Sorry, out of luck. That's it.
Even before I was farming on my own and still working in conjunction with my father, Mr. Chair, I spent most of my adult life trying not only to work in the industry, but make the industry better for everybody. I know I'm not the only one. There could be other individuals in this room, and there certainly are among the 308 MPs here.
I was elected to my first agricultural board when I was 18 years old. I like to feel that I've contributed. We're all here with the right intentions. But sometimes, as with Mr. Easter's motion, we can stray a bit, and I think that's exactly what's happened here. When you stray from the course or the mainstream, you usually end up going backwards. So we're going there.
Some of the things that I have to point out, Mr. Chairman, are some of the comments that the minister used to make his decision on April 20.
The National Farmers Union's regional coordinator, Ranald MacFarlane, wrote:
The part of this program that really maddens me is that in order to get some reparation for the lost income on our farms, we farmers are required to access business assessment and skill development to help us improve our farm or off-farm income potential over the long term.
This was in the Journal Pioneer in Summerside, P.E.I., I presume, on May 10 last year.
Terry Plough from the National Farmers Union said: “It likely is a hidden 'transition' program to get farmers off the land...”. We know that isn't true.
Those are just a couple of examples, Mr. Chairman, of the kind of criticism.
It also says: “or to raise their skills in order to get an off-farm job to sustain the family”. Again, we know that was not the intention of the program, the minister, or this government. But again, that was the frustration level with one of our so-called leading farm organizations around the country, and that was in the The Western Producer last year, on August 3.
Ian Wishart, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, also known as KAP, which I believe, Mr. Chairman, is based in your province, said: “I suspect that many of those farm families are working 24-7...”. Anybody who's in the industry knows that to be true. Charlie spent all weekend at home with those Hereford cows with that many hours, I'm sure.
And they “have very little time to take any additional skills training”, said David Rolfe, the vice-president. “They've certainly not sat on their backsides wondering what to do”. We all know that. But again, this is criticism coming from a leading farm organization. He also goes on to say: “They're working as many hours as they can to make ends meet“.
That's the thing. Going back to the comment about the 24-7, farming is a 24-7 job. No doubt, a lot of them put in those kinds of hours sometimes. And that was in the Canadian Press last year, on July 31.
I'm going back to Ian Wishart's comments about the Canadian farm families options program. He said: “It was written without consultation and failed to meet expectations as a result”.
Of course there was consultation—