Mr. Speaker, I join today with my colleagues in the House in saying that what we are facing in agriculture is a real emergency.
In my province of Saskatchewan the statistics show that in 1997 net farm income has dropped by 84%. People are suffering because of that. This is no surprise. If your income, Mr. Speaker, was to drop by 84% you would be in the House probably asking for an emergency injection of cash because you cannot survive when your income goes down by 84%.
This is compounded by the fact the United States about two weeks ago passed a farm bill in Congress to subsidize its farmers by $6 billion. There are subsidies in the European market of approximately $200 a tonne for wheat. Because of that our farmers are caught in a terrible cost price squeeze.
Recently the Saskatchewan legislature passed a motion, I believe it was unanimously, calling for an emergency farm package. We are dealing with a situation where there is to be a small surplus next year. The House should look at investing part of that surplus into an emergency farm package for farmers so that they can survive. In the meantime it would also stimulate the economy by creating jobs.
Does my colleague who just sat down agree that we need an emergency injection of cash, an emergency aid program of several hundreds of millions of dollars, so that farmers, particularly grain farmers, can survive?
I once again remind the House and the minister of agriculture that net farm income in Saskatchewan has dropped by 84%. That affects everybody in our province and everybody right across the country. When the farmer is worse off the small towns are worse off, the cities are worse off, the unemployment rate goes up, and people stop spending money. There is a cyclical effect which affects absolutely everyone.
I hope the Reform Party will join with us today in calling for an emergency farm package of several hundred million dollars to inject some cash into the pockets of farmers within the next few months to seed their crops next spring and so they can survive.