I guess in the immediate term here there's the uncertainty, the risk of product in the bin. As I said earlier, cash flow is going to be the most immediate concern to farmers. It's not the only answer but it's the thing that we should do, and we should consider addressing that immediately. Increase the limit on the cash advance program, which is currently $400,000. That should be expanded—and we've asked for it before—to at least $800,000. The Premier of Saskatchewan suggests $1 million. Any of those numbers work.
We can talk about interest-free and whether or not the government would be willing to offset the cost because farmers will say that they cannot borrow their way through this. They are right, but at least it will buy them some time. Under the new program, which we just launched yesterday, starting April 1, the 2019 program is an 18-month program and that will buy some farmers some time.
There are other initiatives that we need to start taking. We have to look at other safety nets like agri-stability and agri-invest. Maybe there are things there that could be done. There are existing safety net programs in place.
But the advance payments program provides farmers with cash flow during times of marketing problems; it's what it is designed for. This time it's China. Two years ago it was railway issues. This program is there for them and they are starting to hit it hard at our office. Yesterday we issued 1,236 advances for $116 million out the door in day one of this program. This program is on fire and it needs to expand because they are going to hit the lid on it.