Agriculture Committee on Nov. 19th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

I want to make a couple of comments on some of the comments that have been going around at this meeting.

The first is regarding the per head payment. Mr. Easter now says that it's a terrible thing. However, I have a quote here. He was on the radio in June 2009. The member for Malpeque acknowledged that the risk of trade retaliation “can be seen as a trade violation, and that's true”. That's what he said on the radio, Chair, that per head payments could be seen as a trade violation.

He's also done a lot of flip-flopping. I'll give a few more quotes. One of the quotes he gave, again on the radio, was “I think it would be wrong to say it wouldn't help. Federal loans will certainly help.” I was talking about the loan program for helping hog farmers. So he agrees with us on that.

Then he says, “That's going to give them more usable cash.” That's another quote in favour of us, Chair.

Then he says--

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

On a point of order.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

One of the problems here is the selective comments. I wonder if he could quote the whole interview while he's doing it. It was a very good interview.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

The media usually do that, so I don't know how Mr. Lemieux wouldn't.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

On the last point he makes...I'm saying that he's agreeing with us in that it's going to give them more usable cash. And then during a debate he said, “This is the best disguised Ponzi scheme in the country.”

I'm saying that he's not consistent in his approach. He just throws out these headline-grabbing comments that are sometimes for us, sometimes against us, etc.

The last thing I want to comment on, Chair, is about the APP. He was saying that for farmers to have access to the loan program under pork farming, they have to pay off the advanced payment program loan, or APP loan, that they have. He seems outraged by that, but this is the same MP who was railing against the government for placing farmers in debt and not taking them out of debt. Mr. Easter should be glad that farmers are going to pay off some debt.

I've explained this to Mr. Easter before. But I think other people should realize that if they secure funding or secure a loan under the pork program, that's long-term funding. They should use that long-term funding to pay off their short-term APP loan. That just makes sense. You pay off your APP loan first. You now have in place a consolidated longer-term loan, and you can apply for APP again next year if you happen to need it.

That's a very sensible approach, Chair. I don't know what Mr. Easter would have against that. It just makes good common sense.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.

I'm going to call the question.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Lemieux, you have a notice of motion.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Are we moving to the report or are we moving to motions? What are we doing?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We have business to deal with, and there are actually two motions by you, Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Do you suggest that we do motions and get them done?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Lemieux, your first one, in the order they came in, is on Bill C-391.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

I'm not going to table that motion right now. I'm just going to let it rest.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay.

Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

On the topic that Mr. Lemieux's motion dealt with, I thought there was something that needed to be put on the record of this committee. It's a news item from the Castlegar News, a newspaper from Mr. Atamanenko's riding. It's an op-ed piece by one of the editors in his riding on this particular topic. I thought it was something that needed to be put on the record here at the committee. I'd like to read it verbatim.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

We're not debating the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

He has the floor. I'm waiting for a comment here. I'll judge it as he gets into it.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

I don't think the committee is the right place to read out op-eds when we're not even debating a motion on something that's dealing with the gun registry. It's bizarre that he would even consider doing this. I find this offensive and inappropriate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I didn't hear that he was going to read it out. If you would give me a minute, I'll judge on it accordingly.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair--

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

A point of order, Mr. Bellavance.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

As for the point of order, we heard what Mr. Richards was starting to read. They were comments from a newspaper, against the decision of one of our committee colleagues regarding a vote that does not even have anything to do with the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. If we all made such comments during committee business, it would probably be a very long meeting. If you let Mr. Richards do it, you have to let everyone do it. I have a lot to say about the Conservative party's farming policies, not about firearms.

I think it is completely inappropriate for Mr. Richards to be able to talk about that. We heard what he had to say, and that is enough.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I didn't hear anything about a quote about somebody because there has been so much talk around the table.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

I just want to point out that I'm not sure what Mr. Richards is about to read out. What I can say is the nervousness is obvious on the other side of the table. I can understand how, after the byelection results, Mr. Bellavance is also a lot more worried about ignoring the will of rural Quebeckers. Mr. Easter and Mr. Eyking have made their positions clear on it. Well, Mr. Easter is kind of for the ones he's against once again.... But I think the parliamentary secretary has made a very generous offer to not move it so that we don't have to have the rancour and debate about this, and I think we should accept the parliamentary secretary at his word.