To come back to the issue at hand, Madam Speaker, even the director of the employment centre deplores the minister's decision. He told us that he had always been very satisfied with the quality and service of the premises and that he wanted to stay in the building located at 222, Saint-Georges Street, in downtown Saint-Jerôme.
According to the director, the visibility and pre-eminent location of the employment centre are essential to serve Saint-Jérôme and the surrounding area and especially the other cities served by Saint-Jérôme following the streamlining of the employment centres by the minister. Now, adding insult to injury, the minister wants to relocate the centre to the outskirts of downtown Saint-Jérôme, which is the economic capital of the Laurentides region. The centre's director was very blunt on one point: if it were relocated in Saint-Antoine-des-Laurentides, the centre would lose all of its present high profile.
The support I have received to prevent this move does not end there. On September 19, 1997, Mrs. Louise Harel, Quebec labour minister, wrote a letter to the Minister of Human Resources Development, asking him for a moratorium on this move since it goes against the spirit of the Quebec-Canada agreement in principle on manpower training, which is aimed at making both federal and provincial service points more accessible, not less so as is the case here. As of September 10, the minister had only received an acknowledgement of receipt of her letter.
With regard to the firm RAMCO développement Inc., its president, Mr. Jacob A. Attias, is rightly surprised and mostly quite shocked by he lack of transparency of the Liberal government's process in the matter of moving the CEC out of its present location.
In 1991, RAMCO développement spent $1.7 million to add to the building in order to make room for the employment centre. Mr. Attias had even offered to lower the rent by close to 30%.
To add insult to injury, RAMCO had agreed with Public Works to invest a further $120,000 to upgrade and renovate the facilities in order to better meet the department's requirements.
One can imagine how Mr. Attias feels after such an experience. Not only is this businessman being overtaxed, he is being literally fleeced and taken for a ride by the very people who manage his taxes. This is totally outrageous and despicable.
Given all these facts, I am entitled to believe and to say that partisan interests or influence peddling are behind this unjustified and unjustifiable move.
The more I talk about the issue, the more I wonder. Since it is practically impossible to meet the Minister of Human Resources Development and to shed light on this vital issue for the socio-economic development of the Laurentian region, I urge the minister to take into consideration the questions that follow and to provide me with answers as quickly as possible.
First, why does his department not comply with the will of our community's stakeholders to have public services grouped together in the downtown core of Saint-Jérôme, as clearly stated in a resolution from the RCM of Rivière-du-Nord on interim control?
Second, why does his department totally disregard the very high level of satisfaction of its managers with the current location of the employment centre?
In both cases, that is the move of the Saint-Jérôme employment centre and the RCMP investigation, we find the same silence which truly gives us the impression that someone from that party has a guilty conscience.
If Liberal Party ministers or employees made mistakes or did not comply with a basic code of conduct, they will, sooner or later, have to pay for their mistakes, because no one will trust them any more, and rightly so. As elected representatives, members of Parliament are accountable to the public. However, and I deeply regret having to say this, there seems to be a blatant lack of accountability and transparency on the part of certain individuals working for the federal government.
I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting the word “in-depth” and substituting the following therefor: “complete”.