Mr. Chair, a properly working market will get them out of debt.
The member opposite is mixing several situations. He talked about devolution. We are in discussions with Saskatchewan and B.C. I firmly believe that closer to the need is the best delivery mechanism, so I fully support that devolution. We are working toward that. It has been slowed down a little in B.C. because of the election, but now we will get back on track.
The member opposite should also know that the delivery of agri-stability is a joint responsibility between the federal government and provincial and territorial governments. We have discussions by conference calls. I had one last week with my colleagues. We are having another one in July which will assess the first year of agri-stability. We will talk about what works and what does not work. We will have those numbers.
Because of the large acreage and the tremendous amount of agriculture in Saskatchewan, it is always one of the large beneficiaries of any program, including agri-stability. We have the numbers as to the payments that have gone to Saskatchewan and I can get them for the member.
In situations where there are negative margins and situations where farmers have multiple years that are keeping them out of triggering a payment, we make an advance payment to them. That goes against future payments that we think may come to them. They have that cash flow to keep them liquid and they will be paid back as they trigger payments in the future. That is the best of all worlds in the situation the member opposite is talking about.