Tuesday, February 27, 1968 Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : You'd better have a talk to them. Walter R. Shaw : I did have a talk with them and I had a number of talks with them and, as a matter of fact, I am going to have another one tomorrow. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : That's right, in the morning. Walter R. Shaw : We certainly would—but why, why, may I ask, are fourteen or whatever it is, people taken in from outside the Province to decide on some plan for the farm people of Prince Edward Island with whom they are not familiar. I doubt if there's an agriculturist in the bunch and our own men here experienced and familiar are not called in to take part in that discussion? Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : Better have another talk with them. Walter R. Shaw : Embarrassing? Now, I would like to say too, this kind of a plan was worked out in New Brunswick , not in operation but devised for New Brunswick . It's over two years ago since they decided on that plan in New Brunswick . Is that plan going yet? I don't think it is. The same is true of Nova Scotia . This is a long-distance plan and I have no objections to a long-distance plan if it is a prac¬ tical plan that can be applied with advantage to the farm people of the Province of Prince Edward Island but what did these farm people that came in the other day to see the government say? What did they say? They said that there was a des¬ perate condition in the Province of Prince Edward Island , and no plan that is made is going to be applicable in two, four or six years, or ten years that is going to save the farm people of Prince Edward Island at the present time. Now is the time. Some talk about lowering the population of this province, the farm population. Even the Premier stated about a year ago that we are heading toward a farm population of 2,500. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : I was quoting the Farm Credit Corporation. Walter R. Shaw : I am just quoting you, and one man of your Party stood up in this House last year and he said it would be better off if we had 3,000 to 3,500 less farmers in Prince Edward Island . Is that the way that we are going to help the farm people ? Is that the way we are going to keep those communities built up by getting clear of the small farmer? the medium sized farmer? the family farm? I think this thing has reached a very, very serious situation, and pretty nearly everything that we are getting now is being bought for the large operator. There is a growing feeling right across Canada that there has been a tremendous mistake made by promoters in advising for the larger farms, and we should talk policies that are going to help the medium sized farmer to stay on the land. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : What size is a medium farm? Walter R. Shaw : It is in relation to what your overall may be. Well you have a farm from five hundred to two thousand acres. A hundred acre farm is only a small farm. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : What size is medium? Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : You said, small, medium and family. How many acres in a medium farm? Walter R. Shaw : It depends on what the overall average is, the average acreage in the country. We have farmers here today that have two thousand acres of land, haven't we? We have farmers here that are raising six or eight hundred acres of potatoes in this country. Five and six hundred. Well I would say a medium farm here would be around one hundred to one hundred and fifty acres. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : One hundred to one hundred and fifty. What is a small farm ? Walter R. Shaw : A small farm may be around twenty-five acres. Hon . Alexander B. Campbell : Twenty-five acres. And a family farm, what size would that be? —29—