CANADA

Wednesday February 18, 2004

    Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, CPC): Thank you, Mr. Chair.

    I sit here today and I don't know what I can take back to my farmers in Saskatchewan that's going to give them hope. This is extremely frustrating.

    I have Brian Patron coming to me this last weekend talking about losing $600 an animal. He goes to his bank and his banker tells him, “I can't give him any more money”. Do you know why? Because of the lack of certainty. It's killing our farmers and there is nothing that I've seen come before this committee today that's giving them any hope and providing any certainty to the industry.

    We don't see a coordinated plan to get the border open. The evidence that you've presented today doesn't seem to me like you have hold on it and you have a master plan here that's going to carry this thing forward.

    The programs being put in place right now are not sufficient! If you look at a farmer who has 200 animals and for 8% of them he's going to get a couple hundred dollars, he might get $5,000. That won't even fill us his big fuel tank and keep him operating. That is just not going to cover it, Mr. Minister.

    And what we've heard today is not helping the situation. This should be an absolute priority for this entire government and I don't detect any evidence here that the urgency of the situation has seized you yet with this.

    So what can I take back to my farmers? What evidence can I give them that we have some certainty developing here and the farm programs are going to be adequate to cover this?

¸  (1400)  

    Hon. Bob Speller: Do you want both questions first or do you want me to answer one at a time?

    Hon. Bob Speller: Well, I think what might be helpful is if you went back to your government in Saskatchewan and you told that, in fact--

    Mr. Garry Breitkreuz: Blame somebody else.

    Hon. Bob Speller: --if you went back to your province and asked them to sign on to the amendments, which would give a cap of $3 million to that farmer to take to his banker and say, “This is what I have now, rather than $900,000”. I think it would be useful that, in fact, if these provinces signed on it would help.

    Is there a master plan? There most certainly is a master plan. It involves working together with the farm groups, it involves working together with the provinces and, in a coordinated manner, working together with my cabinet colleagues and these departments to push for the international borders to open.

    That involves a lot of work that is being done on a coordinated basis and one that I think the Government of Canada, including the Prime Minister, has shown, in terms of the seriousness of this issue and the seriousness with which we take this issue.

    In terms of the dollars, I agree, I don't think there is enough dollars there now, particularly since the downturn in the past few weeks. As I said, I am working with the Canadian cattlemen, and I implore you--they're here today--why don't you talk to them and ask them as to whether or not they feel we're working in a coordinated manner, ask them whether or not they feel the support they're getting from the Government of Canada is to support--