Mr. Chair, first, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Deputy Speaker of this House.
Second, I find the behaviour of some of my friends here this evening somewhat deplorable. Just because we are talking about agriculture does not mean that this House should sound like a barnyard.
The farmers who came to the Hill this week came because they are desperate. Some of them do not know what to do anymore. They are not getting by. There is even a higher than average suicide rate among farm people. That is how far we have sunk. Incomes are lower than in previous decades. We ask a lot of farmers. We ask them to feed the people, to live on the land and to be an important economic sector, and we are demanding that they meet a lot of new environmental rules. This is what the farming community is up against.
The election generated a lot of hope among farmers. That is understandable, after 13 years of Liberal neglect. This week, however, they were disappointed. They expected that the Prime Minister would put forward a few proposals and not be satisfied with simply criticizing what happened in the past, or rather what did not happen in the past under the Liberal reign. Criticizing is one thing—we had the election campaign for doing that. This government has been in office for two months. The time has come for action.
Promises were made during that election, to deal with a crisis. Substantial amounts of money were promised. What is called for now is $500 million, and the government has that money. We have to act immediately, which does not mean that we are going to solve all of the problems. We cannot wait until we have solved all of the problems before helping farmers. Some of them will no longer be here by then. It is urgent that action be taken.
The problems are familiar ones. Most importantly, there is unfair competition, particularly from the United States and the European Union, which provide subsidies at levels that far exceed what we offer here. We in Canada have actually slashed subsidies. I would like to see us have a policy that reduces and eliminates subsidies, but the balance of power is against us. If we do that while subsidies are being maintained or increased in the United States or Europe, we will find ourselves in a position that is absolutely not competitive.
I am talking about direct, recognized subsidies. Yet we know that in the United States, since the National Security Act, the lands of American farmers are irrigated free of charge by the U.S. army, in case, I imagine, the United States is invaded by Cuba, so the tanks can cross the property of American farmers. Wheat is transported free of charge on the Mississippi, in case the Americans are invaded by North Korea and there is famine in the United States. We have to add that.