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Jun/16/22 10:01:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am proud to represent many individuals, families and communities of Ukrainian descent, and I have been absolutely proud to attend things like fundraisers and whatnot to assist with the effort, whether it is resettling refugees or supporting, in every way possible, the people of Ukraine. There is a lot that needs to be done, such as food aid; ensuring that Ukraine has the required military support; ensuring that there is energy security; ensuring logistical support so that the crop that was harvested last year, much of which still remains in Ukraine today, can actually get to market; ensuring that we are working with partners in the region, like Romania, to get the crop out of the Constanța port; ensuring that we do everything we can in the Black Sea and other areas to get their products to market; and as well ensuring that we are there to give support when it comes to the challenges of what will be, according to the information we are getting, a very challenging year, with many crops not having the chance to be seeded.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Jun/16/22 10:02:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I totally agree that the climate crisis and the food crisis are connected, but not in the way that I think my friend believes. The more we ignore the urgency of the climate crisis and the more we perpetuate some role in our future for the use of fossil fuels, the more we exacerbate a growing climate crisis that drives increasing drought. It means that the U.S. prairies and Canadian prairies will face drought. South Saharan Africa will face drought. This drives more food insecurity and drives more geopolitical instability, which drives more migration. We have to find solutions that work for all the crises we face and drive for solutions that work for them all at once. We cannot pick one over the other.

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Jun/16/22 10:03:45 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am proud that Canadian agriculture will be part of the solution, including to the many environmental challenges we face. I am proud to be involved in a family farm in a region of the world called the Palliser Triangle. It was about a hundred years ago that they said it was not deemed fit for human habitation, yet many farmers are able to successfully farm there today and have productive farms. I would simply conclude by saying that I think my dad is watching, so I wish him a happy Father's Day.

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Mr. Taleeb Noormohamed (Vancouver Granville, Lib.)

Jun/16/22 10:04:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. It is an honour to rise in this House on this subject. Many people might be asking why a member of Parliament from Vancouver is speaking about an issue that in many cases is focused on farming and on challenges facing many of our farmers, as we think about global food security and insecurity. It is because food security is not an issue just for rural Canada, but it is for all Canadians. I want to begin by thanking the member for Battle River—Crowfoot and his family for the work they do in ensuring Canadians have food on their tables. It is an important part of making sure we all appreciate and recognize the efforts that families are making. In my riding of Vancouver Granville, there are companies like Terramera that are doing innovative work and making it possible for us to do better at using technology to increase agricultural supply and to improve the way in which we grow in an environmentally sustainable way. It is important for us to remember that innovation is a big part of how we are going to be able to get through this together. However, the reality we face today is that, thanks to Vladimir Putin's illegal war in Ukraine, one of the world's greatest grain suppliers is in crisis. The world is looking to Canada, as we have heard, to step up, and we will. Our world-class agriculture and agri-food industry is a major driver of food security in over 200 countries around the world. Last year, despite the challenges of the pandemic, our agri-food exports topped $82 billion in 204 countries and territories. We are committed to ensuring farmers have the tools and the supports they need to keep their businesses strong, so they can feed Canadians and the world. Right now, we all know Canadian farmers are facing higher costs and shortages for their inputs. Whether it is fertilizer or fuel, due to the disruption of supply chains caused by the conflict in Ukraine, farmers are hurting. We know that fertilizer is vital to Canadian farmers to grow their crops and help feed the world. We are working with government and industry partners to ensure that farmers have access to fertilizer for Canada to do its part during this time of global food insecurity. For starters, we changed the advance payments program, allowing producers to receive 100% of their cash advances immediately when they apply rather than in two instalments. This program will offer farmers low-interest loans to help cover their seeding costs in the spring. We have also extended the deadline for the AgriStability program to help more farmers manage the severe challenges they are facing. This program will help farmers cover significant drops in farm income. As well as being a leading food producer, Canada is also the world's largest producer and exporter of potash fertilizer. On Monday, our government announced significant support for the new sustainable potash mine to be developed by BHP in Jansen, Saskatchewan. Our support of this innovative project is a long-term investment in global food security and environmental sustainability. We are glad to support these efforts to minimize the carbon footprint of the potash mine and to implement technology to further reduce emissions from mine operations, because this will be the world's greenest potash mine. Our investment will help to ensure Canada's position as a leading exporter of potash is maintained and will help strengthen food security. The demand for potash will continue to grow due to a need to increase crop yields to feed a growing global population. To ensure the long-term viability of our agriculture sector, we will keep making record investments to help Canadian farmers build on the great work they are already doing for all of us. We will do whatever it takes to ensure Canadian farmers have access to the resources and tools they need to ensure a stable food supply for Canadians and for the rest of the world. Throughout the pandemic, we introduced a number of measures to help ensure the supply chain worked as effectively as possible, including support for farmers and food processors to invest in safety protocols to keep their farms and plants running. The COVID-19 crisis reinforced Canada's reputation as a reliable supplier of high-quality agriculture and food products around the world. As a nation that exports much more food than we import, we showed how vital we are in helping our trading partners feed their populations. To maximize our trade opportunities, we have been working hard to diversify our trade through agreements with key trading partners, including the EU, North America and the countries of the trans-Pacific, with 15 trade agreements covering 51 countries giving Canadian farmers a competitive edge in over 60% of the global economy. We are going to keep advocating for farmers and advocating free trade that is open and based on rules. We are going to continue to work with the WTO and our G20 partners as well as our North American colleagues to maximize our opportunities under the existing agreement while exploring new alliances. The best way to strengthen global food security is to support the hard-working men and women who produce our food, and that is exactly what we are going to do.

