Mr. Speaker, I want to thank heartily the Minister of Agriculture for making the time in his heavy schedule to participate in this debate on agriculture today.
On the other hand, I would like to remind the Minister of Agriculture that there is a new dynamics in Quebec, in Canada and in this House in particular. I can remember in the years 1968 to 1970 and up to the 1984 federal elections, Quebec was represented in this House by 74 Liberal members and one Conservative, in the person of my friend Roch LaSalle. There was nobody to denounce inequities. That hurt the Minister of Agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, is it an attempt to set the West against the East? Is it an attempt to set the Maritimes against Quebec when we, Bloc members, elected representatives of Quebec, rise in this House to say, for instance, that Quebec's share of the $3 billion budget for agriculture in 1993 was $372 million, or 12.4 per
cent. That is not even one eighth of the agriculture department's budget. Yet, taxes paid by Quebecers account for 23 per cent of the budget as a whole.
By denouncing inequities, are we trying to pit the West against Quebec? In the old days, the 74 Liberal members did not rise in this House to do so.
I am doing my duty today by stating loud and clear that $300 million of federal agriculture expenditures went to Quebec in 1980, as compared to $1 billion to Western provinces, and $410 million as compared to more than $4 billion in 1987.
There are about 18 Liberal members from Quebec at present. When will the new member for Brome-Missisquoi for example rise in this House to defend the interests of the Brome-Missisquoi farm producers? Never. Is it an attempt to set the Maritimes against Quebec to state in this House that, from 1980 to 1987, federal expenditures on agriculture have grown six times slower in Quebec than in the rest of Canada?
The list of inequities goes on and on. I would like the Minister of Agriculture to give Quebec farm producers the same treatment given farm producers from his region, Western Canada.