Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Like Mr. Simard, I don't always sit on this committee, but I appreciate the opportunity to be here on behalf of Mr. Fast.
In reading this and listening to some of the comments--and Mr. Simard just echoed exactly what I was going to bring up--I'd like to point out some of the comments that Mr. Malo made, that we should be addressing any and all kinds of poverty around the country and looking at it.
This would be a question for Ms. Mourani, to her motion. Nowhere, any more than Quebec, and certainly across the country, are farmers, particularly beef farmers since 2003...not only do they make less than the poverty level that you refer to here, but they've been making zero, and a lot of them have been losing years and years of equity in their businesses. Along the lines of Mr. Malo and looking after poverty, and Mr. Simard's comments that it should entail more, is she willing to include all of that?
I say that a little bit tongue-in-cheek because there are all kinds of problems. You can have problems across the country. Some of my best friends in my riding are very good artists and what have you.
I wasn't yapping while you were talking, so if you wouldn't mind giving me the same respect....
Some of my very good friends in the riding are well-known artists, like Paul Duff and Sue Ellerton and some of them. They've done very well. They entered that by choice, and the good ones are doing very well, and they will personally tell you that.
Mr. Chairman, it sounds like the committee has a lot of good work to do. In the limited time I have seen this motion...I think the committee could spend its time a lot better and could certainly go more in-depth with other subjects.