Madam Speaker, in this post-adjournment period I wish to reopen a question that I put to the minister of agriculture on Monday. I asked him whether there would be any changes in the government's policy toward the Canadian Wheat Board.
I asked this because during the election the Prime Minister was quite clear that the policy of the Liberals was to support the board. In the election that was quite important. There was a small group of farmers demanding a dual marketing system which would have had the effect of breaking the ability of the board to put prices on grain for western farmers.
Since that time the elections for the advisory committee have occurred. That election was openly fought between people who supported a strengthened board and those who wanted the board to either disappear or have very limited powers. As it turned out, 10 of the 11 positions on that advisory board were filled by people who supported a strengthened board. This is actually the strongest electoral situation the advisory committee has been in since it was first brought into being back in the mid-seventies when I happened to be a member of it.
The turnout was one of the heaviest that there has been. We have to remember this is a mail out ballot. A lot of the ballots never get opened. They get lost in the pile of mail that comes home. On average just over 46 per cent voted. This was one of the higher turnouts. In the two eastern provinces the turnout was considerably higher than in Alberta where it was just over a third of the farmers who actually voted.
I note that some of the board's detractors are saying that this does not tell anything because the turnout was not very high. I want to point out that even in Alberta where the return was only about 36 or 37 per cent, that is higher than the U.S. congressional elections which just changed the whole outlook of that Congress. It is higher than the normal presidential elections in the United States. Forty-six to 48 per cent which is what most of the provinces had for a turnout was much higher than we see in most municipal elections and occasionally in provincial elections. I do not think we can argue that this was not a legitimately elected group.
There are some special problems that face the board at the moment and I think this newly elected group should be utilized by the minister to look at some of those problems. New grains are something rye producers in particular have shown they are willing and ready to have included in the board's jurisdiction. The advisory committee should be given that as a question to look at.
It could also be asked to provide opinions on how to integrate organically produced grain and perhaps the question of grains milled on farm or by the owner of the grain, which is something organic producers particularly want to have looked at. This is a special niche market. The board has been occupied in developing these special situations.
I wanted to raise these in the post-adjournment debate because I think the minister is aware that there are many more things that the wheat board could be doing and I wanted to know whether the Prime Minister's assurances during the election campaign that he supports the board meant a stronger board, an expanding board, or simply a status quo kind of board. I hope the
result of the elections would give the minister the assurance that farmers are behind an expanded and growing wheat board.