Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to intervene in the debate at this point. I thank the hon. member for her intervention although I believe there needs to be somewhat of a reality check based on some of her comments.
First, we should understand and all Canadians should understand, that if she gives a litany events that have occurred prior to this year, that at the time those events were occurring and prior to the March convention of the hon. member's party, the position of that party was not to support supply management. That is the reality and I will have my hon. parliamentary secretary read it. It is fair enough to change their policy, but they should admit to the fact that they have changed it and their approach.
Second, in the first part of her speech she is critical of the government for not having a particular approach. Then later on in her speech, she criticizes that approach. There is an inconsistency there. On the one hand she cannot criticize the government for not having an approach and then later criticize the approach.
The negotiating mandate that we are pursuing is one that was developed over time in consultation with the industry. That is the reality. The member said that Canada was on the sidelines. I was in Geneva in 2004. We sat through the night, we sat through the day and we sat through the next night. Canada was not unrepresented. Canada was at that table. I think if she spoke to the 40 or so industry representatives who were with us in Geneva at that time, they would say that the framework agreement achieved in that process was one that provided us with an opportunity to pursue the negotiation in a way that would allow us to move toward protecting supply management and toward what our objective clearly is.
To suggest for a moment that Canada was not at the table, that Canada was not aggressively defending the interests of supply management and other producers in this country and that we were not there with the industry is simply not accurate. It represents misinformation being put forward.
We clearly support the supply management sector in our country and we have since its inception. We have given that support for 35 years. We are negotiating in the WTO to achieve important objectives for all Canadian agriculture in elimination of export subsidies, in the reduction of domestic supports and to provide new market access. However, we do it in a way that continues to provide Canadian producers choices about domestic marketing regimes, including supply management.
The actions and the position we take and the process that we pursue is one that has as its objective the long term sustainability of supply management in Canada. The decisions we are taking are designed to achieve just that. There may be disagreements about the strategic approach in which we pursue these objectives and that is fair enough. Part of the debate in the House should be about that. However, I stress that there is not a disagreement about the importance and the willingness of the government to support supply management in all its forms in Canada.