Madam Speaker, I agree up to a point with the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre who shares with me the position of vice-chairman of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. I must admit that the hon. member is very knowledgeable on agricultural matters.
However, I may remind him that the country's current debt was not created by the Americans, the French or the Mexicans. Around 1969-70, the debt was almost nil. I will not tell you who was governing the country at the time, since you know that better than I do. But in 1984, when Liberals were ousted, the debt totalled around $250 billion.
In nine years, the Tories brought the debt close to $500 billion. His team was responsible for creating at least half of the cumulative debt. Today, the government is asking or rather telling farmers to do their share to reduce the deficit it created in the first place. And farmers, oddly enough, are being asked to do a bit more than that.
My friends opposite did not mention the fact that during the past fiscal year, 328,000 flights were logged by public servants, not including members of the House of Commons and senators. The cost: $275.5 million. They do not mention that.
Earlier, while listening to the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre, I was reading an editorial by Claude Rivard, Quebec
president of the dairy producers, who had the following to say: "As far as reducing the deficit is concerned, we expected Mr. Martin and his government to do what they promised: a budget that would be hard but fair". You may recall that for a month they were saying that the budget would be hard but fair. The article goes on: "Well as far as we are concerned, the Chrétien government was hard but unfair". That is the perception Quebec farmers have of this budget.
And what about the major banks that declared a profit of $3.5 billion in one year? They will be asked to pay a meagre additional $100 million as a temporary tax, spread over 18 months.
I realize that the major banks are among those that make the biggest donations to the party's coffers. There was the Conservative Party, but since they are out of the picture, I will not mention that.
So I agree we have to reduce the deficit. But, instead of coming down hard on farmers, I would like to add, for the benefit of the hon. member for Malpèque, that in 1988-89-and I am about to conclude, Madam Speaker,-spending in the agri-food sector, as a percentage of total federal spending, was 3.5 per cent. In 1994-95-the fiscal year which just came to an end-this percentage was 1.6 per cent; and in 1996-97, it is expected to be 1.2 per cent. So I am not very pleased with the way this government has treated and will treat agriculture in Canada.