These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
CAIS
Mr.
Dave Batters (Palliser, CPC): Mr. Speaker, beef producers devastated
by the BSE disaster are being forced to decide whether or not they can
afford to sign up for the CAIS program before the November 30 deadline.
This government has made participation in CAIS a condition for receiving
portions of the BSE aid money announced in September.
This government is forcing beef producers to pony up the dough in order to
access disaster relief and it is clearly imposing hardship on producers.
My question is for the agriculture minister or his designate. What will he
do to help farmers who cannot afford to enroll in the CAIS program? And
when will he commit to getting rid of the cash deposit?
The Speaker: The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Hon. Wayne Easter (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Agriculture and Agri-Food (Rural Development), Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I
think the member should go back to the record and look at the minister's
previous answers on the cash deposit and he will recognize where that one
is at.
In terms of producers, who we recognize are facing financial difficulty,
we have made the announcement of September 10, which was to increase our
slaughter capacity, and we brought into place a fed cattle and a feeder
cattle program so that producers can get better prices out of the
marketplace. We have introduced other programs, the cull cow program--
The Speaker: The hon. member for Haliburton—Kawartha
Lakes—Brock.
Mr. Barry Devolin (Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, CAIS was never intended as disaster relief. It was meant to even
out cashflow in a business as usual environment. As it turns out, CAIS is
actually failing two groups of farmers: first, the farmers who took money
out of their own pockets to sign up for CAIS and still have not received
any assistance; and second, farmers who could not afford the deposit in
the first place and are now ineligible for the program.
BSE is not business as usual. It is a national disaster. We would not
demand that flood victims put up their own money in order to be eligible
for flood relief. Why does the government continue to rely on this failed
program?
Hon. Wayne Easter (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Agriculture and Agri-Food (Rural Development), Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I
would think adding with the provinces over $2 billion over and above CAIS
is really not relying on that program in its entirety. We recognized that
there had to be ad hoc programming and we went out there and did it. As I
said, we are trying to manoeuvre the market price so that producers can
get prices out of the marketplace. We are trying to increase the slaughter
capacity so we can have a made in Canada solution. We are working with the
United States and with Japan and others to find other markets for our
beef. We are there for producers--
The Speaker: The hon. member for Cambridge.
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