Mr. Speaker, on January 29, I rose in the House during question period to ask the Prime Minister to separate the budget vote from the vote on the trust for regional economic diversification. Members will recall that when he made his announcement in New Brunswick, the Prime Minister said that it absolutely had to be passed together with the budget.
That was on January 29. The Bloc brought up the issue every day thereafter, and finally achieved satisfaction. The government decided to separate the vote on the trust from the budget. That was a good decision. We asked for it over and over.
Therefore, I was stunned to read in the weekend papers that the member for Mégantic—L'Érable, who is the Secretary of State for Agriculture, had criticized me for asking for this. On February 9, he said, “If Mr. Crête wants to make himself useful, he should start by convincing his leader to”—