Mr. Speaker, Atlantic Canada farmers have suffered dramatic harm from the ban on Canadian beef by the U.S.A. and other countries. Government programs have been too little too late. Government efforts to resolve the issue have totally failed. Atlantic farmers must now adapt to the possibility of the border never opening again, which means we must create slaughter capacity to process cattle that once were shipped to the United States.
The co-op organization on Prince Edward Island in conjunction with the P.E.I. government have invested almost $20 million in a brand new plant that is almost finished. However, the current circumstances now require the plant to have two additional features not originally planned. First, in order to guarantee a quality product, traceability is absolutely essential. Second, it needs a federally inspected cull cow line in order to process and sell our own beef to Atlantic Canadians.
I urge the Minister of Agriculture to act quickly to help all Atlantic farmers in all four provinces by providing funding for both the traceability program and to help the cull cow line expansion, and to act now.