In general, the Canadian farm families options program was a program we developed last year. We announced it as a two-year pilot project. We wanted to see if it would meet some of the needs in the agricultural sector, specifically for farmers who didn't have a net income over $25,000.
We deemed that to be low, of course, and thought that this program might be useful not only to give them some much-needed cash, but also to help them with business planning and with skills development to help turn the corner. Obviously, with that kind of low income you can't stay in the farming business, so we're trying to help them find ways to develop those skills, and business planning, and so on that would help them develop into long-term viable businesses.
On average, the program paid out last year to farm families about $9,900 for a family that qualified. There were about 15,000 people who qualified for this program. I think it did some good. It filled the gap in a year when we had particularly low farm income. As I mentioned, the average family that qualified ended up receiving almost $10,000; the average individual almost $8,000.
So I think it did some good, and people who are in the program will be allowed to continue in it until the end of this pilot project. Of course, I hope they will continue to take advantage of that other programming that will help with the second part of it, which is not just the cash, but the skills development and other ways we can help them, and so on.
The reason it was cancelled, frankly, is to respond to both industry demands and demands by members of Parliament.
I have to tell you that I did not receive one supportive letter from any member of Parliament on this program, not one. I did not receive one supportive signal from a national farm organization, not one. What they did say is that they wanted more funds to go directly to farmers, wanted it to be transparent and predictable, and wanted something to address the cost of production.
So what we're doing is winding down this program in response to those demands. We are coming up with a farmers' savings program—it will be, of course, much larger than this farm families program—and a cost-of-production element as well.