Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My question is for Mr. Patry. It does not necessarily deal with one of the subjects in his actual brief, but rather in the Chambre de commerce de Québec.
Over the weekend, the Bloc Québécois held the forum Québec, an international forum where business people were invited to present projects supported by the Quebec City region. For instance, la Boîte à science came to present a science centre project for Quebec City; it is the only major Canadian City which does not have a science centre. A centre of excellence also made a presentation on global warming. Several projects were presented and supported mainly by the Chambre de commerce de Québec and the business community as a whole.
Yet, in the days following this event, instead of supporting these community projects, some conservative politicians focus on discrediting them as being far-fetched, pie in the sky, et cetera. There was also a project for a high speed train which the Quebec business community has been asking for a long time. These trains exist in Europe and the United States.
Why should we not have a profitable high speed train between Quebec, Montreal and New York, given our similar population density, distances and clienteles, when the United States does?
Are these Quebec City projects, as proposed during the forum, really far-fetched and not worthy of consideration, as conservative politicians from Quebec would have it? Are these not realistic projects? Instead of trying to destroy them, these people should support them and defend them in Ottawa in order to make them happen for the advancement of the Quebec City region.