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painintheass: If you paid attention to Quebec over the last 20 years, you would know EXACTLY where those projects are:
There are gone, money spent in the past to appease potential seperatist voters. The PQ is world famous for spending lavishly to attract business to quebec and often to keep it in quebec. The "cite du commerce electronique" in downtown montreal is an example, the PQ gave huge grants (hundreds of millions) to companies to move there, often to companies ALREADY IN QUEBEC. Huge stacks of cash spent to keep the umeployment rate from reaching a natural 10+% for the whole province.
Billions of dollars more spent duplicating services offered by the federal government. Instead of participating in the systems of the federation, the quebec governments since early 70s have spent like drunk sailors trying to duplicate every step of the federal process from their own pockets. This leads to tens of thousands more functionaires, tons more paper for business and individuals to run through each year (why the fuck we do two different income tax reports is beyond me!), and the income all used to support the stupid functionaire machine. Every step of the way PQ tried hard as hell to make quebec life soft and good, mortaging the future stealing from peter to pay paul, and generally leaving quebec to be one of the most bloated and wasteful functionaire filled messes in the universe. I am sure there are more effecient communist countries out there!
Every new functionaire, every new government department, every new "etude sur la marche futur de un quebec independant" steals money from the regions.
Honestly, the regions also suffer greatly from too much government assistance. Keeping certain plants / factories / mines whatever in business by propping them up with millions of quebec government money, only to have them fold 2 or 3 years later because they truly are losing their ass isn't helping. People from these areas need to realize that there are no jobs, no chance for jobs, no future - move to where you have a future or quit bitching that nobody is sending you a check to sit and watch the trees grow. The quebec government has spend billions upon untold billions tying to support the regions in unnatural ways, attempting to force commerce into areas that it just won't work in.
The actions of successive seperatist governments, language laws, language police, endless court battles, divisive acts, and endless back biting and infighting has scared business away. When you scare business away, you scare the money away. Less money in the centers means less money for the goverment to toss out to the regions. You can't spend what you don't have (or at least there is a limit before you can't issue any more bonds to borrow from).
Late 60s early 70s Montreal and Toronto were similar size cities. Quebec went to "language police", seperation votes, and fear mongering, and Toronto went to work.
The results are plain to be seen by the naked eye. Quebec fucked itself, it fucked it's regions and shouldn't blame anyone else but the fuckers that were in charge when it happened. Blaming federalism for problems in the regions is the ultimate passing of the buck and shifting of blame. Quebec did it to itself, and needs to admit it. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it.
Alex
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