Debates of Feb. 3rd, 2005

International Aid

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has a long history of helping the world's poorest countries. As finance minister the Prime Minister positioned Canada as an international leader on debt relief.

Yesterday the current finance minister opened a new chapter. Could the finance minister tell the House what led the rock star Bono yesterday to say, “This is the sort of Canada the world wants more of”?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to say that it was not just Bono, but it was also Chancellor Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, Oxfam Canada, and many others. They were reacting to Canada's proposal to eliminate 100% of the debt charges on amounts owed by poor countries to the major international financial institutions.

Canada's Prime Minister has indeed been long regarded as a world leader on debt relief for the poor, shifting money from debt to health and education. This most recent Canadian initiative maintains that leadership as we all go into the G-7 meetings this weekend.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Bill Casey, Conservative, North Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the media in Nova Scotia are full of rumours that the Northeast Nova drug section in Nova Scotia will be shut down at a time when drug related crimes are at an all-time increase. Also the RCMP has confirmed that it has 8 or 10 positions it cannot fill because it simply does not have the money.

Will the Solicitor General provide the money to fill those vacancies to provide an appropriate level of law enforcement in Nova Scotia? Will she confirm that the drug section will not be closed?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said in the House on numerous occasions in relation to questions from others, I do not involve myself in the operational matters of the RCMP.

However, let me reassure the hon. member that we have provided additional resources not only to the RCMP, but to other of our programming as it relates to a national drug strategy. The RCMP resources have been augmented nationally in its fight against illegal drugs.

The hon. member has talked to me about this matter, the specific issue involving his community of Truro. I suggest that he take up the issue with either the local RCMP or the commissioner of the RCMP because it is an operational matter.

Finance

[Charlie Penson, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, could the Minister of Finance inform the House when his government intends to bring down the 2005 budget?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to announce that I will present the 2005 budget for the Government of Canada in the House of Commons on Wednesday, February 23 at 4:00 p.m.

Francophone and Acadian Communities

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne is currently negotiating Canada-communities agreements. The FCFA estimates that $42 million per year is needed so that the francophone and Acadian communities can meet their needs. However, their funding level is only $24.4 million, an amount that has remained almost unchanged since 1992.

Did the Minister of Canadian Heritage intercede with her colleague at Finance to ensure that the government will follow up on the FCFA's request to increase this amount to $42 million annually—

[The Speaker]

I apologize for interrupting the hon. member, but the hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage has the floor.

[Liza Frulla, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. We are currently negotiating with communities. As members are aware, the agreements will be signed around March 31. The government is very sensitive indeed to the demands of the francophone communities outside Quebec.

We continue to work with these communities and maintain our good relationship with them.

Foreign Affairs

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in 1970 there was a joint communiqué wherein Canada only took note of the People's Republic of China's sovereignty claim to Taiwan. As late as April 23, 2004 our foreign affairs minister urged both sides across the Taiwan Strait to reduce tensions.

Could the Minister of Foreign Affairs provide his assurance, following the Prime Minister's trip to the PRC, that Canada's position regarding this issue remains as it was?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, there has been no change in Canada's one China policy, whose principles have remained consistent for more than 30 years and continue to be relevant and serve Canadian interests well.

Canada has always maintained that the issue of Taiwan's status should be resolved through peaceful means by China and Taiwan themselves, and that the outcome be acceptable to people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

So, we remain opposed to unilateral action of any kind by either party which could cause tensions to escalate, which would in turn have a negative impact on the region's stability and prosperity.

Employment Insurance

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Mr. Speaker, during the last election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to make some corrections to employment insurance, in particular by abolishing the 910-hour requirement, which disadvantages women and young workers in particular.

On behalf of the thousands of women and young people who heard him make that promise during the leaders' debate, this is my question for the Prime Minister: when does he plan to meet that commitment?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to tell the member for Chambly—Borduas that we are currently involved in a very detailed analysis, beginning with the proposals made by the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, and then moving on to the recommendations from the Liberal caucus task force. We hope to be able to come up with some new directions in this matter.

