René Canuel

[Budget Implementation Act, May 26th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, in Bill C-17, it is mentioned that the government can authorize a borrowing of $25 million. I wonder about that. Where will this money be spent? Will it be in large centres or rather in fringe areas?

Madam Speaker, you know that in my region, in Matane, Rimouski and Sept-Iles, we have been terribly penalized. It is a sparsely populated rural area. When constituents are few, it seems that they can take everything away from you. It hurts us in the rural areas.

How many of these millions will be used to restore television service in Rimouski, Matane and Sept-Iles? In our modern world, communications are extremely important. In my region, in small isolated parishes with nothing for 8, 10 or 15 kilometres around, people are beginning to speak out.

Last Saturday, I attended a meeting of Urgence rurale in Saint-Marcellin, a small community of 300 inhabitants. For once, the people spoke for themselves instead of inviting Ph.Ds from the university. They were asked: "What do you want in your region?" They had stunning things to say. For the last 15 or 20 years, these people have taken things into their own hands and almost made miracles with very modest, very minimal means. Their parish was supposed to be closed, but they reacted. They asked me why they no longer had services from Radio-Canada in Matane, Rimouski and Sept-Iles. They told me they had invited reporters to a meeting of Urgence rurale, but the CBC never bothered to cover their story. They were too small. Small parishes are not important for the CBC.

Then, I asked myself: "Where are these 25 million going to go?" If none of it comes to our area there will be a serious problem. You must realize that there might be some political game involved. Duplessis used to say: "The less people know, the more they will vote for me". He had another saying: "In Quebec, we have the best education system in the world". Of course, it was not true then.

Is our communication system threatened? If we cannot communicate with each other we will stay ignorant, and ignorance is the saddest and the most rotten thing in the world.

We demand to be provided with CBC services. Today we do not have such services. We can still communicate of course, but we do it differently, we have to go through the telephone. This is a rather crude way, when television could really unite us.

Our region includes the Magdalen Islands, Sept-Îles, Matane, Rimouski, and we cannot communicate with one another. As long as we are unable to talk to each other, the governments will be satisfied. Because we are isolated, we are almost islanders and this give us a tremendous dynamism, although we cannot export it to the right places.

As I was saying, the area of the Lower St. Lawrence, the area of Gaspe, the islands, the North shore, no longer has access to its own means of communication and this is painful.

In order for people to develop a sense of self-worth and to understand one another and in order to raise their collective consciousness, communication is essential and the Radio-Canada television network is an excellent communication vehicle. If the government does not want to give money to Radio-Canada, then it should give it instead to Radio-Québec or to community television stations, because this money comes from the taxes Quebecers pay. It is their money to begin with. We could use this money to readily defend ourselves with dignity.

Three stations were shut down and a decision was made to broadcast from the Quebec City station. I have nothing against this station. Quebec City reporters are undoubtedly very competent, but what do they know about our region? Do they know that there is no university in my riding? Do they know that there is only one CEGEP? What do they know about eastern Quebec or about the federal-provincial agreement? Absolutely nothing. Are Quebec City reporters familiar with the unemployment rate in the area ridings? Absolutely not. They deliver the evening news and they do a good job of it, but they know nothing at all about our region. Even if they want to be as objective as possible, quite often they are ignorant of local events and do not give a totally fair account of the facts.

The ties that bind us together are being severed. In today's global village, we receive news from around the world. We receive an immediate account of events taking place in all countries abroad, whereas we have to wait two, three or four days, and sometimes even one week, before learning about the goings-on in our own backyard.

Would you not agree that this is insulting and frustrating? The $25 million to be spent should be spent in the regions. I firmly believe this and I hope that my colleagues opposite understand the problems faced by rural communities. I hope that they will come to our defence because we too pay for a great many things in Canada through our taxes. However, we do not get our kick at the can as often as we should.

[Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to oblige. I started by congratulating the hon. member by saying that helping students was an excellent thing. I asked him first if it would not be better to send the money to the provinces, so that they could help students.

