Agriculture Committee on Oct. 5th, 2010

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

No, that's not quite right, because—

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It is right.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

—that payment schedule is based on the inventories they have on hand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Let's have one at a time.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It is right, and the point—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

If they have inventories on hand, they don't have any problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Just let him finish.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

If they don't have inventories on hand, then it's a problem. And if they don't have inventories on hand, that means they're out of scope of the program, and then they have other problems.

So what are you trying to protect here? If you want to go after the cash advance program as whole and get it destroyed, keep going, because in this situation, it looks to me as though you have producers who don't have inventory and who have taken out advances on inventory that is not there. And if that's the scenario, are you doing them any favours?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

The point here, Mr. Chair, is--

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

No, I did not....

I will tell you...you know, you guys—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Order. Order.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Chair, government members can do all they want to try to cover up and try to leave the impression that there isn't a problem in the agricultural industry. We have a livestock industry, especially from the Ontario and Manitoba border east, that is in serious, serious, serious trouble. Those producers do not know the payback schemes on this issue. They do not know the payback schemes on this issue. We need to have officials in so it can be made clear what they are. There's a lot of confusion around this. If those members are going to do their jobs for producers in this country, instead of trying to cover for the minister, they would agree to this.

[An hon. member]

That's bullshit.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It's a fact.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Eyking.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, we hope this committee is going to be a little more civilized and that there's a bit of respect for everybody around the table. In an ideal world, we should be able to do this in 10 minutes.

That's why we have a steering committee. That's why we've set the table on this. That's why we spent the whole time the other day putting this together. If we're going to argue about Thursday, to have a report card from the department here--that's what we all agreed on.

Now, if you over there want to rag the puck until the time is up and then we have no...you're showing disrespect for our steering committee. That's all I can say.

At the end of the day, we wanted Alex's bill done. That was priority number one, and that's what we're doing. We thought we would chunk this up until the middle of November, and we can do all this other stuff after. So Alex's bill is number one. We had a consensus that we want one day for the department to give us a report card on what's going on, and then we have the future of young farmers.

I think our committee came out with a very balanced approach here, and I think it's disrespectful if you're trying to change this all around and get into some debate about cattlemen on the Hill. It has nothing to do with our committee report. It has nothing to do with it.

[An hon. member]

Sure it does.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

It has nothing to do with the department coming here and giving us a report card. It has nothing to do with cattlemen on the Hill. So if you want to waste our time and waste our steering committee's time, go ahead. This is going to happen every time. That's why a steering committee is set up; it's to set this up. You either approve of it or you disapprove. That's the way I see it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Bellavance.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I will tell my other colleagues and committee members what I told the steering committee.

The reason I have been insisting for so long that a program review be done is that I think it is the committee's job to do one regularly.

At the end of the last session, all kinds of things happened in committee—and I have nothing against them—but the result was that we did not have a lot of time to talk about the program review. We had two half-sessions on it. So we never finished what we set out to do. That is why I am bringing it up again; I think it is important for producers.

People are talking to me about it in Quebec. People are telling me that, with AgriStability and AgriFlexibility, we have to find out what effect the programs have had and what can be done to improve them. If I am told that any programs are perfect just as they are on the ground, I will be the first to say so, no problem. That does not bother me at all; I have done it before.

I have already publicly thanked a minister for responding to one of my requests. It did not make me lose an election and no one was bothered by it. So I am prepared to do it. But when things are not going so well, we have to be prepared to say so too and try to improve things. That is where the program review comes in.

Of course, we know that Bill C-474is a priority. We have to go through it clause by clause at some stage. We are required to do that as a committee.

We went on a tour to look at the future of agriculture. We started studying a report in June, but we did not finish it. That is why we have come up with an agenda that is pretty precise; it will not take up all our time until Christmas, but it will let us make a little headway on some things that we have already started.

Those three topics are the ones we have already started. We have to finish them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Bellavance, your point about not finishing anything was exactly what I brought up at the subcommittee the other day and it's why I was opposed to the way this was done. We take on so many things and we finish none of them, and I think it's not—

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I would like to have examples.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Sorry?

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I would like other examples, and there are some. It is true that we have started the program review, but I am always faced with opposition from the Conservatives who do not want to talk about things like that.

Fortunately, we have started a lot of work, and finished it. Otherwise, I would not feel very useful here. No one would. It is just a matter of setting priorities.