Mr. Speaker, that is a very good question coming from an individual who has studied rural development a great deal and understands the things that need to happen in agriculture. I am thrilled that he mentioned value added and the important role that value added products give to Canadian agriculture.
One of my concerns is that we do not see the Farm Credit Corporation as the agriculture credit corporation. We need to have a body such as the FCC that can provide capital to young farmers, farmers who want to buy more land, enlarge their facility and to do some of the things that the FCC is very good at doing.
We have a number of FCC branches in our constituency. Very close friends of mine have used the FCC and have gained financing from it. However, I do not wish to see the FCC becoming only an agriculture credit corporation. It is imperative to have directives toward the farm that will encourage farming.
To give the government some credit, we have the Federal Business Development Bank. Would it now get out of anything that may be deemed agriculture? Would it abandon anything that might be remotely close to being agriculture? I think not. Good sound business such as value added products, fertilizer, equipment and any of those things would still be covered by the Federal Business Development Bank.
Everything should not be thrown into the Farm Credit Corporation. It should be pointed singularly toward farming, farmers, the family farm and the people who are trying to get started. Right now 94% of the moneys available through the FCC are given directly to family farm operations. It can deteriorate. It can be chipped away at. Pretty soon a very small percentage could be dedicated to the family farm.
As far as value added, let me also say that many other things would encourage value added products or businesses being promoted in the west.
One of the hindrances toward that could be the Canadian Wheat Board. The Canadian Wheat Board says that if we were to begin to make a value added product in the west we would not be able to buy our wheat locally. We would have to pay the transportation of that wheat to a port, pay the transportation of it back, even if it were next door to where the wheat was produced. We would have to buy it off the Canadian Wheat Board, pay the elevation charges and all those things.
We could do a number of things to help promote value added. The member has hit the nail on the head. We should start with the Canadian Wheat Board.