Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's comments. I know unemployment is a big problem.
I hate to always bring up the subject of agriculture, but being from Manitoba it is very important to me. I wonder if the Liberal government would take into account that there are approximately 240,000 farmers in western Canada. According to Stats Canada's latest figures, these farmers earned an average of $16,000 a year before depreciation. It also showed that these farmers earned $32,000 a year from off farm jobs. If we could put agriculture back on a profitable basis there would be 240,000 jobs available to somebody else.
We have lost sight of the fact that agriculture is still the basic industry in western Canada. We have to make this industry profitable in order to provide other jobs.
Looking into the agriculture industry, we see that 500,000 jobs are created in the processing and retailing of agricultural foods. It is very important we make this industry viable again.
I would appreciate the parliamentary secretary's comments on this.