Then, I asked if it we could be a little more generous in those regions, particularly in rural areas, where there is no university or college. Indeed, if you live close to Laval, that university is easily accessible from your parents' home, which makes things relatively easy, but it is a different matter if you have to travel 200, 300 or 400 miles.

[Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, May 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, helping students is an excellent thing. I have two short questions for the hon. member. First, why not give these amounts directly to provinces, so that they can help students? Second, in regions such as my riding, where there is no CEGEP, college or university, would it not be possible to provide a little bit more financial help to people who live far from these institutions?

[Supply, May 12th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, I would have a question for the hon. minister.

Having been a teacher all my life, I have spent a lot of time in juvenile court. I have come to the conclusion, and you said so yourself a moment ago, that unless prevention is undertaken very early on, at the elementary or secondary level, drastic legislation, much too drastic legislation has to be passed, the price of which society will have to pay sooner or later.

In my region, politicians have visited schools and worked very hard. But then, the funding-provincial funding of course-was cut. I have also heard that the RCMP's prevention budget was cut as well.

Should we not put emphasis, much more emphasis, on prevention, in fact give it all we have got in terms of money as well as highly qualified staff to try to nip this problem in the bud, so to speak?

[Rail Transport, May 12th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the initiative of the Rural Dignity and Ralliement gaspésien organizations, hearings are currently being held in Bonaventure and Gaspé regarding the maintenance of the railway service.

Several groups and individuals expressed their views and supported the idea of maintaining the Chaleur, the only passen-

ger train still in operation in the Gaspe Peninsula and a vital tool for the region's economic development.

Given the fact that the Liberal Party is not represented at these hearings, I want to draw to the attention of the Minister of Transport the legitimate concerns expressed by residents of that region. Will the minister pledge to hold official public hearings on this issue, as recommended in the Liberal Party's report on the future of the transportation sector in the Gaspe Peninsula?

[Supply, May 3rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to put my question to the Minister of National Revenue who said earlier that Canadians were responsible people, and I am sure Quebecers are as well, in particular the people of my riding.

On the other hand, I wonder if the minister himself is acting responsibly because while over $10 billion is devoted to unemployment, while funding for the business assistance program is frozen, employment centres in my riding are telling me they are out of money. Self-employment assistance, the SEA, is frozen and enormous amounts are paid in UI benefits, but people who want to start up a business cannot get any assistance. When the BDC in our ridings cannot manage directly the capital stock, then it is not clear; you must become profitable. The BDC is almost turning into a credit union or a bank.

Here is my question to the minister: Is this what he calls being reasonable, practical? If he is serious about helping the people in my riding, in Quebec and in Canada, should the way to go not be these programs that can help the small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed workers put their businesses in order? All that my constituents and those in other ridings as well

want is to create jobs for themselves. They do not want UI benefits. They are proud people, very proud people indeed.

[Supply, May 3rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is to be commended for his tremendous understanding of senior citizens. Like me, the hon. member represents a rural riding. When we are in a rural area, we realize that the problems may not be as obvious to the government as the problems of our big cities. I have tried to listen carefully to what the hon. member had to say.

In our area, there are seniors who worked all their lives to save a few dollars, and it certainly was not easy. These people worked in factories. They worked in the fisheries. They worked on farms, and I am referring to my own constituency. And, the government is going to take some of those hard-earned savings away from them. When we consider the multinationals which pay practically no taxes and family trusts which are not taxed at all, I say there is some incredible injustice in this country, and especially in rural communities.

I have a brief question for the hon. member. He said, and perhaps he would like to repeat what he said or rephrase it: Is there not another way to let senior citizens take advantage of the few years they have left, people who worked from the age of 7 until 65, at one, two or three jobs, and who worked for as long as 18 hours a day?

I speak on behalf of these people in rural areas and also on behalf of people in the cities, because they worked very hard as well. Is there no other way to get more taxes from the big corporations? He commented on that, and I wish he would expand a little on family trusts and duplication.

