Frankly, what is shameful is that the federal government is ignoring workers.
Honestly, I do not blame the Liberals for thinking that way since as they said this morning they have their votes anyway. They are saying “We can crucify them every day, we can hit them in the face, we can do whatever we want to workers, they will vote for us anyway.”
I hope workers are listening to what I am saying. The transport minister believes it is not enough. In his opinion, there is no need to have workers' representatives on the committee. It is not necessary, they already have their votes.
I will remind the House of something. In my riding, my predecessor used to say the same thing, “Between elections people in Acadie—Bathurst are mad at the Liberals, but when the election comes, they vote for us anyway.” In 1997, he saw that they did not. Maybe the Liberals will stop being so arrogant and show some respect for workers.
I hope that workers in Toronto are hearing what I am saying. At the Toronto airport, they are represented by a union. The Minister of Transport jhas ust said that it is not necessary to have representatives of the workers, but that airport authorities can be represented. Airlines can be represented. Are they going to be represented by Air Canada? By WestJet? Is it these two, the only two airlines in Canada, that will decide? Is it the minister who will decide?
Workers are being told, “You, the workers, do not have anyone competent enough to represent you”. This is what the minister should have said in the House this morning, “You cannot have representatives, have someone to represent workers”.
Again, this is a disgrace, and the government talks about democracy. Earlier, the Liberals rose and said, “According to them, democracy only works when it comes from the opposition. When it does not come from the proper side, it is not democracy”. I can guarantee that democracy exists everywhere, as long as it is based on respect for everyone.
I am convinced that, in this particular case, unions could make a useful contribution to the committee. They would bring nothing but good things to the committee.
But it is not good enough for the Minister of Transport. No, because it is not his gang.
When the Minister of Transport appeared before the committee, he said that, even though there is a collective agreement, the act could not even go against the agreement as regards official languages. Well no, because the idea was to represent workers. It is always the same thing in these cases. You never stand up for the workers.
At no time have I seen the Liberals get up from their chairs and fight for the working people but they brag that they are getting their votes. I hope the working men and women of Canada recognize this once and for all.
We got the Minister of Transport to come to the House this morning to remove the amendment that was put to the House. To have only two persons on the committee on airport security who represent working people is a shame. It is because the minister does not trust them.
The Liberals trust the working people on voting day. They even brag about it. As my predecessor said, between elections the working class is always pissed off at the Liberals but when election day comes it votes for them anyway.
The Liberals go across the country and make promises about roads. They say that with the Liberals in office working people have hope. They have had hope for 10 years but it is an empty hope because the roads are not being built. This is the type of hope we get from the Liberals: empty hope with no results.
This morning the Minister of Human Resources Development was bragging about all the good things the government has done to Employment Insurance. It made all the cuts in 1996 and she has the guts to brag about it. The hon. member for Toronto--Danforth, who is a Liberal, said he would tell employees who tried to hang him out to dry on the national stage that they were working for the wrong company. On the national news he said employees who did not have good witnesses for their ministers would lose their jobs.
The Liberals talk about democracy. I hope they have a bit of conscience left and change their minds. I hope they appoint labour representatives to the board so the working men and women of Canada are represented rather than just the big corporations. That is what needs to be done.
The Liberals should be ashamed to have the nerve and the guts to come before the House and say, “We will boot the two union representatives out, because workers on the work sites will vote for us anyway”. I hope that Canadians will be able to see through the Liberals opposite.