Mr. Speaker, we have to acknowledge that it is not necessarily the formula that is bad. We cannot criticize the federal government for having an approach to trying to find a solution to the problems or to create a new dynamic.
The thing is, in my riding and in the two bordering ridings, in the past few weeks and in the past year, we have seen the closure of a factory in Montmagny, resulting in the loss of 500 jobs. Most of the workers were 50 or older. They were left in a state of uncertainty when this issue was not dealt with.
Recently in my riding, and the same two ridings I just mentioned, there has been massive job loss in the clothing and textile industry. Are the measures implemented by the federal government going to make up for all these layoffs? So far this has not been the case.
My riding has the second most agricultural RCM in Quebec and it specializes in dairy. No need to tell you that cull has been a thorn in the side of almost all dairy farmers.
The southern part of my riding works in agroforestry. Do I need to get into how limited shipping to the United States has its own set of problems? Not only do woodlot owners and sawmill owners have problems, but this has caused uncertainty for all the workers.
There is something I want to respond to. When I was a municipal politician, we had a winning formula. It was called the infrastructure program. This program had a solution that was advantageous to the Government of Quebec and to Quebec taxpayers, because files were handled in consultation with all the related agencies, the provincial government and the federal government. What is important to realize is that all the cases were chosen by the Government of Quebec. This was a winning formula because it did not cause any interference in the jurisdictions of the Government of Quebec.