Mr. Speaker, I as well am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-15. I congratulate the government on this bill.
It is nice to be able to congratulate the government for doing something on the agricultural file instead of, as has been the case on the agricultural file, leaving the impression that something is being done but that something never happening. The budget is a prime example. There are actually less dollars in it than there were in the previous year. The immediate cash the government promised for spring is still not there.
However, this is good legislation and I appreciate seeing it come forward. This legislation was originally introduced by the previous government in Bill C-69 in October 2005. It is not exactly the same bill, but it is pretty close. The current legislation builds upon the framework put forward by the previous Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Andy Mitchell.
Like the previous bill, Bill C-15 begins from the same premise, namely, that legislation of this kind will be a direct benefit to our producers in that it will provide an enhanced cash advance to Canadian producers to assist them to operate profitably over the short term and the longer.
The key provisions of Bill C-15 are the following.
It will, as the minister said, expand the coverage applicable to include livestock production as well as provide for the inclusion of a greater variety of crops. As in the previous government's legislation, there is a provision whereby the governor in council may, by regulation, designate any other agriculture product not specifically identified as being subject to the act. I might say that this is important, because under the current legislation there were some commodities that got missed although it was not intended.
I would point out, though, in this regard, one of the concerns I had with the previous government and would have with this one as well when we are setting the limit. From a farmer's perspective, if I can put it that way, the interest free cash advance going up to $100,000 is good. If it becomes necessary to increase it a little further, doing it by order in council would be fine, but I would worry if things tighten up with the Minister of Finance and if he or she might, by order in council, sometime reduce it. I want to make it very clear that our intention on the order in council is to ensure that there are increased benefits, not fewer benefits, for producers through using the order in council provisions.
As the minister said as well, it should be noted that the provisions of the bill do not apply to supply managed commodities. They have their own system. They operate in a system that allows them to achieve reasonable returns for managing the system to meet effective domestic market demands.
We welcome the provision in the bill for the increase of the overall limit of the advances from $250,000 to $400,000. There are also provisions in Bill C-15 for an increase in the amount of interest free advances from $50,000 to $100,000.
I want to expand on the points made by the minister. I agree with him in that regard. In fact, farm operations are larger. I think we ought to keep in mind why cash advances were first put in place quite a number of years ago. In the beginning, they were not put in place so much as a financial incentive as a marketing incentive.
For those out there in the general public, they should understand that originally when farmers harvested their crops, and it was mainly for cash crops in the fall at the beginning, they had a lot of extra harvest expenses with extra labour and so on. In order to pay their immediate bills in the fall, farmers tended to dump their product in the marketplace. Everybody doing the same thing at once resulted in quite a surplus of product in the marketplace. That in effect drove prices down.
The original cash advance program was designed in such a way through the Government of Canada as to have an interest free cash advance so that farmers would have the moneys with which to be able to pay their harvesting expenses to get their crop off and feed their crop into the market. There were two benefits. One was the interest free portion, but second, they were able to drive a better price out of the marketplace as a result of having the advance payments program in place.
That was a good design. I maintain to this day that the original advance payments bill is one of the best farm programs we have. It utilizes the authorities of the federal government through cooperation with various marketing agencies and the provinces to assist farmers in achieving better prices out of the marketplace. That is a good thing.
Bill C-15 provides for the consolidation of the two cash advance programs, the advance payments program and the spring credit cash advance program. On May 18, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food announced the early spring credit advance program, which focuses on the increase of the interest free loan portion in the act being made available to producers.
While we in the official opposition support Bill C-15 and, as our House leader said earlier, we want to see speedy passage of the bill through the House so that farmers can take advantage of it, and we will be doing that, we have expressed and continue to express our disappointment with respect to the federal government's lack in providing producers with direct cash for spring planting. We in the official opposition--and farmers, I believe--were of the impression that there would be cash for spring. Certainly some of the backbench members of the now governing party indicated that to farmers. That has not happened.
While the bill is a good one, I want the public to understand that this is a loan, and yes, as the minister has indicated, the government will be contributing close to $80 million to $100 million on an annual basis, covering the interest free portion of that bill. That is a valuable contribution by the Government of Canada, but in terms of the $100,000 itself, that is not money that is rolled out in a cheque to farmers. It is really the farmers' own money. It is borrowed money and we cannot borrow ourselves out of debt. Many of us in the farm sector have tried it. We have found that it just does not work.
People have to understand that this is in fact a loan. It will not deal with the cash shortfall as a result of poor prices in the international subsidy war that has driven grains and oilseed prices down and caused the farm income prices that exist in this country. It really will not deal with that problem. It is a good bill, yes, but it does not deal with the cash shortfall that already exists in the farm community as a result of low commodity prices.
To conclude, with the caveat that we have to recognize that this is another loan, by the same token it is a good program. There is a contribution from the Government of Canada on the interest free portion and we will be supporting the bill and trying to give it speedy passage, but I do express my desire that the Government of Canada reconsider what it can do for the cash shortfall in the farm community as a result of the international subsidy war going on, which is leaving farmers short of cash for the products they sold in the 2005 crop year.