Mr. Chairman, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his question and his kind words. What he is asking is how we should pay our farmers. There have been a couple of programs, for example the AIDA program which did not seem to work very well. The Canadian farm income program, which is now underway, may be slightly better received than the AIDA program.
A farmer from my community was in my Regina office last Friday. He was beside himself because of his inability to extract anything out of the system that could help him and keep him and his elderly father on the farm that his dad started many years ago.
I do not know what the answer is. I know that in the United States it appears as if the big corporations receive the vast amount of the money that goes out. In Canada farmers are frustrated. They feel the system is heavily administrative because cheques are not being sent out to every farmer. It is on the basis of need. The government devised that system because, as it says, it comports to Canada's international trading obligations and arrangements.
I do not have the answer to the member's question per se. However I do know that the safety net agreements are up for review this year and it is extremely important that we try to get this right. It seems to me that crop insurance is not working as well as it should be. There are certain farm groups and younger farmers who are not benefiting from the NISA account. The CFIP and AIDA programs do not seem to be entirely satisfactory. We do need to have a complete review of safety nets. We need to have good input from the farm community itself on how best to develop these programs for the future.