I'm Harry.
We can talk about the weather, and the Canadian dollar, and a lot of other issues that face young farmers that the government can't help us with a lot, either. We're just trying to put together some other things that maybe we can get some help with.
Just to get back to what Leony was just talking about, I think Ontario--or I'm not sure if it was federal--used to have a program that I think was called FarmStart. I don't know if it was in the 1980s or early 1990s; I think it was before the time we were actually in Canada. I've heard from some other people that it was actually their only help to actually start farming in those days.
Another problem we see is that young farmers often miss out on government safety net programs. It takes a long time to build up enough reference years, and the beef, hog, and horticultural program did not deliver any money to our Bruce farm in 2008. To fully qualify for the payout, we had to be in business since the year 2000. We started selling pigs in 2004 so we mostly missed out. You pretty much had to be in business for at least eight years to fully qualify for the program. This really hurts young farmers. They need these programs more then their established counterparts. They are the ones with the lowest equity and, worst of all, it puts them at a real disadvantage and makes them less competitive compared to their established counterparts.
Another problem farmers are facing is the wild swings in commodity prices. I know it was mentioned before already, but while it is hard for the established farmers, for starting farmers with their higher debt loads it is just deadly. A risk management program, especially designed for a starting farmer, could be very helpful. It should be a program where the applicant does not have to pay in for a number of years or need a number of reference years to be able to qualify.