The national CAIS committee is meeting in Ottawa, and I'll just read you something from a young producer from Prince Edward Island who went on this committee with the best of intentions—and it has happened again. It's no wonder we have a problem with advice to the government. I guarantee you that the minister knows nothing about this yet. But here's what the producer said in his letter to the bureaucracy in Ottawa:
It definitely still boggles my mind why these meetings continually get booked during the busiest time of the year for farmers. I do believe that almost every farmer across the country is either planting the middle of May or is about to. How many times do we have to explain this before somebody listens? We just went through about four months of slower times on the farms and now we have a meeting called during planting. I joined this committee because I hoped I could learn a lot and also contribute to at least some of the planning for the future of agriculture in this country. This will be the third meeting I will miss because they were either called in the fall when farmers are harvesting or in the spring when they're planting.
These guys have argued this point, and I've argued the case of these fellows before. I think we need, with the support of the committee, a letter from you as chair to the minister and the deputy minister saying this is unacceptable. They should have a conference call to the producers on that committee and find a date that's convenient to producers across the country so they can be there.
The bureaucrats can be there any damn time at all, even on a Sunday night, but it's always planned when farmers are busy. That's absolutely unacceptable. So I'm suggesting that you write a letter suggesting that the meeting has to be called at a time that's convenient to producers.