Mr. Speaker, I have just one question for the minister.
In the minister's remarks there was not one single reference to tax relief as a possible tool for dealing with this problem. I wonder why that is. The government has a surplus, so at least tax relief is a live option; it is not something that is academic. The federal government is one of the greatest imposers of taxes on agriculture that there is, so it is not as if it is not in the taxation game.
The NISA program is a net income dependent program. If the minister would calculate what the amount of the NISA might have been if there had been five years of tax relief prior to this particular period, surely he would see that that program would be stronger than it is.
Why does the minister not, for the sake of his producers, become an advocate of tax relief as at least one of the measures that would have helped this situation and still could help?