Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to respond to the motion put forward by the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville.
This is a very substantial piece of legislation, very important to all Canadian grain producers. It is an important aspect of the governance of that industry. That is why I am very proud to support the legislation. In speaking to Bill C-4 it certainly accomplishes the objectives set out by the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board.
The member for Yorkton—Melville criticized the government for its decision to refer the legislation to committee before second reading. I simply point out to the hon. member and to all members present that it is a very unique and important method of actually getting input from members.
Once adopted at second reading the spirit of the legislation cannot be changed by the House. That is one reason the government saw fit to adopt a method of referring legislation to committee before second reading so that members would have ample opportunity to look into the details of the bill and to provide constructive and positive suggestions for change.
In criticizing this method of referring the legislation to committee before second reading the member has criticized the fact that he now has the opportunity to put forth his amendment. Amending the preamble to any legislation would not be in order after second reading. By actually referring the legislation to committee before second reading the hon. member has the opportunity to put forward his motion to amend.
I just say that as a point of clarification. That is the purpose of that directive.
The hon. member's motion is to provide a change to the preamble of the bill. That is basically what we are here to discuss. The hon. member is providing an amendment to the enactment section of the bill. What must be pointed out is that the original bill, as proposed by the government and approved by committee, provides substantial opportunity for the governance of the Canadian Wheat Board by the producers themselves. Two-thirds of the board of directors would be put in place by the producers and not by the government.
That is the form of governance I think the democratic process should take. That is the form of governance I think the farmers want and that is exactly what we heard in committee.
They wanted a stronger role for producers, and clearly two-thirds of majority control of the board of directors for the Canadian Wheat Board accomplishes that objective.
The purpose, if I were to anticipate for the member's motion here, would be to add the preamble, to put specific restrictions on the board of directors so that it would be somewhat encumbered in its job and subject to what many would consider to be frivolous lawsuits in the performance of its duties.
The preamble, as put forward, in essence accomplishes exactly what the bill already accomplishes, with one critical difference. It provides specific language, which I am sure opponents to the Canadian Wheat Board would enjoy the opportunity to capitalize on and to create quite a feeding frenzy by the legal community whose members of certain jurisdictions would so aptly want to support as opposed to supporting farmers.
I will rise not in support of this amendment to put a preamble into the bill for the simple reason that I am extremely confident that the bill itself accomplishes the goal of providing the producers the opportunity through the process of annual meetings, through the process of disclosure, through the process of producers themselves maintaining their own majority control over the processes of the Canadian Wheat Board. We are accomplishing exactly what producers want us to accomplish.
That is a very important point and while I see some merit in the spirit of what the member is trying to accomplish, quite frankly and potentially a little naively what the amendment would accomplish is probably a feeding frenzy by the legal community trying to poke holes in the fact that the farmers themselves, the producers, will now take a majority control, a majority position on the wheat board. They are the ones who are most capable with a majority position, a clear two-thirds, 10 out of 15, to guide the report into the future.
I have no hesitation whatsoever in speaking favourably to Bill C-4 in its original intent as passed by the committee of all parliamentarians. It is a very good one.
When we get into these discussions about democracy and about freedom of members to be able to practice their craft in the House of Commons, something that I would simply remind the hon. members opposite of is this. They criticized the fact that the minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board chose to put this legislation, with the consent of the House, before committee before second reading so that the members who sat on the committee with me could take a good solid look at the specifics of the bill and have the opportunity to put forward constructive changes before the bill was tabled and before the bill was adopted at second reading.
What we are really seeing here is that members opposite are criticizing the fact that they had the opportunity to participate in the process. They are also criticizing the producers' opportunity to participate in the process. They want to stifle the ability of the producers who will be sitting on that board of the Canadian Wheat Board. They want to stifle that opportunity for those producers to be able to do their job in the best interest of farmers.
Therefore I do not support the amendment. I suggest to the members opposite that what they really should be focusing on here is to let farmers, the ten members, the majority of members who will be sitting on that board, do their job and let them provide the Canadian Wheat Board with the leadership in concert with the Government of Canada, in concert with all the people of Canada, the best options for all farmers.