Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate you. You occupy the chair so well. Not only do you look well, you act well, you speak well and you have such a passion for the House.
I would like to refer to the speech we have just heard from the hon. member for Algoma—Manitoulin. He used little phrases in his comment that really caught my attention. He said “and no one shall be left behind”. Now that was very interesting. In fact I think “no one is left behind” were the exact words he used. That is very interesting because the moment he finished his speech, the hon. member for Saint John had to point out to him that there are people who are already being left behind.
I would like to ask the member for Algoma—Manitoulin what he considers to be accountability and what he considers being left behind. I draw his attention to the the allocation or awarding by the Minister of Industry of TPC grants. It is is clearly the spoken intention of the Minister of Industry to say very clearly that these grants are to be in support of and to develop small industry in Canada. What do we discover? Until this point as of August 31, 1997, 75 percent of all of those moneys were not given to small industry but to large industries in aerospace and defence; 75 percent on industries that are wealthy, industries with a profit, yet the small businessman could not get in. Does he call that accountability? Does he call that being left behind? What is he talking about?