Statement Presented to the House of Commons by

Paul Steckle , M.P., Huron-Bruce ( Ontario)

April 5, 2006

Mr. Speaker:

Yesterdays Throne Speech, outlining the government’s priorities, contained 2449 words. Agriculture, Canada’s second largest industry, was allocated a meagre 72.

That constitutes a paltry 3% of the government’s focus and that level was only attained when pooled with Aquaculture.

Clearly, 3% is unacceptable. Agriculture was already excluded from the Prime Minister’s five top priorities list and now it has been relegated to less than 3% of the total agenda.

Our farmers are in dire straits and they need our help. To survive, farmers need more than 3% of this government’s attention.

Regardless of the amount of ink used in the Throne Speech, farmers are here in Ottawa today to tell their government that the ink they see is red.

They are asking for a public investment in food security, risk management programmes that protect against income loss but most of all they are asking this government to give to farmers what farmers give to Canadians each and every day – 100%