Mr. Speaker, I understand what the hon. member is asking, but I also understand that in the last few years the province from which he comes has drastically cut back its support to the agricultural industry. The federal government did so too because of fiscal realities.
Because of what we did we are now able to put $1.1 billion back in. We are now able to talk about a long term program based on the experiences of that program, the needs, the realities of today, and the everyday changing and rolling, if I could use that term.
I remind the hon. member of the incredible difficulty we had as a government to get the Government of Saskatchewan in particular to come forward. We had to beg. We had to push. We had to pull. I could use words stronger than those in order to get it to to support that major industry in that province.
Agriculture is a shared jurisdiction between the federal government and provincial governments. Shared usually means 50:50. In the safety net program over the last number of years the federal government has paid 60%. I had to do a lot of levering to get the hon. member's provincial government to come forward with its 40%.
When we came forward with another change to the program to cover negative margins, the province did not want to do it. It wants to take some money and mail a cheque out to every farmer in Saskatchewan. I understand there are farmers that the IDEA program did not reach. We are trying to fix that in the future, but in order to get money to farmers that need money that provincial government wants to give money to those that do not.
In the last 12 months the federal government has put in $1.1 billion. When we combine that with what we have finally convinced the province of Saskatchewan to put in, it means that $575 million more than what there was a year ago are going into the hands of farmers of the province of Saskatchewan who are hurting. Only the New Democratic Party would say that $575 million were insignificant.