A point of order, Mr. Chairman.
The member doesn't know the date when that statement was made, but it was made last summer. The program was announced on July 31. I believe that statement was made sometime in the fall.
You have to keep in mind that the program was announced seven months after the end of the fiscal year for which the moneys would apply. Therefore, for people to take advantage of it this year...tax advisers then knew how to take advantage of the program.
So if the government was going to change—take my recommendations, which they should have done—then they should have done it well in advance of the end of the tax year, around which farmers were doing their financial planning. I believe the minister made his retroactive cancellation of the program on April 21, after they already did their financial planning.
As I said earlier, what would the uproar be if they did the same thing retroactively regarding our RRSPs? There would be a revolution in this country.
So I just want to straighten the member out regarding the date. The quote is correct, but it shows how poorly this government planned, and it failed to give advance notice to farmers to take advantage of a financial program that could have helped them but isn't there now.