Madam Speaker, I listened carefully and was quite taken with the enthusiasm the member opposite showed for the budget. She talked about the budget being fair and talked in terms of understanding and knowing how the fairness is applied across the country. She talked about the policies of the government that were obsolete, dysfunctional or redundant being eliminated.
Those two matters have to be applied to the communities that I represent in Saskatchewan with the loss of the Western Grain Transportation Act subsidy, the Crow benefit, which the member mentioned in her remarks. The Crow benefit currently represents $560 million. Two years ago it was worth $720 million, $400 million of which applied to Saskatchewan.
How is it that the member can indicate that the Western Grain Transportation Act is obsolete, dysfunctional and redundant when it is anything but?
The loss of the Crow benefit to our communities at the delivery points in my riding represents approximately $1 million to each delivery point. The community of Glaslyn just north of where I live has two elevators and is quite similar to most communities in my constituency. We calculate that in the crop year beginning August 1, 1986 farmers at that delivery point will pay $1 million more for grain transportation in the coming year than they did in this year.
In terms of fairness, what other community in the country has been asked to give up $1 million in revenue? Absolutely none. Communities that service the world with grain from Saskatchewan have to pay extra. I ask the member for the evidence she has that these programs are obsolete, dysfunctional and redundant and that the budget is fair.