Food Inspection  Mr. Speaker, as the hon. gentleman knows, under the business alignment plan of our food production and protection branch we are pursuing a five-part approach to the issue of cost recovery and user fees. The notion of imposing a user fee is the last of the options after we have ex

Food Inspection  Mr. Speaker, let me assure the House, the hon. gentleman and all Canadians that as we work our way through any changes that pertain to the Canadian food inspection system the health and safety of Canadians is, has always been and will always be the number one priority.

Railways  Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the new Canada Transportation Act is at least in part to shift the emphasis away from what used to be a policy of branchline abandonment as the only game in town toward a new policy where at least there is the alternative of considering seriously a sho

Grain Shipments  Mr. Speaker, the grain backlog in western Canada is obviously a serious and costly problem. There was a very constructive meeting held last week in Calgary, which I called and which involved all the players involved in the logistics of grain transportation in western Canada. The

Supply  Mr. Speaker, with the repeal of the Western Grain Transportation Act and the consequential elimination of the former Crow benefit we put in place a number of transitional measures. One of those was the western grain transition payments program which was a total of $1.6 billion di

Supply  Mr. Speaker, there were two distinct parts to the hon. gentleman's question. To start with he made some references about infrastructure. I believe he knows the Canada infrastructure works program as presently devised, even without the recent extension that has been discussed, w

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to take part in this discussion. Although I must say after listening over the last number of moments to the member for Kindersley-Lloydminster that once again we have been subjected to that Reform Party diatribe which is typically

Grain Shipments  Mr. Speaker, this situation is very serious. It is a situation that the government takes seriously, as I am sure do farmers and all the players in the grains industry. I would advise the hon. gentleman that histrionics and cute lines do not solve the problem. The government is i

Grain Shipments  Mr. Speaker, one of the things that farmers across western Canada notice is that this hon. gentleman and his party seem unable to deal with any issue in a serious manner without personal invective. Solutions are not found through insults. That seems to be a fact that escapes the

Grain  Mr. Speaker, obviously the linkage the hon. gentleman draws between the former Crow subsidy and the situation with grain movement currently on the prairies is not a valid or appropriate linkage at all. As I indicated yesterday in the House in response to a question from the NDP,

Grain  Mr. Speaker, the railways have indicated they are taking steps to add to the locomotive power available in western Canada for grain movement. That is a welcome development. It may not in itself be enough. I will be consulting with them in the days immediately ahead as well as wi

Agriculture  Mr. Speaker, the legislative authority to which the hon. gentleman refers is, he will agree, rather limited. In terms of the nature of the problem, it would appear that the difficulty this season does not relate to rolling stock or to delivery of supplies in the country or to po

Rural Development  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Parry Sound-Muskoka has been consistent and very aggressive in pursuing and promoting the interests of rural Canada as have a great many members of the caucus on the government side. The throne speech last year indicated the general nature of the

Questions On The Order Paper  a) The long term debts or liabilities owed to the Canadian Wheat Board, CWB, by individual countries is commercially sensitive information and public disclosure would be considered a breach of customer confidentiality. However, the volume of CWB's credit sales by country is regul

Canadian Wheat Board Act  Mr. Speaker, as the hon. gentleman knows, grain marketing in western Canada is a topic of considerable debate among farmers and others. Farmers have made strong recommendations for changes in legislation. Farmers are anxious for those changes to come forward for their considerat