To touch on what my colleague Mr. Paul Connors said, I'm a small producer. I do this job so I don't lose my farm. My husband is a paramedic. In the history of my family, no one has ever been able to access AgriStability because we are small producers. One of those pieces may seem like a small loss, but it's tremendous when you own a small farm and go through a drought. We experienced one in Ontario last summer. We're still dealing with the consequences of that. We just purchased hay—really terrible hay—for an incredibly expensive price because we were about to run out. Who knows when we'll be able to start grazing again?
We say these things within the government and within the bureaucracy of the government, but it's one of those things that are hard to hear sometimes, because the reality on the ground is vastly different. It's challenging. The complexity I hear about from my neighbours, who don't even attempt to access AgriStability or any of those other programs.... It's becoming harder every day to remain a farm in Canada, especially on the smaller end of things, even though your biggest desire is to support the local food economy and the overall food system across Canada.
What support can we provide for the smaller farmers, so they're able to access these programs more easily? The complexity is a lot, and sometimes they just don't have the time and energy to put into applying to these programs. What could we do long term to save the viability of our agricultural system in Canada, which relies on small producers, just as it does on our larger producers?