Mr. Speaker, the UN conference on the funding of development, which the Prime Minister will attend, began yesterday in Monterrey. We are urging the Prime Minister to promote the idea of a development fund for the Americas, as are doing Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois and the Quebec government.
On Friday, in Mexico, the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas, or FIPA, unanimously passed a resolution to promote a social development fund to build social infrastructures that would reduce the gap between the very rich and the very poor. The support of the Bloc Quebecois and of the Quebec civil society was stressed by the Mexican delegation that made the proposal.
The resolution adopted by the parliamentarians representing 23 countries of the Americas will be sent to the Monterrey conference. The Prime Minister of Canada must seize this opportunity. The have nations of the Americas have a responsibility to work to eliminate social and economic inequalities.
Should the Government of Canada oppose the creation of this development fund, it would not show the solidarity that it is supposed to show to its partners from the Americas.