Mr. Speaker, spring is here and farmers in Lakeland constituency have started seeding the 1999 crop. Many have been dealing with the fallout from the worst drought in recent history and again are planting into dry soil. They are faced with low prices due to unfair European and U.S. subsidies and unfair import restrictions into Asian markets.
For eight long years the Reform Party has promoted its policy of creating a trade distortion adjustment program which would use part of the capitalized value of the Crow rate subsidy to create a fund to compensate farmers for this type of financial loss.
The Liberal response was to announce a $900 million compensation program which was supposed to be delivered to all farmers before seeding began. Show me the money. In my riding where the disaster is the worst I have yet to hear that a single grain farmer has received a cheque from this $900 million program. Why does this government routinely make promises it has no intention of keeping?