Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee members, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not much of a speaker.
I'm a hobby beef farmer in Brackley Beach. I call it a hobby farm because when I wake up in the morning I feel like I should be strapping a steel helmet onto my head, a couple of shell belts across my chest, and taking a sawed-off rifle to feed my cattle because of all the legislation that the government is doing. They don't really have to legislate the farmer. All we need is a level playing field. If we make a bit of money, we'll be the best stewards of the land you have ever seen.
Anyway, I'm married to a wonderful woman. I have two wonderful kids, and they are in university and college. They don't have any student loans or whatever because I saved their family allowance and invested it for them.
I have a letter here, and I'm going to shorten it up a bit: “All I'm asking for is a level playing field. If the American farmers get $71 an acre to grow their crops, then the Canadian farmer has to get $71 an acre to grow his. Don't try to tell me there is no money for such an idea, because agriculture creates hundreds of billions of dollars--$686 billion in the last 20 years.”
I feel I also have to have the right to farm policy, not more legislation. I want to give you a couple of different scenarios.
Say a farmer from Saskatchewan, let's call him Percy, is an organic farmer, and he and his wife spent most of their lives growing organic canola. One day Monsanto sprays Percy's crops with Roundup and some of it does not die, so Monsanto seizes his crop, takes him to court. They sue Percy for all he's worth. The Canadian judges award Monsanto everything, and on top of that, Roundup probably would not do much for Percy's organic certification.
Example number two: An American farmer plants his rice in the spring, and all of a sudden they find a kernel of genetically modified rice in some of the seed. The American government would order the remaining seed destroyed and the planted seed down, but the farmer would be compensated for his loss. Monsanto would not be allowed to sue this farmer as they did to Percy in Canada.
I will get back to my original point. The government gave me a tool: they legislated that I had to belong to a farm organization to give me a voice. It's the only piece of legislation I can thank them for, and I'll use that voice. I am going to write Scott MacArthur a cheque for $300, half of which is for my dues, and the other half will go towards a fund that will take the provincial and federal governments to court.
I think the NFU and the farm federation should come together to also support this idea--and anyone else who thinks that Canadian food should be produced in Canada, not brought from other countries. The way it is going now, eventually Canada will have to give the U.S.A. our water, our electricity, and our oil to pay for food for our tables. Not only that, our sons and daughters will have to go to Afghanistan and Iraq, or wherever, to fight Bush's wars.
I know that times are rough for our farmers, so if a farmer calls me and supports my idea, but they are short of cash, I will donate another $150 on their behalf, and I will never disclose their name.
In closing, I'm aware that it is a busy time of year for farmers, but this is something I can't do on my own. We farmers need to be united in this cause. If you don't want my help, just let me know. It seems that the food for our pets is more important than our own food. If this idea doesn't work, I'll only be out $150 to $300, and I will sell my farm and move on. I am not going to go into more debt or continue to bang my head against the wall any longer.
I didn't make any presentation, but it just seems like there has to be a question asked, and that question is this: does Canada want Canadian farmers to produce the food, yes or no? It's a very simple question, and I've asked a lot of people. Most of the people give me answer very quickly, but I found two people, one in Charlottetown and one in Ottawa, who can't give me the answer.
This farm crisis has been going on for so long that it's just normal--yes, there's a crisis in agriculture--but it doesn't really need to. That $400 million is a drop in the bucket. The beef industry alone has been out between $15 billion and $20 billion in the last four years, and that's only one part. The potato industry is losing money hand over fist. The pork industry is losing money hand over fist.
I'm not much of a speaker, as I said, but anyway, on February 7 the government announced it will seek to invoke article 28 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT, which allows them to establish tariff-rated quotas to limit milk protein imports. This is a positive step that should have been taken a lot sooner.
I was talking to the manager of the new beef plant today. They have to pay a hell of a tariff just to put our beef in the Island stores, and that's wrong. They're bringing in beef from Venezuela and everywhere else, and that's wrong. The government has to stand up. These corporations don't pay any tax. The taxpayers are getting sick and tired of propping up these corporations. They're led to believe they're propping the farmers up, but they're not propping the farmers up.
Food has to be paid for one way or the other.