Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that the hon. member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine does not know his region at all, since what he is demanding is, in fact, a settlement. I urge him to tell me if the Eastern Plan has indeed been renewed. They have been fussing with this plan for several months. Of course, the government did not see fit to respond to the first invitation last summer. It then kept putting off the meeting with Eastern producers. The last I heard, nothing has been settled regarding the Eastern Plan. The agreement has not even been renewed at this time.
In any case, for a member coming from Quebec and very familiar with regional tools like regional development councils, industrial associations, the general secretariat of foreign affairs, which make loans to businesses and work on domestic and international market development and prospecting with them- he knows full well that there is increasing co-operation in integrating structures, precisely because they decided that there were too many structures and players.
The underlying reason why the regions decided to analyze their economic development strengths and weaknesses was to come up with strategic development plans to be shared through an integrated forum called the regional economic development council. The purpose of this was to reduce the number of steps required, to make business and socio-economic development more efficient, to avoid overlap-within their own territory, to say nothing of federal involvement-to rationalize their own actions and structures.
The hon. member should know that these integration efforts will soon be stepped up in his own region. We do not need to create anew, as with the 13 FORD-Q information offices. Quebec already has integrated offices providing information, including export information, to small businesses and all stakeholders.
The Minister of Regional Development in Hull specifically said that this program would be helpful to small exporters. Quebec already has a recognized and appreciated organization which supports small exporters and gives them a complete kit on how to develop their own markets and foreign business plans.
That is duplication. People in Quebec, to convey to the federal government that if its goal is indeed to maximize the funds invested and provide real and effective support to small businesses, are sending the following message.
Why does the government not admit that the experience of the past 40 years in regional development-again, the development of all regions and not major centres-Forty-seven per cent of the amounts under recent agreements were invested in central regions. Why not admit that Quebec is the primary force in regional development and that its experience-and that of all its people-is concentrated at the regional development level, as the hon. member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine should know? Who are the people working together at the regional development level? The same people he mentioned earlier: regional county municipality officials, mayors, socio-economic businesses, entrepreneurs, unions. This full integration of economic development players only makes them more efficient while reducing the number of action structures.
What is being proposed here? To create other action structures without integrating into existing structures. We cannot accept in good faith-