Mr. Speaker, the government has had five years to respond to this and deal with it, knowing full well it was coming.
When the parliamentary secretary gets up and talks about the $17 million, $20 million or whatever it is to launch an awareness campaign in the United States, it is something like taking a wet noodle down there and knocking on the door of the president. No one will hear it. Ronald McDonald and the Hamburgler will be more well known in the United States of America than this issue. The government simply has dropped the ball on it. Even some of the former ministers who represented the government in the House admit the same, as does every provincial premier in the country. The government simply has dropped the ball on this issue.
The parliamentary secretary got up and talked about the piddling $20 million. That would keep the industry in Canada going for exactly 15 minutes.