44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 14, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, farmers work tirelessly to feed Canada and the world with some of the highest quality produce available, yet the NDP-Liberal government continues to punish them at every turn.
Instead of giving them a much-needed break on the carbon tax through common-sense measures like Bill C-234, the Prime Minister is quadrupling the carbon tax, hurting the livelihoods of the very farmers who are putting food on the tables of Canadians. One farmer in the regional municipality of Estevan is paying over $150,000 in carbon taxes a year. Once quadrupled, this will go up to over $600,000 annually for his 15,000-acre farm. How does the Prime Minister expect him to cover this cost: by raising prices on Canadians, cutting back his acreage or bringing in more costly food from polluting foreign farms?
Conservatives know that if we tax the farmer who grows the food and tax the trucker who ships the food, Canadians have to pay more to buy the food. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians know that the Prime Minister is simply not worth the cost.
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Mr. Speaker, sadly, the Prime Minister wants to punish farmers for being incredible optimists and doing the fantastic work they do every day on our behalf. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, farm input costs are ballooning out of control. Bill C-234, a common-sense Conservative bill, would reduce the cost of food for Canadians by removing the carbon tax on farmers. I spoke to farmers in my backyard, who said that any of those major inputs have just been skyrocketing in price, with almost double the fuel bills, as well as fertilizer that has doubled, if not tripled, in price.
On annual expenses of $2 million, almost 20% or $400,000 is due to the punishing carbon tax. That will mean $1.6 million when the Prime Minister quadruples the tax. The other concern is that the tax is so hidden that this estimate is probably low.
Does the Prime Minister think that farmers need to raise prices on Canadians, or should Alex cut back production so that Canadians are forced to import food from polluting foreign farms?
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- Dec/14/23 2:36:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when it came to action, my hon. colleague and the Conservative Party of Canada voted against every program that would support agriculture. It is a shame. I have talked to agricultural producers right across the country; they cannot understand why an opposition would vote against the on-farm climate action fund to help farmers adapt to climate change, which adds to the price of groceries.
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- Dec/14/23 2:37:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a farmer and I talk to farmers across the country. They cannot understand why the opposition party would vote against so many programs that assist agriculture across the country.
Also, farmers find it very disappointing and cannot believe that one would vote against support for Ukraine and for democracy. They were ashamed.
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- Dec/14/23 2:38:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, unlike that minister, I actually spoke to farmers from Dufferin today. One farmer, from Burnett Farms, is going to pay $40,000 in carbon taxes this year alone. After this incompetent Liberal-NDP government quadruples the tax, it will be $160,000.
They do not need another government program. They need the carbon tax cut.
How is this farmer supposed to pay for it? Should farmers cut production or will they have to import food from polluting foreign farms?
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- Dec/14/23 2:38:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what many Canadians are puzzled by is the fact that, in the age of climate change, where the impacts of climate change are costing our farmers hundreds of millions of dollar every year, the Conservatives have nothing to say to them, no plans to support them in the transition that will be necessary in the 21st century, to continue being a provider of food for Canada and the world.
The Conservatives have no plan to help our farmers, no plan to fight climate change and no plan to support the future of our kids and grandkids.
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- Dec/14/23 2:39:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with that statement, this radical carbon tax-loving environment minister has basically proven the point. His carbon tax has not stopped any of the effects on farms. Instead, farmers are left paying this punishing carbon tax.
A chicken farm pays $15,000 for one barn this year in carbon tax. After this ideologically obsessed minister quadruples the carbon tax, it will be $60,000 for one chicken barn.
What is this farmer supposed to do to pay it, raise prices or force Canadians to import their food from polluting foreign farms?
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- Dec/14/23 2:44:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Liberal-NDP government, farmers are struggling under the weight of this punishing carbon tax.
Karen, a chicken farmer from Norfolk, pays $350 every month in carbon taxes. When the Liberals quadruple the carbon taxes, she will be paying $1,400 a month. Will the Prime Minister tell farmers like Karen how she is going to pay for the carbon tax hike? Should she charge Canadians more for food or should she produce less so that Canadians will be forced to import food from polluting foreign farms?
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- Dec/14/23 2:45:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, it is a bit rich to hear Conservatives talk about support for farmers when they voted against support for farmers just last week.
As we support farmers in the transition so that they can reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, they can become more competitive in Canada and around the world. What are the Conservatives doing? They are voting against it. They say they are in favour of farmers but, unfortunately, their record speaks the opposite.
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- Dec/14/23 2:45:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the carbon taxes have very serious consequences. Karen deserves answers about how she is going to pay that $1,400 a month in carbon taxes. The Prime Minister said that farmers are working hard to protect the environment, but instead of rewarding them, the Liberal-NDP government is taxing them into the ground.
