Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Lévis—Bellechasse. I will not take up much time because we are running against the clock.
Tonight everyone acknowledges that we have a crisis on our hands in terms of agriculture. When we look at the futures in the hog industry, as one individual said, in beef we can see a light coming, but I am not so sure it is not a train, but in terms of the markets in the pork industry, we can see a light coming and that is an improved market. We have to work toward that.
I farm. I come from Middlesex County in Ontario. It is one of the most productive areas in agriculture. Having the same background as my colleagues across the way, it is important to recognize that the significance of agriculture in this country is second to none in terms of the security of it. With that, we need to work together.
As my colleague from Huron—Bruce indicated earlier, we had a program that was working well in agriculture. Unfortunately, the Liberals decided to dissolve that program. The NISA program and the market revenue within the provinces were working well. Then we got stuck with the CAIS program, which works well for some. The problem is that is a program that is not fair. Some people get it and other farmers cannot seem to counter it.
When we indicated we would get out of it, that was a strong move and an indication by the farmers that they did not want it. What we found out, though, is that we needed the support of the provinces to get out of it. Support from the provinces to lead Canada away from that type of a program was not there. We have been able to bring in agri-invest, which is a contributory program with a $600 million kickstart that began this year. There are good programs on the way.
I want to emphasize that we cannot look at just what we have on our plate today. This is an emergency debate tonight, but it is also about sustaining an industry. When I talk to farmers, one of the things they tell me is not to bring in a program to assist them that will countervail them. As we go back to look at ad hoc financing and programs for agriculture, that is one of the issues: money is just thrown at it. My colleague from Malpeque is always on about where is the cash. Well, cash is not always the answer if it is going to countervail farmers. I know there is the theatrics of it all, but I also know he is very sincere about the agriculture industry.
We have to put our heads together and work with the minister to make sure we have a program that is going to sustain our industry for a long time. It is always easy to criticize, but we have to look back and see that it is always cyclical in agriculture. I have always said it is hard to get agriculture running on all eight cylinders.
Earlier tonight it was mentioned that during the last 13 or 14 years, 75,000 farmers have left. It is not just an issue right now. It has been an issue in the past and we need to figure out how we are going to sustain it for a long period of time. The people on my side, along with the people involved with agriculture, are about getting solutions, which is why we had this debate tonight.
I am going to cut off my speech here because I want my colleague to have a few minutes. If there is time at the end, I would be glad to take a question.