Madam Speaker, I did not realize that I had five minutes left on my remarks. I will take that time to review some of the points that I made in my speech before question period began.
As I said, the opposition motion today tried to discredit the Government of Canada as not having effective regional development plans or programs or instruments. Those people in every region of Canada know that we have always had decentralized instruments to help deal with very sensitive and diverse regional business opportunities.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has been dealing with the problem of regional development expansion for the last number of years. In the province of Ontario we have the FedNor, which has been designed to look after northern Ontario opportunities, western Canada diversification and FORD-Q in the province of Quebec.
For the Bloc Quebecois to put forward an opposition motion today that would suggest that we are not governing in a decentralized way is not accurate.
The real point of the Bloc's motion today has to do with the fact that it does not believe the Government of Canada should have people speaking for Canada in the province of Quebec. It does not believe in having a Government of Canada presence active on the ground in Quebec.
Of course none of us on the government side of the House shares that position. Imagine a situation in which it is saying, have the Government of Canada send a cheque because they in the province of Quebec know how to spend that cheque best.
We have had experiences in the province of Quebec in the past in which it has not been interested in the national position or the national view. Normally the province of Quebec or for that matter the province of Ontario are just basically speaking for provincial matters. When we are in the national government position we have to balance our view.
As a national parliamentarian coming from Toronto I do not just stand here and speak for Toronto. We do not just stand here and say that the only part of the country we are concerned about is Ontario. The proof in the pudding on that has to do with the entitlements that were granted before the budget in January when under the Constitution of Canada the new formula for entitlements was announced by the Minister of Finance in which the have provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario will transfer to the province of Quebec $70 billion over the next five years.
If a person were just interested in the province of Ontario do you think that the provincial members would say they have to send cheques off to the province of Quebec? That would not happen.
The purpose of this Chamber is to make sure that the regional disadvantages and the regional diversity are looked after by a strong national government, so stronger provinces make sure that provinces that go through weaker periods from time to time share in the wealth of the whole nation.
I resent the opposition motion today because it really is not a motion that speaks about how we build a stronger Canada. It is not a motion that is sincere because it is coming from a party that basically wants to destroy the country. I do not want any part of it.