Mr. Speaker, the member has just spoken in favour of this bill and in favour of increasing the potential taxpayer liability of this bill.
I would like the hon. member to comment on what history has shown us about this type of lending. In particular, if he could think about the Farm Credit Corporation in Saskatchewan and the kind of liability that taxpayers took on so that farmers who could not otherwise get loans would be able to get loans.
There was an impact of that program on taxpayers through the amount of money they had to pay to support loans that were defaulted, which were unbelievable in proportion. Also there was an effect on agriculture.
When loans were defaulted on, the impact on agriculture in his province of Saskatchewan was indeed incredibly negative.
Therefore not only did the taxpayers take a huge hit with defaults on thousands of loans through the Farm Credit Corporation, but the agriculture industry was actually in worse shape than it was before the loans were made. A large portion of the farmers who took these loans that they apparently could not get from the banks, although in some cases that was not the case, were worse off than if they had never received the loans.
I would like the member to comment on that because the record in his province on this type of program is clear. The record is very poor and, in the case of a decline in the economy, we are setting ourselves up for a huge hit with this legislation as well. The expansion in this legislation will allow for an even larger liability on the part of taxpayers. I do not believe the demonstration of the benefit from this legislation, which has been talked about by other members in the House, is really there.