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Mr. Greg McLean (Calgary Centre, CPC)

Jun/16/22 10:09:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to ask my colleague about the potash mine in Saskatchewan. It is an international company that has already committed $7.5 billion to build, but suddenly there is a $100-million little sweetener at the last minute from the federal government. This is for something that should be progressing along those lines anyway. It is a new way of doing business, according to the Minister of Innovation. Could the member comment on that? Is that not just a bond for the company that the government will not change the rules and the company find it had wasted $7.5 billion going forward?

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Mr. Taleeb Noormohamed

Jun/16/22 10:09:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, one of the things that it is important for us to do, as a government, is to ensure that we are making investments with partners to ensure that the work that is being done on mines like this one is done in a way that protects the environment and natural resources, and ensures that we are leading when it comes to ensuring that our food security and food stability, and the production of potash, is done in a way that is environmentally sustainable and protects our planet. That is the way of the future. We cannot do the things we have done in the past. We need to use innovation. We need to make those investments to ensure that companies such as BHP do the work that is required to do things in a sustainable manner to protect our environment and our environmental infrastructure.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola (Beauport—Limoilou, BQ)

Jun/16/22 10:10:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, there are already concerns about the number of countries living with food insecurity or even famine. There are 44 countries at risk, which is 20% of all the countries in the world. That is what is going on right now. I always wonder why grain is part of the marketplace. I would think it should be a right, but that is all I will say, since I do not want to get scolded by my economist friends on the way out of the House. We need to be thinking ahead to next year. Farmers who cannot sow this year will not be able to grow grain next year. If there is no grain this year, there will be even less next year, since there will be none at all. This means that next year, more than 20% of the countries in the world might need help. It could be 40%. How do we respond to that?

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Mr. Taleeb Noormohamed

Jun/16/22 10:11:35 p.m.
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My colleague is right, Madam Chair. This is a problem, not only for today, but also for tomorrow and next year. We will have to work with our international partners to fix this problem. We must continue to support Ukraine in this war. We must also continue to work together to help Canadian farmers produce the essential foods that our country and the world need.

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Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP)

Jun/16/22 10:12:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am really concerned that we are not looking at the larger issues here, the fact that we are dealing with war crimes being pushed by Putin. We are dealing with destabilization. What is the plan to actually put in a new world order, a new understanding of the world in an age of destabilization? Where are we going, given the crimes that we are watching in Ukraine, the destabilization, the break-up of supply chains and the climate change? Canada needs to have a whole new vision.

