Mr. Speaker, the government has had plenty of time to deal with the BSE crisis. Looking back, a solution within a few weeks would have been great and within months would have been tolerable, but by letting nearly a year pass without a solution, the government has guaranteed a disaster.
We still have no plan to deal with the cull cows. We have no new slaughter facilities and the border still remains closed.
Statistics Canada has released the cold, hard facts detailing just how bad things are getting. It becomes clear that this is not a million dollar crisis as the government would lead us to believe, but a billion dollar crisis.
The hope was that the border would be open by now, but the reality is that cattle stocks have reached an all-time high. The prices ranchers are receiving for their product are at an all-time low. Meanwhile, the federal support programs are falling significantly short of addressing the disaster.
The calls I am now receiving are of abject distress. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Prime Minister have once again failed Canadian agriculture.