But their officials did. And so did eight ministers. They asked officials to come up with options on new safety net programming. So, although you d never know it by reading the news headlines, we are making progress. The Government of Canada has shown its commitment to helping those farmers in difficulty, but the federal government cannot do it alone.
Agriculture is a shared jurisdiction and the provinces have to do their part.
We have been working on a cooperative cost-sharing approach for most of the 1990s. The sooner provinces sit down and bring their dollars to the table, the sooner the money will flow to producers. The Minister has also proposed interest-free cash advances of up to 20,000 dollars to help farmers pay for spring seeding costs. This will certainly contribute towards farmers having cash available, interest-free, to buy items such as seed, fertilizer and pesticides. On top of that, we are proposing changes to give farmers easier access to their NISA accounts.