QUESTION PERIOD — Agriculture and Agri-Food
AgriInvest
October 2, 2020
Honourable senators, my question today is for the government leader in the Senate. It concerns the AgriInvest program for our farmers. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister Bibeau has maintained that she could not make the case to her cabinet colleagues for greater help for our agricultural sector when farmers have unused money sitting in their AgriInvest accounts. When the minister was before this chamber in May, she stated several times that farmers had $2.3 billion available in their accounts, which they were not using. In fact, the vast majority of AgriInvest accounts — over 72,000 out of just under 100,000 accounts — have less than $10,000. Worse, almost 11,000 accounts have nothing at all, zero.
Leader, your government claims its decision-making is evidence based. Given these figures, how can the minister continue to claim that our farmers don’t need help from this Liberal government?
Thank you, senator, for your question. I don’t think the government’s position is as you have described. The government understands that farmers and the agricultural sector, like so many Canadians in so many sectors, are struggling. They are struggling not only because of COVID but because of other circumstances beyond anyone’s control: world markets, geopolitical affairs and the like. That said, I don’t have the answer for you for the specific question and the figures that you cite. I certainly will make inquiries and report back.
Thank you, leader. I hope those answers will be coming very shortly, because this is, for Canadian farmers, an emergency.
On May 15, when I asked the minister why her government was ignoring the needs of our farmers, the minister said:
I’ll offer the example of the amount of money that the grain sector has in their AgriInvest account. This is the most significant one. I think the average is over $100,000.
In fact, that information was also false. Data sent in August from the minister’s own department to the Agriculture Committee in the other place showed that grain farmers have an average of $33,600 in these accounts.
Leader, why did the minister tell us grain farmers have over $100,000 in their AgriInvest accounts when the average is two-thirds less than what the minister has claimed?
Thank you, senator. I would not presume to know when the figures were calculated or to which accounts you refer, but, again, I will make inquiries and be happy to report.
