Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Prime Minister gave the following reply concerning help for the manufacturing sector:
—we cannot spend money without having concluded [legal] agreements with the provinces, or without the approval of this Parliament.
However, the Prime Minister knows very well that to allocate money to the trust, only Parliament's approval is required. The responsible thing to do would be to table a bill now, before the budget, to take that money from the $11.6 billion surplus, and to give us a chance to increase the amount and vote on it.
Does the Prime Minister acknowledge that linking the creation of this trust to agreements with the provinces is an attempt to transfer the blame for his failure to act—