moved:
That this House do now adjourn.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for allowing the opportunity to debate in the House this evening the issue of foot and mouth disease. I thank the Speaker and his office for being flexible in allowing emergency debates. It certainly speaks well of the Chair and your ability to make sure that members of the House are allowed to debate and speak freely as members of parliament. We thank you for that.
The issue that has been put forward today before the House is one of extreme seriousness. I would say at the outset of the discussion that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest.
I hope that all members of the House who speak tonight accept the fact that this is non-partisan. The debate is not meant to be a flailing of arms, the gnashing of teeth and finger pointing with respect to what has not been done, what has been done or what should be done.
I would rather have the members who speak to this issue try to be somewhat constructive in their criticism, if there is some, and put forward some positive suggestions as to how the issue can be dealt with, not only in rural communities but in urban communities in Canada as well as internationally. We well know that the issue is perhaps coming from international communities such as Britain and others.
My riding of Brandon—Souris is totally dependent on agriculture. Yes, it is an urban centre but it is surrounded by a rural community that boasts livestock production in pigs as well as cattle. It has dairy farms and a fairly large sheep operation. All those animals of which I speak are susceptible to the foot and mouth disease.
Canada right now has about a $15 billion livestock economy. The point of the matter is we do not have foot and mouth disease right now. That in itself is a credit to the government, the CFIA, customs and to people who are currently coming back to this country. That is not to say that we cannot and should not be ever vigilant as to what is happening and can happen.
Foot and mouth disease, for the information of those people who may not have experience with it, is a very highly contagious and highly communicable viral disease that affects cloven hoofed animals. I mentioned the domestic animals that it could affect but I also suggest that it could affect wild animals such as deer, elk and moose. If it ever got into the wild animal chain, it would be almost impossible to control.
My constituents have asked me constantly what is being done, what is can be done and what should be done to prevent this terrible disease from affecting our economy. The public wants to be aware of what precautions should be taken.
It was suggested that this debate could have come forward earlier and I received an e-mail that culminated in the final decision of bringing this issue forward.
I received an e-mail from a constituent of mine who is taking her practicum in Wales. She said she could not find any information anywhere as to how and what she should do when she came back to Canada. She said she did not know what she would find when arriving at customs. She did not know what she could bring back so she asked for my help. I sent her the information. However, a section of her e-mail scared me. She had been told that she could not bring back any souvenirs. She wanted to know if there was any way she could get around this so she could bring them back. That comment chilled my blood. She was talking about souvenirs.
I told her she could bring back souvenirs but she could not bring back meat, dairy products like cheese or plants. Just the thought of somebody asking if there was any way to get around this issue as I said chilled my blood. All it takes is one virus to come into this country and we lose a complete industry.
In 1952 when Canada had its last foot and mouth outbreak in Saskatchewan, it cost $1 billion. Translated today that amount equates to about $35 billion annually in our industry as a cost to try to control an outbreak. We should prevent it at the onset and not try to prevent it and control it after the fact.
That is why it is so important to have this debate because this is an awareness debate. This has nothing to do with slagging the government. Many media people called me today and asked if I was going to pick on the government for what it had not done? I said “not a chance”. The CFIA in my opinion is doing a fine job but it can do more. Let me talk about what we can do more as a society.
The agriculture industry is a part of the solution. I talked with members of a grain company the other day. They told me that all their facilities had been closed to any tours because they did not know where the people were coming from. It is a good precaution that should be given to other members of the agricultural industry and corporations so they too can take it to the next step.
When I was home this weekend I talked to an individual who sells farm real estate. His company has sold a lot of real estate to people from Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain. The company has now sent letters and made telephone calls to its customers telling them not to come here. It wants these people to buy land but not at this time. It will take a hit for six or twelve months but it does not want these people to come to Canada and possible infect it.
Travel agents have a responsibility when sending people overseas. They have to tell people what to do when they come back. If it is farm to farm and highly risky, the suggestion should be that they should hold back on their travel. If it is urban to urban centre travel it is low risk but certain things should be done when they come back. As a protective measure they should wash their clothes in a vinegar solution and walk through the disinfectant mat at the airport instead of walking over it. That is what the travel agent should be telling people.
The CFIA has done a lot and I know it will to do more. I appreciate the minister of agriculture and the minister of defence being here today to speak to the preventative measures that they have put forward in their departments. That is very positive and very wise.
The CFIA should and could do an ad campaign which it may well have planned. It should also put out travel advisories and warnings in multilanguages, not just simply English and French, because a lot of our visitors come from contaminated countries and do not speak either of those languages. It is important that they know what we demand of them when they come to our country in order to be free of this terrible foot and mouth virus.
Travellers must recognize that they have a responsibility. They can be a part of the solution, not part of the problem.
How can they be part of the solution? As I said earlier, they should not bring in products such as foodstuffs and dairy. Also, if one travels to a contaminated country, one definitely does not want to bring back organic materials, dirt, saliva or milk stains. This is very serious stuff. If an individual is going from farm to farm, that Canadian should take 14 days of self-quarantine before going back to one's farm.
I had an interesting call from a farmer in my area a couple of weeks ago. His wife was planning to go to Britain to visit relatives. He said that was fine but when she came back she could not return to the farm for at least 14 days. He was encouraging her to visit her relatives but the message was we must be terribly vigilant.
We want to keep it out of the country. We want to keep it out of our communities. We expect the rural and urban residents to make sure they have the same vigilance when dealing with this terrible potential.
The last thing is that this is not meant to be fearmongering. I have suggested a number of solutions and other things that can be done. The sky is not falling. This is not fearmongering at any level. It simply is to educate and make people aware of what the serious issues are out there.