SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Jeremy Patzer

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Cypress Hills—Grasslands
  • Saskatchewan
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $112,746.42

  • Government Page
  • Dec/14/23 3:02:52 p.m.
  • Watch
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?
122 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Dec/12/23 6:54:27 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I can ensure people that imprisoning farmers was a Liberal idea because they simply want to have grain-marketing freedom. How absurd is that? That is the Liberal Party. Farmers have always done more for the environment than the current government would ever dream of. In fact, the parliamentary secretary admitted in his remarks that all that the carbon tax is, is an income redistribution scheme. Notice that the Liberals do not have any statistics to talk about how emissions have gone down thanks to the carbon tax. The truth is that they cannot quantify it, so the only thing they can talk about is the income redistribution scheme that the carbon tax has become. I just want to make my final point that, again, it was farmers, not the government, who came up with zero-till technology, or just the farming practice in and of itself. It was farmers who came up with the 4R principle, and they have been practising it on their farms for the last number of decades. It was not the government's idea. Farmers have done and always will do more for the environment than the government ever will.
197 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Madam Speaker, I previously asked a question about Bill C-234 and the exemption to the carbon tax that it would provide. My question has changed a bit because, earlier tonight, the Senate passed an amendment to exclude barns and buildings on farms from the carbon tax exemption. I will read the part of Bill C-234 that the Senate is now going to scrub from the act, which is in paragraph 3(3.1)(f), “property that is used for the purpose of providing heating or cooling to a building or similar structure”. The environment minister went to the Senate and basically exerted his influence on the senators to get them to strip this bill bare; that way, it would provide a limited exemption for farmers. Farmers grow the food and have done way more to protect and steward the environment than the government will ever have a hope of being able to accomplish. That is what the government has decided to do. It was aided by the deputy leader of the progressive Senate group, the hon. Pierre Dalphond, who was the mover of the amendment that has stripped that part of the bill to exempt buildings and barns from the carbon tax. This is absolutely ridiculous. Let us go back to when the carbon tax was first put in place and do the calculations on it. There are many farmers, ranchers and cattle feeders who use over 100,000 litres of on-farm fuels in a given year. Given the rate of the carbon tax right now on those on-farm fuels, that would be about $25,000 a year. The Liberals will say that there is a huge exemption for farmers and ask what everyone is complaining about. There is an exemption that applies in some cases, but not in every case, and certainly not for farmers and ranchers who are trying to keep their barns warm in the winter. As we know, winter is already here; it will be -30°C very soon. In the summers, it gets up to +30°C. With the wide variance in temperatures all across Canada, various temperature controls are needed in barns and shops for farmers to do their jobs. If we think about the Prairies, with the snowstorms and blizzards that they regularly get, especially in calving season in February and March, farmers quite often have to bring their cattle into the barn. That way, they can calve without the threat of the animals being buried in snowbanks or freezing to death, never mind the threat of predators going after them and using the weather conditions to their advantage. A very important part of agriculture is farmers having these barns and buildings, yet the Senate has decided to gut this important key in the bill. It did so under the pressure that was put on it by the Liberal government, which is absolutely shameful. When we look at the approach the government is taking, it is almost as though it were trying to reduce agriculture's impact and footprint in such a way that it will chase people out of the industry, much like what is happening in the European Union and other parts of the world. They have literally forced farmers and ranchers to reduce their herd sizes and the amount of crop they are able to grow. What the government is doing is ridiculous. It is being aided and abetted by certain members of the Senate, and it is absolutely disgusting.
588 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Mar/28/22 4:17:20 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-8 
Madam Speaker, fertilizer is definitely a very big issue. It is very much top of mind. We could look at the costs and how expensive it is right now to get the fertilizer that is required for people who did not prebuy. For people who are looking to buy right now, that cost is exorbitant. It has gone up exponentially. It is having a severe impact on what farmers are going to be able to do this spring as they plant. It is important to note that farmers have always led the way in innovation. There is a lot of talk these days about 4R and the importance of that. That is something that has been implemented on many farms, if not almost all farms in western Canada over the last couple of decades. It is not something that is new. It is not a new concept. Using variable rate is something that has been in place for a very long time. With the right place, right time, there is a lot of innovation that has happened already, and now we are seeing the government trying to take credit for it, which is wrong. We need to give farmers the credit they deserve. We need to recognize the fact that they are doing what is in the best interests of the land, because without the land, they have no income. They take care of the land. By taking care of the land, they take care of the air that is around them. With farming practices, the way they have changed and evolved, emissions from farming have gone down exponentially over the years. In fact, there are several private sector studies that show that farming is actually a net-negative industry in the Prairies with the amount of carbon that is sequestered in the land, but also with the way the farming practices have changed. We have already done a fantastic job. It is time to look at the real science around here.
332 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border