Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. gentleman for his question. I appreciate the concerns which have been expressed by his constituents.
Since the government came to office, offshore manufacturing beef imports have not gone up. In fact, they have gone down dramatically. In 1993, they amounted to something over 126,000 tonnes. In 1995, that figure had dropped to less than 82,000 tonnes. In 1996, the figure has gone down so far this year by a further 20 per cent.
The reality of low beef prices is a North American phenomenon caused by an oversupply situation in both Canada and the United States. I want to assure the hon. gentleman that we take seriously the matter of promoting our domestic market, and are making very substantial progress in encouraging Canadian processing from Canadian sourced beef.