Mr. Speaker, in Saguenay, the needs of the Canada summer jobs program increase every year, but the budget has been frozen since 2009. This has a very negative impact on the organizations, small municipalities and young people who depend on this program every summer.
What is more, I have found out that applications will no longer be processed in Saguenay, but rather, they will be processed hundreds of kilometres away, near Montreal, by public servants who are not familiar with Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean's reality.
I demand that this government stop centralizing our resources in major centres and give the responsibility for processing applications for the Canada summer jobs program back to a Service Canada employee in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean.