Yes, I do. If you want to listen, you will understand. The argument appears to be based on the idea that by repealing paragraph 46(b) of the existing Canadian Wheat Board Act that we are repealing the legislative authority for the order in council which authorizes free interprovincial trade in feed grains in the designated areas. Consequently that order in council would be null and void. This is not true and I will try to explain now why.
The order in council has nothing to do with that paragraph of the Canadian Wheat Board Act. It is not even mentioned. Several other provisions in the act are cited. It is as necessary, legislative authority, but not paragraph 46(b); therefore there is no substance to the suggestion that repealing this paragraph somehow undercuts the order in council.
If members do not want to take my word for it they can look it up in the SOR/93-486 on pages 3872 and 3873 of the Canada Gazette Part II, Volume 127, Number 20.
Even if the order in council did rely on paragraph 46, it would still be valid unless it were inconsistent with the new act as amended. Since this is not the case, the order in council is not in jeopardy.
Again I quote the minister's own words: "It is not now and has never been the intention of the Government of Canada to restrict trade in the domestic feed grain market which was liberalized in 1974".
This simple point is adamantly clear from the very wording of the questions that are being asked in this winter producer vote about barley marketing. The continuing existence of the domestic feed market is written right into the words on the ballot.
I hope this ends this discussion, but if it does not and if a reasonable doubt about this issue surfaces during the standing committee's detailed study on Bill C-72, the minister has already assured the sector that he would be happy to receive the committee's advice as to what its members believe should be done to make the point even clearer.
The other matter I would like to raise is the legislation introduced last November to amend the Canada Labour Code. Grain exports are very important to Canada in earning foreign exchange. These sales are of course dependent on our ability to deliver high quality grain consistently on time.
Most of the time we have been able to do this but there have been several occasions when work stoppages at western ports have significantly curtailed grain exports. Since 1972, for instance, there have been 12 work stoppages that have adversely affected grain exports, although only on 3 of these occasions has the handling of grain been the cause of the stoppages. The other 9 involved longshore operations.
The Minister of Labour last November introduced into this House legislation to modernize the Canadian Labour Code, including amendments to the industrial relations section to clarify the rights and the obligations of the parties during a work stoppage. The amendments benefit the agriculture and agri-food sector by promoting the continued movement of grain to market and reducing the cost of work stoppages to farmers.
In all, Canadian ports engaged in longshoring and other ports activities as tugboats and mooring for instance would be required to continue providing services to grain vessels if they become involved in a work stoppage. Grain handlers and their employers retain the right to strike and lock-out. I am pleased that this legislation will help ensure that farmers can get their grain to the market in the event of work stoppages at Canadian ports.
The agriculture and agri-food sector is one of the most significant sectors of the Canadian economy. If we continue to work co-operatively with this sector to improve the way that we operate, I am confident that this sector will generate more growth, more
wealth, more trade, more jobs and more innovation for all Canadians. There can be no doubt that we are living in an era of unprecedented change, change that is occurring at a faster rate than we have ever experienced before. That change is driven in part by a shrinking world brought about by new world trade regulations and new world trading opportunities.
For 61 years the Canadian Wheat Board has been one of the cornerstones of our successes in the agricultural industry. With the changes that we have introduced to build on that success, providing the board with more modern governances and in its accountability to farmers and more flexibility and being responsive to that, farmers will be empowered with more to say in their marketing system, more power to take on the very real challenges and opportunities that lie before us.
The amendments to the Canadian Wheat Board Act that we are currently debating and the changes to the Canadian Labour Code to improving grain handling in the western coast ports will help keep Canada on course into the next millennium.