Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're very near the end, and I'll try to be brief.
As members, we probably continue to be confused. Every Minister of Agriculture makes great announcements, and farmers smile and give out press releases about how well it is going; yet when it gets down to committee, we get nearly every sector coming here to say it's not enough money, we've had a bad year, and we need more money.
Barry's line of questioning dealt with the money and how much money is needed. I know, Mr. Chair, we don't have time today to get an answer, but if each of these sectors could give a report to the clerk about how much money they felt they got as a sector--we'll say in the year 2004-05--and how much they would need in 2008, it might be able to put some value in terms of what.... You know, we have hog producers, we have agriculture in all different levels of success. What concerns me is that when we hear such pessimistic reports, where is your future? Who would want to get into your industry? What are your farms going to be worth if this continues?
Ross, I know you talk about how ethanol is going to be a big factor. I don't necessarily agree that the American farmers are doing all that well in the last decade. There's been a lot of trouble at the farm level in the States as well.
If you were a fisherman, fishermen wouldn't come to us complaining about too many fish, too few fish, or fish not being worth enough. Fishermen come to parliamentary committees talking about infrastructure they need in order to make their fishery work. Farmers don't tend to do that, but I know someone has alluded here to railways. You've alluded to highways; you've probably alluded to storage facilities and all these other things that the government could have in terms of infrastructure. But to put it right back at the farm level creates problems for us in terms of the WTO.
Probably all of you want to answer, but I promised my colleague here at least a minute. Maybe you could give a very quick reply. Where are we going to go? Why are we smiling as if it were a month ago, on March 6--less than a month ago--when the announcement was made of so much money? Is the money really there?
People talk about old money, new money, money that might have been spent sometime before, but is it getting to you? Could you give us a report in terms of your sector? How many acres do you do? Would you want $25 an acre? Do you want 50¢ a bushel? What would governments have to do in order to meet the requirements for you to be a successful farming activity?