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Mr. Taleeb Noormohamed

Jun/16/22 10:13:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I agree with the hon. member. It is important for us to recognize what we are facing with the invasion of Ukraine. What we have seen in other parts of the world is an increase in the rise of what I would call authoritarianism and a move away from the world order where we respect human rights and where we respect pluralism. We have really turned away from the values that have made this world work in the way that it has in the past. The opportunity for Canada is to lean into what we do best, which is to export our values of pluralism, of inclusivity, of working together, of innovation, of respecting diversity and respecting one another to solve problems. The way that we battle misinformation and disinformation is by coming out with reasons for people to feel good about things and by actually showing that there is strength in solving problems together. It is not a zero-sum game. We can all do better.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Jun/16/22 10:14:04 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to start by thanking the hon. member for Vancouver Granville for sharing his time with me. I recognize that we stand on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. This debate has been encouraging in that we recognize that there is a looming food crisis and food instability globally, but also dispiriting in that we seem to think we can bite off little chunks of it as an incremental set of issues within one silo called “food”. We are, in fact, facing multiple crises that influence each other and must be dealt with together. I just pulled some clippings I have. I remember when the pandemic was first getting up and running and I flipped this article I found in The Guardian to the person who was then our Minister of International Development. She was also on it, saying she was getting to the World Food Programme. The article is from The Guardian, April 2020, and the headline is “Coronavirus pandemic 'will cause famine of biblical proportions'”. It quoted at length from David Beasley of the World Food Programme. That is where we started from: the pandemic causing huge risk of global food insecurity. Then, of course, the climate crisis made all those issues worse, as it has from the beginning. I mean, the Arab Spring was caused by the geopolitical instability that created the wars in Syria and Libya. That came from prolonged drought, which meant that there were food breakdowns. There was a food insecurity crisis, and it created war. Now we have climate change galloping and galloping, and persistent droughts. Just this last season, we saw droughts in sub-Saharan Africa, droughts through the U.S. prairies, droughts through the Canadian prairies, and now we have an overlay of war. I want to stop for a moment and say something about David Beasley, because I think it is really interesting. I got to know him through the U.S. presidential prayer breakfast. He is a Republican. He is a former Republican governor from the state of South Carolina. He lost his seat as governor of the state of South Carolina when he changed his position on the question of whether the Confederate flag should fly above the capitol. When he took down the Confederate flag, he lost his seat. As I may have mentioned, as a very dedicated Christian, he has put his talents where they are of most use, that being as the head of the UN World Food Programme. He knows what he is doing. It is urgent that we save lives, and we do not save lives through dribs and drabs. Canada must commit at least the $600 billion that the World Food Programme says we need. However, I will turn to another source right now. The question is, how do we, as humanity or as politicians, deal with more than one scary thing at a time? Are we capable of doing it? The word I want to use is “polycrisis”. It comes from Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, who now runs a program called Cascade Institute in collaboration with scientists around the world. I just want to read something from the Cascade Institute website, because I think it helps us: Humanity faces an array of grave, long-term challenges, now often labeled “global systemic risks.” They include climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, widening economic inequalities, financial system instability, ideological extremism, pernicious social impacts of digitalization [such as cyber-attacks], mounting social and political unrest, large-scale forced migrations, and an escalating danger of nuclear war. Compared to humanity’s situation even two decades ago, most of these risks appear to be increasing in severity and at a faster rate.... With one minute left, how do we address polycrises? I suggest that we do not address them as if it is normal business. It is not status quo. This requires that when the G7 meets later this month, when NATO meets, or whenever world governments meet together, they stop thinking that we are going to get out of this with incremental in-the-box thinking. We have to get way out of our boxes. We have to treat the global food insecurity crisis as an emergency and try to save tens of millions of lives while we can. We have to address it as part of the attack on Ukraine and defend Ukraine, but also ask Ukraine to take the mines out of the harbour in Odessa and tell Russia to take away its blockades because grain must move across borders. We have to treat this as a geopolitical emergency and as a crisis of the human family. We can only do it all together.

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Mr. Dan Mazier (Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, CPC)

Jun/16/22 10:19:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, when it comes to food production, what should be addressed first, global carbon emissions or global water quality and quantity, to increase food production in the world?

