The federation is worried about the private sector's role in the implementation of a future production insurance program. Indeed, the federal government has clearly indicated that any risk covered by private insurance policies would be excluded from such a program. The federation wishes to ensure that the federal and provincial governments maintain their commitment to offer a production insurance program to hog producers to ensure that livestock producers are treated fairly in relation to other agricultural producers.
Quebec hog producers have greeted favourably amendments to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act aimed at making livestock production eligible for interest-free cash advances under the advanced payments program.
The FPPQ salutes Agriculture and Agri-food Canada's efforts to better adapt the APP to the hog sector. However, we believe that access by hog producers to interest-free cash advances is still not as advantageous as it is for certain crop producers, who are able to keep their advances for 12 to 18 months. In the light of the short production cycle on hog farms, hog producers have access to interest-free cash advances for reduced periods ranging from six to nine months.
Hog producers who grow grain to feed their animals will be at a disadvantage as farm-fed grain will no longer be eligible for the APP, a situation that the FPPQ condemns. How a producer uses grain should not be a criterion for eligibility.
The FPPQ supports the creation of a disaster relief program. Since it is acknowledged that governments are unable to provide a range of business risk-management programs that cover all contingencies, the elaboration of a guide pertaining to specific situations will be valuable to assure producers that assistance is available in extreme situations. We must seek to elaborate this framework bearing in mind that such a program must be easy to administer and, above all, that it responds promptly. It is unthinkable that farm producers have to wait months before the federal and provincial governments intervene because of drawn-out negotiations.
The FPPQ believes that the federal government should intervene to attempt to restore a power relationship in the market and tackle concentration. It wishes to draw to the committee's attention that Quebec hog producers deem collective marketing to be a very important tool. In our opinion, this tool is an integral part of the solutions to counteracting concentration in the distribution sector and impediments to market access. This system is also more likely to ensure due reward for stakeholders in the sector, especially producers, and the federal government should financially support such initiatives.