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House Hansard - 267

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 13, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 267 - Dec/13/23
Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)
  • Dec/13/23 2:08:44 p.m.
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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.
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