Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent question. Indeed, we must prevent the leader of the coalition from achieving his goal of centralizing the economic development agencies. Since he spent 34 years outside the country, he probably does not know that the Economic Development Agency of Canada already makes its decisions in the regions. They are made by people working in the regions.
Yesterday he said he wants to decentralize the agency, yet he insisted on creating a single national strategy. This shows a lack of respect for the economic players in the regions and for the public servants who work tirelessly for regional economic growth. The people—