Madam Speaker, the member for Malpeque is making some noises from the other side. He is talking about the structure of the board under this current arrangement, but the board is still accountable to the Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board. Two-thirds of the members on the board are elected and one-third are appointed but the chair of that board is appointed by the Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board.
This government is totally out of touch with the debate in western Canada concerning what is going on and what farmers want. Farmers want a system in which they have a choice in how they market their grain. I know a great many farmers who want to keep the Canadian Wheat Board so they can pool their product, accept an average price and use that vehicle. I also know a great number of farmers who do not want to use that vehicle. They want a dual system. They want to be outside of that monopoly. This bill does not address that at all and I suggest it is doomed for total failure.
There is no accountability in this act. When my colleague from Yorkton—Melville said that the very least we can do in the preamble to the act is to suggest that we must have accountability to farmers rather than to the minister, we were ridiculed by the other side. We were ridiculed by people who do not have constituents under the Canadian Wheat Board jurisdiction. I see a member who grows potatoes in P.E.I. I do not see any move to try to include potatoes under the Canadian Wheat Board Act. I see a lot of lawyers over there from Toronto who are more interested in keeping control over Canadian farmers than they are in serving their needs.
We have a system—