Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-34, the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act.
As members before me have explained, the bill takes four acts and puts them together into one. We would think this would result in cost savings in administration. The departmental briefing claimed that putting the four programs together would result in administrative savings of somewhat over $1 million. We will have to wait to see whether those savings actually come about, but I do not have a lot of faith that there will be savings in administration.
I have a concern with the administration of the bill. If the record of the government in administering its programs does not improve, the administration of the program will be a disaster. We could look, for example, to the Crow payout program that was put in place by last year's budget. Under that program 75 per cent of the money to be paid out should have been paid out by the end of January. We are still not up to the 75 per cent expected payout level. If the record on the administration of the programs does not improve, the program will be of little use to farmers.
When it comes to advance payments it is absolutely necessary for the administration to be simple and done very quickly, or it really defeats the purpose of getting cash into the hands of farmers in the fall before they can actually sell the crops. It is often a problem to sell crops in the fall to get cash to pay bills. The purpose of the program is to get the money into the hands of farmers more quickly. If the administration is slowed, as I suspect it might be just looking at the record of the government, it is a step backward. We will just have to wait to see what happens in that regard.
The bill touches on changing the Canadian Wheat Board. The Prairie Grain Advance Payments Act is currently administered by the Canadian Wheat Board. With this change the program would become one of the four programs under the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act.
We need an awful lot more than just tinkering with the Canadian Wheat Board Act. I remember back to the time when I was a very little tyke in around 1960. After harvest started my father, finally having grain to sell and desperately needing some money for school supplies and other things, lamented the fact that the Canadian Wheat Board did not provide a quick enough avenue for marketing his grain. Even back then, 35 or 36 years ago, he wanted a choice either to ship through the wheat board or on his own somewhere else so he could get the cash when he wanted it and when he needed it. That was denied him then. Here it is 35 years later and still western Canadian farmers are being denied what obviously should be theirs: the right to market their grain in any way they see fit whether it be through the Canadian Wheat Board or on their own in some other fashion.
It seems to be absurd. It is so absurd I cannot understand it. Last Thursday and Friday I was campaigning in the Hamilton East byelection. I went to a door where someone asked about the Canadian Wheat Board and why farmers were not given the ability to market on their own. Even the people in the heart of Canadian cities are finally understanding how ridiculous the situation is when farmers cannot market their own grain, their own product. It is time some serious action was taken and not only tinkering.
I remember when I left university in 1974 that there was talk in the agricultural faculty about changing the Canadian Wheat Board Act and the Canadian Wheat Board so that farmers would have more control. The wheat board was causing problems even then. The students at the university could see a need for change. Starting back then, 30-plus years ago, I actively started campaigning for changing the Canadian Wheat Board. I was not for getting rid of it and I am still not for getting rid of it. I want to change it so that it is accountable to farmers and farmers have the option to ship around it.
Over all these years many of my friends and people I got to know have been very actively campaigning for change to the Canadian Wheat Board, and there has been no significant change whatsoever.
Finally, this past year the Government of Alberta took the initiative to stand with farmers against the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly. A fair plebiscite was held and a very high percentage of commercial farmers turned out. The result was overwhelming. Two-thirds of farmers voted to support the removing of the monopoly on barley marketing and 62 per cent voted to support the ending of the monopoly on wheat.
The farmers in Alberta have decided. They have made up their minds and the case is closed. It is now just a matter of the agriculture minister carrying out what these farmers want. They know it is their right. They voted for the ability to market either through the board or on their own.
Still the agriculture minister fights by throwing out these minor changes to the Canadian Wheat Board which do not solve the
problem. He keeps saying: "Wait for the results of the marketing panel". I can tell the House what the results are going to be. They will be just as I said they were going to be before the panel began. The panel will not lead to changes to the Canadian Wheat Board that farmers want. There will be tinkering and there will be talk of substantial change. Still the wheat board monopoly on wheat will not be ended as a result of this grain marketing panel.
It is a sad thing. Why should Canadian farmers be denied the right to market their product? They raise it. Nobody else pays the cost of putting the crop in, the sweat and the work it takes to seed and carry the crop through until harvest and then harvest that crop. Nobody else takes the incredible risks that farmers take to produce a crop.
The government does not take risks for farmers, so why on earth are they being denied the right, and it is a right, to market their crops the way they see fit. It is time we got beyond the tinkering.
There will come a time when farmers will be so upset and frustrated by the lack of action that they will say: "Get rid of board. We do not want any part of it anymore".
Why will the minister not act before that happens and head off the complete elimination of the board? I do not believe that is what the majority of farmers want. They want the right to either market through the board or on their own. They want a choice. What other industry does not have that choice? I cannot think of one. What is the hold up? Why the resistance? Does it have something to do with what is going on inside the Canadian Wheat Board? Is there something going on inside the board which is not open to access to information? I have applied through access to information many times to get information about the Canadian Wheat Board. I cannot get it. Is that why? I cannot answer that.
The agriculture minister had better act on this quickly or the Canadian Wheat Board will cease to exist. I think that would be too bad.