Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the hon. member who has just spoken, that everyone agrees, in fact, that there is a need to control federal government spending, which has been out of control for a number of years and which has brought us to financial disaster.
In a world where markets are said to be increasingly dealing with internationalization and globalization and where our producers need help in research and development to enable them to deal with worldwide competition, where, in his opinion, is the logic in suddenly stopping all research and development in the area of sheep production by deciding to close the one experimental farm that worked in this area and that had a national mandate across Canada? What message is being sent to sheep producers in Canada when they are told they will have no more support in research and development?
Why was the decision made to take everything away from this sector? Is this not what might be called a poor cut, as compared with others, which could be made where there would be no direct impact on an important sector of agricultural production, such as sheep production-a form of production making agricultural diversification possible, particularly in Quebec and Alberta? What, in his opinion, is the logic behind such a decision?