Mr. Speaker, I would like to address this bill today from the viewpoint of the farmer. I have farmed through all the years that we have had disruptions in the grain handling system.
My career started in 1957. I farmed through about 10 years of fairly decent grain handling activities. We were without strikes until 1966. It amazes me when I hear members on the opposite side today saying how important it is to support labour and management. My colleague from Lethbridge never stressed that it was totally labour's fault that these strikes existed. There was probably some belligerence from the management side as well. The problem in the grain handling system probably lies with both management and labour.
The first strike in 1966 was at a time when farmers had no grain drying facilities. I remember very well how the grain was backed up in 1966. We had decent weather to combine but we did not dare combine because the grain was tough and damp. We had to leave that number one quality wheat out in the field until the weather cooled enough so that we could store it. This is what happens to the farmer in the grain handling system when we have labour and management disagreeing.
By 1972 we had had backups on grain. There were good crops. I remember very well that in 1971 I bought three bushels of barley for $1 because there was no movement in grain. I bought numbered wheat at 70 cents a bushel to feed to my cattle operation.
Grain farmers did not know what to do with their top quality grain. That was the first time in my life that I had ever heard of farmers going bankrupt. It was not due to the farmers nor to their efficiency or work habit. It was due to unions and management not agreeing on a set price.
In 1971, grain handlers got a 66 per cent increase in wages. Farmers were selling their grain for one-third of the price that they should have had. If that is treating people fairly, I never want to be discriminated against.
The hon. member for Saskatoon-Dundurn, who is a lawyer by profession, suggested that there is third party liability in this situation. If two cars driving by his home were involved in an accident, rolled into his house and his house burned, who would pay for it? Would the hon. member pay for it? I bet he would not. That is what farmers have put up with for 30 years.
The Liberals will get no feathers in their hat because they have had as many strikes during their reign as the Conservatives.
If this country is going to survive, the primary producers of our products must be treated fairly. If that does not occur something is going to happen. Hon. members should remember that in 1995 GATT will come into effect. The western Canadian grain farmer will have the opportunity to move his grain through the transportation system in the U.S.
As the hon. Minister of Transport pointed out in his speech in Winnipeg in October, the United States transportation system is 66 per cent more efficient than the Canadian system. The United
States primary elevator system and terminal system is less than half as costly as the Canadian system.
If farmers do not get a decent deal through this bill, in 1995 farmers are definitely going to move their grain through a system outside this country. At that moment the people in the east can start floating their toy boats down the St. Lawrence seaway because that is all they will have. Farmers will not put up with that any longer.
It is important that members opposite and members of the Bloc realize that if we do not give fair treatment to the people on the land who are being discriminated against, those people will no longer support them.
Any political system that allows its primary food producers to go down the drain will itself follow quickly. The slightest blip in the economy will force grain prices down. The 20 per cent of farmers who produce 80 per cent of the food today will be gone. I want to see hon. members on the other side at that time try to import food with a dollar that is worthless.
It is time that we as members of Parliament and the government start addressing the real issues, not the superficial issues. If we do not protect our food industry we will see something happen that this Parliament will wish it had never seen.
Mr. Whelan, the former minister of agriculture, said that we have lost 100 food manufacturing plants in the last 10 years. That tells me that something is very wrong in our system. If that continues another three or four years this country will lose its balance of payments to the point that we will not be able to pay the interest on the debt that Conservative and Liberal governments have put on the backs of our children and grandchildren.
Today, instead of being partisan we should start agreeing and improving the system so that farmers can make a living and support the rest of this country.
The hon. member for Malpeque is a very strong supporter of supply management. If the grain producers do not get a fair deal, his supply management theory will be out the window.
I wish I could impress on Parliament the seriousness of this problem. When I look at the Soviet Union today, which I visited after the coup in 1991, I see a country that has half the agricultural land in Europe, the oil of the Middle East and gold of South Africa, starving. It is an example of what happens when we allow the primary producer to go down the drain.
I hope that Parliament has enough logic and sense to start dealing with these issues. When I see statistics that show it takes the same amount of time to move a rail car from the prairies to Vancouver as it did in 1907 there is something wrong with our transportation system. It cannot be put on the backs of the farmers.
When I see that charges at our elevators are four times as high as in the U.S. it is not the farmers' problem. When the taxes on our terminals are three and four times as high as they are in the U.S. that is not the problem of the farmers.
I hope I have impressed on Parliament that there has to be a solution found to this inefficient, expensive system of grain handling because if we do not find it somebody will do it for us.