Yvon Godin

[Canada Post Corporation Act, February 28th, 2000]

Yes, we know it is.

[Gasoline Prices, February 21st, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, gasoline now costs 71.9 cents a litre in Bathurst, while diesel is at 79.4 cents a litre in Yarmouth, the highest level in ten years.

Canadians are discouraged and now truckers from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are protesting at the New Brunswick border against this drastic increase in the price of gasoline. Some of them even think they may have to hand over their trucks to the banks.

Will the federal government finally act, or will it wait until the situation becomes a national crisis?

[Human Resources Development, February 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, when my predecessor Doug Young was Minister of Human Resources Development, he dropped workers into a black hole from January to May, with no money coming in, because of the changes to employment insurance.

Is the Minister of Human Resources Development going to show some compassion and work along with the provincial government to solve this problem of the black hole, because whole families are waiting for a solution?

[Human Resources Development, February 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, how is it that, in the riding of Vancouver East, money was available from the transitional jobs fund when there was a Liberal incumbent but it is no longer available with an NDP incumbent there. They have received no money and are not eligible. There is a double standard.

We would like to know the truth in this business. How do we ensure that all the members in this House may take advantage of these funds, and not just the Liberals?

[Human Resources Development, February 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of human resources was talking about the fund being there to help the people who need jobs in areas where there are high rates of unemployment.

We well know that she will not answer our questions about such places as Vancouver with pockets of high unemployment at 13.1% that never received transitional jobs fund grants.

Could the minister answer once and for all why MPs in the House did not know about those changes in the transitional jobs fund so that they could have had the opportunity to get the money too?

[Auditor General Act, February 16th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, on October 26, 1999, I warned the House and the Minister of Human Resources Development about the disastrous situation of seasonal workers.

Alain Boudreau, a young seasonal worker, is getting $50 a week in EI benefits because the method of calculation takes only his last 26 weeks of work into account. If the calculation were based on a year, Alain would receive $272 in benefits. This makes a world of difference for a young person starting out.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development answered this:

Mr. Speaker, we have to remember that EI is not an industry or a business. It is an income support program for those who qualify.

Mr. Beaudreau does qualify under the Employment Insurance Act, but he only gets $50 a week. The parliamentary secretary added:

Those who are eligible apply for it and receive benefits based upon the earnings they have been taking home from the jobs they have had.

If the calculation were based on a year, Alain Boudreau would get $272. For the government to believe that, when people qualify and get $50 in employment insurance benefits, it is an industry or a business is maddening. I wonder what is and industry or a business when the Minister of Human Resources Development gave away $300,000 of taxpayers money to relocate a company from Hamilton to Brant, in her own riding. That is an industry.

A company like Wal-Mart, which has millions and does not need money, was able to get $500,000 from the government to build a warehouse in Canada. Now, we very well know that this building would have been built here anyway and that Wal-Mart did not need money from the government.

How can the government say in this House that workers who have lost their jobs consider employment insurance as a business? They do not control jobs. They are not responsible for losing their jobs. Their employer is. Workers have no control over that.

Yet, the government rewards employers by giving them $300,000 here and $500,000 there. The Prime Minister sold one of his businesses in his riding to a friend who did not have the money to pay and who later got money from the government.

This employer bought the business from the Prime Minister, who later got his money. While such scandalous practices are going on in our country, the government refuses to help people like Alain Boudreau, who receives $50 a week, and who has been accused of seeing employment insurance as an industry.

This is unacceptable. This is why I ask the government, the minister and the parliamentary secretary to examine their conscience and consider changes to employment insurance—

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, February 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am very fond of my colleague opposite. He goes to the same barber as I do, and we get our hair cut the same way.

If I have a heart attack here, in the House, fighting for the people in the Atlantic region, it will have been worth it.

I will repeat it in English. If I have to have a heart attack in this Chamber fighting for the people in my riding and the people of the Atlantic, it is worth it to have one.

Regarding health care, in 1969 the government was paying 50% of the cost of health care. Today we are down to 13%. I do not care what happened back in 1993. The Liberals have cut health care. That is why seniors do not have adequate health care any more. That is why people want to privatize health care. It is because the Liberals have cut health care.

Our grandparents and our children have to wait in the hallways of hospitals to get service. When our parents have cancer they have to go to the United States to get service. That is what the Liberals have done in our country.

To answer the hon. member's question about Devco, we need a fair deal for those people so that they can get up in the morning and be proud because they have served the country for 30 years. For 30 years they have gone underground and put their lives on the line for the country. They deserve better than what the Liberals have given them today.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, February 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, there again I would like to thank the hon. member for his comments and not his question.

That is what the government failed to do for all the years it was in power in Cape Breton. When Cape Breton was in its hands why did it not begin training people? Why did it wait until it had closed the mines and put people on welfare before beginning to train them? Why did it give them the hardships they have today?

For years and years the government was served on a silver platter by Atlantic Canadians. Do the Liberals know why they were kicked out? Do they know why Doug Young was kicked out. It was because of their attitude, as the hon. member just showed. That is why Atlantic Canada has kicked the Liberals out of office. I hope that the rest of the country, along with Ontario, smartens up and kicks them out too, because they do not deserve to have a place in the House.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, February 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I really welcome the comments by my Liberal colleague across the way, but not his question. It shows how disconnected he is to the problems in Cape Breton. He did not see the families who came here to meet with parliamentarians. He did not see the wives crying and tears rolling down their cheeks because of what the government has done to the people of Cape Breton. He seems to have forgotten what the Liberals have done to those families of Cape Breton. He should take another look at what has been done.

