I apologize, Mr. Speaker. As I said, I knew I could not say that and I apologize for that slip of the tongue and the fact that it did come out.
I would like to take a bit of time, because the situation warrants it, to give a little history lesson about what some people in Cape Breton Island and, quite frankly, I myself believe was the beginning of what got us to where we are at today.
I have a phenomenal document called “Beyond 2000: Whose Idea was it Anyway?” It is amazing the information we can find when we sift through our files. This morning I was reading this and it is important that we make note of it and make sure it is on the record.
On October 15, 1994 a local newspaper, the Mail-Star , reported that Nova Scotia Power would pick up the tab for the Nova Scotia provincial government and Nova Scotia's corporate elite to attend a two day conference at the Digby Pines resort. The purpose was to allow the business community and political leaders to devise methods to kickstart Nova Scotia's economy. This was referred to as the Digby dialogue and was just weeks prior to Nova Scotia Power's attempt to break Devco's coal contract.
Interestingly enough, there are a few names of attendees at that meeting that I think some of us would recognize: Joseph P. Shannon, president of Seaboard Transport, Paul Sobie, Gerry Godsoe, Stewart McKelvy of Stirling Scales, Irving Schwartz, Ken Rowe, Derek Oland, Ivan Duvar, John Bragg, Irene d'Entremont, Karen Cramm, Graham Dennis, Tom Hall, Dr. Elizabeth Parr-Johnston, Bernie Boudreau, John Savage.
It is interesting that my hon. colleague from the Canadian Alliance is shaking his head. Obviously he recognizes some of those names. The date is what is really important. We should remember October 15, 1994.
Interestingly enough, on December 19, 1994, George Cather, who at that time was the chairman of the board of directors of Devco, had a meeting with the president of the United Mine Workers to talk about a dinner meeting that he had had with a gentleman by the name of Louis Comeau, president of Nova Scotia Power. Mr. Cather made reference to the fact that Nova Scotia Power was going to take the necessary steps to terminate Devco's contract.
At the same time staff reporter Judy Maddren of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported on the shareholders list of Nova Scotia Power as prepared at that time by Montreal Trust. She reported that everyone from New York bankers to pumpkin king Howard Dill was on the list, which she said read like a who's who of the corporate establishment: prominent Nova Scotia families, the Sobies, Ivan Duvar, Graham Dennis, Louis Comeau, Judge David Chipman, Lloyd Crouse. She remarked that there was an obvious similarity between the Nova Scotia Power shareholders list and the Digby Pines guest list.
The significance of the similarity was enhanced by Roger Taylor, business editor of the Chronicle-Herald , in an article titled “Corporate Power Concentrated in Nova Scotia”.
At that time Mr. Taylor suggested that if there was a chart showing the directors of major Nova Scotian companies, many at that time would have said it looked like a family tree. I do not think they would have been wrong. Mr. Taylor reported on the list of Maritime Tel & Tel directors revealed: Joseph P. Shannon, Paul Sobie, Donald Sobie, Derek Oland, John Bragg, Dr. Elizabeth Parr-Johnston. Mr. Taylor reported that a chart would show the directors and companies were interlinked. In fact, as if it were a family tree, he said it would concern any genetics expert. He posed the question “Does the concentration of corporate power in the hands of a few pay off for the rest of us?”
The reason I thought it was important to talk about how history has evolved with respect to the Cape Breton Development Corporation is because in the notice of the annual Nova Scotia Power general meeting released on February 12, 1993, the following people were among those proposed for nomination as directors: Louis R. Comeau, Sir Graham Day, Paul Sobie, Kenneth Rowe, Derek Oland and Rosemary Scanlan of New York.
This announcement came just five months after Nova Scotia Power excluded Devco from the Digby pines dialogue.
As I said, we are talking about a history lesson. Remember the date I first began with with respect to the corporate elite in Nova Scotia and the famous Digby pines dialogue. In a letter to the Minister of Natural Resources dated April 4, 1995 the Prime Minister stated, “The goal of the government is to make Devco commercially viable with the view to privatize it in the longer term”. In a cabinet decision on December 19, 1995 the former Minister of Natural Resources, the current Minister of Justice, was asked to return to cabinet with a privatization plan.
When I look at the time frame' there was the Digby dialogue in October 1994. A number of situations evolved from that time. There is a cabinet document commissioned by the government to privatize Devco. For me and my constituents, this is the issue. The issue has never been whether or not the government has or has not the right to get out of the industry.
Some people in Cape Breton Island would say what happened to Cape Breton Development Corporation has been the fault of the chairman of the board. I think the chairman of the board did a phenomenal job. I think the chairman of the board did exactly what the government wanted him to do.
