Madam Chair, I appreciate the comments from my colleague from P.E.I. We are seeing the same problem in both provinces and we are in agreement. However, what is the government doing? We must also agree that it has been happening since May of last year. Why does a farmer have to wait 13 months to get an answer? Why are farmers losing their shirts and the government is saying that they did not lose enough? There is something wrong with the program. It is as simple as that.
What are we going to do for the guy from Pokeshaw? What are we going to do for the guy from P.E.I.? What are we going to do for the guy from Gaspé, or the guy along Highway 20 coming up to Ottawa? What are we going to do for the guy in Timmins, Ontario? What are we going to do for all those farmers in southern Ontario?
When a farmer who has other things to pay has to pay an accounting firm to work on his papers to try to save his farm, what are we going to do? That is the question that David Whelton is asking and I am supporting what he is asking. What are we going to do to help those people? It does not make sense that a farmer has to wait 13 months.
We need to expedite this faster than that. We must be able to do something other than ask farmers to fill out a 10-page form, to go back five years and spend more time. They do not have time for that, they have to look after their beef. They have to look after their farms. That is the matter that is important today.
At the same time, what about the meat packers? What is happening with them, or the big SuperValu, or the Sobeys and Loblaws? Why are we not asking them why we are paying the same price in the store for Canadian beef and the farmer is not getting paid?
Why not raise this question as a government? The government has that power. The government has the power to do something, to carry out a study, or we have no business being here. If we have no power then we have no business being in the House of Commons. We are here to protect the people and we are here to protect our farmers. It may be nice to have a car, but maybe we do not need it. It may be nice to have a motorcycle, but maybe we do not need it. However, we need food and we must support our farmers.
I am sure that the United States is supporting its farmers. I am sure that any other country in the world is supporting its farmers, but our farmers have been let go. The government will say no, it has done all kinds of great things, but the answer is still that the farmers are not happy because they feel they have been left behind. They are the ones who get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and are in the barn. They are the ones who have to go and get all the feed. They are the ones who have to work seven days a week. They are the ones who do the hard work, and they are the ones who are treated the worst right now. It is not right.
That is why I call upon the government to do something different and do it faster. We need to help farmers, have better answers for them, and have programs that will help our small farmers too. That is what we need.
I do not want to take anything away from what the government has done, but it does not work when a farmer has to wait 13 months for an answer. It does not work when the department says a farmer did not lose enough when he is $550,000 in the hole. That is not an answer. It is not right.
It is not the first time that I have spoken to farmers. They are going through hell. Our dairy farmers are going through hell. It is not acceptable. We have to look after the ones who provide us with food. We are losing them and we will have big business looking after it.
If we are going to help farmers, maybe we should help them create co-ops to do their own processing. Maybe that is the competition we need. Those farmers were telling me they had a group and wanted to create one in P.E.I. Maybe we should support that. We should take a stronger look at it and how we could advance a solution faster. Maybe that will be the answer.