Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for Fraser Valley West for his questions and comments. What he said about the way it has been in Atlantic Canada for as long as I can remember certainly is true. I cannot remember probably as long as he can but pretty near.
There have been many ideas put forward over the last 50 years on how to improve the plight of Atlantic Canadians. Some have worked and some have not. We all know the stories, the good ones and the bad ones. As I said in my speech, the government is getting things in line. There are many more permanent jobs in Atlantic Canada today than there was certainly in my time as a young person there. As I said, we are doing the right thing in the telecommunications industry and in the food processing industry. In my province, for instance, the food processing industry has stabilized the potato industry. A few years ago they were processing about 15 per cent of the crop. Today the average is much higher than that. More potatoes are grown and prices have stabilized.
The premier of New Brunswick over the years has done some things with infrastructure dealing with communications and has brought to that province a lot of permanent jobs.
Many mistakes were made in the past. Nobody would ever dispute that. They tried to do industry the same as they did industries in bigger centres closer to the big markets of the United States. We have to look at what we are doing in Atlantic Canada. We have to deal with the areas we can deal with, that is, in natural products and in the high tech industry. We are on the right road.
We need these regional development agencies. Members kind of talk about these things as great giveaways. They are not great giveaways. They are organizations where money is loaned to entrepreneurs to help get a start in the private sector to get these jobs going. Ninety-eight per cent of ACOA's programs are successful. Any entrepreneur will tell members that is the way to go.
We do not have to make any apologies for this. Regional development programs are a great thing for every province of the country. Certainly they are doing a great job today in Atlantic Canada and I look to many more years of them.