Mr. Speaker, I say to members on both sides of the House that a fundamental change will come about as a result of this private member's bill.
We have the Canada Health Act which is for all Canadians. We have the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act which is for western Canada. We have the Canadian Wheat Board Act but it is not for all of Canada. The government can call it the western Canadian wheat board act, the western wheat act or whatever but it is not, was never intended to be and will never be a Canadian act because it does not include all of Canada . In the commodities being sold it omits some people. It only applies to the three prairie provinces and a part of British Columbia. Therefore the change in that private member's bill is coming.
Mr. Speaker, if I were to ask you today to think back to 70 years ago, what was the third largest province in Canada? Saskatchewan was the third largest province with one million people and that is where it has remained.
Saskatchewan alone has about 48% to 49% of all the agricultural land in Canada. However the average revenue per acre is always the lowest in Canada. There is something dreadfully wrong with this picture. I will explain.
When Saskatchewan was formed and when the Canadian Wheat Board Act was enacted it had a burden to carry and it is still carrying that same burden. From 1929 to 1931 Saskatchewan was the third largest province. The people of Saskatchewan came through the depression, through the war years and then they came to a limited factor which did not encourage growth. We must not produce in Saskatchewan any of our own product.
I want to get back to organics, the fastest growing crop in western Canada. The wheat board will not market it. The wheat board will not find buyers for it. Each farmer on his or her own must find a market for his or her product.
I know many people watching will not believe this. On a farm close to where I farm, a young man recently sold a truckload of organically grown durum. Does anyone know where it was going? It was going all the way to Idaho. Before he could load that into the semi and send it, he had to buy some of it back from the wheat board. He had to pay some of the transportation. The grain never got within 50 miles of the grain buying point. He had to pay part of the elevator; another 50 miles. He took a chance, grew it and away it went. Yet he had to dish it out of his pocket, cut down on the profit to pay the Canadian--sorry--the western wheat board. This is wrong. I defy anyone on any side of the House or anyone across Canada to say that is right and that it is logical to do that.
The one province in Canada that has had the lowest land prices in five of the last ten years has been Saskatchewan. The reason is that we have to sell our raw material without expanding and with no development locally.
Saskatchewan has been saved because there is a growing number of farmers every year who absolutely refuse to sell anything that will be in the hands of the Canadian Wheat Board.
We now have a new industry, organic grain, which costs young farmers a lot of money to get into. If the Canadian Wheat Board were truly Canadian it would be over in Europe finding a market for this grain at double the price of ordinary grain because not one country in Europe can grow wheat organically. We could have a roaring business but the wheat board does not do that. That is why more and more people do not make use of the Canadian Wheat Board.
What is going on is wrong. It may just be the exact opposite. How do we know that if 10% of the people opted out of the Canadian Wheat Board it would not strengthen the wheat board? How do we know that we could not operate without one single selling agency? How do we know that would not strengthen the wheat board?
We should make it fair across Canada. When my private member's bill comes forth, we will make it votable. We will change the name of the wheat board to the western wheat board.