Mr. Speaker, our farmers across Canada, the people who put meat on our tables and who produce 23% of agricultural income, need their government to take action to help them get through the perfect storm that is threatening their livelihood.
The Canadian livestock industry is a powerful driver of Canada's economy. Meat products are Canada's largest food manufacturing industry with over $20 billion in sales. The red meat sector is the largest employer in the food industry. Red meats are a major driver of Canadian exports.
Thanks to the Prime Minister's action, the future looks very bright for our livestock producers. The demand for animal protein is increasing globally, specifically in China, India and other emerging markets. Canada has a rich and robust resource base in place to meet that demand.
We have a strong culture of science and innovation, a culture that this government is fostering even further. Our agriculture sector is incredibly productive.
Our livestock producers are competitive. They are innovative and they are positive about the future of their sector. They just need some help to weather the perfect storm that has hit their industry: the high dollar, the over supply and the high input costs. These and other factors have combined to put severe financial pressure on Canada's livestock producers.
If they are to be viable and competitive in the long term and take advantage of the promising market opportunities that are out there, our hog and beef producers need immediate assistance to get through the current crisis and to begin the necessary adjustment. Governments and industry are fully engaged in this issue.
To help hog producers manage disease, the government launched the circovirus inoculation program, under which producers are immediately entitled to $25 million in assistance from the federal government to have hogs in Canada tested and vaccinated.
This is the first of two phases of a $76 million initiative to assist the hog industry in controlling diseases. As well, to assist our slaughterhouses, which are key factors in the equation, our government has invested $51 million to improve the temporary foreign workers program.
First, the new AgriInvest Program will pay out $600 million in federal funds to kickstart producer accounts. Those payments are now being made available to our producers.
The government will make more assistance available to producers through interim payments and targeted advances under AgriStability, the new program based on margins.
Unlike the Liberals who had the poor sense to cut agriculture spending by $400 million in the 1990s, we are taking real action. In December we announced the first step in a national action plan to help Canada's livestock producers.
Through the new suite of business risk management programs, ministers agreed to accelerate access to payments under agri-stability through targeted advance payments and interim payments. We promised to take action and we have taken action.
In total, from late 2007 through 2008, nearly $1.5 billion in cash payments is expected to flow to livestock producers through existing and new programs.
We are also currently working with the provinces to fast track 2008 agri-stability TAP payments, 2008 interim payments and 2007 final payments.
Targeted advance payments have already been triggered for hog producers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Interim payments are available for those who are not eligible for a TAP payment.
This is real action from this government to give the livestock industry some of the help it needs, because when farmers need help, they need that help right away.
Governments and industry have also been working together to identify ways that would help industry position itself to be competitive in the long term. These include: reducing costs of implementing the enhanced feed ban; increasing livestock, pork and beef sales abroad; and bringing innovative feed grain inputs and products to market more rapidly.
Internationally we are working hard to find new markets for Canadian producers and we are working hard to maximize the markets we are already in. Access to international markets is an important part of economic success for Canada's livestock producers.
Opportunities to expand our agriculture trade relationship are enormous. The world wants our livestock products, from genetics, to breeding stock, to the finished product. The government is working hard to take these products to the world.
We have taken every opportunity to further secure, protect and enhance access to the U.S. and to other key markets for the Canadian livestock sector. We have engaged through a friend of the court submission to fight the latest bid by R-CALF to once again close the border.
Canada has regained full beef access to the Philippines. Partial access has been granted for Canadian beef exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Russia. We are actively seeking to resume beef exports to Korea and China.
As well, the government has an ambitious agenda for the negotiation of bilateral free trade agreements. Canada is currently negotiating free trade agreements with several important markets for our beef and pork exports, including Korea which is of particular importance. Other markets include Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
I am very pleased to report that access to Canadian breeding stock has recently been restored to Mexico as well as to Barbados. This is welcome news for Canadian exporters and is an important step in restoring market access with all of our trading partners.
This government's commitment to expanding our agricultural markets is clear. We are taking action to strengthen opportunities for the sector in global markets. These actions will ensure a strong future for cattle and hog producers.
The world wants our beef and pork products, and we are more than ready to deliver.
The legislation we are proposing is one more sign of this government's commitment to take action for Canada's hard-working beef and pork producers. As I said earlier, our producers know where they are going, but they need a bridge to get there and this bill provides that.
The measures in this bill are based on close consultation with industry which asked for a loan program to alleviate the short term financial crunch those in the industry are facing. The time to act is now or we risk seeing viable, competitive producers shutting down their businesses.
Accordingly, under these proposed amendments to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, a producer will have easier access to up to $400,000 in cash advances under the advance payments program. In other words, producers will no longer have to use these payments from business risk management programs as security for the loans. Instead, they can use their livestock inventories.
This responds directly to demands from the industry to decouple BRM and APP payments, because payments from the BRM programs were reducing the effectiveness of the program by clawing back the dollars available.
Second, we are proposing to expand the triggers for emergency advances under the payments program. We will do this by adding severe economic hardship as a trigger, along with the existing triggers of weather and natural disaster.
For those severe economic hardship situations, the amendments will raise the maximum payout from $25,000 to $400,000, of which $100,000 is interest free.
We are taking action to offer livestock producers repayable advances which could total up to $3.3 billion.
We are also taking steps directly targeted to the hog sector to help those producers who wish to restructure and rationalize in the face of these realities.
What we are seeing across North America is a massive downsizing in the hog herd. This has created an oversupply of cull sows, which has driven the price down by well over half and has pushed processing plants to capacity limits. As a result, producers are forced to delay their restructuring plans.
In response to this situation, the government is investing $50 million in a cull breeding swine program. Administered by the Canadian Pork Council, this program will help restructure the industry and make it more competitive. Producers will receive per-head payments for each animal slaughtered and will be reimbursed for the slaughter and disposal costs.
In addition, the government will work with the industry and review meat inspection user fees to assess their impact on competitiveness of the sector.
The Government of Canada is also working to reduce costs and increase competitiveness under Canada's enhanced feed ban. This complements the federal government's commitment of $80 million to help the industry adjust to new feed standards.
Looking to the longer term, this government continues to work with the sector to secure its competitiveness and profitability. A big part of this is Growing Forward, a new federal-provincial-territorial plan to make the Canadian agriculture sector not just viable, but vibrant. It is a collaborative vision for the sector that is focused on the future. It is a vision for a profitable and innovative sector, a sector that seizes opportunities and a sector that responds to market demands and contributes to the health and well-being of Canadians.
This agreement builds on the best of the agriculture policy framework. It brings our producers the bankable business risk management programs I outlined earlier. It builds on the ideas put forward by producers and others who work in the sector.
The bottom line is that there is tremendous opportunity for agriculture in this country. The global demand for protein is growing, especially in the Pacific Rim, a market Canada is ideally positioned to serve. We have world renowned animal health, favourable climate, superior genetics and an abundant land base to produce the product to meet the demand. The fundamentals are in place and the future is bright. All that is needed is a springboard to get us there. We need to reframe the discussion from one of crisis to one of opportunity.
In supporting this bill, I have given you an idea of the problems that the industry is facing and the significant steps that our government has taken to help our producers get through a very hard time. The proposed legislation is an important part of an exhaustive strategy that will provide short-term assistance and will help hog producers plan for the future.
I urge my colleagues to pass this bill and to demonstrate their support for this industry, as it struggles to overcome its problems.
In closing, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture, this whole government since we were elected in January 2006 have always put farmers first.
I am so proud to stand in this place to introduce this wonderful piece of legislation that will help the cattle and the hog industry to go on to be sustainable and to be profitable for years and years to come.