Whatever that means. I was prepared and I have sunk thousands of dollars into it to get the truth out of that court case. We are still battling over trying to get it before a judge so he can decide what the facts are. It is to be appealed again, and the minister knows it. That stubborn farmer from western Canada does not give up so easy. He wants the truth. Farmers want the truth.
I heard the member for Malpeque say that the farmers were playing into the hands of the major grain companies, those bad rascals, those wolves or whatever they are. I have grown special crops since 1957. I do not know for what reason but these terrible grain companies, these terrible special crops industries. have always made me more money than wheat board grains. If I had not grown the special crops I would have been bankrupt in the first 10 years. If these terrible grain companies are that miserable toward farmers, why are they getting more instead of less acres every year? Why are they selling a bigger portion of western Canadian farmers' products than they ever have before?
If we look at the price of canola today when we grew record acres last year, it is still close to $9 a bushel. What would people on the other side do if we did not have special crops? They would be sending out subsidies to no end if they wanted to keep the farmers on the land. They should realize that.
I just talked to the minister a few minutes ago to see whether he received the phone call I received yesterday. About 10 o'clock when I was waiting to debate in the House the phone rang and it was a gentleman from the States. According to the wheat board minister the call was probably from Pennsylvania.
The caller needed three truckloads of organic white, hard wheat. He said he had to have it because that wheat was not available in Montana or Washington. When it comes into production it is not the quality of wheat that we grow in Saskatchewan and Alberta. He could not get it because the producer would not go to the wheat board for an export permit because it wants an extra 70 cents to $1 a bushel to put in the pool, and it does absolutely nothing with it. He is fed up with this malarkey. The wheat board will not buy it, move it or market it, but it wants a $1 a bushel for saying it is the wheat board. Does that make any sense? It does not make sense at all.
We are taking money out of the western economy, money that could be coming in.