Madam Speaker, when we left on Friday we were dealing with Devco and here we are 48 hours or so later entering extended hours to deal with the bill yet again.
I congratulate the member for Acadie—Bathurst on a very emotional speech. He and others in the House are saying that before the legislation goes forward Cape Bretoners should have the chance to have their say. It is for this reason that we moved amendments that would allow for the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Government Operations to hold hearings in Cape Breton before the legislation was voted on at second reading stage. However, in their haste to ram the legislation through and shut Devco down, the Liberal majority opposite rejected that suggestion totally and completely.
MPs in our caucus from across the country have stood up for Cape Bretoners. Over half my colleagues have spoken to second reading stage, led by our leader, the member for Halifax. All New Democrats from coast to coast to coast recognize that if the government is allowed to treat Cape Breton this way, it can do the same in every other region of the country.
On the other hand, the Liberals have quashed the debate on Devco at every step along the way. They ended debate at second reading stage of Bill C-11. They decided to end debate before a settlement had been reached on the issue of miners' pensions and severance packages. Before it was announced whether the buyer of Devco's assets would even continue mining in Cape Breton, the government simply sold off the assets. This was before any decision had been made about the remediation of mine sites or long term economic development to replace the jobs that would be lost.
It should be noted that only eight Liberal members even bothered to speak to Bill C-11 at second reading. Should Cape Bretoners be grateful that the Liberal government provided limited economic assistance after shutting Devco down? The committee process was a sham. Less than six hours were allocated to hear from witnesses. The witnesses were given less than 48 hours notice to appear and no time to prepare. The majority of government committee members were scarcely in attendance throughout.
The Liberal majority voted against all the amendments put forward by the opposition on behalf of witnesses and the people of Cape Breton. The NDP motion called for the committee to hold public hearings in Cape Breton among the people affected to allow the people hurt by the legislation an opportunity to be heard. The Liberals voted against it.
We also proposed a motion to ensure that health benefits for workers and their families who suffered from mining related illnesses would be allocated. Again the Liberal majority government voted against it.
We asked that representation for workers and pensioners on the pension board be ensured. This was denied. We asked that there be some representatives on the board of directors who actually lived in Cape Breton. This was denied once again by government members opposite. We asked for assurance that some of the representatives on the board of directors were from the Devco pensioners association. That too was rejected by the Liberal government opposite.
The other opposition caucuses have been generally supportive of the bill. Both right wing parties have been supportive of it, but why would we be surprised with that?
The enactment provides the necessary authority for the disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, and provides for the dissolution and winding up of the affairs of the corporation.
The purpose of the proposed legislation is to enable a private sector operator to acquire the mining assets of the corporation so that the federal government can exit the coal mining business in Cape Breton and to provide for the continuation of the existing jurisdictional regimes for labour relations, occupational safety and health, and labour standards.
The NDP will propose that the bill be withdrawn and that the matter be referred to committee, for three main reasons.
First, the unions representing Devco employees have taken the corporation to court for failure to meet its obligations under the legislation and seek to have clause 17(4)( b ) included in any new legislation.
Second, we want the committee to be able to institute a process of full public consultation in Cape Breton in order to develop a long term strategy for the economic development of the region in order to offset the effects of possible privatization.
Finally, the uncertainty created by the recent court decisions with respect to first nations treaty rights and the repercussions on mining rights must be clarified.
There are a number of very excellent proposals in the Group No. 2 motions. I appreciate the fact that we dealing with them. The member for Sydney—Victoria and the member for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton suggested that at least one employee representative should sit on the Devco board of directors. We also ask under Motion No. 7 in Group No. 2 that clause 8 be amended by adding after line 22 on page 3 the following:
“(1.1) Section 4 of the Act is amended by adding the following:
(4) The majority of the directors shall be residents of the Island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia”.
My colleague from Sydney—Victoria urged that the majority of the directors shall be residents of the island and that there be residency requirements to ensure that a majority of the directors live on Cape Breton Island in the communities affected by the corporation's decisions.
Surely that would be a minimum. I am baffled to know why government members opposite would not be interested in having a minimal amount of protection and assurance that decisions taken in that region of the country shall be taken with the full knowledge and support of people who are actually resident on Cape Breton Island.
Motion No. 11 in Group No. 2 is certainly one that I endorse. It ensures that one-third of the directors of Devco are representatives from the employees' pension association. This is critically important.
My colleague from Acadie—Bathurst asked what would happen to those miners 45 or 50 years of age who have been working underground all their lives? Suddenly the mine closes. We buy imported coal from Colombia or wherever with miners' blood from that part of the world all over it. Cape Bretoners are thrown out of work. Jobs are very difficult, if not impossible, to come by. That is why having representation from the employees' pension association makes all the sense in the world. It would ensure that workers and their families are treated in the very best way.
The final motion in this group, Motion No. 16, would replace line 13 on page 5 with the following:
“18.(1) The Corporation shall by bylaw pro-”
It would also replace line 23 on page 5 with the following:
“(2) The bylaw shall provide that at least half of the members of the board or committee that is charged with managing the pension fund are selected by the Devco Pensioners' Association”.
This in effect would give the Devco pensioners association the right to select at least half of the membership of the body designated to manage the workers' pension fund. It also makes great sense that the local people would manage affairs as they wind down this corporation.
In closing I want to say that I am very pleased to have been part of this important piece of legislation and on the Group No. 2 motions. I would urge all members, not only the NDP caucus as we know where they will be, to support these reasonable changes.