It is almost as big as the Moosomin World-Spectator . It is probably bigger than that.
There are some very serious implications. I said earlier that it is not just the farmers who are hurting. Let us look at the spinoffs. Just imagine if half of the farmers are out of business in the next 12 months in western Canada. What will happen to the co-operatives, the credit union boards and those businesses? What will happen to the hairdressing salons, the cafes, the gas stations and all of these other businesses and small businesses in the communities? The A & W in Davidson, for example. I guess that is going to be gone. There are all kinds of important implications to this.
When that happens, the tax base is lost and, voilà, we end up with no transportation system at all, or one that is crumbling faster than it is now. We end up with an education system that is at risk and potentially will not withstand the upcoming disaster. We will see our health care system totally collapse in rural districts. It was a way of life that many people preferred to choose.
I have letters from all kinds of people. A few are from children who are in school. They are students in grades 7 and 8. A student from Creelman, Saskatchewan wrote to the Minister of Finance, saying:
Farmers need financial assistance soon or many will go bankrupt. Without farming many other people in agriculture related jobs will also be without work. Rural Saskatchewan as we know it will not exist. Please help our farmers. In doing so you will be saving our province.
I have letter from another student. He talks about being a fourth generation farmer.
The possibility of me farming is very slim. Both my parents work off the farm and have rented their land out.
The purpose of my letter is to discuss the farming situation in western Canada. I live in southeast Saskatchewan. In the past four years, our family has had poor crops, poor prices, and escalating costs of machinery, fertilizer, chemicals, and fuel. Every cent they had went into the farm.
Here we have a young generation that will not be farming because of these agricultural policies initiated by the government opposite.
Companies such as Flexi-Coil, which used to employ 1,800, is now employing 350 or thereabouts.
What do we need? Farmers need immediate cash. In Saskatchewan alone the number is at least $1 billion.
Second, we need stronger representation at the WTO to have other countries reduce their subsidies in the longer term.
Third, we need tax cuts on fuel, fertilizer and chemicals. We need to address those sorts of taxes.
Fourth, we need to cap the freight rate on our transportation system for grain.
Finally, we need a fully financed AIDA program which will be there as a whole farm income plan in the event of future disasters.