39th Parliament, 1st Session

Edited Hansard • Number 123
Monday, March 19, 2007

ORAL QUESTIONS

Agriculture

Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, our farmers have been facing increasing pressures from rising input costs. This has really put a lot of people in a cost price squeeze. It is a major concern for them and their families.

During the last election we campaigned on a commitment to address cost of production issues, in addition to replacing CAIS, with programming that actually works for farmers.

Can the Minister of Agriculture update this House with what the government is doing to help farmers who are facing increasing production costs and what the government is doing to make farm income support programming better for them?

Hon. Chuck Strahl (Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, on March 9 the Prime Minister announced two programs totalling a billion dollars in new money that will be going to Canadian farmers.

To address the cost of production we are delivering an investment of $400 million. We said we also wanted to make progress more predictable and bankable. The farmers' savings account provides the flexibility they have been looking for and we are going to put another $600 million into that program.

Combine that with a new disaster relief framework, improved production insurance, better cash advances, and improved business risk management programming, we are now well on our way to replacing the old Liberal CAIS program. Every time, any day, we can replace a Liberal is a good day for Canadian farmers.

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CLICK HERE to hear the audio version of Garry's March 19, 2007 question and Minister Strahl's response.