Statement Presented to the House of Commons by

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

February 6^th, 2001

(Opposition Questions Attached)

Mr. Paul Steckle (Huron—Bruce, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, at the outset I want to indicate that I will be sharing my time with the member for Tobique—Mactaquac.

It is a privilege and pleasure this morning to speak for the first time in the 37th Parliament of Canada, my first time since being returned for the third time. I want to pay tribute to some of those people who have made it possible for me to come back. First, I want to personally thank my wife and my family for their continued support and indulgence of my time to others. Being a member of parliament, as all of us in the House know, requires giving up a lot of our personal time. I enjoy it and my family has agreed to allow me to do that.

I also want to express my appreciation to the people of Huron—Bruce for their support over the past number of elections. Traditionally, my riding was a Conservative riding. The people who normally supported that party chose to support me because of my representation. I count it a humbling experience to come back, and from time to time I ask them to recommit to that support they first gave to me in 1993.

This morning I want to commit my time to speaking on the issue of agriculture. My riding of Huron—Bruce is primarily an agricultural riding. It is an area which is now traditionally called the western coast of Ontario. It is an area where we primarily make our living from the land. However, we also have a number of other industries.

Probably the most notable industry in our riding is Sifto Salt. It represents the largest salt mine in the world. When people travel the highways of Ontario or in other parts of Canada and the United States, they will likely be saved the embarrassment of finding themselves in a ditch because the salt on those roads probably came from Goderich, Ontario. It is one of the things that we would like to forget for a while since we have had a long period of winter, but spring is not that far around the corner. That brings me to the concerns that I have regarding agriculture today.

It is imperative to remember that we all look upon our farmers as the suppliers of our food source. We rely on them to provide us with our daily food. In the short time that has been allocated to me this morning, I want to give the members some illustrations of where agriculture is today.

Agriculture is at a crossroads in Canada. It is not because we have been unable to produce the food. We have been able to safely produce food in adequate numbers and quantities for Canadians. However, we have been unable to receive adequate returns in the marketplace to make it profitable for farmers to remain on their lands.

I come from a family of seven generations of agrologists, people who have made their living from the land. The generation of people which follow me are not farmers today and will not be farmers. They are making their life vocation in other sectors. That is disconcerting in itself.

Perhaps I can help members better understand where agriculture is today. In my riding of Huron—Bruce, we produce more agricultural products in terms of dollar value than any other riding in Canada east of Winnipeg. We have the largest grain inland elevators in Canada in a little village called Hensall. Every time I turn around or every time I go down a road I pass some of those farmers who have given us the food that we put on our tables. I have a strong tradition in agriculture.

I remember citing in the House of Commons in the 36th parliament the importance of agriculture. Then I saw storm clouds on the horizon. Today the storm clouds have developed into a major storm. These people are seeking refuge and help. They are calling upon government to intervene in the short term.

In the Speech from the Throne the Governor General said “The government will help Canada's agricultural sector move beyond crisis management”. Indeed, the government recognizes that there is crisis in agriculture.

We need to move now. We are 90 days away from seeding in Ontario. While I support agriculture in all corners of the country, my focus is largely on Ontario because that is where my expertise is. When I speak of what is good for Ontario, it also has to be good for other parts of the country. Every province needs to share in the wealth that we generate. That is what Canada is all about.

A farmer came to my office last Friday morning with a balance sheet of his returns from last year. He had his own bookkeeper do the accounting and then sent it to the auditor for a final accounting so it would be accurate.

This farmer is well known in my community. He remains nameless in the House. However he has allowed me to bring his numbers to the House to give some credence to the arguments we are putting forward.

On a 600 acre operation, which is not a large one, he paid himself $110 per acre for the land he owns. He included repairs and had very little depreciation because most of his equipment had been depreciated to a point where there was nothing left. At the end of the day he was $90 per acre short on income and expenses.

