Mr. Speaker, when does the government plan to start treating the crisis in farm income as an immediate crisis, one that needs action today?
First, farmers demanded direct, immediate assistance for spring seeding but what did they get? Nothing. All the government is offering is double-talk, claiming that money delivered in the fall is somehow money put into the hands of farmers today and encouraging farmers to borrow themselves out of debt by offering no other immediate assistance.
Producers deserve a real plan and real action, not a whole lot of nothing. The hon. member for Malpeque saw through this ruse and I join him in demanding the government to stop this deception and to start acting.
Second, there is nothing on delivering a national renewable fuel strategy, nothing on the opportunities that ethanol and biodiesel offer farmers and forestry.
I call upon the government to support farmers across Canada.