Does the Prime Minister expect farmers like Karen to charge more or should she produce less so that Canadians will be forced to import food from polluting foreign farms?
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- Dec/14/23 2:46:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we know that the Conservatives voted against farmers. They voted against taking action on climate change. They also voted against dental care. That means nine million people who they do not want to have access to dental care. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of seniors who they are saying are not going to be able to get dentures replaced if they were in government. They are talking about more than a million kids who they would say no to, that those kids cannot get critical dental care because they want to vote against it.
Their real agenda is cuts. When one looks through their slogans, that is all that is there.
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- Dec/14/23 2:53:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just a few days ago, Conservative members voted against the interests of farmers. Just a few days ago, they also voted against measures to promote women's participation in the economy, against free menstrual products, against funding for sexual misconduct investigations and against subsidizing child care. What do the Conservatives have against measures that support women?
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- Dec/14/23 2:53:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is classic Liberal deflection. When the Liberals are down, they will deflect at every fact they can.
These are the facts: Under the Prime Minister, housing prices have doubled. Under the Prime Minister, food bank usage is the highest in history. On the OECD, we rank 35 out of 38 in teen mental health. There is suicide.
Who feeds families? Farmers do. Who are the Liberals cutting? They are cutting out farmers. Will the Liberals axe the tax and make life affordable? The jig is up. Everybody knows the Liberals are not telling the truth.
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- Dec/14/23 3:00:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 2023 has been an extremely difficult year for farmers: rising interest rates, rising input prices, floods, droughts. It is one thing after another.
Meanwhile, the federal government is abandoning them. Ottawa's investments in agriculture do not even amount to 5% of agricultural production value. That is four times less than in Europe.
The government must immediately set up an emergency fund for struggling farmers. We have been saying this for months. Canada also needs to claw its way up from the bottom of the world's agricultural investment rankings.
When is this government going to support our farmers?
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- Dec/14/23 3:01:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I did meet with my hon. colleague yesterday, and I fully understand the concern he has. The program is under what we call the business risk management program, which is put together by the federal government, the provincial government and the territories. The guidelines have been put in place.
As I said yesterday to my hon. colleague, anything I can do to help the farmers in Quebec, I will do, but there are guidelines to follow.
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- Dec/14/23 3:02:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, the cost of food production is at an all-time high. The truckers who transport our grain, deliver the fertilizer and the fuel farmers need, and haul our groceries to the stores for Canadians to buy, pay the carbon tax, but pass it along to the farmer and the consumer.
A trucking company in Swift Current pays $20,000 per truck, per year, in carbon tax. Once the Prime Minister quadruples its cost to $80,000, how does he expect it to pay for this? Will it be through raising prices on Canadians, or should our farmers cut back on production so we are forced to import food from polluting foreign farms?
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Madam Speaker, I begin this debate a little heavy-hearted, because this is an issue that is near and dear to me and I just want to reiterate what I just heard.
I just heard the member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview advocate against jobs in his own riding in the Calgary airport, jobs of shipping horses. This is from a bill from the member for Kitchener—Conestoga.
Apparently this is the pressing issue in Kitchener—Conestoga. It is not affordability. It is not any other issue, like day care, crime or violence in our communities and streets or people using food banks; the most pressing issue in Kitchener—Conestoga apparently is what some Métis people in Alberta are doing, and a few farmers in Manitoba, Alberta and Quebec are doing, when it comes to horses.
It is a niche market, as I will freely admit, and my constituents admit that, but it is an important issue. I am referring, obviously, to this notion of somehow singling out horses for export from our agricultural community. In essence, the government and its acolytes in the Senate have launched a two-pronged attack. The first bill here is Bill C-355, which we are debating today, and the second is Bill S-270. Both of these bills would prohibit the export of live horses from Canada for the purpose of slaughter. The primary difference is that Bill C-355 would only restrict that export by air, while the Senate bill would do so more generally and broadly.
Since this issue is not often discussed in the public domain, other than in misinformation campaigns, I would like to begin my speech today with a few statistics and some key information about this valuable industry.
There were only 347 exporting breeders in Canada, and they exported a total of 2,600 animals for slaughter in the last year, 2022. For the education of my colleague for Calgary Skyview who just spoke and said that we used to export 7,000, that was because we used to have PMU barns and we used to produce a lot more horses because of that pregnant mare urine, which is a biotic used for the creation of birth control. As that was phased out in favour of therapeutics, the number of horses has gone down.
