Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge the government has had a policy for a number of years, if not decades of assisting farmers who want to make the transition out of producing tobacco into producing other food crops. If the same amount of money were made available, one could achieve the same goal and help the taxpayer at the same time by phasing out the subsidy for tobacco on a rational basis, perhaps cut it back 10% to 15% per year until it is gone.
If we had a decent competitive marketing system, these farmers should be able to thrive on the world markets with very superior Canadian products which we are producing. Of course it would include things like a wheat board which is accountable and which allows some freedom for an individual farmer to grow and to sell the crop of his or her choice.
With respect to the subsidization of farmers growing tobacco I firmly believe that should be phased out relatively rapidly.