Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to thank my colleague from Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans for supporting our motion that he describes as general. It is nevertheless an essential one.
I feel compelled to speak up because of his introduction and of the fact that he comes from Chicoutimi. I was brought up to think that credit had to be given where credit is due. It was therefore a pleasure for me to pay tribute at noon today to the secretary of state who has made the aluminum industry, and particularly the processing of aluminum, a priority for this government.
I can tell you that in my area it is an issue that is followed quite closely. After having seen 8,000 jobs lost in the primary aluminium sector, it is good news when we hear a person in power say “We are going to help you do the processing”. Currently, about 600,000 tonnes are processed outside of the country and the Saguenay—Lac Saint-Jean is paying for that. I am sure that the member from Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans misspoke himself and I forgive him.
I would like him to tell us what he thinks of a political party which sought the approval of its members at a convention for a resolution that an opposition party copied word for word to help it out.
We thought that we would do everything in our power to help the government to support readily, in good faith and free of partisanship an initiative that could restart a major industry that has an impact on thousands of sectors, one where our technological sophistication can be of benefit to every country in the world.
The only thing we want is a fiscal policy that will be fair compared to what is done elsewhere.