Madam Speaker, I listened to some of my colleagues speak to the amendments to the bill. It brought me back a few years to shortly after we were first elected in 1993. This issue arose then. It was a fairly major issue in my part of Saskatchewan.
In my old riding of Moose Jaw—Lake Centre a good number of people produced specialty crops. There were also dealers that bought and sold the various crops. I talked to many of those fellows at that point in time. A great many were certainly supportive, if not anxious, to see some sort of insurance program whereby producers could be assured that their produce would be insured against any company that might happen to get into financial trouble.
Many dealers wanted to see this take place. Unfortunately it did not happen as quickly as it might have or could have, but it was not for lack of trying on many people's part. At that time some government members liked the idea of an insurance program. I see one of them in the House right now.
That is not what I am here to argue or to debate today. I truly believe that there should be and must be some way to protect dealers and producers from unfortunate events taking place within a company.
What strikes me as odd is that if we speak with farmers in the coffee shops and grain elevators in central Saskatchewan where I come from, generally speaking the federal government will become the laughing stock of the conversation. This is not all the time but a lot of the time. The angle farmers take is that the federal government is in their faces again and whenever it gets involved things cannot be good.
This amendment allows producers to have voluntary participation in the program. That is the key to having some success within the system.
If we look at other aspects—and we do not have to be farmers to think some of these ideas—obviously we do not have carry fire insurance on our houses if we do not want to. It is voluntary. We do not have to carry insurance on possessions if we choose not to. Obviously most Canadians carry insurance because we could not afford to have any type of major loss.
That is also the case in the farm business. Many farmers carry crop insurance because they cannot afford a single loss. They all carry insurance on their farm machinery because they cannot afford to lose a $200,000 combine, which would break many producers.
The key is that the whole system is voluntary and that is what makes it effective. As a farmer I have not carried crop insurance for about 10 or 12 years because I thought it was too expensive for what I might get back out of it if I lost a crop. I was prepared to look after myself in the event of crop failure. We have had a few in Saskatchewan. We are not like Peace River in northern British Columbia where if they do not get 60 bushels an acre it is a failure. I happen to live in Saskatchewan where we are quite happy if we get 60 bushels in two or three acres. That is the difference.