No, we were for it. The economist who prepared this plan for the Minister of Finance was Pierre-Paul Proulx. When he realized that the Minister of Finance was dropping these principles, the man who was writing the speeches of the Minister of Finance joined the Bloc Quebecois, saying: It is hopeless. He was fed up and that is what he did.
I believe that the finance minister himself understood that had he been elected in Calgary, he might have implemented the plan for Montreal, which, I must admit, he knows well. But, because he preferred to be a minister with all the accompanying trappings, rather than being true to his ideas, he gave them up. Six thousand seven hundred jobs were cut in Montreal and nothing was done about it.
And yet there were groups in Montreal, organizations working to get the economy going again. I am thinking of community and economic development corporations or CDECs which work with community groups, employers, labour, and municipal, federal and provincial governments.
This is what we call partnership. During the 1993 election campaign, the Liberals promised the moon to these groups, giving them specific examples. Especially the minister responsible for Quebec regional development, who can still deal with community and economic development corporations, though he is prevented from dealing with other types of corporations. Such is the case of shipyards he can no longer be involved with since he has an interest in them. The same is true of trucking, and air transport, in both of which he also has an interest. He has lots of interests, but little time or no availability to get involved since he would be in conflict of interest. And yet, he still is responsible for regional development. These corporations came and still come under Human Resources Development.
The province and the federal government accepted to extend the agreements for three years and Human Resources Development for six months. For now, the development of these corporations has come to a standstill. We are told in confidence that the CDECs are expected to no longer come under the Department of Human Resources Development, but rather under the Federal Office of Regional Development. Considering the tripartite agreement that was reached, why not give immediate approval for another three years? The government is jeopardizing not only the very existence of these corporations, but most importantly all the work they carry out. This is crucial to the current situation in Montreal, because employment in this area will be affected not only by government cuts, but also by the lack of
measures to help workers and private corporations to adjust to NAFTA.
We were promised these measures by the government during the last election campaign. What good did they do? Hitachi is leaving; Northern Telecom is leaving. They are all leaving Montreal. Now I have heard some Liberals tell us: Yes, they are leaving the Montreal area. But why? Because of political instability. Of course. Now that the sovereignists are in office in Quebec, private companies are fleeing to settle in a more stable environment.
This is incredible. What about the stability in the country they have chosen to settle in, Mexico. The former president has fled the country, because his brother is charged with killing another candidate, with an assistant charged with killing two people. There is the rebellion in Chiapas. What a stable country. These people have the nerve to tell us that they are leaving Quebec to settle in a stable country, Mexico. That reminds me of Laurent Beaudoin, of Bombardier Inc., who stated in 1992 that investors are not interested in politically unstable countries. It made the headlines. And all the federalist politicians started saying the same thing without really trying to understand. If Beaudoin says it, it must be true because he is our friend, he pays. We help him and we have only nice things to say about him.
However, in the same week, there was a meeting at Bombardier and Beaudoin told us that the company's largest international investment at that time was the purchase of North Corporation. I do not want to frighten you, but North Corporation is in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Does it ring a bell? These kinds of arguments are worthless. We have to get back to this budget. Let us look at unemployment insurance.