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Jun/16/22 10:19:36 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I often find that my friend from Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa is more aware of what happens on the land in the place where he is rooted than on that of other members. We cannot separate them. The global warming crisis, the climate emergency, drives the water crisis. They are inextricably linked. We have to set a date and start moving away from fossil fuels. It will be hard. It was hard for Quebec to shut down the asbestos industry, but if we do not plan to shut down the fossil fuel industry in the near term, we will not be able to protect our water, we will not be able to preserve the possibility that farmers can plant crops that have a chance of surviving and we will create mega-droughts.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Jun/16/22 10:20:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands for her speech. As I have already told the House, I think it is deplorable that some members do not have as much speaking time as others just because they represent a party with fewer than 12 seats in the House. After all, the voice of the people they represent is just as legitimate and important. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations notes that war and climate change are the main causes of food insecurity around the world. I would like my colleague to tell us more about climate change as a cause of food insecurity.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Jun/16/22 10:21:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my dear friend from Joliette is right. The food crisis and the climate change crisis go hand-in-hand. The climate change crisis is urgent. It amplifies other threats, such as war and agricultural production problems. We are in the midst of a full-blown global crisis. We have to deal with it, and it is not easy.

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Ms. Anita Vandenbeld (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Lib.)

Jun/16/22 10:22:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands for making the incredibly crucial link that all of this is interconnected, whether it is climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic or the conflicts around the world, not just what is happening in Ukraine. The fact is that all of these things are creating a perfect storm that is leading not just to this incredible food crisis, but to a crisis in democracy and a crisis that is having an unbelievable impact on the people of the world. I wonder if she could elaborate on that.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Jun/16/22 10:22:42 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I really appreciate the question from my hon. friend from Ottawa West—Nepean. These are not separate crises. If we look at the role Putin has played in undermining our own democracy, the Russian government has been using disinformation websites for quite some time to undermine democracies by provoking a whole series of false narratives. Donald Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin, disrupting democracies in the western world, increasing incivility in the way we deal with each other and increasing the risk of white supremacy, which is an example of something that threatens our democracy. We cannot take these things as separate and siloed. We need to defend democracy and attack autocracies and fascist states. In doing that, we need to be conscious of the fact, to be biblical like David Beasley might want me to be, that we cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. We have to identify the enemy, and the enemy is multinational corporations that seek to profit from every one of these crises.

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Mr. Yves Perron (Berthier—Maskinongé, BQ)

