Madam Chair, I am stunned to hear the minister say that he does not know what I am talking about. What I am saying is very clear. I am simply saying that his government did not keep its promises.
I do not know where he was during the election campaign. The Prime Minister's office had likely asked him not to show his face too much because of the listeriosis crisis. But his party, the Conservative Party, had promised to introduced a real, flexible program for Quebec and the provinces, which the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the UPA had called for.
He can meet with Christian Lacasse. I meet with him as well, and I am certain that my colleagues in the other parties meet with him too, just as we meet with representatives of farm producers everywhere, in all sectors. What did Christian Lacasse say after the budget was passed? What did he say when the government failed to keep its promise to introduce a flexible program, which the minister dared call AgriFlex in his budget? He said:
By excluding income support measures, where the need is greatest, the government is completely changing a program that was supposed to be flexible. A program that each province can adapt to its own particular agricultural reality is obviously a good thing, but it must be properly funded and targeted.
Christian Lacasse said that not long ago, on January 27, 2009. The minister can meet with him. Even though I will not be at the meeting, I am sure that Mr. Lacasse will remind him that he did not keep his promise.
My question is as follows. I will repeat it, because he says he does not know what I am talking about. When will there be a real, flexible program that includes risk management? It should not be excluded, which is what the minister did. Why did he exclude it? He did not tell me that either. When will the Conservatives keep the promise they made during the election campaign, just before they brought down the budget? When the budget was brought down, it no longer included the necessary measures.