moved:
Motion No. 1
That Bill C-4 be amended by adding before line 4 on page 1 the following:
“0.1 The Canadian Wheat Board Act is amended by replacing the enacting phrase with the following:
WHEREAS agriculture is a basic foundation stone of the Canadian economy; and
WHEREAS interprovincial and export trade in grain produced in Canada is an essential element of the agricultural sector of the economy, and
WHEREAS it is necessary to establish an organization to coordinate such trade; and
WHEREAS such an organization will have a very significant effect on the producers of grain and must therefore have the securing of the best financial return to them as its object and first priority and must be accountable to them for its performance.
THEREFORE Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:”
Mr. Speaker, thank you for your personal intervention to guarantee my right to have an independent legal expert from legislative counsel draft my amendments to the bill. I am very disappointed with the unilateral decision to have procedural clerks drafting my amendments to government bills. Lawyers draft the government bills and amendments, and members of the House deserve no less.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for defending my rights and privileges and providing the independent confidential legal advice and services I need to do my job as a legislator in the House.
It is a fundamental privilege of the House to decide on the rules of the House. So far we have been denied the opportunity to debate and vote on the quality and availability of essential legal services for MPs to do their jobs.
We represent a substantial number of people. The amendments we make are very important and deserve the proper consideration and advice.
On behalf of my constituents I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your personal intervention in this instance. It has made it possible for me to better represent the interests of my constituents in the House.
I also express my objection to the referring of bills to committee before second reading. It was my experience that the Liberal majority on the agriculture committee was no more open to amendments than any Liberal dominated committee reviewing a bill after second reading. That is a very serious concern because we need that input. Unless the government allows for proper critique of its legislation we are wasting our time in the House. I hope that will change.
The government has subverted the original intent of referring a bill to committee before approval in principle and is now using this procedure to skip second reading debate and deny members an opportunity to represent their constituents in the House. The procedure was supposed to open up the democratic process, not shut it down more than it already has.
I have introduced seven amendments to effectively address the deficiencies in the bill. With these amendments I proposed the following improvements to the Canadian Wheat Board Act. I will briefly go through them and hope to have an opportunity at a later time to talk to each one.
I put forth an amendment to add a preamble to the act and an amendment to change the object of the act from orderly marketing to maximizing the financial return to producers and three consequential amendments to that.
I also put forth an amendment to allow producers to voluntarily exclude one or more types of grain they produce from control of the act for a minimum of five years. In addition to this opting out clause my amendment would provide producers with the opportunity to opt back in by giving the board two years notice.
Finally I put forth an amendment to introduce a five year sunset clause which would repeal the act if it does not achieve its stated objective of securing the best financial return to producers. Talking about sunset clauses, that should be in all legislation. If the legislation does not meet its stated objective we should scrap it.
I would also like to speak to the four main proposals put forward in the amendments: adding the preamble, making the first priority of the Canadian Wheat Board Act to secure the best financial return for producers, to provide opting out and opting back in provisions, and to provide a sunset clause.
I hope to speak to each of my amendments as they appear in the appropriate grouping of amendments. First I will speak to the preamble.
I introduced Motion No. 1 to correct a serious oversight. The Canadian Wheat Board Act does not have a preamble. The act current says “an act to provide the constitution and powers for the Canadian Wheat Board”. If any act of parliament needs a preamble it is this one.
For far too long the government has been saying what the Canadian Wheat Board is supposed to be doing but has done a pretty good job of keeping the real facts a secret. The board says one thing and thousands of farmers disagree. Surely the government cannot disagree with the preamble I have introduced in the House today. If it does, I would like on record the points it disagrees with and the points it would like to see amended. That should be obvious.
Agriculture is the basic foundation stone for the Canadian economy. Interprovincial and export trade of grain is an essential element of our agricultural economy. I do not think anyone can disagree with that, so I hope it will be approved.
It is necessary to organize and co-ordinate such trade. Whoever co-ordinates this trade must have as a first priority the goal of securing the best financial return for producers.
Who in the House can argue against that objective? The minister responsible for the wheat board even said so in the House on October 28, 1997. I quote what the minister said.
The Canadian Wheat Board in every market in the world extracts the very best price it possibly can get for the farmers of Canada.
If that is the case we should put it in writing. The board must be accountable to producers for its performance and we should be willing to say that.
These are far more than just motherhood statements. They set the framework around which the act and the bill must be debated. For the government to pass an act of such importance as giving a government monopoly powers is asking for those powers to be abused.
I respectfully request that all members of the House support the inclusion of a preamble to the Canadian Wheat Board Act. It is a serious oversight not to have it in there. This is the preamble that should be included:
WHEREAS agriculture is a basic foundation stone of the Canadian economy; and
WHEREAS interprovincial and export trade in grain produced in Canada is an essential element of the agricultural sector of the economy, and
WHEREAS it is necessary to establish an organization to co-ordinate such trade; and
WHEREAS such an organization will have a very significant effect on the producers of grain and must therefore have the securing of the best financial return to them as its object and first priority and must be accountable to them for its performance.
The purpose of the amendments I have put forward is to protect all farmers. The government always says that it is listening to the majority of farmers. In a democracy everyone must be protected and their rights must be respected, which is included in the amendments I have put forward. A significant number of producers are represented by people on this side of the House. I appeal to the government to listen to the amendments we are making. They are common sense reasonable amendments and they should be considered.
The attitude has been “Why should we provide proper legislative counsel to the opposition? The government will not listen to our amendments anyway”. They are asking why they should provide resources. That attitude has to change. What we do in the House is fundamental to preparing legislation all Canadians have to live with. We need the best resources and the best legal advice to make legislation what it should be.
Therefore we appeal to the government to give us the resources and to consider the amendments we put forward. They are reasonable amendments that address the concerns of the people we represent.