[The Speaker]

Order. It being Thursday, I believe the opposition House leader has a question that he would want to ask.

Business of the House

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, would the government House leader care to inform the House of Commons what the government's legislative agenda will be for the remainder of this week and into next week?

Furthermore, if he knows it, when does the government intend to have the debate on the same sex marriage legislation?

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue this afternoon under the business of supply.

The order of business for tomorrow and Monday will be second reading of Bill C-33, the income tax amendments; report stage of Bill C-10, the Criminal Code (mental disorder) bill; reference to committee before second reading of Bill C-37, the do-not-call bill; second reading of Bill C-31 respecting the international trade department; and second reading of Bill C-32 respecting the foreign affairs department.

Tuesday shall be an allotted day. Subject to further discussions, on Wednesday we would like to commence consideration of a bill respecting the first ministers' agreement on health care funding, after which we will resume the business already listed.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Supply

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to rise again on this most important issue, which we were discussing just before the break for Oral Question Period. At that time I had presented the House with certain very pertinent points.

Mr. Speaker, being extremely knowledgeable, neutral and impartial in all these matters, you will surely remember certain statements by the person who is today the Leader of the Opposition. When he was heading the National Citizens Coalition, this same leader of the Conservative Party used to criticize supply management in Canada.

Before oral question period, we were all speculating about the exact day that the Leader of the Opposition underwent his conversion to the side of supply management. Was it the day he became the leader of his party? Perhaps as he acquired a certain wisdom which, quite clearly, he did not have in the beginning? Was it purely for electoral purposes that he changed his point of view? Or did he simply “get it” all of a sudden?

I am free to speculate. I don't know the reason, but I would bet that it was not the last one. In fact, I do not think he understood very much at the time we are talking about. Still, the hon. Conservative members will no doubt be able to speak to us shortly about their leader, about when it was that the leader of the Conservative Party decided to support supply management.

In the meantime, in March 2004 the Liberal government of Canada, through the previous Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced financial assistance of close to a billion dollars for agricultural producers affected by the mad cow crisis.

Here are a few figures to illustrate what our government has done specifically on this issue. I address myself to certain colleagues in the Bloc, who were claiming earlier that the government had not done enough. That is not surprising, for the Bloc is very often wrong—most of the time, in fact.

To recall them to order, I point out that the government had announced at that time $53 million under the BSE recovery program and $17.7 million under the cull animal program. One hon. member said that there was no program for cull animals. For once she was wrong. There was $92.7 million through the transitional industry support program.

So certain announcements were made in Quebec only. In total, $163.8 million—I would not call that nothing—had been allocated and is still being allocated by the government to support Quebec farmers facing the mad cow crisis, when the president of the UPA, I am told, had said that the losses were in the neighbourhood of $141 million.

True, there continue to be difficulties and hard times. We have them in my own constituency. Still, let us not pretend that the hon. members of the Bloc who spoke today had it right. Once again, in fact, they did not say everything there is to say on this issue. They underestimated, as they often do, the Government of Canada's support for the agricultural sector.

There is another thing I would like to remind my colleagues, the hon. members opposite, especially the Bloc members. Thanks to the Canadian dairy production program, Quebec produces close to 50% of the fluid milk, of table milk, in Canada, even though its population is half that size.

It is thanks to this closed market that we have in Canada, namely supply management, that this system exists. With their sovereignist notions, if they left the Canadian federation, they know full well that this system would surely no longer exist for them, since they would no longer be here. But that will never happen in any case.

It is a closed system. You cannot open it again, because afterward it will no longer apply. It is a system that we have had for years. We have kept it through all the international negotiations in which we have participated. The hon. members of the BQ must know this, but they do not say so. It would be worse still if those who represent the rural ridings did not even know it.

