Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak at report stage to Bill C-26 and in particular to the set of motions before the House. I want to support the motions put forward by my colleagues, specifically my colleague for Prince George—Peace River who has introduced some good amendments to this.
I would like to speak a little more specifically about why the whole area of specialty crops has become such an important part of farming in western Canada. My family and I operate a 2,000 acre grain farm in Alberta and we are now growing more and more non-traditional crops, meaning not wheat, barley or canola.
The reason for this is the difficulties we have encountered over the years with the Canadian Wheat Board. I do not think our operation is very much different than a lot of farms in western Canada which have experienced difficulty with market signals being sent by the monopoly situation with the Canadian Wheat Board and not knowing what kind of return we are going to receive.
Farmers now have a tremendous amount of money being expended every year. At this time of year fertilizer and chemical bills start to roll in and in many cases they are in excess of $100,000. This results in farmers needing the ability to price ahead to be aware of what crops are going to be sold and they are starting to look to other crops. Farmers are looking to peas, to fescue and to lentils, to crops outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Wheat Board.
Because of the rotation system that is required to ensure disease does not build up, we still need to maintain some traditional crops. On our farm this year there are 1,000 acres of wheat which went in the ground within the last two weeks. Some of this wheat is soft spring wheat that we sell outside of the board but some like the hard red springs will have to be sold through the board.
Our party wants to see as a board that advises the federal government and takes authority on advising the specialty crops commission. Advisory boards sometimes have the potential for having people who know absolutely nothing about the industry itself.
There are all too many opportunities I am afraid to have former politicians, because they did not win in the election last time around, to get appointed to these boards and they may not do justice to the real issues. Farmers should be on these boards as they know what is best for their industry.
I support Motions Nos. 1 and 8 in Group No. 1 which state this should be a speciality crops board rather than an advisory group appointed by the government.
We have to go back to the Canadian What Board to see how the difference works. I am aware that we have had an advisory board in the Canadian Wheat Board, appointed by the federal government, for some time with basically not much authority. It has been a closed shop. I do not know that it has done a very good job.
Farmers in my part of the country are calling for the Canadian Wheat Board not to have a group of commissioners appointed by the federal government with an advisory board attached. They are calling for the Canadian Wheat Board to be operated by a group of directors of farmers who control the functions of the Canadian Wheat Board.
It is not very much different from what we are talking about today. Farmers pay the real cost of administering the Canadian Wheat Board. They will pay all the costs involved in this board. Why should they not have a direct incentive and direct say in how it works?
I want to point out another reason I think that is important. I have friends and neighbours that have gone into the speciality crop industry in terms of organically grown grains. They have gone to a very big effort because it is a specialty market. They have to ensure that their farm is free of chemicals and commercial fertilizers for five years before they can grow organically grown crops. Yet they still have to go through the Canadian Wheat Board to get an export permit to market those crops.
Ministers of agriculture over the years have said that we should diversify, that we should try to get out of some of the main crops and into specialty markets. My friend, Dexter Smith of Peace River, has done just that. He has spent a tremendous amount of work to rig up his farm for organically grown wheat. He has to find his own markets. The Canadian Wheat Board does not do his marketing for him. Farmers have tried to develop a set of standards for their industry with no help from government, I might add. The government is standing in their way in many cases.
Dexter Smith has to go to the Canadian Wheat Board to buy his product back before he can sell it. The Canadian Wheat Board does not offer any elevators to take the specialty crop. There are no elevators in the entire Peace River country to take Dexter Smith's crop. There are no elevators in Alberta to take it. It would just get dumped in with the regular wheat and therefore lose the effect of having been organically grown.
He has to find his own markets. He has to arrange for the transportation. Yet what do we have? The Canadian Wheat Board standing in his way, inhibiting his ability.
If we have an advisory board on the specialty crops that we are talking about today, it will be appointed by the federal government, probably with some ex-politicians, people not having expertise in the area. That will get in the way of the people in the industry. We really want people with knowledge of these specialty crops and how best to serve their own industry.
What would be better than to have a specialty crops board with members elected by fellow producers out of their industry, knowing that they would have the expertise on how to govern their own industry? It seems to me that is a reasonable request which has to be considered.
As I was saying, things have changed significantly in the farm industry over the years. When I started farming 30 years ago wheat, barley and canola were the main crops in our part of the world. That is not the case any more. We have lost our transportation subsidies through the Crow rate. We have lost subsidies in terms of GRIP and other government programs. In fact our Canadian grain farming industry has moved faster than that of any other country to get rid of subsidies worldwide. We are far ahead of our GATT commitments in terms of phasing down our subsidies.
Yet, what is our trade department doing for us to try to ensure we have opportunities to export to countries in Europe that are still maintaining heavy domestic and export subsidies? I would maintain not that much. It had better start to do something soon or our guys are going to get tired and say, “We are complying with what you have asked of us to get to a market driven industry, but we have competitors worldwide that are still being subsidized very heavily. You had better do something about it or we are going to be back asking for subsidies again”. That is the exact approach we do not want.
The trade department and the Liberal government had better start getting aggressive, or else they will lose market opportunities and some excellent farmers.
In conclusion, I would like to add my weight to those in the Reform Party who in speaking today said that we need some common sense in the approaches to this industry. If we are to have speciality crop marketing boards, let us make them producer marketing boards that are elected from their own members instead of having a group of advisory board members that may not have any expertise in the area. It seems to me the bill would then enjoy the support of the entire farming community in those sectors.