Wayne Easter

[Committees of the House, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, when you review the blues, you will see that I did not accuse the member of being a liar. What I said was there was not-factual information. That is what the CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board said.

[Committees of the House, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, it is not unusual, in terms of the government's position toward the Canadian Wheat Board as it tries to undermine it. We have seen every undemocratic principle possible and just on the previous argument, the facts are that the government does not want to meet with people who may oppose its position.

Let us turn to some of the misinformation that the government is in fact pursuing. Yesterday at committee, we saw a spectacle that I never thought I would see at a committee meeting. The CEO from the Canadian Wheat Board, appointed by the government after it fired the previous CEO because he disagreed with the government's position but had the full confidence of the elected board, sat before the committee and the parliamentary secretary, who also has some responsibility for the Canadian Wheat Board, sat beside that gentlemen, and both provided different information. Both cannot be right in terms of this issue. Here is what the CEO said:

However, when factual inaccuracies about the CWB's performance find their way into a public forum, I believe it is my right and my duty to correct that information.

Let me just stop there for a moment. Why is he saying “however”? It is because he is doing this with a little bit of fear. The reason is because the previous CEO, who had the full confidence of the board, was fired because he disagreed with the government. He was doing what the board of directors asked him to do, a farmer-elected board of directors, and that was to establish the facts on what the single desk does. He was fired and that is why this gentleman had some fear. He went on to say:

One example of such an inaccuracy relates to the CWB's business relationship with Algeria and I understand that is the reason I was called here before you today.

A number of parties, including Members of Parliament, have recently stated publicly and in printed material that the CWB has been underselling the market for durum wheat. This information is not factual--

That non-factual information is in fact coming from members of the government's side. In fact, that non-factual information is coming from the parliamentary secretary. In fact, I will read a quote from the Rutherford Show: “Just like in the papers the other day, the Algerian Minister, over in their state buying enterprise, was saying, “Well, we love dealing with Canada and we get a real good deal”.

[Committees of the House, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, the member actually makes my point. I said that the minister referred to “real voice for change” when he really knows it is Real Voice for Choice. The group felt it had an agreement on a meeting in his office and--

[Committees of the House, March 2nd, 2007]

The member says there were six of them. The group claims it represents 70% of the farmers in western Canada. The minister would not meet with this group. It is a non-partisan group. There are Conservatives, Liberals and even NDP supporters in that group, and it represents a good cross-section of farmers.

I will put on the record some of the comments members of the group wanted to raise with the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, who would not meet with them. Their principles are, reading from their paper, that the future of the Canadian Wheat Board and single desk powers should be decided by farmers themselves. That is not what is happening. What we have is a biased, manipulated and divisive question. What we have is a manipulated voters list. What we have is a ballot that is marked and can be traced. Farmers are clearly not being given the opportunity to decide on a question with clarity.

They go on to say that farmers must be allowed to vote in a fair vote on wheat and barley, a clear question with an appropriate voters list.

They say that they would have loved to present to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, who does not want to hear from the other side that supports the board, what the single desk benefits to farmers are and that market power is the key issue. Farmers marketing all together through their one organization, the Canadian Wheat Board, gives them market power. The single desk gives more marketing clout to farmers.

Price and cost risk management through pooling of sales proceeds and cost of sales, that the Wheat Board manages, is better for farmers as is farm marketing flexibility with the Canadian Wheat Board. In other words, there is a range of wheat and barley pricing options available for farmers that offer more choice.

It is kind of ironic. The Prime Minister, who basically uses his ministers as props to do his bidding, talks about choice and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food talks about marketing choice, but the reality is if the farm community were to go that way, and no doubt the government will try to bully it into it or engineer it by other means, if that were to happen, the reality is, sadly, that there would be less choice for farmers. Then it would be to which grain company do they sell to. There would be an open market. They would not have the pricing options that are now in place through the Canadian Wheat Board.

They go on in the paper to say that effective market development linked directly to sales efforts by the Wheat Board gives them credibility in the international market. In other words, they service the marketplace and it gives credibility in terms of Canadian quality, reliability of supply, and other countries know they can count on that quality of supply. They talk further about the advocacy for farmers on marketing issues through the Wheat Board, which is a very important point.

Dealing specifically with the barley issue, they say that single desk marketing of barley alone earns farmers $60 million in extra revenue per year. The federal government wants to take away farmers' single desk selling for barley marketing and we know that.

There is concern about the medium and long term agenda of the federal government toward the single desk of wheat, that is for sure. There is concern over the government process during the plebiscite, and I will speak more on that in a moment.

They go on to say that no farmer single desks means reduced farmer marketing power and look at the concentration that is in the grain industry. Why would we give up something that gives producers marketing power?

I could go on with their paper, but the bottom line is they are saying that the government process appears to be exclusive, with only a few farmers who support the government who have been consulted. The minister and the government have been determined to move to a voluntary Canadian Wheat Board from the beginning. Farmers' opinions are not important.

