Mr. Speaker, I too want to thank you for allowing this debate to happen. It was a wise judgment and a very timely one. I want to thank the member for Brandon—Souris for bringing the issue forward, as he has on many occasions in times of agricultural crisis. I believe we are looking at a potential crisis in regard to this issue.
While I am throwing away thanks as liberally as I am, and I use that word quite freely, I want to thank the agriculture minister, the member of the cabinet who is here tonight to listen and take part in the debate. It speaks well of him and his department.
Canada has taken a leading role in this. We have a lot of our scientific minds in Europe, members of the department, who are attempting to deal with this and help other nations deal with it. It is very commendable on the part of the government. As Canadians we should all do our part in helping stave off this very contagious disease from Canada.
I want to go back a few years to 1988, and I know the minister will appreciate this. In 1988 when I first came to the House there was a minister here by the name of John Crosbie. Members and a lot of Canadians will probably remember him, some with fondness and some not so fondly. I remember my first time in caucus as a new member of parliament. Being new to this place, I was anxious to do a good job. I thought that being on the side of government was such a comfortable place to be, and all the satisfaction that came from being on the side that made the decisions.
I remember Mr. Crosbie getting up in caucus and issuing a warning to the greenhorns and some of the older members as well. He said there was a missile headed at the Atlantic fishery. He went on in the fashion that only Mr. Crosbie could and articulated what was happening. He said we were living in a fantasy land believing that everything would continue as normal in the fishing industry. He knew what was happening, and we experienced a collapse in the cod stocks. Being on the government's side was not a lot of fun.
Members will remember what happened. Thousands of people were put out of work. There was a disruption in the workforce, not only in Newfoundland but in all of the Atlantic provinces. It was a crisis.
We debated the issue on the floor of the House of Commons about a year after Mr. Crosbie made his remarks.
How did we arrive at that? One of the mistakes that we made, and previous governments as well, because I do not think we can blame one government or one political party, was to ignore the reality of what was happening to our stocks. We did not interpret scientific knowledge nor understand the situation as well as we could have. We did not rely on our gut instincts or make the tough political decisions when they had to be made and Atlantic Canada paid a big price for that.
As the member for Brandon—Souris said, this is the time to talk about it so that we can avoid a crisis. I know no more about foot and mouth disease than most members of the House. It is something we have heard about but we have never experienced. As we all know, the last outbreak in Canada occurred in 1952. You were merely a baby, Mr. Speaker. I am not even sure if the minister was born at that time, but certainly the member for Brandon—Souris was in diapers. It was devastating to the economy. It cost the economy $1 billion. If that were measured in today's dollars it would approach $30 to $50 billion.
Today the dairy and beef industry alone are worth $15 billion, without talking about the other industries that tie into them, such as the transportation, delivery and selling of goods. The cost to the economy would truly be immeasurable. That is why, in a non-partisan sense, and this is one of the few times that either one of us will be on our feet in a non-partisan sense, we have to educate the public.
All of us can do a few basic things. If we have visitors from foreign countries we must let them know what they should do. For example, if we owned a farm we would want to make sure that we had our own disinfectant on the farm, in addition to what people might have been exposed to in the way of disinfectant at the airports. Awareness, obviously, is the critical thing.
The truth is that this disease can be passed on by people. If people even suspect that they have been exposed to it, they must take precautions, including precautions with food that has been imported which could be contaminated. In 1952 they traced the start of this disease in Canada to one small piece of sausage that was randomly discarded, eaten by an animal and then passed on to the beef herd.
If animals are exposed to contaminated materials, such as hay, feed, water, semen or biological organisms, it could help spread the disease. Once it does start, and this is not fearmongering because they are experiencing this in Britain today, it can be airborne and travel up to at least 100 kilometres. It spreads very quickly.
As of today, a total of 946 cases of foot and mouth disease have been reported across the United Kingdom. In order to eradicate this disease, they have had to dispose of a lot of innocent animals as a precautionary measure because there are no safeguards, other than slaughter, which is a horrible prospect in the minds of anyone who deals in cattle and the raising of any kind of livestock. The total number of animals slaughtered or identified as being up for slaughter is around one million in the United Kingdom alone.
Reports show that just under 630,000 have been slaughtered. There are almost 400,000 animals awaiting slaughter. The numbers are just mind boggling. Watching the news on television, we see huge excavators or backhoes digging trenches to throw cattle in that have them slaughtered. It is beyond our wildest dreams. It is a nightmare come true for many of those farmers.
Many farmers are going through what can only be explained as a nervous breakdown. It is awful for them to imagine that their life, their care of cattle and their love of his animals are all for naught because once this starts it is pretty well the end.
It is incumbent upon all Canadians to take the very fundamental precautions whether travelling abroad or for visitors coming into the country. We should do all we can to help the farm community cope with this situation by helping the Government of Canada.
The government up to now has taken all the right steps. We want to make sure that it continues to take the right steps. That is what the debate is all about. We look forward to words of encouragement from the minister. The House can be assured that we on this side, in this party, will do all we can to help the minister, the department and Canadians deal with this horrific disease.