Madam Speaker, I am proud today to raise an issue that I raised in the House of Commons with regard to the Investment Canada Act, a real important issue for Canadians across this country. Some specific communities are suffering egregiously because of the government's handling of the Investment Canada Act and the way it is selling out Canada without any accountability.
We all know there are issues with regard to the economy, which has been a challenge. I come from a community that has been devastated by the fiscal irresponsibility of the corporate sector in the United States and in Canada that has put workers on the front line.
When I specifically asked questions relating to the Investment Canada Act, the government changed the act through its budgetary process as opposed to a regular one, which is unacceptable. Also, through the Investment Canada Act the government has not been successful in ensuring that, when there are takeovers of Canadian companies, accountability exists to protect workers.
I recently had the chance to visit Sudbury with the members for Sudbury and Nickel Belt to see firsthand the consequences of a bad policy of foreign takeovers and what it has done to ordinary working Canadian families. I had a chance to go to the picket lines and speak with the workers who have been on strike for seven months with a company that was sold off from Canada's iconic mining divisions to a Brazilian company that basically operates from the other side of the hemisphere. It does not have the same type of relationship in the community and is trying to drive down workers' wages that were hard fought and make a significant difference to the community and families.
It is about the erosion of middle class Canada. It is about the erosion of the dreams that people have of working hard, being responsible and benefiting. It is an attack on a system that actually makes a lot of sense.
I am talking about the workers at Vale Inco who have been fighting to retain their nickel bonus. The nickel bonus is a benefit to them but also socially responsible to the corporate identity of the company. If the price of nickel is low, then the nickel bonus will be low for the workers. If it is higher, then they benefit in better times.
I want to point out the obvious truth of this. The mineral deposits that those Canadians extract belong to Canada and Canadians. It is something we have in trust for future generations and it needs to be recognized. We should have control of this.
Because of the lax rules of takeovers and the government's indifference, in fact the minister has shown a callous attitude toward the workers there, we now have a situation where people in Brazil are making the decisions about how we run our country. Ironically, they are making record profits. Billions of dollars are going to this company in Brazil at the expense of throwing workers out the door. It is unacceptable. It is unacceptable that the government remains silent on that.
The government will say that it is a dispute between the workers and the company so it cannot say anything about it. That is bunk because it was the Conservative government that decided, at the height of the auto crisis, to attack workers and their wages, saying that was the problem and the solution was to drive down their benefits and profits.
The government needs to come to the table, support those workers and ensure the men and women get back on the job. It should be strong in telling Vale Inco that because it is about the middle class in Sudbury, the surrounding area of Nickel Belt and other areas like Timmins and U.S. Steel in Hamilton that are paying the consequences for this irresponsible government policy and the lack of enforcement for which the government is responsible.