So you see that the Minister of Agriculture and his predecessors have been truly tireless in working to support Canadian agriculture. Today, we have before us a motion, which reads as follows:

That, in light of the numerous recent disasters affecting agricultural communities across Canada and the government's failure to deliver timely financial relief to struggling farmers, whether by the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program or other programs, the House call on the government to immediately drop--

That is unilaterally, of course:

--the CAIS deposit requirement and honour the commitments it has already made to Canadian producers.

The commitments that were made were made by the Canadian government in cooperation with the provinces. They established a program together. I am not saying that the program cannot use improvement. I do not know of very many programs that do not merit improvement, for that matter.

If the hon. members across the way had been serious and brought in a motion to the House saying, “That this House call upon the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, together with his provincial counterparts, to improve the CAIS program to shorten the delays and further call upon the minister to work with his colleague, the Minister of Finance, to improve the program by increasing funds”, or something like that, then we could say that was a serious attempt to make things better.

The same parties across the way that are asking us to work with the provinces are now asking us to scrap our agreement with the provinces and take unilateral action in a federal-provincial program. That is nonsense and they know it. It is either that or there is another possibility.

The Leader of the Opposition may have actually written this himself, which would explain why it is so poorly drafted. The Leader of the Opposition's positions on agriculture have been known for some time. We know that when he was leading the National Citizens' Coalition he detested supply management. He said it openly. He has published it. He has printed it. He has circulated it throughout the country, including members' offices on Parliament Hill, so he cannot deny having made those statements.

Maybe those are efforts in fact by the Leader of the Opposition wanting to scrap some of the programs that we have, but our aim is not to scrap. Our aim is not to give less to farmers. Our aim is to make things better for them, to improve on the programs we have for the Canadian agricultural sector.

Yesterday a number of colleagues were at a technical briefing, some of whom I see in the House right now, where we were obtaining further information on the issues involving BSE or mad cow. We were also briefed on how the programs are being administered in Canada, how we are ensuring that the materials that were put into feed some years ago are not now, although that process has now totally changed, and how we are ensuring that the new processes are properly followed, including the monitoring of imported animal feed to ensure that no ruminant material gets into the system. Those are the things that we are all working on together.

Members of Parliament on all sides of the House were working together in that meeting yesterday and I thought were doing a fine job of it. There were members on all sides asking very pertinent, important questions.

That is an example of doing the right thing, not asking the House to order or suggest to the government that it unilaterally get out of an agreement with the provinces. Even if it did that, the government itself contributed 60% of the amount that is there, because the provinces also contribute in that program. Is the Conservative Party telling us that substituting the present program with 60% of something is good? Is that what it is telling us? I hope not. It does not want to reduce the help to farmers. It cannot want that. It is illogical. I am sure it does not. If that is not what it wants, then why did it put motions on the floor of the House drafted in the way they are?

The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the parliamentary secretary have worked very hard over the last while. The minister's parliamentary secretary led a cross-country consultation on farm income. He has been everywhere, working tirelessly. I know the parliamentary secretary very well. I have known him for a number of years. Everyone on all sides of the House can attest to his interest in the agricultural sector. We know how well-meaning he is, and he has done a very good job in that regard. He is meeting with groups of farmers across the country. He has even offered, I am told, to meet with some in my own constituency. That is the kind of thing that is being done to help the agricultural sector.

I listened to some speeches some time ago.

For example, one Bloc Québécois member was wondering why we could not isolate some parts of the country in order to get past the mad cow-related barriers affecting exports to the United States. First, it is true that all the cases come from one province in western Canada, except of course those that have been found in the U.S. I think there has been one case in the U.S. and that animal came from Canada, they say.

That does not change the fact that there is no way, or so we were told at yesterday's information session, to detect the presence of this illness in a live animal. In addition, the incubation period may be five, six, even seven years. And so it is impossible to segregate one part of the country. It is not like other diseases, such as the one called bluetongue where, given a few weeks, you can isolate an infected animal. This does not work in the case of mad cow disease. In any event, the scientists who came to talk to us say it is impossible.

