Yes, we are putting people to work. We are sending out flyers and we have people working in western Canada. If the Reform Party had its way it would still be selling pork chops and beef steaks only to
Calgary and not to Osaka. It is a global marketplace and I wish the Reform Party would wake up to that fact.
There are areas where there clearly can be substantial changes and improvements. We have only been a government for six months and I will tell the House what we have done in that six months. The hon. member might like to know about this because clearly from his speech he does not have the full facts at his disposal.
We are beginning to work in each province with the development of single window delivery systems, both for the delivery of manpower programs and business service programs. We are setting up combined, integrated programs to bring together all federal departments and to provide single window delivery to save money. We are doing the same in the area of training.
Let me use this opportunity to clarify something. I want to be helpful; I really do. It is my great interest to try to help inform the Bloc Quebecois about reality. One myth it constantly puts forward in the House, and I have heard it several times, is that there is a $250 million waste on duplication in manpower training.
Do those members know where the figure came from? Do they have any idea? Maybe they read it in a newspaper. Do they know where the figure came from? I will tell them. We have analysed it very carefully.
It was not based on an examination of Canada. They said that overall in all 18 countries the average administrative cost was about 5 per cent or 6 per cent. Then someone said that it was 8 per cent in Quebec and therefore that must mean it is $250 million. That was based purely on the broadest concept. We said: "Let us go back and look at the figures". At the federal level we deliver our programs at less than 5 per cent in the province of Quebec, not at 7 or 8 per cent, which is one of the lowest figures of OECD countries.
Would they get confused by the facts? Should they not base their arguments on something that is real? They would prefer to live in cuckooland where everything is based on what we want to believe. They are the ultimate Alice in Wonderland party of "let us create a world of our own making and then say it is true, that it is real". Then they live in it.
The media in the last couple of weeks talked about annexations. The member does not belong in politics, he belongs in science fiction novels. I think he is missing his calling. I think he is a wasted talent. He should be writing children's fantasy books or science fiction novels. For goodness sake, he should deal with the reality of how the country works.
I am quite happy, as I have said throughout, to sit down and work effectively on what we can do as a country to eliminate duplication.
The Minister of Industry is working today on a plan to bring down interprovincial trade barriers. If there is any example of how to create real wealth in every region of the country, it is by bringing down the barriers to trade, regulation and manpower mobility. Who is doing it? The federal government is taking the leadership, not the individual provinces.
If the hon. member wants to create real wealth for his region, he should stand on his feet and say that he disavows separatist positions, that he will go to work to bring down the barriers among all provinces, and that is how to create real wealth and real jobs for the people in his region.
That is a real form of regional economic development, not creating more fragmentation, not dividing the country into further small pieces with higher walls. A much broader level playing field should be provided so that we can create a full discourse of commerce, people, capital resources and ideas.
We are living in a world where we need a critical mass of people and capital. The member is showing me some kind of book. I am pleased to know he can read. I appreciate his opportunities, but what does it have to do with the debate? He is showing us a story in a book called Global Paradox by John Naisbitt who is one heck of a good American analyst. I am talking about what is happening in Canada, not what the Americans say. That is what I am talking about.
The sooner members of the Bloc Quebecois stop reading the far out speculations of American commentators and get down to the hard reality of what is happening in Canada, the sooner they might change their position and their views.
All I can say to the hon. member is that I fully share the concerns.
I share their concern about unemployment and, like them, I recognize the need for a solid policy to increase employment in the area. But at the same time, we must admit that the best way to contribute to regional development is to develop co-operation among all levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal, great co-operation and to implement one-stop shopping for government services.
That is the way to approach it. We will be dedicating our full resources as a government to work at the regional level on specific programs with provinces, to ensure that all works of our different departments and ministries at a national level are dedicated to creating work throughout Canada, and at the same time try to ensure the maintenance of full financial equalization
and sharing throughout the country so that we can all live, as the United Nations says, as the best country in the world.