Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Malpeque for all of his hard work on this file and for working with me for farmers out west.
My colleague mentioned the situation with respect to local livestock producers who were not getting the product they needed. The railroad companies have told us that the government wants to crack down on them and they will be required to move thousands of tonnes of grain, which by the way, the Saskatchewan premier says is not enough. The railroad companies have taken the so-called low-hanging fruit. They went to where they could quickly get the grain and jammed up the system. There was nothing in place concerning farmers in Fraser Valley. There was nothing telling rail companies to ensure some of that grain was sent to the people in Canada or even in the United States who needed it. The member was right when he said there was nothing there.
I read another interesting thing in The Western Producer. I might not have my figures exactly right. When the Wheat Board was in place, the cost of transporting a bushel of grain from the prairies to port was around $1.50 with probably 50¢ more for various charges. That came to a total of $2. Farmers are now saying that $4 is coming off their product. If they were getting $8 that has been reduced to $4. With the system that was in place before, those farmers would have been getting $6. That is why there is an $8-billion loss out there.