Mr. Speaker, let me first comment on the remarks of the hon. member about the need to work with the provinces.
On October 5, I wrote to the new employment minister in Quebec, Madam Harel, offering to sit down and negotiate a devolution or decentralization of labour market programs. The answer was no.
I was still interested so I tried again. I wrote on October 27, 1994 to the same minister and said: "Let's get together and study the problem of duplication and overlap. We will sort of join to do the program". The answer again was no. The question of co-operation was not a problem on our side. It was from that minister of employment.
In all good faith I kept trying and as a result last summer we had some success. We negotiated an agreement to help jointly fund a major income supplement program in Quebec. We were able to arrive at an agreement to do a joint program for apprenticeship training in auto mechanics for young people. We have also arrived at a preretirement program.
It shows that I will keep trying as long as they will too.