Madam Speaker, the announcement this morning of the GM closure came as a surprise to everyone and obviously it is devastating news. It is devastating news for our economy, for the community and for all the workers, their families and the pensioners who will be affected. The effects of this closure will be huge. The economic and human effects will be felt far and wide beyond just Oshawa and the GM facilities. Up to 30,000 people who work in jobs dependent on the auto sector could be affected. That is 30,000 families that will experience the incredible hardship a closure like this produces.
I am relieved that we are having this debate tonight. I am also very heartened by the fact that the three major parties in the House all agreed on the need to have this discussion and have it as soon as possible.
I have spoken today with colleagues from both the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, and have suggested to them that we need to focus on what we can do to help the workers now in moving forward. Of course we will talk about the politics of the situation, how we arrived at this point and who is to blame, but to me that is a secondary issue. We must first do all that we can to help.
In my view, plan A should be an attempt to keep the plant going. The government must immediately examine ways of keeping the operations going and keeping the workers employed. The Liberal government must explore options to encourage GM to reverse its decision, including targeted investment that would ensure our workers can continue to build the vehicles Canadians need now and in the future. These options must be examined immediately.
Plan B would be to find new investors. Is there anyone out there willing to invest in a way that maintains employment levels? Could the workers be involved in some sort of investment strategy? There are more questions that need to be examined and answered as soon as possible.
Plan C would be the development of a proper and adequate process of adjustment for the workers and the community. Such a process must ensure that workers are treated with dignity and that proper support systems are put in place. Surely, we have learned that asking workers to rely on EI when their workplace closes is not an adequate response.
Everyone in Canada knows that the retraining programs offered to workers in this situation are not even close to being a real solution. It is a joke really to think the majority of these workers are going to be trained for a job that is going to provide anything near the wages and benefits that they are relying on now.
What about older workers? It is very unlikely they could even be given the new skills that would make another company want to take them on, especially at the wage level they now earn.
Those close to retirement will end up losing significant value from their pensions. The loss of health care benefits will be devastating for older workers who have worked their whole lives in physically demanding jobs and count on those benefits for the medicine and therapy that they need.
This is not an easy situation for the workers, their families or the pensioners, and often the effects go beyond what may be obvious on the surface, the loss of income and benefits.
I have lived through this situation before and have seen the effects first-hand. When I was employed at Stelco and was president of my local union, the company announced that it was closing. That was at Canada Works in 1984 in Hamilton where we had what is called a screw manufacturing plant. When the company announced that closure, I had never seen such devastating results. Some people took their lives. Some people lost their marriages. Some people turned to addiction. It was incredibly unbelievable what happened.
This situation has to be addressed and it has to be addressed as soon as possible, because many people as of today are taking their anger out on the company. They do not know what they are going to do in the future. They are mad. They are asking all of us for help. We have to show them that help and we have to show them support, otherwise different things may happen. Right now, they will be going into a toxic work environment. We must show that we are there for them.
The union and the company are going to be talking but they need more support than that. The union and the workers need every level of government possible to go forward, to show that we are all united in helping them out.
Make no mistake, the effects of this closure will be severe and difficult. That is why we needed to have this debate tonight and why we must act immediately to help the workers, their families and the community.
Both GM and the Premier of Ontario may be saying the ship has sailed, but we do not accept this is a done deal. There is more we can do and we must act and we must do it immediately.
Our thoughts go out to the workers, pensioners, families and communities affected by this decision. Thousands of good-paying Canadian jobs will be lost. This will leave the families and communities reeling from the impact.
As I said, it is the communities, workers and families. It is just a ripple effect of what happens. We really do not see the devastation across the country unless we experience it. That is what these workers are going through today. The support systems they need will not just be on training issues, but they need the jobs to be trained for. With the government previously saying that people must get used to only precarious, part-time and contract-type jobs, it is not a very good sign to say that people will be trained. For what? That is the problem we are having.
It is vital for the government, for all us to encourage GM to keep the plant open or find a new investor. It could be a competitor. All that stuff is there. The building is there. All we have to do is do it right and we can do it for everybody.
I will do everything in my power to help those affected by this devastating news. I trust all my colleagues in the House will do the same.
