Mr. Speaker, after much pressure from the opposition, the minister of agriculture will finally announce a support package for producers.
There are three problems that the minister must address. First, there is still an unlevel playing field for Canadian farmers today. Canada spends 0.78% of its GDP on agricultural support while the U.S. spends 1.07% of its GDP on agricultural support.
Second, input costs are going up at an alarming rate. The cost of putting fuel in tractors, combines and other farm equipment went from 37 cents a litre to over 50 cents a litre for the crop year starting in 2000. Nitrogen in some cases has gone from 16 cents a pound to 40 cents a pound this spring.
Third, the value of the commodity has gone down drastically. In 1996 a producer received $5.50 a bushel for wheat. Today that same bushel of wheat is returning $2.45. The same year canola returned $10 a bushel and today it is $5.18 a bushel. We need two more things—