Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to an issue that must be brought to the attention of Canadians. The seriousness of the issue is something that we all need to address. I support the comments of my colleague in that this is a non-partisan issue that we all have to tackle as best we can.
I come from a town called Picture Butte in southern Alberta. Our motto, which we adopted a few years ago when I was mayor of that town, is that Picture Butte is the livestock feeding capital of Canada. That is a motto that we carry proudly because we have that industry in our area. We are glad to have it there. We work hard to keep it safe and to keep it on the right side of the environment. A lot of people are involved in that industry.
Alberta has 25% or 26% of the national livestock business. We have cattle and calves, over five million animals alone; hogs, 1.7 million; and sheep and lambs, 167,000. Processed animal sales are $3.2 billion; dairy products, $1.5 billion; and feed manufacturing, $533 million. We have cattle and calf receipts at the farm gate of $3.3 billion; $505 million for hogs; sheep and lamb, $14 million; and livestock purchases altogether, $970 million.
If there is an outbreak in Canada of this disease our borders will be shut down immediately. The whole industry would come to a grinding halt. We are not only talking about meat products but dairy products as well.
Exports out of Alberta for beef and veal, $1.4 billion; pork, $177 million; live cattle, $511 million; and hogs, $92 million. This is a huge industry. These figures are a quarter of what goes on in Canada.
If this plague comes to Canada it will lower the standard of living of every Canadian. It is important that we get this information out. This is not a rural issue. This is a Canada-wide issue. It is very critical that all Canadians take part in making sure that Canada remains foot and mouth disease free.
Referring to the employment figures in Alberta, in animal production there are 40,000 people involved; in mixed farming, 8,000; and in the processing end of it, 10,000 people. They would be affected immediately. I am not talking about trucking, handling facilities, auction marts or the customs work. Those people would all be out of a job the day after foot and mouth was discovered in the country.
It is imperative we do all we can to keep it out of Canada. Our party has offered some suggestions to the government. It is good to see that it is moving on them, that there is an advertising campaign to educate every Canadian on what it means if it does come into the country.
Information must go out to travel agents to educate travellers leaving or coming to Canada. In my riding I have sent some information out to all the school boards. I am glad my colleague mentioned that the government should issue a travel advisory so that students who are planning to leave Canada during the Easter break have an option on whether or not to go. Many of them will not go because they appreciate what the industry means to them at home. It would help with their travel plans if some options were available to them and if the government would issue a travel advisory advising them not to leave the country. The airlines would support something like that.
We get calls from people every day that see exceptions at airports. That is something that we have to absolutely make sure does not happen. The luggage of anyone who has meat or brings anything illegal into the country should be taken away and disinfected. We have to make sure that every item is seized. We must have maximum patrols at the airports and maximum inspections of all equipment and people coming into the country. Thousands of tourists come out of the United Kingdom and Europe every week. We have to be absolutely sure that this disease cannot be carried into Canada.
The CFIA has to work hard. All of us have to support the government in releasing the resources necessary to make sure that our borders are protected. Our party will work co-operatively with the government to do that. We have to make sure that the information gets out through whatever means.
I have information from the United States, New Zealand and Australia. They have put information on the web, advising their producers what would happen if it enters their countries. They are advising of the things they are doing to make sure it does not enter their countries. They are also indicating the steps that producers need to take if it does happen to get into their countries. This is the type of information we have to get out to the public.
We need a national strategy involving all departments of government: agriculture, customs and health. All these people need to get together and have a plan in place to keep the disease out of Canada. We have kept it out of Canada for 50 years. It has been in the world for 50 years and has not come to Canada. If we are diligent we can make sure that it does not happen now.
If we have a national strategy with all the people involved, all the resources from all the departments put together, we can do a better job. We can bring the possibility of it coming to Canada down as close to zero as possible.
I hope the government will take our offer of support. I have not mentioned the member for Brandon—Souris. I thank him for bringing the issue forward. It is something we support and an issue we were looking at ourselves. We need to devise a joint plan and national strategy by all departments.
I have had two or three cases back home where groups of students have come to me and said that they do not want to go on their trip. They could not get their money back so they were trying to find some options. The travel advisory is something that needs to be done in a hurry. I do not know which department would need to do it. Hopefully the agriculture minister could talk to his cabinet colleagues and have it issued so that these people would have some options.
I cannot emphasize enough that this is a national issue which will affect every Canadian. Perhaps we could imagine our standard of living dropping immediately by 20% right across the board, no matter where we are or who we are. That is how important and how big the issue is. It would cost $20 billion, and some estimate it would be as high as $26 billion, in the first year alone to eradicate the disease if it did get into Canada. It would take years and years to get over it.
In my riding people are not sleeping. It is a nightmare to even think what would happen if it came, evidenced by some of the pictures we have seen coming from England. We cannot allow that in this country. The cost of keeping it out will be minuscule in comparison to the cost if it does get here.
We must work together and put the money in place. We need to put the resources in place. We must do whatever we need to do to keep that disease away from our borders so that we do not have to see the same visuals that we see coming out of Europe.