That is another thing. My hon. colleague remarks that we have to buy them from the U.S. in Canadian dollars and we know what they are worth. There is a tragedy out there.
When the American government negotiated at the World Trade Organization meeting it maintained at that time 24% of its subsidies in a green box which is allowable. Our Canadian government only maintained 8%.
That is what is going on in western Canada today. That is what we are dealing with. I do not know what I can say to impress upon people how serious it is.
I came through the crisis in commodity prices in 1969-70 when farmers were forced to sell three bushels of barley for $1. Seventy cents would buy any amount of wheat to put into a feedlot.
When the Liberal government came to power in 1970 or 1971, western farmers asked the Prime Minister who had created a just society to please help them sell their wheat. What happened? He gave them the finger. That is how the Liberal government looks after farmers and agriculture.
I am told here today that the agriculture minister said farmers should not be able to farm as an occupation, that they should have a job off the farm. Is this government trying to create an industry like the one there was in the Soviet Union? People worked at a full day's job and then grew their food. Using a small spade in their gardens they supplied one-third of all the food that was produced in the Soviet Union.
If we want to see what can happen to a country where the farmers are protected and where farming is not profitable, just go over there. Pay them a visit. Today, if the American government does not give that country free grain, people will starve to death because they cannot afford to buy it. That country owes billions of dollars to other countries. That country was number one in 1981 when I visited there. That country was the mightiest power in the world. Because that country did not look after its economy in the local market and its farmers, it is now the world's biggest basket case. From 1912 to 1917 it was the bread basket of Europe. That country has half of the agricultural land in Europe and today it is begging other countries to give it food so people will not starve to death.
That is how serious the situation is in western Canada. The majority of farm families today have one of the partners and in many cases both partners out working. They cannot survive even if they get other jobs. That is why this government has to look at what these farmers need.
The Liberals promised in the 1993 election that they were going to come in with a whole farm support program that would look after us if we had to fight the European subsidies. They have reneged on that. Not only have they reneged on it, but they have also done away with the programs we had. On the NISA program, which they brag about, we were just told today in West Block by witnesses who were appearing that out of 140,000 NISA accounts, 42,000 have less than $1,000 in them.
Young farmers cannot survive today. If we want the young farmers on the unemployment line, they will be there. Very soon it will not just be Case or Flexi-Coil that shut down their lines of production. There will be shutdowns in other industries.
If we want to have people stay in their jobs not just in the farming industry, it is important that we make the farm viable. Today in western Canada 45% of all jobs have some link to agriculture. If that is not maintained, the $7 billion surplus in the EI fund will be eaten up and will disappear.
The government has a choice. It should help make farmers viable and give them support until the markets again give them a chance to operate on their own. Tax relief is important. When I look at the taxes I pay on my property and I lose anywhere from $30 to $50 an acre, that is unfair. That should not be happening.