Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of agriculture. During a meeting of the national safety advisory committee a few months ago, Paul Martin from the department of agriculture stated that it was possible to cover negative margins in the design of a current AIDA program according to article 7 of annex 2 of the WTO agreement. Arbitrarily the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food decided not to cover negative margins at a cost to Canadian farmers.
Why were negative margins not covered in the AIDA program if they were WTO compliant?