Mr. Speaker, with National Farm Safety Week about to end, let us resolve to reduce farm related injuries throughout the year.
Farming is a way of life for over 200,000 farm families from coast to coast to coast. It is also a profession with one of the highest risks of on the job injury and death. Close to 700 Canadians died of farm related injuries between 1990 and 1996. Most of these could have been prevented. Working with tractors and other self-propelled equipment remains the leading cause of death and injury with rollovers and runovers a serious concern.
Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture along with other farm safety groups are urging farmers to equip their tractors with rollover protection structures and seatbelts. That is what National Farm Safety Week is all about, getting farmers and their families thinking about how they can protect themselves from what are often needless injuries on their farms.