Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the motion standing in the name of the hon. member for Mackenzie is to add standards for public carriers. It would prescribe that grain carried by a public carrier must first have been weighed and cleaned and its quality designated.
According to the Canadian Grain Commission, no amendment is necessary since this is already being done in most cases and always when grain is destined for human consumption.
As a result of the proposed amendment, smaller producers who ship feed grain would see their costs increase unnecessarily. If there had been complaints that the quality of feed grain was below acceptable levels, the motion would be justified. Since that is not the case, at least as far as I know, I do not think it would be useful to oblige producers to spend more on precautions that are absolutely unnecessary. If most of these producers happen to use private carriers and the motion therefore does not affect them, it will then have no effect at all, since public carriers would only carry grain for human consumption.
According to the Canadian Grain Commission, this grain is already cleaned and weighed and its quality designated. So we have their guarantee that grain for our own consumption is
being handled in the way specified by the hon. member for the New Democratic Party.
Furthermore, if small producers also have to conform to these procedures, their costs will go up, although we have no reason to believe they should be more regulated than they already are. And if they use private carriers, they will not be affected.
I therefore fail to see the relevance of the motion presented by the hon. member for Mackenzie. That is why the Bloc Quebecois will not support the motion, since all wheat for human consumption is very well regulated and perfectly safe.