Mr. Speaker, I rise to participate in this emergency debate on the income crisis in agriculture, which is of concern not only to our farm people, but to all of us in this House.
I will be splitting my time with the official opposition agriculture critic, the member for Selkirk—Interlake.
Surely the issue here is not whether there is an income crisis in agriculture. This fact was clearly established during the supply day debate on November 3 in this House when the official opposition urged the government to move immediately to defend the interests of Canadian farmers from unfair subsidies and unfair treatment by foreign countries which have changed the problem of stagnant farm incomes to a full blown farm income crisis.
Tonight, therefore, I would like to focus on two questions. First, why is it taking the government so long to act? Second, will the government provide a real solution or simply a band-aid?
Over a year ago Statistics Canada and Agriculture Canada predicted that realized net farm income would fall by 46% Canada-wide. The government did not react at that time to that prediction in a substantive way. Earlier this year Agriculture Canada predicted another 30% drop in net farm income, but there was still no substantive long range or short range reaction from the government. May I suggest that this has become part of a pattern with this government. It is slow to act, period.
For example, for years it was known that the cod fish stocks off the Atlantic coast and now the salmon fish stocks off the west coast have been declining in absolute terms. The government expresses alarm. The government does studies. The government wrings its hands. But the government never acts until there is a full blown crisis and even then it usually acts with band-aids.
The House, therefore, calls upon the government to act with speed on the agriculture income crisis, but also asks why the government always has to wait until an emergency is upon it to do something substantive.
The question is, will the government provide band-aids or real long term solutions? The government may talk about emergency aid of $450 million this year and another $450 million next year, as has been rumoured in the press. The government may put forward a non-contributory, non-commodity specific plan which would make up part of the shortfall if farmers' gross margins fall below some percentage of a five year average, as has been suggested; essentially a revenue insurance program without the premiums. But our concern is that Canadian agriculture needs more than band-aid solutions. It needs real, long term solutions.
As the official opposition repeatedly pointed out in debate on the supply day motion earlier this month, these long term solutions involve two elements. First, a more aggressive strategy to reduce, through political pressure and international trade negotiations, the subsidies paid to American and European farmers. This country has done its part to lower agricultural subsidies and it expects and should insist that its trading partners do likewise.
We suggest a two-stage strategy: a special effort to resolve our trade differences with the Americans first through NAFTA and then a co-operative joint effort on behalf of Canada and the United States to attack European subsidies, which are really at the root of this problem.
Second, and this is the main point I want to make—it is the reason I am in this debate—what the agricultural sector needs is what every Canadian needs, what every family needs, what every sector needs, particularly those sectors experiencing reduced incomes, and that is broad based, substantive tax relief.
What has been the fiscal policy of Liberal and Tory governments in this country for over 30 years? If it moves, tax it. If it continues to move, tax it more. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
I have in my hand a table from Statistics Canada titled “Income Tax Paid by Canadian Farmers 1993-96”. It shows a total paid over those four years of $4.2 billion, about $1 billion per year, $2.75 billion of which went to the federal government.
I would like to see this done by the agriculture department. It should be part of its presentation to finance and cabinet. There should be a calculation of all the taxes paid by individuals, families and companies in the agriculture sector on inputs from sales taxes on consumer goods and equipment to taxes on fuel and fertilizer. For example, we know that in 1997 alone Canadian farmers spent $2.037 billion on fertilizer. Of that total, 15% was taxed. That is $306 million in taxes on one input item, in one year alone, that the government took from farmers.
My point is that this government plays a shell game with taxes and subsidies. It takes with one hand and it gives with the other. But the taking is always greater than the giving.
If the government had followed the advice of the official opposition and farmers across this country and substantially reduced taxes on this sector over the last five years, I would suggest that the balances in the net income stabilization accounts would have been much higher, the savings of farmers would have been much higher and farmers would have been in a much better position to withstand the downturn in commodity prices than they are today.
What is the position of the official opposition on the emergency aid package which the government intends to bring forward? It is hard to say because nothing was brought forward tonight. We want to study the details when they are brought forward and cost them out.
Basically our position is this: if the finance minister will clearly declare that the forthcoming budget will contain broad based tax relief for all Canadians, including the agricultural sector, then the official opposition would be prepared to support a temporary aid package as part of that long term solution. We would also insist that temporary aid be presented as compensation for demonstrable injury done to our producers by foreign subsidies so that it is seen as an anti-subsidy measure.
On the other hand, if all the government has to offer is a band-aid without offering these long term solutions, we will declare that band-aid insufficient and continue to fight for the long term solutions upon which the future prosperity of Canadian agriculture truly rests.