Madam Speaker, first, the hon. member for Frontenac will surely agree that the bill was drafted in consultation with Quebec's dairy industry, which is very supportive of this legislation.
I do not want to get into a debate as to which agreement takes precedence over the other. Rather, I want to congratulate the hon. member for Frontenac, who is the opposition's critic on agriculture, for his very positive comments, in this House, on April 4, 1995, regarding the development of the memorandum of understanding which integrates the marketing of industrial milk. Indeed, the hon. member was very pleased with this change.
Consequently, I wonder what the opposition is now up to. The fact is that, if the amendments to the act do not come into effect by August 1, 1995, there is a risk that producers' contributions could no longer be used to finance exports to the U.S.
Considering that Quebec accounts for over 47 per cent of the industrial milk production, and that most of this production is exported to the U.S., it only makes sense to pass this bill as quickly as possible, so that producers in Quebec and in the rest of Canada can benefit from it.