Mr. Chair, following up somewhat on my colleague's first question, he said that our expectation of the minister this evening was to get some concrete solutions from him, for instance to be able to tell the dairy farmers that have come here to Ottawa that the government has $10 million or $20 million to invest. Between January 1 and today there has been no support program in place.
All we have had this evening is a ministerial travelogue. He went to Japan, and to Korea. He has announced that broader testing would be in place within five years.
There is nothing concrete for farmers and producers, nothing concrete. This is a major disappointment, for the farmers at least, and particularly those I have the most contact with in central Quebec. I would also like point out that, historically, no minister of agriculture, and most particularly not the last one, has ever acknowledged the differences among Canada's various regions.
Take the aid packages for example. If I compare the situation in Quebec and in western Canada, that is great if western Canada is happy with part of the program. In Quebec, however, dairy farmers are culling 25% of their herds. Under this compensation program, they will be getting a mere 16%. This means they will not be getting any compensation for 35% of their livestock.
By comparison, in western Canada, only 9% of herds are culled. Therefore, they will be receiving 90% in compensation. This goes to show that there are regional disparities.
Providing $1 a day in compensation fails to recognize the fact that, in certain parts of Canada, the livestock does not live inside the barn, but outside. The cost is less than when one has to sell cull because there is no room for them inside the barn come the fall. There are differences like that.
With respect to health regulations, the president of the UPA, Laurent Pellerin, said that had we had special regulations for the regions of Canada, only one region would be affected by the mad cow crisis right now. But this difference between the regions and Quebec in particular was never acknowledged.
Is the new minister prepared to announce today that he plans to sit down with provincial representatives to examine these differences to ensure that the fact that 47% of cull cows are in Quebec, for instance, is not overlooked? Not every region is the same. In other regions, other factors will be considered.
These differences must be taken into account, instead of having national standards which made me say, one evening, that mad cow disease was being made into a symbol of Canadian unity.