Mr. Chair, that is indeed unfortunate that on the first night of a take note debate on an issue of this importance, despite their new Prime Minister's claim that he wants to address the so-called democratic deficit, to use his term, that we cannot have longer to quiz the Minister of Agriculture on this critical issue.
Recognizing the fact that we want to share the limited time with others, I want to begin to make just a couple of quick points. One is that the minister started out his remarks by suggesting that it was the Liberal member for Huron--Bruce who prompted this. I would beg to differ. It was the House leader of the opposition, the Conservative Party of Canada, who actually took the time to write a letter to the Speaker to request an emergency debate, and actually go through the process and the correct procedure. Therefore, I want that on the record at the outset.
The problem we have is that the minister in the limited time of 10 minutes basically gave farmers across Canada and farm families who are suffering now a rundown of what has happened over the last two months. They know what has happened. They want to know what the government will do, not what has happened in the past.
He recognized that consumption of beef has risen and yet farmers have not seen an increase in price to them, even though the price has stayed up in the supermarkets.
What is his government actually going to do down the road, today, starting tonight, to correct this problem?