Mr. Speaker, frankly the minister's definition of over time and what we heard in the media report from the Minister of Transport is quite different in the view of most Canadians. He is talking about July 1995 which is a very short time, almost shorter than the time the minister took to answer that question.
As the minister knows Reformers advocate consolidating a dozen existing agriculture support programs into three. We then propose redirecting some of the savings toward deficit reduction and redirecting subsidies under GRIP and the Western Grain Transportation Act to a trade distortion adjustment program, an expanded whole farm NISA stabilization account and a strengthened crop insurance plan.
My question is for the minister. Would he tell the House how much of the $650 million subsidy to the railways will be directed to some new or existing safety net program and how much will be redirected to deficit reduction or to something else?