Mr. Speaker, just months prior to the last federal election the former Liberal member for Cape Breton—East Richmond authorized a $300,000 fund to be given to a private group to study the privatization of the Donkin mine in Cape Breton.
The people directly affected by this, the mining communities of Cape Breton, voted against this proposal and maintain their belief that the mine should be developed under the auspices of the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
Indeed, just last week the Liberal premier of Nova Scotia and the former Conservative premier of Nova Scotia both acknowledged that Donkin is the future of Devco.
The United Mine Workers of America, District 26, has called for Devco to develop the Donkin mine.
I call on this House and this government to initiate a full, open and federally funded study of the feasibility of developing Donkin as part of a three mine Devco operation prior to any privatization of the site.