Mr. Speaker, the Prairie Centre for Agriculture recently released a study of wheat marketing in 35 nations. It found that Canada is one of only two countries not moving toward more private ownership and freer markets.
Incredibly, the Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board has told western farmers that the solution to their income crisis is to stop growing wheat. When will the government realize that the real problem is not the state of the wheat market, but state control over the wheat market?
Western Canadian farmers have repeatedly called for the freedom to add value to their produce and create employment in rural areas. While farmers in other regions of Canada are relatively free of government control, western Canadian farm families remain hobbled by a restrictive, Soviet-style marketing system. The government should just get out of the way of western initiative.