Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his observations from across the aisle.
I do acknowledge how difficult it is for a farmer or for anyone else for that matter when they see their livelihood changing in front of their eyes and they have to retool their lives in order to accommodate changing circumstances.
This does not happen exclusively in the agricultural industry. It happens all across the nation. It has happened in Ontario particularly over these last four or five years as all aspects of Canadian manufacturing, particularly that in Ontario, have been struggling to retool over these last few years. We find that as we go down the path of life sometimes the road changes, the path changes, and we have to change with it.
The hon. member mentioned that over 50 per cent of the people previously engaged in farming, tobacco farming, are no longer doing so because they recognize that this is an industry at least in Canada that has a sunset. Smoking is less and less socially acceptable and it will eventually be banned virtually everywhere except outside because people who are the victims of cigarette smoking, the unintended victims through second hand smoke, will not tolerate it anymore. You cannot for instance smoke in the precincts of Parliament Hill or any federal government building.
The Alberta government has legislation before it today to ban smoking in any public place, including the workplace. If you are in California you can hardly even smoke outside which begs the question why on earth are we so upset about the noxious fumes from car exhaust when we are walking around inhaling them?
I recognize my hon. colleague's concern for his constituents or any farmer, particularly the tobacco farmers who are living with the imminent demise of their industry. Make no mistake, it may not happen this year, it may not happen next year, but it will happen. These people are going to have to convert their livelihood. It is no longer socially acceptable in Canada to smoke.
If I were a banker I would not spend a whole lot of time figuring out a loan to allow anybody to get into the tobacco business even given this setback to the anti-smoking people in Canada.
I do recognize how difficult it is for those who are faced with the imminent change in their lives driven by this and it is a generational thing.
To my hon. colleague, I am cognizant of the problems he raises and I have sympathy for the people who must make those life decisions as farmers. They are decisions they must face and they must be prepared to make them.