Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of sympathy for the point the hon. member raised. Many of us have been in the situation he has been in. I would imagine he comes from a part of Canada where unemployment is particularly high. He did not give the rate but I judge from what he said that it is high.
As a member of Parliament representing fishermen I have suffered the criticism-we all suffer criticism and nobody enjoys it-of supporting one group against another. That is certainly not the case at all. When the necessity was there I was supporting construction workers and other workers peripheral to the fishery. I refer to truckers and people who have stores that sell spare parts and maintain fishery vessels large and small. I could extend it to people in construction work who are not building piers and breakwaters because the requirement is not as great as it was.
The situation is not entirely the same. In this case a total industry was wiped out by an act of God or whatever. I really did not plan to attribute blame. It is not just the responsibility of the communities. Responsibility rests with communities, which means individuals. It rests with the provincial government. It rests with the federal government. This catastrophe or loss of work is so great that the effort required is not just a regional effort but is a national effort as well.
In my response to the member I say that the disastrous effect of a complete wipeout of an industry does not get the same response from government or individuals in other sectors who are not affected to such a large degree.
If I were the member I would say that does not really do much for my workers. I appreciate that. I guess the points made by the Minister of Human Resources Development were that the resources are limited and the present system, it has been proven by a number of experts in the field, does not do anything to get people back to work, so the adjustments that have been planned, that have been programmed, are not similar to those that are being discussed in this particular bill.
(Motion agreed to, bill read the second time and referred to a committee.)