Mr. Speaker, I congratulate you on your appointment and I look forward to seeing much more of you in the House for many years to come.
It is a great privilege to rise in the House once again to represent the wonderful people of my riding. I thank them so very much for giving me this opportunity. It is indeed an honour.
I take this opportunity to thank the people of Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor for placing their confidence in me once again and for giving me the privilege of representing them in this great institution, the House of Commons. This is not something that I have achieved on my own. Many volunteers and supporters have worked long hours on my behalf to ensure that I return to this place where I stand today. I thank all of them from the bottom of my heart.
I take the responsibility of representing the riding and I join in this debate today to put forward my views on how I feel about this throne speech, about the direction of the government and how it affects the people whom I represent, particularly of Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor and most notably for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
A number of issues affect my constituents and they have not been addressed by the government in the past. I have heard the throne speech and I stand in reply to say that, hopefully, some of the large bromides that have been put out in this speech will be addressed, although I will reserve judgment until that very point.
These are some of the issues that I consider to be very essential for our riding, certainly essential for Newfoundland and Labrador, and indeed essential for the people of our country.
The forest industry is in dire need of government help and I see nothing from the government that would suggest that this will change, at least in the throne speech. I see some general comments about how it wants to get involved more. It says that it wants to help improve the situation of the forest workers across the country, yet we do not see the concrete action. I would assume that at this point it would be a little more activist than what it has been in the past.
I know the Conservatives are going to talk about their community trust fund, but I will address more or less what it lacks a bit later. It certainly lacks in its power to help address the situation across the country for each and every person involved, all stakeholders in the forest industry.
The fishing industry is in need of restructuring, which can only happen with help from the federal government. Only a few years ago we had a summit take place in St. John's, Newfoundland. Attending it were representatives from the federal and provincial governments. It was a good summit and many of the things that came out of it have started to come to fruition, but nonetheless, still a lot of things need to be addressed. One of the issues I want to talk about restoring some dignity back into the fishery by way of licence buyouts and early retirement.
The pulp and paper industry, as I discussed earlier, is a major issue for one particular town in my riding, Grand Falls--Windsor, which is now teetering on a big decision that we hope will work out in favour of the community and for the province in general. However, it looks like the company, particularly AbitibiBowater, will make a decision by year's end that could have a great impact on my riding. Hopefully it will not be detrimental.
I have not talked about the small craft harbours program at all, and I say that in jest. We have talked about it a lot. In fact, in the last session, it was said that the deficit for the small craft harbours program, in other words, the money needed for all the harbour and wharf facilities across the country, remained at just less than half a billion dollars. Therefore, we have a long way to go.
In the last election we committed an extra $100 million in addition to what had already been allocated in the past little while. We put in an extra $100 million several years ago, which the Conservative government has renewed indefinitely. I hope it will continue that. I press upon the government the importance of this program, not because it is a fish issue but because it is an infrastructure issue. If infrastructure is what we are talking about, particularly roads, highways, sewer treatment plants and the like, we have to be talking about small craft harbours as well, as they are very important part of the country.
The former deputy minister of fisheries and oceans, when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, said, “The program needs $35 million per year in order to maintain the current infrastructure”, which gives us an idea of the situation in which we are now. There is an infrastructure deficit for the people who go out on the ocean.
I want to return to forestry and talk about profitability. Profitability is based on production costs. Many of our mills in Canada, including, as I mentioned, the one in Grand Falls-Windsor, are in need of major capital investment.
We have the resources, and there are two main resources we are proud of. One is the human resource, the people who work in the mill. We also have a power resource, hydroelectricity, that provides the great benefit of one of the lowest cost structures for power in the country to this particular mill. Certainly it has been a major factor and a major asset.
Although the company states that as owners of the mill they are certainly owners of this particular structure, they must realize that the power harnessed on the river belongs to the people who live in that particular community. That fact must be taken into account in this particular situation.
I want to again address another Conservative government solution, the community development trust, as it was called, of $1 billion. Here is the problem with the community development trust.
In many respects, it is positive for some of the people who have benefited. However, to put this into context, what was needed at the time was a particular program for the forest industry, not just particular programs to get people over to other jobs. Indeed there are programs for transitioning someone from working in one particular job to working in another, but what about targeted incentives, subsidies, for companies to invest in the industry? The community trust fund does not properly address that aspect.
We had a billion dollar fund that was going to do just that.
I appreciate the fact that they want to put a billion dollars into transitioning people from work and want to make other investments of that type, but the problem is that the onus is now not on failing communities, but failed communities. It is almost to the point at which they will thank you for this little investment, but tell you you're just a little bit too late. My colleague, the member for Random—Burin—St. George's, can attest to that. Talk to the people in Stephenville. They will tell you it was just a bit too late.
Let me talk about another issue. In ridings neighbouring my own, a long-standing issue that has not been addressed by the government is that many hundreds of fishermen were unfairly charged taxes by the government when they sold their licences in 1999 and 2000.
I say “unfairly” because they were given wrong advice, in writing, by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with respect to their income tax return for that particular year. Not only that, the government also settled out of court with some of the people who complained.
How about the other people, the people who were quiet, the people who did not know about this wrong advice they were given? They were left out in the cold. As a result, they paid thousands of dollars in unnecessary income tax. Before the mistake was realized and an appeal launched, time had elapsed. They were told, “We are sorry, but at this point there is nothing we can do”. This issue has to be addressed.
I also want to give homage or congratulations to one individual, Elizabeth Harvey, who lives on the south coast of our province in the beautiful riding of Random—Burin—St. George's, as my colleague can confirm. She has spent many hours on this issue and she should be addressed. The government should give her some straight answers.
I can honestly say what a proud moment it is for my province of Newfoundland and Labrador to now be a have province. This is the day when have not will be no more, as the expression goes. We are certainly proud of that distinction, but it came with a lot of hard work.
We are not just rich in oil and gas, we are rich in the young people we have in this province. They will make our province one of the jewels of the north Atlantic, the economic beacon of the north Atlantic. That is what it is today and that is what it will become, and it will flourish.
Before I say anything else about the fishery, let me just say that it has not collapsed. Rumours of its demise are simply just that. They are completely unfounded. The fishing industry contributes over $1 billion to the Canadian economy. We must keep that in mind. In Newfoundland and Labrador it is certainly still a viable industry.
In response to this throne speech, I want to say that a lot of this has to be addressed in the coming months.