Mr. Chair, I will not draw attention to their name, except for the fact that this family drove nearly 1,000 kilometres today on less than 12 hours notice to be here tonight. I will be careful not to mention them by name, but to say that they have lived the nightmare of the closed border, the collapse of cattle prices and 15 months of inaction. I would implore the minister to sometime tonight find time to meet with them and find out what they have been going through.
This family that will remain nameless was here in July with a group of Algoma and Timmins--James Bay farmers to meet with the NDP caucus. We went out and met with the press. They delivered a plea that we needed immediate action plan in place before the fall auction sales. The fall is here and we have a plan but it is not really in place. In fact our farm families are telling us that what we have is all hat and no cattle.
The electronic tagging system for set aside feeder cattle is not ready. Farmers have no idea when it will be ready. We know that they do not know where the forms are. A basic floor price should have been in place this fall, but the government feels that we should have trusted the market. This family that I will not mention went to market, along with a number of other Algoma farm families, and they were killed on the floor this fall. That was the result.
I am sure the hon. minister will tell these nameless farm families to apply to CAIS, but they are not eligible for CAIS, like many other farm families across Canada.
I will mention another family, not by name of course. They are proud Franco-Ontarian pioneers in my riding who opened up farming in my region. Four generations of farm equity was wiped out in 15 months. The father, his sons and his grandsons phone my home every single day because they are their farm. They have taken the machines, they have liquidated the cattle and they are going after the grandfather's house. What do I tell them when they phone me? In this plan there is no debt relief. There is no tax relief. It is just all hat and no cattle. We are being told the promise is that we will advance next year's debt onto this year's debt.
Let us crunch the numbers. In dairy most families have lost $25,000 in the last year and the federal government is coming back with nothing more than $150 to $300 per farm. Top rated dairy cows valued last year at $1,800 a head are being written down for as low as $200 a head. They cannot take that to the bank. The debts are rising, our machines are being repossessed and our support infrastructure in rural Canada is crumbling.
While we are talking about cull cows, I would like to point out that our farmers are now more under the thumb of the large packers than ever. The packers have made a killing and they continue to make a killing. Without a basic floor price for cull cows, animals that should have been worth $400 are being bought up for little more than the price of a pair of rubber boots, and the consumer continues to pay a premium across Canada. Meanwhile, rural Canadians continue to be cast adrift and we are supposed to hope that somehow over the next year market forces will come to bear and help people out.
I know I am a newcomer to this room, but I would like to point out that since 1997 there have been more emergency debates on agriculture than any other single issue facing the House. We have talked a lot and the farm families here tonight have heard a lot of talk. However, the one difference between 1997 and today is that it has only got worse. I implore the minister to work with all of us. It has to stop.