Mr. Chair, I appreciate the hon. member's remarks. It is a pleasure to have worked with him on the agriculture committee.
I do want to make this point because of what has been said several times tonight. The Prime Minister said in his remarks tonight, with a bit of a preamble, that the government will ensure that it properly addresses “the costs of production, market revenue, and inventory evaluation”. If we are moving to a real cost of production formula, plus a fair return on labour and investment in terms of safety net programming, members can be assured that we will be there, but we want to see costs of production plus a return on labour and investment. Members can be assured of that: we will be there. That will be a huge step forward.
But that is for the longer term, and as the member said, we have an immediate problem. He said we are stuck with CAIS. That member used to quote the provinces, saying that the provinces were asking us for more money and asking why the federal government would not come through.
We know it is not all roses and sunshine, but the previous minister got ad hoc funding above and beyond the CAIS program. That is what we are trying to get from this government tonight. We are trying to get a commitment from the government to at least come up to that and then add a little more because there is a further 16% decline in income, to at least come up with cash before seeding in terms of ad hoc programming over and above the CAIS program. I ask the government not to use the excuse of CAIS and the provinces. We got ad hoc funding and the government should be able to do the same--only it should make it a little more money.