Thank you very much for your presentations.
You are right, Mr. Latimer, things have really changed. I saw a certain shift myself: my grandfather, whose name I have, was a dairy farmer who did his milking by hand until he was 94. I do not think that happens much anymore. He used to feed his calves from a bucket every morning, but that was near the end of his life. He still helped my uncle, who took over the farm. In those days, the natural progression was for one of the children to take over the farm. You could gain your livelihood as a farmer.
Today we heard from witnesses—and not just today, mind you—who said that young people were asking themselves a lot of questions just about whether they would be able to make ends meet if they took up farming. It is definitely not easy. That is not to say that all farmers used to make a fortune, but it was possible to make a decent living in agriculture.
I want to speak to the two producers, Mr. Brecka and Mr. Buckman. One of you—and I do not remember who—mentioned the Canadian agricultural income stabilization (CAIS) program, as compared with the agristability program. We began our tour yesterday, and already we have heard similar comments, namely that the former Canadian agricultural income stabilization program and the current agristability program are exactly the same.
But there is something you did not talk about. You said that it does not work well: farm inputs continue to increase while the value of your products decreases, fluctuates or stays the same.
Do you think the agristability program should take into account production costs? In other words, agriculture has changed drastically, but what has not changed is the government's responsibility to ensure that we use our land, that we have a viable farming sector, that we produce food here and that we are able to feed our people. To do that, we have to ensure that farmers can earn their living from agriculture. The agristability program was put in place to do that. It is the successor to the Canadian agricultural income stabilization program, which was inadequate and did not work well. The government said it was going to change it. As with many programs, it was not put in place to be inadequate. Still today, we are realizing that the program still has flaws, and that is normal.
In my view, a change, among other things—and that is what we are hearing more and more—needs to be made. This kind of stabilization program should take into account production costs. Do you have an opinion on that?