Mr. Speaker, according to an article by Hélène Baril that appeared in La Presse on December 9, 2001, Professor Fernand Martin of the University of Montreal believes that remote regions and the rest of the country are definitely not on the same wavelength.
The resource rich regions supply the big cities. Wood from the regions provides work for people in the cities: 67% of the secondary processing of wood is done in Montreal.
Savings from the remote regions are invested in large part in the big cities. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec gets $20 million from Abitibi-Témiscamingue and invests none of it there. The Fonds de solidarité of the FTQ gets $14 million in savings, and it invests barely $1 million there.
There is still a future in the remote regions and this future can be found in the quality of life and pure air of Canada's north.