Mr. Chair, I want to congratulate and thank my colleague from Miramichi for his wise comments this evening and his careful analysis of this problem. I want to congratulate all members of the House whom I have heard speak this evening with knowledge, passion and concern for a very serious problem facing our country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has assumed his responsibilities very quickly. He has made certainly our government and Canadians proud in the way he has handled this very difficult situation, and I want to thank him on behalf of producers in my constituency for his work. However, I was hoping I could pick up on a comment that my colleague from Miramichi made with respect to some of the difficulties in our own province of New Brunswick.
He and I have friends, the Acton family, who have been big beef producers in my part of New Brunswick for many generations. I have had a chance to discuss this serious situation with them a number of times and I know the member for Miramichi has. They consistently tell us about the problem of the lack of a slaughter facility and slaughter capacity, and what that means for their costs and for their ability to produce beef viably.
Would the member expand on some of the difficulties that this might represent for producers in our province and what suggestions he might have to try to address this imbalance?