Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's great to have an opportunity to talk to farmers about the weather. As someone who has about 50 years of farming the same land, I know exactly the kinds of issues and concerns you're dealing with. I don't necessarily want to go through my life experiences, as I'll have opportunities later to tell my colleagues about that.
Certainly, if you cherish the environment, you support a farmer, because it's their life. Everything they do is so important to make sure that their land is ready for the next year. The pesticides that are being used are there for a reason. The work that has been done over the last 15 to 20 years to reduce the number and the amount of pesticides and to be able to select.... Even for sprayers nowadays you can go through and you're not spraying the whole field. You're just going after the weeds. Those are the kinds of things we have.
Mr. Graham, on the fertilizer side of it as well, we have the different types of placements and the different levels for various crops. All of this comes because of the technology that's associated with it. If you're going to pay $250,000 for a seed drill that's going to do that, then that's part of it, and it's also part of the reason.
Farmers are doing that, and there's a great risk they are taking in order to make sure they can look after their land and have the ability to take their product—the best in the world—and sell it around the world as well. These are the kinds of critical things that I believe we have to look at.
One of the things that I have here is on the business risk management programs and the discussion about where that may go in the future. Could I get some specific information on AgriStability and the late participation approach they have suggested?
A late participation mechanism has been added that provincial and territorial governments can trigger to allow producers to enter the program late in situations where there is a significant income decline and a gap in participation. The mechanism will only be triggered in response to significant events and benefits will be reduced by 20% for producers who enrol late, to encourage regular annual enrollment by producers.
There are a lot of people who aren't involved in any of those kinds of programs. They manage their risk in so many different ways. They have cattle or whatever and have different ways of managing risk. My concern, of course, is that you're going to pay for that difference somewhere along the line. I've also read in documents that there are going to be extra associated costs, so that is going to come from somewhere. I'm just curious as to whether you've had opportunities to talk to the government about some of the effects that there could well be because of these new approaches they are planning to take on the business risk management programs.
I believe, Mr. Wiebe, that you probably have been somewhat engaged in that.