Mr. Rowe:

That is not what they said.

Mr. Ferguson:

You have never lost that art. You are the best summerfallower we have heard in a long time.

Mr. Ward:

They failed again. They were still without a policy. Then along came foot-and-mouth disease and they were going to get the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Gardiner). His was the first head they were going to chop off, but through the efforts of our ingenious and enterprising Minister of Agriculture and his staff the foot-and-mouth disease was cleaned up in less than six months, eighteen months less time than has ever been the case in any other place in the world. The United States market is now open to the livestock of this country, thanks to the Minister of Agriculture. They failed again. Then it was the Petawawa thefts.

Mr. Ferguson:

Now, don't mention that.

Mr. Ross (Souris):

That is just peanuts.

Mr. Ward:

Mr. Rowe:

Oh, no, he did not.

Mr. Ward:

He stated that there were horses impersonating men on the payroll, that C.N.R. tracks had been stolen. Well, their faces were about this long when the Currie report was presented and they found that there were no horses on the payroll, that there had been no impersonation, and that there were no C.N.R. tracks within miles of the Petawawa camp-

Mr. Adamson:

They were not there

because they had been stolen. That is why they were not there.

Mr. Fraser:

They were miles away.

Mr. Ward:

-and that instead of the thefts and pilfering amounting to $7i million the figure was only $50,000. That is a lot of money. I know if I had $50,000 it would be a lot of money to me, but I saw a statement in the Financial Post some time ago to the effect that the average daily pilferings and thefts in private life throughout Canada amounts to $50,000. The Financial Post is a pretty good authority, and it is a paper that usually supports my hon. friends opposite. As the Minister of National Defence pointed out some time ago, on the basis of the investment at Petawawa the thefts there amount to 40 cents for each $10,000 of investment.

Mr. Ferguson:

You have the figures.

There is no doubt about that. Keep it up and you will become an expert.

Quack, quack.

Mr. Ward:

In my opinion the Conservative party is very sorry today that they ever dealt with the Currie report as they did.

Mr. Rowe:

Not half as sorry as the government. That is why they do not want any more.

Mr. Ward:

Having failed again, the official opposition and the C.C.F. turned their attention to the South Saskatchewan river dam. That was the thing. Why, even fellows from away down in the eastern part of the country were making speeches on it. They did not know where it was and had never seen it but they were making speeches in favour of the building of the South Saskatchewan river dam. I think they have pretty well failed. So far as the South Saskatchewan river dam is concerned, if the report is correct it will cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 million to build the irrigation project alone, if we do not attempt to use the power at all.

I want to point out to the house that for an investment of $15 million on the Opasquoi flats, through which the Carrot and The Pas rivers flow, a million and a half acres of

The Budget-Mr. Ward far better land than that along the banks of the Saskatchewan river could be irrigated. I have the word of good engineers that a million and a half acres of land could be reclaimed. The most optimistic I have talked to say that with 20 years of work the most land that can be irrigated along the South Saskatchewan is a quarter of a million acres. Suppose it is half a million acres. With an investment of $15 million and by going a little farther north you can get a million and a half acres of far better land, and it will not be troubled by drought. It is good land.

Mr. Graydon:

There is your expert.

Mr. Ward:

The South Saskatchewan river dam having failed, the last thing my hon. friends grabbed at, and which I think is also going to fail, was the emergency powers bill. They said it was a terrible thing for the government to have power to deal with emergencies without coming to parliament.

Mr. Browne (St. John's West):

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker-

Mr. Speaker:

I do not think the hon. member should discuss that matter. It is before the house.