Mr. Speaker, I would have a comment to make on the extremely well-thought-out speech by the hon. member who just spoke. At the beginning of his speech, he talked about subsidies which should be paid directly to the farmers instead of to the railway to ship wheat, for example, from the West to the East. This battle has been going on for years and is known as the Crow's Nest Pass battle. That debate reflects the conflicting philosophies of agricultural development in Eastern Canada and Western Canada.
If the hon. member thinks that these subsidies should be paid directly to western farmers, you will understand that eastern Canada, Quebec in particular, is dead against it because this freight assistance was intended to allow all regions of Canada to be supplied with wheat, and not to provide the grower with a subsidy he could then use as he wishes, to pay for shipping wheat, raising cattle or operating a slaughterhouse. In other words, to use this money to increase his personal wealth without necessarily supplying regions where wheat is less plentiful. That is why this assistance was applied directly to transportation, to ensure supply.
If we, in Quebec, object to it being any other way, it is because we believe that, if the province of Quebec-with about 25 per cent of the total population of Canada-were assigned 25 per cent of the overall budget for agriculture, it would be receiving $800 millions more every year and could easily use this extra money to diversify its agricultural production.
On the other hand, if the assistance went directly to the grower, then the money which was intended to be applied directly to transportation would be directed to that region of the country where it would be put to a use that differs from the very objective, the very principle of Crow's Nest, as it was called, which would destabilize the entire Canadian farming industry. We have always been opposed to this direct subsidy concept in the East, that is to say in Quebec as well as in eastern Canada.
You may remember that there was a report tabled by the previous government. In 1983, the Liberal government had considered subsidizing growers directly, but the idea was rejected. Later on, following an extensive Canada-wide debate, the Conservative government also held an inquiry into the Crow's Nest problem, which concluded that things should remain as they were. The very fact that the hon. member raises this issue again today goes to show that a block really exists and how different both sides' philosophies are.
As for his remark on transportation in the East, it goes without saying that we too, in Quebec, are not clear on a certain number of things. But one must bear in mind that in that case, we are dealing with a common household commodity like potatoes. If a potato grower from Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick receives federal freight assistance, that will cause some inequity vis-à-vis growers from other regions, like Ontario and Quebec, who have started to grow this product. For example, the grower from Pierreville, in my riding, who wants to sell his potatoes in Chicoutimi receives no freight assistance, while potato growers from New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island do.
So, that is somewhat unfair. However, we recognize that this legislation to help the Eastern provinces is still worth something and we think the freeze will be extremely hard on these regions which are going through tough economic times. The 10 per cent freeze stipulated in the legislation is a very harsh measure.
As for the 10 to 15 per cent increase in the West, it is also a tough decision which brings into question the supply process we had in the East for crops coming from western regions. Finally, the hon. member wondered about the port of Montreal and mentioned that the use of ice-breakers was extremely costly. Personally, I think the port of Montreal was one of the most profitable ports in Canada and was affected by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. If you want to maintain the seaway, which does not serve only Montreal, but links the city to other parts of Canada, you need to keep the port of Montreal open in the winter months. That seems as obvious to me as it was to the Government of Canada when it decided to build the Seaway.
Although I understand very well the issues raised by the hon. member, I want to tell him that I do not agree at all with him about wheat production in western Canada and the subsidies going directly to the farmers instead of the shippers. Above all, I do not agree with his view on keeping the port of Montreal open in the winter months, even though it costs money. We have gained some expertise in the area of ice-control throughout Canada and the Coast Guard is renowned throughout the world. We could even export our expertise, make it some kind of know how, as you say in English, knowledge we could export.
That is all I had to say following the brilliant speech made by the Reform member, even though I do not agree with him.