Mr. Speaker, I rise today with regard to Bill C-11. I will give a bit of history with regard to what is going on with Devco and what I have seen take place in Cape Breton since 1994.
In late 1994 or the early part of 1995 I had the opportunity to go to Cape Breton to try to get an understanding of the concerns. I had the great opportunity of meeting with the miners, the union people and with business people. I was also taken down through the mines. I started to catch up a bit on what was taking place.
I knew about the money that had been put into Devco. What I could not understand, particularly after being down there, was what happened to a large percentage of those funds. I could see that the funds had not gone to the miners or even into the mines.
As I began to dig a little more I came across the fact that the government had decided not to renew its contracts for exporting coal from some of the mines. Although I am not a raving genius myself, I can understand that when a company gives up a segment of its market, particularly when it is competing on an international scale, it has just told its customers that it is no longer willing to produce the goods that they want. Any sane thinking company would know that its customers would go somewhere else to find the market, but not the government.
The government figured that it could bring them back any time it wanted to, but that was not the case. Instead, the government decided to try to prove that this was not economically feasible. It went through a broad scope of deals and non-deals, promises and broken promises in order to achieve this. In the meantime, it told the people of Cape Breton that it would look after their best interests.
The government repeatedly told the people of Cape Breton that Devco would be there, that they should not to worry, that they should be happy and that the government would look after them. All the time it was planning on just closing the door without very much concern about what would happen.
The door closed and now we are left trying to clean this up and trying to make some sense out of this. The government comes forward with Bill C-11. Everybody from all parties of the House have gone through the bill carefully and some members have put forth a number of amendments. The government has decided not to accept any of those amendments. I cannot understand this. We have members in the House who represent Cape Breton, who have been down there and know the people intimately, and yet their motions are not to be accepted by the government.
We have been down there and have spoken with the people. We have met with the business community, with labour and with management but not one of our motions has been accepted. This does not show a willingness on behalf of the government, no matter what it says or professes in the House, to listen to the people of Canada no matter what region they are from.
Some members like to stand in the House and say that this is an eastern problem or that is a western problem. No, this is a Canadian problem. Maybe it is about time government members made up their minds that they are here to represent all of Canada, not just pieces and segments here and there whenever they see fit.
When this bill came before the House we were in a dilemma. I may be hesitant sometimes in the way I speak, but when I went through the files on Devco and read between the lines—it is not there in black and white because the government will not let it be there in black and white—I had to wonder who took the money out of Devco. It was not the miners. It is not laying there in an abundance of assets. There are some assets there, yes, but what happened to most of the money? How much went toward patronage appointments? How much was never accounted for?
I cannot seem to find the answers in the bill no matter how hard I look. I have to wonder what Devco was all about. It certainly was not to help Cape Bretoners. Maybe it helped a select few, but certainly not the Cape Bretoners themselves. When we see the mess that is there now, we think of the money that has been put into Devco and what has been accomplished.
Some of our people have talked to the union. We have talked to the miners who have worked in the mines for years, some of whom are two months or a year short of retirement. They will get no funds out of this.
Where is this passionate Liberal Party? Where are the members who hammered on our doors just before the last election and said “I am here to help you. I am here to listen to your problems and I am here to help fix them. Please elect me again”.
In the next election those members will get the same message in Cape Breton as they will get in our constituency in British Columbia, “Get out of here. We are sick and tired of listening to what you say you are going to do and then having to live with what you actually do”. Cape Breton has found out the tough way, and it is really a shame.
As I go through the motions, I see one that I wanted in the bill. Motion No. 14 reads:
- The Corporation shall adopt all reasonable measures to reduce, to the fullest extent possible, any economic hardship or unemployment that may result from the closing of any coal mine operated by the Corporation.
The Liberals turned this motion down. What is so unreasonable about that motion? All it asks is for the government to do its job, and it has refused to do it.
In closing I want to say that this government has a lot to be ashamed of today and I hope it realizes this soon.