Mr. Speaker, I hope that when you name my riding, my time is not shortened accordingly.
I note, with my friend from Acadie—Bathurst, that this is deplorable. This may also be the reason why the people have lost confidence in politicians, because others who came before you and me did not keep their promises. They made all kinds of promises, they promised to look after their constituents' well-being but they did not deliver.
During the 1993 election, we told the people in Quebec that there was no difference between the Conservatives and the Liberals.
I am sorry, Mr. Speaker, I know you are very interested in the debate between the member for Acadie—Bathurst and myself, so I will address the Chair.
It is very regrettable, but the democratic system demands that we learn to live with the people across the way. There is only one opportunity to get them to listen to reason and that is when there is an election. In 1993, the Progressive Conservatives got a taste of it, and in 1997 the Liberals came close. The hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst shook things up when he defeated Doug Young. I did the same when I won Mr. Gagnon's seat.
What I am saying is that it is up to the public to take action when the time comes. Right now, if people want to see other amendments, they must continue to put pressure on their local MP. And, with your leave, Mr. Speaker, I would urge all Canadians in the rest of Canada, in central and western Canada, to remember that the country to which they are so attached—it is perhaps sad that it is a sovereignist saying so, but I will say it anyway—owes its development to the east. The sun still rises in the east.
We have not yet learned how to gather strawberries in January and fish crab in February. To everything there is a season, and we cannot change that. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans sets the periods during which we may fish. It is not my fault if biology tells us that we cannot fish lobster for more than 10 weeks in a given zone.
But what do we do with the fisher after that? Do we send him to Montreal on a computer course? If he became a good computer programmer, would he ever return to lobster fishing?
Instead of wanting to cut all the assistance programs, what steps have Fisheries and Oceans and Human Resources Development Canada taken with the provinces concerned to improve marketing of these species and see whether there are not other species that can be marketed at the same time, so as to increase the income of fishers, dockhands and plant workers? We, too, would like not to need EI any more, but there is a difference between not needing it any more and starving. It is frustrating.
Every weekend, I return to my riding, and what I find the most surprising today, here in the House, is that the public is still calm. But I could not guarantee the physical safety of certain Liberal members across the way in the spots I visited again last weekend, because discontent is growing and it is palpable.