You have found an honourable servant who will solve all your problems and he is sitting at the table.
I thought that, in Ottawa, it was the Parliament of Canada. There are four political parties. Politics exists, and always will. When we don't want to do something, the excuse we give is that we don't want to make it a political issue. And yet we engage in politics every day. That was true before and it is today. It's like before and after. At the age of 20, I had hair on my head, and at 27, I didn't. What can you do about it? I'm still the same person.
I don't accept the idea that a government can say, as an excuse, that it's the fault of the public servants, who only work at the rate they're asked to work. I didn't accept that during the time of the Liberals, and I won't accept it under the Conservatives either. If things don't go quickly enough, perhaps it's because there aren't enough public servants. Perhaps there's only one official responsible for all the projects. What's the problem? You say you don't know where the file is. Someone has to take responsibility for that. The minister can't say that he isn't aware; it's been repeated to him for 10 or 15 years. It's the same problem.
Mr. Donnelly, you put it very clearly: a 25% advance six months later isn't an advance. I'm sure you've already told the department and the minister that makes no sense. Leadership has to come from the top. A member can't simply tell someone in his riding that, if he had known, he would have met with him and everything would have been solved. My God, spend the rest of the day with that member and solve all your problems. Promises are being made, but the money isn't going out. There are reasons for that. The longer the situation goes on, the better it is for them. That undermines the development of the communities.
If I was in your position, I would simply close up shop, but you're saying that's not the solution. It's true that it's not the solution, but when individuals who care about their community have to use their credit cards, what has to be done? It's the government that should care about the communities. Laws have been passed, and it's the government that's responsible for linguistic promotion of Canada's anglophone and francophone minorities.
I can't wait to see the motion the Liberals will be introducing. We have to find a solution. We must stop making this a political issue and ask the minister to find solutions. Why has this problem been around for 10 years? Instead of blaming the Conservatives, we have to wonder what the problem is. We should also ask the officials who is responsible for the problem. Is it them, the minister or the government? What do you think?