Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Minister, and officials.
I listened to your remarks, Minister, and I just can't help but sit here and wonder, have you been on the ground in Canada at all? Have you been at the farm level in Canada? The message you're portraying here is not what I'm getting on the phone every day or in any part of the country that I'm in.
You said you're getting a lot done for the agricultural industry; well, maybe on the agrifood side you are, but I'll tell you, we're losing 5,000 farmers a year. That's 14 farmers a day. Canada's farm debt is $59 billion, with $9 billion under your government's watch. You may be putting farmers first, but it's first in line for debt, at least from where I sit.
We're facing the worst crisis in hogs in Canadian history. The beef industry is wondering where to turn next. I tell you that in my area in Atlantic Canada, farmers are leaving the land in droves. In the potato industry, we've had two potato plants cut back on contracts for lack of markets. We could have 12,000 to 15,000 acres of potatoes this year in P.E.I. without a home.
AgriStability is just about as bad as CAIS, and that's been pretty bad, I will admit, in terms of people not getting payouts. The reference margins aren't working. Beef and hog producers are not meeting the viability test. Over 3,000 farmers in Ontario don't meet the viability test, so they can't draw out of it anymore, yet you come in here and say that things are great on the farm.
Let's just take a look at the hog industry. I don't know if you've looked at the numbers, but in my region in P.E.I. we're down 70% in breeding stock in five years and 65% in terms of hog production. Atlantic Canada is down to the point that we're losing our last hog plant.
Then you come to the budget, and there's not one new dime. I heard what you said in terms of $314 million. Finance officials tell us that there's not a new dime in this budget. Where's it at? I certainly don't see it, nor do Finance officials.
We had the hog producers here the other day, and they are in dire straits. They basically said under questioning that there are four things that could assist their industry. I'll direct these four at you, and maybe you can answer them.
First, they've said that when the HILLRP program was originally anticipated, they expected that there would be 75% uptake. There's only 3% uptake. They've said that the banks are not providing the credit and Farm Credit's not providing the credit, so they're saying there could be upwards of close to $200 million left in that fund. Will you commit today that those dollars will still go to the hog industry, and not back to the Department of Finance?
We know that the program was designed so that the first requirement was that you had to pay back the advance payment program money, so the Government of Canada got paid and farmers were left with more debt under that particular program, but will you commit here today that the $200 million, if there's that left in the program at the end of this month, will be committed to what the Canadian Pork Council requested in terms of their program going forward?
AgriStability is easy to fix, and it doesn't violate a trade agreement. Will you change the viability test so that it allows hog and beef producers to be able to get a draw-out of funds? They agreed to that the other day.
Third, would you establish the emergency advance payments program again, only at a higher level and on what pork production is really at?
The fourth has to do with United States imports. You're talking about the markets we're gaining. The problem is that while you're gaining markets elsewhere, we're losing our biggest market: the United States. We're not shipping as many hogs to the United States as we were, nor beef, and 25% of the pork that's coming into this country now is American pork. We're losing our own market at home, so will you put in place a marketing program so that Canadians can actually eat and get a Canadian product?
Those are my questions for the moment.