moved:
That this House do now adjourn.
Mr. Speaker, the motion being debated tonight is outlined in my request under Standing Order 52. It involves the emergency situation created by the Liberal government's inability to reach a fair negotiated settlement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada union, thereby causing immense financial harm to the Canadian economy and to farmers specifically.
We gather tonight to engage in one of those historic debates that arise in the life of a nation from time to time. The emergency debate tonight will deal with the economic well-being of a nation as judged by our collective productivity and individual standard of living.
It would be so simple to say this debate is directed solely to the strike action being taken by members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. It would be simple to say this debate is only about farm incomes hurt by the halted movement of grain to our overseas customers. It is about these two issues, but they are only the symptoms of a malaise in this country, a malaise that includes the following diseases which, while not fatal, seriously weaken every Canadian's physical, mental, spiritual and cultural well-being.
I speak of high taxes, low farm commodity prices, high farm input costs resulting in low net income, and an agriculture sector asking what is the future for their farms, for their children in agriculture. I speak of the thousands of Public Service Alliance of Canada union members who have not had a wage increase in the last six years.
Before being elected to parliament I was a member of the RCMP. I had the same wage freeze these union members are currently undergoing. These union members, farmers, many other workers in both the public and private sector and I have made immense sacrifices to eliminate our national budget deficit. I currently own and operate a cattle ranch. Combined with my other life experiences, I can say that I feel the pain of the farmer, the rancher and the union worker in this matter.
The other diseases that make up this national malaise include a monopoly government organization called the Canadian Wheat Board and a highly regulated grain transportation system that stifles innovation and investment. There are also world trade problems including those with our closest neighbours and friends in the United States.
My request for this emergency debate was granted by the Speaker of the House and I appreciate his wisdom in doing so. I requested the debate because the ministers responsible for solving these national problems have failed in their tasks.
Recent statements by the Treasury Board minister indicate that negotiations have reached an impasse. He has not divulged all of the reasons that this situation has arisen, nor the options that are available to him and his government to resolve the stalemate. The various government ministers have not even explained to the Canadian public, to union members, farmers or ranchers the extent of the financial harm that is befalling this country and its citizens.
I believe a full public hearing of the issues I have mentioned along with many others I have not touched on will help us as a nation to find our way out of this economic and social mess we find ourselves in today.
I will speak on some of the details, the nuts and bolts, of this emergency debate. I sent a letter to parliament dated March 17, 1999 requesting that an emergency debate pursuant to Standing Order 52 be held to address the current labour dispute that has terminated grain movement through the port of Vancouver.
As the House is well aware, the Public Service Alliance of Canada is currently involved in a labour dispute with the Government of Canada. Included in this dispute are approximately 70 grain weighers employed by the Canadian Grain Commission.
The functions performed by these 70 workers are mandated under the Canada Grains Act and cannot be performed by non Canadian Grain Commission personnel. Therefore, the withdrawal of these services will prevent the unloading of grain hopper cars and the loading of vessels for overseas customers.
Until March 14, 1999 the Public Service Alliance of Canada had structured its rotating strikes in such a way that grain movement, while being inconvenienced, had continued near targeted levels. However, this changed when the Public Service Alliance of Canada grain weighers set up pickets at all five grain terminals in Vancouver on March 15. Not only has this action removed the legislated mandated service, other workers such as grain handlers and longshoremen have refused to cross the picket lines.
Grain movement has been halted for the past three days. When I speak of halted grain movement, I am talking about on the prairies with the railways and off the ships that are heading across the seas to our customers in Asia and other countries.
The escalation of action by the grain weighers follows a March 10 interview by the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada in which he stated that grain will become a primary target. At this point, March 10, it would have seemed that the urgency would have come home to the government to take the action necessary at least to prevent that threat from happening and/or to negotiate in good faith and come to a settlement. As we know, this did not happen.
While we all hope this dispute will be resolved in a timely fashion, we cannot allow an ongoing disruption of Canada's grain flow as that would constitute a further attack on producers' falling incomes.
I would like to mention a few of the dollar figures surrounding this strike. Of course there are the union workers and their wages which affects not only the workers themselves but their families who are trying to meet mortgages and make payments to their creditors. It would be easy to tell them to go back to work and trust the government, but this government has demonstrated through actions and words that it cannot be trusted to work out satisfactory solutions.
I recall about a year and a half ago when this very House dealt with the postal union workers. It is my understanding that after having legislated them back to work with the promise of a negotiated settlement, in fact that settlement has not been achieved to this date. I imagine the grain workers and the other public service alliance workers are saying to themselves, “If this government simply legislates us back to work or if I simply agree to go back to work with no settlement, will I be treated the same as the postal workers?” From what we have seen so far, they have a justified reason to be concerned and wary of the government.
