Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Mountjoy, your remarks in the beginning are basically just the same as the minister's, and any ordinary Canadian who's reading those remarks would get the feeling that some good things are happening. But the reality on the ground is far different. This is Ottawa. This is big numbers. But the reality on the ground is far, far different.
I have never seen anything like this, and I've been in the farm movement since 1971. I have never seen so many people in tears, even during the interest rates of the 1980s. Families going under--I can tell you that 13 hog farmers within a five-mile circle near my home have gone out of business. Eight hundred sow operators went broke before Christmas, the third most efficient producer on Prince Edward Island.
Ms. Semaan, you said the cheques for the $600 million are going out. That's true, I agree with you, they are. However, on another program, as was said earlier, they've been clawed back. And the money that's coming from the Government of Canada right now--well intentioned, no question about it--is really in effect going to pay off Government of Canada debt, debts that are owed to the Government of Canada under other programs, to pay suppliers, to give greater liquidity and security to banks and other lenders, but not looking after the security and the liquidity of farmers themselves. That's the problem we've got.
So let me put it to you this way. You heard the remarks from the industry. They're saying to you that there are very few bankable results--that's true--that it was a cruel joke to many of our producers, and that is absolutely true too. That was not the intention, I know, but that's the reality. Let me put it this way. If the political will is there on the government side and there is the bureaucratic will--and I know what you had to go through, the Department of Finance, Treasury Board, PMO, and all that stuff--is it possible? If it requires legislation, I can tell you this; we're willing to pass legislation in a day if it's going to mean a difference to keeping more farmers on the land.
Can you decouple the APP and the CAIS program so that the pork industry has a choice? Can you do that? Can you be ready to do that within a week? Can you pay out the $100 and the $150 as a loan requested by the CCA? Can that money be put in place and be ready to go out in a week? And what would it take to implement the loan proposal by the Canadian Pork Council so that they could come in behind the banks, so that we have the opportunity for these guys to stay in the industry?
Yes, there's going to be rationalization and restructuring, we realize that, and that's a problem. But we need to maintain these industries. As was said, this is rural Canada at its best and right now at its worst, and we need to keep it.
Can those things be done if the political will is there? I think you'll find all opposition parties would be willing to work 24 hours a day to get this done, to have it in place by a week Friday. Now is that possible? Is the political will and the bureaucratic will there?