It is like we said in 2006, except that now, it is even worse. You know, after a crisis like the one that happened in Saint-Amable in 2006 or the one in Alberta, people feel discouraged, then they began to wonder why they are doing it. We were all hoping that, a year later, governments—federal, provincial or whatever—would say there was a big problem that they wanted to fix as soon as possible. Promises were made.
As president of the group, I made promises to my members, and they have more or less called me a liar. I am a farmer, just like them. I tried to reassure them, but I do not have anything else to give them. The deadline keeps getting pushed back. A year and a half ago, I was told that they were waiting for the report and then they would fix the problem. The report came out, but nobody paid any attention to it. That is even more upsetting.
Now it is the spring of 2009, and with your support, we are ready to move forward and settle this matter once and for all, which could also help Alberta.
This is the first plant-related crisis we have had in a long time. The last time it happened was in British Columbia and Newfoundland. This is the first crisis in recent memory, aside from animal crises. If governments send the message that things are not quite resolved, do you think that if there is a similar crisis with carrots or some other plant crop, people will want to notify the government of disease in their fields? They will say that what happened five years ago in Saint-Amable is still not resolved, so why would they declare a disease subject to quarantine? Everyone will hide and put their heads in the sand. We cooperated willingly, and now, two and a half years later, here we are.
When the Concorde viaduct incident happened in Quebec, people died. Nobody asked the government if there was enough money in the treasury to bring machines in to remove the cement and get people out. In our situation, nobody died, but all of our businesses are dying. Bankers are asking us when things will be resolved. We are waiting on the governments. That is real life. The warehouse built in 2000 does not have a two-year mortgage. The mortgage is for 20 or 25 years. We are still paying for it even though there have not been any potatoes for two and a half years.