300,000 came toward the study from ACOA, and $100,000 was put up by the company. It makes us wonder what kind of private development we are really talking about.
Will the taxpayers be left totally holding the bag for the demise of Devco with no other resources and all the liabilities for the environmental clean-up and the unfunded pension liabilities of past employees? These are questions that have to be asked.
We know that the Senate in its hearings is going through the offer and the feasibility study. We know that the minister will be testifying before the Senate, I believe on December 1. We also know at this time that there is nothing going on at Donkin.
This is a serious question. The taxpayers of this country have put hundreds of millions of dollars into these projects. It raises the question of who is better at this. the private sector or the government. Time after time we have seen the mismanagement of public funds by government. We have to wonder how long we can keep on funding corporations such as this to make decisions like this.
Let us look at this reasonably. Does anyone think a private company would shut down its export markets? Not a hope. But what does the government body do? It shuts down the export market and creates a problem. That alone should tell us that the government has no business there.