Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to participate in this debate for one basic reason and that is that the constituency which I represent was perhaps the worst hit constituency across Canada last spring.
My remarks will dwell on people. Everyone has done an adequate job of talking about the reasons, but I want to talk about the people, the people who I serve and the people across Canada, who through no fault of their own cannot extract one cent for the help that is needed now.
The people that I represent are proud prairie people, people who have been betrayed, people of the land. They are people who are fourth and fifth generation farmers. They are young farmers, young farm families, many of whom I know personally. They will tell me, as will some of the older people, that the situation they are looking at right now is even more severe than it was in the depths of the 1930s.
I get very emotional when I talk about these people. Make no mistake about it, these people have been betrayed. They have been betrayed by this government. They have been betrayed by their provincial government.
When the flood came two years ago to Manitoba the people that I represent rushed to help not only because of their location, many of them took equipment to help. Two years later there is more land under water in my constituency. A hundred times more land did not get seeded. While my constituents agreed with immediate help for the Red River flood, they are still waiting for some help from this government. Is it any wonder they feel betrayed?
My same constituents were happy to see the immediate influx of cash during the devastating ice storm. But there they sit with frozen grain in the field this fall. They filled out AIDA forms, which is like buying a $500 lottery ticket, and they lost because they have received nothing.
They are being betrayed because of the stubborn insistence of this government which says that the current programs are meeting the farmers' needs. They are not. The government should open up its ears to the provincial delegation that is coming down.
The sad part is that many of these young people are telling me that they are being politically punished simply because they do not support a government, provincial or federal, which really has no keen interest in agriculture.
They are feeling betrayed as well by the fact that they lost $400 million out of the provincial GRIP program. Boy, that would come in handy right now.
They are feeling betrayed because the property tax on their agricultural land is sky high.
They are feeling betrayed because the grain companies, which they really believed would be there when they needed them, are not there.
Finally, the greatest betrayal of all, they were told if they would just settle for the Crow rate removal, get rid of it, the government would pay them out. All they got was one year's free freight. That is all. That is not the end. This government told them in no uncertain terms that if they would accept the Crow, then they would not be fighting these big subsidy wars. The House knows the rest of the story. It is little wonder that I get emotional when I talk about this.
Virtually every night last summer, if a phone call was not picked up by my offices, I tried to make contact with that constituent. This House is dealing with a human tragedy which I witnessed for all but three days during last summer. People ask if anyone is listening.
Our daily newspaper, the Regina Leader Post , announced the results of a phone survey which revealed that even in Saskatchewan 60% of the people responded that farmers should not get any financial consideration. Obviously many people agree.
Farmers are not looking for a handout. They hate that term. They are not looking for a subsidy. Farmers are simply pleading with the government that they need some survival funds right now. That is what they are asking for. GRIP has turned them down. If farmers lost money for three years, GRIP does nothing. Farmers need assistance.
It is time the government stopped trying to score political brownie points. It is time the government took a look at people and helped them to survive so that they can, once more, pour billions of dollars back into the economy of Canada.
At this time of the year we hear the statement “If ye break faith”. Because the government's AIDA program was not designed for the area which I represent, it has broken faith. The government can correct that. It can correct that this Thursday. It can be corrected by making an agreement with the group coming here to put an end to what otherwise would be the blackest chapter in the history of agriculture in my constituency. The future is in our hands.
I want to mention three phone calls that I received. This will give members some idea of the extent of the suffering out there.
A young farmer's wife phoned me in August. She was 32 years of age and had one child who was starting school. She wanted to know if I could help. This family had spent $500 filling out an AIDA form. They were told that they would get a little bit. Two weeks later they were told that their application would be reviewed. Eventually this family may get something.
Before this phone call was over, this young lady broke down. She was in tears. She wept bitterly. The power bill would soon be due. The phone was about to be cut off. This lady's final words were that they had never asked for help before from anyone.
I want the government to listen. The programs which have been created have been misconstrued and misstated. The minister of agriculture said that individuals would receive $50 an acre for flooded land. Nobody received $50 an acre; not anywhere near it.
The second phone call I received was an even sadder case. This call came from a lady who was phoning from the bedside of her husband. She had spent the entire summer trying to get a bed in the hospital. Her husband is dying of cancer. The government had told this lady that they would get a small amount. All I could do was write to the government and beg on this couple's behalf. I want members to note her last words. She too broke down and said that their only son would probably never survive the agriculture crisis long enough to keep the land which was his great-grandfather's.
This is as great a crisis as that which has ever happened. Yet, we are still trying to make some political points from it.
The last phone call I received was very personal. It came from a young couple who are living on the same farm as my wife and I lived on. This young fellow bent my ear for 50 minutes. He basically said that he had learned not to trust any government. That is a sad case.
On behalf of my constituents and those across the prairies, we are not asking, we are begging that on Thursday the government meet with the provincial people and say, yes, that it can indeed look after those people who do not qualify because of some stupid form. They hate that form.
Let us look at the human tragedy. Let us stop the bleeding. It is in the hands of the government. Hundreds of farm families need to be listened to.
