Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Portneuf for his question.
The objects, as stated in clause 5, are as follows:
b) to invest its assets with a view to achieving a maximum rate of return, without undue risk of loss, having regard to the factors that may affect the funding—
I wondered how that could be. I thought just now that this Canadian fund will be a powerful instrument of centralization and that, if the objective was comparable to Quebec's objective, the provinces—certain provinces—who, at this time, are showing an interest in taking charge of their own development, and who do not trust the central government, or not completely, could worry that this powerful central instrument is not to their benefit.
At the same time, I thought that, in any event, this is going to be a centralizing tool. Once again, I say “Thank goodness Quebec was able to acquire, in 1965, this tool which made it possible, despite other hostile factors, to bring about significant development of Quebec”. Back then, Quebec did have all these businesses, with important businesses, even in certain cases multinationals, controlled and owned by Quebeckers. It is generally known that businesses in Quebec, in Canada and in North America were foreign owned.