Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, folks, for being here.
Let me put on my other hat as a member of a different committee. This will be no shock to my friends, I don't think, but let me talk to you about what the Auditor General found about BRM:
Another long-standing problem is understanding program objectives and responsibilities for managing farm income risks. From 2008 to 2010, the Department conducted a strategic review to address pressures from producers and industry for program improvements. The review found a lack of clarity in the roles and responsibilities for producers, industry, and government relative to farm income risk management. It also found that objectives for income support programs needed to be clarified.
That comes from the Auditor General. Of course, there's a recommendation to Agri-Food Canada from the Auditor General that says:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada should work with service delivery partners to understand their challenges and develop and monitor realistic implementation timelines for future income support programs.
The department said, of course, that would be done in Growing Forward 2 in 2013. I know we're almost at the end of 2011, but the reality is that the Auditor General and the department concur with you on the things you've identified and commented on numerous times today, but the fix is down the road.
So I guess my question would be this. On the ground in your areas—whether in Quebec, Mr. Béland, or in New Brunswick, Mr. Brennan, or in B.C., Ms. Patterson, or in Saskatchewan, Mr. Orb—do you sense that we will lose farmers between then and now? I don't mean just because we will lose some anyway, when they go out of business, but losing farmers because these programs aren't going to get fixed until 2013, even though the Auditor General says—and this is no longer anecdotal—that the programs aren't doing what they're intended to do and folks are waiting up to two years for money. I don't want to read the quote because it takes too long.
Whoever would like to start, go right ahead.