Madam Speaker, I am very glad to carry on where the hon. member for Sydney—Victoria was forced to leave off. Both NDP members of parliament for Cape Breton, the member for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton and the member for Sydney—Victoria, have dedicated much of the time they have spent as members of parliament fighting over the Devco issue. The point we are at today represents the culmination of literally years of hard work on their part to try and adequately represent the people who are affected by the Liberal obsession with shutting down anything to do with publicly funded institutions which might benefit working Canadians.
One will note on looking at the record the very number of speakers from the NDP who have risen on behalf of Cape Bretoners and on behalf of the Devco families. Most of us have had reason and have been motivated to join in this debate. Within our party at least, members all across the country empathize with the regional problems which occur in an area like Cape Breton. We can identify personally and we draw many parallels with our own regions. That is why we are so motivated to speak up.
The hon. member left off by pointing out some of the very reasonable motions the NDP members made at the committee stage, hoping to inject some balance and reason into the legislation. If the Government of Canada is so completely committed to shutting down Devco without consultation with the community, and we think without exploring other options and alternatives, if it is so driven, so obsessed with this idea, at least it could have entertained reasonable motions at committee.
The hon. member was halfway through speaking about one of those motions, which was for a jointly trusteed pension board which would look after the pension plan while Devco is being dismantled. That is not exactly a radical idea. Most employee benefit plans are jointly trusteed for the very reason the hon. member for Sydney—Victoria pointed out, that there may be secondary objectives that can be achieved other than simply getting the best return for the dollar to provide pension benefits.
It is a credit to those miners that they were generous enough and concerned enough about their community that they would say, “Let us not look at pure profit as the only goal or the only directive that we give our money managers. Let us look at some secondary objectives. Let us look at the long term economic development of Cape Breton to use some of the surplus profits of our pension plan”.
That thought would not come forward if there were not workers on the board of directors of the pension plan. It is a reasonable request and it was summarily shot down at committee by the Liberal Party.
There were other motions which were made to ensure health benefits for workers and their families who may become sick, or have long term health repercussions from having worked underground all their lives. Once their employment ceases, so ceases their supplementary health benefits.
Many people contract silicosis, black lung, or any number of injuries or illnesses relating to their occupation. One would think it would be callously indifferent for the employer to abandon any obligation to provide supplementary health care insurance to those people when the plant is shut down, if it is to be shut down. This again was dismissed at committee stage. The Liberals would not entertain it whatsoever, even though the NDP was not alone in this request; it did have backing from other opposition parties on the committee to be fair to them.
Why would they not institutionalize the concept of ensuring that some representatives on the board of directors lived in Cape Breton? The argument was that there are going to be some anyway. Well, maybe there are now, but who is to say the board will always be constituted in that way? Who is to say they do not parachute in some Liberal patronage appointees to take over all those key positions? They would probably pay themselves very well on a board of directors like that. It is not inconceivable that the Liberals may parachute in some patronage appointee to take care of the new Devco board.
We wanted it institutionalized that Cape Bretoners will be on the board of directors of the Cape Breton Development Corporation. This is not unreasonable. It is perfectly reasonable.
These were not the type of motions that were designed to embarrass the government. They were not the type of motions that were designed to be radical. They were put forward seriously in the hopes that they would be seriously entertained. They were dismissed out of hand without any concern whatsoever.
Why would they not agree to ensure that some of the representatives on the board of directors were from the Devco pensioners association? Why would they not give the pensioners some voice on the board of directors, those who are experienced, those who were affected throughout their whole lives?
I would argue that there is no better expertise about Devco than from those who dedicated their lives working there and who are now Devco pensioners. That is where we will find some real talent.
The Liberals voted against all of those motions at the committee stage. How did the other parties fare with regard to these motions? At least they could entertain them and see the logic in these very reasonable proposals.
Now we find ourselves with one more opportunity to look at the motions in Group No. 2 at report stage. The hon. member had just started to speak to Group No. 2.
One motion we refiled states that one director other than the chairperson and the president shall be an employee of the corporation. That is a reasonable proposal. Again a director other than the chairperson should be an employee of the corporation, giving workers some voice in the long term viability of the plant.
The majority of the directors shall be residents of the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. That should be a given; it should be automatic. I cannot imagine for the life of me how there would be any strong protest from the ruling party on that basis.
At least one-third of the directors shall be members of the Devco pensioners association. We talked about that.
Many of the motions in Group No. 2 are structural motions that deal with the composition of the board of directors and its long term viability.
What we are dealing with now is that the rules have really changed since the bill even reached the committee stage because now there is the ruling of the arbitrator, a binding arbitration. As was pointed out this arbitration would not have taken place were it not for the courage of the Cape Breton miners who actually had to take justice into their own hands and break the law. Sometimes civil disobedience is the only option.
When they were up against the wall and their livelihood and community were at stake, these people had the courage to take control of their workplace. I have to give the people of Cape Breton credit because even during the course of that civil disobedience and illegal wildcat strike, they were willing to be reasonable with the government. They were faced with what were really the modern day equivalent of Pinkerton goons when the riot squad showed up taking up arms against their own. It is a sad state of affairs in Canada when the people of Canada have to face their own government taking up arms against them for standing up for what is right.
Eventually when they finally agreed to what they thought was the most reasonable solution to this seemingly untenable situation, that solution and their demand was to put the matter before binding arbitration. They were so confident that their position was just and that they could defend it in front of an impartial third party that they were willing to lay down their case before an outside third party, an arbitrator, and let the case rest on its own merits.
Guess what happened. The arbitrator agreed with the workers of the Devco coal mine of Cape Breton and in many incidences came up with the recommendations exactly as they were put forward by the advocates of the working people. Especially in terms of pension, the people making the argument on behalf of the miners looked to other parts of the world where there were similar situations.