Madam Speaker, allow me to congratulate you on your appointment. I am very pleased to see a female at the chair once again. I would also like to congratulate the member for Selkirk—Interlake on his third election victory.
In the member’s closing statement, he talked about remembering members in rural communities. I agree with him, but I want to remind him and members absent from the House at that time, it was a city member, the former Liberal Member of Parliament for Toronto—Danforth, Dennis Mills, who made Canada aware of the family farm. It took a member from the city of Toronto to bring attention to the importance of our farming communities.
I agree with the member that we need these products and that there is an importance we should attach to the farming communities. However, a vast number of the population lives in cities like Toronto, Montreal, et cetera. We consume so much of what they produce. Our cities today are hurting. Under the Prime Minister and the previous administration, now my city of Toronto and my former city of Scarborough, now part of the Greater Toronto Area, are hurting because infrastructure money is not coming in, jobs are in jeopardy and the list goes on.
I am glad he touched upon the labelling. Bill C-52 needs to be addressed in the way we heard during the election. I agree that we should have a strong agricultural policy, for which Canada is noted. If that is the case, will he then take it to his government and stress the importance of also supporting the cities with the funding they need?