SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 235 - Oct/19/23

Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)

Oct/19/23 3:14:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, several water main breaks saw torrents of water pouring down the streets of Prince Rupert and flooding people's homes. Now there is a city-wide boil water advisory. This is not the first time. Last December, the city had to declare a state of emergency due to its failing water infrastructure. This is a port city that is critical to Canada's supply chain and our economy. Will the minister stand and speak directly to the people of Prince Rupert and assure them that timely federal help is on its way?

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Context: House Hansard - 235 - Oct/19/23

Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)

Oct/19/23 6:53:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rose on September 20 on behalf of farmers in northwest British Columbia in an appeal to the Minister of Agriculture to come to their aid immediately after a disastrous summer that had affected many family farms. This goes back to the spring. Farmers knew very early on that there was a problem, because their crops of hay were not growing. By July, they knew how bad this problem was. In fact, after months of a class-five drought, farmers were in a situation where they were getting as little as 10% of their normal hay harvests. We have seen this across all the western provinces. I wrote to the former minister of agriculture back in July, appealed to her, raised this issue and asked for immediate help for farmers who were in a crisis. We were losing family farms. We were seeing farmers have to sell off their herds. We did not hear back from the minister. Then I met with the current Minister of Agriculture on September 19, told him about the situation and asked where the help was. He said that he had not even heard about the crisis and was not aware of any application from British Columbia. Of course, that application had been sitting on his desk for months. I do not want to hear that help will be coming soon or that the government is working on it. My question for my hon. colleague across the way is this: On what day will farmers in northwest British Columbia finally get the support from the federal government that they deserve?

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Context: House Hansard - 235 - Oct/19/23

Mr. Taylor Bachrach

Oct/19/23 6:59:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think the three dairy farmers who had to sell their farms are going to be happy with the results. I do not think the many beef farmers who had to sell off their herds are going to be happy with the results. I will tell members a couple of characteristics of a government that takes a crisis seriously. First of all, when a member of Parliament writes to a minister, they write back. Second, when the provincial government and the farmers of the region come to the federal government and say there is a crisis, it does not take three months to make something happen. It is October, and we still do not have help. Farmers do not have feed. They have sold off their animals, and we are losing a significant amount of our regional food security because the government, 4,000 kilometres away, is dragging its feet. What is his message? I want to know what the parliamentary secretary's message is to the farmers in my region who have lost their family farms. Tell me.

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