Mr. Speaker, the Conservative budget has a new victim: the co-operative movement. We have learned that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which experienced $254 million in cuts in the last budget, has done away with the only federal program for co-operatives—the co-operative development initiative.
These cuts come as we are celebrating the International Year of Co-operatives, which Canada supported at the United Nations in 2009. Some 9,000 Canadian co-operatives employ 155,000 workers, contribute to business innovation and help rural economic development.
In the Outaouais, the Quartiers en santé co-operative will no longer be able to provide health services to aboriginal people in northern Quebec. The Place du marché co-operative in Ripon will also be affected by these cuts.
It is time that this government reviewed its priorities and reinvested in development, in our co-operatives.