Mr. Chair, as you are well aware, this is a continuation of the take note debate last Thursday night which went for five hours.
Upon reviewing last Thursday's Hansard I believe all of us really did not explain to the rest of the world, beyond farmers themselves, what this industry is all about and how the U.S. border being closed has completely devastated our industry even though science dictates that the border should be open. I want to try to put a bit of a face on that dilemma.
The reason I want to take this approach is that in the House the opposition tends to attack the government. That is its right. Even the odd time we do need to be tuned up. However on this issue, I do believe that sometimes the rhetoric can get in the way of the industry understanding what the government has tried to do for producers and the industry.
I want to start off by talking about how important this industry is in terms of cash receipts. The sale of cattle and calves in 2002 generated $7.7 billion, which accounted for 21% of total cash receipts. As a result of the discovery of BSE in May 2003, sales of cattle and calves dropped to about $5.2 billion in 2003. That is basically the beef industry, but beyond that there are other industries that are affected. The dairy industry has had a loss of sales of cull cows and lower prices for cull cattle. In fact, they cannot even get rid of them. An animal dropped in price from somewhere around $900 to $200. There is the sheep industry, the deer industry and there are others.
I want to expand on that. In Thursday's discussion the member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley on the opposition side said that part of the frustration of being an Atlantic Canadian and going through the BSE crisis was that most people think it is an Alberta issue or a western Canadian issue. He went on to talk about farmers in his riding. I agree that it is a Canada-wide problem. Yes, in terms of total economy and the size of the industry, Alberta is much more affected.
What we often forget about or what often is not stated is that at the end of every beef operation, whether it is large or small, or all the other industries affected by BSE, there is a farmer and a farm family. They are affected by this. In terms of their situation, the impact is much the same, and that is total devastation. I want to give a couple examples.
Last fall in my office I met with an individual from just over the other side of the Ottawa River. He is a part time beef producer who actually works on the Hill. He was going back to the bank and was wondering what to do in the situation. He was going back for the third mortgage increase, at $20,000 a shot. The bank was putting on the pressure. It did not see the value on the books. That individual was facing marriage problems and financial stress problems as a result of BSE. The picture I want to paint is that the individual was suffering substantially because of the border being closed.
There is another example of a beef producer in Prince Edward Island who last year lost $360,000. The bank came to him this spring and wanted more equity in terms of his operation. The asked him to put on an additional mortgage of a quarter of a million dollars. That was in order to protect itself in terms of its asset base as a lending institution.
What would we do in that situation? This individual is about 56 years old, has been working in the farming industry all his life and he has had to make a decision whether to take on an additional $250,000 worth of debt or throw his life's work away by selling out and losing his life's work. He did acquire the extra debt but he is now feeling the pressure of finance.
My point is to try and explain the impact on the individuals and their families. We need all Canadians on side on this issue and to understand why it is so important that the Government of Canada continues to support the industry.
It goes beyond that. I think Canadian consumers were with us last year. When the beef industry encouraged them to go out and buy more product they did. In fact, consumption went up and we do have some of the safest beef products in the world.
I want to give an example at that level as well. An individual producer came to me on the weekend and said that he had sold eight cattle on September 24. Seven of those were triple A cattle, some of the best cattle that could be shipped. One was a double A. The prices he received for those cattle ranged from $1.29 to $1.33.
What I want to say to consumers is that when they go into their grocery store they should ask their grocer why producers are not getting a greater share of the price of the steak they are buying. Those questions need to be asked. We need to know why there is not a greater share of the returns to the beef industry going back to the primary producer.
I do not want to spend all my time talking to that end. The opposition has failed to make this point so I will have to ask the question. What has the Government of Canada been doing to support this industry?
If we go back and look at the record we will find that the minister explained that fairly well on Thursday night. I want to review a couple of points. Immediately the Canadian Food Inspection Agency went out there and it did its job in a regulatory way.
The minister, the previous minister, other ministers of the crown and in fact the Canada-U.S. parliamentary association made every effort to get the border open with the Americans. As I indicated, parliamentary delegations have been down there.
A number of programs have been introduced and I think we should review those: the BSE recovery program which targeted $520 million and $465 million has gone out; the cull animal program of $120 million and $110 million has gone out; the transition industry support, $930 million and $568 million has gone out, and the rest will be out I am told by October.
On September 10 the minister talked about repositioning the industry with a program of $488 million and, as he mentioned the other night, it is to go to four areas: first, to continue to pressure the United States in terms of them opening the border; second, to expand our slaughter capacity with assistance to the processing industry and to the small and medium slaughter industry to try to expand that slaughter capacity within Canada.; third, to bring normalcy back to the market through the fed cattle set aside and the feeder set aside programs; and fourth, to look at new markets as a country.
Right now the minister and a member from the opposite side are overseas trying to establish and inform others on our beef industry, its safety, the quality of our product, the kind of genetics that we have in those cattle and that they should be buying those products in their country. The minister is looking at Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong.
Yesterday the first feeder set aside program was opened up by the reverse auction approach. That program should now be up and running.
The bottom line is that the government is standing by this industry and doing everything in its power to support the industry. We are willing to listen to constructive criticism and to look at novel ideas to improve our programming and assist this industry in its time of need.