These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
CAIS
Mr.
James Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake, CPC): Mr. Speaker, at a recent
agriculture committee meeting, the parliamentary secretary said about the
CAIS program:
I guess...it's a policy problem, but...part of the problem with CAIS
is...it really wasn't designed...to deal with a disaster, and we're trying
to have it cover a disaster at the moment.
The agriculture minister has ignored MPs and he is ignoring his own
parliamentary secretary. The minister is not listening nor is he designing
farm programs that respond to disasters like BSE. I ask the minister, what
alternatives is he considering to get emergency cash to the farm gate
right now?
Hon. Andy Mitchell (Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, the reality is that under the CAIS program $400 million has
gone to producers. That is what has happened this year.
As I said to the committee, there is a need for things to be done in
addition to CAIS. We had an announcement on September 10 of an additional
$488 million to assist specifically with the BSE issue, bringing our
investments in respect of that particular problem to somewhere over $2
billion. This government cares about Canadian producers and it acts on
that.
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