Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct the false impression the member is trying to create on two fronts, the first one being on Seattle.
I do not think the member read very clearly the minority reports. They are not all that long, perhaps two or three pages, but perhaps they tax the mental abilities of the parliamentary secretary. In the report, we said very clearly that we are in favour of a global rules based trading regime but we are not in favour of the current model. We are not in favour of the current assumptions and presuppositions that attend those negotiations.
I made it very clear in the House yesterday that we are not in favour of a round of talks which includes investment or services. We think these should be taken off the table altogether. Things like agriculture are already on the table and therefore there is work to be done in that area. However, we are not in favour of adding new sectors to the domain of the WTO. We are very clear about that. If that means not being at Seattle, then so be it.
The government could go to Seattle. It is not a question of geographic location. It is not a question of whether there are Canadian government bodies in Seattle. It is a question of what the government is doing there. It could go there and say very clearly that it does not want a new round of talks on investment or on services or any round of talks on investment and services. If it was doing that we would say “go to Seattle”. However, that is not what it is doing. What it is going to do when it gets there is something that we find quite unacceptable.
I have heard this misrepresentation before, and I am not sure if it comes from deliberation or from ignorance, but there are many aspects of the NDP agricultural policy which if implemented would not have left Canadian farmers in the situation they are in now, particularly going back to the elimination of the Crow rate, the Crow benefit, the western grain transportation subsidy and many other supports that the Liberals have taken away from Canadian farmers over the objections of the NDP.
The member gets up and pulls some obscure fact, if indeed it is a fact or not just something that is being fed by the spin doctors on his own party side, and claims that this undermines our position, a position being taken right now in the context of new developments. No one could have predicted exactly what would happen in 1999 with respect to commodity prices, drought in some parts of Saskatchewan, floods in some parts of Manitoba and various other things that have happened.
As far as I am concerned, this is just a cheap shot and not the sort of thing one should spend any more time on.