Mr. Speaker, from newspaper reports it would appear that the Minister for International Trade (Mr. Crosbie) has finally understood that Canadian water is threatened by the Prime Minister's (Mr. Mulroney) trade deal.

We learned today that an amendment to the trade deal will likely be made by the Government so as to exclude Canadian water from the trade Bill and prevent exports and diversions. This would be a welcome development. Yet, to be effective, the Minister should take the advice of Mel Clark, a former GATT negotiator for Canada, and Don Gamble of the Rawson Academy of Aquatic Sciences, and amend the trade agreement itself.

Unfortunately, the Minister said he will not amend the agreement. In light of that decision, the Prime Minister could save us all a lot of time and energy by calling an election and letting Canadians decide whether or not the Government should sell our water down the river.

Mrs. Shirley Martin (Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Public Works):

Mr. Speaker, today in Kansas City, Missouri, Sandra Brown of the city of Stoney Creek in Lincoln riding will be elected international President of the Professional Secretaries International Association. The association

represents 40,000 professionals from 65 countries around the world. It has been 21 years since a Canadian held this position.

Sandra's contribution and involvement in the association for the last 16 years will serve her well in her upcoming leadership role. Her election is an example of the ever increasing involvement of Canadians in shaping policies in global organizations. Lincoln is proud of Sandra and wishes her well.

Mr. Svend J. Robinson (Burnaby):

Mr. Speaker, British Columbians were shocked and outraged yesterday to learn that former Social Credit Attorney General, Brian Smith, had hired four private detectives to infiltrate and spy on Concerned Citizens for Choice on Abortion. Over $12,000 of public funds were spent on this sleazy operation which involved, among other things, secretly taping conversations and stealing membership lists.

The operation was co-ordinated through the Vancouver law offices of Farris, Vaughan, Wills and Murphy and, in particular, by Smith's legal henchman, Jack Giles. Brian Smith says he reported regularly to the office of Premier Bill Vander Zalm through principal secretary David Poole.

It is absolutely disgusting that government power should be abused in this way to spy on a respected group of citizens seeking to establish a free-standing clinic offering abortion and other reproductive health services in British Columbia. The current Attorney General should immediately turn over all records collected in this immoral operation.

I call upon Conservative Members of Parliament to join with me and my colleagues, and the vast majority of British Columbians, in saying to the discredited, collapsing, unethical Vander Zalm Government, in the name of God, go!

Mr. Geoff Wilson (Swift Current-Maple Creek):

Mr. Speaker, there is a cash flow problem facing those prairie

July 27, 1988

farmers in drought areas who will have little or no crop this year. The per bushel price guarantee under crop insurance is well below market. At the same time higher prices will likely preclude another Canada Special Grains Program. Therefore, some assistance is needed to bridge the shortfall.

I urge the Federal-Provincial Drought Committee to strongly consider utilizing crop insurance as the vehicle to ensure the fair and equitable distribution of any possible drought assistance to grain and oilseed producers.

Miss Aideen Nicholson (Trinity):

Mr. Speaker, on March 28, 1988, the Minister of Finance (Mr. Wilson) released "Draft Legislation-Retirement Savings". You will recall, Mr. Speaker, that the Minister of State for Finance (Mr. Hockin) recently said we can have either a fair or a simple tax system, not both. Indeed, the legislation on retirement savings is not simple.

The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Toronto has stated that the Department of Finance is adding complexity and confusion. One feature of the new system will be that anyone who is covered by a pension plan, who is also able to contribute to an RRSP, will have to rely on Revenue Canada for information about how much can be deducted each year for an RRSP contribution. This is because the new system is so complex that only actuaries will be able to quantify the annual entitlement.

We await the tabling of the Bill, which may now be delayed until after an election. Meanwhile we have pension plan administrators and pension contributors around the country readying themselves for the implementation of nightmarish new rules that may not even be passed into law in the foreseeable future.

Mr. Jean-Guy Guilbault (Drummond):

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Wise) has just given the Farm Credit Corporation $400 million in assistance that will help restore its finances; this makes clear that he supports this organization. Furthermore, the Minister announced that additional funds would be invested in the FCC over the next three years.

Last December, the Prime Minister gave $100 million to wipe out the FCC's losses, in addition to the other funds given

so that it could fully participate in the farm debt review process.

Over the last four years, the Government has taken measures worth nearly $10 billion for the food and agriculture sector.

This shows once again that the Conservative Government cares about Canadian agriculture. These achievements in agriculture are unequaled and are intended to ensure that farmers have all the tools they need to prosper.

Mr. Jim Fulton (Skeena):

Mr. Speaker, the Western Diversification Program has been announced and reannounced on an almost daily basis by Conservatives in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia as a fund wholly and solely for western Canada, but it is our tax dollars provided to projects which will diversify our western economy.

We learn this month that to Conservatives "western" means Ontario and "diversification" means moving industry from the West to Ontario. This Conservative Government in Ottawa has chosen to give $750,000 from the Western Diversification Fund to Cobra Enterprises Limited which moved from Vancouver to Markham, Ontario, two months ago. This company makes anti-theft alarms for automobiles. Too bad there is not a similar alarm attached to the Western Diversification Fund.

The next time the Prime Minister (Mr. Mulroney) crows about the Western Diversification Fund, those of us who live in the West will remember Cobra. We might even drive by the empty Cobra headquarters in Vancouver and remember that with the Conservatives at the till the Western Diversification Fund is to help steal western jobs and businesses to the east.

Mr. Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls):

Mr. Speaker, I was interested to read the July-August issue of Small Business. The magazine features free trade. Its editorials illustrate that Canada's business community overwhelmingly gives the green light to the free trade agreement.

July 27, 1988

The magazine shows that the vast majority of small businesses agree on one thing-Canada will benefit from free trade. They are not afraid to compete in the largest market in the world.

This issue of Small Business should be placed on the summer reading list of the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Turner).

I know that the Hon. Member from Canada's best example of free trade, Oshawa, will also be interested in what ordinary businessmen have to say.

Ms. Sheila Copps (Hamilton East):

Mr. Speaker, we have heard the Hon. Member for Lincoln (Mrs. Martin). We have heard the Hon. Member for Niagara Falls (Mr. Nicholson). I would like to throw them a challenge.

Will the Conservatives sink to a new low as they have done with the free trade deal? These Members in the Niagara Peninsula and in the Okanagan Valley are so afraid of competition from opposition in the election that they have actually written a clause into the grape deal which states that no Member of Parliament can actually take advantage of the deal.

What that is saying is that members of the agricultural community who have a legitimate battle to fight, who have grapes that they will have to bury over the next few weeks as they are ripening on the vines, with no market, do not have the right to run for Parliament because they will not be able to participate in the Government's pay-out on the free trade deal to the grape farmers.

That is a fact. The Government knows that it is a fact. The reason it has put it into place is because areas such as the Niagara Peninsula and the Okanagan Valley will reject the Conservatives totally.

I would like to give the grape farmers a chance to have their say. I would like to give the grape farmers a chance to run. Go to it!