Thank you very much.
I'm pleased to be able to address this audience, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Dwight Foster. I live half an hour south of the Hill and farm 4,500 acres of grains and oilseeds. I have a beef feedlot, and I'm sad to say it's the largest feedlot now east of Toronto. That industry is quickly going down the drain.
I'm here to speak to you today about grains and oilseeds and the desire to achieve the goal of having an AgriFlex program federally. There have been many wins. We're very encouraged by the demise of the CAIS program. We don't feel that it properly addressed the concerns of agriculture. With the new program going forward, we're very happy about the possibilities. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.
I'd like to talk about the requirement for regional funding and, more specifically, provincial funding. Quite often issues arise in either the east or the west that need to be addressed and could maybe be responded to more quickly at a provincial or regional level. Sometimes issues fall through the cracks with the federal program, and I'll use the example of BSE.
We've never had a case of BSE in Ontario, and I'm not sure if there has even been one in Manitoba. But we know it has happened in Alberta and B.C., and I think Saskatchewan. There's no doubt it has affected our bottom line in Ontario and Quebec. It has been a huge issue since 2003 and still hasn't been resolved. That industry is about ready to collapse in this province, and in Quebec it's not far from that same scenario either. So the example is there that regional programs would be much better.
Take the example of Europe. In Switzerland, a little wee country that would fit within Lake Superior, if they have an issue with an outbreak their border is closed and the neighbouring countries aren't even affected. How far is Alberta from Quebec or Ontario? There's a huge area between Manitoba and Ontario that could quickly be closed down.
There's the example of the emerald ash in the forestry industry. In Ontario you can't even transfer firewood outside your county. They're doing a good job of shutting that down.
When you think about agriculture, putting everybody in the exact same window or program from the Pacific to the Atlantic is really dysfunctional.
I'm here today to tell you that I'm encouraged by some of the things I've seen going forward, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. I'd like to see the flexibility of partnering with the Ontario government and the RMP that is now entering its third year. I can't tell you the exact dollars that have been paid out. I know there were significant dollars in year one. Year two paid barely anything--I didn't get anything. We're entering year three with very strong commodity prices, and it's not likely we'll be paid anything. So the program costs almost nothing for the province. Some support from the federal government would ensure that the program would remain in place going forward, considering the fact that we're entering year three. With the wheat crop that will be planted in August or September in Ontario, those farmers don't know today whether they'll have stabilization or a program going forward.
So I'm encouraged, and I would like to see some flexibility in the federal programming so that issues can be addressed provincially.
Thank you very much.