Mr. Speaker, more than 1,500 cash crop producers in central Quebec, 11,600 in all of Quebec and 80,000 across Canada are denouncing the federal government's withdrawal from an agri-food sector where prices have remained ridiculously low.
Syndicate president Werner Schur deplored the attitude of Ottawa, whose support to the agri-food industry in the federal budget dropped from 3.9% in 1991 to 1.6% in 2002, stressing that grain producers are at their wit's end.
An OECD comparative statement shows a clear disproportion between certain countries in terms of farm income support. In U.S. dollars, for the year 2000, Canada provided $182 per capita in support, as compared to $378 in the U.S., and $276 in Europe.
What is Canada waiting for to improve the situation of our grain producers, who are the first link in the agri-food chain?