The Canadian Wheat Board - Manitoba Liberals see the need for a vote on barley and wheat at the same time.

The Canadian Wheat Board was front and centre at the Manitoba Legislature this last week. On Monday, Manitoba Liberals voted to support farmers having votes on barley and on wheat at the same time. Manitoba's Consrevatives voted against this. Indeed, astonishingly, the Conservative leader Hugh McFayden has called this issue "irrelevant".

I have heard from many Manitoba farmers who feel that basic democracy means there should be a votes on barley and on wheat at the same time. This is important to give a clear future of the direction that farmers want. It is also important because there are quite a number of Manitoba farmers who have grown wheat but not barley in the last two years, and would not get a vote if there was only a vote on barley.

Below are my comments in the Manitoba Legislature:

Mr. Gerrard: Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to this resolution and to the amendment.

First I'd like to pay a short tribute to the Canadian Wheat Board and the role it has played in the Manitoba economy and the role it still plays. The Canadian Wheat Board is important in what it has done in marketing barley and wheat from Manitoba farmers, and it's also been very important in contributing to employment in our economy and the grain industry in Winnipeg as well as in rural Manitoba and, of course, in Brandon and other cities around the province too.

It is our view that allowing Manitoba producers to have a vote on both wheat and barley at the same time is the best solution, and there are several reasons for this. First, we see that what the Leader of the Opposition Conservatives has said is being somewhat disingenuous when he says that the removal of a single-desk marketing capacity for wheat for the Canadian Wheat Board is not on the table. It's been proposed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture in the last election. Removing the single-desk marketing capacity for wheat from the Canadian Wheat Board has been recommended by the federal Conservative govern­ment's four-week task force.

Removing the single-desk marketing capacity for wheat from the Canadian Wheat Board is on the table. Indeed, it is creating some significant uncertainty for those involved in the grain industry in Manitoba. Mr. Speaker, I would argue that we need to remove this cloud of uncertainty from the industry. We should give producers the ability to vote on wheat as well as on barley, and the two votes should be at the same time to remove the present uncertainty from the grain industry in our province. Until these issues are voted upon and the future is clear, whether it's one way or the other way, this uncertainty will hang over the industry.

Uncertainty is bad for business. Let me give you an example, and I would speak now to the huge uncertainty which has been created by the present NDP government in the hog industry. The uncertainty in the hog industry is great because we have a situation where we have a government which was working very hard in promoting the expansion of the hog industry and then, all of a sudden, recently has announced it wants a moratorium on construction of new hog barns. There was no warning. There was just all of a sudden a stop, an edict, an end to the expansion of the hog industry, and I know many in the hog industry who are very upset at the NDP government. They see this as the dumbest thing that the NDP government has done, and it is dumb because it's creating uncertainty in the industry. People who are ready to invest and build hog barns, or invest in other ways in the industry now are very unsure about what they are going to do because of the uncertainty created by this NDP government. Indeed, I suspect quite a number will now move their investments into Saskatchewan because the NDP have created this uncertainty in the hog industry.

I note that the uncertainty in the hog industry is particularly great because we have no idea when the moratorium will be lifted, or indeed if it will ever be lifted under this government. They've given no time line as to when it might be lifted–in six months, a year, two years, three years, who knows. At the pace which they move, there is a lot of uncertainty, and it is not helping the people in the hog industry. Yes, the government should have made sure that the environmental issues were being well looked after. Yes, the government should have made sure that there is much less phosphorus going into Lake Winnipeg, but you didn't need to put a moratorium on the hog industry to do this. There are much better approaches to the hog industry. Indeed, the fact that a moratorium was put on speaks to the abysmal failure of this government's policies with regard to environmental management in the hog industry, or at least as people perceive them in the hog industry. All of a sudden, with this about-face with this moratorium we have a situation with uncertainty.

And so we feel in the wheat and grain industry, in the barley industry, we should have the uncertainty removed as soon as possible, and that is why we believe we should have the vote on both wheat and on barley together, and let's remove the uncertainty.

The uncertainty is not just in terms of farmers, it is in terms of the future of the Canadian Wheat Board, it is in terms of the future of many other businesses which relate in some way to the grain industry. It is uncertainty with respect to the future of the Port of Churchill. Let's get the vote done, let's get decisions made one way or the other, and let's get the uncertainty removed, this cloud removed from the future of the Canadian Wheat Board and of the grain industry in Manitoba.

As Liberals, we agree with some of the things that the Conservatives have said about the bungling by the NDP. We agree that the presence of an NDP government has been a detriment to the development of business in Manitoba. We are quite concerned about some of the anti-business attitudes of the NDP and the anti-value-added attitudes of the Minister of Agriculture as she'd expressed them recently. We in the Liberal Party are very strongly in support of the development of value-added industries.

That, of course, is why we are encouraged when we hear from Wheat Board directors like Bill Toews, who'd been elected by farmers, that he and other directors are aggressively pursuing changes to the Canadian Wheat Board within the single-desk mandate in order to promote the development of value-added industries.

We believe, that value-added industries can grow and develop rapidly in Manitoba within a system where the Canadian Wheat Board still has a single-desk marketing capacity for wheat. We agree with Bill Toews that the Canadian Wheat Board with its single desk has to be aggressive in how it promotes value added, because such value-added opportunities are important. They're important for farmers, they're important for rural communities, and they're important for all of Manitoba.

But we come to a bottom line. We have supported the single desk for wheat because we believe, at this point, it is the best option. But it must be farmers who decide. Farmers must be able to vote, and farmers, we believe, must be able to vote on both wheat and barley. That is our position. Farmers should vote on both wheat and barley at the same time. Let's clear the uncertainty.

I would add one more comment. You know, the NDP in calling for this vote are pretending to be the great supporters of democracy. If so, why did the NDP not support a vote by cattle producers on the levy of $2-a-head that they were proposing, a mandatory levy? The NDP, when it comes to provincial issues, don't seem to support democracy very well, but when it's a federal matter, they're all for a vote. We recognize that the NDP are pretty hypocritical, but, in spite of this, our view is that democracy should be supported, whether it is federal or provincial. We should be supporters of democracy because it's a very important way of making decisions, a very important way of involving farmers or others in decision making and to get better results for all people in Manitoba.

So that, Mr. Speaker, is our position. We see that we should have the vote soon on both wheat and barley, and that the votes should be at the same time because that would be the optimum that can be achieved.