Mr. Speaker, I had indeed the opportunity in the past to visit the riding of my colleague from Kootenay East at his invitation. It was a very rewarding experience for me, and it was greatly appreciated. I met
some very nice people, and I would like to publicly thank my colleague for his invitation.
That said, when he accuses me of being ignorant or of misinterpreting the facts by suggesting that the federal government is discriminating against Quebec compared to western Canada, I simply want to remind him that, in my remarks regarding agriculture, I insisted that this would affect milk producers in both Quebec and Ontario, where this industry is concentrated. I never said that Quebec was being singled out.
I said and I continue to say-my colleague can interpret this as an argument in favour of our sovereignty objective, but the facts are there-that the federal government's decisions concerning Quebec's economic development have had a disastrous impact in several sectors, including oil refining. This is a fact, and I invite my colleague to come and visit Montreal's east end. Some of my colleagues will be pleased to show him the disastrous impact of these policies. He will see that this is not an opinion, but a very concrete reality.