Madam Chair, I think if we look at the history of this we will find that things have happened in terms of where farmers could get the best price for their cull cows and over-age bulls.
Over the past years, during the late 1990s, often the best price for many farmers was in the State of Pennsylvania and on the west coast, often in the State of Washington. With that, in terms of our slaughter capacity being used in this country, farmers were getting the better price elsewhere.
If we were to take that initiative--and I believe there is money on the table in terms of slaughter capacity--our producers would have to guarantee these slaughterhouses that they would have access to their cattle in the future. We as a government and a nation certainly want to promote what the member is suggesting, but in the long run it is important that those slaughterhouses we might create in the short run would have cattle available in the long run.
Second, in terms of the banks, a few years back we saw where the banks offered a better rate of credit than the Farm Credit Corporation, which has been the backbone of our agricultural economy. Many banks loaned money to farmers at a rate lower than Farm Credit did. It appears that as a result of this, today the banks are reaping what they sowed. Our farm credit organization has worked with farmers very closely, but I am not sure how closely some of those banks the member for Acadie—Bathurst mentioned are ready to work with our farmers to make sure they survive this crisis.