This bill was last introduced in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session, which ended in September 2020.
Marie-Claude Bibeau Liberal
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.
This enactment amends the Canadian Dairy Commission Act to increase the maximum total for outstanding amounts of loans made to the Commission by the Minister of Finance and for amounts drawn by the Commission from a line of credit to five hundred million dollars.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, I have a question.
In the second round of 20 minutes or 10 minutes that we will have later, will we also be required to talk about agriculture?
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
Certainly.
At this time, there is another three minutes remaining for comments on your speech in relation to the subject before the House.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
We had a very clear agreement that on Wednesdays when we met in person in the House, we would get 30 minutes to talk about COVID-19. Today, we agreed to waive our 30 minutes in exchange for 20 or 10 minutes to talk about other matters related to COVID-19, a crisis currently raging in Quebec.
Now you are telling me that what we negotiated, what we discussed with the government and its leader, is no longer valid. That is what you are telling me. The agreements we secured are not valid anymore. That is what I am hearing. That is what you just confirmed.
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
Normally, during the meeting of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic, if the House is not recalled, there is a take-note debate of two hours and 10 minutes. That is the time to ask questions or propose ideas about COVID-19.
When the House is recalled, members must focus their remarks on matters relevant to the bill under study. As I said, members have ample leeway in their remarks on the subject at hand, but they do need to make sure they stay on topic.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, I am not saying that I do not like talking about agriculture. I know a lot about it already.
If I understood correctly, all the remarks we will be making, from when the bill is tabled to the end, will have to be about agriculture. That is my understanding.
I asked the government to add 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions and answers to compensate for the 30 minutes we had to talk about the pandemic. Now you are telling me that what we discussed will not happen, that I did not understand what the government leader proposed. Is that what you are telling me?
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
I accept the hon. member's other comment, but the decision concerns the rules for the special committee. It is a decision made by the leaders of the parties in the House. In the House, and in committee, we must refer to the framework surrounding these debates. That is required in order to be able to continue.
I stopped the clock so the hon. member from La Prairie can continue his speech, if he so wishes.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
What they did in 2015 is a bit embarrassing. Those whom we might describe as destroyers of the Quebec health care system are here and, from what I understand, they did not see fit to do better than what the others proposed.
I understand why the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent rose. He must have felt the heat and did not want to hear us talk and be taken to task. There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. That is what I understand, Mr. Speaker.
My Conservative colleagues think it is funny to cut funding for health care and to put us in a situation where we cannot take care of people because we do not have any money from Ottawa because of them. It is because of them.
That is the reality, hon. member from Louis-Saint-Laurent—
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
I accept and appreciate the member's intervention, but I have decided how we will continue our proceedings. According to the Standing Orders, the debate must remain relevant to the topic.
We must now resume debate regarding the recall of the House of Commons to discuss Bill C-16.
The decision is made, and so we will continue. The hon. member for La Prairie has three minutes and 30 seconds remaining to finish his speech.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, when I was teaching at CEGEP and at the university, I would explain to my students that market globalization meant that some sectors were protect by governments because they were important sectors for a society like ours. I always gave the example of agriculture, since it is important to ensure that a country can feed its people itself so as not to be held hostage, as we saw recently with health equipment. If we do not want to be held hostage, we have to take care of our agricultural sector.
What happened when the Conservatives were in power? They were the first to sacrifice milk quotas on the altar of international trade. They were the first to sell Quebec milk quotas to open the borders to the benefit of western Canada. The Liberal Party followed suit.
The Conservatives criticize the government. They see the beam in their neighbour's eye. It is not a beam that they have in their own eyes, but a dozen two by fours.
The member for Beauce knows that they were the first party to make sure that milk quotas were jeopardized by international trade and trade deals. They were the first to roll over before other countries and fail to protect Quebec dairy producers. While the Conservatives are criticizing the government today, they are in an uncomfortable situation.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, French is the official language of Quebec. I will always speak French. If the member does not like that, it is not my problem. The member is upset because I am not speaking English, but in Quebec, the official language is French. That is why I will always address the House in French. I hope nobody here would question my right to do so. I do not need anyone giving me a hard time for speaking French.
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Mr. Speaker, I want to remind my colleague, the house leader of the second opposition party, that French and English share equal status, and all parliamentarians may speak in either of these two languages. Earlier, during oral questions, a minister spoke in English, which seemed to offend the leader of the Bloc Québécois. That is his right, but French and English have equal status here.
Earlier, the member spoke about international trade agreements involving milk. Does he agree with the facts? I encourage him to confirm the following statement or deny it if he has evidence to the contrary. In 2015, when our government signed an international treaty, the topic of supply management came up. Is it true that the Conservative government at the time had come up with a $4-billion plan to cover farmers' losses? Never before had a government made such a financial commitment to farmers. Yes, it was a matter of free trade, but we also offered fair and responsible compensation, which the current government did not do with the following agreement.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, the member can ask any farmer if they would rather get a cheque from the government or conduct operations on the ground and grow their business, and his questions will be answered.
I am not done, and I have more to say. The $4 billion the previous government promised was not enough. All farmers and dairy producers agreed on that. Plus, that money never showed up, and the change in government is no excuse. The Conservatives are good at pointing the finger at the Liberal government. That money was not enough, and dairy producers said so back then.
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comments.
I would like to know what he thinks of current programs such as AgriStability. I spoke about this earlier in my speech and I said that they do not work.
Do we know why only 31% of Canadian farms participate in the AgriStability program? The answer is that it is a shared jurisdiction in Quebec. We spoke earlier of the Constitution and jurisdictions, an issue that is sometimes pertinent. Quebec could have chosen to participate, but it preferred to create a program that complements the federal program, which does not work. Participation in the Quebec program is much higher than the rest of Canada's participation in the federal program, and this has boosted the average participation rate in the federal program to 31%. Imagine what would have happened if the Quebec government had not been there to implement those measures.
I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about that.
