Just to go on, Mr. Chairman, I have to point out that this is proof in hard copy of the kinds of comments.
I have another one from Paul Mistele of the OFA in Ontario. Mr. Steckle knows him quite well. He said that Ottawa didn't consult the agriculture sector before launching the new Canadian farm families options program. Again that wasn't true, but it was the kind of criticism that was coming out there.
He said that he was skeptical about where the money to support low-income farm families was coming from. I know from my discussions with Mr. Mistele that he was worried that basically the money wasn't going to get out to farmers, and what have you.
Now, with the minister's decision on the 20th to phase this out over the next year, this money will be directed to other programs, which has been well documented here.
The new OFA president, Geri Kamenz, stated that it is an excellent social program, but the sector in Ontario doesn't want a social program. It needs farm income support programs. So based on that, that's where the minister is going to put this money.
He said: “I think a guaranteed farm income is abject failure. It will do more to create a welfare state than resolve the issue of rural poverty.” That was in The Western Producer on April 12.
I could go on, Mr. Chair. Last year on October 12, OFA's Ron Bonnett stated that “there does not seem to be widespread support for this program.” He went on to say that Minister Strahl, in announcing the program, has missed the key contributing factor of agriculture's income crisis: low commodity prices. In all fairness, no agriculture minister in history that I know has had much impact on low commodity prices.
But I do know that two years in a row, this government put record amounts of money out to farmers, and what have you. In fact, I remember that last year in August, we put a record amount of money out through the CAIS program, and there were still four and a half months left in the year. So I'm not sure what the final figure was, but it certainly was record dollars.
The money was put up by this government; announcements were made by other governments, but not really carried through. We made sure that this was carried through. That's going back to the $755 million in the oil seeds and grains industry.