Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): It is my pleasure to welcome members of the Ontario Deer and Elk Farmers' Association to the Ontario Legislature today. They will be hosting a reception in the dining room later this afternoon and evening. All MPPs, their staff and media are welcome and encouraged to attend.

I would like to introduce you to Bill Top, president of the ODEFA organization, his wife, Jayne, and vice-president of ODEFA, Todd Grignon.

ODEFA is here today educating MPPs on the economic importance of their industry. On August 16 this year, Minister David Ramsay announced his intention to remove harvesting parks in Ontario, by regulation, not legislation. Although the deer and elk farmers of Ontario have, over the last 20 years, invested millions of dollars in this industry at the encouragement of previous provincial and federal governments, this government is about to destroy the industry with a swipe of the pen.

I ask Mr Ramsay and Mr Peters, as they expropriate this industry, what is their compensation package? Neither Ramsay nor Peters have replied to my invitation to visit the Universal Game Farm in Coldwater. Neither Ramsay nor Peters has responded to my request for compensation for this industry.

It is important to note that as a government, Dalton McGuinty has found millions of dollars to purchase private MRI clinics that were working perfectly well, but he can't find the money to compensate farmers whose livelihoods he has expropriated. He can't find the money to keep the Frost Centre educational facility open, a facility that educates our young people on the wilderness. Dalton McGuinty doesn't mind taking gas tax away from rural Ontario residents and funnelling it into urban centres.

Again, McGuinty and Peters have kicked rural Ontario residents, and rural Ontario will not forget their shabby treatment.

PICKERING AND AJAX