This guy would be considered a model farmer in his community. He had a $55,000 loss on 600 acres. Last year he purchased nitrogen fertilizer at $150 per tonne. He has two prices: one a month ago at $350 per tonne for this coming spring and another which is effective now. Unless he purchases it now, it will go to $450 per tonne. This is a 140% increase from two years ago.

For diesel fuel and other fuel sources, because he has a drying operation as well, we are talking about enormous increases in the 90 to 100% range. However his prices were basically put into effect in the 1930s. There is not an industry in Canada that can sustain such losses over that many years. I think food is much more important than we sometimes give it credit for. The issue of food goes much beyond the farm gate. It is an issue of sovereignty.

Do we want continued sovereignty over our food supply? Do we want our rural communities, which share the wealth when farmers prosper, to continue to exist? Do we want churches and schools to disappear from the rural landscape in Ontario and throughout the rest of Canada?

We have choices to make. This is a serious issue. I do not often come to the House with an issue that is so profoundly difficult to talk about. Because I know it so well, it is important that today and in the short term we find a vehicle to deliver cash to farmers which they can take to the bank. If we do not, we will not have farmers in the future.

We did what was right for Bombardier. Farmers will not argue that we did what was right. It is important that we now do the right thing for agriculture. Some 640,000 people in Ontario are directly or indirectly related to this industry and 24,000 people are involved in the aerospace industry.

Let us do the right thing. Let us deliver the money to our farmers before seeding time so that we can enjoy the food we put on our plates every day.

Mr. Werner Schmidt (Kelowna, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, I am impressed with the hon. member opposite. He ought to be commended for the beautiful, wonderful and insightful remarks he just made. I congratulate him on his re-election to the House of Commons.

The member brings forward a balanced position and puts it together nicely. In light of his impassioned speech and his obvious understanding of the problem, why has his government not given to farmers the money it promised them, let alone a new program to help them with other problems?

The government has not even done what it said it would do. Why can the hon. member opposite, a member of the government, not get the Prime Minister to do what he said he would do?

Mr. Paul Steckle: Mr. Speaker, I am indebted to the hon. member, who is a good friend of mine, for asking that question. It is not that we have not delivered to farmers. It is a case of mixed messages being sent to our farmers. Right now farmers are more interested in money than in another message.

When we began this process some two and a half years ago, we were looking at a request of $600 million. We came in at $900 million and raised that to $1.1 billion. We have committed to three years at $1.1 billion and are now asking for another $900 million of federal money.

The member is speaking about the 20% that has not been delivered on the AIDA program, and he is absolutely correct. If we have not delivered that money we ought to be delivering it. It is not because I have not put forward the argument to deliver that money. I will continue to do that, but there are mitigating circumstances which have for one reason or another not allowed it to happen.

Mr. Peter Stoffer (Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member for Guelph—Wellington who seemed to think there was no farm crisis. Then I heard my good friend, also with a farm background, mention that there was a farm crisis. It is refreshing to have someone on the backbenches with an incredible amount of backbone to tell it exactly like it is. I do not think a member on this side of the House could have said it as eloquently and as passionately as he did.

The hon. member understands that farmers in Ontario and western Canada are going through exactly what fishermen in the coastal communities of Atlantic Canada went through and exactly what the fishing communities of western Canada went through. Conservative and Liberal policies have put the main producers of the food on our tables in a state of continual crisis.

I consider the hon. member to be a great friend and a great member of the fishing community. Will he take his comments directly to the agriculture minister and the industry minister, because they are the ones who need to hear them?

Mr. Paul Steckle: Mr. Speaker, I have come to enjoy working with the hon. member from Nova Scotia on the fishery committee. Not only will I take the message to the ministers to whom he referred, but I have already done so.

Tomorrow I will deliver to anyone in the House who wishes one a copy of the farmer's financial statement I spoke of earlier. All the member needs to do is ask and he will have delivered to him a copy of that statement. The message must get out and we must do it as quickly as we can. We have no time to lose. I would be more than delighted to provide you with that document.