Mr. Speaker, it looks like the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board has a death wish for the board. How else can we explain his erratic behaviour? Let us review the facts which go back several years.
Farmers are unhappy and want change so the minister hand picks a committee to make recommendations. When he does not like the recommendations, he asks for direct consultation. He asks people to write him. He does not like that either. Then he holds a plebiscite but he does not ask the question that captures the debate in the farming community. Then he introduces Bill C-72, a bill that nobody likes. It dies on the Order Paper. Then the phoenix that rises from the ashes is even worse. In the new bill, Bill C-4, he has made provisions to include commodities such as canola, oats and flax that are not presently under the jurisdiction of the board.
Just when you think it cannot get any worse, it does. If there is anything that is going to cause the Canadian Wheat Board to die, it is a minister who has shown how little he understands about what farmers want.