Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Scarborough East for sharing his time with me and also compliment the member for South Shore for having this emergency debate tonight.
I have been farming since 1974. From 1974 until 1985 I was a pig producer. We had about an 80 to a 90 sow farrow to finish operation and I can remember going through the farm crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I can remember the pain, the loss of pride, the embarrassment and even the loss of the will to live. It was a very sad experience. It was an experience I will never forget and it is also an experience I do not want to see us go through again. But I believe right now we are on the threshold of exactly that.
That is one of the reasons why this government is working as best as it possibly can and as quickly as it possibly can to address this issue.
In the Globe and Mail underneath the national news it finally caught on and said “farming crisis to worsen” and then gave Statistics Canada data. I would like to read some of it because it is very scary.
In 1997 farmers' net farm income was just over $2 billion. That is down by 53.4% from the $4.3 billion they earned in 1996. The story is not in on what is going to happen this year. The Statistics Canada figures go on to state that wheat crops have fallen by 43.3% in the third quarter of this year. Revenues were sliced nearly in half to the tune of 45.5%. For barley the drop was 48.8%. For hog revenues it has fallen by 26.1%. It also noted that the wheat board's initial spring prices for this year were $130 a tonne, a drop of 24.4% from the year before.
When we got into the 11th hour of the negotiations in 1993, the axiom at that point was that low prices would stop low prices. Why do low prices exist today if that is the case? Obviously one cannot produce something for nothing for a very long period of time before one is broke. I saw enough farmers in the late 1970s and early 1980s have that happen to them.
I was part of the Farm Credit Corporation and the loans on my farm were locked in a fixed rate of interest of 12.5%. I saw interest rates go to 22%. That was when we got into the penny auctions. We saw sheriffs at the door and farm houses sealed up. Basically farmers left with the clothes on their backs. It was a very terrible time.
It is partially because of a combination of things. We have had financial and political instability within Europe, Latin America and Russia. This year, for instance, Russia's average harvest, which is not all that great, came in at 22% below its average in a normal year.
We are experiencing another trade war. I would like to read some data from the USDA that I have picked up surfing the net. I can also give information on what is happening in Europe. In the United States, underneath the FAIR act of 1998 there was $6 billion in product flexibility contracts, $1.5 billion in conservation reserve payments, $750 million in loan deficiency payments, for a total of $8.25 billion being injected into the farm economy in the United States.
Also, there were additional support payments of $2.8 billion for market loss, $1.5 billion for the 1998 crop losses, $875 million for multiple year crop losses, $200 million for livestock feed assistance, $200 million for U.S. dairy producers, $27 million for other disaster spendings for a total of $5.975 billion. That is referred to as the $6 billion farm aid package.
There is also $1 billion in taxes underneath a new law to producers. The total in the United States is $15.225 billion for 1998. That is one of the reasons production is up and prices are down. It is because of subsidies. These are subsidies the United States said it would do away with. Obviously it has not.
Let us take a look at Europe. Export subsidies as of November 19, 1998, are $47 Canadian for wheat.
There is a subsidy of $105 a tonne for barley and a subsidy of $138 a tonne for malt.