Mr. Speaker, I apologize for putting that document forward in the sense of a prop but I was leafing through it.
I wanted to make a point with regard to Mr. Nicholson. He is an honourable man. He is representing the community well. He does a fine job, as do a number of the individuals that make up that body. There is no question about that.
The point I am making is that the very people who have designs on taking over that port have representation on the board, the steering committee, which is absolutely bizarre. Hence the chicken coop and the fox scenario. That is exactly what it is.
It does not end there. In this document when I did make it public when it was leaked to me—I am not going to use it as a prop, Mr. Speaker, but only to pick some of the numbers out of it because it is important to note. In this document which is 42 pages in length the proponents of this project, in other words the people from New York and New Jersey who want to take over the port, no less than 14 times in this document do they mention that unless and until they are given absolute control of the port and the waiving of all fees, they could not possibly proceed with their project.
The parliamentary secretary is partially right in the sense that the aggregate project does not involve his department as much as it would the province of New Brunswick or the department of economic development. But the point we make is that some of the properties in which they want to do this piece of business are actually owned by the Government of Canada. I think there is an obligation to ensure that there is an orderly transition with regard to who takes over those properties and what they are going to be used for.
As I mentioned before, that particular company because its nearest competitor is Martin Marietta, an American owned company out of Canso, Nova Scotia, is saying that it has to have all federal wharfage fees waived. Can you believe it, Mr. Speaker? The company says that all fees have to be waived in order to make the project a success in order for it to be able to compete with its nearest competitor which again is an American company.
It is absolutely bizarre that the federal government would even entertain the waiving of any fees associated with setting up an American company in Canada. It is absolutely ludicrous that it would entertain doing that.
Going back to the motion in question, the integrity of that board and the responsibility of the board and the steering committee is very critical to the success of this bill. Unless we have top quality people with no interest in assuming ownership of a port that is to be transferred from the public sector to the private sector, unless we have that orderly transition, we will all be in trouble. What it does is it opens up the door for individuals like the New York and New Jersey individuals to come up here with bags full of money and find that they get their way. This is terribly wrong.
I support the strengthening of anything in the bill that will tighten the loopholes on the membership of that steering committee which will eventually determine who will own the port.