Roy H. Bailey

[Saskatchewan School Trustees, November 27th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, as many members will know it was just a few years ago that I began an educational career and as I look back that career has given me a great deal of satisfaction.

I first served the public as a teacher, then as a principal and then as a director of education. I look back on those years very fondly. I finished my career with nine years with the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association and the last three years as a member of the executive, a very fine group indeed. That was the highlight of the short educational career that I had.

Today we have the new president of that association, John Nikolegsin, and the executive director, Craig Melvin, with us. It is a real privilege to welcome them to the House. These people are the very salt of the earth; real, true proud prairie people who I am very proud to say are my very good friends.

[National War Memorial, November 22nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, on this past November 11 Canadians turned out in record numbers to show their respect to those who paid the supreme sacrifice protecting our nation.

Just a few days later the government hosted the G-20 conference. There were legal protestors but as usual the hooligans showed up and they performed the lowest type of national disgrace we have ever witnessed. They defaced the National War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

To trample across the gravesite and write their slogans on the memorial was a display of insolence, contempt and, above all, an insult to Canadians who remember their loved ones. Citizens all across the country must speak out and clearly let it be known that we reject this type of behaviour and will not stand for people who abuse our freedoms that others have fought so dearly for.

[Business of the House, November 20th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague for bringing this topic to the floor of the House. I must say that the past hour has been extremely enjoyable for me. I have been listening to speakers from all parties in the House debating something that needs to be debated.

As Mark Twain said “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it”. We have been talking about the Senate for years and long before some of the speakers tonight were even born. However we have not changed anything. I agree with my colleagues that we need to sit down and discuss this issue.

I point out something very fundamentally different between Canada and the United States. In history 101 or whatever it is now regarding Canada, the professor would probably tell us right off the bat that the existence of Canada is a sin against nature or a sin against geography.

We cannot go on with the discrepancies in numbers that currently exist. For example, Quebec and Ontario have more people in the Senate than the entire western half of the country. That is absolutely not right. I have nothing personal against senators. I know all the senators from my province.

We have to do something in a hurry as Canadians from coast to coast look upon a bicameral institution of government as a bit of a joke. I do not say that in a demeaning way. I say that we should have this debate again and I congratulate my colleague for bringing it before the House.

[Canadian Heritage, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, since the Minister of Canadian Heritage is reportedly in the running for the leadership of the party opposite, I ask her, as part of her platform, will she make a pledge that the completion of the war museum will be one of her main priorities?

[Canadian Wheat Board Act, November 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I say to members on both sides of the House that a fundamental change will come about as a result of this private member's bill.

We have the Canada Health Act which is for all Canadians. We have the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act which is for western Canada. We have the Canadian Wheat Board Act but it is not for all of Canada. The government can call it the western Canadian wheat board act, the western wheat act or whatever but it is not, was never intended to be and will never be a Canadian act because it does not include all of Canada . In the commodities being sold it omits some people. It only applies to the three prairie provinces and a part of British Columbia. Therefore the change in that private member's bill is coming.

Mr. Speaker, if I were to ask you today to think back to 70 years ago, what was the third largest province in Canada? Saskatchewan was the third largest province with one million people and that is where it has remained.

Saskatchewan alone has about 48% to 49% of all the agricultural land in Canada. However the average revenue per acre is always the lowest in Canada. There is something dreadfully wrong with this picture. I will explain.

When Saskatchewan was formed and when the Canadian Wheat Board Act was enacted it had a burden to carry and it is still carrying that same burden. From 1929 to 1931 Saskatchewan was the third largest province. The people of Saskatchewan came through the depression, through the war years and then they came to a limited factor which did not encourage growth. We must not produce in Saskatchewan any of our own product.

I want to get back to organics, the fastest growing crop in western Canada. The wheat board will not market it. The wheat board will not find buyers for it. Each farmer on his or her own must find a market for his or her product.

I know many people watching will not believe this. On a farm close to where I farm, a young man recently sold a truckload of organically grown durum. Does anyone know where it was going? It was going all the way to Idaho. Before he could load that into the semi and send it, he had to buy some of it back from the wheat board. He had to pay some of the transportation. The grain never got within 50 miles of the grain buying point. He had to pay part of the elevator; another 50 miles. He took a chance, grew it and away it went. Yet he had to dish it out of his pocket, cut down on the profit to pay the Canadian--sorry--the western wheat board. This is wrong. I defy anyone on any side of the House or anyone across Canada to say that is right and that it is logical to do that.

The one province in Canada that has had the lowest land prices in five of the last ten years has been Saskatchewan. The reason is that we have to sell our raw material without expanding and with no development locally.

