Mr. Speaker, on May 6th, my question to the Minister of Agriculture was quite direct and clear: will the minister commit today to cash payments to Canadian hog producers so they can have some financial security? Sadly, the minister's answer was the usual mishmash of misinformation and hyperbole and of course no commitment to the ad hoc payments.
Why would Canada's hog producers, who have long opposed ad hoc payments due to their concern over trade issues, request an immediate payment of $30 per hog based on 2008 numbers? The answer is quite simple: it is a matter of economic survival. This industry is on its knees. We are losing the hog industry in this country. This is about economic survival, nothing more, nothing less.
Hog producers are ending up in financial ruin. They have spent their life doing this work. Generations of hog producers have done this work. Businesses are destroyed. Lives are ruined. Their economic future is in tatters because of events beyond their control, and the Conservative government has failed to address this economic reality.
Let us take a look at the numbers. In 2009, 8,310 farms reported having hogs. That is down nearly 30% from 2006. In Canada, 70,000 jobs are a direct result of hog production. Pork exports alone generate 42,000 jobs, $7.7 billion in economic activity, and $2.1 billion in wages and salaries. The whole industry is on the line.
In my province of Prince Edward Island, 80% of the producers have left, in 18 short months. In the province of Manitoba, exports of weaner pigs to the United States have come to a halt because of a labelling law in the United States that is nothing less than a non-tariff barrier.
Even the American Meat Institute, in testimony last night before the subcommittee on food safety, confirmed it shares our opinion that the United States country of origin labelling is a trade restriction. It agrees with a challenge to the WTO. The government, I will admit, is moving on that challenge. However, a challenge to the WTO, even if it gets off the ground, will take years. By that time our pork industry and its tremendous economic potential will have been cut in half and the dreams of many will be destroyed.
If the government wants to stand up against the illegal actions taken by the United States, it would immediately announce funding requested by producers. It is a justified payment based on the trade action itself.
Such money, reluctantly requested by Canada's pork industries, would assist in their survival, but it would also send a message to the United States that Canada is not going to blatantly stand by while it performs illegal acts. Canadians are behind our pork industry. They are willing to put money into it to see that the industry survives.
I ask the minister again whether he will commit to that money today.