Mr. Chair, in asking my question this evening, let me begin by extending, from one Reginan to another, my congratulations to you on your new role here in the Parliament of Canada.
There has been a good deal of discussion this evening, a lot of it very useful discussion, about the urgency of special attention that needs to be extended to farmers and farm families this spring. The government has spoken about the provision that it intends to include in the next budget and, obviously, farmers will wait very anxiously for that news.
It is to be hoped that perhaps as the days go by the government might see its way clear to actually taking action on this matter before the budget. There is some precedent for that. If that can be done, I am sure that would be welcomed across the country.
In the last question there was discussion about the issues related to program design. In other words, what is the best structure of agricultural programming that can be of the greatest urgent assistance to farmers?
The other side of the question, of course, is the issue of quantum: How much money needs to be put into the program?However well it may be designed, what is the cash needed to back it up?
The common experience over the course of the last several years is that over and above the basic safety net funding, whether that be one particular kind of safety net or another, and they have changed from time to time over the years, the requirement from year to year has tended to be at least on average in the area of $1.5 billion per year.
Does the member for Huron—Bruce have a quantum figure in mind that would be required to make a meaningful contribution to the resolution of this problem, at least for the upcoming season and perhaps even more for the longer term? Does he have a minimum estimated figure that would be required in order to take at least some of the sting out of the hurt that farm families are feeling?