One cannot train people at 50 years of age and think that they will go back into the mines. That is what we are talking about. We are talking about people over 45 years old, those who are 50 and 54 years old. Do you want them to be trained and go back to college? You should quit thinking that because it is not right.

What we are talking about is giving a fair agreement to those people so they can put bread on their table and feed their families.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, February 16th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to follow up on the comments I made on November 15, 1999 on Bill C-11, an act to authorize the divestiture of the assets of, and to dissolve, the Cape Breton Development Corporation. On that occasion I spoke about the Liberal government's lack of respect for the workers in Atlantic Canada and how Bill C-11 was just another insult to the workers who have given their lives to Devco.

Since November 15 much has happened in Cape Breton with regard to the Liberal government's treatment of the Devco question.

On January 4, Devco miners had to resort to a strike to get the Liberal government's attention. Did it listen? Of course not. It continued to stick its head in the sand. It was only when miners barricaded themselves underground and threatened to go on a hunger strike that the government began to take an interest.

Finally, after a year of asking for a meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources, union representatives were able to sit down with the minister and air their concerns.

Negotiations on the pension plan began on January 11 and were referred to a mediator last week.

Miners should have been granted the right to negotiate their pension plan from the outset of the dispute. However, we should never expect the Liberal government to consult those concerned. That would be far too much to ask.

While the miners were fighting for the right to negotiate, it was revealed that the finance minister's shipping company was part of the fleet bringing coal in from Columbia and the U.S. It was also reported that the finance minister's company had expressed interest in buying some of Devco's assets.

The Liberal government has no shame. It cuts thousands of jobs in Cape Breton while the finance minister directly profits from the sale of Devco. In my books that is what I call a conflict of interest.

That is not the only problem with the Liberal government's quick sale of Devco. The moneys set aside for economic adjustment are inadequate even by the government's own estimates which placed the need at $300 million. The proposed funding package is definitely inadequate in comparison to the Gardiner-Pinfold study which suggested the cost to offset fallout from the closure of Devco would be $1.5 billion.

The government is once again writing its policy on the run. It refused to consult the affected communities, the unions that represent the workers affected and other community groups who live in Cape Breton and know what the impact will be if Devco is sold.

Too often my Liberal colleagues on the other side of the House forget that the policies which they support have a direct impact on the lives of Canadians.

Many of the policy decisions made by the government have hurt Canadians. The cuts to social transfers have crippled our health care system and increased tuition fees for universities to such a level that many Canadians no longer consider post-secondary education. Because of changes to the employment insurance, 800,000 unemployed workers cannot receive EI benefits, even if they contributed to the fund.

Do the hon. members opposite realize the hardship that will descend on the people of Cape Breton if Devco is closed? It is sometimes hard to imagine the effect on a community when it is not ours.

Unfortunately, I have seen the devastation caused by unemployment. I have seen families thrown into poverty, children going to school with no food in their bellies and workers going to the employment insurance office day after day hoping to find jobs but leaving empty-handed. This kind of desperation takes a toll on the family and on the community.

The government is content with turning its back on Cape Bretoners when it could have proceeded in a humane and proactive manner. It could have sat down with community leaders, unions, elected representatives to figure out what needed to be done to fulfil the government's obligation under sections 17 and 18 of the original Devco act.

Instead of its drive-by announcement, the minister could have actually talked to Devco workers, answered a few of their questions and, heaven forbid, actually have acted on their recommendations.

Why does the government always run away when the Canadian people want to talk to them? The former Minister of Human Resources Development categorically refused to meet with unemployed workers even though his department administered the Employment Insurance Act which condemned thousands of Canadian families to poverty.

Now the Minister of Natural Resources comes in, announces the Devco closure and takes off. Why do Canadians have to take to the streets to get the Liberal government to listen to them?

The members for Bras d'Or—Cape Breton and Sydney—Victoria have stood in the House repeatedly to identify the fundamental problems with this bill. They outlined the lack of public consultations, but did the Liberal government listen? Of course not.

Sadly, it is par for the course for this government. Let me talk about other areas where the Liberals have let Canadians down: the lack of leadership in the aboriginal fisheries crisis; the inaction of the government on homelessness; the government turning its back on hepatitis C victims; the Liberal government cuts in social transfers which have plunged our health care into crisis; the sky-rocketing cost of getting a post-secondary education; the cuts to employment insurance; the bungling of HRDC grants.

The government has made a habit of letting down Canadians and this Devco sell-off is just another item on the list.

However, it is not too late. The government can still set things right. I hope the Minister of Natural Resources and his colleagues listen carefully to the debate that is going on now and act in the best interest of the people of Cape Breton. It is pretty clear they have not so far.

The government should have more respect for those people who have spent 30 years working underground in the coal mines. I bet not many members in the House of Commons have ever worked underground. I know what it is like to work underground because I worked for 15 years underground. However, I did not work for the coal industry.

The government must show respect for the people of Cape Breton. It must take a lead hand and take care of those people who have spent 30 years of their lives underground in Cape Breton. The government has a responsibility. It cannot just sell off Cape Breton to the Minister of Finance who wants to be the next Prime Minister.