Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague raised an important point in the current debate. It seems that when there is a trend towards restructuring, and this also happens in the regions, people always recentralize when cutbacks have to be made. Amazingly, in a decision making pyramid, it is always the job at the bottom, never the job at the top that becomes expendable. The job at the bottom may provide direct services to customers but does not have as much clout at the decision making level.
My recommendation was to ensure that members could be consulted before this reform was implemented and it is right in line with my colleague's philosophy. I want members to be able to say: The suggestion that we should have only one Canada human resources centre in Rimouski is entirely unsatisfactory, considering the situation in the region. In the Gaspé, we would need a major centre, under whatever name, and another centre for the region around Rivière-du-Loup, and staff should be appointed accordingly, because Canada centres are going to see their consultant resources, who are not in direct contact with the public, regrouped in these so-called regional capitals. This will not have the desired effect, which was to provide direct services to customers. Imagine if McDonald's decided that instead of setting up branches where there are a lot of people, it would have only one restaurant and ask people to come and eat hamburgers 15, 20 or 50 kilometres from their residence. The company would go out of business.
If we do not make the right decisions, we will end up with the same results in terms of the satisfaction of Canadians and Quebecers with services offered by employment centres and with everything connected with unemployment insurance.