There is also the forestry sector. A lot is being done, both provincially and federally. One example is the so-called sociétés de la Vallée, which have a staff of engineers and technicians. What often happens is that two technicians from different associations turn up at the same place, so would it not be a good idea to have only one technician visit the landowner and be able

to offer the whole range of services instead of having two technicians going separately, each with his own proposals? I would like to ask the hon. member whether he could expand a little on this.

[Prescription Drugs, April 28th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I put my question to the Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Federal Office of Regional Development-Quebec.

It pertains to Opération Dignité II . Representatives from this organization came to Ottawa to raise awareness among government members, because they felt their message was not getting through. They are from rural areas. I do not understand. Governments change, we had the Conservatives, and now the Liberals who were here also before the Conservatives, but the rural areas are more and more dependant on UI and welfare.

Now, unemployment insurance is being cut. Years ago, the Eastern Quebec Development Bureau spent millions of dollars to close small parishes. Instead of creating employment they went out of their way to close villages. Fortunately some people in those places took things into their own hands. There was the first Operation Dignity, the Ralliement populaire -a citizens' coalition, and the creation of corporations to pool woodlots, the pooling of resources by land owners.

There were many demonstrations in the streets under the banner of the Ralliement populaire and we were able to get a plant, Panval de Sébec. People managed to keep open the parish of Sainte-Paule which was scheduled to close. I invite you, Mr. Speaker, as well as the minister of regional development, to come and visit this parish which took hold of its own destiny.

Other municipalities did the same thing. But governments do not seem to have any political will, they seem to be trying to turn the Gaspé Peninsula into a huge park. It is harder for us to get a bit of money for a slaughterhouse than it is for Hibernia to get billions. And all this money might not be bring a good return on

investment, while a few dollars for a slaughterhouse in our area would make sure that our beef would stay in our region, instead of going to Montreal or Toronto on the hoof and coming back as meat.

What was done over the last twenty years? Millions are spent on unemployment while we are just asking for a few thousand, a few million maybe, to produce finished products, but we are being refused. That is the reason why I was not at all satisfied with the minister's answer. I have this second chance, and I am sure that the parliamentary secretary will give me his vision of rural life. The minister promised he would come to my riding next summer. He said so on the 17th, when I invited him to come and talk to the residents of the Gaspé Peninsula.

[Supply, April 28th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree that a number of things have been done, but it is also true that many, many farms have disappeared.

To expand, some farmers bought big farms adjoining their own land. They modernized their operations and they used technology, of course, but I say this is not necessarily a good thing for rural communities. In a parish of 3,000 souls, if there are now only four farmers when they used to be 40, this is not necessarily a good thing. It may be the modern way of doing things and perhaps this is inevitable. That means rural communities will gradually disappear.

If they do, small towns will disappear as well. Anyone who is familiar with our part of the country will notice that, starting at Mont-Joli, it is very hard to keep rural communities alive, because most farmers have left the area, and although dairy production has increased or remained stable, people are not there any more. I think agriculture should be compatible with rural communities, and I have no answers right now, although there must be a solution and we must find it. I am sure that, when we become a sovereign nation, we will find it more readily.

[Supply, April 28th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, Bloc members are very concerned with rural issues, especially agriculture. I could not say the same about the members opposite. My Bloc colleagues have succeeded in demonstrating the inequality among the provinces and the federal government's lack of action on Quebec's behalf.

In particular, I will try to describe the situation that exists in some rural ridings of the Gaspé Peninsula, where I am from, and the lower St. Lawrence region. In the lower St. Lawrence region, as in most rural areas of the country, agriculture should play a very important role in regional development. There are 400,000 hectares under cultivation, over 260 agricultural enterprises, and sales in the order of $190 million a year.

Our dairy products alone bring in 75 per cent of farm income and account for more than 50 per cent of agricultural enterprises. We also have 16,000 head of meat cattle, 20,000 sheep, and 30,000 pigs.

