Madam Speaker, to listen to the government House leader speak about the bill it is as if there is nothing to it and we should just say yea and leave here. I guess it does not matter whether we say yea or nay, we will have to say whatever the government side wants us to say anyway, it appears.
There are a couple of very interesting points in the bill. Under clause 4, subsection 19(1) of the act is about the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is what a lot of people refer to as the government engine in Atlantic Canada. It is an agency that over the years has done a tremendous amount of good, but it is also an agency that has been manipulated by the government to carry out its wishes rather than fulfil the needs of the people who live in the Atlantic region.
When we hear members in general and the public talk about government abuse of money and about all the money dumped into Atlantic Canada, quite often those of us from Atlantic Canada can stand up and defend what the government is doing, but there are times when we cannot because of the manipulative processes the government uses in funding through agencies such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. However, it is an agency that has tremendous potential to help Atlantic Canada.
A couple of years ago, my colleagues from the Canadian Alliance, the pre-Canadian Alliance Reform Party, talked about the sinkhole in Atlantic Canada. They were referring to Hibernia, into which went a lot of federal government money. Today, since we have educated them on the potential of Hibernia, they realize that the project now returns and will return manyfold the amount of money that the government has put in or will put into it over the years.
There are times when areas such as Atlantic Canada, parts of Quebec and the western regions in the country, maybe not in marine sectors but certainly in agricultural sectors and in oil development, need a boost from government agencies simply because the magnitude of the investment is too great for the private sector, or the start-up risk is too great. Government incentives are needed. That is when government can play an extremely important part.
In the case of Hibernia, it did play an extremely important part. At the time, the private sector could not finance a project of that magnitude. It was not money being thrown into a sinkhole. It was money being put into a region to develop a project that has now shown how beneficial it is, not only to the region but to the country. In fact, I would say it is more beneficial to central Canada than it is to the region in which the project was developed and is operating, because the greatest amount of money coming out of that project comes to the coffers in Ottawa and certainly does not go to the coffers of Newfoundland and Labrador.
For Atlantic Canada, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is an engine which, properly operated, could provide tremendous assistance to the region.
What is happening in the bill? In clause 4, subsection 19(1) of the act is replaced by the following:
The Board shall meet at such times, but at least once in each year, and at such places as the President may select.
What that says is that the board now has to meet only once a year.
The board of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, like the board of Marine Atlantic or any other government agency or crown corporation, should be the group of individuals that directs policy, selects projects for funding and that independently keeps an eye on what money is being spent, where it is being spent, and the benefits that would accrue from such investment.
If the board is a relatively important or influential board, then undoubtedly it will cause some problems for manipulative governments and manipulative ministers. I certainly do not want to say that the minister responsible for ACOA is a manipulative minister, because we understand that the junior minister, the Minister of State for ACOA, is a very good fellow. In fact, he is so good we understand he might be made minister of fisheries shortly.
I hope that prediction comes true, because the individual, coming from Atlantic Canada, would probably know something about the fishery, completely unlike the person who sits in that chair today who would not know a codfish from a bakeapple. That is part of the problem and of course--