Mr. Chairman, when my hon. colleague from Selkirk--Interlake asked for this emergency debate, I was of two minds as to whether or not to participate. I have been involved in several emergency debates on agriculture in the almost nine years that I have been in the House and I honestly have to say that I am very discouraged. In fact I despair for the way agriculture has been treated and what the future is for agriculture in Canada.
Even though my colleague who just spoke said that he realizes the importance of the industry, in general terms I do not think the government recognizes its importance. I fail to understand how any government could ignore a basic industry which produces food for our country and think that it could build a modern economy if there is no security in our food supply. Is it going to let our farmers disappear and die? We can import corn into eastern Canada from the United States and we can import canola cheaper from the European Union because of all the subsidies, but some day that may change. If it changes, I suggest we will be in big trouble and it may not be as far off as we think.
In terms of security, we have seen what happened to the United States. We always think that things like that happen far away from us. My colleague from Elk Island talked about Ukraine. The Soviet Union had a deliberate policy to starve out the people of Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Twenty million people perished because of that kind of policy. Any nation that does not have the ability or the foresight to look after its food supply is in jeopardy.
Why has the government chosen not to look after our farmers? We know that other countries have looked after their farmers. There are many ways of doing it. There is the subsidy route which the European Union chose. There are other methods. Canada continues to charge high taxes on fuel and fertilizer. We have heard this before. It is not as if the government does not choose to do the same thing with other sectors. Agriculture is obviously not a priority area for the government.
Grants and subsidies are going to businesses all the time. We are about to have another one hit us here next week regarding Air Canada. It wants $3 billion to $4 billion. I suggest the track record of the Liberal government will mean that it gets it. Yes, the airline industry is an important industry. What about Bombardier? Since January 1 it has come to the government twice. It was given a $1.7 billion loan guarantee to sell jets to Air Wisconsin and there was another one shortly after for $1.3 billion. Why? Because the competition is unfairly subsidizing its product and we have to keep pace. Does that sound vaguely familiar?
The European Union subsidizes its farmers to the extent of about ten times as much as Canadian farmers get. Not only is it supplying its own needs which we can accept, but it is using those export subsidies to steal our other markets in third world countries. Our farmers are withering and dying. I have been at functions and meetings with farmers. I have seen 30 farm wives in tears wondering how their farms are going to survive. Many of them did not survive. In the last few years there has been great devastation. We can choose to go down that road.
One of the members opposite said there has always been change and fewer family farms. That is true and it will continue to happen. Some farmers will survive. What about the fairness aspect of this? We can find money for Bombardier. We can find money to give to Pratt & Whitney and General Electric. HRDC grants of over $1 billion seem to go missing. McGill University asked for a grant of $60,000 out of that program and it was sent $160,000. That is the kind of nonsense that goes on. When farmers come knocking at the door, they are told there is not enough money and that they will just have to survive.
What about cultural grants? Yes, culture is a very important thing. We all need culture, but if we do not have a base economy, what kind of culture are we going to have in the future?
What about Shawinigan? We have money to give to hotel builders in Shawinigan to build hotels, conference centres and so on.
Let us assume that they had chosen not to give money to agriculture because it is not a priority area. How else could we help farmers? We could help farmers by getting out of the intervention that takes place. When farmers realized they could not look to the federal government for any more money, they would want to operate on a market basis and would find the markets to sell their product. However, if they did that the federal government would tell them that they had to sell their product to the Canadian Wheat Board, which will not let the farmer export. He might live five miles from the Canada-U.S, but he cannot take it across the border. He has to get a licence from the Canadian Wheat Board. It is more intervention and more control.
What about the Canadian Grain Commission? If some Canadian companies want to sell products that have 5% dockage and 95% product, wheat for example, to customers who want them, they cannot do that. The Canadian Grain Commission will not allow them to do it.
What about the transportation side? Farmers want to have a transportation, market driven system. They cannot have that because we have the Canada Transportation Act which limits what they can do. They also have to involve the Canadian Wheat Board which says they cannot have rail cars to ship their product unless it tells them to do so.
There is a lack of concern by the government in terms of trying to give some financial help to farmers. There is a lack of concern about letting them go their own way, like New Zealand. When New Zealand thought it was too heavy going and it had to get out of the subsidy business, it at least took the reins off the industry and let it go to a market industry so that railways could reduce their cost of doing business and people were not constricted in what they had to do in terms of monopoly situations.
If the government cannot help farmers it should get out of the way. That is what I say to the Liberals across the way.
We have heard some good speeches from the other side. I asked the chairman of the agriculture committee to take the committee to Grande Prairie a couple of years ago, in the Peace River country, an area that produces as much grain as the entire province of Manitoba. It would have been the first time the committee had ever been in my riding. I asked it to come to hear the concerns of the people. Yes, it came and I was grateful for it.
When the chairman, Mr. Harvard, started, I was a little tough on him. Some of the members of my riding asked me why I was being so tough on the Liberals because they seemed like good people. I told them that was fine, but to wait to see what they would deliver. They delivered great promises. There were speeches afterward at the chamber of commerce, and they got good press. They said they were listening, that they were our best friends and that they would do something. It never happened.
Why are we dubious? I have been here nine years and it is the same old story. We have these debates and yes, things will happen. We asked the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food for $500 million. The government could not do it. It rolled over money from one year to the next to make it look like it was doing something. I think it is just too little. If the government cannot help, it should get out of the way and let farmers choose their own course. That is what we need.
This year we have a devastating drought in many parts of the prairies. Also, in Ontario some of the other speakers have identified problem areas. That is the latest, but it has happened many times before in different forms. What have farmers come to expect of government? They have come to expect some help in these times.
We had major rains in one sector of the Peace River country. I applied to the Disaster Services Board. It said no. If a farmer took crop insurance he did not qualify. What happened in Ontario after the ice storm? The government could not wait to get cheques into the hands of those people. In fact, there were advances before the claims were even made. It was the same with the flood in the Saguenay. Let us try treating people equally and fairly in this country for a change.
We see where the Liberals are coming from. They are looking after certain sectors. They do not look after others.
I think I know why the Prime Minister did not come to Saskatchewan when it was looking for major help a couple of years ago. The Liberal candidate in Saskatoon summed it up quite nicely in the last election. She said “If you don't elect me, you're getting nothing”.
I see my colleagues from Saskatoon here. On this side of the House people will not take that kind of silliness in politics. We want fairness in this country. If the government will not give us fairness, it should get out of our way and let farmers choose their own course of action.