Madam Speaker, I want to make a brief comment and then end with a question.
One of the concerns I have about the bill before us today is that the powers of the wheat board stay intact and the wheat board remains the single desk selling agency for the grain of the Canadian farmers. That is extremely important. Having been born and raised in Saskatchewan, having seen the plight of the farmers over the years and having heard the stories of my grandfather many years ago about the fight for the wheat board, it is extremely important that we maintain the wheat board as a single desk selling agency.
One concern I have is that the new forces of the extreme right in the country, the Reform Party, which now calls itself the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party, wants to put an end to the Canadian Wheat Board as we know it. It says it wants to allow competition. I read in the Regina Leader-Post this morning that Tom Long who is running for the leadership of the reform alliance party is saying he wants to “put an end to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly”. We heard the same thing repeated in the House this morning by members of the Reform Party.
That goes against what Canadian farmers have fought for, believed in and have lived for, for many years, that we have a very strong Canadian Wheat Board that is a single desk selling agency that markets all the wheat for the Canadian farmers across the prairies.
I want to ask my colleague whether or not he shares the same concern I have about this extreme right-wing movement of the Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance party, that wants to gut the Canadian Wheat Board in effect by allowing competition to the Canadian Wheat Board, and end the Canadian Wheat Board in the role we have always known which is to protect the farmers of this country.