Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this debate on the budget before us on behalf of my party. There are many ways of looking at a budget. One can theorize and get into a macroeconomic analysis of the budget.
Personally, since the closure of the military college in Saint-Jean was announced in last year's budget, I tend to look for direct impacts on my riding. First, I look at the budget as a whole and what impact it will have on Quebec, and then I look at its
real and potential impact on my riding. Today, my remarks will focus on agricultural considerations affecting my riding.
While Saint-Jean is a semi-rural riding situated very close to Montreal, it has many farms and dairy farms in particular. From what I can see, these farmers will be hard hit by this budget which has been before us for some time now. I will try to show you how it will affect the farmers in my riding.
Overall, the budget for agriculture will be reduced from $2.1 billion to $1.7 billion, a 19 per cent cut, and 18 per cent of this cut is in personnel, which means the salaries often already allocated to researchers, because there are several agricultural research stations, including one in Saint-Jean, that I will talk about later. If we look at the budget as a whole, I think it is important to know just what percentage is involved. Overall, there is a 19 per cent cut to the Department of Agriculture, 18 per cent in personnel.
Now, let us look at the impact of this budget on Quebec. In this area as in every federal area of activity, Quebec foots about 24 per cent of the bill, while farming in Quebec accounts for about 17 per cent of all farming in Canada, but we get back only 13 per cent.
So, for the sake of equity, it would have been great to say: if there are cuts to be made in agriculture this year, perhaps we should make an effort to spare Quebec. Perhaps some cuts could be made in Quebec but not as much as everywhere else. The actual percentage was higher than the 19 per cent figure mentioned earlier.
I will tell you about the cuts affecting the Saint-Jean research station, and you will see that these are significantly higher than the 19 per cent figure for the rest of Canada. I mentioned the percentages for Quebec as a whole.
The budget also proposes to close the L'Assomption research station, which specializes in ornamental plants. It may be that the private sector can take over this activity. That research station was financed out of the budget of the Saint-Jean station. Indeed, although the two facilities were in different ridings, their budgets were centralized.
Quebec will also lose the La Pocatière centre. The consequences of that closure were explained by the hon. member for Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup. I will get back to this particular case later on. A number of documents which I have here list the various research stations, and the reasons for closing them. In the case of the La Pocatière station, the reasons mentioned are highly questionable.
Let us now take a look at the impact of these measures in my riding. The budget for the Saint-Jean centre is reduced by 32 per cent, going from $5.6 million down to $3.8 million. As I mentioned earlier, the overall cut is 19 per cent. So, after the military college, the residents of Saint-Jean are once again paying more than their share, this time in the agricultural sector.
The closures in L'Assomption in Saint-Jean will result in the loss of 17 and 10 jobs respectively. If you exclude L'Assomption and only take Saint-Jean into consideration, you end up with a 21 per cent cut. Once again, Saint-Jean residents are paying for the cuts affecting the agricultural sector.
I seriously wonder about the meaning of this flexible federalism which we hear about these days. Based on what we have seen so far, this flexible federalism means that Quebec must always do more than the rest of Canada. I showed that to be the case with an example relating to agriculture. I also showed it on numerous occasions last year with the military college. This year, however, it is in the agricultural sector that this budget will really have a negative impact in my riding.
I also have a document prepared by the Research Branch. This is not the first such document which I come across. Last year, I saw one from the National Defence Department. These documents are simply a series of questions and answers distributed to senior public servants in the various departments. Research Branch officials received this particular one, which merely repeats the answers to various questions. I think it is important to touch on some of these issues.
We are told about the impact of the budget on federal agri-food research in Quebec. This is what transpires: "As far as the food research and development centre at Saint-Hyacinthe and the dairy and pork research centre in Lennoxville are concerned, the impact will be minimal. The work being done in these centres reflects the main priorities of the food industry- There will be cut backs in the grain research program at the centre for soil and crop research and development in Sainte-Foy". No further details.
The next item is research on small fruits which was being done in Saint-Jean, a major production centre for strawberries and raspberries. The paper simply says that research activities at Saint-Jean will be terminated and transferred to the research centre in Kemptville, Nova Scotia.
Imagine, under-funding is already a problem in Quebec and Saint-Jean. Now they cut this program to transfer it to Nova Scotia. The same paper provides a list of centres of excellence where research is to be concentrated, apparently to be closer to production centres and the industry. This makes no sense at all. I condemn the fact that ten experts on small fruits research are removed at Saint-Jean, in order to transfer the centre to Nova Scotia. I cannot accept that.
Next question. Why did the government close down two facilities in Quebec? The answer? There will still be a federal research laboratory that will work on every aspect of the food industry. Saint-Hyacinthe and Lennoxville are mentioned again. So the policy seems to be that when we condemn these cutbacks, they are supposed to answer: We are still maintaining facilities at Lennoxville and Saint-Hyacinthe. Yes they are, but part of the operation at Saint-Jean has been removed and operations have been eliminated altogether at l'Assomption and La Pocatière.
Why are they closing La Pocatière? There will be a significant impact on ovine research in Canada and ovine, for the benefit of our viewers, means sheep. However, we are told that the sheep growing industry is relatively small. Just when they are starting to develop some expertise at La Pocatière, the government says they are going to stop because this sector is not significant. Once again, a market niche that should be expanding because in Quebec, we have the right kind of pasture for sheep, has once again been sacrificed at our expense.
Taking the experimental farm at l'Assomption as an example, they say that as a general rule, since this is research on ornamental plants, the private sector will take over. They always say to Quebec that, yes, we will be making cuts, but the private sector will pick up the slack and the only changes, if any, that need to be made regarding research centres and centres of excellence, will be to move them closer to areas of production.
I have a list of all the centres of excellence in Canada and only 4 out of 19 are located in Quebec. Once again, we are not getting a share proportionate to our population and to our contribution of 24 per cent of the federal government's agriculture budget.
Voters in Saint-Jean are very disappointed. My colleague talked about the 15 per cent cut a year for the next two years in dairy farm, dairy production subsidies. In this case again, Saint-Jean has huge dairy farms. These people are already dealing with a war that is brewing between us and the Americans; the Americans want NAFTA to prevail and we want the GATT to prevail. We are already on the road to a war and the only help the government is offering is to cut subsidies, while it will compensate western producers for decreases in land values, by means of loan guarantees and additional compensation of $300 million during the transitional period.
I call that out and out injustice. Through this budget, the electorate in Saint-Jean will lose 10 experts who were building up a renowned expertise and to whom all farmers in my riding constantly referred for their input. Now they are saying to the strawberry and raspberry producers of Saint-Jean that they will have to call Nova Scotia for advice, and I very much doubt that production anywhere in that province surpasses that in my riding. Lastly, Quebec's dairy producers are left out. Once again, this budget, on the agricultural front alone, hits Quebec and the electorate of Saint-Jean, and it is my duty to denounce it in this House.