Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Mégantic-Compton-Stanstead for his spirited speech regarding agricultural producers in his riding. I too represent an agricultural riding in Alberta. I am a farmer and I appreciate his concerns for the people who are affected.
However, I do want to remind the hon. member that no one is talking about refusing to buy milk from Quebec, even though Quebec now enjoys 50 per cent of the Canadian fluid milk market with only approximately 25 per cent of the population. If Quebec were to separate, that might influence whether the rest of Canada would buy milk from Quebec. It certainly would not buy milk based on a 351 per cent tariff. It would be looking for a price based on a world price. If it is going to be competing it has to meet the competition. I see that as the biggest threat, not the decision of whether to buy from Quebec.
I would like the hon. member to give us some idea of how the supply-managed producers in his riding can make the transition from the current system, with 351 per cent as the high tariff on butter-they are all in that range-down to free trade in agricultural products, which is going to happen over a period of time. How do we make that transition easier for the producers? It is of concern to all of us. He talked about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that these people have invested. The same situation exists in the grain farming industry in western Canada.
It seems to me that as responsible people we have to not pretend that we will have the supply-managed tariffs in effect forever. We must look at the reality that we are going to have free trade and there will be zero tariffs down the road. We have to help these people make the adjustments necessary to get there. I would welcome his comments in that regard.