It is getting late and I was saying that I am quite proud to take part in this emergency debate. I want to commend the hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska, the official Bloc Québécois agriculture critic, for launching this debate. He deserves a round of applause. Here we have a strong opposition party like the Bloc Québécois truly engaging in the emergency debate on agriculture.
The hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska initiated this debate because in his riding and throughout Quebec, the pork and beef producers have expressed their needs to him and talked to him about the crisis they are currently dealing with.
All these producers, who are listening, who are probably watching us and who will read about this, need to understand who in this House is truly defending their situation and their condition.
I represent an agricultural riding and that is why I wanted to be sure to take part in this debate. On many occasions and even at my riding office, many beef and pork producers have come to me to express their worries and discouragement.
We can hide behind numbers and significant amounts of money, but there is nothing more sincere than a person, a human, a farmer or a group of farmers coming to our riding office to talk to us about their real situation, their discouragement and distress—and studies have been published on this.
They are truly at the end of their rope, these men and women who live on what a farm produces, these farmers, these businessmen and businesswomen. It is a reality: a person who operates a pork or beef farm is a businessman or a businesswoman. Working hard every day only to end up in the red at the end of the month, not knowing how the loans will get paid or how to survive the following month; all that causes an extraordinary amount of tension and stress. Sometimes I get the impression that the members opposite are hiding behind their actions and are not paying enough attention to these people who are expressing their distress and discouragement.
I have a great deal of respect for producers because they are also business people who must use their creativity to innovate and make their farms profitable. Unfortunately, beef and pork producers especially are facing a desperate situation. Many farms are on the verge of ceasing operations. Earlier, I was talking to a producer in my riding, a large steer producer in Saint-Anicet, who told me that he has recorded $200,000 in losses since the fall. If things go on as they are, he will probably have to shut down his operation before the end of summer. He will be unable to continue operating as he is without support because he will accumulate over $600,000 in debt if he does.
When I meet with producers, they tell me that the government has announced billions of dollars and support, but for the past year and a half, none of them have seen one red cent of that money. Announcements about aid run every other week or so in local weekly and daily papers, as if old announcements are being recycled to bank political capital.
I do not think that producers in my riding are lying. When I meet them, they tell me that they have not yet received the money that the federal government, the Conservative government, promised. The machinery of government is slow, and the bureaucracy is ponderous. We get the sense that the system exists to serve the system, not the producers, and that is a big problem. Beef and pork producers need help now. We often forget—and this bears mentioning—that these producers operate farms and generate economic activity in nearby towns. Closing down a farm has a devastating impact on the town's economy. It affects credit unions, lenders, corner stores, mechanic shops and equipment dealers. The network of pork and beef farms is weakening, and an entire sector of economic activity is feeling the repercussions.
The Bloc wants to see farms in Quebec. We do not want to see only two or three megafarms in Quebec. We want activity and life in our villages. Farmers are important players in our communities specially since they are committed to their community. They are, for example, municipal councillors or school board members. They are generous and socially involved. Right now, their morale is so low that it has an impact on their involvement. How can they feel like giving when they are themselves in financial difficulty and do not know how they will manage to pay their bills next month? The situation is terrible in the pork as well as in the cattle industry.
I listened to the Conservative members when they said that the opposition does not propose solutions. That is totally false.
One only has to look, among other initiatives, at the various motions presented in this House by the Bloc Québécois, including the one on supply management, which was unanimously supported by all parliamentarians, and which helped put pressure on the government to respect its commitment to protect supply management. We also did a lot of work with producers. The Bloc Québécois is in touch with producers. What we are saying here this evening, and what the member for Richmond—Arthabaska has been doing as our critic on agriculture, reflects what producers are telling him.
Everyone in this House—even Conservative members—knows that there is a crisis going on, and that we must take action.
I talked about the unanimous report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, which proposed six priorities to help the beef and pork industries. That report was produced after an extensive debate and after witnesses expressed all the needs of that sector. We wonder why some of these priorities are not implemented immediately. We have to say it: the government has the means to implement these priorities.
I invite it to be more attentive, to be proactive, to listen to the proposals made by the opposition, and to take immediate and direct action to help beef and pork producers find their way out of that crisis.