Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With respect to Mr. Miller and Mr. Preston, I'll try to be as diplomatic as possible.
The reality is that tobacco farmers are facing a severe crisis, to the point where some of them have taken their own lives. What they do not need from the federal government--the federal government that leads the nation, as far as I understand it--is some banal, vapid, diluted, watered-down phraseology such as “continue to work with all partners”.
Mr. Chair, it's an absurdity. This is not a new problem. The government has been the government for 27 months. The members opposite are proposing to continue working together; let's all try to get along. But if the manufacturers want to veto something, there goes any type of exit strategy.
Simply put, the federal government needs to take the lead. The federal government is being asked to immediately implement an exit strategy for tobacco producers.
We will all recall, I suspect, the Minister of Agriculture in the House, when I asked him a couple of times about this, saying that we will get the job done sooner rather than later. Well, let me tell you, tobacco producers did not interpret that to mean we'll “continue to work with all partners”, or we'll develop a task force.
Simply put, I can't vote, in good conscience, in favour of the amendment. I think the federal government has to step up to the plate, after 27 months, and actually do something in a concrete fashion for tobacco producers in this country.