Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent question. It will give me a chance to speak about the agricultural producers in Quebec.
Some 50% of all Canada's milk production is based in Quebec. Every one of those farmers in that 50% is affected by the culled cow situation. In the West, they say they are major beef producers, but dairy farming is concentrated in Quebec. If we talk about dairy farming, we are talking about culled cows.
At present, culled cows are no longer sufficient, in that revenues for dairy farmers are no longer adequate. When cows no longer produce milk, they are sent to the slaughterhouse to become meat, such as hamburger, for instance. This income has enabled farmers to make ends meet. This income, for example, often goes to paying down the mortgage or loans that were taken out to buy farm machinery.
It is very difficult for them. When I toured our ridings with other members from the centre of Quebec, we saw people's despair. Many young people who have taken up farming are now facing bankruptcy. Their despair and impotence in the face of this crisis is very obvious.
We keep telling them that Liberal government officials are travelling to the United States and meeting with the secretaries of state who are managing the embargo imposed on Canada, but our delegations always come back empty-handed, without any solution. What do they do on these trips? What do they talk about? The embargo has yet to be lifted, and our producers are still being punished.
I would also like to point out that the mad cow crisis occurred in Alberta, over 6,000 kilometres away from our region. When the same crisis occurred in England, which is about 100 kilometres from the French border, France was not punished.
The Bloc Quebecois has always asked the federal government to frame this crisis in a regional context. In Quebec, we were the first ones to set up a tracking system. Since 1993, we have had a system which guarantees that, should this kind of problem ever occur, we would be able to track the sick animals within the hour. Therefore, why punish a whole region because of one cow that came from a province located 6,000 kilometres away?
We really need adequate programs now. It is very important to maintain agricultural programs, because farming is the very basis of life. If people can no longer eat, they will die.
In Quebec, we have a system that is recognized throughout the world as being extremely safe—