Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin with congratulations to my colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou for his excellent work and his good grasp of economic development. It is not easy to represent a region as vast as his and to come here to say that this bill, aimed at promoting the regions of Quebec, is nothing more than a structural enlargement rather than any real assistance program.
I have a real problem with the attitude taken by the Quebec Liberal MPs who lack an understanding of certain things.
Before I was in politics, I spent eight years as the head of the Conseil régional de développement de l'Outaouais. I could go into considerable detail on the economic development problems of Quebec. A lack of departmental presence is really not the problem. Canada Economic Development is there. As their representatives have said, their interventions will not change in the least, and therein lies the problem. New programs are necessary if we are to be able to deal with the various problems affecting our economic development.
A few years ago, who could have predicted the disappearance of the Quebec textile industry? Yet now we are seeing it happen. There is a huge agricultural crisis and some farms will also be disappearing.
So there are new needs. A new structure and department are not what Quebeckers, the businessmen and women of Quebec, need. What they really need is new programs, and that is not what this bill we are discussing today is all about.
The Liberals tell us that we have a problem with visibility. No, our problem is with Canada Economic Development and its programs, which are insufficient for the need. They are likely the ones concerned with visibility, so much so that they want a new department to raise their visibility in Quebec. That is their problem.
What is it that the people, those businessmen and women need? That is what I want to ask my colleague. Would it not be improved programs better adapted to the needs, rather than a new means of increasing federal government visibility in Quebec?