On the other hand, and this is the most important point, it is not Canada's borders that are closed. The Government of Canada did not close the border; the American government did. Even if there were this kind of segregation, the American reaction would still have to be considered. We know very well that they have no desire to lift these restrictions.

Meanwhile, some positive things are going on. We know that as of March 7 live animals under 30 months, destined for slaughter, will be able to cross the border into the United States.

I was in Mexico in the last two weeks and the parliamentarians with whom we spoke also wanted to do at least as much about this as the United States, or even more, if they could do so in cooperation with the U.S., which is never easy.

All of that to say that parliamentarians can lobby. The minister is working very hard and once again, I congratulate him. We need more help in the agriculture sector. But it is unseemly to tell us that we should stop suddenly and set aside a federal-provincial agreement, because the result would probably be to reduce the amount of money going to farmers. The minister says no and I agree with him.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, whoever wrote the speech for the hon. member clearly did not understand the intent of the motion today. It appears that the member who just spoke does not really understand what we are asking. He does not appear to understand the crisis that our agriculture producers are in today because the CAIS program simply does not work for them.

Government assistance programs should be available to agriculture producers during a crisis such as the BSE crisis. The cattle producers do not have the money for the deposit. That is the bottom line. So they cannot take advantage of the assistance available to them under the CAIS program. That is what we are trying to get across to the government.

We are asking it to view this as a disaster assistance program and not require producers to come up with 25% of the total amount because they simply do not have it. The CAIS deposit program has been universally rejected by agriculture producers all across this country because it unfairly hurts the producers and it strikes them at a time when they do not have 25% of the money. That is what the intent of this whole motion is today.

While the hon. member who just spoke talked about marketing boards and all the other stuff, it had nothing to do with the motion. The nub of the motion is requesting that the government understand the plight of the farmers. They do not have the money to pay the 25% deposit required and we are asking the government to view this crisis as a disaster, and view it as an urgent crisis that has to be dealt with in an urgent manner. The farmers do not have the money. The cattle people do not have the money so they cannot access the program. What good is a program that they cannot access? That is what we are trying to get across.

I would like the hon. member to talk specifically about that point.

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my hon. colleague who I have known for a very long time. I know he defends his constituents very seriously. The hon. member across the way cannot disassociate himself however from the motion that is before the House. The motion that is before the House is before the House and I cannot bear any responsibility for writing the thing. It is here before us.

Second, I am not saying that we do not need to put more money into the programs that we have. Like everyone else, I made a speech in the House last week urging the Minister of Finance, when we had the prebudget consultation, to improve upon the funding that is there, and to, yes, obtain more help for our farmers. I do not think there is a rural member and probably a whole bunch of urban ones too, who would say anything otherwise. We want to continue to help our agricultural community and to make the sector more viable.

The member said in his remarks that he does not think the issues involving supply management are related to this. I am sorry, but in the case of the constituency that I represent a good portion of the BSE issue involves a cull cow program and all of that is under supply management. Thank heavens we have a supply management system and not the position espoused by the Leader of the Opposition, when he was leader of the National Citizens' Coalition, because the misery that is suffered by the beef farmers would be suffered by the dairy farmers to the exact same degree. Not that what they are living now is a picnic because of the loss of income through the cull cows. That is not worth much if anything, but the problem is that it would be even worse if we followed that kind of thinking.

The Leader of the Opposition talks about this whole farm production insurance program that he described in the Yorkton agricultural forum on January 13, 2005. He said:

The program would be funded one-third by the federal government, one-third by provincial governments, and one-third by the primary producers.

That is a far greater amount than what farmers are contributing now. The hon. member says they cannot afford to contribute what they are contributing now and would replace it by something to make them contribute more. That is not me that said these things. That is the Leader of the Opposition. That does not make it better. It makes it worse.

