Mr. Speaker, I too would like to thank the Speaker of the House of Commons for allowing this emergency debate to take place this evening. I would like to thank my colleague from South Shore for putting forward the motion in my absence.
My colleagues recognize and I am sure the minister of agriculture and members of the government recognize that I spent last week talking and more importantly listening to producers across western Canada. Quite frankly, I have heard too many tales of horror over the last week to recount to this House but suffice to say, this issue is a crisis. It is an emergency. An emergency debate is very necessary in order to put the issue on the table.
On November 4 when the minister of agriculture met with the provincial ministers and agriculture leaders to discuss farm income support, he said that it was a discussion meeting, not a decision meeting. This past Thursday the minister was also supposed to meet with the cabinet's social and economic committee to finalize his proposal to combat the farm income crisis. Still there is no proposal. As of Friday the minister still did not have an agreement in principle on the apparent $2 billion bailout package as reported by CBC last Wednesday.
This week the minister is supposed to meet with cabinet yet again to try to convince his colleagues why they should support agriculture. Yet another meeting in the growing list of excuses is being used to put off making a decision on the farm income crisis. The government was even trying to make last minute attempts to put off tonight's debate. Yet another excuse for the government to put off serious discussions and deliberations.
The minister had an opportunity to show leadership on July 16 this year when he met with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Niagara-on-the-Lake to discuss the agricultural safety net program but refused to offer anything more than was under the current system.
Aside from that particular meeting this past summer, the minister has been aware of this issue since he was appointed by the Prime Minister to lead his department last year. This is an issue that should not be new to the minister or to anyone else in this House.
The minister has had access to departmental information on the farm income situation for over a year. The minister has resources, yet the Government of Canada chose and chooses to do nothing.
It appears to be the policy of the Liberal government to wait until things are in crisis before it attempts to fix the problem, like it did with the helicopter contracts, the department of fisheries and the Canada pension plan, to name a few.
We would not be in this situation if the political will were there. It would appear it is not. As was mentioned earlier, do our competitors have political will?
It took the Americans a very short period of time to put another $6 billion into the pockets of their producers. The U.K. recently announced a $250 million program. I quote the minister of agriculture for Great Britain, Mr. Brown: “I know the industry has been going through a bad patch but I am confident it has a prosperous future. To get there it needs our support now and that is what I am providing”.
This was from the minister of agriculture in the U.K., our competitor in the world marketplace and certainly one which has the political will to put its money where it has to be spent, to the producers.
As we witnessed in October, our neighbours to the south announced a $6 billion package which, on top of the $8.25 billion package in the U.S. federal agriculture income reform act, makes $14 billion into American farmer pockets.
I will be perfectly clear. I am not, nor is the Progressive Conservative Party, suggesting that we match the United States in income support. It would be futile. We cannot compete with the U.S. or the European Union on the same cash level. It would also be futile to think Canada can convince the U.S. or the EU over the next week to reduce their producer support to Canadian levels. They simply would not. But something has to be done.
That is why a short term immediate cash injection is needed to prevent future destruction to the fundamentals of this Canadian industry. With the short term cash injection for this year we must also develop long term solutions. We must try to protect our industry with a two pronged approach, the short term cash injection for this year combined with a long term whole farm program that will not be countervailable by the U.S. in the next round of trade talks.
If we only provide a short term approach we will only have long term problems for our agricultural industry.
I would be remiss if I did not point out that I find it quite ironic that the agriculture minister repeatedly said that he would never resort to an ad hoc program yet that is exactly what we are dealing with right now in cabinet. I do not, nor does any member of the PC party, believe that ad hoc programs are what producers need but unfortunately the government has given the industry no other options after gutting the safety net program. We would not be in this position if the government had the foresight to replace a long term program when it eliminated the GRIP in 1995.
In 1995 the government decided to take short term gain for long term pain. Other provinces did not. Alberta has a FIDIP program, a revenue program, and Ontario has a market revenue insurance program which is similar to GRIP in style but was massaged so it dealt with any countervail problems.
When commodity prices were doing well and everything seemed great on the farm, why would people think they should put emphasis on farm safety programs? The problem with that kind of thinking is that more often than not good times do not last forever. Now we are in that situation. If we had strong federal leadership for the industry we would not be in this situation.
Progressive Conservative provincial governments are making efforts to bridge the gap in the current safety net crisis. On Friday the Alberta government pledged to increase interest free loans for producers to $50,000 from $15,000 for hog producers. Manitoba has offered share in support of a national program, and hot off the press, in Manitoba the agriculture minister, Mr. Harry Enns, has just indicated that he has asked the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation to work with producers on case by case basis where appropriate to defer scheduled payments so that they can keep agriculture on the farm. P.E.I. also recently announced income support for its hog industry.
The time for meetings is over. The time for action is now. Producers are selling at a loss. According to StatsCan net farm incomes dropped 55% nationally between 1996 and 1997.
It was projected to drop another 35% in 1997-98. Next year it is only expected to be worse. This industry is expected to lose $170 million next year, the first negative income figure since the Great Depression.
Farmers cannot wait. They need our support and they need it now. We know there is a problem, now let us get on with it.
I remind the minister of agriculture of his own words on February 9, 1993 in this House: “I want to address this to the taxpayers who wonder why governments spend billions of dollars on agriculture. The taxpayer, like all of us in these recessionary times, finds it difficult to rationalize big expenses. Why do we continue to support agriculture? The answer is because it is worth our support. The cost for farm support is not cheap but Canadians should ask themselves where they want their food to come from. I believe they want it to come from Canada”. I agree with those comments. Let us do something.
I would like to be of assistance in this debate. I would like to make sure the minister of agriculture knows he has our support in the Progressive Conservative Party. I implore him to go to his cabinet colleagues to make sure this program is put into place before the end of the year, sooner than later, so my producers can come back to the land in the spring.