Madam Speaker, I will answer by saying that what goes around comes around. As the hon. member knows, I have been sitting on the committee since the election held in June of last year. As regards Bill C-21, which was to be postponed for one year, the member surely remembers that the Bloc Quebecois had supported that legislation. At the time, we had reservations about the legislation and we proposed some changes. I will certainly help him remember the amendments and suggestions we proposed back then. There is a good chance we will suggest the same changes again.
It is in this spirit that I said earlier that we would support the bill on Tuesday, when the House will vote on it, because we are dealing here with the principle of the legislation.
Can one be opposed to the principle—and I ask Reform Party members to reconsider their position on this—of helping small businesses get financing? I am not talking about subsidies. I represent the riding of Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, where the Lévis shipyard is located. Because of the huge figures involved, people are always under the impression that it is a major business. They think it is outrageous to provide assistance to such a company. But there are essentially no subsidies in the funds provided by the government. All the money is provided through loans, loan guarantees or contracts. It is somewhat similar in this case.
What in fact is being asked of the government is for it to act as guarantor, up to a ceiling of $1.5 billion, to all of the small businesses in Canada for loans negotiated with banking institutions. Everyone recognizes the expertise of the banks, as well as the caisses populaires and credit unions, for they are located in the various regions concerned, which have different problems and characteristics.
The advantage of this is that it offers small business a basic program. There are other programs more specific to certain sectors, perhaps too many in my opinion. Too much of something can sometimes be as much of a problem as too little.
I was recently in an office in Vancouver in connection with my responsibility for regional development. I saw people working away at computers to locate government programs, both provincial and federal. I asked one person how long she had been at it, and she told me it had been a week. She told me it had been two days before she finally figured out how the system worked. She commented that she had been shunted from one program to another, and how very confusing it was. It is all very fine to have computers available to give people some degree of independence, but there still have to be advisors.
Quebec now has a new structure in place which impacts on the social economy, the local employment development councils. These have enhanced the economic councils, which some regions called by another name. These still need counsellors.
It must be kept in mind that a loan program is still needed. Within the framework of this legislation, this loan program is aimed at small business. It is therefore extremely important. I do not believe such an essential issue is the right place for petty partisan politics.