SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 267 - Dec/13/23

Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

Dec/13/23 2:08:44 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to welcome three farmers from my riding to Parliament Hill: Éric Lafontaine, Alexandre Bégin and Mathieu Dumont. I salute the courage of all agricultural entrepreneurs, who just experienced one of the worst years ever from a climate perspective. Abitibi West farmers lived through a crop-damaging winter freeze, historic wildfires that required livestock evacuations and a catastrophic drought. To raise awareness among the public and elected officials about the economic and psychological impact involved, Éric, Alexandre, Mathieu and Maxime Fontaine wrote the “Red Letter”, which they will be delivering today to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. This letter was signed by 79 farm businesses in Abitibi West, many of them now forced to sell off some of their animals because of risk management programs ill-suited to climate change. We are talking about 30% of Abitibi West herds that have already been sold or that are currently for sale on the market to allow these farm businesses to survive. I ask the minister to be generous and to commit now to ensuring the sustainability of farm businesses and of our agricultural sector.

195 words

Context: House Hansard - 267 - Dec/13/23

Mr. John Barlow (Foothills, CPC)

Dec/13/23 4:17:43 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I move that the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, presented on Tuesday, June 13, be concurred in.

25 words

Context: House Hansard - 267 - Dec/13/23

Mr. Robert Kitchen (Souris—Moose Mountain, CPC)

Dec/13/23 4:36:29 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's speech and his comments recognizing the huge impact this has had on the agriculture industry, which is the backbone of my riding. So many of my agriculture producers are being challenged, whether because of a port strike in Vancouver, the restrictions, the worries about a possible port strike in Montreal and the huge costs that are being put on our farmers, which increase their costs. As the member knows, increasing their costs and transportation costs is going to eventually increase costs to consumers. Ultimately, that is going to put more people into food banks. I wonder if the member would expand on that.

110 words

Context: House Hansard - 267 - Dec/13/23

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Dec/13/23 5:45:22 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I do enjoy working with my fellow colleague on the agriculture committee. He will be familiar, from the multiple times that we have heard from grocery executives, that they are often talking about how they work in a low-margin industry. I think they present a slightly misleading argument. First of all, it should be pointed out that, in the last three years, their margins have doubled. If we look at it today, yes, when they are operating with a margin that is between 3% and 3.5%, it may look small. However, what people have to realize is that, when their gross revenues continue to climb, even though that margin may seem static, of course their profits will continue to rise as a result. I just wonder if my colleague can add a bit more to that because I have noticed a bit of defensiveness from the grocery CEOs and not enough attention is being paid to the fact that we do just have five companies controlling 80% of the market. Perhaps the member has some ideas on how we can try to turn that number around so that there is a bit more flexibility and competition there.

201 words