Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on this Official Opposition day to speak on regional development. My remarks will focus on the Laurentian region, a major part of which is in my riding.
The situation faced by individuals in my region is very serious. In April 1994, the unemployment rate was 16.6 per cent. Add to that all employable welfare recipients who are out of work and this rate easily rises to 30 something per cent. One person out of three is out of work.
In Saint-Jérôme, a major regional center, the average annual income of renting households was $22,835, while the provincial average was $28,136. That is $5,500 less. In Saint-Jérôme, one household out of four spends over 30 per cent of its income on housing. Things are even worse for 20 per cent of these, or 1,340 households, since 50 per cent of their income has to be used on housing. Most of these households, or 66 per cent, are lead by single mothers.
These figures are telling. They speak volumes about the conditions that cause an escalation in poverty, hunger and health problems. These problems are increasingly palpable as they set in and take on proportions never seen before.
This account of the situation of the people in my region clearly shows a declining economy. For several years now, there has been no growth. We are justified in looking seriously into the whole issue of regional development, because, as we can see, it clearly does not meet its primary goal, which is to enable people to live comfortably in their regions.
The federal government was not successful in developing my region. The regional economic base is crumbling in spite of massive injection of money under general agreements. The social fabric is disintegrating, rural migration is continuing and young people are the first to leave their regions.
Developed regions, major centres, are expanding at the expense of regional resources. The problem can be readily identified on site and all those concerned are unanimous in denouncing the cause.
The interference of the federal government in the development of my region is causing horrendous administrative chaos, costly duplication and inconsistency. Development, which entails consultation, joint action and harmonization, is not designed by the federal government to accommodate these notions.
On the contrary, the government moves in and acts as if it owned the place. It does not examine the situation. It does not consult people. It does not have any regard for what has been accomplished so far. Even worse, they are incoherent and illogical in their regional development policies.
I have a specific example for you. In my riding, in a small municipality, the federal government, through the Federal Office of Regional Development, FORD, asked hoteliers and innkeepers to come up with plans to renovate their outdated and run-down facilities and to harmonize them with the development of a major private ski resort then under way. The hoteliers and innkeepers produced these projects and plans in the expectation of federal financial support under APDA, the Assistance Program for Designated Areas.
These people did their homework seriously. The first step was taken; it only remains to carry out the projects. Unfortunately, they are still waiting and uncertain, since there is no money for this program. What good planning! What consistency! It is as if you drew up plans for a house but stayed outside because you did not have money to build it. These business people have been sorely misled.
Now let us look at strategic development plans. All regions of Quebec recently adopted such plans for themselves. They are drawn up in concert with the RCMs, local stakeholders and regional sectoral organizations. These plans are based on consultation and co-operation. They were developed very carefully, following a very thorough process to consult all local and regional interest groups.
What disturbs many community stakeholders is the lack of concern and of consideration for these plans shown by federal agencies and departments. All federal officials in the regions have these plans, but they never replied or bothered to compare their point of view with what the regions want and consider important and strategic for their development.
Even worse, since it did not consult the various interested parties in the regions, the federal government, through FORD, went so far as to have a firm of consultants draw up its own regional plans and this firm used data provided by the producers of the regional plans. This borders on fraud and is certainly a shameful waste of public money.
It is another fine example of duplication and, even more, an illustration of federal contempt and disrespect for Quebec's regions and the interest groups that seriously spent so much energy and money to come up with a clear vision for their regional development.
The federal government must change its approach to regional development. I am not talking here about section 25's or DEPs, which can be termed the welfare approach to regional development. I am talking about export assistance programs, technological development support programs, the program to help disadvantaged regions and so on. I am talking about programs which have real impact on regional development and are in no way linked to the regions' initiatives.
I would like to make a digression about international markets to indicate that the regions are already selling goods and services on these markets. Given these facts, you have to agree that the federal government should review its regional development policies and harmonize its actions with those of the regions
which are already taking into consideration the new situation on the world market.
In matters of regional development, the federal government's record is far from brilliant. I think they should go back to the drawing board and fast. For the taxpayers, it is sad to see how the government is wasting their money.
Harmonious regional development requires more consistency in the actions of all levels of government. Given its inefficiency in this area, the best thing the federal government could do is to withdraw from this jurisdiction, as all social and economic experts have asked him to do, and to transfer to the province of Quebec all the funds allocated to the economic development programs which have some regional impact.
Of course, a sovereign Quebec would resolve this issue.
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