Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate on Devco. I wanted, especially after the last speaker, to put before the House and others who may be listening what is at stake.
We are talking about the direct loss of close to 1,500 well paying jobs. We are talking about the loss of almost $80 million per year in wages and salaries to that region. We are talking about the loss of $28 million a year in Canada pension, employment insurance and income tax. We are talking about a total estimated annual economic loss, direct and indirect, as high as $300 million for the region of Cape Breton.
The previous speaker would have everybody think that this is a very minor bill that will through and what is the problem. As I understand it this is the 65th time the government has introduced time allocation or closure, as most Canadians know it. Not everybody, but most of us know that 65 is the age of compulsory retirement for humans in Canada. We think it is time to retire this kind of time allocation and allow debates to be held in the House on a timely basis.
In February we on this side of the House endeavoured to have an emergency debate to discuss the matter, and of course it was denied. Here we are two and a half months later and we have time allocation.
Leading up to the debate in February there were newspaper stories that Canada Steamship Lines had expressed interest in purchasing the Cape Breton Development Corporation, and we know who heads Canada Steamship Lines today. The story in the newspapers is that Canada Steamship Lines is now purchasing new ocean freighters from a low wage Chinese shipyard. This is just days after a ship was launched in Saint John, New Brunswick. Many workers there feel it is the last ship that will ever be built at those docks.
What we are talking about and what members opposite do not want to talk about is almost certainly the imminent sale of Devco. They say they have to get on with it, but they are not saying who is the prospective buyer. We know almost with certainty that it will be a foreign buyer, almost certainly an American one.
I want to spend a few minutes telling the House what has been happening in the last few years in Canada with regard to foreign ownership. The fact of the matter is that for a relatively stable number of years, several years, the inflow of foreign ownership into this country roughly matched the amount of Canadian investment overseas.
However, in 1998, foreign ownership in this country jumped fourfold to $24 billion. In 1999, according to Statistics Canada, the figure was $36 billion or six times what it had been three or four years earlier. We are seeing the selling off of the country, the takeover, the buying out of our low dollar that has now dropped below 66 cents. This, coupled with the surging American economy, has made Canada a haven for buyouts.
We will see it again with Devco. We see the figures indicating that it has been losing money in the last number of years. Where did we hear that kind of story before? Canadian National was losing money on paper until it was taken over. Now 75% or 80% of it is owned by Americans and, wonder of wonders, it has turned the corner and is making a handsome profit. We will see absolutely the same scenario with the Devco operation.
The most telling of points for Canadians would be the very graphic television images of people who went underground to protest what was happening around Christmastime last year in Cape Breton Island. They stayed there until we thought a deal could be sorted out. These are the images regarding this issue that will stay with Canadians for a long time.
A number of other costs cannot be calculated. They include an increase in out migration from Cape Breton, a region that over the past decade and a half has seen a population decline of over 7% and a drop in employment opportunities resulting in the closure of Devco. The $68 million that have been committed by the government to encourage sound, long term economic development in Cape Breton is far less than the close to $300 million generated in the Nova Scotia economy annually by Devco.
The federal government's commitment to work closely with the province and the community to identify strategic investments for the $68 million is a farce. After more than nine months of silence and inaction, the few weeks of public consultations is an absolute insult to the community.
The government has repeatedly stated that no decision on the future of Devco would be made without prior consultation with the stakeholders and the community. Yet no meaningful consultation has taken place to date. That is what we have been after. That is what my colleagues, the member for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton and the member for Sydney—Victoria, were demanding when they asked for an emergency debate in the middle of February that was denied by government members.
It is correct to say that the federal government has put more than $1.7 billion into Devco over the past 30 years, but Devco has generated over $5 billion in return into the economy. It has been a very happy and convenient arrangement for the people of Cape Breton. Before I sit down I move:
That the amendment before us be amended by deleting the words, “Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations” and inserting the words, “Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities”.