Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to the parliamentary secretary’s speech and must say that I was astonished. We have a chance to work together on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, but I was stunned by his arrogance toward the opposition parties. All the parties here, whether the Liberals, the NDP or the Bloc, have their role to play. We were elected by constituents who had confidence in us and thought we could do a good job of representing them.
The arrogance shown by the parliamentary secretary is quite unacceptable. It is as if he were sitting in judgment over the 26,000 constituents who voted for me and telling them that they lacked common sense. A government needs a strong, vigorous opposition to help it outdo itself. It should thank us, therefore, for being a good, strong, vigorous opposition.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is the following. Could he tell us why his government is resisting the request from steer producers in Quebec and Canada to help them deal with the new SRM standard? Their request is for $50 million to help them adapt and comply with this new standard.