Mr. Speaker, prior to the eruption of this extreme cost price squeeze, the only thing I was hearing from farmers or anybody else in my riding were complaints about what is happening with the rail industry.
Under the new Canada Transportation Act it is extremely easy for a railway to divest itself of a line. There is nothing to it. It only takes about six months of activity to get rid of it. This can be done regardless of what economic effect it may have on the community affected by that line.
It is done with—and I use the word advisedly—the connivance of grain companies that want to see these lines closed down so they no longer have to operate the delivery points in these more remote areas. They can force farmers to transport their grain to distant terminals. The farmer is the one who has to take the responsibility and the economic rap for the extra transportation. He gets hit twice, not only through the actual cost of hiring the transport truck to bring the grain to the terminal, but he also pays the taxes to the municipalities for the destruction of the roads that are now taking the place of the railways.
Rail freight cannot be carried in large quantities on light duty roads without creating a very severe problem. There is a double problem. There is the loss of the lines which not only affects farmers but everyone who lives in the small communities. With the loss of the rail line and the grain elevator, they probably lose a third of their tax base.
When farmers have to truck their grain anywhere from 50 to 100 miles to an elevator at a larger delivery point, they tend to do their shopping when they get there. Therefore the businesses in the small towns that have lost the elevators also suffer. We have already ended up with what we call 7-Eleven towns where some of the lines have been lost. There is nothing left of the former thriving community except the convenience store.
We are killing the agricultural community in as many ways as this government can seem to figure out. In the end, the economy of the whole country is going to suffer. I do not care what country it is, agriculture is the fundamental base on which the entire economy is built.