Larry Miller at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee

On November 28th, 2007. See this statement in context.

November 28th, 2007 / 4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

I can't retire.

I have a question here, Bob, for you. Your colleagues here from the National Farmers Union have recently filed a formal brief with the Ontario ombudsman regarding the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The NFU has basically made a number of statements to the effect that the provincial department is malfunctioning, it's failing Ontario's agricultural producers, and they've asked the ombudsman to investigate the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

This leads me to some of your discussion. You came here today in support of what you call AgriFlex. You're asking that the federal government allow federal agricultural funding to be transferred to the provinces and that they let the provinces basically do with it what they please.

Given the accusations by the NFU in regard to the Ontario ministry, have you reconsidered your proposal from CFA to the federal government in support of AgriFlex in any way?

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