Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member would like, it happened on November 30. I have the transcript from CBC television.
The member from Winnipeg, who suggested that a wonderful job has been done by the federal government with respect to dollars allocated to this particular farm crisis, had indicated that over $200 million has already been distributed. However, remember that the minister of agriculture continually stands in the House and says that $1.5 billion has been allocated to the AIDA and farm disaster programs that we are now suffering. Two hundred million dollars being distributed to this date, October 25, is a far cry from the $1.5 billion he continues to use.
Let us look at the AIDA numbers. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have in fact received a goodly share of the $200 million that has been distributed thus far, but for every one application that has been approved there is one application that has been denied.
I asked the minister of agriculture earlier this morning if he believes that the people who have been denied do not require any assistance throughout the farm disaster. His answer was “absolutely not”. He said that not everyone was going to qualify and not everyone was going to get assistance from the $1.5 billion. To date, only $200 million has been allocated.
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan right now there are people who are in desperate straits. They do not qualify for AIDA. For what reason? It is because the AIDA program has criteria attached to it which will never allow them to qualify for disaster assistance or AIDA assistance.
Let us talk about some of those inefficiencies or deficiencies within the AIDA program. Negative margins was mentioned. When we first talked about this as the PC Party of Canada, we had a program set out that dealt with 70% of the farm income. We would also like to see negative margins covered. When the program was put into place negative margins were not covered. A substantial number of applicants need cashflow in order to put their crops in next year but they have been disqualified because negative margins are not allowed in the program.
A five year averaging of margins was not allowed. A three year averaging of margins was accepted by the government, a criteria that disqualified a number of people. Seventy per cent of nothing is nothing but that does not mean the producer or farmer does not need cash in order to continue the operation. A five year averaging would have been much better.
Let us talk about the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for the AIDA program. It is so complicated that in some cases it dissuades people from even applying. Beyond that, once a person gets an application into the AIDA bureaucracy, there is a whole different set of circumstances.
Why is it that in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where the federal government administers the program, almost one out of every two applicants gets disqualified? There are verifiers and the rules change every day. We can talk to five different verifiers or auditors and five different answers will come forward. That is not only frustrating for an applicant who has put in an application, but it is also to the point where other applicants will not even apply. Rules are changed on a daily basis. We need some consistency within the program to make it fair.
Another issue not dealt with in the existing AIDA program is that of year ends, a simple little bureaucratic nightmare. For a corporate farmer with a year end that falls outside of the calendar year end, the AIDA program is unfortunately backdated to a 1997-98 program as opposed to a 1998-99 program. We recognize that the 1999 crop year is going to have some serious ramifications on the farm economy. With corporate year ends, which have not yet been resolved, some corporate farmers may not have any option or opportunity to take advantage of AIDA in 1999. That is an absolute travesty because those particular producers as well as all producers need a 1999 support system.
I have the distinct displeasure of representing an area that has more than simply a commodity crisis going on right now. We have a natural disaster. Millions of acres of land could not be seeded in the spring because of too much water.
The minister of agriculture has tried to make the AIDA program everything for everybody. This is an extraordinary circumstance that has to be dealt with by extraordinary support from the federal government. It has not been forthcoming. Those producers in the area who do not have any crops and who do not comply with the AIDA criteria will not be farming in the next year.
I speak with some authority. When our party was in power prior to 1993, we came forward with some very strong programs. We implemented the NISA program which people throughout the House are now taking credit for. We came up with the GRIP program which is still in effect in Alberta and in Ontario and is doing quite well for the producers in those areas. However, it was the Liberal government in 1995 that decided to take a little short term gain for a long term pain. It got rid of the GRIP program. If it were in place today we would not be standing in the House trying to demand additional support services from the government.
Through the late eighties and early nineties the Progressive Conservative Party put hundreds of millions of dollars in support to farm communities and farmers with respect to drought assistance and commodity assistance. The federal government can take some lessons from what happened prior to 1993, and I wish it would.
The Reform Party talks simply of tax relief and getting rid of subsidies. That is very laudable. It should happen and it will happen, but it will not happen between now and next spring when farmers will need and demand some assistance to get their crops in.
I thank the Reform Party for bringing forward the motion. However, it has always stood in the House and said “If you can't stand on your own, then you had better get out of the way”. Our party says “If you can't stand on your own in this particular situation, we should be there as a part of the government to say that here are the services and support that is necessary to keep you going until the next crop year”.