Thank you, Chair.
I thank the witnesses for coming today.
As we have travelled across Canada in the last few weeks, we have been hearing the same story about the hog industry. It's in really bad shape. It reminds me of when my father was in the egg business in the 1960s. It was a desperate situation. We are hearing that the federal programs, whether they be AgriFlex or AgriStability, are not working for the hog producers. These loans only put you more in debt, which you have to repay. Also there was a buyout incentive. The uptake didn't seem to be very good on that.
I guess what was needed in the last year or so was cash, so much cash per hog or per pig that you are producing.
My understanding from earlier this morning is that 40% of the hog production in Quebec is exported out of Quebec. I don't know how a marketing board would fit in there. It might not fit in very well with that amount of production. There was also talk in the last few weeks of floor prices for many commodities that are not in supply management.
I'm just thinking of other ideas. Mr. Leblanc, you mentioned an insurance. We used to have an insurance package that was called NISA. I don't know if they had it in Quebec. The producers, in the years they could afford it, would put so much money in. The federal government would put so much money in, and the province would put so much in. It kind of build up a little nest egg, and you would draw from it as you needed it.
We are hearing quite a bit that such a program should come back, or some kind of child of that program.
My questions are mostly for the hog producers. Where is the industry going to bottom out? And more importantly, our understanding is the programs aren't working now. What do we drastically need to change out there to get some cash in the hog producers' hand, obviously, but, more importantly, so that the industry is on a more stable footing?
I need a little time for my last question. In the Maritimes, where I'm from, our hog industry is pretty well gone. One of the repercussions of that is, for instance, in P.E.I., where they grow a lot of potatoes. Their crop rotation would be barley, and the hog industry used to consume the barley. So they're not only losing their killing plant and hog farms in P.E.I., they're losing a very vital part of their potato crop, which is barley.
The first part of my question is, what should we be doing in the federal government more than we are doing now? The second part is whether the downturn of the hogs will have a drastic effect on other agricultural industries in Quebec.