Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the intervention from the member for Vancouver East. She comes from British Columbia, as I do, and we have seen the government systematically betray British Columbians with dozens of broken promises. We saw it with the softwood sellout and hundreds of lost jobs in British Columbia as well as half a billion dollars in illegally taken tariffs given away just as a gift to the Bush administration.
The Conservatives applauded the hundreds of lost jobs, which shows how seriously the Conservatives take British Columbia. In fact, the Minister of Finance stood up on budget day and said that his Conservative Canada goes from the Alberta Rockies right through to Newfoundland and Labrador. What he said was insulting to any British Columbian.
Last week, on the pine beetle epidemic, we heard the Minister of Natural Resources saying quite simply that the pine beetle epidemic that has devastated the interior of British Columbia was “not a priority”.
Now we have the issue of rail safety, which British Columbians have been concerned about for years as we have seen the loss of life and the environmental devastation. British Columbia has been more profoundly impacted by CN's irresponsibility than any other province. British Columbians have said repeatedly that rail safety has to be a priority, and the Conservative government, like the previous Liberal government, has completely ignored British Columbians' concerns.
We have here tonight a case of the Conservative government choosing CN management and giving it a blank cheque to impose any sort of working conditions on its workers while very clearly the employees of CN have signalled to all parliamentarians that safety has to be addressed.
My question for the member for Vancouver East is quite simple. Why does the Conservative government not get the fact that British Columbians' concerns have to be taken into consideration?