Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to put my question to the Minister of National Revenue who said earlier that Canadians were responsible people, and I am sure Quebecers are as well, in particular the people of my riding.
On the other hand, I wonder if the minister himself is acting responsibly because while over $10 billion is devoted to unemployment, while funding for the business assistance program is frozen, employment centres in my riding are telling me they are out of money. Self-employment assistance, the SEA, is frozen and enormous amounts are paid in UI benefits, but people who want to start up a business cannot get any assistance. When the BDC in our ridings cannot manage directly the capital stock, then it is not clear; you must become profitable. The BDC is almost turning into a credit union or a bank.
Here is my question to the minister: Is this what he calls being reasonable, practical? If he is serious about helping the people in my riding, in Quebec and in Canada, should the way to go not be these programs that can help the small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed workers put their businesses in order? All that my constituents and those in other ridings as well
want is to create jobs for themselves. They do not want UI benefits. They are proud people, very proud people indeed.