It is also interesting that there were two individuals at Devco when Nova Scotia Power began the challenge to change its contract. It was very interesting that following the 1993 federal election an individual by the name of Dave Dingwall moved into cabinet. Following that, the two individuals within Cape Breton Development Corporation who were ready, willing and able to challenge Nova Scotia Power on its coal contract left the corporation.
According to the Cape Breton Post on July 5, 1995 the former Minister of Natural Resources appointed Joseph P. Shannon as chairman and acting president. Mr. Shannon replaced outgoing president Ernie Boutilier and Mr. George Cather. Some would say they were the two main obstacles to the attempt by Nova Scotia Power to break the Devco contract.
It comes back to the original title of the document. Whose idea was this anyway? The facts speak clearly for themselves. That has always been the issue. It was not whether or not the government can get out of this industry. We know it can if it wants to. We have seen what it can do. But the point of the matter is that this decision was made by the government in conjunction with the business elite at Nova Scotia Power.
As we were debating tonight, and when we finished the votes, I had a phone call from a miner's wife. She was in tears. She asked why did the government not just tell them the truth five years ago when it made this decision. Why did the government not just come to Cape Breton and tell them, “We are getting out of the industry, but having said that, we want to work with the community. We want to work with the union leadership to ensure the employees are treated fairly and to ensure that communities are treated fairly”.
Everything we have seen in terms of research has shown that five years would have dealt with 90% of the workforce. How could it have done that? It could have done it by introducing bridging programs, by taking the younger miners and training them for new industries like the offshore off the coast of Cape Breton Island. Today we could be standing in the House dealing with Bill C-11 and be concerned about only possibly 100 miners. Nobody would have a problem in giving pensions to the employees who were left. Did the government do that? No.
I saw the minister throw out the olive branch to ask for assistance from this side of the House. It begs the question what kind of assistance have Cape Bretoners had from that side of the House. When the minister talks about joining together to allow Cape Breton to turn around, my response to the minister is that is why I am here. My colleague from Sydney—Victoria and I were put here to turn Cape Breton around. I have no doubt that Cape Bretoners will do it.
Cape Bretoners have always been able to pick themselves up when they have fallen. We have seen it time and time again. What we see is an island that has been cut off at its knees by its own government or its so-called government. People in Cape Breton would clearly say that it is not their government because their government would not do things like that.
I honestly have to say that I get sick to my stomach when I hear about the human resource development package of $111 million and the new additional money. When I questioned the minister at committee, I specifically asked how much of that $111 million was new money? After a few minutes and his having to talk to one of the seven aides with him, the minister said 25% was new money. We are not talking about the government giving $111 million because it is getting out of the industry and it is a good deal. A large portion of that money was because of the collective agreements.
What has the government given? In its own document it is clear that it cost Canadians a large amount of money. It clearly shows the cost of its decision not only to the federal government but to the provincial government. It even breaks it down to the tune of $171 million. That was in 1995 dollars. We are to assume that is a much larger figure now.
I go back to my original comment. The Liberal government had five years to sit down, consult, negotiate and talk with the communities. Did it do that? No. It continued incrementally ensuring that the corporation would not be viable. That was one of the key things it legally had to do in order to abdicate from the industry. The only way it could abdicate from the industry, as the legislation clearly says, was if the corporation was not viable. There are some people in Cape Breton who would say the government knew that so it had to set out a plan.
As I have stated a number of times in the House, as has the member for Sydney—Victoria, I have lived on Cape Breton Island all my life. My father worked for 38 years with the Cape Breton Development Corporation. I could tell stories about the misuse of money and the buying of equipment to lay in coal yards in Phalen and Lingan. I could talk about selling off locomotives without tender and buying equipment from a company called Wayjax. The speculation is that it was only second rate equipment from broken down mines in the U.K. That is what happened to this corporation because the government had to make sure it did not work. Unfortunately it was successful.
I stood in the House in 1998 and I asked the Prime Minister whether or not a document existed. Quite frankly we would probably still hear the minister say that it is not a real document, that it is not a cabinet document. It is scary and should be scary to any Canadian citizen that the government has not deterred from one section of this document.
Is it not frightful that the government can set a plan, knowingly and willingly recognize the serious socioeconomic implications, and sit back and say, when that is what it is doing, that the member is paranoid and there she goes again with that document. I challenge any member of the government, including the Prime Minister, to take the chain of events we have reached now with Devco and show me where there is a difference. There is no difference.
That is why I carry a heavy heart. The government has been part and parcel of what we will see happen to Cape Breton for a little while until people regroup. We will regroup. We always have and we always will.
As my colleague from Sydney—Victoria said, we will do it but not with a trusting relationship with the government. I say “the government” because it is not our government. We will survive. This will go down in the history books. Some day I will sit down with my son who is now 20 month old and have to explain to him why governments do that to their own. Perhaps by that time some of these government members will have an answer.
