Thank you, gentlemen, for coming today. I know you sometimes have a difficult task when you come to this committee.
I would first like to set the record straight about some of Mr. Easter's comments on the U.S. Farm Bill. It was actually a Liberal government that signed the WTO agreement that allowed massive U.S. subsidies in their farm bills--as well as European subsidies--while at the same time selling out our farmers by not allowing us to do the same thing.
But there really must be a problem here when I actually agree with Mr. Easter on a topic. There has to be something going on with you guys. I say “you guys” because when the markets are up farmers lose out, and when the markets are down farmers lose out. You came here last year and testified, and every time it was about increased prices--this is why it has always been driven this way, and farmers know that; they put more on when they're making more money.
Today you're talking about current canola prices and saying they should be putting more product on, but the fact is that farm income is simply not a free market justification. I cannot stress enough how tired am of hearing that as a justification for why prices rise and stay that way. Then you start decreasing the amount of commodity your organizations are putting out.
My farmers in particular have been hit hard by this. Some ships have come over, and Mr. Easter talked about that. A lot of my producers in the Westlock, Bon Accord, and Gibbons areas don't want to go to Russia; they don't want to go overseas. They want to deal with their local guy.
You came to us last year and recommended we give farmers access to credit year round so they can buy in the low points. But there were no low points last year. Some people here have said they've been kept artificially high. Whatever you want to say, the fact is they were kept ridiculously high throughout the entire buying season and only got higher when farmers had no choice but to buy. So access to credit really was not a determining factor in my area, and I can speak only for my area.
My first question is, when are my farmers going to see a reduction in their rates due to the lower natural gas prices we've been experiencing and that you talked about last year?