Madam Chair, earlier this evening I asked the member across the way what the government's position was on meeting the needs of Quebec. At that time it was suggested, wrongly, that I was looking for special treatment for Quebec.
What was said instead was that the government plan was designed to provide equity to all regions of the country, which is laudable, but I have to admit I am bit confused by that. On Friday, the fed cattle set-aside program was launched. It was announced by the Alberta government, which had already registered its producers as bidders, but the Ontario government to this day has no mechanism by which its producers are registered for the bidding process, a bidding process, I might add, which was launched Thanksgiving Monday morning. This first round closes tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon.
The program was announced on Friday, to start Monday and close at Wednesday noon. A call to Agriculture Canada this morning from an Ontario producer looking for information was redirected to the ministry of agriculture for Ontario. A subsequent call to the Ontario ministry of agriculture yielded nothing but a voice mail with no return call. This producer was trying to sign up for this new program for which producers are at this point eligible only until Wednesday noon.
This is my question for the hon. member. If this is equity or if this is supposed to be an equitable program, how is it that producers in Alberta who have already signed up can take advantage of this program but producers in Ontario cannot?