Mr. Speaker, I am bringing forward the concerns of hundreds of residents of Timmins—James Bay from Peawanuck, Moosonee and down through Timmins, who are very concerned that the federal government rubber-stamped the sale of the key base metal industries in our country, Falconbridge and Inco, to the corporate raiders Xstrata and Vale without any oversight.
What we are seeing in Sudbury right now is brutal: nine months into a lockout strike, where they are trying to turn our workforce into third-world Brazilian-style workers. In Timmins, we are seeing the shutdown of Ontario's only copper refining capacities. Xstrata will probably start to move toward refining in China.
People are asking for action because they saw the government's response to the crisis in the auto sector when the government said that this was the public good. However, when it comes to the future of Canada's base metal mines and the future of northern Ontario, we see a government that is more than willing to let foreign capitalist interests dictate the future of our communities.
The petitioners are asking for the government to come clean with the Canadian people, open up section 36 of the Investment Canada Act and show us the secret deals that were signed with Xstrata and Vale.