Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate on Bill C-11, a very important and timely bill not only for the island of Cape Breton but for all Nova Scotia and the east coast.
It is an act to authorize the divestiture of the assets of, and to dissolve, the Cape Breton Development Corporation, to amend the Cape Breton Development Corporation Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts.
I am also pleased to acknowledge the presence of the minister in the House. He has taken part in this debate and travelled to Cape Breton. I commend him for that effort.
I am speaking on behalf of my colleague from South Shore who is unable to be here. Normally the bill would have carriage under his critic's portfolio.
I welcome the opportunity to address the important issues which are brought to bear by the bill. One is certainly the fact that it will have a very dramatic impact on the lives of many people living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The bill in essence will put a great number of people out of work and affect many families, small businesses and communities, particularly those around the Phalen and Prince mines. The potential sale, pensions, resource management and long term impact of the Devco divestiture are what the bill is about.
I would like to begin by giving a bit of historical background about the legislation and the road that has led to the closure of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or what is commonly referred to as Devco. It began in 1967, but a coal mining company started much earlier than 1967. It goes back in its historical roots as far as 1720 and the first coal mine ever opened in North America.
Coal mining flourished until the end of the second world war, at which time the demand fell dramatically and Devco's predecessor, the Dominion Steel Coal Company, Dosco, was hard pressed to continue its operations.
In 1965 the situation was at a point where Dosco announced that it would have to close the Cape Breton mines and its 6,500 employees would be out of work completely. This is where the Liberal government of the day stepped in and announced that it would take over the operation of the mines and established the crown corporation known as Devco.
Coal production had dropped to the point where in Canada only 11% of the coal market existed, down from 60% in earlier years when coal was in much greater demand.
As we know the world events in the early 1970s changed the way we looked at energy in the coal industry as a whole. A remarkable turnaround took place during that time. I am referring to OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the situation within the oil crisis of 1970 that saw oil prices rise dramatically, settling at $10 a barrel following the initial surge or the equivalent of $35 in today's standards.
Countries were searching for alternative fuel sources and they found that coal was economical and available. Devco suddenly had a hot commodity and the crown corporation prospered for a period of time. New mines were opened in 1974. The Lingan mine followed in 1976 and then the Prince mine.
The second oil crisis in the late 1970s continued to provide economic prosperity for those in the coal mining industry. By 1984 the price of coal was at $52 a tonne, more than six times what it was in 1967 when Devco began operations.
The Phalen mine opened in 1987 and the development of the Donkin mine was begun, representing what was supposed to be the largest underground mine in North America. Devco signed a 33 year contract to supply the Nova Scotia Power Corporation with coal. The industry seemed to be sustainable and prosperous.
The importance of this prosperity in the coal mining industry has a dramatic impact on the legislation we are debating today. It was the federal government through Devco, and encouraged by the high prices of coal and the availability of coal in Cape Breton, that promoted coal mining as a viable way of life for Cape Bretoners, particularly young men entering the job market.
A strong tradition had existed in that part of the world for many years. The young men whose fathers and grandfathers had worked in the coal mines were told that the coal mining industry had a 20 to 45 year future expectation. That is why, simply put, young people turned down other job opportunities or stopped searching for work and began work in the coal mines. It was a job that allowed them to stay in Cape Breton and to work in mines like many of their family members had before them.
We are telling some of those same people today that the government was wrong, the jobs no longer exist and they have to pack it in. What is the government doing? How does it respond? The government is offering an $11 million support package and it calls for an economic development package to encourage new projects in this area. This is not a new approach. This approach has been taken before by previous administrations.
The support package will include early retirement incentives, enhanced severance packages and training allowances. I heard the minister refer to some figures, one being that $1.6 billion was put into Devco over the years to keep that industry afloat and $500 million for economic development. It goes without saying that this has not been the answer, sadly.
The $68 million economic development package put forth here is meant to promote sustainable long term economic development for Cape Breton and to diversify the economy. However, one again has to look at the record and question how successful it will be.
They are laudable objectives, but the government is essentially going to be taking away $300 million from the coal mining industry and the Cape Breton economy and replacing it with $68 million, and that will be over a long period of time. Furthermore, the government has tried this approach. Since 1967 there have been a number of projects and investments made to help the Cape Breton economy, but few have been successful. A massive amount of money being injected into the economy in a reckless way has not worked.
Most Cape Bretoners realize that Devco cannot continue operating as it has been over the past few years. The Conservative Party supports the divestiture of this crown corporation. However, the way the government is doing it is another matter. The package itself, I would suggest, is flawed.
I asked the minister about this and I hope we will get an opportunity to speak about this further. How can the government explain that mine workers who have spent 20 to 25 years, and in some cases longer, working in a coal mine will not qualify for pensions? Why is something not being done to address this?
Cape Bretoners would also like to know if there were other crown corporations which faced similar problems when they were divested.
A fair question was asked by somebody who worked in a coal mine for many years. He wanted to know why someone who has worked for 12 years in a coal mine would qualify for a pension, while someone who has been in the mines for as long as 20 to 25 years would not. There has to be a more equitable approach.