However, we still need a market for these animals, but that member would not know that. I do not think there are a whole lot of horse breeders or horse raisers in Calgary Skyview, which is fine. I always find a lot of humour in listening to my Liberal colleagues from urban areas talk about how much they clearly do not know about agriculture. That number is complemented by another 10,840 live horses that are also exported, but not for the purpose of slaughter. Basically, a five-to-one ratio of horses that are actually exported are not for slaughter, but who is going to know what the motives are of the buyer of that particular horse when it is purchased in Canada and shipped on an airplane?
While the distribution of this industry, as I said, is spread across the country, the greatest number of these animals comes from my province of Alberta, as well as Ontario and Manitoba. It should be noted that 25% of these horses come from indigenous herds. I remember when this government used to say that there is no relationship more important to it than the relationship with first nations people; a quarter of this industry is actually providing income and stability to the economic viability of first nations, primarily the Métis in Alberta.
Canada consumes 1,000 to 1,200 tonnes of horsemeat every year. This is mainly in la belle province of Quebec. As well, over a billion people—16%, so almost two in 10 people on this planet—consume horsemeat, so almost 20% of human beings on the planet consume horses. That is an astounding number, but apparently it is not good enough for those who do not know the industry, do not know anything about agriculture and never represented anybody in agriculture, and they are just going to shut down this industry.
It is also very healthy meat, with 20% more protein than beef, 25% less fat, 20% less sodium and double the iron of a beef sirloin, so I do not know why my colleagues across the way are protesting so much.
Now that we have a picture of what this industry looks like in this country, I would like to stay with what the Liberals propose to do with Bill C-355, and it is nothing short of shameful. The bill would require an unreasonable regulatory process to be undertaken prior to any flight being allowed to depart with a horse on board. This includes a signed declaration, to be approved by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, that the horses are not being exported for slaughter.
Can members imagine? The pilots have about five minutes when the plane pushes back from the gate when the pilots have the authority to get their documentation, get everything signed, push back and take off.
Now, we would have to have an approved letter from the Minister of Agriculture just before push-back. I am sure that would be an interesting bureaucratic hoop to jump through. This declaration must then be in the hands of the pilots of that aircraft and the chief customs officer of the airport. If it is contravened, the consequences of this act would be devastating. On the higher end, fines of up to a quarter of a million dollars, imprisonment for a term of not more than two years or both may result.
One gets less for violating a gun prohibition order in this country. This is the way the folks across the aisle think about these particular issues. There is nothing more damaging to Canada, apparently, than a farmer.
This is not speculation. The Air Line Pilots Association, International, for Canada has expressed concerns. It represents 95% of the unionized pilot workforce employed at 21 airlines.
The result of this bill would be to essentially restrict the air transportation of all horses in and out of Canada for all purposes. Not only would this bill impose an unfair burden of proof on the pilots and exporters, who cannot always be assured of what the end use is of the horse that is on board, but it would also dissuade them from even taking any live horses as cargo because of the overly punitive fines.
As previously mentioned, Canada exports 10,840 live horses for purposes other than slaughter. This bill would inadvertently hurt those producers as well, as it would make it harder for them to find air shippers that are willing to take their cargo.
For example, this may cause delays for those who need to fly horses engaged in Olympic or other equestrian competitions, as well as horses that are simply sold for their genetics and used in breeding programs elsewhere in the world.
These delays could jeopardize their opportunity to compete and represent their country internationally. We would lose things such as the Spruce Meadows and show jumping. We would have all kinds of problems, even applying for an Olympic bid in this country, because somebody would bring their horse here and would like to take it home with them. “Not a chance in Canada,” say the Liberals.
I must say that this bill is not just about the export of horses. It is part of a larger issue, which is the general assault on the Canadian farmer, who is already burdened by costly carbon taxes and excessive regulations.
We saw this disregard for farmers again recently, when the Liberal-controlled independent senators blocked Bill C-234's passage through the Senate. Finally, when they did pass it, they amended it to gut the bill of its impact. Instead of healing the urban-rural divide, the government is still stoking division.
This debate is personal for me. The horse export industry is prominent in my riding of Red Deer—Lacombe. A testament to this importance can be found in some of the feedback I have received from constituents and stakeholders. As one can imagine, in mixed and rural ridings such as mine, the impact of such legislation can be of outsized importance. This includes a member of an Alberta Métis group.
As part of a larger statement to us, they have stated, “There has been no consultation with indigenous producers and people on the plan to ban the export of live horses. The Canadian government has a history of stepping on indigenous farmers.”
