International Trade  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see that my colleague has finally developed an interest in canola. This crisis has been going on for over a month. My colleagues and I, along with the Minister of International Trade Diversification and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, have been wor

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, I am glad that finally my Conservative colleagues care for canola farmers, because we have cared for more than a month now. I have worked closely with the industry with our colleagues from the provinces. I have visited the western provinces. I have asked our Chinese

Justice  Mr. Speaker, since my colleague has answered that question several times now and I know that my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable is very interested in the canola file, I am pleased to take this opportunity to tell him that I am working closely with the task force. In fact, the fi

Agriculture and Agri-Food  Madam Speaker, I can assure my colleague that this has been a top priority for our government and for me for more than one month now. I am working closely with my counterparts from the provinces, with industry and with the CFIA. We are having constant conversations with Chinese o

International Trade committee  We want to support all of the producers. The information I have in front of me is production in 2018 in tonnes. It shows that, really, Saskatchewan is the most affected, with 53.7%; then Alberta with 28.9%; Manitoba with 16.3%; and British Columbia with 0.6%.

International Trade committee  Obviously, we're working at diversifying our markets for all the provinces.

International Trade committee  Of course.

International Trade committee  I'm open to review the different programs we already have, but I want to take the time to get all of the relevant information. Sharing information on that is is one part of what I'm asking the working group to do. Their first meeting will be this Thursday. It will be a telephone

International Trade committee  Of course. Yes.

International Trade committee  Actually, I sent a letter to my counterpart in China and this delegation would be headed by the president of CFIA. They want it to be technical in the first step, at least. Hopefully we will resolve the situation there.

International Trade committee  Actually, British Columbia represents less than 1% of the production of canola that is exported. It's really the three provinces of the Prairies that are the most affected by the situation.

International Trade committee  Obviously, yes, all the programs I've talked about, like the advance payments program and AgriStability, they are all—

International Trade committee  We have to rely on a rule-based trading order. This is very important. It's the same not only for Canada and China. We are having these discussions; it's not the first time that we have to enter into a technical and scientific discussion with another country to compare notes. It

International Trade committee  I understand that there's also the risk aversion. Maybe you can complement on that?

International Trade committee  I don't believe I said that. We're doing everything we can to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible. Obviously, it's a two-way street.