Hon. Wayne Easter (Malpeque, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in this debate.

     I certainly agree with the number one priority of Canadians, which is jobs and economic growth, however it has to be recognized at the beginning that the very minister who made the motion and the Prime Minister are responsible, in great part, for the jeopardy and economic tragedy that is now affecting so many Canadians. Contrary to what the Prime Minister has tried to spin through a taxpayer-funded propaganda machine, the fact is that Canada was in a deficit before the global recession hit.

    It is interesting to note that in the government's spin, it always talks about a global recession, as if that is the reason that Canada is in trouble. It is part of the reason, but the fact of the matter is that this country was in deficit and put there by this government prior to the global recession hitting. Rather than accepting responsibility for the biggest deficit in Canadian history, the government tries to use the global recession as cover.

    The government has, through previous decisions and the biggest-spending budget in Canadian history, undermined the fiscal capacity of a central government to properly assist people and industries that are now in economic turmoil. I sometimes have to ask if it was done on purpose, because we know that the Prime Minister really does not believe in a strong, central government with the authority and the spending power to be able to put out programs to the country in its time of need. Many of the industries that are in turmoil are in rural Canada: fisheries, forestry, agriculture and mining. These are industries that are generators of economic wealth and they have been consistently ignored by the government.

    One of the headlines in today's Globe and Mail, in the column by John Ibbitson, says, "Canada cannot afford to ignore storm clouds gathering on horizon". The problem is that in many industries, the government has been ignoring those storm clouds for the last three years. The storm was already there, and I am speaking in particular of agriculture. Let me turn to my own province for a moment.

    In the last year and half, temporary and permanent enterprise closures have occurred in a number of sectors, including forestry, livestock, fisheries, manufacturing, food processing and retail. Most of these sectors are being ignored. Instead what we get is endless propaganda with taxpayers' money, where somewhere close to $100 million has been spent on political spin.

    Sadly though, one of the sectors in the greatest difficulty is agriculture, in particular primary producers. Even the minister of state, in his speech, talked about the crisis in beef and in hogs, but he tried to imply that the minister's efforts in opening up markets will solve the problem. I do not argue against finding markets. That is important, but what we have to recognize is that our biggest market is the United States, and where the minister should be looking at a net gain in terms of volumes of product going into markets, we now have a net loss. Yes, the markets opened up in Russia, in China and some other countries, and that is a good thing, but a lot of our product in this country has no home.

    Our hog industry is in trouble. In fact we are losing the hog industry right across the country.