Thank you, Chair.
I certainly welcome all the witnesses.
On behalf of the four MPs on Prince Edward Island, I'd certainly like to welcome the committee to Summerside. This is the riding of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, but I'm sure she would welcome you here as well. We just wish you had brought some sunny weather with you, as we do not need this rain.
I'm not a regular member of this committee, but in any event, as I sit here listening to the presentations, I can't help but think that the country has moved from a surplus position to a structural deficit position and I would think that pretty well every presentation has had a request for substantial dollars.
Here's my question for most witnesses. How do you suggest that this committee, in terms of its work, prioritize the need for federal dollars? Because I really do seriously think we have to wake up and smell the roses: we are going to be in difficulty over the next few years, with a very substantial deficit. How do we maintain very important social programs, which were mentioned at the beginning, as well as economic stimulus programs and programs for the agricultural sector that really are the foundation of keeping that industry alive? That's one question for people to think about.
While you're doing that, I'll ask the Federation of Agriculture a question. You mentioned the Atlantic region livestock and grains strategy, and I agree with you on that. In this region now, we are a deficit area in beef, hogs, and grains, yet the national approach to programming could end up sucking at least some of our hog producers out of the industy.
We're running into a problem here. We have one beef plant and one federally inspected hog plant, which is in Nova Scotia. If we lose any more production we're going to lose our plant capacity as well, because they won't have enough supply. How do you develop that regional policy under the kind of approach we have in Canada, that national policy thrust?
Ernie or Mike, what has to be done in order to get there? That is a different tack than what we've traditionally had in Canada.