Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup. These programs obviously do not work, since the needs of each region are different. Where I come from, there are associations and groups conducting economic impact and regional development studies specifically for our region. However, these studies are not taken seriously. Valuable work is done at these conferences and meetings. Sometimes, it takes two, three, four or five months to do a serious study.
Studies are done, but the federal government ignores them. The FORD does not work with us at all regarding these issues. We have always had problems. Even members of Parliament, try to get information from that office, but nothing happens. Everything is on hold. It goes without saying that regions must be involved in regional development. We are tired of seeing young people leave our regions and move to large urban centres because we have no jobs for them.
In Quebec, we have a very good structure to develop our regions; consequently, if we have our own development tools and if we can look after our own regional development, we will certainly do very well. However, in the meantime, and as long as the federal government tries to control and centralize everything and does not let the regions decide anything, we will unfortunately live in poverty as is the case now.