There is a duty to consult in the Constitution, and they have not done that with this bill. I would also like to point out that the rationale for banning the bill, based on the so-called premise of animal welfare, is all based on misinformation and untruths.
This is especially the case when it comes to claims of mistreatment and abuse of these animals during their transportation. I can tell members that I grew up on a farm. On the farm, our animals are the most important thing we have. They are part of our business. We have to treat them well and with respect, because our business and livelihood both depend on the health and viability of these animals.
Since 2013, over 41,000 horses have been exported. The mortality rate at all stages of transport, not just on the airplane, is 0.012%. Basically, this is statistically insignificant. I want to highlight that no deaths as a result of the transportation of these animals have occurred since 2014.
We have veterinary oversight. We have very stringent transportation rules for animals. This is a clear campaign by misinformed individuals who simply want to make an emotional argument to try to shut down an industry that they disagree with ideologically.
This is absolutely frustrating, not only for my constituents but also for all farmers. It is a slippery slope. I urge all my colleagues in the House to vote against this bill.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the excellent member for Red Deer—Lacombe.
It is a very challenging time for Canadians. We have food price inflation that we have never seen before in this country. Food bank usage is at an all-time high. A third of all food bank users are children. We have seen reports from experts that the inflationary policies of the NDP-Liberal government are contributing to food price inflation.
As we move into the holiday season, Canadians are getting ready for Christmas and are struggling. Rents are up. Mortgage payments are up. The interest payments that people are paying on everything they borrowed, whether it is through a line of credit, a credit card or their vehicle loans, are up. They are looking for a little relief.
When we talk about food in particular, the food that we get does not come from the grocery store. That is not its point of origin. Food comes from the farmers who grow it. One way that we could address food insecurity and food price inflation is by reducing some of the pressure on our farmers and producers.
Conservatives put forward common-sense Bill C-234. It would remove the carbon tax for our farmers on their grain drying and on the heating and cooling of their buildings. When we have farmers paying an average of $150,000 for their carbon tax bill, which is set to quadruple with the Liberals, it is incredibly concerning what the downstream effect of that is going to be for Canadians when they go to the grocery store. Our farmers have two options. They can either cut production to cut their carbon tax bill or pass the increased costs on to consumers, who are already feeling the effects of food price inflation. This is after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government and the unsustainable path it has put us on.
What we hear from Liberal members is that the alternative, Canada's Conservatives, would cut. What we will cut is Liberal corruption. What we will cut is Liberal taxes. I could list a few of the areas very quickly where the Liberals have found no dollar that they are not willing to take from Canadians' pockets in the form of taxes. Instead of helping Canadians out, the Liberals help out friends and insiders.
We had the infamous $54-million arrive scam. This is not a project that Conservatives support, and we would cut that kind of spending. There is the billions of dollars that Liberals have given to their friends in high-priced consulting fees. In true Liberal fashion, when they were called out on their high-priced consultants, no one ever having spent more on consulting than the Liberals, they hired a consultant to tell them how to spend less on consultants. That cost taxpayers three-quarters of a million dollars. We would cut that.
We can look at the $1-billion green slush fund, which is mired in scandal. We had a whistle-blower at committee just this week talking about $150 million. The Liberals allowed that money to line the pockets of well-connected insiders. We have two Liberal appointees now under investigation by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner for voting to give themselves $600,000 between the two of them. We would cut that kind of spending. Of course, we would root out that kind of corrupt behaviour.
Another director on that board has also been identified as having furthered their own interests—
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- Dec/14/23 6:39:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments made by colleague for Red Deer—Lacombe and his hard work on this file in representing large agricultural areas, as I do. Both of us are farm kids and have first-hand experience.
We witnessed here all fall the Liberals refusing to give a carbon tax carve-out for our farmers. The Liberals are creating food inflation and they are creating food insecurity. As they bring in more and more of their environmental restrictions—and now we are looking at methane and looking at reductions in fertilizer applications across this country—these restrictions will drive down production significantly, will drive down profitability of our farms and will increase the price of food to consumers. These Liberals would rather import food from other countries that do not have the same regulatory standards and environmental standards that we have here in Canada, plus pay the cost of transporting all of that food to feed Canadians, probably at even a higher cost. That, to me, is ridiculous.
Now these guys like to talk about making sure that we are protecting Ukraine. That is something that is very near and dear to my heart as a Ukrainian-Canadian, but these individuals, instead of helping Ukraine by sending it more weapons, are actually allowing detonators to go in land mines that wreak havoc in those fields and are actually killing Ukrainian farmers.
My question to the hon. colleague for Red Deer—Lacombe is this: Does he believe these Liberals are undermining food security in Canada and around the world?
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