Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to counter the previous member's comments on the perception of this being rushing through. I just want to remind everyone that this government pulled out of negotiations in March 2019, only to re-engage again this summer. We also had the Prime Minister making comments that the United Kingdom didn't have the “bandwidth” to be negotiating, and who then also insinuated that their negotiating team was out of practice, which isn't overly helpful, you would think, during negotiations. All the while, over 20 other countries were able to sign agreements during this time. We'll just put that on record to put the conversation into context.
I do have a question for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.
You mentioned that you are disappointed if this is the final agreement that exists for the long term. I was wondering about this. In some of the conversations you've had, was it your perception that there was going to be a simple rollover? Was that always the perception?
We've heard that the government has been working on this for three years. Over that time, was it your understanding that it was going to be a simple rollover and there were going to be no changes? Or was there a point in time when there seemed to be a shift into saying “we're not going to be making any changes and we're going to roll over with the same agreement”?