Our duty should be to support the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and ask him to continue to convince the Minister of Finance to increase the help to the agricultural sector so that we can support the people that we are called upon to represent, many of them being farmers in the constituency of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell and elsewhere.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little surprised that the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell spent most of his time praising the Minister of Agriculture and the parliamentary secretaries and telling us how hard they work. Would it not have been better if he had spent his time finding out what it is they are working at? He must have heard of the problems with this particular program from the farmers in his area.

He would be aware as well that farmers in my area are into the tender fruit business and grape production. They, too, have a great concern about this. I do not think they are that dissimilar from farmers anywhere in this country. They have serious problems with this program.

The member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell would know that the CAIS program succeeded the NISA program and that there were problems with that. It was not perfect and this program replaced it. The ironic part about this is that all the farmers I talked to said that they wished they had NISA back. NISA was better than the one that replaced it.

I think there is an identity of interest among farmers right across this country. They have identified problems with this program. Would the member not be better off not being an apologist for the members of his own government and making excuses by saying that they work hard? Good heavens, he should find out what they are working at and tell them to get working on some of these problems, because he must have heard about the problems from farmers. I hear from farmers in the Niagara areas that this program is not working and that it should be fixed.

We in the Conservative Party are prepared to do that. Where are the suggestions from the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell? Why does he not tell his friend, the Minister of Agriculture, and all those parliamentary secretaries to get working on something that will help farmers because this is not doing the trick and he knows it. Why does he not do that for a change?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I identified some of those things in that part of the speech immediately before the 2 o`clock break. I invite the member to read it in Hansard later today or tomorrow because I did mention those exact points.

I, too, do not accept when there is a delay in providing assistance to farmers, so accelerating the delivery of cheques is obviously something that I support. As a matter of fact I raised that myself, as I said, in the first part of my speech before question period. For the benefit of colleagues, my comments commenced prior to question period and then were interrupted because of question period and then I concluded afterwards.

However that is not what the motion asks us to do. The motion asks for something entirely different. The motion does not talk to us about accelerating the delivery of cheques. It talks about dropping the CAIS deposit requirement. It calls on us to breach an agreement we made with the provinces, the effect of which would likely be to scrap the entire thing. That would be the effect of what is being requested here by the motion proposed under the name of the hon. member for Haldimand—Norfolk and led this morning by the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Clarington—Scugog—Uxbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Brandon—Souris.

“Scugog Farmers are calling for help” was the headline in the Port Perry Star , a local newspaper in my riding of Durham, last week. The farmers in Canada are calling for help from the government.

Yesterday I spoke about a meeting in my riding where, despite a winter storm, hundreds of farmers, not only from Durham, but from York, Victoria, Simcoe and Essex counties, gathered to express their frustrations and to consider how to be heard by governments in this country.

As Geri Kamenz, vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, has said:

Ontario farmers are running out of alternatives to keep their farms in production. They have called on their organizations to lobby government, but government ignores them. They have conducted tractor rallies and highway blockades, but government ignores them. They have staged orderly demonstrations, but government ignores them.

Today, representatives of over 28 agricultural organizations and boards are meeting in Guelph to come together to create one voice for all the cultural industries in Ontario because they are not being heard and they need help.

Well, this side of the House has listened and is speaking and has spoken for this industry throughout this session of Parliament.

As our leader has said, we are the voice of rural Canada in Ottawa.

We demanded a debate on the BSE crisis in the first weeks of this session. We forced a full day debate on the expropriation of farmlands at Mirabel. Our leader has called for a cull cow program. Our agricultural critic has pressured the government over and over to meet the real needs of farmers in Canada. In fact, we have asked more questions on agriculture in this House than all other parties put together.

Today I am proud to stand and speak to the motion before this House.

As Joe Hickson, from Lindsay, has said:

It doesn't matter if you're in cattle, dairy, grain, corn...the whole industry is going backwards and if we don't put the brakes on it, we're going to be so far behind the ball that we won't be able to dig ourselves out .

