Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member for Prince Albert has been working hard in his riding representing the agricultural community. A lot that is in the budget really does help out agriculture. It helps out our municipalities. It really does address a lot of the concerns and needs that we have in rural Canada.
I was wondering if the member wanted to talk about some of the changes that we are making to the way we are handling the permit process for clean ditches, drains, municipal projects and helping farmers deal with excess water.
In my riding of Selkirk—Interlake, we have dealt with excess moisture for three out of the last five years. There have been delays in getting permits from DFO to do something as simple as cleaning out a culvert or building some drains on some farmland. We are backlogged because of DFO as well as the Manitoban government's permit processes. I would like him to talk about how important that is for his agriculture producers to deal with issues in a real time situation so that they can get a crop into the ground and develop better opportunities to advance their productivity.