It is unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, that there is absolutely no evidence of that. We understand the overheated rhetoric that comes from the member opposite in his desperate attempt to try to maintain a system that is 70 years old and is not serving western Canadian farmers well.
This government believes that western grain farmers should have the freedom to choose how they market their grain allowing them to maximize their returns while preserving a viable and voluntary Canadian Wheat Board.
The key phrase is “freedom to choose”. Canadians live in a democracy and the freedom to operate a business by choosing where and whom to sell their products to is something that most business people in this country take for granted. However, for the last seven decades that has been a freedom that western Canadian grain farmers have been denied. That is a freedom that the member for Malpeque would like to continue to deny constituents in my riding.
The government is moving forward to make freedom a reality for western Canadian barley producers effective August 1, 2007.