Mr. Speaker, I will not be particularly political in what I am about to say.
When the asbestos issue arose and the Government of Canada had to reach a decision, I think everyone will agree that a wonderful job of raising people's awareness was done by Gérard Binet, who was a member of this House at the time. Democracy must respected, but that does not mean we have to forget history. The history is that this colleague, Gérard Binet, is the real force behind the asbestos issue.
I must also add that my predecessor at the head of Canada Economic Development, the Minister of Industry at the time, put this regional strategic initiative in place. There are others in the province, moreover. This is not the only one. The specific characteristic of an RSI is to provide assistance for economic diversification to a region in crisis or with the potential for crisis. The initiative is created according to specific regional needs, and so of course there can be differences between one region's initiative and another's.
The result of this bill is that not only can the approach be region by region, but it can also be zone by zone. There may be a specific problem that will arise in a series of villages within one region of Quebec and in another series of villages in another region of Quebec. Since these are in different regions, they would automatically not be covered by a regional definition.
With this bill, we can group together these hot spots into identified zones in order to target them with a specific point-in-time intervention to deal with a specific problem. This is possible because of the bill.
I do not understand —and I say this with all sincerity. This bill is in fact an administrative measure intended to give a federal minister, one who comes from Quebec, the mandate to work in conjunction with Quebec ministers and Quebec communities to address problems of regional development in Quebec. Apart from the major issue on which we have a difference of opinion as to the option defended by the party across the way, there is no consistent, concrete, logical and immediate argument against our having the tools in hand to work better together on regional development.