Mr. Chairman, I listened carefully to what the secretary of state had to say and he did not mention anything about creating a partnership with the provinces.
For the last 50 years, the federal government has dealt with regional development. During the last 50 years, numerous programs were implemented with none of them taking into consideration the specificity of the various communities and their development which the provincial government has been promoting.
I would like to know if he would go that far. I have many more questions for him, but this one is a good place to start.