Mr. Speaker, we would have been very pleased to listen to our colleague from Burnaby—Douglas, whose eloquence and concern for workers is well known.
I am very pleased to rise today, although the topic at hand is of grave concern to us. I say that I am pleased because workers across Canada know that, historically, they can count on the Bloc Quebecois. We have given them our support both through our colleague, the member for Portneuf, our natural resources critic when the issue was first raised a year ago, and the tireless dedication to workers shown by our colleague from Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, our human resources development critic.
I want to draw a parallel with a situation I experienced in 1993 as a young MP. My colleagues may remember that in those days Montreal was undergoing a process of industrial obsolescence that had started in the 80s. There was a program called POWA, which was totally inadequate for Montreal workers.
We will recall that in those days, in Montreal, there was the Vickers shipyard, at a time when there were 30% too many ships on the seas and workers in my riding had to be retrained. It was a time also, in the late 80s and early 90s, when the whole textile industry in Montreal was in trouble due to its obsolescence. It has since picked up.
I must once again draw a parallel between my experience in the 90s and what is happening in Nova Scotia. With Bill C-11, the government is getting ready to privatize Devco, turning over two coal mines to the private sector, and putting close to 1,000 workers out of work.
This causes us to wonder what our duty is, what our responsibility is, as parliamentarians, when this sort of thing goes on in regions we might describe as one industry regions. The coal industry, the mining industry, the coal mining industry is not marginal in the Cape Breton community.
I have seen the figures on this. I am told that it was a really major industry. This is all the more of a concern since the government is saying today “It is no longer as cost effective as we would like it, as we think it ought to be, we will privatize it. We will let the private sector take over this industrial sector, but we do not want the responsibility of knowing how these workers are going to go about finding a second job”.
Members will say that the government set aside a certain amount for separation bonuses. According to our information, and the members of the government side will correct me if I am wrong, there are some 230 miners with 25 years' experience.
It is not easy. When you have 25 years of experience, of seniority, when you have worked have worked in the same firm for 25 years, you have a certain know how, knowledge in an industrial sector. It also means that you may be 45, 50, 55 or perhaps even 60, and it is then not easy to relocate or to find another job.
Bill C-11 does not resolve the problem of 225 or 230 miners with 25 or more years of experience with Devco, who are excluded from early retirement programs as currently defined. This is where our parliamentary responsibility calls out to us.
I ask Liberal members: what if it were your brother, your father or your best friend who had given 25 years of work to a company and who, all of sudden, found himself without an income because a government has decided to withdraw from that industrial sector?
Even more disturbing—and the hon. member for Portneuf alluded to this earlier—is what is happening now, this relative loss of momentum in the coal industry. We understand that anything related to the primary and secondary sectors of our industry is experiencing difficulties of one degree or another. This is what we call the “tertiarization of the economy”.
The economy is increasingly a service economy. This means that certain sectors including the coal industry, that used to be very important are now experiencing problems. Earlier I mentioned the textile industry, but I could have included the leather and linen industries, Vickers in Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, and the shipyards for which the hon. member for Lévis fought hard and even introduced a bill in the House.
What do the fight led by the member for Lévis, the representations being made by the NDP members for Dartmouth and Bras d'Or—Cape Breton, and the battle that I fought as a young member of parliament regarding POWA, in 1993-94, have in common? They all illustrate the responsibility we have as parliamentarians not to let older workers down, because it is harder for people who are 45, 50, 55 or 60 to find a new job. That is what I cannot understand about this debate.
As has already been said, once again we are dealing with an extremely authoritarian manner of carrying out House business. What is the procedure which characterizes the most dictatorial of governments? Let us not mince words, it is imposing gag orders.
For our audience, who are less familiar with the way the House works, what does this mean? It means that, with a cavalier gesture, without regard for the freedom of expression of parliamentarians, which is part of our mandate from the public to rise to speak in this House on behalf of the best interests of our fellow citizens, the government, the Liberals, these pharisees, these whited sepulchres, have decided through their parliamentary leader to impose a gag order so as to limit the speaking time of the members of the opposition.
Let us not forget that we are speaking today of the immediate and future earnings of the mine workers. When we are dealing with the income of the family wage earner, we are of course dealing with the situation of entire families who would, if it were not for the vigilance of the opposition parties, be in difficulty. This is unacceptable.
Today we shall be adding our voices to that of the NDP because we are an enlightened opposition and understand that Bill C-11, while it does not concern Quebec directly, obliges us to solidarity. We have always been there in solidarity when workers were being threatened.
I am grateful to the NDP members for waging this battle today. I want to tell the workers of Cape Breton that we are with them and that we care about their destiny and their future.
What do we want done? We want the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations to give some thought to the fate of the part of Canada known as Cape Breton, which relies on a single industry, or just about, and we want better solutions to be found to this industrial transition, which has meant that the coal industry is not as important in the year 2000 as it was in the 1960s and 1970s.
We say that this industrial transition cannot be achieved without serious support from the government. We understand that jobs will not be found as easily for some workers and that it is the responsibility of this parliament to ensure that they have an adequate income, in recognition of the contribution they have made to the economic development of their region.
I want these workers to know that we will not forget them and I say shame on this government, which once again has failed to support those who need the help of this parliament.