There is another aspect of this budget that we need to talk about as it relates to agriculture. Despite the fact that the federal government promised in the red book not to cut research and development spending, Mr. Martin's budget makes drastic cuts in R&D spending.
In the Department of Agriculture, as mentioned earlier by a previous speaker, research budgets will be reduced by 11 per
cent over the next three years. Seven research centres will be closed, two of them in Quebec. The closing-down of the centre in La Pocatière, for example, will eliminate 30 jobs and result in savings of $1.5 million and that of the farm in L'Assomption will eliminate 19 jobs and result in savings of $1.3 million.
Yet research is the most important ingredient in the creation of jobs, and the development of agriculture and animal production. What would you think of a farmer who has to reduce his costs and decides he is going to stop buying seeds? That will be a fine way to cut spending, but at the same time, it will cut all his income.
We are acting exactly the same way when we start cutting research and development. We keep producing with the same methods and they eventually become obsolete. We forget about the future and our products become less competitive because our production procedures are obsolete and we cannot lower our costs.