These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
documents.
Freedom of Choice
Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk—Interlake, Canadian Alliance):
Mr. Speaker, the government's incompetence on the trade front has resulted
in our largest trading partner, the United States, targeting the wheat
sales of prairie farmers. The Americans are alleging that the Canadian
Wheat Board monopoly results in subsidized exports and dumping. Thousands
of wheat farmers on the Prairies do not even want the monopoly because it
results in them receiving lower prices for their wheat along with lost
marketing opportunities.
Why does the government not give prairie farmers freedom of marketing
choice like it does in the rest of Canada?
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Public Works and Government Services,
Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and Federal Interlocutor
for Métis and Non-Status Indians, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the same export
rules apply everywhere in Canada. The same export permits are required in
every case. The authority over the Canadian Wheat Board is vested in the
hands of farmers themselves through a producer-elected board.
Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk—Interlake, Canadian Alliance): Mr.
Speaker, the minister knows very well that in fact the Wheat Board is not
run by farmers; it is run by government appointed people. The minister
also knows that farmers in the rest of Canada do not have to go through a
buyback.
I am asking the minister directly, should farmers in Ontario have to go
through the buyback through the Canadian Wheat Board?
Hon. Ralph Goodale (Minister of Public Works and Government Services,
Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and Federal Interlocutor
for Métis and Non-Status Indians, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, farmers in all
parts of Canada, whether in Ontario or the west, have the ultimate control
over the situation through a democratically elected system.
Let me make one point. The government stands for farmers. Not like the
opposition whose previous leader went to Washington, stood on the steps of
the U.S. capitol, joined hands with Newt Gingrich, and sided with the
United States.
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