Mr. Speaker, today in question period I asked a question about the share of spinoffs from Canadian international development aid that goes to Quebec. From what I have heard over the past few weeks in question period from Bloc Quebecois members, it seems they cannot decide whether or not they want the federal government to spend money in Quebec.
The Bloc claims that Quebec would be better off outside Canada in a separate country. However the facts and even the reports put out by the Parti Quebecois government in Quebec show that is not true. They show that Quebec is much better off inside Canada than it would be as a separate country.
One example of those kinds of facts is the case of international development aid.
For the year 1992-93, the last year for which provincial comparisons were made, nearly 30 per cent of IDA supplies came from Quebec. One third-which means 33.4 per cent-of registered consultants are from Quebec. More than one third-which means 36.3 per cent-of the contracts go to Quebec. The value of these
contracts-a little less than $100 million-represents about one third or 33.1 per cent of the national total.
It is very clear that with approximately 25 per cent or a little less of the population of Canada or about one-third of these contracts in relation to international aid, Quebec does very well under the CIDA programs and under programs relating to international aid.
On the other hand, in the past at least, Atlantic Canada has done so well. Atlantic Canada in recent years has received less than its share of international development aid spinoffs. We are seeking improvements in that regard.
I had the pleasure of serving on the foreign affairs committee until recently when I was moved to the justice committee. Last spring we had the president of the Canadian International Development Agency before our committee on the estimates. I had the opportunity to question her about a number of things. One of the matters I asked her about was the share of development aid contracts and spinoffs going to the Atlantic region. She agreed that there needed to be work done to improve that number. She recognizes or should recognize that Atlantic Canadian companies can perform as well as anyone else. I think we showed during the Halifax G-7 meeting that Atlantic Canadians can do things as well as anyone in the rest of the country and in fact the rest of the world.
I am looking forward to seeing the results of this year. I am hoping to see considerable improvements in regard to the level of the share of CIDA contracts going to Atlantic Canada.
Atlantic Canada has other complaints in other areas where we feel we do not necessarily always get our share. However we believe very strongly in the country. I think the majority of Quebecers believe strongly in the country; they believe strongly in Canada. Like the majority of Quebecers, we believe we can continue to work together to work out our problems. We can continue to improve and build Canada, the best country in the world.