The view of the members of the Canadian Special Crops Association is that a range of payment options are out there. Many of us use electronic transfer whereby funds are transferred immediately. The question we are raising is, are we dealing with a 20th century problem in a 21st century piece of legislation?
In our presentation we raised the question as to whether that element that Rick referred to in subclause 45(1) should be implemented, whereby you are moving from bonding to insurance to lower costs. We're raising the concern of whether the insurance will now unlevel the playing field between companies, perhaps disadvantaging some of the smaller companies. The bigger the sale, the bigger the bond you had to have, so it was in proportion to the size of the business. When you change to a risk system, the questions we have are, what does that do from a premium perspective, and is that the role of government?
Because I am also a farmer, I understand that farmers want payment security. We have just raised the question about whether the insurance model is the pinnacle of policy development or whether there are 21st century options that could be looked at that could perhaps drive even more cost out of the system.