Mr. Speaker, I want to enter into the debate today to talk about the provisions that my colleagues in the Reform Party have mentioned. The amendments we are trying to propose here today would ensure final offer binding arbitration for the situation in the grain and transportation industry, in the whole delivery system for what is a very important part of the Canadian economy, the export market.
I would argue whether it is in the national interest or not but it is very important for continuing service in the domestic markets as well. With tongue in cheek I must chastize my colleagues from the Reform Party who talked so much about the grain producers, which is worthwhile. I know many grain producers.
I would like to talk about the necessity to provide an assured transportation system for the feed industry. The feed industry in a province like my own relies extensively or maybe exclusively on the ability of the rail system to deliver feed in a timely fashion to the west coast for the use in our own feed industry.
West of the Rockies in my area in the Fraser Valley we probably have the biggest concentration of the chicken and dairy industry. There are hundreds of chicken, dairy and hog farmers all relying on a grain system and delivery system that will give them what they need in a timely fashion.
I mention this because this is not a theoretical discussion about the importance of assuring this system is not interrupted for any length of time.
The feed industry in the lower mainland has been denied access to grain delivery from the prairies. It has had to resort to trucking grain from Alberta to the Fraser Valley to try to keep chicken farmers and the rest of the farm industries in my area from running out of feed for their livestock.
They have heard every excuse under the sun. It has been blamed on the weather, a lack of locomotives, farmers, being unable to spot cars in the prairies and who knows what. I do not know if the minister knows. He certainly has not done a whole lot to help them out.
It is an example of a system that both export and domestic markets rely on being interrupted for whatever reason. Not only does it hurt our reputation abroad. It also hurts our ability to look after our own industries. Whether it can be blamed on the weather or on the government, it points out the necessity of having an assured supply of grain delivered to the west coast.
If the government is not prepared to entertain the idea of final offer binding arbitration it needs to do something to reassure the feed industry in my area will somehow be able to intervene to make sure it gets grain.
There are not enough trucks available in British Columbia to haul grain in the amount required to look after the industry in the lower mainland. The grain has to be trucked all the way from Alberta, maybe 700, 800 or 900 kilometres one way, to the feed mills in the Chilliwack area in order to sustain the industry on an
ongoing basis. They cannot hire enough trucks. Maybe the hon. member has enough trucks to help out, but farmers in my area cannot hire enough trucks to get that much feed delivered.
As grain cars back up across the prairies and on sidings at Boston Bar, tantalizingly close but still not delivered to the feed mills, we see the crisis develop in a hurry in the lower mainland.
I ask the government to consider what we are proposing today. We do not want to see our domestic market hung up because somebody threw their hands up in the air and walked away from a labour dispute. We have to be able to say that from production to delivery there is a system exporters can count on. Equally important and certainly even more important in my riding is the ability to know we can rely on the transportation system day in and day out, year in and year out, to get feed to the feed bins.
If we cannot do that in British Columbia I can tell the House what will happen. The agricultural industry which relies on the grain from the prairies will die a slow, withering death in British Columbia. Over the last two or three weeks we have seen an industry begging for some kind of government intervention to provide enough grain to feed the chickens. They should be able to rely on that and if they cannot they will do what they have to do.
They are telling me that if they cannot rely on the grain delivery system into the lower mainland, they will have to take their industry somewhere else. To tell farmers in the lower mainland that they are just not wanted is unacceptable. There should be some way to assure them that the export market important. We should encourage diversity and value added in the agricultural industry. We should encourage the feed industry and exports.
If I can use an agricultural term, one thing feeds on another and together it creates a critical mass of agricultural industries from suppliers to machinery dealers, to machine shops, to people such as Ty-crop in my area that has sprung up around an agricultural industry because of a certain critical mass there. They have become internationally known. All those things are at risk if the government does not assure a supply of grain to farmers.
Over the last few days some of the grain stuck on sidings in Boston Bar, sniffing distance away, have come to market. The inability to spot cars on the prairies and the inability to guarantee delivery have the whole feed industry in a turmoil. The industry needs that assurance.
By not assuring farmers of the future and of that supply farmers will start voting with their feet and with their cheque books. They will leave an area of uncertainty for an area of assurance. They will either move to the prairies, move to the states or move somewhere if they cannot count on our delivery system.
I urge the government to consider these amendments which will assure timely delivery to the feed industry. It will help producers and consumers, in this case the feed industry, to do the job the Canadian government and the rest of us have asked them to do. I ask the government to consider these amendments in the light of what I have presented today.