Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague from Saskatchewan talk about the initiatives which the government is undertaking, but there are a lot of things that he neglected to mention. Perhaps I might take a minute to remind him of a couple of them.
First, the government caved in on protecting durum producers, and maintaining the most rapidly expanding market, which is the market in the United States. Mr. Speaker, can you imagine if half of our car exports to the United States were suddenly cut off. There would be a hue and cry. The government did nothing to oppose the cut in the export of durum to the United States.
It is one of the most disastrous policies undertaken by the government and by the current minister of agriculture. It has the potential to be devastating to durum producers if they lose such a strong market. In this market, the buyer pays cash and the producers do not have to work on loan programs and offer credit to the purchaser. The producers are receiving good dollars for their product, which is the best in the world.
Also the potential is there for the government to cave in as far as the sugar industry is concerned. The minister of agriculture has not come out strongly and said he would stand up to the Americans in their rumblings about taking trade actions against us on sugar.
We know the current government has been pitifully slow at reforming and reorganizing the department of agriculture and producer support programs. We know that the government has wasted a year on this backtracking issue. We are talking about it in February 1995 and the Liberals took power in 1994. Of course the Conservatives before them balked at fixing one of the most stupid problems we have ever faced in western Canada.
I am now wondering what steps the member's government is taking to prevent another serious disaster in the western Canadian grain economy that would take place if there were a disruption in grain movement to port created by a rail strike. What steps is the government taking to prevent a potential disaster?