Good morning.
The Fédération des producteurs de pommes de terre is affiliated with the Union des producteurs agricoles, which represents 351 potato producers in Quebec. It administers the Plan conjoint des producteurs de pommes de terre.
On October 24, 2006, the federation came here to meet with the committee. That meeting was fruitful, producing tangible results with respect to compensation for short-term losses related to the destruction of the 2006 harvest inventory.
Two and a half years later, we have good reason to believe that your recommendations will result in compensation that will help affected businesses recover, compensation that goes beyond the government's February 5 offer of a three-year recovery plan that leaves out certain elements that we consider essential. Philippe Gemme's presentation later on will touch on that.
The golden nematode is a regulated pest subject to quarantine. In 2006, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency established a regulated area to reopen borders to international trade. That action limited losses to producers and exporters located outside of the regulated area.
However, in Saint-Amable and on a farm located in Montérégie, producers worked and cooperated to make the CFIA's job easier. In all, 21 farms were affected by the restrictions. Unfortunately, these businesses, which specialized in potato production, lost buyers they had spent years securing. Potato production in that area will resume only gradually, and on limited acreage, with new golden nematode-resistant varieties and under close CFIA supervision because the area has been there for decades.
We are therefore in urgent need of a modified recovery plan. The federation fully supports the producers involved, most of whom are represented by AMA-Terre. In 2003, the Government of Canada implemented an agricultural business risk management policy for Canadian producers with its AgriInvest, AgriStability, AgriInsurance and AgriRecovery programs.
The federation believes that producers' losses should not have to fit into the kind of framework set up by a program like AgriRecovery. Rather, the program should meet the needs of producers.
With respect to recovery, we do not believe that a three-year program as set out in AgriRecovery will save businesses in regions affected by the golden nematode. In 2008, an independent consulting firm, ÉcoRessources, submitted a fact-finding report financed by the Conseil pour le développement de l’agriculture du Québec. The report distinguished between crises with short-term impacts and those with long-term impacts, such as the golden nematode crisis.
The report recommended using the partial budget method to establish the net costs of transitioning into a new agricultural activity and took into account different types of losses resulting from a crisis. The main advantage of this method is that it isolates revenue losses due to the crisis even if the agricultural business is mixed, that is, if it produces things not affected by the crisis. This method makes it easier to evaluate revenue losses and the costs involved in various recovery strategies. The ÉcoRessources report also mentioned another important thing. It concluded that 10 years was a more realistic timeline for business recovery.
In 2006, the hon. Chuck Strahl, then minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, issued a ministerial order under the Plant Protection Act. The order established a regulated zone of about 4,500 hectares, 1,300 of which were in potatoes, along with restrictions and prohibitions on the movement of certain items, in order to fight the golden nematode infestation in Quebec.
In 2008, the ÉcoRessources report recommended strategies to enable businesses to emerge from the crisis and recover with the help of governments. Rather than forget about this report, we believe that governments should consider it a valuable reference.
In 2009—this is the most important part—the current minister must be persuaded not to forget about producers affected by the golden nematode. Instead, the minister should offer the kind of help that will put an end to this crisis, which has been going on for over 30 months.
I rushed my presentation a little to give Mr. Bilodeau a chance to relay the UPA's message.