I visited all of Saint-Amable’s farms, accompanied by representatives of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. It was the worst day of my life. I saw all the emotion, the tears, the despair. People were shaking their heads.
Saint-Amable may not be a large municipality, but every producer markets, whether in the horticultural sector or in another sector. These are proud people, and the youth are ready to take over. You don’t see that in other areas. We can easily count some twenty young men and women managing twenty businesses, which is a lot. The average age isn’t even thirty years old.
The young people are, you could say, pushing the older workers into retirement. There is no lack of young workers to take over the farms. That day, people were wondering what was happening, what they were going to do. Destroying potatoes while the fields are good shape is unthinkable. It is unbelievable that there will be no potatoes in Saint-Amable in 2007. It is one of the nicest regions in Quebec. There’s no irrigation, no rocks. The terrain is flat. We calculate an average of 300 hundredweights, at least, every year. Production costs are relatively low. Yields are high, compared to the provincial average. The boys can’t accept when we tell them to plant corn at $300 an acre when they currently make $3,000 to $4,000. They’ve maybe invested a million dollars in their buildings. For example, I invested over $200,000 this year. In our region, custom work, whether it be leveling or drainage, is estimated at a half million dollars a year. Producers are having trouble coming to grips with the fact that there won’t be any more potatoes.
Every day, the young people ask us what will happen next year. We also have to think long term, and say that next year, we could plant carrots. If we plant carrots, someone will be “bumped” down the line. Processing operations already have their producers, the carrot farmers. Morale is very low. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but morale among the men, women and the young people is very low. People are wondering whether they’ll have work next week, or in two weeks. We don’t know. We don’t have the answers. We are in talks with the federal and provincial governments, but things aren’t moving forward. One thing is certain, the stores are full and bills have to be paid, but there’s no money. This has to stop, and soon.