It was obviously the Liberal Party. He is a former minister in Mr. McKenna's government. The name of that individual is Mr. Al Lacey.
They vehemently denied that they had a secret plan to take over the port. In discussions with the premier of the province of New Brunswick in early August this year, he denied flatly to me as a member of Parliament that this group out of New Jersey and New York had any design on taking over the Bayside port. He had to eat his words two days later when this document was secretly released to me. The Atlantic television network actually aired this nationwide, when one of the consultants was lying through his teeth in regard to the intent of these individuals out of New York and New Jersey.
On speaking to the department of economic development yesterday, the owner of this particular group, an individual by the name of Randy Waterman, has all doors of government open to him. Why? Because they are hiring the best consultants they know how. That is done with the aid of a lot of money, to get through the doors of the ministers here and the ministers back in New Brunswick.
That is why this bill is flawed. It does not allow the citizens of the province of New Brunswick or any other province in this country protection from unwanted residents of the United States, United States businessmen coming here and taking over our ports.
The group is no slouch when it comes to doing business. This group is a multilayered group of companies. Here are some of the companies which Mr. Randy Waterman is involved with: New York Sand and Gravel, Amboy Aggregates, McCormick Aggregates, McCormick Materials. They have also set up a dummy corporation in New Brunswick called Charlotte County Ports. Does this not sound much better, Charlotte County Ports? Everyone would believe it is a home grown company, only to find out that it is 100% owned by these characters out of New York and New Jersey.
It does not end there. Bayside Materials Handling Inc. is another company they set up as a front for their New York-New Jersey operation. It does not end there. When they pay their bills they do not pay them through any of these companies. They pay them through a company called Trapp Hill Holdings.
The interesting thing is you never speak to anyone on the telephone that represents these companies in New York and New Jersey. They will not correspond with a member of Parliament. They will not correspond with anyone. They are silent. Who speaks on their behalf? Mr. Doug Young and Mr. Paul Zed, former members of Parliament who sat on that side of the House. That tells us how far they have infiltrated the levels of government in this country when they can hire former members of Parliament and transport ministers to carry their case forward to the federal government.
The present transport minister is being petitioned or lobbied at this very moment to reduce all shipping fees. Not only to reduce all shipping fees but to eliminate them completely so this company out of New York and New Jersey can compete with its nearest competitors in the marketplace in the United States of America. It is absolutely ludicrous to think the government would entertain doing that.
I spoke yesterday with the regional manager in Nova Scotia. He told me that they approached the government to eliminate the fees so they could compete with their closest competitor, a company named Martin Marietta from the United States, that was working out of Canso, Nova Scotia. Again it is an American company, and a Canadian company cannot export into the United States unless and until it controls either the shipping lines or the companies on the New York-New Jersey harbourfront.
These companies have been under investigation for 15 years by the FBI, and these characters over there are entertaining doing business with them? The province of New Brunswick goes haywire when we try to talk sense about these companies.
Who is being paid off? Who would have access to the premier of New Brunswick tomorrow on a moment's notice? I do not think I would. Who else in the House would? If we were to hire the best lobbyist in New Brunswick, a lobbyist who is intimately connected with the province, we would have access to its premier and to the minister of economic development who wants to be the premier of New Brunswick.
it is critically important if the legislation goes through that the make-up of these boards has the clout to keep such people out of Canada. We still have to exercise a degree of independence in terms of our economy and how we build it. We do not need these types of people in Canada. We do not want these people taking over our ports. That is why we have to beef up the legislation. We must ensure that individuals with the big dollars cannot come up from the south to take us over.
I hope to speak later to the same issue.