Mr. Speaker, I rise to tell the House and all Canadians of an increasing economic gravity facing thousands of farmers in western Canada.
In 1938 the sale of 26 bushels of wheat would clothe a farmer for the winter. In 1998 it would take 206 bushels to clothe a farmer for the winter. In 1938 the combined property tax to pay the taxes on 640 acres of cultivated land would take a mere 273 bushels. Today on the same section of land it would take 1,443 bushels.
If this economic disaster area does not receive some immediate help, the results will the threefold. First, there will be an increase in abandoned farms. Second, there will be an increase in bankruptcies and, third, there will be an increase in financial foreclosures.
We must not turn our backs on—