Madam Speaker, if the member had listened very carefully to my speech, he would have recognized that our position is in response to looking at the whole picture, to looking at all of Canada.
If we look at the different industry associations and farm associations that have petitioned us, they have asked us to sign the agreement, not because it a a great agreement or as good as what they had, but because they need the agreement signed.
I clearly stated during my speech that our bilateral trade between Canada and the United is over $2 billion daily. That is significant. We cannot just say that we are not going to sign the agreement, jeopardizing billions and billions of dollars of international trade. That would do us, and Quebec and its business people and their agricultural sector, incredible harm. This would be a foolish position to take.
We have to look at the whole picture. Yes. it is not as good an agreement as what we had but we need this agreement. We can live with it, and if we know the certainty of the agreement, our industries and our farmers can adapt.