Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed the remarks by the member for Richmond—Arthabaska and how he spelled out some of the reality around this bill.
In asking him a question, I want to take issue with the rewriting of history the parliamentary secretary tried to do by attacking the previous Liberal government. The fact of the matter is the previous Liberal government provided actual cash in the BSE crisis, some $520 million. For the BSE recovery program, there was $200 million. For the cull animal program, there was $680 million. There was money for the transitional industry support program, the fed cattle set aside program, the feeder cattle set aside program and many more. My point is when there was a call for action, the previous government was there but all the Conservative government can do is provide loans.
In a statement on December 21, 2005, the Prime Minister promised that the new program would properly address “the cost of production, market revenue and inventory evaluation”. Has the Prime Minister come up with a cost of production program or was that just further information from the Conservative side and the Prime Minister?