Madam Speaker, on January 21 I asked a question of the Minister of Agriculture. The purpose of the question was to draw to his attention a flagrant abuse of taxpayers' money by way of subsidy through the Western Grain Transportation Act.
The substance of my question was the fact that we had found out the CNR and CPR railways were using taxpayers' money by shipping grain into an area for the purpose of gaining a subsidy even though the eventual destination was not in that area.
Let me give an example. We have found that grain which is subject to no subsidy and is for consumption in the United States has been transported from as far away as Alberta to the port of Thunder Bay, where it is subsidized if the eventual consumption is in the United States. Grain has been transported from as far away as Alberta to the Lakehead, to the port of Thunder Bay. The trains then turn around without unloading the grain, find their way back to Winnipeg and points west, and then go down into the United States. That is a flagrant abuse of taxpayers' money. That is what we were trying to point out to the minister through that question.
We are trying to say that when we find these abuses in our system, we have to step in as a government and stop them as quickly as we can.
As a result of that abuse I found out over the weekend that the city which I represent, the port of Thunder Bay, has not had a worse shipping season in the last 31 years as it experienced in the year just past.
When there are abuses and irregularities in the system, it means one does not play on a level playing field with respect to shipping in this country. By the very fact that we have these regulations that set artificial means and ways in which to ship grain in this country so that we do not have an actual cost, then the port of Thunder Bay and every port along the St. Lawrence Seaway suffers.
That was my reason for bringing that to the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and to the Minister of Transportation. I asked them to review that abuse. To this day I have not heard whether they have started to review the abuse or not.
Again, please review the abuses under the Western Grain Transportation Act and give every port in this country a fair opportunity to get into the proper business of it.