Mr. Chair, it is a pleasure to address this important issue this evening. I will be sharing my time with the member for Souris—Moose Mountain. I have to say as an aside that I appreciate the new member but I warn him that he steps into a pair of big shoes.
I want to acknowledge the former member of Parliament, Roy Bailey, a great member of Parliament. We look forward to seeing Roy down the road. Hopefully we will have a chance to run into him down the way. He was certainly someone who appreciated the issue of agriculture and certainly the problems caused by the BSE crisis.
The issue I want to address off the top has to do with the parliamentary secretary getting up, almost with every speech that is given, and sort of reciting the number of programs that the government has launched to deal with the BSE crisis, running through the amount of money that the government is apparently spending to deal with the BSE crisis.
I appreciate what the member is saying. I think there is truly some goodwill there in wanting to deal with this situation. However I have to remind him that there is a big difference between programs, the amount of money that is thrown at the problem through a big bureaucracy and the results that are obtained. I think that is where the parliamentary secretary and the members on the government side just do not get it.
Earlier this evening I pointed out that they have a program for backstopping any kind of initiative to start a new slaughterhouse. They have all these programs in place, but the problem is they do not even have the forms yet for that initiative. In fact, one entrepreneur who contacted the Department of Agriculture was informed that there would not be forms for two to three months while we are 18 months into the problem.
Two to three months is just too long. It is unacceptable. What is the problem? We have been through three agriculture ministers in the last eight or nine months. It is like a revolving chair over there. There is always a new minister but there are never any new ideas. There is nothing that moves this problem forward.
There are so many aspects to this where the government has failed. I want to touch on some of them. I mentioned a minute ago that the programs and the money that the government is throwing at this is not working. I want to back that up by pointing out some of the interventions I have had from people in my riding.
I love the people of my riding. They are such good people and they work so hard. They are in a terrible situation today. I think hon. members on all sides of the House know that in the cattle industry people are not accustomed to having to come to the government to ask for some support. It is antithetical to what they believe in.
Unfortunately, we are in that situation today. They come and, in sort of a very demure way, ask for some support and help. I think they almost feel badly about it. When I read these interventions from people in my riding they talk about how every time the government gets into these things it fouls them up, but that they are in a situation where they have to accept it. I have a number of these interventions in my binder.
In fact, that is true. That has actually been borne out in what we have seen in the last little while. While my friend, the parliamentary secretary, spouts statistics about how the government has brought forward this program and that program, all I know is that I have interventions from people here saying that their incomes have dropped by two-thirds because the border is closed. They say that they used to sell bulls into the U.S. but since their incomes have dropped by two-thirds they no longer have the ability to purchase cattle, to expand their herd or do the things they used to do. They are worried about their livelihood.
I have other interventions here from people who say that because the programs are not working they are in a situation where they are no longer able to get credit from the banks. They cannot expand their herd and do some of the things that they wanted to do.
I have had interventions from people who are absolutely desperate. They do not know what to do or where to turn. I want to argue that the government has not done the job that it should have done and should do because it thinks its job is finished when it announces a program.
I want to argue that the government's job is finished when we get some results. Those results have not been forthcoming, and until they are, the government had better be nose down, rear end up and get to work. It simply has not done the job that it needs to do.