Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have another opportunity to speak to Bill C-11 and in particular to focus on the third group of motions. This is another attempt by the New Democratic Party caucus to convince the Liberal government to hear the concerns of Canadians, particularly the people of Cape Breton who have felt the harsh realities of the government's negative policies.
I think people will notice that if it were not for the NDP caucus here in parliament this evening, there would be no debate and an issue of grave significance for a large region of the country would be virtually ignored. We may be only 20 members in a House of 301, but we will do our utmost to make the voices of Canadians heard, voices which otherwise would not be heard in this place. As we said when we were elected, we will do whatever we can to wake up the Liberals and shake up Ottawa. I see that some of the Liberals are awake tonight. I hope they will hear the message we bring to them through this group of motions which are very constructive propositions that should be seriously considered.
Earlier today I tried to wake up the Liberals to what they are doing by drawing parallels between Bill C-11 and Ralph Klein's bill 11. It would be worthwhile to go over the similarities one more time in the interests of making a difference this evening.
The purpose of bill 11 in Alberta is to privatize health care. It is the first time in the history of this country that the possibility of private hospitals in our otherwise universally accessible, publicly administered health care system is real. Compare that to Bill C-11 brought to Canadians by the Liberals and note that it is about the privatization of the Cape Breton Development Corporation. It is the dissolution of an economic development corporation that has been a part of the history of Cape Breton for many years. There is privatization on the one hand with Ralph Klein and health care, and on the other hand there is privatization with the federal Liberals when it comes to economic development in the region of Cape Breton.
The second similarity is on democracy and the opportunity for people to be heard, to make a difference and to have their concerns taken into account. When it comes to bill 11 in Alberta, thousands and thousands of Albertans demanded to be heard. Ralph Klein decided that the views of those thousands of Albertans and Canadians everywhere were not important enough to be considered and arbitrarily proceeded with the bill. Of course we know the outcome today. Just a few days ago bill 11 received royal assent.
Let us look at the whole process of democracy when it comes to the government's Bill C-11 and the essence of why we are here today. The government refused to allow open public hearings before proceeding down the path of the dissolution of Cape Breton Development Corporation. We are here today because the government has denied any opportunity for the people most affected to have their voices heard.
In both cases the pattern is the same. They are autocratic, undemocratic, heavy handed approaches to decision making. As my colleague from Winnipeg Centre said, at least the Liberals are consistent. Absolutely. Day in and day out there are nothing but examples from the government of this kind of heavy handed, undemocratic approach.
Let me talk about the next similarity between Bill C-11 put forward by the Liberals and bill 11 put forward by the Conservatives or the reformers in Alberta. It is a question of who is supporting the bill. Let us look at what is happening.
Contrary to the wishes of most Canadians, the Liberals are lined up with Canadian Alliance members, Conservatives and the old reformers. Together in one voice they are supporting these two initiatives. On the one hand there was passive acceptance by the Liberal government when it came to bill 11 in Alberta and today with Bill C-11 there is proactive, initiated privatization on the part of the Liberal government. It is all the same whether we sit by and let it happen or we actually make it happen. It is the same outcome for Canadians.
The outcome of these two bills is very similar. When it comes to bill 11 in Alberta we know what will happen if the bill is allowed to be proclaimed. It will mean for the first time in the history of medicare the possibility of hospital services being delivered by private for profit corporations. There is a hope, a possibility that it can be stopped, that the dangerous path embarked upon can be halted by some decisive moves on the part of the federal Liberals. We will continue to pressure the health minister and his colleagues to do just that before it is too late.
Let us look at the outcome of Bill C-11 brought to us by the federal Liberals. Again we are dealing with a survival of the fittest scenario. Those who can somehow eke out an existence without the support of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, those miners who can find other gainful employment or some security in their older years will survive. The rest will fall by the way, thanks to the government.
The similarities are absolute. It may be a coincidence that we are dealing with two bills numbered 11, but the outcome and realities are the same.
I want to touch on a couple of other points. One is that the government suggests time and time again that we on this side of the House should get with it, that with the new global economy we should change our ways, recognize that things like the Cape Breton Development Corporation are no longer feasible in this day and age and we have to tighten our belts and learn to accept these new realities.
There is another way other than the callous approach by the Liberal government. In mentioning that, I also want to point out the hypocrisy, if that is permissible in parliamentary terms, the double message of the Liberal government. The Prime Minister goes outside the country and delivers a speech on the Canadian way and says:
The success we have achieved as a nation has come not only from strong growth but from an abiding commitment to strong values, caring and compassion, an insistence that there be an equitable sharing of the benefits of economic growth.
I am struck with the difference between those words and the reality. It leaves us all to ask the question is this kind of initiative, is Bill C-11 the Canadian way? Is that what the Prime Minister meant? Is that where the Liberals are taking us in the future?
Nobody on this side of the House is suggesting that there are not changes to which we have to adapt and that global forces are at hand, but there is a difference in how we approach our responsibilities given those global trends, given technology and so on. We may not be able to deny globalization. We cannot always turn back the clock, but that does not mean we stop exercising democratic means to shape the nature of the global economy. It does not mean we leave to chance the kind of society in which we live.
Globalization does not have to mean helplessness. It does not have to mean an ever widening gap between the privileged few and the rest of us. It does not have to mean a generation of young people living in idleness. It does not have to mean leaving our senior citizens who have built this country to fend for themselves and survive by the seats of their pants.
The question for all of us is how can we channel trends like globalization into things that work for people? We have to take on the challenges but we have to do it based on the values the Prime Minister talked about but which clearly do not serve to guide him or his government in any way.
I want to end by simply saying that while we are not afraid of something new, we also know we do not discard something just because it is old. There are ideas and institutions which have outlived their usefulness and ought to be discarded, but in our eagerness to discard what is redundant and irrelevant, we must take care not to throw overboard the moral and social values without which human society would become a ruthless jungle.