Mr. Speaker, Canadian farmers get $2,500 more for a truckload of grain in the United States than they get in Canada. Unfortunately the government through the Canadian Wheat Board prevents them from taking advantage of this higher price.
Working for farmers, the Alberta government is proposing to buy farmers grain for $1 a load in Alberta and sell it back to farmers for $1 a load across the border in the United States, all this to get around the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly.
The Prime Minister and the minister of agriculture both promised during the election campaign to hold a farmer plebiscite on ending the wheat board monopoly. The government still has not honoured this election promise.
First Sheila Copps, then the finance minister, then the Prime Minister and now the minister of agriculture all say read the fine print in the red book but forget what we said out on the campaign trail. Are Canadians supposed to believe the red book promises or the promises made during election campaigns? Canadians are starting to believe the answer is neither.