Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak on Bill C-4, an act to amend the Canadian Wheat Board. I wish it were to be some real amendments because I think the Canadian Wheat Board is mired in the last century and has yet to come into this century and we are just about to go into the next one.
I hoped this organization would have wanted to bring itself up to date and that the minister would have wanted to bring the organization up to date to address the global marketplace in which we now live.
My interpretation of this bill is that it is just a reiteration of where the board stands. The bill maintains the board with arm's length monopoly powers when many farmers wish the board could be opened up. We do live in a free society, and I emphasize that. But for some reason this government wants to maintain that every farmer in the three provinces of the prairies shall sell his grain to the board with no alternative opportunities. Yet farmers in Ontario can operate differently. And I thought it was a free country.
I find it rather strange that we would say you have only one buyer and no other buyer for your grain when there are people around the world who would like to participate and purchase our grain. There are buyers in the United States we know would like to buy our grain, but we have to give it to the wheat board.
That is a travesty and an insult to the farmers on the prairies who are part of the great bread basket of the world, who have worked hard to produce a wonderful environment and a way of life that sometimes involves struggle. And the wheat board sits there with more and more powers and makes some noise about trying to get itself modernized, but when we take a look at the intent of the legislation nothing has happened. The minister knows it but the minister will not say it. All he wants to do is to entrench that little monopoly.
If monopoly is not bad enough, we have to add secrecy on top of that. The auditor general is not allowed to look into the workings of the wheat board. The legislation prevents him from doing that. Access to information that allows anybody access to government documentation allows us to ask questions about government but we cannot ask questions about the wheat board. The law says that we cannot ask questions about the wheat board and have them answered because we are specifically denied access to the Canadian Wheat Board and what is going on there. Yet it is a monopoly that is protected by the government.
The Canadian Wheat Board does not report to Parliament. It does produce an annual report but it does not report to Parliament. It cannot be investigated by the auditor general. An individual cannot ask questions through access to information. It is a complete and absolute closed door shop and we as parliamentarians and as Canadians have no idea what is going on in that organization but we are being asked to endorse the status quo. Surely we as parliamentarians have the right to know what is going on in that organization.
This perfunctory thing that we are going to have a few elected members on the board I do not think will change very much because those members' hands will be tied. The minister will have a majority on the board. It is fine for the minister to tell us that this will be great stuff since he will be opening it up for elections. But if they are a minority on the board, the minister can get what he wants. That is how he can maintain his ironclad policy of no information about the board.
I think about the people who have stood up for democratic rights in Canada. We have seen people in China stand up for democratic rights who were sent off to jail. The whole world stood up and claimed it was an outrage that people who stand up for their rights in China should go to jail and be punished severely by the state. Yet we have farmers standing up for their rights in this country who are saying all they want is the right to sell what they produce to a buyer who is prepared to buy their produce. They have had to go to jail and what outrage have we seen from this government?
I have not even heard a murmur from the government as it applies the heavy arm of the law and drags these people off in chains and puts them in jail as they stand up for their rights in a democratic and free society to sell what they produce to a buyer who wants to buy their product. Is that so bad? Apparently so. Apparently it is bad because this government is not prepared to introduce legislation which is going to give them the opportunity to sell their produce in a free and open market.
NAFTA, the world trade organization and the GATT are all organizations to build opportunities for free trade where we can buy and sell our goods, our produce and our services across the country and around the world, but not the prairie farmers. Ontario farmers yes, farmers in other provinces yes, but not the prairie farmer when it comes to producing grain for human consumptions and grain for export.
It is ludicrous that any government should take this dictatorial attitude today. It is an offence and an affront to democracy and to all of Canadians that farmers would be locked into this type of situation.
I want to let the government know that I am upset because I believe in openness and accountability in government. I look at the bill, section 313, which deals with indemnification. This was a proposal being brought forward by the government. It says “the corporation shall indemnify present or former directors or officers who acted—against criminal charges”. I know that they have backed off a little on committing. Rather than “shall” indemnify, it is “may” indemnify. To me that is not a reversal. It just says if we feel that it is in our own interests we will indemnify these people against criminal actions if they act honestly and in good faith.
It even goes on to say “—in case of a criminal or administrative action or proceeding that is enforced by monetary penalty believed on reasonable grounds that the conduct was lawful”. Just as long as they think or stand up and say “I think my conduct is lawful” the board will indemnify them.
I have heard of lots of situations when people have been in court and have said “I thought I was on the right” and the court says “no, you were on the wrong”. They are left with a sentence and the cost of their own defence. But we now find that the government is going stand behind, if it so chooses, past and former people who have committed illegal acts, maybe with good intentions. Lots of people have found themselves on the wrong side of the law with good intentions. What is the phrase, the road to that place is paved with good intentions, and we may all get there but hopefully we don't. Let us hope we do not. Let us hope the government does not get there either.
I am really concerned about the wheat board and the fact that it is wrapped in a cloak of secrecy that is ironclad. We can get no information out of this organization. This government is doing nothing about it in a free and democratic society. People who want to do something today get dragged off to jail in irons. I emphasize in irons. I talked to several RCMP in my riding, one who had 20 years service on the force. He said there was only one occasion that he had to drag an offender off to jail in irons. He was a rather violent offender.