Mr. Speaker, I would have to say that 25 years in municipal politics have taught me an undeniable truth. The moment a consensus is reached on one or more projects in a given region, much has already been done. Indeed, it is not always easy to gather around the same table and to target the same projects as an RCM, a CLD, the regional conference of elected officials or even chambers of commerce. However, being a member from a non-resource region—since I come from the region of Quebec—we still have specific needs in some given fields.
For example, it is impossible to further develop agriculture in my riding. Our region is already one of the most agriculturally productive in Quebec. We cannot develop the forestry industry any more, either. Therefore, we have managed to reach consensus on a new niche, the development of recreational tourism via heritage or other avenues.
The problem is that federal subsides were ad hoc and meant to go towards clearing an old right-of-way, and so forth. However, when the time came to make the right-of-way accessible to snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and, in certain areas, bicycles, the funding never allowed us to get tangible results, despite all past efforts. You see, this was the key to the whole thing. I am not talking about getting casual workers to help us out. We never had the capital base that would have allowed us to turn this project into a reality.