Madam Speaker, in response to the hon. member, there is an equity even in terms of how certain agricultural policy is applied. We have proposed a number of very clear initiatives that would help the entire agricultural community, regardless of whether they are so-called have or have not provinces.
First, there needs to be an aggressive initiative on the part of the federal government to negotiate downward with the United States and the EU community the subsidies which right now put us at a competitive disadvantage. For instance, it has not put together the leveraging power of the Cairns Group of countries on the agricultural side to pressure the United States. The federal government needs to do that.
It also needs to deal with the question of the Canadian Wheat Board. There is an inequity among provinces. The Canadian Wheat Board binds western provinces to market their grain through that wheat board, not having the choice or the ability for alternate sources of marketing. Ontario and Quebec are not bound by that. In fact, a farmer wanting to look at value-added processing would have to sell his or her product to the wheat board, buy it back at a higher rate and also add in the grain transportation cost even though there might not be any transport of the grain. That needs to be dealt with.
In terms of grain transportation, efficiency and market realities have to be put into the grain transportation system.
On the tax side, the taxes on farmers and on agricultural business have to be significantly reduced so we get the value added going in. The agriculture fees the federal government charges need to be reduced; $300 million alone just on the fertilizer. As well, diesel costs, excise tax and the GST on fuels should be lowered so the government is not taxing on tax. Those are a number of things that need to be done in the agricultural community.