Mr. Chair, I am actually shocked by a couple of comments that the member made.
It is absolutely terrible that a Canadian member of Parliament would stand in this House and basically imply that someone else's problem, which is happening in this country, is of no concern to her. It is absolutely terrible for a member of Parliament to take that position.
The member opposite asked why we penalize Quebec producers. Quebec producers are not being penalized. We operate under a control system, under programs that are to a great extent national in scope, and I will come to that in a moment.
The member asked why we would penalize Quebec producers for something that was of no concern to them. I think it is of concern to every Quebec producer if any animal in this country has BSE because the beef industry is integrated. Cattle move from Quebec west. Cattle in the west move from the west to Quebec. Some cattle from elsewhere in the country are slaughtered in Quebec.
The fact is that in terms of her point, why not just make Quebec a region and leave them out of this problem, it is pretty near impossible to do that on BSE but it is something we have done in other cases where we could. We have used the principle of regionalization with significant success in the past for the benefit of producers in Quebec and elsewhere in the case of tuberculosis, avian influenza in B.C. which was a real disaster for producers but we were able to isolate it there so that Quebec producers and the rest of the producers in Canada could continue to ship and export.
However, on BSE, and I want to make this point specifically, no country has successfully zoned for BSE. To assure our trading partners of BSE freedom, Canada would need detailed records documenting the movement of animals, their point of origin and point of slaughter, feed and animal products into and out of that area and, because of the long incubation period for BSE, records would need to date back many years.
In this instance it is impossible to go to that regionalization. We have done it in other instances. Is the member really suggesting that either she, her party or Quebec producers just do not give a darn about the rest of country? Is that what she is really suggesting in her remarks? I hope not.