They will talk a lot about AgriFlex. They promised $500 million over four years. They came in with really $190 million new money over five years, and it's not available for risk management programs in Ontario and Quebec. So it's a promise, but don't count on it. That's $38 million or $37 million a year. Do you think that's going to solve the farm crisis? I mean, give me a break. They're good at making announcements but not very good at coming through with money.
Anyway, on the COOL, Jurgen, I might just mention that the Canada-U.S. parliamentary association was in Washington last week. You may not know what that is, but it's an all-party committee. Members work together in what I think is a really strong, non-partisan sense, and all parties were represented last week in Washington. COOL was one of the issues they were working on. They had somewhere in the range of 44 meetings with congressmen, plus, I think, 12 or so with senators and something like 15 with governors who were in town at the time as well, so the committee was very active. They met with Collin Peterson as well.
I would say that given the report I had back from them, I really believe there's an understanding at the U.S. congressional level that COOL is a really serious problem for the North American beef and hog sector, and a specific problem for us. But there just does not seem to be any movement.
I think your letter's a good letter. It outlines the problem. But why should we wait? Why not issue the challenge right now? Has your letter been responded to yet by either Minister Day or Minister Ritz? It was written on February 23, but why wait? Why not just issue that challenge right now.
Our industry's going down a hole. We're losing our industry. We've lost 60% of our hog producers in P.E.I. The biggest hog producer in Nova Scotia just went out of business here two or three weeks ago.