Madam Speaker, I am pleased to represent the people of Selkirk—Interlake and to speak to the throne speech today. The government has been speaking about the good aspects of the speech so I do not have to go over those details again. They are few and far between, but it highlighted the ones it thought were important.
I have a couple of issues that did not get fully addressed in the throne speech. One of them was that Manitobans expected to see more in the area of health care. There was nothing in the speech but a reiteration of the fact that the government was putting $11.5 billion into health care over the next several years. That is totally insufficient. They would like to have seen something in that regard.
Also the government seems to have recognized that it has been fumbling the first nations accountability issue. The throne speech mentioned that the government wanted to foster accountability on the part of elected officials on our first nations. The Indian affairs minister has said in speeches privately in Saskatchewan that was one of the government's objectives. It is certainly worth recognizing that.
Physical infrastructure work was mentioned with regard to what I assume will be roads. This may have a benefit for farmers if the physical infrastructure it is talking about enables roads to be built sufficient to carry the large trucks which are now necessary to carry grain from the farmers field to the inland terminals and out to port by rail.
Those are all the items I saw in the throne speech which were directly pertinent to farmers. Certainly we needed much more.
A couple of points in the throne speech were scary for farmers. Certainly we are concerned about the government's intentions with regard to its Kyoto commitment and how they will impact upon the government.
Another thing that is bothersome is the Endangered Species Act. It will be implemented and passed in such a way that it will not have the negative impacts on agriculture that we found in the United States with its legislation.
An immense concern to my riding, to all of Manitoba and really to all Canadians which was not mentioned in the throne speech, involves an issue in the riding of Provencher in Manitoba. I am referring to the closure of the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited nuclear research station. The government is in the process of closing that research station. In fact it has virtually closed it now.
What it is leaving behind can only be described as waste and byproducts. The nuclear contamination from that site is still there. That is a natural issue which happens. However it is the government's responsibility to show some vision and direction with regard to atomic energy uses in Canada and to clean up that site. Manitobans want to use that site for private industrial development, but it is impossible to do so because the government is standing in the way of cleaning up the site and arranging for it to be used for industrial purposes.
The mayor of Pinawa, the town in which it is located, and the Hon. Darren Praznik, MLA for that area, have clearly brought to my attention that they need assistance to bring to the attention of the government in Ottawa that this nuclear contamination and the clean up of the Whiteshell site are of utmost importance.
I can only tell the resource minister that I will be raising this matter in the House over upcoming months. It should have been in the throne speech. We will make sure that it is raised and something is done about it.
I will point out one last thing about it. When hot cells, nuclear contaminated cells, in Tunney's Pasture in Ottawa were decommissioned a couple of years ago, they were completely demolished and the site was returned to a green field state. Why should Manitobans and the people of Selkirk—Interlake and Provencher expect anything less than what was done in Ontario?
As the chief agriculture critic I will devote the rest of my speech to agriculture issues. Our leader has spoken quite eloquently with regard to the lack of emphasis on agriculture in the throne speech.
For the last two years farmers across Canada have faced destructive drops in farm income. Realized net income in Canada fell by 21% in 1998 and is predicted to fall by another 15% in 1999. That brings the figure down for Saskatchewan in terms of realized net income to a negative $48 million for 1999. Farmers will be losing massive amounts of money in Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan farmers are so desperate that they are actually involved right now in a tax revolt involving the education taxes on their properties. We are finding that these farmers are being pushed into doing anything they can do to reduce the cost of government in particular and other costs that are helping to drive them out of business.
I will use the gross figures for Manitoba. We talk about a realized net farm income drop in Manitoba to $64 million according to Statistics Canada figures. These figures are not something I made up myself. They are right from Statistics Canada. That drop to $64 million is $100 million below the $164 million earned by Manitoba farmers in 1998 and well below the five year average of $231 million.
The program the government brought forward to address the income crisis was AIDA, the agricultural income disaster assistance program. The government had the understanding or misunderstanding, really, that the situation with regard to farm incomes was simply a one year drop in income in 1998 but that the drastic drop may happen in 1999 also.
The government took the program that came to it from the safety net advisory committee, which involves a lot of farmers' groups, et cetera. The government changed that recommendation around to make the program fit the budget the minister thought he could get for it, instead of making the program fit the crisis and address the problem. That is exactly why AIDA has not worked.
I will just give a couple of examples of farmers who were applying for AIDA and receiving nothing. One story is that in May of this year two brothers who are farmers in Manitoba applied. Their application is still sitting in the review area of AIDA. The way the farm is set up, they expect to get approximately $70,000 back from AIDA. They have received nothing and they are on the verge of going bankrupt.
Over past months, certainly since last fall in particular and in fact right from 1993, the Reform Party has made many suggestions to the government on how it can increase the income of farmers. That is the subject of a minority report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture. It involved matters such as reducing the cost of government, reducing user fees and making the Canadian Wheat Board a voluntary board.
As a result, I would only suggest that the government review all the material we in the Reform have produced, take those suggestions and implement them immediately to help solve the crisis in western Canada and across the country.