Mr. Speaker, this adjournment debate relates to a question raised with the minister on October 24 when I asked:
...the throne speech failed to outline any vision for primary producers in this country. [The minister] virtually ignored the fact that programming agreements with the provinces end on March 31.
Let me repeat that virtually all farm programs related to safety nets depend on those agreements and the government fails to show leadership, either announcing completed agreements or authorizing an extension, but that is not unusual for this new government when it come to farm policy.
Let us review some facts.
During the last election, the Prime Minister promised to eliminate the CAIS program. It never happened. He changed the name and made a few cosmetic changes that were already in the works.
The Prime Minister promised a disaster relief program, but as yet there are no details and no funding.
The Prime Minister promised to undermine the Canadian Wheat Board and in fact directed his minister to spend most of his time pushing that ideological agenda rather than dealing with pressing producer income issues. On that point, the actions of the Prime Minister and his henchmen were found by the Federal Court to be illegal.
While the government sits on its hands, rural MPs are getting calls from frantic producers in the beef and hog sectors who see their whole life's work being destroyed before their very eyes. Their life's work is being destroyed, not because of inefficiencies on their part but because of a high Canadian dollar and a highly supported, vertically integrated industry south of our border. The United States government supports its farmers, while our new government fails to take any action.
It is tragic when we see some of the headlines. A headline today read:
Beef business going bust; Alberta may lose up to 40 per cent of cow-calf operations by Christmas.
It is the same across the entire country and the minister sits on his hands.
Atlantic Canada is on the verge of losing its hog industry. Many of the most efficient hog operators are packing it in and hoping to get out with some dignity and the minister still sits on his hands. Why?
We saw a huge surplus today and tax breaks but those tax breaks will not do any good to those producers who are out there, who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and who are seeing their operations go down the drain while the government sits idle.
The minister may dislike ad hoc programs. However, right now we have the livestock industry across this country facing financial ruin that needs immediate help. Farm crises do not occur on the government's timetable. They happen suddenly and require action.
Previous governments acted on potatoes, on PVYn, on poultry and on ad hoc payments for the grain and oil seeds industry when the safety nets did not do the trick. The current government has demonstrated no intent to respond to this farm crisis.
Will the government not act on this crisis facing our hog and beef sectors? Why will it not, at the very least, give some certainty to safety net programming after March 31?