There is a little background on that situation, Mr. Chair. There are 21 affected farmers in the member's riding. To date, they have received some $8 million of government program spending.
As he has alluded to, another package is being worked on right now. I know the date that was agreed on by the provincial minister, my counterpart, and the industry is the end of May. I certainly intend to honour that date. We will work with the producers that are affected.
We are also looking at the opportunity or the possibility to use the new agricultural flexibility program to develop a pilot, as the farms are small by western standards, 60 acres roughly on average, to build economies of scale to move into some product base that will actually work for them. Corn is not going to do it. We understand that. Soy is not going to give them the return they need off of those small acres.
Is there something we can do to bring them together in a co-operative way, such as forming a pilot project? Is there something we can do that will take it through to a finished product that will bring them back into the farm sector on that ground? We are happy to work with them and continue those discussions.