Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to finish my comments on Bill C-11, the federal government's legislation to divest itself of the assets of the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
In my earlier remarks I was pleased to give some of the background of coal production in Cape Breton and the benefits which have been accrued by all Canadians from this production.
As I said, Cape Breton has been producing coal for 300 years, long before Ottawa bureaucrats existed to criticize the enterprise. The coal produced in Cape Breton fired the steamers which helped build the British Empire. They were critical components of industrial expansion in the early days of Canada.
The contribution which Cape Breton coal made to our war efforts in both wars cannot be underestimated but unfortunately are underestimated. I would say that the entire contribution of our Cape Breton coal industry has been underestimated by the government.
I have heard both the Liberals and the Reformers whine about the money pit of Cape Breton and why we require drastic legislation at this point. However I have never heard them talk about the money saved by businesses and residents of Atlantic Canada because of cheap Cape Breton coal being used to create electricity. I have not heard members opposite credit Devco with making $6 billion.
I would like to talk a bit about that. Bill C-11, as it is currently constructed, I believe would create a money pit in Cape Breton. The bill could see 6,000 jobs lost in relatively small communities, 15,000 direct layoffs, with up to three times that many lost due to downward spinoffs. The impact would be astounding. Along with what I have already mentioned, we would see the loss of roughly $79 million per year in wages and salaries. It would also mean the loss to Ottawa of roughly $28 million a year in Canada pension plan, employment insurance and income tax contributions. It would also mean a total estimated annual economic loss, direct and indirect, of as high as $300 million for this region.
I firmly believe that economically destroying a community is really what creates a money pit, not working to preserve it. It not only fails to make economic sense, it fails to make moral sense.
There used to be an understanding that part of the public responsibility of government was to help Canadians and not just guard corporate rights in an unfettered marketplace, but not any more. There used to be an appreciation and a respect for the importance of certain national institutions in this country, but obviously not any more.
Today I learned that the reprieve of local news shows at the CBC, which is another sock from the Liberals to Cape Bretoners and maritimers, and which I have already called a sham to get the government through the next election, is not even what the government has taken credit for. The national programs will get millions to produce slick, commercial free, 30 minute national news programs. They will have the time to develop the ideas and they will receive the resources to do it right, an approach which local shows should obviously receive as well. However, due to the Liberals' brokerage compromise, the local shows have scant days to come up with millions in cuts in the local show cities, including Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax and St. John's, so that they can throw together a 24 minute broadcast with 6 minutes of commercials to reflect these communities to themselves.
Like Devco, the focus is on cutting a national institution which supports the regions. This is the Liberals' approach to Atlantic Canada: more for the centre and, quite frankly, screw the regions.
It is time to revisit this government's minimum wage commitment to this beautiful people and this beautiful island. I join with my colleagues in the NDP to demand revisions to Bill C-11 to respect the needs and the contributions of the people of Cape Breton.