Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, gentlemen.
I think under Mr. Richards' question, you were starting to get to it. My question really was.... You know, you folks come in here...and you must be talking to different people than I'm talking to. You just must be. Because to listen to the presentations, I would ask where could I buy a beef farm, because, man, am I going to make money.
Mr. Gillespie answered to Mr. Richards that the profitability is certainly not there. My question really was going to be this: who's going to compete in this industry after all the producers are gone? Because that's where we're headed, fellows. Look, the beef herd in Saskatchewan is shrinking dramatically--sales up, about four times, of good bred cows going to the slaughter industry.
I sat on a plane coming here on Sunday with one of the bigger producers in P.E.I. He just sold off 250 cows. He's out of the business. And we're seeing it happen every day. The question is not about opening up markets right now but what are we going to do to keep these producers in this industry right now?
That's the question this committee has to answer, fellas. That's the question we have to deal with here. And I'm not hearing anything coming forward from you guys. Whether you don't want to challenge the government or whatnot, I don't know, but I'm not hearing anything put on the table from you folks that will deal with this immediate problem to keep producers in this industry so that we have a beef cow herd that could produce down the road. I just lay that out directly to you.
The COOL situation is a huge problem, and I recognize it. But are we going to sit back and let our producers go broke while we argue about this at the WTO for three or five years? Mr. Laws mentioned the $21 million in inspection fees. Should the government be coming in and putting us on an inspection-fee level playing field with the United States? Would somebody recommend that?
Mr. Gillespie mentioned earlier some points on CAIS. I thought CAIS was gone; that's what we're told. But would these be the proposals you're talking about? Should the government be eliminating the viability test for beef and hogs? Should the producers be allowed to use the better of the Olympic or previous three-year average for reference margins calculations? Should they be able to do that? I haven't heard it from you.
Third, should they be given the choice, the better AgriStability, tier 1, or AgriInvest? Should those be what the government is doing?
Folks, we need some proposals from you, even if the minister doesn't like it. What can the government do now--today--to keep producers in business? That's my question to you.