The Canadian Wheat Board announced today that it has lost one sale of $9 million. It has also lost several smaller ones to Asia and Latin America, in the neighbourhood of $2 million to $10 million. To a lot of people $2 million is not much of a sale, but the world grain trade has changed. We no longer have the $1 billion sales to Russia and China. We have a grain industry with small sales of $1 million to $2 million. While these dollar figures may seem small, their cumulative effect is very large.
On grain leaving the port, I will only talk about wheat at this time even though many other crops are being exported. In the neighbourhood of $6 million a day in wheat exports are not leaving the port. This is the capability of the port and that represents actual losses.
Spring is coming. We have to take note that this stoppage of grain movement on the west coast will soon spread across the country if this dispute is not resolved. We received information today that it is expected that the seaway will open up around March 22, 1999. The western grain elevators expect to begin operations at that time with one terminal facility in Thunder Bay.
Mr. Speaker, we considered and you agreed that this is a national emergency that needs a debate in the House of Commons. The fact is that it does affect more than western Canadians and it does affect more than dock workers and grain handlers on the west coast.
There is another item that the Canadian Wheat Board brought forth in its press release today. The spokesman said that the sales director for the wheat board said that we are forgoing sales every day. What are these sales? Are they simply wheat and canola leaving the ports and going to our customers?
What we get back is foreign currency, hard foreign currency that goes to the wealth of this nation. It is not money we are circulating within the country, passing from one to the other, all of it eventually being taxed back by the government. It is new money that we are earning from customers and people in other lands which goes to make our country a wealthier nation. These are very important considerations when we talk about grain and its effect on the well-being of Canada.
The cumulative effect of this dispute has to be taken in the context of other disputes and stoppages to the grain handling and grain transportation business over the years. Since 1993 there have been inland strikes involving grain terminal companies, railway strikes and longshoremen strikes. There were the terrible snowstorms that stopped grain transportation through the Rocky Mountains.
This cumulative effect on the reliability of our exports is hurting this country. It is hurting the western provinces in particular. It is hurting the very families who live in those provinces who eke out a very modest living from their toiling on the land.
These are all issues that translate into dollar losses for the economy of B.C. and for the farmers across the country. As of March 18 there were 21 vessels at the Vancouver port. For the weeks prior to the strike, there were about six vessels in port which is a normal coming and going of ships at the port. We can see that the vessels waiting to load are increasing in numbers on a daily basis.
One of our customers was quoted in this recent dispute. I believe the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food referred to this customer. The Japanese food agency has raised concerns with the minister over the reliability of Canadian grain shipments out of Vancouver. Eleven per cent of Canadian agriculture exports go to Japan.
It is this very issue of reliability that is of such importance to this debate tonight. I am sure it will be expanded on by other speakers from all parties after I am finished.
The other portion of the grain transportation system that needs some mention is the railways.
On March 18 the railways indicated that the allocation of cars for the week of March 28 through April 3 is on hold. Let me describe that. There are hopper cars sitting full of grain out in Vancouver or at points in between. There is grain sitting in the elevators and there is grain sitting on the farms.
The grain system also operates on a just in time type scenario where the customer's ships arrive, the grain is put in and the order from the farmer is placed. This all has to move in a very time sensitive situation.
After this strike and this action stops it will take at least three weeks to get the system up and rolling again. That is because the grain handling system operates on a cycle. It will take at least three weeks after the end of the strike to return to normal operation. During this whole time vessels that have been ordered by the Canadian Wheat Board and other exporters will continue to arrive with no grain to pick up.
What happens when they arrive? If shippers do not load the vessels within the specified times, usually a three to five day window, companies are charged what is called demurrage fees. These fees are for each extra day the vessel is in port without being loaded. These charges are substantial and can range from about $10,000 to $15,000 a day. Simply multiplying that out, $15,000 per day times 21, it can be seen that over the course of a week or two weeks, God forbid this should go on that long, we are talking of hundreds of millions of dollars in total.
The other financial aspect to look at is late contract penalties. In addition to vessel demurrage, exporters are charged late fees by importing companies. In some cases, Japan for example, importing companies have moved to a just in time inventory management system and have paid a premium for reliability. Built into these premium contracts are severe penalties for unreliability.
I have already mentioned it but I would like to re-emphasize that all this translates into a loss of confidence. Countries that rely on Canada for a steady supply of grain may choose to go elsewhere if this supply is interrupted.
From what the Canadian Wheat Board has indicated to the government today and to the Canadian people, may is not an accurate word to use. It will cause this financial damage.
The government is responsible for the solutions. The government is responsible for the negotiations with the labour union. It has more complete information than anyone else in the House, me included. As a result it is difficult to stand here and say exactly what the solutions are. Certainly the President of the Treasury Board should declare that the work performed by these 70 grain weighers is an essential service and he should allow them final offer arbitration.
I clearly point out that this issue is not a farmer and rancher versus a union member, it is not even opposition parties versus the government. It is about public discussion of the facts and public discussion of the solutions. The government is in need of our help and in that spirit I pray that our deliberations here tonight will be fruitful and let all Canadians wake up to a brighter future as the sun rises tomorrow morning.