Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say inside the House what I have already said outside the House. I would like to stand and apologize for my comments.
The remarks I made regarding the unemployed in Halifax were insensitive and unkind, and I apologize for them. Certainly, I believe that everyone in this place at some time or another has said something that they regret and that they wish they had not said. When that happens, the responsible thing to do is stand and apologize. I am doing that today.
Indeed, what I meant to do was simply defend farmers in Nova Scotia and across Canada who rely on temporary farm workers because of local labour shortages. Without these workers, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops would not be harvested and farmers would have to cease operations.
As a former farmer and logger, who faced labour shortages in the real world, I allowed my judgment to be clouded.
Again, please allow me to be perfectly clear. I apologize to anyone who was offended by my remarks.