Mr. Speaker, before I begin, since I have very little time, I would like to go back to what the member for Scarborough--Agincourt said earlier in response to my question. He practically said, here in the House, that the people in high unemployment regions are not hard-working, that they lack imagination and that they are practically lazy. That was pretty much what he said in reply to my question.
I would like to know if other members of the House—unfortunately they will perhaps not have the time to ask me questions—if Liberal members as well as members from other regions of Canada also having trouble think the same thing, if they think that the people in outlying areas such as mine are lazy and incompetent and lack the imagination to get their economy going again.
I think that this statement is insulting. Not only is it insulting to the people of my region, but it is also insulting to the people in other regions of Canada. It is just as insulting to the people of Quebec as it is to those of the Magdalen Islands, who unfortunately are represented by a Liberal.
I will now proceed with my speech, because I do not have very much time. First of all, I would say that the last budget—and I said this earlier—contains no measures for remote areas, for regions experiencing difficulty. Not only does it contain no active measures that might have helped us out of our difficulty, but it contains passive measures, measures which harm the regions.
I will give an example concerning air transportation. I could supply figures. For a resident of the Magdalen Islands, airplanes are as necessary as roads and highways. Those living on islands in Quebec need airplanes to be able to access services, whether they be emergency health services, government services, or whatever. People need airplanes. In this connection, it is clear that, despite the fact that the federal government bailed out Air Canada, Air Canada is holding us to ransom.
In its budget, the government did not even ensure that the money which it invested in Air Canada, which has become a monopoly, would be used to serve the regions, which is what we were asking.
My colleague, the member for Charlevoix is in the same boat. Those of us from the regions are asking for at least some active measures that will assist us in having access to the same services to which the rest of Canada and Quebec have access.
For the people living in my riding, I think that the federal government is not only useless, but it is almost harmful, because of these air transportation measures, among others.
The federal government is hurting the regions. It takes away our money in taxes and then gives us practically nothing back in return. We no longer receive anything in economic development or in services.
I could give another example, which is similar to the one my colleague mentioned earlier, that of infrastructure projects. Let me give a concrete example. I will not talk about infrastructure in general, of the program that was created, of the foundation, which we all know is completely useless, and which will cause all sorts of problems for those of us in Quebec, and which will no doubt cause us to abandon the program if necessary, to finally be able to do some good work.
I want to talk about infrastructure that belongs to the federal government. Since I have one minute left, I will end on this. Part of this federal infrastructure includes harbours for small boats. Virtually all of these harbours are in a terrible shape. The federal government announced a few million dollars, but this represents barely 25% of the funding needed to repair its own infrastructure. We are not asking the government to invest in anything else, but it really should begin with cleaning up its own house.