Mr. Speaker, as we resume this debate, I would like to recap briefly what was said in the first part, which is extremely important and deals with the impact of regional development, and federal involvement in regional development in particular. Let me remind this House, first of all, that, between 1974 and 1984, both sets of economic and regional development agreements commonly called ERDAs have had an extremely negative impact on peripheral regions, that is to say regions outside of major centers that monopolized 46 per cent of the total budget in terms of investments.
I would like to push on a little further with this demonstration, my ultimate goal being to bring the federal government to understand that it must withdraw completely from regional development in Quebec and recognize the province as prime mover with respect to development. To continue with my demonstration, by integrating the regional offices known as FORD-Q with the Department of Industry and turning them into business service centres, the Liberal government is creating a single window for information on federal, provincial and municipal programs and services in Quebec, the sole purpose of
which, in our view, is to emphasize Canadian regional development policies with the catastrophic results that we know, results noted in several studies.
So, as a member of the industry committee, it is my duty to denounce this contempt displayed by the federal government for Quebec's regional development policies. Quebec, the State of Quebec, has had a regional development process for over 40 years, across that is far more effective and better adapted to the needs of fringe regions.
I repeat that today, we have a series of general agreements involving 95 regional municipalities that have done their own strategic development studies in terms of the development of SMEs and industry. These general agreements reflect how important it is to be close to the fringe areas, as opposed to following federal imperatives based on a mythical vision of what industrial development ought to be in Canada.
Speaking as a member of Industry Committee, I support the dissenting opinion of my Bloc colleagues, which includes recommendation No. 20. I support the dissenting opinion, including recommendation No. 20 of this committee which is intended to enable the federal government to interfere with the definition of the objectives and portfolio structure of the assets of the QFL Solidarity Fund. It is entirely unacceptable that the committee should recommend that the federal government interfere with the definition of the objectives and orientation of labour-sponsored venture capital corporations established under provincial legislation.
More about duplication and overlap. The new mission of the Federal Office of Regional Development, which has now been merged with the Department of Industry, is to all intents and purposes that of a service centre for business.
However, this is what the Department of Industry has to say about the purpose of the FORD: Taking into account its limited financial resources, it plays a major role by offering SMEs services including information, analyses and strategic assistance. In Quebec we already have the wherewithal to provide such services to SMEs, including exporter SMEs, through the General Secretariat for Foreign Affairs of Quebec, which provides entrepreneurs with information and a very detailed guide that has an excellent reputation among entrepreneurs active on international markets.
In fact, legislation passed in Quebec in 1979, the Act respecting land use planning and development, which created regional municipalities, the so-called MRCs, provided the structure for such services. With a council in each of the 95 MRCs, economic development corporations and industrial commissioners, it was possible to start a development process involving interaction between the SMEs and all the various regions and microregions.
According to a study by Marc-Urbain Proulx, an expert on economic development in Quebec, in a market economy whose many weaknesses are compensated for by more concerted action by authorities at all three levels of government, development plans for MRCs in Quebec are mainly aimed at integrating a variety of activities.
What causes duplication, overlap and poor management of funds is the failure to recognize existing structures. In this context, a parallel network of 13 regional offices, or FORD-Qs, in Quebec is unjustified, constitutes duplication of services and is basically squandering public funds. This is an example, among existing direct assistance to small business and direct funding support to small and medium-sized businesses. Liberal members from Quebec should advise their colleagues of the existence of such a major development and financial assistance structure for small and medium-sized businesses at the regional level, and I am coming to this.
Quebec has its own regional development secretariat under the responsibility of a minister of state for regional development. This House must realize that there is no reason for federal involvement in regional development. Federal involvement complicates greatly government intervention to help small and medium-sized businesses. Regional development boards have been in existence for over 30 years and, with tools such as regional initiatives funds and business assistance funds-our suggestion is not off the wall; it is the same kind of instrument-these boards provide direct assistance to small business.
The development secretariats I referred to earlier can also assist small business with tools such as local initiatives funds and decentralized job creation funds. In the field, other stakeholders actively support small and medium-sized businesses. Take the Solidarity Fund, the industrial development corporation and the regional investment corporation for example. Note the smooth industrial development in the Sherbrooke area, where small and medium-sized businesses from nine municipalities have trade relations and agreements with the United States, particularly the northeastern states, including the city of Hartford, have access to markets and prosper.
To conclude, out of solidarity with the Quebec government and state and in support of the initiative of the Quebec minister of state for regional development, the Bloc Quebecois asks that the Liberal government withdraw from regional development and transfer to Quebec the federal regional development envelope.