Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his observations and questions. He referred to dairy farmers in his riding and I want to tell him that I have dairy farmers in my riding.
I also point out what I think is important for the purposes of his question. The dairy farmers in my riding are concentrated largely in French communities, primarily French speaking communities. The dairy farmers in Provencher, the southern part of my French communities, are very similar to those in his riding. The operations in 1993 are much the same. I would never suggest that the operations in my hon. friend's riding are somewhat further ahead or further behind those in mine.
I point out again that dairy farmers in Canada, including those in the hon. member's riding, have done quite well in the past 20 years under a Liberal program of supply management. Just to provide the hon. member with ongoing assurance, the government will continue to express that loyalty to the people of Quebec, to provide help for them and to stand up for the dairy farmers in Quebec.
On the second point about slaughterhouses, I am working on a similar kind of proposal with my provincial colleagues in the southeast corner of Provencher. We are anticipating that our exports in the hog and cattle industry are going to double over the next 10 years. We are looking at capitalizing on that in terms of value added.
I would ask the hon. member to have his membership convey their interest in terms of entering into secondary processing with value added to bring benefits to the community. I welcome that kind of interactive process. I can assure the hon. member we are doing everything in government to ensure that young farmers in his area and in my area have the same opportunities as their fathers and grandfathers did under a Liberal government.