Senator Plett: Leader, you just finished us telling us what the problem is. I told this chamber what the problem is. You have told us what the President of the United States has said and that our Prime Minister wants to cooperate with the President of the United States. That’s not much consolation for the fine farmers of Prince Edward Island. A working group has been started. We have more working groups than they have potatoes in Prince Edward Island.

On Monday, Premier King quoted Minister Bibeau as saying that the decision to stop export of Prince Edward Island potatoes to the U.S. was made “to appease a trading partner,” which you just confirmed. That’s a remarkable admission, leader, especially considering that the Prime Minister finally got to meet with President Biden last week. Instead of fixing our trade disputes with the United States on agriculture, softwood lumber, pipelines, electric vehicles and “buy American” policies, the situation is now arguably worse. Yesterday, the U.S. doubled our softwood lumber tariffs, and now Prince Edward Island is banned from exporting its fresh potatoes.

Leader, how long does the Trudeau government intend to leave its export ban in place? What specifically, aside from a working group, are you doing now to rectify this situation with the United States on Prince Edward Island farmers?