Mr. Speaker, supply management is the system of farming developed in Canada. We depend on it for dairy products, chickens, turkeys and eggs. The quality and cost of these is the best in the world.
Supply management is also a system of farming which produces farmers. Young people are attracted to supply management sectors. This brings in new farmers and helps maintain family farms between generations. In rural areas like Peterborough County, it is supply managed farms which underpin economic and social life. They are the underpinning of rural Canada.
I urge the Government of Canada to continue to support and enhance supply management at home and overseas. The time has come to promote it, rather than just defend it. Let us work to mitigate the particular problems that BSE brings for dairy farmers. Let us designate Canadian milk powder as a food aid for starving people around the world.