Madam Speaker, once again we find ourselves in this Chamber trying to find some semblance of a conscience in the government members concerning the Cape Breton miners.
I would like to take a few minutes to read a couple of paragraphs which some members and maybe some members of the Liberal Party across Canada would be interested in.
The federal government realizes that the Cape Breton coal problem is essentially a social one. It is because of its awareness of, and concern for, the well-being of individuals and their communities that the federal government is prepared to assist, on a massive scale, the transition of the area from dependence on a declining natural resource to a sound economic base.
That was a quote from Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson on December 29, 1966. There is another quote which I think some hon. members will find very interesting.
I must say...that unless the social equation is introduced into an examination of the current corporate plan of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, an important element in approaching the problem will have been overlooked....When the Cape Breton Development Corporation was organized and legislated, it was a move from privatization to public ownership, because privatization was incapable of dealing with the community and social problems which would occur from a sudden cessation of production in the coal industry.
That was an excerpt from a speech by Senator Allan J. MacEachen on March 21, 1996. I think all hon. members across the room today recognize those two individuals.
When I was looking through the large amount of documentation that we have on Devco, I came across another interesting comment. It reads:
If elected on October 25, 1993 the Liberal Party of Canada would want to increase production at the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
With an increase in production, no downsizing would be executed. It was an interesting quote by a gentleman by the name of David Dingwall on October 7, 1993.
On a number of occasions in the House we have said that the one thing Cape Bretoners are sure of is that the Liberal government and the members opposite are renowned for making empty promises to Cape Bretoners and have done so for the last 30 years.
My colleague from Sydney—Victoria and all members of the NDP have tried for the last three years to show government members the serious implication Bill C-11 will have on Cape Bretoners but our concerns and the concerns of the communities continue to fall on deaf ears.
If there was one simple way to sum up what Cape Breton miners are looking for we should go to the document called “A Message from Cape Breton Coal Miners”. It says:
We are not asking for a handout. We, Devco's hard-working employees, are asking Ottawa to give us a real chance to help secure a brighter future for the company and our community. We can make a difference.
That is the message from Cape Breton miners and the people on Cape Breton Island that unfortunately has fallen on deaf ears.
We are here today, as my hon. colleagues in the New Democratic Party have talked about, with respect to amendments in Group No. 2.
For those people in Cape Breton who are listening, it is important for them to recognize that the amendments put forward by the members of the New Democratic Party are not amendments that will cost the government any money. They are not amendments that will change the very essence of what the government is trying to do in terms of privatizing Devco. They will allow some semblance of transparency as it relates to the managing of the pension funds.
My hon. colleague from Sydney—Victoria talked about the members of the pensioners association, who we have both had meetings with and who have a novel idea. They know their pension fund is generating approximately $7 million a year. They want that money to be invested in their community. Is that not something new and radical? Why do they want to invest that $7 million in their community? It is because this government has failed to do that.
Day after day we continue to hear government members talk about the good job they have done as it relates to Devco and that they have given the miners a fair package. We just found out on Friday that, as we have been saying for three years, as delegation after delegation and as miner's wife after miner's wife have come to Ottawa and clearly said, an arbitrator has finally said that the package is inadequate. The arbitrator has said that this government's package, as it relates to Cape Breton coal miners, is inadequate and unfair.
I and my colleagues have talked to members of the government about the implications that the bill will have on Cape Bretoners. However, it continues to fall on deaf ears. When the bill was before a committee, over 75% of the Liberal members were whipped at committee and some did not even have the decency to be there to listen to the witnesses who came to Ottawa. I am talking about witnesses such as a miner's wife who gave up a 12 hour shift at $5.50 an hour to come here. She is the sole breadwinner in her family because her husband is not working. Government members could not find the time to pretend that what these witnesses had to say was important.
We have tried and tried. Every week I ask myself why the Liberals will not try, why they will not do something to help these communities and why they will not recognize the economic hardship that already exists in Cape Breton, never mind the results from the privatization of Devco. I finally came to the conclusion that they are not listening because they do not care.
I just finished reading excerpts by other members from what I would like to call the old Liberal Party, the Liberal Party that had a heart. They clearly indicated that Devco's abdication from the industry would be a social problem. In 1967 the Liberals made a commitment to the community to diversify the economy.
I can tell the House a number of stories about the attempts that were made to diversify the economy of Cape Breton under the Liberal government. One case in particular involved sheep being brought in from Scotland. These sheep were quarantined for a year at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars and they eventually died. The joke was that the Liberals were going to take the wool from the sheep and some of the steel from the steel plant and make steel wool. The Liberal government's attempts at economic development and recovery in Cape Breton became a joke. It was not about assisting the community, it was and continues to be about assisting the government's friends.
In closing I want to say that there is no doubt in my mind that Cape Bretoners will survive. We will survive because we always have. However, the one thing that the government should and will be able to count on is the long memory of Cape Bretoners for what this Liberal government has done to them, their children and their communities.