Mr. Speaker, yesterday I met with Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Chris d'Entremont of Nova Scotia, along with Willy Versteeg of Barney Brook Farms in Milford Station and Brian Smith, executive director of agriculture for the Province of Nova Scotia. They wanted to talk about two issues.
The first issue obviously was the effects and after-effects of hurricane Juan and the amount of damage done to barns and silos, especially in the Musquodoboit Valley area. The other issue they wanted to talk about was more federal assistance for BSE. Neither one of those files has been handled very well by the government.
My colleague from Kings--Hants stood in the House yesterday asking for assistance on hurricane Juan. The government gave a namby-pamby answer and in fact did not really give him any answer at all.
The truth is simply this. For the last five disasters that have affected the province of Nova Scotia, dating back to 1999, not one of them has been paid for. Not one cent has been received from the federal government yet.