Right Hon. L. S. St. Laurent (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, I wish to lay on the table of the house copies of a letter in French and in English which I addressed to the premiers of all the provinces on January 6 last concerning fiscal arrangements.

At the same time I should like to table copies of a letter which I addressed to the premiers of the provinces on December 5 and 6 last, with copies of a draft federal-provincial agreement on unemployment assistance.

I also wish to table two copies in French and in English of the revised proceedings of the federal-provincial meetings of April 26 and October 3 last.

Perhaps hon. members would wish for the sake of convenience to have these letters printed as an appendix to today's Hansard, together, I suppose, with the enclosed draft of the federal-provincial agreement on unemployment assistance. If that should be the desire of the house, perhaps Your Honour might so instruct the officials.

Mr. Drew:

I should think that would be very desirable.

Mr. Speaker:

Is it the pleasure of the house to adopt this suggestion?

Agreed.

(For text of documents see appendix, pages 23 to 30.)

Right Hon. C. D. Howe (Minister of Trade and Commerce):

Mr. Speaker, at the last sitting of the house the Leader of the Opposition asked the Prime Minister to table certain documents referring to Trans-Canada Pipe Lines Limited. I now table two copies of these documents.

Mr. J. G. Diefenbaker (Prince Albert):

1

should like to direct a question to the Minister of Trade and Commerce. What is being done by his department and the car controller in order to make freight cars available for the transportation of wheat to fill the unfilled storage space at the head of the lakes and also on the Pacific coast? Would the minister also say what are the possibilities of an early increase in the amount that may be delivered to country elevators by farmers?

Right Hon. C. D. Howe (Minister of Trade and Commerce):

Mr. Speaker, the transport controller is of course an officer of the Department of Transport. However, the department and the wheat board have been exerting pressure on the railroads and on the transport controller to speed up the movement of wheat from the prairies. My hon. friend will realize that the weather on the prairies for the last three or four weeks has been extremely unfavourable for railroading. The weather is improving and I may say that car loadings are improving. We hope that the improvement will continue. As far as added quotas are concerned, these are being increased from day to day and week to week as the situation warrants. A new list is published each week showing additional quotas for various points on the prairies.

INQUIRY AS TO PAYMENT ON 1954 CROP On the orders of the day:

Mr. H. R. Argue (Assiniboia):

I should like to direct a question to the Minister of Trade and Commerce. In view of the important announcement made yesterday that the government will pay the carrying charges on part of the wheat carryover, can the minister now say whether a payment on the 1954 wheat crop will be made at once to provide hard-pressed farmers with some cash immediately?

Right Hon. C. D. Howe (Minister of Trade and Commerce):

My hon. friend will realize that the bill he has referred to has considerable bearing on the ability of the government to decide on the amount of an interim or

Inquiries of the Ministry final payment. As soon as parliament has disposed of that legislation, we will be able to give careful consideration to the subject matter of his question.

Mr. W. M. Johnson (Kindersley):

I should like to direct a question to the Minister of Agriculture. In view of the low price received for grains has consideration been given to putting all cereal grains under the Agricultural Prices Support Act?

Right Hon. J. G. Gardiner (Minister of Agriculture):

I am afraid I will have to refer that question to the Minister of Trade and Commerce.

Mr. Johnson (Kindersley):

I direct the question to the Minister of Trade and Commerce.

Right Hon. C. D. Howe (Minister of Trade and Commerce):

I understand that the Agricultural Prices Support Act does not include wheat and coarse grains.