Mr. Chair, I want to put on the record a letter that I received from one of my constituents and I will ask a question at the end. The letter states:
I am sure you are aware of the problems that the western farmers and ranchers are facing. Do you realize how serious this is?
We have been ranching for 36 years and never have we been in this financial trouble before. We have mortgaged our ranch to help our two sons purchase land, much to my protest. I did not want to see them go into debt and work hard and get nowhere, but they purchased land anyway.
Over the last four years we have fought drought, grasshoppers and now BSE. Our investments have been cashed in to pay bills, buy feed, et cetera. Now we are broke.
Our farm insurance was due so we shipped five two and three year old purebred Charolais bulls and two purebred Charolais dry cows hoping to receive enough to cover the insurance bill. Guess what? It wasn't enough. I could not believe it.
Enclosed you will find a copy of the sale. Ridiculous! The cost of our utilities, fuel, groceries, repairs, machinery, et cetera has increased drastically, but the beef and the grain we sell is worth less.
Something is wrong with this picture. Our income is selling some calves, cull cows and cull bulls in the fall. We sold some calves last fall, receiving half the price we were expecting. We chose to keep the cull cows and bulls, a mistake. In the spring we sell around $40,000 worth of breeding bulls and heifers. This spring we sold $6,000 worth. How are we to pay our bills and live? Our regular customers did not replace their bulls and older cows because of the poor market.
Our accountant advised us to join CAIS. We did and now received notification to deposit $15,000 into a special account. How in the world do we do that when we have no money? The bank will lend it to us, but it only has to be paid back. I think that would be defeating the purpose.
I realize you cannot control these things but something has to be done. The western ranchers and farmers are in trouble and we need your help now.
The letter is signed by a farm wife from Endiang, Alberta.
This debate is a direct result of the government's failure to recognize and provide a timely response to this crisis. We have been going for 18 months and we still have no access to application forms for any of this. Farmers do not understand the program because the government has not got the information out.
The government announces programs, stands in front of cameras and makes the great announcements. It says it wants to increase capacity, but nothing in this program does anything to increase capacity. Those who want to start are saying they are being pushed back now by the banks. We have a set aside program that is contingent on extra capacity, but few now are stepping up to build packing plants.
The parliamentary secretary in his past has been involved in the agricultural sector, albeit we were never much in agreement with the guy. What hope can he give a farm wife who is watching a family farm disappear, a farm wife who is watching her children who want to get into a generational farm and is begging them not to and is being told that maybe they could enter into this program or that program?
Why has the government failed to plan for this crisis? Why do we fail to react? Why do we come here 18 months after the fact begging for a government to respond in a timely way? Why does the government not act?