The question of how to support farmers has always been contentious and there has been no perfect answer. I can say that I'm guilty of having criticized pretty well every government program that has been developed to try to support farmers, but the one that was there that was brought forward by the previous Liberal government, prior to 2006, was much better than what we have now. When Mr. Ritz undermined that program, he did it without any consultation whatsoever of provincial ministers of agriculture or farm organizations. His statement was unilateral and a real surprise. I think the program in place now is not going to provide the kind of support that farmers are going to need in western Canada going out over the next 12 to 18 months. I'm not going to be surprised at all if there are calls from farm organizations for ad hoc cash payments.
On October 5th, 2016. See this statement in context.