Thank you very much.
I wasn't going to make any new comments today. We seem to be going around in a vicious circle here. Mr. Easter talked about this committee and other committees. If we continue to split hairs, we're going to end up like other committees. It's not the big issues that you get hung up on; it's the little issues. We have to rise above this partisanship. When we have good news, gentlemen and ladies, why don't we take advantage of that fact?
I go back to the question, why are we here? We're here for the producer. For every one of us, if we look each other in the eye, that's why we're supposed to be here. Why are we playing with certain semantics about what the Prime Minister said, or suggesting “He announced it, and I wasn't there in the picture”, and this and that? What the hell has that got to do...? Can you imagine having to explain to one of your farmers that “I wasn't there in that photo op, and that's not right, and that's why I opposed this”? To me, that's not what we're here for. We're here to advance the cause of the farmer.
We have farmers who, by your own admission, are losing their farms, and here we are trying to split hairs. Mr. Bellavance doesn't think the Prime Minister should make the announcement. Well, who the hell should make it, the leader of the Bloc? The Prime Minister of this country has the right to make the announcements regarding the direction the government's going to go in, and I think it just makes sense that the agriculture minister should be there, not a representative from the Bloc. That's the government.
How can the Bloc say the Prime Minister doesn't have a right to make an announcement to help a farmer? You people sit on this committee, you go into the House of Commons, and you say you support the farmers, but you don't want good news being told to farmers? You don't want to move forward with good news?
Where are we coming from? We're supposed to be here for the farmers. What are we doing discussing this? It just doesn't make any sense.
Let's move on with this and let's get going with what we're supposed to be here for: to help the farmer.
Thank you.