Saskatchewan has been saved because there is a growing number of farmers every year who absolutely refuse to sell anything that will be in the hands of the Canadian Wheat Board.

We now have a new industry, organic grain, which costs young farmers a lot of money to get into. If the Canadian Wheat Board were truly Canadian it would be over in Europe finding a market for this grain at double the price of ordinary grain because not one country in Europe can grow wheat organically. We could have a roaring business but the wheat board does not do that. That is why more and more people do not make use of the Canadian Wheat Board.

What is going on is wrong. It may just be the exact opposite. How do we know that if 10% of the people opted out of the Canadian Wheat Board it would not strengthen the wheat board? How do we know that we could not operate without one single selling agency? How do we know that would not strengthen the wheat board?

We should make it fair across Canada. When my private member's bill comes forth, we will make it votable. We will change the name of the wheat board to the western wheat board.

[Veterans Affairs, November 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the judge has ordered the government to pay the vets, their families or their estates the money that the judge ruled was owed. The judge ordered the government to do so.

Why not settle the dispute rather than going on and on and spending government money on litigation?

[Veterans Affairs, November 8th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Last October a supreme court judge ruled that the federal government wrongfully withheld interest payments to the funds it managed on behalf of those veterans who were unable to manage their own money.

Now we learn that the government lawyers want the judge removed. Government lawyers are claiming that the judge's ruling is biased against the government. Is the government to keep changing judges until it gets a ruling it agrees with?

[Veterans Affairs, November 6th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I am indeed proud to stand this day on behalf of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and pay tribute to this day and to this week. Might I add that Veterans Week is one which has the full support of my caucus.

I suppose there is some advantage in being a little older. I am one of the few members of our caucus who lived through the events of World War II. I remember exactly where I was on September 10, 1939. I can certainly tell the House about the Sunday morning and the great events of December 7 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I lived through Dieppe, I lived through D-Day, which has been termed as the longest day in our history, June 6, 1944.

I also lived through the time when my friend and I delivered telegrams. These telegrams often read “missing in action”. As a young person, I attended many of the funerals of those people. One of the families who lived just south of the town where I lived had their oldest son shot down after VE day by mistake. These things are very close to me.

Perhaps on September 11 war came closer to Canada than at any time before, with the exception of course of the U-boats that often penetrated the St. Lawrence.

This week is designed to recognize the sacrifices of our veterans and the forces that are active today and to recall the great work of the peacekeepers. Many experience the pain that follows them the rest of their lives.

I hope one thing, because of what happened on September 11. I hope that this country never allows again the media to belittle and actually cast a shadow over the effects of what really happened in World War I and World War II. I lived through that as an educator. I fought my way through that to no avail. That I hope will never happen again.

September 11 changed our attitude. It changed our thinking. It has caused some people to remember. We must now take up the challenge as parliamentarians, as people elected from every corner of the country, to ask our educational institutions to carry it through the curriculum, and by every educational means, to make the day and our very pride in what has been sacrificed for us become a living thing. We have to take our responsibilities seriously.

I would be remiss if I did not ask the hon. minister this. As he knows, we have been promised four or five times since World War II that we would join the rest of the allied forces in a new war museum. The opening has been slated to coincide with VE day in 2005. However many of our veterans have grown weary with that promise and many will not live long enough.

I ask one last thing and it has nothing to do with the area from which I come. In the maritimes we have some 300 people, some widows living alone and some merchant seamen vets, who have never done anything but give everything to their country. I recognize that a deadline was put on the applications.

However, during this week of remembrance I would ask the minister to please make sure that he opens the books and honours those 300 people who for no reason of their own failed to get their applications in.

May we never again in our country break faith with those who have died.

[Petitions, November 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased and honoured this afternoon to bring to the House, pursuant to Standing Order 36, a petition from some of my favourite people. They are elderly people who are having a great deal of difficulty financially, much more now than ever before.

The petitioners are asking the government to explore the possibility of lowering the income tax on benefits to senior citizens so they can afford the high cost of modern day living and the expenses they must face.

[Veterans Week, November 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the beginning of national Veterans Week in Canada. It is ironic that on November 5, 1911, an aircraft was first used for the dropping of bombs.

Several years ago the Royal Canadian Legion had a theme leading up to November 11. That theme was “If you can't remember, think”. Today because of what happened on September 11 Canadians have had the time to think, and indeed we have to remember what has happened in the past.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae warned us “If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep”. Today we know that on many occasions we have broken that faith. This week Canadians must vow never to break that faith again.

We must endeavour to make sure that our curriculum in our schools honours in a profound way what that debt is so that we can enjoy liberty and freedom today.