These are the types of anomalies and inconsistencies that frustrate the workers and undermine the government's legitimate and sincere approach to this problem.
Compounding the problem is the fact that there are serious health problems and issues that have to be addressed. Many coal miners face very difficult health problems. Black lung disease is an incurable disease that affects many coal miners. On top of that, Cape Breton as a whole has one of the highest cancer rates in the entire country.
To get back to the more immediate implications, without jobs 1,200 miners and their families who work in this industry will be affected immediately by the closure of the Phalen and Prince mines and will be unable to access the necessary health programs.
United Families representing the families of the mine workers in Cape Breton travelled to Ottawa to highlight some of these concerns and to ask the government to reconsider the package itself. They were not asking simply that the mines be kept open. Rather, they wanted some assurances that their pension plans would be fair, that their health programs would be protected and that the government would look at all available options.
We also heard from other groups, such as Northside Future and the United Steelworkers of America, on their recommendations for Devco.
There are other options available that would enhance the sale of the Phalen mine and increase the opportunities of finding a willing buyer. The Donkin coal reserve is a good example. It is believed that the Donkin mine contains approximately 1.5 billion tonnes of coal, according to a report dated 1997. There is an obvious potential for mining operations and employment, yet the government has done little to encourage the divestiture of separate parts of the coal mine industry. Instead, it is all or nothing. This is the approach that has been put forward. All of these mines or nothing.
We know that there are other options. Men like Tom Macpherson of Sydney, as we speak, are working on a proposal to salvage an industry and to look for some other means of keeping a hand in the industry.
We know that Devco should be divested and the Conservative Party supports the initiative, but we question how well the people of Cape Breton, particularly miners themselves, are being served by the government's approach in this bill.
The government's approach in Nova Scotia has been to ignore things. It was only after the loss of all 11 seats in Nova Scotia that it perhaps rethought that strategy. We know it has a new plan and a new senator who is going to be carrying the flag and trying to raise the fortunes of the Liberal Party in Nova Scotia. It makes one question if the Senate of Canada is now the minor league for the House of Commons because he has told us he is going to run.
The unemployment rate in Cape Breton has been around 20% for the last 15 years. Cape Bretoners are known as hard workers and they have certainly known hard times. Devco management has publicly acknowledged on many occasions that the extra efforts of the miners were what allowed the mine to meet its production schedules.
It is interesting to note how the Reform Party referred to this, and I take the hon. member of the Reform Party at his word when he says he has a great deal of affection for the province of Nova Scotia. However, to my recollection the Reform Party did not even run candidates in Cape Breton in the last election. One has to take a closer look at that.
That is not to say that the exercise of propping up Devco by any means has not been a financial disaster. We know that the people of Cape Breton are watching this situation very closely. They have been referred to on occasion as a financial burden and as being dependent on the rest of the country. That is not something which anyone takes pride in.
Cape Bretoners are willing to work hard and willing to work in the coal mining industry, but that option is apparently being taken away from them. Now the government has to look for other options of employment for coal mine workers, including remedial work that would have to be done around the clean-up of the mine sites. The Prince mine itself is waiting for a buyer. That may offer some employment possibilities, but it does not have the production capabilities to meet the requirements of the Nova Scotia Power Corporation. There has to be some recognition that if coal mining is to continue it is going to have to be done in such a way that it can at the very least meet the requirements of the Nova Scotia Power Corporation.
All of this has to be done in a carefully scrutinized way, open and transparent. These are words that we often hear from the government, but again one questions its sincerity.
The sale of the Prince mine in Cape Breton and the possible development of the Donkin site could provide employment opportunities.
There is time now before us to address some of the faults in the legislation. Members of the Conservative Party we will be looking forward to getting this particular bill to the committee where it can be looked at in greater detail.
I know the minister has been following the situation quite carefully. I sincerely hope that the government will be open to some of the constructive changes that might be put forward by other parties. This part of Nova Scotia has been devastated in years past and in fact the province itself has a crippling debt that it has to deal with. The Atlantic provinces have certainly seen their share of hard times in recent years.
With the start of the new century one would hope that the Atlantic provinces and in particular the island of Cape Breton and the province of Nova Scotia will be able to benefit from some of these future possibilities: Sable gas, the resurgence of some elements of our fishing industry, the use of other natural resources and entry into the high tech industry. One would hope that the government will encourage this type of future prosperity and future development.
There are ways of doing that which have been demonstrated by other governments. I am referring to the province of Prince Edward Island when a decision was made to close down armed forces bases on that island. The government of the day, which was a Conservative government, immediately responded by putting a government office, a GST processing office, in that area of Prince Edward Island. I would suggest that type of approach. If we are going to be taking a major industry, a major employer, out of the economy of Cape Breton, the government should be prepared to look for ways to inject future opportunities in that part of the country.
I thank the House for its indulgence and the opportunity to speak to the bill and I look forward to future participation in the legislation.
