Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House today to thank our colleague, the member for Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik, for his initiative. I very much appreciated the fact that he read letters he received from some his eminent constituents.
His motion is extremely vague and seems useless, given the poor results of the federal government in the area of regional development.
Socioeconomic stakeholders in the various Quebec regions know quite well that the federal government's regional development policies are not effective. In fact, I would like to remind the member for Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik that the federal government plans around four global regions in the country: the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario and the Prairies and western Canada.
Therefore, the criteria for the policies of Canada Economic Development for the Quebec Regions are chosen as if Quebec were an homogeneous region and the situation were the same for the workers of the Gaspé peninsula and those of Montreal. Let us be serious. The situation in the Gaspé peninsula is extremely different from the situation in the Lower St. Lawrence, even though that also is an outlying region.
The Quebec government knows what is going on in every region of Quebec, it is the one in charge, it is close to the people, it understands the dynamics of the different regions and it has created the Local Development Centres and the regional consultation and development councils, which interact directly with the stakeholders in order to establish programs that are really tailored to the specific situations of each region.
Furthermore, the federal government invests very little in the Quebec regions. Let me quote some figures. I would like to mention how much income tax Quebec taxpayers have to pay in the six regions where my colleague would want us to invest in a new system, and how much the federal government invested in fixed assets in 1999.
In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, people paid $298,398,000 in personal income taxes to Ottawa; federal spending in that region amounted to $964,000. In the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspé region, taxpayers paid $297,810,000 in personal income taxes to Ottawa; the federal government spent only $9,000 in capital expenditures. The North Shore taxpayers paid the federal government $223,576,000 in personal income taxes in 1998; they got $8 million in investments. Taxpayers from the Gaspé and Îles de la Madeleine region paid to Ottawa $143,277,000 in personal income taxes; they got $389,000 in capital expenditures from the federal government in 1999. Northern Quebec paid Ottawa $56,199,000 in personal income taxes in 1998; it got $2 million. Taxpayers of the Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean region, which I represent, gave $508,474,000 and got $763,000 in federal investments in 1999.
Given those figures, allow me to tell my colleague from Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik that he is proposing to duplicate the Quebec government mandate with regard to regional development. I think he should tell that to his government.
I listened carefully as he read from all those letters; most of the stakeholders who wrote to him said the same thing I am telling him. It is up to the regions to say what they want. The Quebec government invested money in the regions. It is also up to the Government of Canada to give back roughly one-quarter of the income taxes owed to each region of Quebec.
Last year, I took part in the Congrès des régions which took place in North Montreal. For the three days the conference took place, all of the participants spoke about the type of development they wished to see in their regions. They recognized the legitimacy of only one government, the Government of Quebec. They also said that the federal government should return their money, their taxes, to the province so that it could distribute it to the regions concerned for regional development.
This goes to show the extent to which the member for Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik is going in the opposite direction to what the regional stakeholders want.
I would also like to provide other examples of measures taken by Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions that have harmed the regions. In 2000, Ottawa cut $51 million from regional development in Quebec, $35 million of which was done under the Small Business Loans Act.
If the member is truly concerned about the importance of regional development, he should realize that it is his own government's policies that are killing Quebec's regions. We need only think of the unacceptable measures contained in the EI system.
The government robbed $43 billion from the EI fund. It implemented measures that penalize seasonal workers who live in regions. Who is responsible for our regions losing out even more? It is this government, with its drastic changes to the EI fund and measures made to modify the fund and EI benefits.
Every week I receive calls and letters asking the government to amend the current Employment Insurance Act to help them out. The Liberal government's response to these people is no.
The same can be said for air travel in the regions. The federal government is unable to ensure quality service to the regions, and companies like Air Canada and its subsidiaries call all the shots. Air transportation is an area of responsibility that comes under the federal government, but it is not even able to assume this responsibility.
Air Canada and its subsidiaries are increasing their fares and reducing their services; in short, they do not care about the regions, and the federal government is doing nothing to stop this sad situation. It is a real farce. Air Nova has dropped its services between Baie-Comeau and Quebec City. At Bagotville airport, one flight was dropped at the end of last year. Moreover, the government has the nerve to impose a surtax on air fares and to state that Canadians and Quebecers agree with that.
I would also like to talk about the cuts made by this government since 1994 in health transfers. At least $1 billion was cut in the health sector in Quebec. For my region alone, it is a cut of $38 million. Just imagine how many jobs could be created in my region with $38 million. It is more or less the budget of the Jonquiere hospital.
But no. The government, of which our colleague from Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik is a member, is depriving Quebec of that money. If the member really wants to promote regional development in Quebec, he should wake the finance minister up to ask him to give us our money back. He should then say the same thing to the intergovernmental affairs minister.
For the last three weeks, we have talked a lot in the House about the promises made in the last federal election. As the member for Abitibi--Baie-James--Nunavik pointed out, lots of promises were made. They promised $3.4 billions for the highways in Quebec alone. Unfortunately, there is only $108 million on the table. What a farce.
This government is not working for the regions, nor is it working for Quebec. This government is working for itself and for its own image. When this government starts to respect the people from the regions and tell them “it is up to you to decide” I might begin to believe it. Unfortunately, this is not going to happen tomorrow.