This has been a problem for decades. Part of my life was doing federal-provincial programming in income support, and we never asked some of those questions. How did this really change that farm family or that farm sector? How did this really affect the food processing sector? Did we get a better product? Does this really make the farm community more sustainable, financially or environmentally?
We never asked to see results, or what happened.
The challenge here for the federal and provincial governments of Canada is to ask some of these questions and to work with the farm community. Some of them may not want to have the questions asked, but work it through.
I think you'll find there are a sizeable number of farmers who do the right things—as my colleagues have asked about. But a larger number—for a number of good reasons, both personal and lifestyle—have other sources of income and don't place the same attention on it.
The Government of Canada and the provincial governments—with the limited resources they have from the taxpayers—need to find out how best to allocate them and where it will really work.