Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise again in this debate, but on a new group of motions, and speak to Bill C-11.
Before I get into the specifics of those motions, it is obvious to anyone watching that we in the NDP caucus feel passionately about what is happening in Cape Breton. It is for that reason that we are speaking in this debate in relatively large numbers, since we have a small caucus. Most of our caucus members have been here either this afternoon or this evening talking on the bill.
We in the NDP felt that before the legislation went forward, and this goes back a bit in time, that Cape Bretoners should have had a chance to have a say about what was happening. That was one of the reasons we and they felt aggrieved in this process and why we have stood here this afternoon and this evening. It is also why the NDP proposed amendments that would have allowed the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations to hold hearings in Cape Breton before the legislation was voted on at second reading.
In its haste to ram the legislation to close Devco through parliament, the government rejected that legislation, and not only that, rammed it through in a way that really limited the debate. We were opposed to that in other cases and in this case we are opposed to it even more.
There are a number of things that the government did not do right by the people of Cape Breton. As I said, it squashed the debate on second reading of the bill, which was not right in this place and not right for the people in Cape Breton.
The government also decided to end debate before a settlement had been reached on the issue of miners' pensions and severance. As many other people in our caucus have mentioned today, the arbitrator slapped the government on the wrist over that. If it is not feeling embarrassed, it well should.
The legislation was pushed through before any decision was made about the remediation of mines sites or long term economic development to replace the jobs that would be lost. In question period earlier today, one of my colleagues asked the Minister for Natural Resources if the money for severance would come out of the existing package for economic development or would it be new money.
I do not know how many ways there are to evade answers but that is just what the minister did. We still do not know this evening whether the extra amount of money that will come for pensions will actually be new money, which is as it should be, or whether it will be skimmed from the existing package that has been put forward.
I cannot help but think of some similarities between what is happening in Cape Breton and what has happened in my own area of the country, in western Canada, in the way in which the government has dealt with getting its way on some major things, with a great relevance to the economy of the regions.
In this bill it is the Devco mine which is a fixture in Cape Breton and terribly important to the economy and to the lives of individuals in the community.
In western Canada, to take one example, we had the Crow's Nest Pass freight rates on moving prairie grain. I will not go into all the details of how and why western Canadians were able to negotiate that in confederation, but it essentially relates to the fact that we are a large landlocked area and there was no competition in the moving of grain over large distances from farm to port. I might also add that over time the railroads have been given immense subsidies in land, money, and other things that accrued to them for building the railroads. We thought we had this benefit, one of the few benefits to our farm community, forever.
The government began a move to get rid of it. The ways in which it did that bears some resemblance to the ways in which it has operated here. It made its plans in the dark of night and behind closed doors. It was only when it had something to announce that it told people and then it would announce it in such a way that it was very difficult for the community to mobilize.
To make a long and sad story short, the Crow rate was taken away from us by the Liberal government in the 1990s. It said it would tide the farmers over by giving them a payment. The one time payment was made but it was kind of like buying people with their own money. The one time payment was made and then along came this government which got rid of the Crow benefit.
What have we seen happen? We have now seen freight rates for moving western grain move up, depending where the benchmark is set, from three to six times. Now when farmers get a green slip, as they do when they send grain out, they find that between 30% and 40% of that gross amount goes to freight rates.
The similarity I see here is that we have people saying, “This will be better for you in the long run”. Is it not interesting how the people who think something will be better for us in the long run, short term pain for long term gain, are seldom people who are suffering from short term pain. They always think it will be better for us but they do not mind the very difficult transition period that is necessary which can break communities, families and individuals.
My colleagues in the NDP caucus, especially the members from Cape Breton, have moved a number of amendments. Regarding this third group, I would like to describe them as amendments that would really soften what seems to be the inevitable, the privatization of this company. By and large these amendments want changes, if changes are being made, to be made in a way that will guard and take into consideration the needs for employment in the region. We are not at all convinced by what we have seen that the privatization of this company will put any priority on that.
These amendments in Group No. 3 really speak to what we believe may or may not be the government's intentions as to what it is doing. We believe and know that the corporation is for sale. We do not know to whom. We do not know under what conditions.
Coal has been mined in Cape Breton for decades and decades but we do not know if a new buyer will mine coal there anymore. A new buyer might simply be buying what one of my colleagues described as a franchise, the right to supply coal for Nova Scotia Power and others, but will it put any priority on employment? We do not know that and that is the reason we are standing here and the reason we are prolonging this debate to the extent that we are. We do not know if we are getting, as we used to say in farm country, a pig in a poke. We do not know if the new buyer will continue mining. We do not know what will happen to people's jobs. We know that people will get laid off but we do not know what the conditions will be.
In the previous group of motions we wanted to ensure that at least some of the people involved in the boards of directors would have some sensitivity to the local community. We had the audacity to suggest that people on the board of directors for Devco, which is important to Cape Breton and has been over all these years, would actually be from the community and represent the community's best interests. We do not have any such guarantee.
In a sense we might say there are privatizations and there are privatizations. None of us in this caucus are arguing that everything always has to remain the way it has been, but there are ways in which one can deal with people and then there are other ways in which one can deal with people.
We are very concerned in this case that the government is taking privatization to mean something much different than what we in this caucus and members of the community would consider it to be. That is the reason that we feel so passionately about this.
This government's record on privatization is anything but reassuring. I think of CN rail. It used to be a national company. It has long since ceased to be a company that takes the needs of its customers much less their communities into account. There are two things we can now say about the new CN rail. First, it has had a record profit, and second, it has been gobbled up by an American conglomerate. We are afraid that will happen here.
There are many other examples we could give. I could give the example of Air Canada which is a raw nerve for many of us. What has happened to Air Canada? What has happened to its social responsibility, its knowledge that it was performing a national function? That is out the window. All it talks about now is shareholders.
In summary, this group of motions put forward by my NDP caucus colleagues want to ensure that if there is going to be a privatization, that there is a priority put upon employment of the people who are affected by this in Cape Breton. We will not rest until that happens.