Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of Bill C-75, an act to amend the Farm Improvement and Marketing Co-Operatives Loans Act.
I would like to begin by commenting on the importance of affordable financing for the agriculture community. I remember one of my first encounters with the banks and how without the farm improvement loan I would have been at the mercy of the fickle finger of finance. It is quite possible that without the loans act not only I but many farmers would not have been able to farm quite the same way we do today. I would like to expand on that.
In 1973 I came back from Stelco and began farming. At that time I took out a farm improve loan in the amount of $5,400 for a 165 Massey-Ferguson tractor and a four-furrow plough. I know the member for Malpeque wishes there were farm deals like that today but there are not. In our farming operations today we market 360,000 chickens a year, over one million pounds of meat. I still have that 165 Massey-Ferguson tractor. It is something that brings this home to me.