Madam Speaker, I commend the hon. member for his comments and I thank his party for the positions it has put forward on behalf of the working people in Cape Breton. It is one of the few friends, other than the New Democratic Party, that the working people in Cape Breton have found to voice their concerns in this debate.
I have a couple of questions for the member. First, he talked about money. The government of course will say it is offering $111 million as an incentive package for the miners who are leaving. I point out that in 1996 our gross domestic product was $820 billion, and it is more today. While $111 million may sound like a great deal, in relative terms it is not.
I also point out that the government will say it has offered $68 million to Cape Breton for future economic development. I point out that the Minister of Canadian Heritage recently announced $48 million to build the war heritage museum here in Ottawa. For the entire island of Cape Breton and its future economic growth, we get the value of about one building in Ottawa.
More important though, I would ask the member to comment on the following. This is not the first time crown corporations have been shut down by the government. In each and every case there were benefits offered to those employees as the government extracted itself from whatever industry it was.
There are a number of areas we could compare, but let us just take health care benefits. These people are miners for the most part. They have gone underground. They have suffered injuries. Let me just cite some comparisons.
When VIA Rail was shut down, the employees of the crown corporation not entitled to retirement benefits were eligible for 100% pension contributions and full health benefits packages for five years.
When CN was shut down, the employees were entitled to group benefits and life insurance for a maximum of two years and the company paid the full cost.
When AECL was shut down, there was an extension of benefit packages with Blue Cross for health, dental and life insurance costs which were covered by the company.
When Devco shuts down, which the government says is justified, the employees who suffer from a number of ailments because of the kind of career and work they did, there are no provisions in this government package for extensions of health, dental or life insurance benefits. Those who have sick children, those who suffer from illnesses that they received in the mines, those who suffer from lung cancer, those who suffer from black lung will not be afforded the rights that were afforded other employees of crown corporations when the government withdrew from those corporations. That is just in health benefits. I could go on and compare others. I would be interested to hear the member's comments on those issues.