[Committees of the House, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I move that the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food presented on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 be concurred in.

It is with great concern that I rise to speak to the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food which recommended the following: one, that the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food immediately rescind the questions released on January 22, 2007 upon which barley producers in western Canada are expected to vote on their future relationship with the Canadian Wheat Board; and two, immediately implement the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food by placing before wheat and barley producers of western Canada on their relationship with the Canadian Wheat Board the questions contained within that report.

I agree with this report tabled in the House, however, my concern arises from the fact that the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and this dictatorial, non-responsive government have shown not only contempt for farmers who posed the questions that are in that sixth report, but also contempt for the House which passed by a majority vote the sixth report, the questions recommended by the farm community for a vote on single desk marketing through the Canadian Wheat Board.

I guess we really should not be surprised. There has been an absolutely relentless campaign fostered out of the Prime Minister's office against the Canadian Wheat Board, because the Canadian Wheat Board system of marketing in empowering producers, against the multinational grain trade and against the grain trader, in empowering producers is against the Prime Minister's ideology. He does not believe in that kind of marketing and so he is absolutely driven by any means, even by any undemocratic means, to establish a process to undermine that marketing power through the Wheat Board.

The end result of this process, if the Prime Minister gets his way, will be the loss of marketing power for western Canadian farmers through the Canadian Wheat Board, marketing power that has maximized returns to producers.

The Wheat Board, in its report to the minister's stacked task force, said that the net benefit to Canadian farmers as a result of single desk selling ranges between $530 million to $655 million annually. Members opposite say, “Oh, well, we will have a voluntary Wheat Board”. Farmers know, even though they are being propagandized otherwise, that it is really the single desk authority of the Wheat Board that makes it possible for them to maximize returns back to Canadian producers annually of $530 million to $655 million. It is as a result of having the Wheat Board in place.

It is interesting, because there has been some debate that if the Wheat Board is changed as a result of the manipulations by the government and its undemocratic procedure in doing that, can another government bring it back? It is difficult to do, because one of the key conditions of bringing the Canadian Wheat Board single desk selling back would be that we would have to compensate the multinational grain trade for future lost profits. That in itself should tell us why the Canadian Wheat Board having single desk power within Canada is important to retain, because the difficulty in getting it back will be that we will have to compensate grain corporations around the world for their future lost profits.

The bottom line is that we would be taking current day profits out of farmers' pockets and transferring them to the international grain trade. That is what the government on the other side of the House wants to do. It is absolutely crazy.

The Canadian Wheat Board does give market power to farmers, but the government fails to listen and continues to ignore facts.

The minister yesterday responded to a question from the member for British Columbia Southern Interior about why he would not meet with a group called Real Voice for Choice. He kind of made a humourous joke of it by saying he really did not want to meet with the “real voice for change” group and misrepresented what was really said. That is what he said in the House. It is on the record. Instead of calling the group by its real name, Real Voice for Choice, the minister tried to make a mockery of it by calling it “real voice for change”. This group--

[Canadian Wheat Board, February 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the minister fails in his responsibility to declare the facts. Why does the minister allow himself to be bullied by the Prime Minister into undercutting farmers' marketing power?

The minister violated board members' freedom of speech with gag orders. The minister violated the elected board's authority by firing its CEO. The minister violates democratic principles with fraudulent and biased questions and now there is a further violation of democratic principles with a traceable ballot.

What does the minister intend to do with the information from the numbered ballots he is tracking?

[Canadian Wheat Board, February 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the minister fails--

[Canadian Wheat Board, February 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has belatedly requested from the Canadian Wheat Board the sales records to Algeria for the last 10 years. Is it not a fact that the data reveals that the price paid by the Algerians for board grains was higher than achieved by our competitors, in other words, premium prices for Canadian farmers through the marketing power of the Wheat Board?

Will the minister now apologize to western grain producers, the Canadian Wheat Board and Canadians for perpetuating a falsehood that the board was underselling to the Algerians? Will he correct the record now?

[Petitions, February 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise under Standing Order 36 to present a petition by quite a number of residents in my riding in regard to the Clifton breakwater on the north end of Prince Edward Island National Park. This breakwater is deteriorating at a phenomenal rate. It is crucial to the protection of our coastline, our parkland, our navigational channel and our ability to sustain a living from the fishery.

Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of the Environment to take immediate action to repair the Clifton breakwater. The petitioners request that this action be undertaken prior to the opening of the 2007 spring lobster season.

I very much support this petition.

[Criminal Code, February 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I support Bill S-213 but, as the member knows, while many of the veterinarian colleges seem to support the bill, the Atlantic Veterinary College does not. It uses the argument that penalties are not enough, that the legislation needs to move further in terms of puppy mills and those areas.

How does the member respond to the suggestion that just increasing penalties will do the trick when many in society feel that it is cruel the way puppies are raised in puppy mills? How does the member feel this bill would deal with that effectively?