Madam Speaker, I am happy to take part in the debate today on Bill C-4 at report stage, specifically on the matter of inclusion.
Before I start to address my remarks to that section, I want to register as loudly as I can my very strong disapproval for the government using closure or time allocation to kill debate on the bill.
It is absolutely shameful the Liberals have done this. They were the biggest group arguing against Brian Mulroney's use of closure in the 34th parliament. It was shameful that Mulroney used closure as much as he did. But guess what happens when the Liberals are in power? They up the ante and even use it more often.
On an item that is so important to the Canadian farmers we see Liberals using closure to close down the debate which is very consistent with the way the minister and the government have handled the issue in the last number of years I have been in parliament.
I think we need a bit of history about this debate. I want to put on record that my family and I have a 2,000 acre grain farm in Alberta. We are under the Canadian Wheat Board area, unlike the member for Malpeque who has influenced the debate so much with the inclusion clause. We are not growing potatoes in Prince Edward Island. We are under the Canadian Wheat Board area so we know firsthand what the effects are.
There has been a growing mood over the last 15 years or so for people to want a choice on how they market their grain. I know some constituents want to continue to use the Canadian Wheat Board to average their prices and accept the pooling method. I respect the choice that they want to make.
I am hearing more and more people saying that they do not want to be part of that system. They want to market their own grain. That rush of people is growing more and more as the government mishandles this piece of legislation.
What is the debate all about? I believe it should be about a matter of choice. It was interesting when the member for Provencher talked about eastern Europeans who really settled the land in Manitoba where he is from. A lot of people came to Canada, farmed and opened up the west. What were they coming here for? They were coming for new opportunity. They were coming so they could have some choice in what they did, not to be under the socialist system of eastern Europe.
Is it not ironic that the people who are trying to support the idea of maintaining the Canadian Wheat Board and its monopoly are largely coming from the board members themselves and the advisory group? What does that tell us?
At a time when eastern Europe went through dramatic changes socialist countries with failed policy, especially in agriculture, were breaking down the barriers, realizing that a market economy was the way to go, and moving to a market economy. At the same time a country like Canada with its Liberal government is moving to strengthen its monopoly over more crops grown by farmers for the Canadian Wheat Board.
Something happened. The communist countries and Canada passed in the night a few years ago. It is a failed policy in Europe. Why would it not be a failed policy here?
We have seen the special panel hand picked by the minister to review what was happening in terms of what farmers wanted on grain marketing. He did not do it willingly. There was a lot of pressure on him to make changes. His response was to hand pick this panel. I think his former campaign manager was the chair.
The panel members travelled across western Canada, determined that they would hold on to the wheat board monopoly. The evidence from farmers was compelling. They said “I do not want that. It is fine if my neighbour does, but give us a choice”. I attended some of those hearings and the percentage of people who said that was overwhelming.
The panel had to write a report that reflected what it was hearing across the country. Did the minister of agriculture at the time listen to his own hand picked panel? He never even met with the panel. After a year of study and travel around western Canada and a couple of million dollars of taxpayers' money the minister does not even read the report because he hears that the panel is recommending that farmers want choice.
What kind of government do we have? A monopoly situation, state controlled. Does that not remind us of something we used to hear about in communist countries?
What did we hear from the farmers who attended the hearings? I was at many of them. I heard that they wanted choice. I heard that they are not able to plan properly. They have high input costs. It is a big business these days. On our farm machinery costs are probably half a million dollars. They need to know what prices are for their product. The farmers who are doing well are bypassing the Canadian Wheat Board because it is not reflecting their concerns. They are bypassing the Canadian Wheat Board because the board does not provide them with the options they need.
Modern farmers are now growing crops which the board does not handle. If this board is left in place I predict that the amount of grain it will handle will continue to go down.
The special panel made a report which the minister did not like. He took his own survey and said that there was overwhelming support for the board. Then he instituted Bill C-72.
Then the agriculture committee travelled across the country and listened to farmers. The member for Malpeque was a member of that committee. I attended many of those hearings as well. Farmers were saying that they wanted choice. Some farmers on the other side of the issue wanted to keep the Canadian Wheat Board in tact to market their grain. They said “Don't touch it. Leave it as it is”. I respect that opinion.
Younger farmers said they wanted a choice. There were the growing number of people who were making presentations. I never heard anybody say they wanted more crops included under the Canadian Wheat Board mandate.
When Bill C-72 died and the sphinx that rose from the ashes of it became Bill C-4, all of a sudden there was an inclusion clause. Crops were included that were not previously under the board: flax, rye, canola and peas. They can now be included. It was a red herring floated by the member for Malpeque, but it suddenly took on a life of its own and now it is in Bill C-4.
Farmers are not happy. Farmers walked out on the Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board about three weeks ago at hearings in Regina. They will not accept this.
We have to wonder who wants this monopoly power and why they want the monopoly to include more items than before. I suggest it is the Liberal government that needs to maintain control. I suggest the Liberals are faltering. They realize that the only way to keep this is to keep the lid on it and not give the auditor general power to audit the books of the Canadian Wheat Board, as we requested, and not to let us have access to information in the Canadian Wheat Board.
Ninety-nine per cent of the Canadian economy runs on a market economy. There are some exceptions such as power companies that have control because they are the only supplier. But then we put in things like public utilities boards to look after the public's interest and have hearings before they can have rate increases.
On the other side for farmers, what do we have? We have the Canadian Wheat Board and it says that any grain that is exported from Canada in wheat and barley has to go through the Canadian Wheat Board. Farmers cannot do it themselves. Supposedly they are not smart enough, I guess.
Yet we are able to sell our canola, our flax, our rye, our oats, our peas, our clover, our hay and livestock every day on the world markets, and farmers are doing fine. So what kind of a piece of legislation do we have here? It just does not make sense.
I do not see the member for Malpeque wanting the Canadian Wheat Board for potatoes. Why does it not include potatoes? Why does it not include Ontario? Why does it not include Quebec? No, western Canadian grain farmers have to have big brother government do it for them. Even worse, we are going to include more of your crops so you are not going to have the flexibility to be able to operate. It is absolutely shameful and it should be withdrawn.