Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the intervention of the member opposite who has now produced an audience for us.
My essential point was the question as to when is enough enough? To listen to members opposite, one questions whether enough is ever enough.
In the course of the last 30 years, the Government of Canada has put $1.6 billion into this enterprise. In addition, the Government of Canada has put in an additional $44 million in the fiscal year 1998-99, another $86 million has been allocated for the year 1999-2000 and an anticipated $86 million is set aside for the fiscal year ending in the year 2001.
The Canadian taxpayer has a legitimate question: When is enough enough? When should the government get out of this business? When are the good people of Cape Breton, the capable people of Cape Breton, going to recognize that this is no longer a viable enterprise, recognize that there is a new economy, that they can participate in the new economy and enjoy the prosperity seen in many other parts of Canada?
The point of the bill is to organize the affairs of Devco so that it can be sold. The member opposite is concerned about the issue of whether it will be sold to a foreign buyer. I suppose if this was such a viable enterprise, there presumably are Canadian buyers available to purchase the assets.
The hon. member also mentioned the fact that there is $1 billion worth of coal. There may well be $1 billion worth of coal—I do not dispute his figure—but if it costs $2 billion to get to $1 billion of coal, then it does not make a lot of sense.
In order to make this as viable a transition as possible, the government engaged the services of Nesbitt Burns Inc. to sell the saleable assets. The assets include the Prince and Phalen collieries, the Donkin mine site, the corporation's coal pier and railway, its coal preparation plant and related mine infrastructure. Hopefully the purchase of these assets will occur sooner rather than later.
In order to make this a viable sale, the government has acknowledged that Devco has liabilities and is transferring the liabilities unto itself. There is something in the order of an expectation of $100 million environmental cleanup. No purchaser is going to purchase this mine with that liability. The government has taken on that liability.
In addition, the government has set aside something in the neighbourhood of $100 million for workmen's compensation claims. Again, no purchaser, whether Canadian or foreign, whether there is $1 billion in the ground or not, is going to take on that kind of liability.
Also, the government has set aside something in the order of $200 million plus for future pension liabilities. Again, no purchaser is going to take on these kinds of liabilities.
The numbers get to be a little staggering after a while. We talk about $1.6 billion over 30 years, then add in another $44 million in 1998-99, another $86 million in 1999-2000 and another $86 million in 2000-01. We set aside another $400 million or $500 million for liabilities which may arise by virtue of environment or workmen's compensation or future pension liability, but apparently enough is still not enough.
In addition to what the government directly takes on, there are additional issues that the government takes on in an indirect way through such organizations as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, or ACOA as it known so well by members opposite.
Since 1987 ACOA has put $249 million into the riding. It is anticipated that it will put another $39 million into the island over the course of the next four years. Again, it is a considerable sum of money to adjust the living conditions of those who will be affected by this closing.
Then we have the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, or ECBC. In the past 10 years ECBC has put $97 million into the island. It is anticipated that it will put a further $36 million into the island over the course of the next four years. Again, what is enough? Apparently to members opposite it is never enough. There is never enough.
I thought that in the last election and in subsequent polling the taxpayers were pretty darn clear with the government that these kinds of things cannot continue.
We are quite prepared to be responsible with assistance. We are prepared to be responsible with assistance so that people can enter into the new economy, but this will not continue to be a continuous gravy train and a continuous drain on the resources of the government and the taxpayers' generosity. I would submit that in fact the taxpayer has been extremely generous with this situation for some arguably legitimate reasons, but there are times when one has to bring things to a close.
I was kind of perplexed when one of the previous speakers from the Canadian Alliance said that that the moneys which were recently put in, something like $12 million recently announced for a call centre, was a total waste of money, yet the member for Sydney—Victoria who spoke immediately prior to me was quite praiseworthy of the government's initiative in his riding to put that call centre there.
While a call centre may not be the leading edge of high technology, it is, however, a significant response to people who are needful of jobs. It may even be arguable that people who have been in coal mines for 20 or 25 years may or may not be suited to working in a call centre, but I suspect and I submit that not all people are coal miners and that the people of Cape Breton, in particular the children of the coal miners, might like the alternative of working at a call centre or the spinoff industries which result from the existence of a call centre in the area.
In conclusion, the Government of Canada has been most generous in this area. May I say that that has spanned a period of 30 years, that has been Liberal governments and Conservative governments, and that substantial commitment to the area has been an effort to make this kind of industry viable.
However, I submit that there are points at which one has to say enough is enough and $1.6 billion over 30 years is, in my submission, enough; $44 million in the fiscal year 1998-99 is enough; $86 million in the year 1999-2000 is enough; $86 million in 2000-01 is enough; $39 million for the Cape Breton Development Corporation is enough; and $36 million for ECBC over the next four years is enough. Those moneys are substantial. They reflect an enormous commitment on the part of the Government of Canada and in my view this bill deserves support from all members of the House.