The government's response has been consistently to point to the CAIS program as its answer to the current crisis.

The CAIS program does not work. It was never designed to be an emergency fund program and the government knows that. The CAIS program does not address trade injury and the government knows that. It was told that in the George Morris Centre report when the CAIS program was set up.

Therefore, when the U.S. border closed, the CAIS program, as it was, would not serve Canada's beef industry.

The CAIS program does not work for the grain and oilseeds sector in its current deteriorating circumstances. CAIS needs to be changed.

First, we must eliminate the deposit requirement and not penalize those who need the money to pay the bills and to pay suppliers. They must have access to the money now and without being penalized for three years after.

The program needs much greater transparency in calculations and formulae so that the producer-accountant payment projections are bankable numbers with much higher probability of realization when payments are actually made.

The appeal process needs to be clarified and clearly communicated.

The modified accrual accounting treatment of inventory valuation must be addressed. This Enron type of accounting distorts the support provided by CAIS.

I have only made reference to a few ways in which the CAIS program can be improved to really serve the farmers in Canada. The farmers in Ontario, I am convinced, will be coming to Ottawa with one voice to ask for these and other remedies to the CAIS program. They deserve to know how the government plans to respond to the EU's decision to reinstate export subsidies on wheat. This decision clearly violates the spirit of the WTO negotiations. As long as Canada fails in its responsibilities to play a leadership role in this matter, Canadian farmers will continue to suffer.

Today the government is failing our agricultural community. Agriculture and the auto industry are the two industries that drive the economy in my province of Ontario. The farm community in Ontario is calling for help. I believe they deserve to be heard. I challenge the government to answer their call for help.

Today I am pleased to stand here on their behalf and ask that they not be ignored once again. I am proud to stand with my party and support this motion for the immediate removal of the CAIS support program deposit requirement. This is now a cash flow issue for farmers and the other sectors affected by the current state of the industry.

I ask all members to support the motion and to support the agricultural community in Canada.

[Andy Mitchell, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I noticed the member had quite a long preamble at the beginning of her speech. She talked about a number of things. She talked about how the Conservative Party organized a special debate on BSE when this Parliament came into place. That was what the Conservatives did. What the government did was put $488 million into a repositioning strategy for the beef industry which saw the recovery in the price of feeder and fed animals that we were looking to see.

She also mentioned that the Conservative Party has asked more questions than any other party. Well, while the Conservative Party has been asking questions, the government has been making an investment of $4.8 billion in aid to producers, the highest level in Canadian history.

She said that it was the Conservative Party that put forward the motion today on the CAIS program. The reality is that we have been working on the CAIS program and have certainly worked on the deposit. We have worked in terms of changing the amount of that deposit. We will continue to work on the CAIS deposit.

We have increased the cap, the maximum amount that someone can make. We included negative margins. We had the special advance in CAIS.

The hon. member talked about the need for cash flow. The special advance that was provided to beef producers under the CAIS, which members of her party said was totally unworkable, has actually provided $115 million to beef producers, in addition to the $1.7 billion of other aid that was there.

Perhaps the member could describe to me why that $115 million advance to beef producers was an inappropriate use of the CAIS, because she has said that CAIS achieves no objectives?

[Bev Oda, Conservative, Clarington—Scugog—Uxbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this party has asked more questions about agriculture in this House because repeatedly we get the same one answer over and over again.

We have heard other members refer to the movie Groundhog Day where people keep reliving the same day over and over. Again, the same answer comes from the government about what it is doing for agriculture.

Consequently, my party has had to repeatedly ask more and more questions and make more and more references to circumstances in individual ridings that are deteriorating each day as we go along.

The farmers in this country are now going into a season where they will have to make some very critical decisions. If we do not get some answers we will continue asking more questions of the government to make sure that farmers get the relief and the remedy that they need right now.