Mr. Speaker, this week Cypress county in my riding declared itself a drought disaster area. Year after year of drought in southern Alberta has left pastures devastated and dugouts empty. No water and no grass means that for the fourth year in a row ranchers will have to sell off herds or send them out of the area in search of greener pastures.
Last weekend while Edmonton was being blanketed by snow, southern Alberta was blanketed and blasted by a severe dust storm, a storm that led to a terrible car crash that claimed four lives. For oldtimers it must have looked like the 1930s all over again.
The agricultural year is just beginning and farmers and ranchers in southern Alberta are already in trouble. I urge the federal government to move quickly to assure ranchers that it will extend the tax deferral for sale of breeding stock until pastures can support grazing again. I urge the government to put in place an enhanced safety net program that covers disasters like the drought that has seized southern Alberta.