Madam Speaker, in January the Cape Breton Development Corporation was abandoned by the federal government after three decades of lives lost, lives invested and communities dedicated to doing what Cape Bretoners have done for centuries, mine the rich coal beds that reach beneath our island.
In war and peace coal fed our nation and it was recognized when Devco was created by a Liberal government that the nation owed something to these people who had given their lives. It was recognized that they deserved dignity and a graceful transition from an industry that was gradually and inevitably declining.
Only a Liberal government could dedicate 30 years to closing an industry and still, at the end of those three decades, find itself in the same position as when it started.
In 1999 we still see dependent communities, massive liabilities and a new generation that was promised it had a future underground.
What happened in those 30 years? What happened to the billions of dollars the Liberals talk about when they say why Devco must be sold? It went to their friends. Instead of trading miners for new jobs, instead of helping the economy adjust to new challenges, the government helped its friends get rich.
Some examples. Devco, a mining company, imported sheep. Cape Bretoners joked that maybe Devco would now start to make steel wool with the help of scrap from the Sydney steel plant. This is economic development Liberal style, $250,000 into Liberal pockets. A cabinet minister built a pile of rocks three feet high around the University College of Cape Breton; $400,000 into Liberal pockets. Economic development Liberal style.
Just last year, weeks before Devco's sale was announced and when it was clear that the end was near, Devco's management bought $11 million worth of new equipment, new equipment needed for long term development that management knew would never happen. That money came from the $41 million given the corporation so it could meet payroll until the end of March of this year.
Does a corporation that cannot pay its workers buy new and unnecessary equipment? Only a corporation being run into the ground by those paid to preserve it. Hundreds of miners were laid off in 1998 while dozens of managers were hired.
This is the reality that Cape Bretoners have lived with for decades, the impression of incompetence that reflects on all of us but which is in fact a reflection of the incompetence of management, of this Liberal government, because Cape Breton coal, despite all the claims, has made money. For every dollar invested it put five back. If we look at Devco's mining operations and remove the workers compensation and environmental liabilities, we see a profitable business, a business that will now be passed to a private firm to extract private profit. Managed mismanagement.
When a company sells off the part of its business that makes money and keeps the part that loses money that is economic development Liberal style.
Of course there is money to be made in Cape Breton. On December 17 a prominent Liberal registered an environmental cleaning company and has hired a lobbyist, a gentleman well known to the government and to the people of Cape Breton. Of course it would be unfair for me to begrudge the former minister of health some work. God knows we need jobs in Cape Breton.
With these examples I am sure members can appreciate the frustration Cape Bretoners feel about the way Devco has been run and now the way it is being closed.
I was not thrilled after more than a year of extending invitations that the Minister of Natural Resources decided to make two trips to Cape Breton in January, two trips a few hours each. That is all he felt Cape Breton was worth. That is what he thinks about nearly 2,000 jobs.
Now, in the weeks since the announcement, we see the latest chapter in the Liberals' attempt to blame anyone but themselves for this economic nightmare.
Is the government telling Cape Bretoners that it does not make decisions based on economics?
