Indeed, the originator of the motion is the member for Québec-Est. In the past, he worked for a former Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Whelan, but he came to realize during this time, and probably because of his experiences, that Quebec had no future in Canada, particularly where agriculture was concerned. Moreover, you will recall that this Minister of Agriculture had the good fortune of being sprayed with milk by Quebec farmers because he could not grasp what they were trying to tell him. The only way they could get their message across to him was by spraying him in the face with milk.
On a more serious note, let them say what they will about sales and milk production figures of all other sectors. The fact of the matter is that rural communities are dying. The population of our villages has been declining for a number of years. When it has come to the point at which villages such as Saint-Paul-de-la-Croix in my riding have taken to advertising in the newspapers to attract families that may be willing to settle in a rural community, we know that we need to make some fundamental changes to the way we approach rural development and agriculture.
Right now in Eastern Quebec we can see dairy trucks go by, heading for Montreal, and that milk comes back in the form of processed cheese. That is the sort of thing we would like to be able to change so there could be a future in primary and secondary processing in our region. The fact that our communities are small does not mean that we do not have expertise in the various agricultural productions.
My riding has been the home of Canada's biggest milk producers for a long time.
Fresh lamb is another area. It should be noted that interestingly, 30 per cent of the fresh lamb consumed in Quebec is processed in our region.
Also, farmers in Eastern Quebec, and my riding in particular, have adapted successfully to changes in the agricultural industry. The UPA may be confident in the future, but this does not mean that all government's actions automatically have its blessing. Their confidence comes from knowing that with their skills and the ideas they have come up with, they will be able to ride out this time of fundamental change brought about by GATT.
A great deal of work was done in Quebec to prepare for the future and make sure agriculture had the place it deserved in Quebec in the 21st century. Take for example the "États généraux du monde rural" and the Trois-Rivières summit where a consensus was reached on the efforts required to ensure the prosperity of the Quebec agricultural industry for the future.
I hope that the government will take that into account in planning its next move and that it will make sure the interests of the Quebec agricultural community do not get lost in the sea of Canadian and Western interests. Care should be taken not to let the durum exports issue adversely affect advocacy for farmers in Eastern Canada, and Quebec in particular.
When the Bélanger-Campeau Commission held hearings in the Lower St. Lawrence region, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who was the Liberal Party representative on the commission at the time, had argued that, should Quebec become a sovereign state, we would lose any control we may have had on our milk quotas. Since then, current world events have caught up with the hon. member-who is now Minister of Foreign Affairs-and quotas will be less prominent. Belonging to the Canadian Federation may not be that beneficial for Quebec farm producers after all. A more profitable approach is to make sure we are able to sell our products abroad, and for that, we need programs to promote processing.
We must also learn from the past. In agriculture, we went from a period when many regions could be self-sufficient by processing and selling their products locally to a new era when, in the
name of productivity, natural resources are sent outside the producing regions, creating unemployment. Something can be done to bring processing back to the regions, thus enabling more people to live with dignity.
I would like to point out one of the abnormalities inherent in the Canadian system. In lamb production, Canada, under pressure from the United States, reviewed the way it treats sick animals. Before, especially in the case of pure-bred lambs, we used to slaughter all sick animals. We have now decided that moderately sick lambs would not be killed but quarantined. This can be appropriate for owners of very large herds like those in the West, for whom quarantining a small part of their herd is not a major problem.
However, in Quebec, where herds are much smaller, this type of action is inappropriate. In my riding, for example, it pushed a producer to the brink of bankruptcy. We had to intervene many times to make the bureaucracy understand the situation. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to change the regulations, the new practice adopted under U.S. pressure.
That is one example where implementing a practice across Canada can harm the economy of one of Canada's regions.
The other point that I would like to bring to the attention of the House is support for exports. Much is being done to help people who are long established, but there is not much room for new exporters. For example, young people who would like to export top-quality maple syrup do not easily find the government program that could help them.
In agriculture, it is very complicated to find which program applies to which crop since agriculture has always been a shared federal-provincial jurisdiction; this does not make it easy for those who want to be involved in agriculture.
In another area, the federal government is acting contrary to the fine principles it has put forward, namely by cutting the funding for regional agricultural fairs. While they say they want to give regional agriculture a chance, this year they are cutting the budgets for the 55 regional agricultural fairs in Quebec by 15 per cent and next year they want to cut them out completely, which will eliminate these regional agricultural fairs that promote high-quality livestock.
I think that such an example proves the government's lack of leadership in agriculture. They just say the right words; what they do is in fact contrary to the decisions that should be made. Instead of encouraging agriculture, they are making drastic cuts that will hurt agriculture instead of helping it to develop.