Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by hundreds of residents of northern Ontario who are very concerned about the failure of the government to protect Canada's serious and vital interests.
These people are concerned about the decision by Xstrata to shut down the Timmins smelter, making it known that it is cutting all the refining jobs out of Ontario, hydrating the deposits in Sudbury and laying off thousands of workers. It is the same situation we see at Vale Inco where one of the greatest mining operations in the world is being turned into a third world operation. Of course, today we see that right after the government got a commitment from Georgia-Pacific that there would be no job losses, it has already started to fire people in Englehart, Earlton and Mississauga.
The petitioners are calling on the government to open up section 36 of the Canada Investment Act so that the regions that are being completely ripped off of their resources by these foreign companies can have access to the secret agreements that the government signed so we know when the government is failing to stand up for the interests of northern and resource-dependent communities.