Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 52, I contacted your office this morning. I wanted to bring this matter forward in a timely fashion because there is a great urgency.
Farmers in Prince Edward Island are currently facing a very devastating decision. They must decide within the next few weeks whether to plant their potato crops given the situation that exists in terms of the market that would be there for them in the United States.
It is important, as you, Mr. Speaker, would be quick to agree, that members of parliament be given the opportunity to express their concern and also to urge the government to act in a significant way. We know that there has been a compensation package offered to Prince Edward Island potato farmers in the range of $14.1 million. This was less than half of the amount of money that the Prince Edward Island government has put into this issue already itself. It was much lower than the amount that they were requesting.
I will put this situation into perspective as to the seriousness of the issue itself. Canada and Prince Edward Island agree that approximately 6.3 million cwt. of potatoes in storage currently is surplus resulting from the closed U.S. border, restricted shipments to Canada and the price protection in the rest of Canada. What Prince Edward Island did in absorbing this loss was to protect the rest of the potato market for the entire country at a huge expense to those individual farmers.
To summarize, United States protectionism is devastating the Prince Edward Island potato industry. The hurt that was suffered by the island is testament to the fact that this problem is Canada-wide, but it is being absorbed by a single province in this instance. Both short term economic and long term financial market re-entry needs must be addressed in the package.
I would urge the Chair to accept this application given the urgency, particularly the urgency pertaining to the necessity for farmers to decide whether to reinvest in their farms and to put potatoes in the ground for the coming season. I stress again that the border is currently not open for farmers to assess whether they should make this reinvestment.