Mr. Speaker, I am glad to speak to this bill and I would like to ask some questions in this House. For example, what is an unemployed person?
In my riding of Matapédia-Matane, an unemployed person is someone who does not want to be unemployed. It is someone who wants to work. I find that the Liberal infrastructure program is a joke, because it does not provide work in our area, or so little.
In my riding, we decided to seek out our own solutions. We made incredible efforts, but we still have many unemployed persons who are receiving UI benefits. It is not because they want to receive benefits. It is because they are forced to be unemployed, and I will tell you why. We live far away from large centres, like Quebec City, Montreal and of course Toronto. A lot of things are going to Toronto.
In my riding, it is very hard to organize further processing, which means that everything we produce materially, physically, goes outside the region. So economic activity is of course very seasonal. People would love to have second or third stage processing. We have been asking for it forever, but we are told that since transportation is so costly, we cannot have second or third stage processing.
In our area, we have wood. Last year, we were declared forestry capital of Canada. It was marvellous. But when it comes to the second or third stage of processing-such as lobster traps or snow fences-we cannot even do that in our region. You want to know why? Because transportation costs are too high. It means that we have to ship the whole lot to be processed outside. But people want to work.
Do you know what we have done in my area? We decided to band together and set up what we called Operation Dignity. It involved people who took matters into their own hands, who did incredible things, investing all their energy and even their money to achieve something. With the first Operation Dignity, we managed to create a few jobs, but it was not enough. So, what did we do? We formed grassroots movements, marched in the streets, rattled the governments a little and finally got certain things. It was not much, though. To create a few jobs we had to expend a lot of energy.
And now what is the Liberal government proposing to do? People in my riding have tried very hard, setting up development corporations where owners would get together to create jobs. They would share their woodlots, telling others to come and work on their woodlots, which they did. It worked, but now we are wondering if this will continue, if they will be generous enough-you must invest in forestry-if they will give us our fair share, a share we can claim as our own with great dignity. We are not even sure if the Canada-Quebec program, the federal-provincial agreements will be renewed.
For us, they mean employment, but we cannot even be sure that the program will be renewed in the east. For people living in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, an increase of two weeks-from 10 to 12 weeks-in the qualifying period may not be too significant, but for those living in our region, two weeks can be an incredibly long period of time. Winters in our part of the country are long. When I left Matapédia and reached Montmagny, the trees were just starting to bud. Here, the Tulip Festival is under way, when back home, the tulips are not yet in bloom. The natural resources committee was planning to cancel, if it has not already done so, its scheduled visit to my riding, supposedly because the logging roads were still snow-covered. That is not quite true and I was rather angry that they would consider cancelling their visit, ostensibly for this reason.
The season is quite short in our region. And when this is the case, one or two weeks can make a big difference as far as unemployment is concerned. It could mean ten additional weeks of benefits. That is what is absurd. Everyone says that Canada is a vast, beautiful country. However, I find it quite sad that disparities exist. One another point we need to consider is that each region is unique. Companies have come and created jobs. In the forestry sector, the federal-provincial agreement is based on a 50/50 arrangement.
And now, it seems we are not sure if we are going to renew this agreement, the Eastern Development Plan, for another five years. What does that mean? It means that we are constantly living in a state of uncertainty.
The situation is terrible at home. Elsewhere in Canada, it may not be so bad, but I am talking about the area I know best, and I can tell you that the situation back home is terrible. Can the members opposite realize that going from 10 to 12 weeks, to use only that example, can have more serious consequences in my area that elsewhere in the country?
Things are even worse in the Magdalen Islands. The fishermen have a highly seasonal job and work only for six to seven weeks. Sometimes, for ten weeks maximum. In their case, however much we try, whatever we come up with, if we cannot keep them working for a bit longer, what do we do?
If people cannot work for 12 weeks in the Magdalen Islands, what are they going to do? They will have to rely on income security. In other words, the federal government is transferring the problem to the provinces and having them pay for it all. Is that what equalization is all about? I really wonder, I hope not.
Back home, if we go from 57 per cent to 55 per cent, it is almost a tragedy. If people took to the streets for Operation Rural Dignity and for the Ralliement populaire, what are they going to do now?
I do not advocate violence at any time. I want the people to stay calm, but I know tension is high and I hope that members opposite will understand that, in some areas in Canada and in Quebec, something needs to be done, if not, I do not know what will happen. When there is no food on the table, what is left for you to do? What is next?
Patience, of course. You can always try to create your own job, of course. But maybe there is something else that can be done, something for the members opposite to do.
