Mr. Speaker, I have an entire presentation that could probably take all afternoon if I really wanted to do justice to this issue. Unfortunately, I know you are not going to allow me that kind of time to address this issue that seems to be of such little importance to the members opposite.
Quite frankly, sitting here and listening to the presentation by the hon. member for Chatham—Kent Essex who just spoke, one would think that there is no problem. At the culmination of his presentation he had the audacity to say that there is just a little wee problem in one part of the country. That little wee problem happens to be the breadbasket of Canada. It happens to be the western prairies.
When he says it is not an entire industry that is affected by these low commodity prices, just little pockets here and there, a little wee problem that the opposition seems to be narrowly focusing on to quote the hon. member, I cannot believe it.
We are talking about an entire industry. Wake up over there. It is an entire industry called the grain industry. It is all the commodities in the grain industry that are affected by these low prices because the government has not done its job in defending farmers at the WTO in the trade negotiations.
I used to be a farmer, unlike the hon. member who is sitting across the way laughing about this problem. I am sure that is going to be comforting to farmers in western Canada. Farm families that are faced with losing their farms right now would be comforted to hear him laughing.
The reality is many members in the parties on this side of the House used to be farmers. I know there are a few on the other side as well and they should understand and empathize with this issue.
I had the pleasure this fall of actually spending a couple of days in therapy. I spent a couple of days running a combine and helping to harvest on my brother's farm in the Peace River country in British Columbia. It was therapy from this unreal world that is Ottawa to get back to the farm and actually sit in a combine and do something productive for a few days, unlike what the government is always trying to do which is totally unproductive from the viewpoint of the farmers.
I had the opportunity to run a truck for a day or two and haul grain for the elevators. Farmers are usually very upbeat during harvest time. They are very optimistic people. Despite all that mother nature can throw at them, despite everything that is beyond their control, usually they are very upbeat especially at harvest time. Harvest time is usually paycheque time after an entire year of energy, effort, blood, sweat and tears that goes into farming. That is usually when farmers get some return for the fruits of their yearly labour, which is really a labour of love, a love of the land, but that return was not there this year.
What does the government hold out? It holds out speeches like the one we just heard from the member for Chatham—Kent Essex that downgrade this whole issue and say that it is not a problem at all, that it is addressing the issue in the small pockets where it is a problem.
That is going to be very small comfort to the farm families of western Canada who face losing their farms right now. They are looking for some small ray of hope from their government in Ottawa, some ray of hope going into the new millennium.
In addressing this issue today, I want to interrupt my remarks to quote verbatim a couple of letters I have received from two farmers in the Peace River country. One is from north Peace and one is from the south in my riding of Prince George—Peace River. The farming and agricultural area of the riding is split by the Peace River.
The first letter states:
Now that harvest is done I wanted to drop you a line and let you know how things are. This was our 11th harvest, we had decent wheat and canola and the barley yield was down a bit. The problem, as you know, is the prices. When we sat down this spring and made up our seeding plans, canola was at almost $9.00, now it is below $6; barley was up to $2.25 but it has dropped back to $1.65.
This kind of volatility makes it very difficult to make our cashflow work properly. We end up living on our line of credit almost year round. I know people say you should contract for the prices when they are high, but we had no harvest in 96 and 97 and the thought of having to make up the shortfall in contracts that a person could not deliver on as well as the blow of no harvest, keeps us from being too anxious to contract grain we have not grown yet. We do enough gambling just to get the crop in and out again!
We, of course, are enrolled in all the safety net programs that are going and in the short term, Crop Insurance and WFIP have been helpful. Crop Insurance has never quite been enough to pay the basic input costs on a complete loss. The 60% ceiling is not making it, I think 75 or 80% would be closer to the mark. As for WFIP, it worked well for us for the first year, but it is not designed to make up for price disasters, more for physical disasters. Also it does not work if the disaster goes on for more than 2 years as the reference margins then get so low that you don't generate a claim. We don't have enough cash to put more than our allowed minimum in NISA so it is taking a long time to build up enough of a cushion to have any kind of saving effect on a farm our size (1,600 acres).
All in all, it is quite discouraging that we can be doing our job to the best of our ability and coming up with a good product, that we then have no control over the price that we get for that product. All other businesses that I can think of have a profit margin built into their product that reflects the cost of producing that product and allows for some profit to build your business and to live a decent life on. Why is this not the case in Farming? We are hoping that since you've been in the business, you'll understand our concerns and be able to put them forward to the people who might be able to get things changed.
It is signed by Rodney Strasky from Farmington, British Columbia.
The other letter reads:
As a Peace River grain farmer I continue to be a survivor of Canada's cheap food policies. Other farmers have not been so fortunate. I feel that my energies are subsidizing my urban cousins as statistics show that Canadian consumers pay only 10% of their income on foodstuffs. This is the lowest in the world. Citizens of other countries pay 15% up to 100% of their income to eat. This means that Canadian farmers have given Canada the highest standard of living in the world. How can I continue to compete with the American and European treasuries who are causing our unrealistically low grain prices?
For example, in June 1988 I sold barley for $3.00/bushel, while today the price is a paltry $1.71/bu. We farmers have invested in new technologies and methods to be more efficient and to grow a quality safe food product for consumers. For the past 10 years, my yearly reward has either been a negative or minimal return. There have been increased machinery costs—new combines now cost 1/4 million dollars. Other inputs have also increased. Fertilizer and herbicides continue to increase. Diesel fuel alone has increased 11 cents/litre since Jan/99.
Directed proactive strategies are needed immediately to allow our vital food producers to survive. If we can't receive higher prices then give us lower input costs.
I am requesting that your party urge the Government to:
1) Reduce or eliminate all indirect and direct taxes from all farm inputs, i.e., fuel, fertilizer, machinery, etc.
2) Provide tax incentives for farmers to invest in new technologies.
3) Get tough at the WTO table. Canadian farmers are losers in these power struggles.
4) Provide more R&D monies for agriculture.
5) Eliminate or reduce the 19 year competition shelter that Pesticide companies use to artificially price pesticide products. A sheltered period of 3 years would give the companies sufficient time to recapture their costs and develop profits.
6) Take international initiatives to ensure that international companies such as Monsanto are unable to obtain genetic patents in perpetuity on plant and animal life systems. Remember that we are members of the Animal Kingdom.
7) Provide a business taxation system that targets and supports primary food producers.
Thank you for pursuing these and other issues that I have brought to your attention.
The letter is signed by Arthur A. Hadland from Baldonnel, British Columbia.
Mr. Speaker, I see I have only one minute left for my remarks.
In summary what does this disastrous drop in commodity prices really mean? We heard Liberal member after Liberal member quote statistics about how things are actually quite rosy, but they were not really interested in talking about statistics.
We want to talk about all those in the farm communities who rely on farmers, the fuel suppliers, the pesticide and fertilizer outlets, the equipment dealers, the grain companies and railroads and all their employees. We want to talk about the parents who cannot afford to pay the fees to have their sons in minor hockey or their daughters in figure skating this winter. We want to talk about farm families that are losing their homes and livelihoods. They are sometimes second and third generation. We want to talk about what that means in real human terms.
We can stand here and quote statistics all we want. The reality is that real people are suffering because of the inadequacies of the government's policy.