It can't happen, sir.
I am a farmer. I was also in supply management in the free market, and I was also a mayor. So beware of what might follow--statements, if not questions.
First, I do have a statement, and it's just a comment about the regulation, lack of harmonization. I had a motion put forward that we got passed by Parliament, just to deal with that exact issue. Hopefully we can continue to move ahead. It didn't have all-party support, but we got it through.
Secondly, because good succession planning and practices are long term, are they generally accepted within the farming industry?
In terms of the pork industry, it started in 2004 in our area. We had buildings being built, a doubling of pork production over 10 years. We had a low dollar--a 65-cent, 67-cent dollar. We had low feed costs.
Then the circovirus came in. We put in $67 million towards the vaccine. It was a miracle drug.
Then there was bad feed--or not as good feed--in 2007. There was good feed in 2008. H1N1 came along. I mean, it's just been one thing after the other.
We now have profit in the pork industry. The markets are there for a profit right now. But how do we prevent this from happening again? How does the industry help us to prevent this sort of thing from happening again?
And the next one... I'm just trying to understand. Mr. Turgeon, you talked about a higher debt per farmer in Quebec than in other provinces. And yet I can tell you that in Ontario it looks as if Quebec is being subsidized higher than any other province. So how does this work for beginning farmers? What does this actually mean?
I'll leave it at that.