Jun/16/22 10:24:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to continue along the same lines. The food crisis is directly linked to the climate crisis. It began before the COVID-19 pandemic, although that amplified it. It also began before the war. As a country, it is imperative that we set meaningful targets and find ways to begin a real energy transition. That means Canada has to stop approving projects like Bay du Nord, which made absolutely no sense. Let us think of the droughts in western Canada last year, or the flooding and the fires they had in British Columbia. These were all major disasters. Things do not appear to be as bad this year, but we certainly have had excess water in Quebec. We have had far too much rainfall, an abnormal amount, I would say. Farmers cannot even dry their hay, because sooner or later a cloud comes along and it rains for 15 minutes. That is enough to spoil the whole process. The climate is unstable. A while ago, we had very high winds. The Lanaudière farmers' union actually told me it is asking the Government of Quebec for a support program for maple syrup plantations. The damage was extremely severe, and there is concern for the safety of the landowners, who will be cleaning up all those precariously fallen trees themselves. Maple syrup plantations take more than just a couple of years to turn a profit. It is more like 20, 30 or 40 years. That is the reality. It has begun. The longer we wait to take real action, the worse it will get. Food insecurity is happening here because of COVID‑19, the housing crisis, and rising interest rates, with inflation playing a role. People who paid too much for their homes are up to their eyeballs in debt. Some unpleasant stories will play out in the months to come. A crisis response team was put together in my riding in anticipation of the housing crisis this coming July 1, because housing is too expensive. When people pay a greater portion of their income for housing, where else can they cut spending but on groceries? People eat noodles more often, and they eat less. I hear people talk about this every week. Just this morning, someone told me that they receive old age security and that this government is stubbornly refusing to increase it. I will digress here because I talk about this subject every chance I get. This creates food insecurity. We need to be vigilant. I want to appeal to all members to recognize the importance of maintaining our social safety net. That is why the Bloc Québécois rises so often to protect our jurisdictions. People can say what they want, but the social safety net in Quebec is more effective than elsewhere. This means that we need our health transfers as well as an increase in old age security and the guaranteed income supplement. We have proposed easy solutions. We must ensure that we redistribute wealth equitably. Let us now talk about the global food crisis and the war in Ukraine. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, 44 countries will need aid this year, and 53 countries will face food insecurity in one form or another. Those are big numbers. This appalling war is being carried out in such a way as to create food insecurity. It becomes clearer the more we analyze it. We are working on this issue at the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, which received Ukrainian elected officials. I have to confess that I found this extremely difficult. I would like to tip my hat to these people, who are standing guard and are showing exemplary courage. In this war, Russia is targeting infrastructure and deliberately blocking ports. The Ukrainians are unable to export last year's crops. This year's crops are growing, but there is nowhere to store them. It is a serious problem. We absolutely need to create a safe corridor to ensure the export of grain out of Ukraine, not just for us, but for the entire world. We have to think about food insecurity. As long as there is hunger, there will be no peace. There have already been several coups in African countries recently. This will create a lot of political instability. I hope I am wrong, but the implications of the war in Ukraine are much greater than currently projected. At some point, someone is going to have to make a move. Exporting this grain is of capital importance. I think that Canada is capable of helping with respect to temporary storage infrastructure, obviously located outside the combat zones so that it too is not targeted. To save the crops, they need to be moved. Canada can also increase its contribution to the UN World Food Programme, as was mentioned earlier. It is important. The Oxfam representatives who testified at committee told us that Canada's international food aid contribution right now is half of what it was a few years ago. That is due to inflation, and we need to adjust it. We can afford to do that, and we have no right to refuse. That is something meaningful we can do. We need to provide constructive international aid. A few weeks ago, I was in Ghana. I visited the main FAO offices for Africa, which are located in Accra. People were telling me that only 8% of international aid goes to improving agriculture because most international aid is geared to generate specific demands. A somewhat exaggerated example is that a tractor may be provided, but there is a requirement that the parts be purchased from the supplier. We need to invest in the long term, in infrastructure, while respecting local cultures. We could develop food autonomy. I am sure it will come as no surprise when I say I am going to talk about supply management again. It is another option, something we could do that works well here. It needs to be protected, and we must stop selling it out bit by bit in the international agreements we sign. We should export the model. African countries are being flooded with cheap food surpluses from developed countries, hindering the development of local production. We should organize local farmers. In many African countries, women do the farming, but they have no bargaining power or market organization. This kind of thing costs nothing. We have the know-how, so I think we have a duty to go there. I now want to talk about what needs to be done in this country. We must ensure that we are self-sufficient when it comes to food. I was happy to hear a lot of speeches about how we need to make life easier for our farmers. Charity begins at home. We need to give to others, but we must first ensure that we are protected. We must protect supply management. We must not implement unnecessary restrictions, such as labelling trans fats on ground beef. It makes absolutely no sense. Ground beef is a whole food; people know what they are buying. Taxing pollution is a good thing, but there is no point taxing grain drying, because there is no alternative and it only ends up increasing the cost of food. We need to stay focused and be smart about what we are doing. We need to support our agricultural producers' environmental innovations. When they do something to protect the environment, that is worth money. We pay them money, we ensure that the money is at their disposal for the next innovation. We need to trust our farmers. They will not disappoint us. We need to listen to our people. This morning I shared with the minister a letter from the UPA dated May 18, asking for emergency support because of the skyrocketing increase in input production costs. Costs have gone up by 50% compared to the consumer price index, which is around 5%. Farmers need meaningful help. Farm debt is extremely high. These farmers are currently burning through all of their cash. In a few months, we are going to start seeing businesses close down and disappear. Is that what we want? Obviously the answer is no, so we need to do something about it.

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Mr. Richard Lehoux (Beauce, CPC)

Jun/16/22 10:34:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech. He talked about support for getting grain out of Ukraine at this time. If we want to see short-term results, we have to look at that. Does my colleague have a sense of what the government has done? Last week, when Ukraine's agriculture minister was with us, she said she needs urgent help clearing mines from fields. The fields were seeded this spring, but there will be no harvest this fall because farmers are too afraid of setting off mines to go into their fields. Has my colleague heard anything from the government about plans to do anything about that? Everybody is desperate.

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Mr. Yves Perron

Jun/16/22 10:35:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my esteemed colleague from Beauce. Like him, I hear good intentions and lip service. It is all well and good to establish principles of action in the early days, but at some point we need to take action. I think we are in a position to provide demining equipment, for example. We can do that and we must do it quickly. We can also do it with drones, I believe, without putting human life at risk. That is very important. When Ukrainian farmers return to the fields, we want them to be harvesting crops, not bombs.

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