Thursday! March 7, 1968

\Valter R. Shaw: May I ask, Mr. Minister, pardon me if I don’t get up, is that subsidy on cheese of certain grade? Number one isn’t it?

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: Yes.

\Valter R. Shaw: Well now, will that just about take up the slack on the removal of the Federal subsidy? It was three wasn’t it? Three cents a pound on number one grade cheese?

Hon. Daniel MacDonald: Actually this would be on number two also; we don’t check it that closely.

Walter R. Shaw: Well yes, they had it on one and two; I think it was three cents on one, and two cents on number two. Yours would be on number one and two?

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: Yes, thats right, pretty well up to plant.

J. Walter Dingwell: This doesn’t take up the slack of the loss we experienced by the reduction of the 2% on cheese Federal subsidy. It isn’t sufficient to take up what we lost?

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: This Federal subsidy we are referring to now was on for six months of the year. But anyway it has been put back on again.

Walter R. Shaw: What’s that? Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: It has been slid back on again.

Walter R. Shaw: Well you put it on. I think Ottawa should have got rapped over the fingers for taking that off.

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: We rapped them, they have been rapped! Walter R. Shaw: Well, I hope you rap them again.

Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: We just love rapping them. I don’t know where I was, I am nearly as confused now as the Senior Member from First Queens.

Ice-cream production at 1,456,000 quarts shows an increase of 5.5% over the previous year and the gross value was $739,131.

As in previous years, Mr. Speaker, the grading of butter was carried on under the direction of Mr. W. F. Rogerson assisted by officials from the Provincial Dairy Division. According to the annual report of the Canada Department of Agriculture 4,575,000 lbs. of butter were graded; 98% first grade and 1.2% second grade. That’s quite a record isn’t it?

Walter R. Shaw: That’s a good record. Hon. Daniel J. MacDonald: That’s right.

This represents an increase in the percentage of first grade over the previous year of .27%.

Our cheese quality decreased by percentage of first grade compared to the previous year. This could be attributed to a very substantial increase in the volume of milk at the cheese plants and too slow in active cultures.

During the year there were 2,335,000 lbs. of cheese graded, 94% being First Grade, 10.92% Second Grade, 1.88% Third Grade and 26% below Third Grade. This, I feel, is a commendable record to our producers and our processing plants. On March 27, 1967, the Canadian Dairy Commission announced their Dairy Support Pro- gram for the year April 1, 1967 to March 3lst, 1968, this program is still in being. A subsidy payment to producers of $1.21 per 100 lbs. This is a sizable amount of money, Mr. Speaker. I will give you the figures on it shortly. 0f manufacturing milk based on 3.5% butterfat, on this figure a deduction was made for export. This leaves a net payment to producers of $1.10 per hundred weight for milk or 31.42 cents per pound for butter fat. A further change in the policy was the establish- ment of eligibility quotas for subsidy payments, a quota allotted to each producer

—183—