Mr. Speaker, as the hon. gentleman will know, the freight rate in western Canada has in one form or another been subsidized or kept at an artificially low rate for the better part of 100 years. When that occurs for that long period of
time the value of the freight rate becomes capitalized into the value of the farm land.
For example, when the capital gains tax valuation day came around in 1971 the value of the farm land was higher than it otherwise would have been because the produce off that farm land had been subsidized for a long period of time by means of the predecessors to the WGTA. The value of the farm land was higher because of the subsidy.