Proceedings of the House and Committees  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate your giving me that extra six and a half minutes, because I was mentally prepared for 16 and a half minutes, and I appreciate your clarifying that time. I was listening to an online conference of Alltech, a large agriculture company, this week. One of the presenters said, “A crisis does not build character; a crisis reveals the character of you and your team.”

Proceedings of the House and Committees  Mr. Speaker, my speech is going to change a little just because of what I heard this afternoon as part of this debate. I have to say that I am shocked and surprised that one of my colleagues would say that this building does not matter, that the House of Commons does not matter.

Agriculture and Agri-Food  Mr. Speaker, even before COVID-19, Canadian farm families were struggling. Farm revenues fell by 45% in 2018, the largest drop in Canadian history. During the pandemic, the Liberals increase the carbon tax on farmers and do not offer any assistance for an essential industry. The situation is dire.

Agriculture and Agri-Food  Mr. Speaker, the minister obviously does not understand how dire and desperate the situation is for Canadian farmers and agri-food businesses. Her response to farmers is that they just do not understand the programs. What programs: an online calculator and more debt? How out of touch can the Liberals possibly be?

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to my colleague's speech. He talked about the problem of so much food being imported into his constituency, which is at about 95%. How would Canadian farmers be able to feed the country if indeed the oil and gas sector were dead?

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for sharing his experience and for the real detail he went into talking about this issue. What does it means to his constituents that there was nothing to deal with the processing capacity across Canada and with the impact that will have?

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, the essence of the discussion tonight is just how woefully short the efforts of the Liberals have been, including to assist agriculture. On this, including the $200 million for the Dairy Commission, how is Canada stacking up in its assistance for its agriculture sector as a whole compared with the money being given by other countries such as the United States?

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for Brandon—Souris for his intervention, for his wealth of knowledge when it comes to the agriculture sector and specifically for his comments on Bill C-16. I wonder if the member could comment on some of the things he has heard from his constituents regarding the impact on the Dairy Commission and the dairy producers as a result of this pandemic.

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I think there is no doubt about it when we have seen over the last several weeks that the United States has asked Canada to make sure that 100% of our TRQs go to retailers and when the dairy processors and producers are asking for those TRQs to be as close to the farm gate as possible.

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, my colleague is exactly right. Canada has fallen well behind our allies and our competitors around the world when it comes to assistance for our agriculture sector. Bob Lowe, the president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said in committee last week that it is very clear that Canadian agriculture is not getting the respect it deserves from the current government when compared to the assistance that is being given in other countries.

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I am so happy my colleague asked that question. When we made those changes to the business risk management programs, there was no carbon tax. We had not lost $5 billion in foreign market access for our commodities. We did not have illegal blockades, CN rail strikes, and grain backlogs.

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauce. It is my pleasure to rise today to speak to Bill C-16. I know we are all going to be supporting this bill today, and that goes to show we are supporting Canada's agriculture sector. However, there are some issues with how this was brought about and it highlights many of the issues we have been trying to shine a light on with the government's approach to agriculture as a whole and the industry within Canada.

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, the minister said this legislation was not needed before because the dairy commission had the borrowing capacity to deal with what was a pandemic that resulted in having to dump milk. What has changed in the future that it needs this extra borrowing capacity? Is this to deal with COVID, or the additional imports allowed from the United States as a result of the USMCA?

Canadian Dairy Commission Act  Mr. Speaker, is this legislation being brought two weeks too late? We had thousands of litres of milk being dumped several weeks ago. Would this legislation have helped address that situation when it was at its peak?

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the comments of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to the media at CropConnect in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in February 2020, stating “I already had data from the department last fall or earlier this winter”, in reference to the impact of the carbon tax on farmers: (a) what data did the minister receive from the department; and (b) on what date was the data received?