Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see that my words have made the new Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resource Development aware of the existence of the riding of Gaspé.
To give more information to the hon. member, I will say that, in the riding of Gaspé, which covers the Gaspe Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands, the unemployment rate is about 18.9 per cent, and 43 per cent of the labour force is ready and willing to work. That means that even if we are told-and I do not know exactly what "gap" means, but I will read the translation later on. For the moment, areas like mine must be considered disaster areas because of the lack of jobs.
Then if we compare the definition of "disaster area" with that of "developing area" I think that the necessary emergency measures must be taken.
Where will the fishermen and even the construction workers find the missing work weeks? It would be very difficult to force people from the Gaspe Peninsula to expatriate themselves to Toronto or Montreal. Unemployment rates are already high and employment opportunities are few in those cities. I do not think that this is the solution.
People want things to be done locally, they want to energize their communities. That is what we are doing right now in the fishery. There has to be streamlining, and that will be done. Different things must be done, but there is no forum to allow people to make their views on this known, at the present time.
I remind the parliamentary secretary that the federal fisheries minister is still responsible for license management, a responsibility that Quebec had claimed. It worked very well before 1984. It could be a way of helping the economy of my region.
I ask the parliamentary secretary to inform the fisheries minister that it could be a good solution. What would we do with that? We have to think about changing the marketing system and, for that, we need to have control over licenses.
There are other types of industries that need some adjustment. People in the Gaspé Peninsula want decentralization. There are still areas in Canada, like forest and mine management, that need to be decentralized. There are areas from which the federal government must withdraw.
First, in the absence of a reduction in the unemployment rate, we ask that the present system be maintained and we ask, and here you will get the support of all people concerned, for constructive measures. We see no constructive measure in this Bill. What we see is that you are using insurance to reduce your deficit. But what about measures which will really revitalise this area? There are none and it is regrettable. I would be ready to work with you, whatever my allegiance. For the time being, we are still a part of Canada and my riding is among the most severely affected by that plan.
I don't know if this answers the questions of the parliamentary secretary, but welcome to the Gaspé. It could be a good area in which to launch something.