Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to stand here today to speak to this very important issue. My riding is the second largest beef riding in the country, and I know all too well the problems that are going on out there.
I come from a long line of farmers. My grandfather raised a large family. He farmed and he worked off the farm a bit, and he raised a family of 10 kids. My dad raised my four brothers, my two sisters and me. Until I came to the House in 2004, I was a full time farmer and proud of it. There are still days that I wish I were doing more of that, but there is the business at hand.
Three of my four brothers have farms and two of them still farm, Jerry and Paul. My youngest brother, Paul, is going at it. When he sold his calves this fall, I know the prices he was paid and it was a big reduction. We are quite aware of it out there. We have to work together.
The one thing that irks me about a lot of this is that sometimes partisanship gets involved way too much. A couple of my colleagues across the way have been on or still sit on the agriculture committee, a couple of members from the Bloc, and we all have one interest in common. We want to help agriculture in general, and in particular, the beef and pork sectors right now.
Just last Thursday the member for Malpeque and I sat on the other side of the House for a few minutes. It is not always crazy in this place, Mr. Speaker, as you well know. We talked about the BSE crisis. My equity took a hit of more than $140,000 in the BSE crisis. As my colleague from Selkirk—Interlake just said, we are still suffering from the hangover of BSE. I am not here to talk about my personal problems but to point out the kinds of losses people suffered.
One of the things the member for Malpeque and I talked about last week was that during the BSE crisis when the borders were closed, the government of the day, and this is not a partisan statement, was able to fire money at BSE through ad hoc programs. I commend that government for it. I supported it at the time. We have to remember that there is a big difference between then and now.
We cannot do that now. At that time the border was closed and money was dumped in through ad hoc programs. The borders were already closed, so they could not harm us. It was a little easier. I am not in any way trying to say it is that much easier, but there is an obstacle today that was not there then.
We have to come up with ways to do that. I believe the member for Selkirk—Interlake pointed out earlier that 80% of all our agricultural products produced, and certainly beef and pork are two of the big ones, are exported around the world. There are other situations affecting the pork and beef sectors right now. There is the high dollar. Grain prices are up, which is fantastic for our grains and oilseeds guys, because we all know that they had five or six years of taking it in the seat of the pants. We do not want any one sector ever to suffer because of another one. They are making money now and we have problems in another area.
We have to keep doing that and one of the ways is to try to diversify our export markets. There has been talk here tonight about throwing money at the problem. We have thrown a record amount of money at agriculture. Is it enough? No, it is not. It never will be. I will even give credit to the previous government. In the latter couple of years of its term, it started to increase spending in agriculture. We have continued that and that needs to be recognized. It is there, but we have to keep finding ways.
A motion asking for a review of the CFIA inspection fees was put forward in the agriculture committee last year and was unanimously supported by all members on the committee. What that basically would entail is all inspection fees for cattle, beef and livestock in general that would enter slaughterhouses. A preliminary review of the fees found that our producers were facing inspection fees at slaughterhouses and for live cattle border crossings that our American counterparts were not having to deal with.
That motion, which was supported unanimously, would go a ways toward giving the minister some kind of option. It was hoped that maybe he could address that in the same manner so that we could be on the same playing field as the United States.
Trade is the one area where we can increase markets. As I said, 80% of our products go around the world to more than 100 countries. Canada has an excellent reputation as a supplier of lean, high quality beef and pork products and we need to enlarge that market. The government has been working very hard to further advance international trade for both Canadian beef and pork.
Producers are facing some very tough times on the farm but they are demonstrating incredible resilience and perseverance, which is something for which Canadians are well known. We have federal and provincial governments working hard to offer support, some provinces more than others, but we need to deal with that. Some have the financial ability to do so but some do not.
Again, access to international markets needs to be and is an important part of economics assessed for Canada's livestock producers.
The opportunities out there to expand agriculture trade relations with many countries are enormous. The world wants our products, from genetics to breeding stock, right to the finished product, and we aim to supply that. Government needs to work in conjunction with industry, not one against the other or one by itself. The two must go work hand in hand. We are committed to doing that.
This government and the industry is working hard to get these products to the world. We have taken every opportunity to further secure, protect and enhance access to the U.S. and other key markets for the livestock sector. We have engaged, through a friend of the court submission, to fight the latest bid by R-CALF to once again close the border.
Canada has regained full beef access to the Philippines. Partial access has been granted for Canadian beef exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Russia. These kinds of markets do not just open up overnight. It has taken time to build these relationships. I would like to feel that I have had a part in that, as well as people before me. It is ongoing. It is never-ending. There is potential out there and we need to keep at it. Currently, we are actively seeking to resume beef exports to Korea and China.
We have an ambitious agenda for the negotiation of bilateral free trade agreements. We are currently negotiating free trade agreements with several markets for our beef exporters and pork exporters, including Korea, Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
We are getting closer to coming up with an agreement on a Korea free trade agreement. I also sit on the international trade committee. I find the two go hand in hand very well and I enjoy it very much. Members of the opposition, in particular the member for Burnaby—New Westminster, do everything possible to derail this. Now I do not know whether that member does not have any agriculture in his riding or just does not care. However, we all know that with these types of agreements around the world, nothing benefits more than agriculture.
I would ask all parties to put aside their partisanship and work toward this agreement. It is one of many options that I believe will help our beef and pork sectors.