Mr. Speaker, the question was with regard to subsidies and whether subsidies should be distance related. A further comment by the member that there were no subsidies to grain from central Canada was untrue. The seaway is a very expensive system to keep open and operating. A lot of government money has gone into and continues to go into it. Certainly there are subsidies to central Canadian farmers in terms of shipments as well as to western farmers.
The second point was why the Crow benefit, as it used to be called, came into being in the first place. It came into being early in this century to get raw product to central Canada for processing. That was the reason that the Crow benefit was paid in the first place. It was not because western farmers needed a subsidy. It was because central Canadian processors wanted western farmers to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. This is no longer acceptable. The Crow benefit payment has prevented western farmers from developing a processing industry in western Canada.
We can no longer talk about whether or not the subsidy should be distance related. The question is whether we should have a subsidy. The answer is no. There should be no subsidy connected directly with distance or to be paid out in any other way.
The money now paid out under the Western Grain Transportation Act, the Reform Party has said, should be put into a trade distortion adjustment measure which would compensate farmers directly for damage done due to unfair trade practices in other countries. The compensation could be for damage in any commodity; it would be commodity neutral.
The way things work, probably the compensation would be for grain at first. Certainly over time the compensation would be for other commodities as well.