Mr. Speaker, with a $10 billion surplus, there is simply no excuse why the government should stand around and watch the western beef industry implode.
We have two quarantines in effect here in Canada at the present time. We have one in the beef industry, primarily in western Canada, and we have the SARS outbreak in Toronto.
Three months after the economic disaster hit, tourism workers and businesses are still looking for their first red penny in compensation. Why is the government now considering withholding $800 million, saying in effect that Toronto's economic disaster is not real?