Finance committee  Agristability fund serves Canada as a whole. The minister decides how the funds will be allocated. We have always called for an AgriFlex fund that could also provide income security. The fund would be based on the volume of agriculture in each province. It would be a pan-Canadia

Finance committee  Quebec has also recently renewed its commitment to the ASRA program, while addressing some of the program's shortcomings. Grain farmers are grateful that they have such supportive partners in the Ontario and Quebec governments for these needed programs. However, the federal compo

Finance committee  Farmers are not asking the federal government for a bailout program. As is the case with Ontario's RMP program and also Quebec's ASRA program, it is a cost-shared insurance-style program where farmers contribute premiums to protect them against pricing collapses caused by interna

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today. My name is William Van Tassel. I'm president of the Ontario-Quebec Grain Farmers' Coalition. I am joined by Leo Guilbeault. He is my Ontario counterpart. He is chair of the Ontario grains and oil

Finance committee  For example, in Quebec, regional flexible funds can be used to shore up ASRA—Le Programme d'assurance stabilisation des revenus agricoles—which is a critical element in keeping many different sectors on a sustainable path in times of low world prices. In other regions that might

Agriculture committee  The issue was declining margins. We still see the problem today, with respect to cattle. We are trying to solve it. It's the same thing for pork. It was the same problem several years ago. That's why I am saying that the two programs are similar. The only small difference relates

Agriculture committee  It would probably cost less. We looked at Statistics Canada sources and noted that ad hoc payments—which are payments in addition to those made under CAIS—average $2.5 billion year. That represents about $1.5 billion for the federal government. We have suggested taking $1 billion

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. It was very interesting. It was a very interesting afternoon. This meeting is adjourned.

Agriculture committee  You asked about ASRA. It was designed in 1975 and brought in towards the end of the 1970s in Quebec. Most of the time, there was federal money going in, because the federal programs were sent through ASRA. So it was there. Mr. Lemieux, you talked about a level playing field. We'

Agriculture committee  I'm a farmer, so I've learned to be patient. I look out in the springtime and I always hope I'll have something good in the fall. You have to be patient to be a farmer. What comments have I received? Some said it could be countervailable. They said there were different response

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  If we look at 2008-09, the grain farmers wouldn't be getting any money out of it. The prices were good for the last year or two. But go back a few more years more and you'll see the prices were bad. We would like to have a program that works in the long term. Instead of ad hoc

Agriculture committee  They have the problem of declining margins, so they're trying to work within the program to try to make it better. BSE is...[Inaudible--Editor]...so we can't really work on it here. They're trying to get out of the problem of declining margins by working on that, but we're workin

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Probably.