Madam Speaker, I wanted to respond to a couple of points the hon. member from the Bloc raised.
With respect to the reductions of the dairy subsidies in the budget, I believe the member may have erroneously left the House with the impression that Quebecers and Quebec dairy farmers were the only ones who received these kinds of cuts. That is not true at all. In fact, I have just received information in my office of a Canadian analysis. Each one of the dairy farmers across Canada contributed equally to the reductions, in terms of those subsidies, to the tune of about $1,000 per farm unit. I can
report to the hon. member that the reductions in Quebec are the same type that were received in my constituency of Provencher.
With respect to unemployment rates, at the outset of his speech the member raised concerns about the inequities in terms of contributions in Quebec to the unemployment insurance fund and those collecting unemployment insurance.
Perhaps the reason there are not as many people collecting unemployment in Quebec as there were last year is the federal government's small business initiatives and the federal infrastructure program.