Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise again to defend the interests of the people of Cape Breton against the government's plans as expressed in Bill C-11.
We are now at report stage. It is clear that the orders to government MPs have come down, which means no reasonable offers to change the bill are being accepted. We have seen government MPs oppose changes proposed by the duly elected representatives from Cape Breton to give Islanders some control over their future within the draconian regime set up under Bill C-11. Their reasonable offers to make the bill better have been shot down. This shows me that Bill C-11 is another legislative attempt, another piece of the Liberal government plan to dismantle the major institutions that build our country. The Liberals may deny this, but they have to learn that their actions have consequences.
The situation facing Cape Breton today has been brought about by some major government policy failures of the 1980s. I would like to take a moment to put on record some of these failures. Devco faced a number of problems in the 1980s, notably the impact of the 1981-82 recession and a disastrous fire that forced the permanent closure of No. 26 colliery in Glace Bay. Adding to these events were several policy decisions that had a direct impact on Devco's future. Since the 1984 loss of No. 26 Devco:
—has been living from hand to mouth without a long term plan for a reasonable, stable coal industry, hence the present situation.
That was a quote by Kent in 1996. Another quote reads:
Faced with a loss of production from No. 26 Devco opted to develop the geologically troubled Phalen mine while leaving undeveloped the Donkin deposit containing an estimated 300,000 tonnes. With the closure of the 26-year-old Lingan Mine in 1991, Devco was left as a two mine operation with no plans to develop a third mine. The shortsightedness of the approach was demonstrated when Phalen's premature shutdown precipitated the current crisis for Devco employees and their community.
Secondly, the Westray misadventure was harmful to Devco's future. There is some evidence that backers within government of the ill-fated mine were motivated by anti-public ownership bias toward Devco.
This was a comment by Dean Jobb in his book Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics and the Westray Tragedy .
In any case, the $100 million in federal and provincial funds lost on that project would have gone a considerable distance toward paying the cost of developing the Donkin deposit. Furthermore, short term arrangements between Westray mine operators and Nova Scotia Power had the long term effect of forcing Devco to supply coal to Nova Scotia Power at its Trenton generator at a substantially lesser price than Nova Scotia Power was paying at other generating plants. All this left Devco in a catch 22 situation.
After compromising Devco's ability to achieve a viable future with questionable decisions during the 1980s the Conservative government started the new decade by ordering Devco to become self-sufficient. This mandate was renewed by the Liberals after they took over in 1993. Self-sufficiency was accepted by top management of Devco as a legitimate goal.
However Devco never really had a chance to achieve self-sufficiency. Until geological problems at Phalen caused losses to mount in recent years, Devco was making money on its coal operations, but it failed to achieve self-sufficiency because it was required to make larger than anticipated pension payouts, some $241 million over five years. These higher payouts were to be completed in 1999 but then it was too late. In May 1996 Senator Allan J. MacEachen stated that the loss of Devco:
—would create a major catastrophe and a social disaster for communities and their families.
Obviously in the year 2000 Cape Breton is in even worse shape than it was before. Cape Breton is struggling with a 23% unemployment rate. Today Nova Scotia's unemployment rate has gone down to 12%. It has recovered somewhat, but in Cape Breton nothing has changed. The unemployment rate at 20% is only slightly lower than in 1996. Employment and participation levels are almost identical.
If the loss of Devco jobs were a major catastrophe in 1996, it is even more of a major catastrophe now. The federal government has an historical responsibility to the coal industry in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Over the past 15 years the federal government has failed in its responsibility.
Cape Breton has the coal resource, a skilled workforce and a customer in the Nova Scotia Power Corporation. That should have been a recipe for a stable and successful coal industry that would have allowed a slow but sure growth of alternative employment, but through incompetence or bad faith the federal government has dropped the ball. It has been negligent and it should be required to pay for its negligence.
If the government truly believes in the concept of responsible government, it would take responsibility for its actions over the past two decades. It would work with the people of Cape Breton and their elected members to make Bill C-11 a better piece of legislation, one that would strengthen the embattled community of Cape Breton and not further undermine it.