Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Sackville—Eastern Shore raises a very good point.
This government made promises to get elected, but it was just a smokescreen because, as soon as they took office, the Liberals started governing like a right wing party and making cuts.
Close to $1.9 billion was invested in the Atlantic groundfish strategy but, unfortunately—and the hon. member is right—the very first year cuts were made to all transition and economic diversification programs, under the pretext that the number of potential clients had been miscalculated. These people still exist. There were close to 45,000 of them and they will still be there at the end of May 1999. What will happen to them?
People who work in the fishing industry, including fishers and the women who work in plants, will not disappear like the cod, because it is the federal government that now manages that program. These people are still there. They are human beings.
I remind our viewers that Canada was discovered precisely because there was cod along our coasts. Fishermen came close to the Newfoundland and Gaspé shores. Today, people from the Gaspé and Newfoundland are told “Sorry, we have had enough of you. Stay home and keep quiet. We are not giving you another penny”.
This is an insult. It is pure contempt on the part of people who claim that Canada is a wonderful country, full of life and full of compassion for all its inhabitants, including those who live in the regions that were the first ones to become part of Canada. I do not know how the Minister of Finance can tell them “Sorry, that's it, that's all”.