Mr. Speaker, out of sheer respect for the Chair I withdraw that remark unequivocally.
There is all this shouting, this disrespect for an issue that is very important to western Canadians, to Canadian farmers in the prairies and in British Columbia. It is absolutely incredible to me that there is in the House a group of parliamentarians who think that it is within their purview to impose on western Canadians a system of marketing their grain which they themselves do not subscribe to and which the farmers in the west do not want.
I know that they can come up with this plebiscite that was held. But as my colleague just said a few minutes ago, that plebiscite was do you want the whole wheat board basically the way it is or do you want it scrapped. Obviously I would vote in favour of keeping the wheat board because there are a lot of small farmers who do not have the ability or the capacity to get into marketing their own grain and finding the best market.
On the other hand, there are now literally hundreds of farmers who are very well able and who meet many opportunities. I appeal to these members who have a power here which they are abusing.
By a democratic system there are more Liberals in the House than other members. That is true. I acknowledge that. The fact is they got 38% of the vote across the country and they got around 20% of the votes in my province. They do not represent the wishes of those people out there. It is that simple.
I say this as carefully as I can. I do not even like using this term but there is a degree of arrogance. From 3,000 miles away or whatever it is, it is a very great error to say that we here know better than those out there what is best for them.
Let us reverse it. I am going to deal with the dairy business right now. There are marketing boards. There are quota systems and all that in the dairy. Let us just for a moment say the system was reversed.
Let us say that parliament was in Alberta. Let us say that all the wheat farmers in Alberta decided that the dairy farmers only in Ontario and Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces could no longer get their best prices for their dairy products. Most of them sell the raw milk. They could no longer sell to that buyer who gave them the best price. In all instances they had to sell to someone else who gave them between 20% and 25% less.
I hope the members can now see what would happen to them. They would say that is not right, that is not fair for those western farmers out there to impose on us at a financial loss something that we do not want to do.
That is what is happening here and that is why this is such a serious issue. It is a very serious issue. We ask the farmers in a fair question would they like to keep the wheat board the way it is, would they like the wheat board reformed, would they like the democratic right if an opportunity came to sell some of the grain they raised at their expense on their own land. If an opportunity came to sell a couple of truckloads at 25% higher than what they can get through the wheat board, they would want that right. The farmers are saying that.
They are prevented from exercising that right because of a law made here in distant Ottawa. What I am doing right now is simply appealing to this government. I know the whole democratic system is skewed here. The minister for the wheat board who makes the final decision and who gives the whip the instruction on how all the other MPs are to vote on command, I do not know if that minister is now hearing my appeal. I do not know whether he is able to get to a television or whether he is going to hear this appeal. He is the one who makes the decision.
In a way I might as well be debating with empty chairs since the ones who are filling the chairs here tonight are unable to really respond to what I am saying.
They have to vote according to the party line. Here we have very fine subamendments from the member for Prince George—Peace River that would correct at least some of the errors in the present legislation and make it palatable to western farmers.
Yet what we are getting is resistance. What we are getting is a lot of laughter and disrespect. Not anymore. I want to be honest here. They are paying great attention. I appreciate that.
These subamendments which my colleague has brought forward accurately reflect at least some of the changes farmers in the west are pleading for. I appeal to members to talk to the minister, get together, do what is right and pass these subamendments. If this bill goes through in its present form with these subamendments, maybe in the future we can make more adjustments. I believe the prerogative of parliament is to make amendments to laws from time to time. That is what we are here for. It really should be done.
If it is not, there has been a failure of this government to respond to the basic freedoms which these western farmers deserve.
I have used the following example before, but per chance some of the members here tonight were not here when I gave it previously or perhaps have not read every page of Hansard since we got here. I would like to refer to this one example of a farmer I talked to who said a federal government agency, the Farm Credit Corporation, is putting pressure on him. It wants cash. It is threatening to foreclose. This was a couple of years ago.
Meanwhile he has his granaries full of grain, the finest grain in the world because this farmer is a very meticulous farmer. He farms well. He has excellent quality grain. It is the most desirable durum wheat in the country.
He wanted to sell that grain but the wheat board at that time was not issuing a quota, so the grain sat in the bins. He could have put that grain on a truck and sold it because he knew somebody who was ready to buy it, not only to buy it and give him the cash so that he could make the payment which was being demanded, but he could actually get in this instance around 25% more than he could have expected to have received from the wheat board even with the final payments. But the law prevented him from doing it.
So he had to go to the bank, get on his knees and say please wait until the wheat board gives him the freedom to market my grain. The bank said it would put more liens on his property, take all the buildings, take all the land, take all the grain in the bins, his animals in the barn, all as security while it waits for the wheat board to sell his wheat.
I am not saying by this that the wheat board does not sell wheat. It sells a lot of wheat. There are a lot of farmers who are well served by the wheat board. There are a lot of farmers who do not get into these crunches. But when a farmer does hit the wall like this and that farmer is able to find a solution to the problem and is prevented by law from actually implementing a totally obvious solution, taking the grain which he owns and selling it to a person who is willing to buy it for a reasonable price, surely that should not be against the law in this country. It is a drastic limitation of one's personal freedom.
I appeal to members sincerely on behalf of western farmers to do what is right for a change. I will not even say for a change. I do not want to insult them. Do what is right in this case. Make the decision to accept these subamendments. Make the corrections. Let us look to the future. Our western farmers are the backbone of agriculture production in the country, the wheat basket of the world. We need to respond. We need to do what is right.
The Canadian government should not be standing in the way of keeping farmers in business successfully. It should not be the case. So I appeal for more freedom. Let us work toward it, accept the amendments now, and then we will change more later on.
