Mr. Speaker, the point is well taken.
Regarding the issue of how to address farmers who say to us: "What are we going to do in the meantime?", your leader very ably this evening in an earlier dialogue said that we cannot get rid of these subsidies and aids immediately, that it is going to take some time. We need an interim period where we adjust.
That is what we are asking our farmers to do. They are prepared to do that. Farmers realize that subsidies are of the essence at this point in time because we are competing with countries that are much more highly subsidized than this country.
The fact that we now have a definition of subsidy is important. That was defined when we reached our agreement under NAFTA. I hope and trust as we go into the GATT period over the next number of years that we will find less and less need for subsidies.
I trust that farmers in the western part of this country recognize that we are heading in a direction where we will no longer need subsidies.