Mr. Speaker, in response to the MP for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre, he made a lot of good comments which I applaud.
For example, the problem with newspapers, information in the media in terms of agriculture, is big. It is probably one of the elements we so quickly ignore or forget. There are not enough specialized newspaper people dealing with the issue of agriculture. Maybe it is because agriculture is not as sexy an issue. In spite of the fact there is a lot of sex in agriculture, it is not sexy enough to really draw a lot of attention.
The people from the west should at least be reassured by the fact that there are a lot of newspapers and newspaper reporters covering agriculture in the west, in Quebec and in the east. The fact is they have decreased considerably over the past few years.
In the case of farm debt in Quebec, it is quite high and quite serious. In terms of revenues as well, the percentage of farmers who have to have revenue outside of the farm is quite high.
As a last comment about the bureaucrats in Agriculture Canada, my goodness there are too many who are not farmers. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food is not a farmer. The deputy minister and a lot of the other deputy ministers are not farmers. One suggestion I would make to at least resolve the problem of bureaucrats in Agriculture Canada would be to make sure that over 50 per cent if not 75 per cent of the people who work in Agriculture Canada are farmers.