Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to continue the NDP's attempt to get answers from the industry minister on the issue of FedNor.
It seems the minister does not think northerners get it, but they do. They understand perfectly that FedNor is an in-house economic development program situated within the industry department and completely under the control of the industry minister.
Last week at the industry committee meeting, the minister's contempt and ignorance of what matters to northerners was in full display once again. Here is what the minister said about FedNor being an accountable, transparent, independent agency: “They don't care whether it's a stand-alone agency or it's a division of this or that or whether it's a director or a captain or whether we call the executive director of FedNor the Queen of Sheba. It doesn't matter”. It does matter.
Northerners understand that the four independent regional economic departments are not subject to ministerial interference. Rather, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Western Economic Diversification Canada, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, and the Southern Ontario Development Agency, SODA, are all stand-alone agencies with budgets and reporting obligations to Parliament.
The minister cannot have it both ways. He cannot defend and promote the other economic agencies in those regions and then in the same breath tell northerners they do not deserve their own stand-alone agency. That is simply unacceptable. It is also an insult to our communities.
The minister loves to jab the Liberals in the eye with the fact that they have only one seat left in northern Ontario because of their neglect of our region when they were in government. However, I want to point out to the minister that his party is not doing any better for precisely the same reason.
I am proud of the hard work being done by northern New Democrat MPs on behalf of our region. Our team will not let up on the current government until it gives our communities what they deserve: a stand-alone agency equal to those in other deserving regions of Canada. Nothing less will do.
We do not want the Queen of Sheba. We do not want clowns and jugglers. We do not want decisions made in Toronto and Ottawa alone. We want an accountable agency situated in northern Ontario, with decisions being made by northern Ontarians. I do not believe that is too much to ask and his government knows that. It has simply chosen to turn a blind eye to this inequality. I can assure members that northerners will hold the government accountable.