Mr. Speaker, I represent an urban riding, Calgary Southwest. To the best of my knowledge all my constituents are in the habit of eating three times a day. Thus all of them, as indeed all of us, have a vested interest in the financial health of the agricultural sector, which is the subject of the motion before the House.
I believe I am now the only party leader in the House who was actually raised on a farm. I urge the other leaders to join in this debate in recognition of the importance of agriculture to us all.
The first purpose of the motion before the House is to draw the attention of the House and the media to what my colleague from Saskatchewan has rightfully called the farm income crisis.
Some of my other colleagues will describe the nature and extent of this crisis by reference to its impact on particular producers and their families in rural ridings. But the basic facts are clear, some of which have already been cited. Farm income is likely to drop by more than 40% this year as grain, beef and pork producers all face declining prices. This is in addition to a steep price decline last year.
Wheat prices have fallen more than 40% over the last 12 months while hog farmers have seen a price decline of 28%. On a provincial basis, to cite only two examples, the realized net farm income of Saskatchewan farmers is expected to drop by more than 60% this year to less than $300 million, and Prince Edward Island's realized net farm income for 1998 is expected to be 87% less than the 1992-1996 average.
I suggest that if the prices or incomes in any other industrial or commercial sector such as the auto sector were to drop by 30% or 60% or 87% we would immediately recognize and acknowledge a crisis. That is what this motion now calls on the government to do with respect to agriculture.
The second purpose of this motion is to urge the government to respond to this crisis with more than empty words and assurances that what it has been doing is good enough. We are all familiar with the government's standard excuse for non action, the tiresome argument that the general slowdown in the Canadian economy and the particular income crisis in agriculture is all due to factors beyond the government's control.
The official opposition takes a different and more proactive approach. We divide the causes of our current economic difficulties into two categories. One category identifies factors beyond our control which we ought to monitor like the Asian downturn and the worldwide downturn in commodity prices. But the other category includes factors contributing to the economic downturn and the crisis in certain sectors which are within our control and which we can and should be doing something about. It is to this category of factors that we draw the attention of the House and the government.
The slowdown in the Canadian economy in general and the farm income crisis in particular is aided and abetted by high debt and taxation levels at home and by the slowness of the Liberal government to attack domestic and external barriers to trade. Every Canadian producer, including every Canadian agricultural producer, has a domestic monkey on his back that negatively affects his ability to compete internationally. That monkey is the excessive levels of taxation in this country.
In the case of agricultural producers the tax component of input costs, in particular fuel and fertilizer, reduces disposable farm income year after year. Broad based and immediate reduction of taxes including taxes masquerading as user fees is therefore one measure the government should employ to deal immediately with the farm income crisis.
If the federal government had followed the fiscal plan first advocated by Reform which called for a balanced budget early in the 1990s and tax relief and debt reduction immediately thereafter, the disposable income and savings of agricultural producers for the last five years would have been significantly higher than they are today, thereby putting them in a much better position to withstand the current downturn in commodity prices. In other words, the best income support program is not some government safety net after the fact but tax policies that leave more dollars in the pockets of Canadian producers and consumers to start with. How many income crises will it take for this government to learn that lesson?
Second, every Canadian agricultural producer has another monkey on his back in the form of unfair subsidies and unfair trading practices by foreign countries.
In Canada's case the most damaging of these foreign monkeys has been the excessive agricultural subsidies paid to European Union and American farmers, subsidy levels in the order of 30% to 37%, and recent attempts by several U.S. states to blockade shipments of Canadian livestock and grain in complete violation of the spirit and the letter of the free trade agreement.
As everyone in this House knows, the Liberal Party of Canada has a checkered record with respect to both subsidies and free trade. Throughout the 20th century Liberal administrations have instituted far more subsidies than they have removed, which makes them very poor champions of subsidy reduction on the international stage. Because it bitterly fought the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988 and even promised at one time to revoke it, Liberal Party protestations against violations of that agreement are treated with extreme scepticism in Washington.
That is why this motion calls for more vigorous action by this government to defend Canadian farmers from unfair subsidies and unfair trading practices by foreign countries.
I have one final observation. When we ask Canadian farmers to evaluate this government's performance on agriculture more and more of them are responding by saying it is like what it has done to their taxes and health care. What they mean by that is mismanagement, mismanagement that is leading to a lower standard of living.
Many Canadians will be judging the government's ability to respond to the general economic slowdown by how it responds to the immediate income crisis in agriculture. That is why this debate is so important. If the government cannot respond more quickly, more positively and decisively to the downturn in one sector, the agriculture sector, who will believe that it is capable of responding quickly, positively and decisively to the general economic downturn which the finance minister himself is predicting?
If the government wants to restore some measure of confidence in its ability to manage economic crises other than by resorting to denials, excuses and diversions, let it respond positively to the motion before the House. I urge hon. members to support the motion.