Mr. Speaker, in the parliamentary secretary's remarks earlier he said, “We will continue to defend the interests of farmers in international trade negotiations”. That is what he said.
Four years ago when the WTO said that countries should start looking at a 20% reduction of subsidies in their agricultural sector, the Liberal government, as the parliamentary secretary said, defended the interests of farmers by not taking 20%, 30% or 40% off the subsidies in Canada. It took 100% of the subsidies with respect to grain and oilseeds production in western Canada.
Does he sincerely believe what he just said, that he will continue to defend the interests of our farmers in the future? They are reeling from the Liberal policies of the elimination of the Crow benefit and other subsidies. How can he possibly hurt the farmers any more? We would like to know because the farmers should be getting ready for the onslaught and the butchering of their agricultural life by the government. Can the parliamentary secretary answer how he is going to continue to defend those types of attacks and persecution of our farmers?