Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank the hon. member for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre for giving me and my colleagues in the next hours of debate on this motion the opportunity to tell the House how the government has been working with the provinces and the industry to advance agriculture and the agri-food sector.
I appreciate his concern for the viability of this important sector of our economy, one that employs 1.8 million Canadians and 15 per cent of our Canadian workforce. It is a concern I share, a concern the minister shares, and a concern our government and all of us on this side of the House share.
We also share his concern about overlap and duplication, not just in agriculture and agri-food but in all areas. That is why the government has launched a process to improve the efficiency of the federation.
The hon. member will be pleased to know that the objectives and the successes of this process are certainly ones that have gone unmatched before. The objectives and the successes are in these areas: to reduce overlap and duplication, as the hon. member is pointing out; to improve effectiveness of programs through federal-provincial co-operation; to reduce administrative costs through streamlined program arrangements; and to improve client services so that all Canadians receive the best service possible as efficiently and as effectively as we can possibly deliver to them.
In agriculture and agri-food this process is resulting in a number of important activities. All of us know the first major issue this government had to deal with after taking office somewhat over a year ago was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT.
I am pleased to say I was able to join the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in those last few days in Geneva. We returned from Geneva in December 1993 with the new agreement. Before we arrived back in Canada the minister had invited all of the provincial ministers of agriculture and agri-food to Ottawa for a meeting which took place less than 24 hours after we returned. This meeting was held to discuss the implications and to plan together how we could and would meet those obligations.
As a result of that meeting I was asked to head a federal-provincial task force on orderly marketing which reported to the ministers during the middle of last year and again in December 1994. As a result of everyone pulling together to get the job done, our supply managed sectors are moving forward to meet the challenges of the new trade regime. That job is not yet complete but again I want to thank everyone, every stakeholder in the industry, who got together around the same table to talk about how we can all go forward to strengthen and encourage the supply managed sectors in Canada.
The new GATT also brings the opportunity for us to take advantage of the new trading rules to expand our markets and especially to broaden our horizon beyond the United States.
Last July federal and provincial ministers of agriculture reaffirmed their commitment to work to see the Canadian agri-food exports reach $20 billion per year by the year 2000. They added a further target in a further challenge which is to regain Canada's traditional 3.5 per cent share of the global agri-food trade. When we put that challenge forward that goal moves on from $20 billion per year to $23 billion per year. With the advances made the last number of months, everyone is becoming more and more confident that we can meet and hopefully beat the $23 billion target.
The Federal-Provincial Market Development Council has developed a comprehensive work plan to accomplish these goals and both levels of government are working actively and effectively to eliminate overlap and duplication. The provinces and the federal government are also co-operating to develop a single window point of access for federal and provincial marketing programs.
Another area where we are making progress and reducing duplication is in the provision of financial services to the agri-food community. We know this is very important. Agriculture is an industry that takes a tremendous amount of capital. We must assist primary producers in all sectors to put their business plans together so they can be successful.
The Farm Credit Corporation and interested provinces are discussing strategies to reduce duplication of government services. As part of this process the Farm Credit Corporation has acquired the New Brunswick Agriculture Development Board's $37.4 million portfolio. In addition a Canada-Alberta pilot project was launched last June to combine the lending services of the Farm Credit Corporation and the Alberta Finance Services Corporation into a single delivery point. Needless to say, that makes a lot of sense. We are continuing to hold discussions with other provinces to improve efficiencies in this area.
I would like to make it clear that this is simply not a government to government process. The examples I have used so far have been primarily that. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is working closely with the private sector and the universities on research. Last year the department ran a pilot project called the matching investment initiative, matching dollar for dollar the money industry was willing to put up for research and research projects. The department and the private sector have been doing this in a collaborative way for a number of years with great success.
There are some other areas where that co-operation is working very well. We have safety nets, the Canada food inspection system. I could go on but I will leave those examples and a few more words to some of my colleagues who will be taking part in the debate as time goes on.
These two initiatives are significant achievements in that they show federal, provincial and even municipal co-operation to reduce overlap and duplication and to improve service.
In conclusion, I would like to again point out to everyone that agriculture is a shared jurisdiction between the federal government and the provincial governments under the Constitution. This has meant that the two levels of government have had to work together since Confederation, which is 127 years ago.
In recent years federal and provincial governments have focused on working together to make the management of this shared jurisdiction as effective as possible. A report prepared for and by the Government of Quebec last year showed that the two levels of government work well together and that the overlap and duplication is minimal. The report put the cost of overlap and duplication at 1 per cent of combined federal and provincial spending in agriculture in the province of Quebec. That is not very much.
However, I would be the first to agree that is probably 1 per cent too much. We will continue to work constantly in co-operation with all provinces and with the industry to ensure that the Canadian public gets the maximum value for its tax dollars.
In order to keep within my allotted time, I have had to reduce the number of examples I could use. However, I know that my colleagues will express more of those as we go on in the debate. We look forward to comments from everyone and suggestions as to where we can continue to make improvements.
The facts presented here today should show clearly that if we were to adopt the hon. member's motion to "immediately pursue negotiations with the provinces and agri-food industry to eliminate overlap and duplication", we would be reinventing the wheel. We are all doing that at the present time. I appreciate the emphasis and the encouragement he has given. On behalf of the government I can assure him that we will continue to move in that direction and make the federal role with our colleagues in the provinces, industry and universities even more effective than it is at the present time.