Mr. Speaker, in his speech the member for Malpeque raised a problem, or at least a concern, regarding the potential excessive debt of those who will obtain new loan guaranties, particularly new farmers.
Earlier, I was asking the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture about the famous consultation paper that I have here. I mentioned that several groups of young farmers unfortunately were not consulted before amendments were proposed to this law.
However, some participants [among those consulted] said there is a need to ensure beginning producers [the next generation of farmers] do not overextend themselves financially by using the program, which they said may occur if it encourages beginning producers to borrow larger amounts than they can manage to pay back. In the end, participants agreed on the need to support beginning producers and the importance of minimizing road blocks to participation in the industry...
To date, the government has not established a real policy to help the agricultural sector as a whole. It has presented certain ideas that may be of interest but it has not shown the real political will to help the next generation of farmers or farmers in general. Does the member for Malpeque believe that we run the risk of having farmers take on excessive debt, which would lead to other problems?