Madam Speaker, perhaps we should have a bit of a history lesson here and ask a simple question. Why are there so many special crops now being grown on the prairies? us. If members opposite do not know, we will give them a quick lesson. They are being grown because farmers want to get rid of all the regulations and restrictions that have plagued them for at least three generations. That is why they want special crops.
The hon. parliamentary secretary to the minister of agriculture had a lot to say about elections. We are not talking about elections. The motions which my hon. friend put forth are not about elections. What we are talking about and what we oppose is the federal government handpicking people and putting them on an advisory board.
Virtually every time I make a trip to my constituency in the west I learn of some person who has been appointed to some board in Ottawa. Some of them have the audacity to tell me how much money they make for being appointed as advisory people to a board. That is what we are opposing. That is what the west opposes. That is what the industry opposes. That is what the canola seed people oppose. That is what the pulse people oppose. That is what the sunflower people oppose. They do not want to be regulated by this government. For some reason this government does not seem to understand that. It just does not get the message.
The message is clear and simple. The Canadian Canola Growers Association will submit two lists to the minister of agriculture. It will do the election for each special crop group. The sunflower growers will do the same thing. The people who produce the peas will do the same. The minister will then appoint to this special board according to a simple recommendation from the producer, not by election or anything costly as the parliamentary secretary said. Here is the list of names, take your choice.
But we have a problem here. It is not a problem for the producers. It is not a problem for the people who grow the flax. It is not a problem for the people into the beans. It is not a problem for them at all. The problem lies on the opposite side. It is what if they are not Liberals. That is the problem. These special people are saying they have had 50 years of government hacks telling them how to run their business. They want to give the government a group of names to pick from. That is what this and all these motions are all about.
I say the following to the people from the west who have gone into special crops. You turn around and deny these people the right to submit their names to the minister and let him choose from the names they have selected and you will be in violation of a basic principle. That principle is that party hacks have more importance than those who come from the industry. That is the bottom line. It is as clear as that. Even a kid in grade four could understand it.
I see the parliamentary secretary does not understand. He wants to talk about elections. We are not talking about expensive elections. We are asking the minister of agriculture to select the names that come from the various interest groups in order to form the special board. Nothing could be more down to earth, nothing could be more grassroots and nothing could be more democratic.
I can hear members across saying maybe that is the way we should go. Let us get out of this habit of appointing a $100,000 a year political hack, giving him this and giving him that. The canola growers will select their person for the board. I challenge anyone opposite to say that our clauses are not in keeping with the democratic principle or with what is best in agriculture.
People in the Nipawin area of Saskatchewan said they could not make any money from growing wheat. Now there is no more wheat in most of the crops there. Even in my constituency people have been telling me time and again they are going strictly to oats, that they cannot afford to grow wheat under the board and that they have a legal market in Montana.
That is exactly what we are talking about. I do not have to move more than 10 miles from my home to see people experimenting with all kinds of new crops saying they wish anything they grow would be out of the control of the government. That is exactly what they are saying.
Now we are providing an opportunity to pick advisory boards without going the political route.
Do members have the courage to do this? Do they have the courage to support this resolution? It would bring a form of democracy in advisory committees to Saskatchewan, to Manitoba and to Alberta for the first time in 50 years.