Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm glad to have the floor back after I was so rudely interrupted by the vice-chair.
Mr. Chairman, I have a real concern here. This is a bad piece of legislation. Certainly, our party has been very, very clear here that when you've got a bad piece of legislation, let's defeat it. Let's defeat the legislation. Let's defeat this motion to extend debate. Let's just get on with dealing with the issue at hand, which is the fact that we've got a bad piece of legislation before us, one that will harm the interests of farmers, one that will harm the interests of the industry, one that will do a lot of damage to our trade relationships, and one that will do a lot of damage to the future of farming. That is something that we have been discussing and something that we've spent a lot of time travelling across this country studying. Now it's been left to the side while we deal with legislation that, frankly, could have been defeated at second reading had the Liberals had the guts to stand up and do so.
The point has been made, but certainly I have the same concerns. I was making that point earlier, that regarding the Liberals, I just can't be sure that I can count on them to do what they say. Certainly, tomorrow their leader could come forward and whip them, just like he did with the gun registry bill, as an example. Rather than do what's in the best interests of farmers, they will stand up and do what they're told by Michael Ignatieff.
I just don't want to see any time extension granted because I'm concerned that it will give them more opportunity to have a chance to flip-flop. If they've now said they're on the record as being opposed to this bill, then I would call on them to stand with us and defeat this piece of legislation and this motion.
Let's get on with things, and let's move on with things, like the study we've got on the future of farming. Let's move on with the motion that Mr. Hoback and Mr. Valeriote have co-sponsored to study biotech and its future implications for the agriculture industry. That certainly seems to me to be the kind of thing we need to be doing in this committee, the kind of debate we need to be having.
If this is not a piece of legislation the Liberals can support, then why are we wasting our time carrying on with debate on it? We've been very clear as a government that we're not supporting it. We won't be supporting it. If the Liberals really are true to their word, that this is what they intend to do as well, I do not understand why they would want to carry on with something that they would then see no value in either. We just cannot be certain that we can take their word and trust them on this.
Again, I think we need to look at biotech and its implications for farming. We've got an opportunity to do just that with the motion that's been put forward. Certainly, even in the context of the future of farming, there's opportunity to look at biotech in terms of what it may or may not be able to do in terms of helping out farmers to be able to see the future of agriculture continue with our young farmers going forward. They've certainly been very clear.
I know both in the time that we travelled across this country hearing from young farmers and also with my own opportunities to speak with farmers in my riding and elsewhere in the country, they've been very clear that they understand the need for research and development and new opportunities for farmers, be it new markets being opened up to them through the good work that Minister Ritz, the trade minister, and the Prime Minister have done.... This has been very much appreciated by farm groups all across this country, because of the great work that is being done to help farmers have more opportunities to market their products. These are the kinds of things that will help ensure the future of farming, things like new opportunities. Certainly, when we look at research and development and biotech, we do see opportunities there for farmers.
To see a motion and a bill like this that would do harm and damage the interests of our farmers by removing opportunities for innovation from the agriculture industry is certainly something that I have a huge concern about. It's something that I just cannot allow to be carried on when I know that it's been made very clear to me by farmers that they have a concern about the confusion and the uncertainty being created by this piece of legislation and the implications of it, and by the fact that they're very unclear on the position of the Liberal Party in particular. It just really causes them great reasons for concern and confusion.
I stand with farmers in saying that if this is a piece of legislation that will not be anything that would help in the interests of the future of farming or help the agriculture industry to be able to continue to see new opportunities, then why carry on with a motion like this one? Why carry on with a piece of legislation like this one? Let's just defeat it.
Certainly, to me, that is exactly what farmers want to see us do. They want to see us defeat this motion. They want to see us defeat this legislation. That's exactly what I intend to do and that's exactly what this government intends to do. I would just call on my Liberal opposition across the way to do the same: to have the best interests of farmers in mind.
Certainly, I hear time and time again from farmers on the issues they care about and are concerned about, and yet on every single one of those issues, the opposition, the Liberals in particular--they're not there. They're not supporting what farmers want to see happen.
This legislation is just one more example of that. Certainly--