Thank you.
I was nervous when I came here in 2006, and I am still nervous today. It is not easy to speak in front of a group of people. I am a farmer, so I am not used to speaking in public, but I will do my best.
What has happened since 2006? Quite simply, our sector was wiped out. In fact, 80% of our market connections and contracts have been lost because the public has lost confidence. People heard that a little worm was attacking potatoes. Try as we might to explain that that was not true, and that the worm attacked the plant, not the potato itself, a myth developed about how potatoes from Saint-Amable were not good to eat. But that is not true. That myth caused the loss of 80% of our contracts for grocery chains like Loblaws, IGA and Métro.
Before the crisis, a Saint-Amable farm could pack six days a week. Now that is down to one day a week. These farms are now making little or no money. Producers are being asked to insure 15% of their profitability, whereas before, it was 100%. That means that before the crisis, it was $10 million or $12 million, and now, people are planting corn, because that was the quickest way to change our practices. Only two of our 21 farms have purchased a thresher or made a drying plan.
All of the warehouses are empty now. Boxes are empty, machinery is in storage, totally useless. There are 3,200 acres in Saint-Amable. For large-scale production, there might be room for two producers, not 21. That is the tragedy Saint-Amable is going through. Asking a farmer with 60 acres or 20 hectares to go into large-scale production is a joke.
In 2006, we were asked to collaborate with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. That is what people in Saint-Amable did. Even though the potatoes were very good for eating and processing, we were told that if we did not throw them out, we would not be paid. We did not like being threatened like that. My storage rooms were full. We were told to throw away all of the potatoes because of a Canada-U.S. agreement, so we threw them out. Now, two and a half years later, we are being told that we got the money, but we could have sold those potatoes because they were fine to eat. We were told to throw them out and that we would be paid anyway. Now we are still fighting for the $1 million for the 2006 harvest.
Then we were told that an independent organization called ÉcoRessources Consultants was going to put out a report, a report that the federal and provincial governments would pay attention to. We were told that the government could not give us any money or make any promises until the report came out. We continued to wait patiently. The report was published, and it said that we should be compensated for our losses, including machinery and storage.
Recovery does not take three years. It takes 10 years. I am not the one saying this, the guys from Saint-Amable are not the ones saying this; this is an independent firm. The amount is not important—it is somewhere between $28 million and $32 million. Governments offered $5 million. That is about what a farm in Saint-Amable is worth. We were told to start growing other crops within three years. I am not sure if anyone here could up and change jobs at 45, at 20 or at 55, never mind in three years. That is practically impossible. That would be like asking me to change jobs, to start growing carrots and shove aside someone who is already growing carrots. I would have to learn how to produce carrots. Then I would have to find a market. There are already plenty of carrots on the market.
In closing, I want to say that we cannot change without your help. Earlier, people talked about Alberta. The crisis it is going through now is the same one we went through two and a half years ago. I feel for those farmers.
We need your help. The AgriRecovery program is not good enough.
In 2006, we said that there should be an ad hoc program, a special program for things like this. If there was a storm with six inches of rain this spring, AgriRecovery would probably be fine, but it is not good enough for this kind of crisis. In 20 years, you will still be talking about Saint-Amable and the zone that was subject to the ministerial order, and we have to live with that. AgriRecovery is fine up to a point, but we need a special ad hoc program because of the ministerial order. Guys in Saint-Amable are ready for recovery, whether they are in the nursery business or the potato business. We have a plan, but we need a helping hand from the federal and provincial governments.
Everyone is talking about the auto industry crisis, and everything is going badly, but agriculture is just as important as water.
Thank you for listening to me. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask.