Chris Warkentin

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

There is no question the members over there are talking about supply management and the Wheat Board.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to again try to bring the case for the farming community to the House. Hopefully, we can bring some reason to the NDP in its assault on Canadian farm families.

There is no question that farm families are suffering, and maybe I can give a bit of information to the NDP on the situation when it comes to the Peace country.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

That is not what I said.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

What about the average farmer?

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

What about farmers?

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

You guys were heckling when I spoke.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

They can go bankrupt.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

The NDP members are now heckling because they certainly do not want to hear what the farm families have to say.

Farm families have come to me in the last two weeks, which I spent travelling from one end of my constituency to the other. The NDP members are talking about safety and these types of things, and those things are important, but at the end of the day the people who are going to be affected most, the people who have the most to lose today, will be our farm families if they are unable to ship the products they so desperately need to ship at this point.

Because of course we have had a harsh winter and CN has been delayed in terms of getting the product to market, and if they cannot ship it now, they will have bills that come due. The bills are already due. Farm families are paying interest on loans and farms are going to go under before they can ever get their product to market, and the NDP does not give a rip.

[Railway Continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if I can get in the comments that I think are important to bring to this debate in just one minute.

I asked one question earlier with regard to our farm families and the suffering that is being inflicted on them because of this long term labour disruption and the possibility of a long term strike. Essentially I got the response that the NDP does not care about farm families. All the NDP cares about is prolonging this long term labour disruption--

[Railway continuation Act, 2007, April 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, in the last two weeks I spent a fair bit of time in my constituency, particularly in the farming communities. Again and again the one thing I heard was that yes, CN has some issues and CN has to resolve this union issue. The farmers said that we have to get these trains rolling again because their farms are on the line. Again and again I heard from desperate farmers and desperate farm families that they are not able to deliver their product. They are not able to deliver their commodity to port to get the sales they desperately need so that they can get cheques in their pockets to make the payments that are coming due.

There are some legitimate concerns that the NDP has brought forward and CN will have to resolve them. However, a lot of the issues that the NDP is bringing forward have nothing to do with the negotiations that are happening right now.

There are many people who do not have anything to do with CN who are going to end up paying the price for any prolonged labour action in the case of CN. The farmers that I talked to again and again expressed with tears in their eyes that they will lose their farms will and their families will be on the streets if they cannot move their product.

By stalling this, the opposition members who are opposing this are saying to the farmers, to the mill workers, to the value added producers in my constituency and many constituencies across the country that they do not care about those people. They do not care that tomorrow those people will go out of business. They do not care that farmers will lose their farms. The members opposing this are saying that they believe the country should come to a halt and that product should not flow.

I want to make the submission to those members who are considering voting against moving this legislation forward that these farm families, the people in my community and across the Prairies and in many other small communities where there are lumber mills, are demanding that we stand up for them so that they can be protected and their families will have an income moving forward.

I ask the member if he has considered the people who are impacted, who are not CN employees or CN management, the people who will be affected, the people who truly have the most to lose.