Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member across the way. His passion and concern for his constituents in the agricultural community certainly came forward.
I have some concerns, though, because part of his approach is too limited in its scope. He is right. We do have to deal with the issues and the concerns of our primary producers. However there is more than one way to do that.
One of the things that is critical is that our primary producers have a greater opportunity to paint a long term vision for agriculture. The hon. member has spoken about a long term vision for agriculture. Part of that should be developing down the chain from producer to consumer. There is a fairly long chain between when we produce the goods until we eventually sell them. The more of that chain and that value adding of our agriculture production that can actually occur in rural Canada in our farming communities, the better off our rural communities would be and the better off would be their long term sustainability.
If we are to create a value added entity within a rural community, access to capital must be one of those issues. If the FCC's mandate is expanded, not so that it can fund just any old business because that is not what is being done but to fund businesses that are part of that chain, we would be working toward the sustainability of rural communities.
Could the member explain why he would not see that as a positive way of helping our primary producers and a way of sustaining our rural communities, which I know is critical to him and to all rural members who sit in the House?