Mr. Chair, I want to thank the House for allowing Parliament to hear more from our agriculture minister. I want to thank him for his speech tonight. He did more than just simply point out the failures of the last Liberal government, but he also clearly laid out our plan.
I want to commend all those in the election campaign. We had the plan clearly laid out in the election campaign as well. I think a lot of people in agriculture and a lot of Canadians recognize that when we came into office, we would carry out those promises.
I also want to thank the minister on behalf of my constituency. Since he has been appointed Minister of Agriculture, we recognize that he has travelled across the country many times. I know one Monday when I was in Ottawa at meetings, he was in my riding meeting with people around Calgary. The next day he was in Ottawa for a meeting and the day after I think he was in the Maritimes.
We all recognize the crisis we are facing. When we talk about crisis in agriculture, sometimes we broaden the scope to all of agriculture. At the present time, we are seeing perhaps an unprecedented crisis in the grains and oilseeds sector. I appreciate what the minister said. I do not believe any farmer wants to farm a system or a program in Canada. It is not how can we farm into a program, but how can we eventually leave programs and stand alone? However, in the meantime there is a crisis, and the minister has laid out part of that.
There is another crisis coming down the road as well. The average age of a farmer is 58 or 59 years old. We are seeing a depletion in equity on a lot of these farms, grains and oilseeds farms to be more specific. How can the government give hope to those who will soon move into a transition period? What hope is there for a young farmer who wants to take over dad's farm, if he is still there, or any young person wanting to move into this industry?