Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was asking the Minister of Agriculture about agricultural subsidies, and, more specifically those allocated to grain transportation in western Canada. On the eve of the budget, my concern was to try to find out a little more about the intentions of the minister, who wants to review all agricultural subsidies.
The Minister of Finance ended the suspense this afternoon. The budget will finally be tabled at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, that is, in a week's time. We will then discover the fate of agricultural subsidies. We will discover, finally, whether existing rail carrier subsidies will be replaced by direct subsidies to western grain producers.
So, in answer to my question, the minister gave a rather vague response. He said his colleague in transport and he had been involved in discussions with the primary stakeholders and that the details of the discussions would be made available once the budget was tabled in this House.
The message is clear. We will not have any more information until next week. The minister's response to this, in a minute or two, will be, I expect, a good couple of minutes of fine speech-making, devoid of content. Why do I bother, you might ask, Mr. Speaker? I do so to protest the government's attitude in this matter.
Yesterday, the minister said that Western grain transportation reform had been debated quite often during the past 25 years. As far as I know, his party, the Liberal Party, has been in power for the past 25 years, longer than it deserves, and it never had the guts to take action in this respect. What we have been seeing lately seems to be a rerun of what happened in the past. And that is what bothers me.
Last summer, the Minister of Transport announced that the Crow rate would be abolished. His colleague at Agriculture and Agri-Food hastened to say his department would pick up the slack by making the necessary changes. The committee on payments to producers examined the question and made a number of recommendations, which included transferring the subsidy directly to producers to help them adjust to the new situation.
We expected the minister to let us know whether he supported this approach. Not a word from the minister.
Since that time, it seems the minister has seen talking and consulting quite a lot. That is why I am anxious to hear what kind of measures the minister will implement to make this an effective and satisfactory subsidy for producers, while meeting international trade standards.
There is a risk, however, and this will affect farm producers across the country, that the $566 million paid to Western rail carriers will be paid directly to Western producers only, who will then be able to diversify their operations and, in the process, compete with farm producers in the rest of Canada, which would improve their competitive position.
Imagine, for instance, that with the help of the subsidy, Western producers would be able to raise hogs more cheaply than producers in Quebec or Ontario. This would mean unfair competition with the help of public funds. Can you see farm producers in Quebec and Ontario paying Western farmers to compete unfairly on the hog market? I am using hogs as an example, but it could any kind of livestock that would allow Western farmers to compete with producers in Quebec or Ontario or the Maritimes.