Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my colleague from St. John's West for sharing his time with me.
I am honoured to take part in this evening's emergency debate on agriculture, as proposed by the right hon. member for Calgary Centre.
I represent a very large rural riding. In fact it is so large it is often compared to the country of Ireland. That is the size of Dauphin--Swan River. Agriculture is the lifeblood of Dauphin--Swan River. Unfortunately the government's approach to helping farmers is really choking the lifeblood out of the farmers.
Farmers are, to say the least, disappointed in the way the Liberal government has managed the agricultural portfolio.
I have been here for over five years. When it comes to farming and farming problems I ask the question: What has changed? Absolutely nothing has changed. The only change over the past five years has been that we have lost tens of thousands of farmers who could not afford to stay on the land and ensure that the country had a sound source of food.
The rural population base continues to shrink. Rural Canada depends on farmers. Canadians should know that all the little towns and villages in rural Canada depend on the farmer. Their survival depends on farm income. Farmers are the principal source of revenue for the economy of rural Canada. Basically at this time most of the rural regions are in the business of producing raw products, unlike that of central Canada which has the advantage of having the complete chain, both at the farm gate as well as the kitchen table.That is where all the jobs are created. Unfortunately, as I can certainly speak for the west, this is absent.
Farmers in Dauphin--Swan River are tired of listening to politicians, especially Liberal politicians. The Liberal government's promises are just that, promises. Farmers in Dauphin--Swan River have held protest rallies over the last five years, traffic slowdowns on Highway No. 1 and have even journeyed to Ottawa in protest, as well as to meet with government cabinet ministers and to lobby members of Parliament, but all of this was to no avail. In fact they have received very little benefit for all the work they have put into trying to get their issues on the table.
Why do we continue to debate farm emergencies in the House when the government has no solutions? It is quite obvious that if it had any solutions we would not be debating this matter.
I believe the member for Brandon—Souris said that this was the sixth time we have sat in the House in the evening to debate the emergency in agriculture. Are we going to keep doing this until there are no farmers left in this country?
The government continues to play politics with the farmers. The government proposals are all show and no substance. The big numbers that we hear from the agriculture minister, which come often, are just that, big numbers. Farmers want to know how these big numbers will help them stay in business. In fact, they are still waiting, the few who have successfully managed to stay in business despite all the challenges of not only debt but the weather.
Back in 1997-98 it was appalling that it took months and months of debate by the opposition before the government realized there was even a farm problem in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Again and again the government came out with big numbers. In fact I believe there was something like a $1.5 billion support program and two years down the road it still had something like $600 million or $800 million in the kitty. That is the problem. These numbers are just numbers. The government has no solutions and no idea how it can help the farmer in need. It comes out with all these fancy programs that are still in existence but that do not work.
If the government really is concerned about our food industry why is it neglecting the issue of international trade subsidies? We have heard that debated this evening as well. The Europeans get something like 56¢ on the dollar. I guess the Americans with the new farm bill will probably get about the same. Meanwhile the poor Canadian farmer I believe gets 9¢ on the dollar. It is worse than the health care system.
Farmers want to be paid a fair price for their hard work. The neglect we see on the part of the Liberal government has forced farmers to eat up the equity in their business just to stay in business. I have had farmers call and tell me that at no time in history have they even called a member of Parliament for assistance. These are farmers who have diversified farms of 2,500 to 3,000 acres along with a 150 to 200 cow operation. Basically it is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. At the same time as they are paying their bills they are going nowhere. They are eating up their equity. These farmers are at the age where they should be thinking about retirement.
As we have heard farmers always say, hopefully next year will be better. Since I have been here, which has been over five years, farmers are still waiting for next year. The only good thing about this year for the farmers in my constituency is that they have had a decent crop. Unfortunately the prices have risen only because of the deplorable weather conditions of our neighbouring provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta. However I am sure that will not last very long either.
NISA was also mentioned this evening. Many farmers do not even have a NISA account. Many farmers have told me that they will not use up their NISA account because they want to use that as a retirement fund. Unfortunately I do not think too many will have that option.
It is ironic that the minister created an advisory board many years ago. Through our travels back and forth we often encounter the board members coming to Ottawa. Surely the minister must be getting good advice. The board has representatives from national agricultural organizations. What has the advisory group been doing, or is the minister not listening to their good advice? So much for consultation on the part of the government.
Farmers in Dauphin--Swan River are also concerned about bovine TB because it will have a huge impact, not only on the cattle of Manitoba but perhaps on our neighbours as well. The government has to take a more proactive approach and deal with the problem. It cannot let it sit there, much like the American subsidy program. If it continues to do that we may find that we may not have a cattle industry in western Canada or Manitoba.
Let me close by saying that this country needs a new agriculture policy and it certainly needs a new safety net program. One of the problems I see is that we need to separate safety net from disaster programming. Will the government do the right thing before our food producers in Canada disappear altogether?