Supply  Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade is an egg farmer who has been involved in the supply management industry for quite some time. We are hearing here today that supply managed industries do not feel that the government has done enough in protecting their interests.

Supply  I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. I know you are not involved in egg production, coming from B.C., but I know that the parliamentary secretary has been involved in egg production. I just want to know if he feels that the Liberal government has addressed the issue of protecting supply management in the WTO talks.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I recognize that my hon. colleague is a great contributor to our agriculture committee and that she brings her farming background and experience to the committee's work at all times. I want to read what the Conservative Party passed as a resolution that came out of our meeting.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that farmers have felt abandoned over the last number of years. We have had three budgets brought forward in the last eight months and not one gave any more money to agriculture. The last two did not even mention it. We have a situation where farmers feel that they have been completely forgotten.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I wish to reiterate that I am splitting my time with the hon. member for Central Nova. Just to bring some clarity back into the discussion, I want to reiterate that the Conservative Party has 24 members here who are farmers or who have been involved in farming. I am one of those individuals who knows that having a successful WTO is going to be vital to the success of my family farm operation.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my colleague from the Bloc, the agriculture critic, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, for his motion today, giving us this chance to again talk about a desperate situation that we have in agriculture and, really, the future of Canadian agriculture as it relates to the World Trade Organization.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my hon. colleague from the Bloc for her intervention in today's debate. It is a very important debate about how important agriculture is in Canada. All parties in the House have reiterated time and time again that we are committed to the supply managed sector, that we want to support and strengthen our dairy industry, egg industry, chicken and turkey industries, and ensure that those industries remain viable for a long, long time.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the difficulty the government has in dealing with the World Trade Organization. I know talks have been going on for quite some time and I know about the unsuccessful talks that we had in Cancun and Seattle. This has been a very contentious issue for a long period of time but our agriculture producers right across the country, whether they are in grains, oilseeds, red meats or in the supply managed commodities like milk, eggs and poultry, want Canada to take a very strong position in the WTO talks.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition from over 800 residents who are calling for the government to axe the GST from being charged on the federal and provincial excise tax on fuels.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, we have a terrible election scandal involving vote buying, influence peddling and election rigging, but for once this does not directly involve the Liberal Party of Canada. During the last three band council elections on Manitoba's Peguis First Nation reserve, voters have been intimidated, bribed and defrauded.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals are serious about that, they would not have scrapped the Indian governance act. The Peguis First Nation for Democracy requested the RCMP and INAC to investigate the past two elections. The first investigation is just coming out now and found election irregularities, yet the same chief is still in power today and has continued with the same practices to win the last election in March by only 29 votes.

Excise Tax Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-448, An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (motor vehicle fuel). Mr. Speaker, I am proud today to introduce a bill that would correct the injustice of charging consumers too much for fuel by removing the GST being charged on the federal excise tax and provincial excise taxes across the country and to put that money back in the pockets of hard-working Canadians.

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, the Liberals love to talk about their phoney numbers but are ignoring the facts. On the Liberal mini-budget, Bob Friesen of the CFA said, “The Liberal government abandoned rural Canada and have not supported Canadian farm families...yet...given the opportunity, farmers were neglected again”.

Sponsorship Program  Mr. Speaker, that was complete nonsense. On Page 438, Justice Gomery describes the sponsorship scandal as: --inappropriate political interference in administrative matters...excessive concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office, carelessness and incompetence and blatant disregard of Treasury Board policies, greed and venality.

Sponsorship Program  Mr. Speaker, today is a very sad day for Parliament. We now know from Justice Gomery that the Liberal government is guilty of funneling millions of public dollars into the Liberal Party. Gomery has said that the Liberal Party, as an institution, cannot evade responsibility for the sponsorship scandal and what he calls a “depressing story of greed, venality and misconduct”.