Agriculture committee  It would certainly help, definitely. The potato industry is the largest user of the advance payment program in our province.

Agriculture committee  I agree with your comments on the NISA program. I think, when we look back, it was the combination of government and producers. I think when government looked at the amount of money that was sitting there in the NISA program, they said, you know, this is not working, because prod

Agriculture committee  I don't know if that figures on what it would mean financially, but in most cases, the potato operation was the large part of their operation. If they did in excess of $400,000 through that program--and that industry is struggling as well--and they don't have the ability to roll

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Definitely, yes, but because I live in a have-not province, it's the dollars that they struggle with for agriculture. There are a lot of other provinces that are in the same state. Yes, I know, definitely some of it falls back on the provincial government; there's no question ab

Agriculture committee  I don't quite understand. The seven years was the seven-year cycle within the industry—the highs and the lows.

Agriculture committee  No, the cycle is gone. Ever since BSE in 2003, we've lost the highs and lows; we don't have that anymore. It's just been lows since then. That was my comment on the seven-year cycle, and the hog industry as well. The cycle seems to have gone out of those industries.

Agriculture committee  On young farmers, my family immigrated from Scotland in 1786, and we've been raising livestock in P.E.I. since that time. I have two brothers who still farm, and I'm sad to say that I believe we're the last generation. We all have sons, but none of them are going to farm. It's re

Agriculture committee  Yes, it's kind of like NISA, only you can't use all your.... It's not the total program, but it's still tied to your reference margin. Until we can get a program that's tied to your cost of production, I don't think it can work for producers. It has to be tied to your cost of pro

Agriculture committee  The NISA program was a good one. Probably farmers were to blame for why it was scratched, because a lot of producers used that money for retirement. If it had been set up so that it automatically had to be withdrawn on a down year, it might still be going. When the BSE hit in 20

Agriculture committee  That's why we're saying 10 months is not realistic. If it's over a longer period of time, the program has a better chance of recouping this money than in such a short timeframe.

Agriculture committee  I would think five years, or tie it to your profitability in the commodity or whatever.

Agriculture committee  I don't know. You can only go so long.

Agriculture committee  Nothing has changed in the industry since that program was announced--severe economic hardship--in 2008. Actually, it's probably gotten worse since then.

Agriculture committee  They're very fortunate in Alberta that they have a government that has deep pockets.