Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw attention today to National Forest Week.
The forest industry in Quebec will be hit hard by the federal government's withdrawal from the Canada-Quebec forestry development agreement and the eastern Quebec development plan. These two programs come to an end in March 1996 and will not be renewed.
By withdrawing, the federal government will be depriving regions of Quebec of more than $30 million and will create unemployment equivalent to 1,500 jobs in the Lower St. Lawrence region alone.
It is because of its spending power, that is, using the taxes paid by the people of Quebec, that the federal government came to be meddling in this area, which is exclusively the jurisdiction of the provinces. Now that it is broke, the federal government is backing out and leaving the thousands of workers who depended on its involvement high and dry.
It is time for the people of Quebec to give a clear mandate to their government to recover all of the tax money paid to the federal government. This way, Quebec will have the final say on its own policies.