Mr. Speaker, I heard an hon. member across the way say that this should be good. We have of course all become accustomed to any time a Reformer stands up in the House, it is indeed quite good.
I was present in the Chamber this morning when the Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food made his brief presentation and that certainly was not good. It did not hold any hope for farmers in western Canada. They were looking to their minister of agriculture going into what promises be one of the toughest winters on record and certainly the bleakest look ahead to Christmas for farm families in western Canada.
Can the hon. member comment on some of the facts the minister of agriculture laid before the House during his short presentation. He talked about the $1.5 billion the government has put together. Of course even that is not totally accurate because the federal government has only put in $900 million, the rest is from the provinces. He said that $220 million has been paid out so far, averaging a little less than $15,000 per farmer.
With the wealth of information the hon. member has, both as a farmer himself and as a farm economist in his past life before getting into politics, can the member tell us what that amount of money will do for farms such as it is?