Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Minister, China just lifted the ban on canola imports from two of Canada’s largest producers. That is excellent news for our producers, who, for the past three years, have been paying the price for the diplomatic quarrel that followed the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada. In 2019, Canada supplied 40% of the canola used in China, which means that our industry lost billions of dollars. To justify the ban, the Chinese alleged that something dangerous had been found in canola from the two Canadian suppliers.

Can you tell us if the quality of the canola has changed since 2019 or if this was just a diplomatic excuse? I would also like to know how much this dispute with the Chinese cost the thousands of workers in the industry and Canadian taxpayers as a whole in terms of sales lost, jobs lost and government subsidies.