Mr. Speaker, it is truly a sad day for western Canadian farmers. Today this government is ending debate on changes to the Canadian Wheat Board by invoking closure. Even worse, in spite of ample and verifiable evidence that the government has long used the wheat board as a foreign policy tool at a cost of billions of dollars to Canadian grain producers, wheat board lawyers even went as far as to argue before the courts that the wheat board had no obligation to prairie farmers.
In spite of this, both the minister of agriculture and the wheat board minister last night voted against an amendment proposed to make the primary legal responsibility of the wheat board to act in the best interests of wheat and barley producers.
All other arguments aside, is it not reasonable that the producers of the grain should be able to expect their marketing agent to act primarily in their interest? Truly a sad day for democracy and property rights.