I think my colleague pretty well covered the ground that I was going to get into in regard to the present scandals that are going on. There's only time for one question, and March 21 was too late to have had the emergency meeting anyway. We should have had our emergency meeting before that, before the international trade meeting that we've already had. We should have had this before so it could be dealt with.
In yesterday's Globe and Mail one farmer indicated that they're already in the fields in Alberta now. That's in the Globe and Mail, so you can have a look at that for yourselves. I guess it may be early but they're in the fields.
Canola is just one industry. I agree at present it looks like it's the only formal one that's being dealt with here, but if you ask the industry, they're very skittish on being able to manage this. How would you feel if you were shipping something to somebody and they decided, on what we think is a non-tariff barrier basically, that your product isn't fit anymore? Would you ship them another crop? That's why we're hearing rumours about some of the other crops that are out there as well.
I think that's unacceptable. All farmers want to know, and the industry wants to know, is what the plan is to get this solved. That's why it's so important to have these people appear before the agriculture committee. I cannot believe that the agriculture minister, if they asked her, wouldn't want to appear before the agriculture committee. It just makes common sense that we would deal with this here. If this isn't an agricultural issue, as well as a trade issue, I don't know what is. If it isn't affecting foreign affairs, then what would?
I think it's important to have those three ministers together, but we need more than an hour, as has been pointed out. I was at that international trade meeting when we were promised two hours. We could have a separate meeting with the officials, as well as one with the ministers. They both should have been held ages ago, and we've still not had either one of them.
I'll just leave it at that.