Mr. Chair, this is a terrible drama that farm families are living. In fact this afternoon we received an e-mail from a woman who told us that her father is considering shooting the family cows because he cannot wait any longer. I might sound dramatic, but we have newspaper articles of the rise in suicide rates across western Canada. Our farmers are going down one by one.
I appreciate the minister's sincerity on this issue. My concern is that what we are talking about is a year too late. We are talking about ramping up capacity. The big packers are ramping up to 1,000 a day because they can. Our small regional capacity will not be in place in time and we know that.
We know that a loan loss guarantee, as the other hon. member said, will not put cement in the ground. When our members came and spoke in the summer, that is why they said that we needed the plan in place before the beginning of the fall auction season. That has not happened, and we do not know when that plan will be in place.
Therefore, rational business decisions are being made by farmers and, unfortunately, the rational business decision for many farmers is to give up because they cannot go on any longer.