Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows full well that the present provincial and federal agreements end at the end of March.
The government will not stand by and have the situation happen where there is no disaster program for farmers for this year; no federal co-operation and no money going to farmers through the federal-provincial programs for not only business risk management but for food safety and the environment.
The industry and the provincial ministers and government have been working on this for 18 months. We need to get it done for farmers by the first of April of this year.