Mr. Speaker, first I think the hon. member should come and visit the region before it closes down. As I said earlier, we have a very high unemployment rate, and when you add all the people who are on welfare, I think the government should go down there and reassure these people. I would appreciate it if he came down for a visit. I would be delighted to have him as a guest.
As for his comments, I must say that when they talk about Canadian content and they tell us that when we had a lot of money, we could afford Canadian content, we could give the people in our regions something to hope for and tell them: "Get into those fields, start factories and small businesses and adjust to what is out
there". Today, now there is nothing left, the government has dropped the whole thing and we let others do the job.
If you consider all the government programs we have in this country, I am sure we would be able to find the money to fund defence conversion. There are so many programs.
In fact, the auditor general himself said today in one of his reports that the Federal Office of Regional Development for Quebec had spent $4.5 billion without knowing where it all went and what it accomplished. In fact, this kind of money could be used for programs to help develop this defence industry.
My point is, we should look at the various programs that exist today, that are poorly managed and that cost us an awful lot in terms of time, money, energy and interest, especially, and accomplish absolutely nothing. We could give these industries a special boost.
In any case, if these industries are not given financial support, they still remain competitive in terms of the products they manufacture or the services they offer. And that is where the answer lies. Because these businesses are competitive, we can develop expertise, using programs that today are not accomplishing a thing but could be reviewed and redirected to National Defence.