Mr. McDermid:

Come on.

Mr. Trudeau:

Yes, come on. Is it because there are no votes in Manitoba for his Party? Is it because there are no votes in all the other groups? Some of these other groups-

You are sad.

Mr. Trudeau:

You are sad over there, my friend.

Mr. Dick:

You are sick.

Mr. Trudeau:

And you are sick if you are trying to take one wrong out of Canadian history and make great speeches about it and say that we-excuse me, Mr. Speaker, through you- say that we are going to deal with this particular problem because there is a particular pressure group now. We could mount pressure groups across this country on many areas where there have been historic wrongs. I do not think it is the purpose of a Government to right the past. It cannot re-write history. It is our purpose to be just in our time, and that is what we have done by bringing in the Charter of Rights.

Hear, hear!

Mr. Tom McMillan (Hillsborough):

Mr. Speaker, it does not give me a great deal of pride to follow such sophistry from the Prime Minister.

Oh, oh!

Mr. McMillan:

My question is for the Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion. Will the Minister confirm that there has been no significant progress in reducing economic disparity between the Atlantic Provinces and the rest of Canada since the mid-1970s? If so, to what does he attribute that failure?

Hon. Ed Lumley (Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion):

No, Mr. Speaker, I would not confirm that at all.

Mr. Tom McMillan (Hillsborough):

Mr. Speaker, may I direct my supplementary question to the Minister of State for Economic and Regional Development? Is the Minister aware of a confidential federal Government document which I have in my hand, prepared by his own Department, entitled "Regional Disparities: A Statistical Overview"? This document concedes the fact that economic performance:

-has slowed considerably in all regions since the mid-1970s.

And the document goes on to state that the gradual reduction in disparities between the Atlantic Provinces and the rest of Canada:

-has come to a halt since 1975.

Does the Minister reject that assessment by his own Department and by the Government of which he is a part?

Hon. Donald J. Johnston (Minister of State for Economic and Regional Development and Minister of State for Science and Technology):

Mr. Speaker, we have had this debate at some length in the House just a few weeks ago when we threw statistics back and forth across this Chamber. The point is that the Government had a dedication to correcting regional disparities. That was the purpose of DREE. DREE has been an outstanding success in Atlantic Canada. These successes have been built upon, and that commitment to regional development is ever present and has been moved forward aggressively by this Government.

Mr. Speaker:

Order.

It is with great pleasure that I draw the attention of the House to the presence in our gallery of a delegation of twelve French parliamentarians, headed by Mr. Fran?ois Loncle, Deputy of the French National Assembly. Our distinguished visitors are attending the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Canada-France Interparliamentary Association.

Miss Aideen Nicholson (Trinity):

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for External Affairs. For many years Canadians with ties to the Baltic States and the Ukraine have been able to send gift parcels to relatives in the Soviet occupied territories. However, recent changes to the U.S.S.R. Criminal Code render a person who receives help by way of

June 29, 1984

parcels from abroad liable to conviction and imprisonment for "anti-soviet agitation and propaganda". Can the Minister say what steps have been taken to persuade the U.S.S.R. to reconsider this step which appears to breach the Helsinki Final Act?

Hon. Allan J. MacEachen (Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for External Affairs):

Mr. Speaker, on this particular point I can only say that at the current meeting, for example, which is taking place at Stockholm, the Canadian representatives and others are continuing to press the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries to live up to the Helsinki Accord and to recognize the necessity of the greatest possible communication and interchange among the peoples of the world, particularly between the Soviet Bloc and other countries.

I am thankful to the Hon. Member for raising this particular point with respect to gifts and parcels which friends and relatives may want to exchange. I will be pleased to have officials of the Department raise the point with Soviet representatives as soon as possible.

Oral Questions

should bear in mind, in asking a question, whether it will be possible to answer it within the traditional confines of Question Period.