Madam Speaker, Bill C-11 deals with an issue concerning the Cape Breton region. Why did the government not allow any consultation to take place? Why could the committee not travel to Cape Breton and speak to the community?
It is not like we are dealing with all coal mines in Canada. We are dealing with one mine in one location, in one city, in one region, in one part of our country. This is why this debate is happening. My hon. colleagues have stood time and time again to bring forward the concern that the community is not being listened to. The community could best represent itself if the bill and its amendments were debated and discussed at the community level.
The motions before us touch on health and safety and jurisdiction. The economic impact of the bill should be designed to be a positive one for the region and the community. Any dismantling of the Devco mine or any rearranging either by private initiative or closure of the mine should be looked at as a positive step out of a very negative move.
The debate today challenges members on the government side to realize that our common goal as parliamentarians is to make the communities in our regions as well as our economic and industrial sectors better places. Closing down the mine or possibly selling it to private interests is a major transition for Cape Breton.
To reach this point has taken decades of evolution. To abandon Cape Bretoners without their having a solid grasp on the details or on the implications is not acceptable. It is fine to draft procedures in a bill, but if we predict the impact it will have on the community that is where the concerns start to overflow into the House. The concerns at the community level far outweigh the benefits.
The community has stated its concerns through its duly elected members of parliament. We are calling on all members of parliament to respect those views. They have been formulated into amendments to create an act that better represents and better serves the community. These amendments are what we are debating tonight.
We want Liberal members to take a second look at the amendments and to vote in favour of getting community representation on the Devco board. We want the pensioners' association, the people who have amassed huge pension funds and huge seniority credits over the years of serving in this company, to have a say in the dissolution of the mine. They should have a vested interest as they know what is best. They risked their lives. This is no ordinary mine by any stretch of the imagination. The health and safety of the miners were in peril in the mines every day.
A good friend of mine, Mr. Matt Minglewood, sings a classic song called Working Man . He is an excellent blues performer from Cape Breton. He sings this song with his heart and soul, just as Rita MacNeil would sing it. It deals with the life of a coal miner and the lost ones who did not make it home. This song hits hard.
These are the concerns of the constituents, the miners and the families and from which the amendments have been formulated. It is detrimental. In my back yard there are uranium mines. There will be a delayed impact on those mine workers. We might be concerned about our miners in about 20 or 30 years when the impact starts to show up. The respiratory and safety issues for coal miners from being underground with unstable minerals, unstable walls and ceilings in some cases are much more immediate. The gases that emanate from this fossil fuel are detrimental constantly. That is the view with which we bring our passionate debate; it is from caring for our workers. We should duly respect them.
We should have taken the committee hearings right into that community because it concerns their mine and their immediate community.
We are at the third group of our amendments. I want to crawl into the conscience of the members who are listening, who are present in the House or who are watching the debate on television in their offices. This will come to a vote. We ask government members to seriously look at these amendments that strengthen the arguments and concerns that constituents have in Cape Breton, and those of the workers and pensioners in terms of losing a livelihood and the opportunity to raise their children as they have been doing for so many generations in that neck of the woods. That is the way I look at it.
That part of Canada has contributed to all of the economy of Canada. The steel that came from Cape Breton built a lot of our railroads and industries in the industrial age. Let us give those people thanks. Let us not disrespect them in a way such as this. Coal energized, heated and electrically lit many of these buildings during much of the electrical revolution which took place. This country was founded on many of the developments from coal that was mined in that region.
Let us give those people due respect. They gave us a fighting chance to have an economic stronghold in Toronto. Toronto should say thanks. Montreal should say thanks. Vancouver should say thanks. All the people we represent in the House should make a conscious effort to thank that region which is hard hit economically, environmentally and healthwise. Some things will be genetically passed on to their offspring.
There is the legacy of the tar ponds, pollution which is being left right in the middle of their community. We have to take responsibility as a nation. We represent the nation of Canada. Bill C-11 attempts to devolve an industry that may be justified. The question of whether it is justified was tossed around. If it is, let us do it in an honourable way.
The honourable process is to debate it correctly and thoroughly. It should be listened to and heeded. If common sense approaches are given by our colleagues in their representations of their constituents and communities, they should be taken seriously by the government. The senior officials of the government should mentor their voters and tell them to vote with their consciences, to vote in the right way.
In closing, the Devco issue has certainly come to a head on making a decision on the future of a community and the livelihood and careers of many families. Let us give it due respect. Let us give that because of what those people have done for the economy of the country and what they have done in trying to represent themselves.
Some of the amendments try to allow workers to sit on the board of directors and to allow pensioners to sit at their association tables. It is so they can make crucial decisions as opposed to parachuting in someone or in the worst case, putting someone in these positions for partisan reasons because of their political stripe or because of the card they carry. Let us respect the community for what it is trying to achieve in its people representing themselves.
An honourable way to end the debate is to vote in favour of the amendments that my hon. colleagues have brought forward.
