Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer here to a question that I asked the Minister of Human Resources Development on November 27 last.
To ensure that everyone understands the background, I will remind the House what that question was:
The minister recently said that BC mine workers were not interested in a POWA. Yet, these workers are currently protesting in front of the minister's Montreal office. They are asking for a modified POWA.
That is the term I used, “a modified POWA”.
Given the repeated requests made by the former BC mine workers, will the minister finally see the light and take the necessary steps to ensure their financial security?
That was my question. Here is what the Minister of Human Resources Development answered:
I draw the hon. member's attention—
<—and he was showing a document—
—to a letter, dated the 27 and signed by the union president, which I am prepared to table in the House. It says clearly that the workers want an improved POWA, that they are not interested in a traditional POWA, only in an improved one. Therefore this has nothing to do with what the hon. member is asking for.
Will the minister finally show a bit of compassion and stop playing with words? I am asking for a modified POWA, and he is saying that what the workers want is an improved POWA. It is the same thing.
Whether we call it an improved POWA, a modified POWA, I could not care less, but was is important is that he wake up and that he give to the BC mine workers what they are entitled to.
I call it a modified POWA for the simple reason that Jean Dupéré, the president of Lab Chrysotile, is willing to contribute a considerable amount to the program that existed before, the POWA. Furthermore, Louise Harel wrote to the Minister of Human Resources Development to tell him that she was to ready to match any contribution that the minister might make.
The minister is an intelligent man. He has already proven that in the past. Why is he playing with the intelligence of BC mine workers by speaking of improved instead of modified?
If I had used the term “improved POWA”, he would have said “They do not want an improved POWA, they want a modified POWA”. The minister is not lying, of course I am not allowed to say this here, but he is playing with words, to a certain extent.
The Minister of Human Resources Development, by showing a letter from Mr. Laliberté, the president of the workers who were paid by the hour, tried to undermine his credibility, and I found this extremely regrettable. What the workers of the former BC mine want is an improved POWA. If he does not like the word “improved”, he can use a similar word, I repeat that I really do not care. The fact is that Jean Dupéré is ready to contribute a substantial amount of money.
As for myself, right now, I want to tell all the BC mine workers that I will never let them down in their attempt to get an improved or a modified POWA.
I hope that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development, who will be answering later, will show a bit more compassion than—