Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour for his remarks.
Regarding the allocation of the billion dollars that we just voted for, that will be decided when we determine how the funds in the trust will be allocated. We will have to fight again because it simply does not make any sense and is totally out of keeping with the economic reality.
I gave some examples to illustrate the seriousness of the crisis in manufacturing. Some 78,000 jobs have been lost in Quebec since the Conservatives came to power, 21,000 of them just in forestry. These figures do not include the period since the summer of 2007. In the meantime, jobs continue to be lost. Quebec and Ontario are the heart of the manufacturing industry.
A fund was created in the case of mad cow disease. The people affected by the crisis could take advantage of the fund, and that is how it should have been.
That is why it is important this morning to adopt the report that was submitted on tax measures for these industries. The tax measures will benefit the existing industries, especially the refundable tax credit.
Companies in Quebec that are currently fighting hard to offer innovative products and keep their market share unfortunately cannot decide to invest in research and development because they are not generating the profits needed to take advantage of the tax deduction. Oil companies, on the other hand, are raking in huge profits and get tax credits as well, which have the effect of reducing their taxes payable. Even if manufacturers do invest in research and development, they are not making any profits and do not benefit, therefore, from the tax credit in the same way, because it is not refundable.
In my view, there is an injustice here. There is an obvious emergency and the money should be made available as quickly as possible. We managed to get the Conservatives finally to move on this issue, thanks to the consensus in Quebec, as conveyed to the House by the Bloc Québécois. I agree with my colleague that a lot of Conservative members must have been very surprised this morning. Ever since Christmas they have been defending the Prime Minister’s claim that we would have to wait for the budget and nothing else could be done. He could not remember that they had done it differently with the economic statement last October.
Now the Conservative members have just been astounded by something else, and I want to conclude on this point. The Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec said yesterday that it was all thanks to the Bloc Québécois. We hear the Conservative members from Quebec say over and over that the Bloc is not good for anything. Yesterday, the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec said that it was the Bloc that forced them to move.
We are here to defend the interests of Quebec, and we proved it this morning. However, the battle is not over. There is more to do. We will win because we have Quebec behind us.