Mr. Speaker, I listened to what the Canadian Alliance member had to say and I would like him to repeat what the official opposition party members think about the management of grants and contributions programs.
I know that we do not share the same point of view on the relevance of these programs, but would we not both agree that, in the end, the present federal government is the one that has most undermined their relevance? Whether or not one believes in the relevance of the programs, whether or not one believes in any particular program, one has to ensure that they are managed properly.
At present, when the government manages job creation programs, it undermines them terribly, it devalues them and, ultimately, it lays itself open to criticism from those who think these programs are not relevant.
We in the Bloc Quebecois think that these kinds of programs are relevant, but I know that Canadian Alliance members do not necessarily believe in them. Regardless of the intrinsic value of these programs, has the federal government not done serious harm to their reputation and contributed to the present debate within the Liberal Party of Canada as to whether or not it should continue to have them, is management lax, and is this not what damages the reputation of these programs in the eyes of the Canadian public?