Mr. Speaker, for the last number of years farmers have been caught in the deathly grip of an income crisis forced on to them by years of federal agriculture mismanagement and compounded by high foreign subsidies and bad weather.
This crisis has shaken the agriculture industry to its very roots. Increasingly, distressed farmers are turning to desperate measures, including hunger strikes, to try and make this government aware of their problems.
When simply ignoring the problem did not work, the Liberals grudgingly announced AIDA, an emergency program that has only delivered a paltry 23% of the promised $1.7 billion. When they realized that AIDA was a failure they tried to apply another $200 million band-aid with no guarantee that any of these funds will ever be delivered. If that was not insult enough, farmers were completely shut out of yesterday's budget.
Farmers need more than band-aids. They need real reform that addresses the root problem of the farm income crisis, and they will not get that reform from this government.