This translates into more than 7,500 permanent jobs and thousands of seasonal jobs. Forty-eight per cent of the workforce are under 40 years old.

Despite this profile, figures available for the Matépédia Valley alone show that between 1981 and 1991, farmlands declined by 22 per cent. In the same period, the number of farms fell from 420 to 285, a decrease of 32 per cent. The main cause of this reduction is the same as in other sectors.

Our regions produce raw materials for major centres, which process them before selling them back to us. When are we going to understand that, in order to grow, resource rich regions must equip themselves with the infrastructure they need to process and market their raw materials? It is much more important to us than a few sidewalks and a little road paving.

Processing and marketing also mean jobs, which we do not have unfortunately. Processing creates economic activities that give confidence to people and encourage them to start their own businesses.

We, for example, have the potential to develop beef production. But Quebec, unfortunately, is still behind in this area. Our cattle farmers must export their production outside the region without processing it. They even export calves at lesser cost without being able to finish them on site.

Over 100 valley producers have decided to spend more than $160,000 of their own money to build a slaughterhouse so they can process in their own region the animals they breed. Can you believe it, Mr. Speaker?

That is a laudable initiative from the farmers themselves. Such an enterprising attitude must be encouraged.

In my region people got together and are now ready to act.

After a wide ranging consultation with those concerned, the regional co-operation and development council targeted five bio-food development priorities: processing and upgrading bio-food products; diversifying crops; consolidating produc-

tion; developing human resources; developing and marketing regional products.

The people of Matane, Mont-Joli, the Matapedia Valley and our regions know what they need to develop and know how to succeed.

Centralized decisions and programs that apply unchanged throughout the country are surely not the way for the government to boost agriculture in our region. On the contrary, decisions must be decentralized. Programs must be decentralized and adapted to regional realities. Trust the men and women who actually produce what people in the cities need to live. Economic development takes place in the field, not in the offices of senior bureaucrats.

I will give you a demonstration of this unhealthy incoherence, which is demoralizing for the farmers in my region. In March 1995, the federal-provincial agreement which included a testing and experimentation component will end. This program is the most visible of those from the federal government. With the funds it provided, this program helped farmers launch productive activities with significant benefits for our region. Ending this program will really hurt us and I say to the Minister of Regional Development that he must take a stand as soon as possible on extending it.

The regions must be given the wherewithal to do what they decided to do to deal with technological change and changing markets. To overlook the resource regions is to overlook what we are: human beings who need to feed ourselves and live in a healthy environment so that we can develop properly.

Another point that I want to raise immediately is transportation subsidies. Most of them cause unhealthy competition between the regions. They pay transportation companies to send unfinished products to urban centres, instead of encouraging local processing and helping people develop.

This shows the government's neglect. By wanting to centralize everything, it hinders development. By wanting to centralize everything, it makes people dependent. By wanting to centralize everything, it kills any initiative from local people.

When you know that, for almost a decade now, Western Canada has been receiving ten times more than Quebec from the federal government, you can ask yourself some questions. I want agricultural producers from my region and all of Quebec to get what they are entitled to, nothing more but nothing less.

Quebec farmers are striving to reach food self-sufficiency. To that end, they have decided to: first, consolidate and develop their potential; second, make full use again of agricultural land; third, process their products themselves, to the extent possible.

These people, who generate over $4 million in annual revenues, have the right to be considered job creators and major contractors, like any multinational company which finances the old political parties.

It is not because we live in rural areas that we cannot benefit from collective prosperity or that we should be overlooked by a system which favours big business.

Producers from the lower St. Lawrence are entitled to the same support as others. They need that help to consolidate their business, transform their products and make a profit with the added value. They have the right to hope to expand as they deem appropriate. They need help to be able to do so.

I will end with this. When game became scarce, man turned to agriculture for survival, and nothing has since replaced the food obtained from that activity. This is why rural regions such as ours need help.