Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The further we go and the more we hear as we look for solutions, the more problems we seem to get as we cross the country each time.
Robert has left, but it seems, Mr. Chair, that many of these programs are so complicated, with both levels of government involved with them, that there must be a great amount of frustration at the farm level in terms of where to go, who can give answers, and how long it is before the solution or the reply comes as to whether or not the projects are feasible. It's rather disconcerting. Maybe we should make suggestions to better define what area of agriculture each level of government should be dealing with. In terms of disaster, we've talked already about crop insurance. We talked about infrastructure yesterday as being federal involvement and about what the provinces should do.
When we look at the so-called payments from different levels of government, it's rather disconcerting that without those payments, most provinces and most agricultural sectors would be in debt. Certain writers and a lot of the evidence that comes says that if these payments weren't out there—It would also reflect, from what Stats Canada tells us, that the bigger the operation, the bigger the debt.
If you look at what J.D., our researcher, put before us, farms grossing incomes of something like $250,000 and more take nearly 58% of the payments that come from the different levels of government. How are we going to make suggestions to do all of that?
Eric, I want to go back to what you asked about in terms of the surge in production. When you suggest to our committee that we should attempt to make a surge in production with corn and grains, are the margins there, or are there simply other groups taking more out of the system to promote their own businesses?
You can apply more fertilizers for bigger gains. You can pay more to the seed companies to get better seed. But are the margins there if we increase production? Have you or your group made any studies on that to see who's going to benefit from a surge in production?