I do not know, but the last I have is that it is high.
But I do know this. We have a new venture. We have a new series of crops. We have a new industry in the west. All of a sudden the thinking is that if we cannot get more compulsory aspects into it then of course that is a bad thing.
What the hon. member for Brandon—Souris is doing in bringing in these resolutions is simply saying “Let the industry, the agency and the board prove themselves. If they want to go in and take insurance, fine. Let them take it. If they do not feel it is worth it, then let them opt out”. That is how simple it is. But to demand insurance when there is no proven product is not a very good thing.
If I carry house insurance with the same company for a number of years and I find out that when I put in a claim I get zippo out of it, what am I going to do? I am going to at least change companies. Under this plan they will not have a choice; they are either in or out.
These motions deal with the insurance plan. If they can prove to the producers that it is good, then they will have them all in. If they see that it is not good, they have the right to drop out with nothing to declare. Nothing could be fairer.
When we have a new commodity group coming into being I do not understand why they want to add a compulsory element. Why do we not let the producer decide? It is his crop and his risk, so let him decide. We should not force him into a program where he may wait two or three years after his premiums have been used up to see whether it is valuable or not. If we go into this we should at least allow it to be voluntary.
Some things we need to have compulsory insurance on. All across Canada we need to have compulsory insurance on our cars. The reason for that is not so much that we may wreck our own property, but we may hurt someone else. We can all understand that type of compulsory insurance. It is not compulsory to put fire insurance on our houses and it should not be compulsory for the producers of the specialty crops to have to put insurance on those crops. Many people feel they cannot afford to do this. Therefore, to make it compulsory is not adding anything whatsoever to this industry.
Ask the western farmers if they should have this. What did the witnesses say in committee? Did they say they wanted compulsory insurance? No, they did not say that. If they did not say that, if the producers do not want it, I think we are going too far by making it mandatory.
Yes, they can have insurance. Let them enter the insurance plan, but if they do not want to stay in it then let them out. Let the thing work on its own merit. We should not have something that is compulsory and keeps going because it is run by a few, whether it is making payments or whether the producer is left to evaluate it.