- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Bow River
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $127,198.82
- Government Page
- Nov/1/22 6:32:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member and I discussed this particular question. I asked about front-of-label last time, so if he is still on that one, that is good for him, but I have moved on from that one.
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- Nov/1/22 6:31:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it was my presumption, because we had this debate the last time about that specific question, that was the last question. In the House, we had that debate here for the late show the last time, and I remember discussing it with you afterward. If you are still on that question, I have moved on, so—
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- Nov/1/22 6:23:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be in Parliament tonight and to debate with my friend from Milton.
The member sometimes wonders where I am going with particular topics and I try to stay on topic to a certain extent. This one is a bit about health, and it is about what happened with PPE in the sense that when we got into COVID, there was a shortage. We had shipped PPE to other countries. We had destroyed our inventory and we tried to source PPE from China. That was problematic. Some of it that came was not of good quality and we could not use it. We had to pay a lot of money to get what we did get.
My point is this. We talk a lot about local supply chains. There are industries being developed in Canada where they are not using the plastic type that may have been seen in foreign ones. They are recycling material in Canada. They even have some carbon fibre in the material, so they are sequestering carbon fibre. We have innovative companies in Canada that are producing incredible materials that can be used in surgical suites in hospitals for surgical gowns and all the curtains. We have that innovation occurring here.
They are beginning to make some inroads into medical institutions to use it. It is washable. It is not thrown away in landfills like the one-use items that we import. This is the type of innovation that is going on in Canada with surgical gowns and surgical equipment.
My suggestion for the government is that it pursue these types of products in Canada that we have innovated and can use. For the next situation that Canada has, the government needs to stockpile them. They need to be using them in medical situations now. That is one suggestion that I have for my colleague.
I have another suggestion. In my particular riding, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank operates with some farmers in my area. These are people who donate land and donate the time to get the land ready for a crop. They seed it, irrigate it and they harvest it. I was at an event recently and learned that they have 100 bushels of red spring wheat, number one. That is the best quality wheat and a fantastic crop.
I spoke to these great farmers who are volunteers and want to feed the hungry people of the world. During COVID, this was a growing concern. We have these volunteers around the country and in my riding. There are a number of these operations in Canadian food banks. As I talked to them, they were very concerned about the cost they were paying in taxes on irrigation. This is a challenge for them because there is no way to recover that cost with the government programs, but it is a great program for feeding the hungry in the world, which became so evident during COVID.
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- Oct/19/22 8:04:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I always appreciate being in the House with the parliamentary secretary and hearing his response to what I may say, which might be slightly different from what he might have expected.
I will talk again about the irrigation districts, the lack of pipes, the cost of pipes and the environmental practice of putting in pipes instead of canals. The price is now over 200% more than it was a year ago. Municipalities are also experiencing the same cost for pipes to put in the ground.
We are talking about a challenge that is stress related. It is hard on irrigation ag producers in my riding when there is talk about increasing the carbon tax, as the government is going to do. This is a price taker. That creates stress and mental health challenges for the ag producers who produce all of this food for our country and food security.
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- Oct/19/22 7:57:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is great to be in the House tonight and dealing with this topic. I am glad to see the parliamentary secretary for health, and since I have asked a question about health, we will start with a bit about health.
There was the warning label on ground beef and pork. There was no warning label on the same cuts of beef and pork when they were whole, but all of a sudden there was a warning label on the ground meat itself. Maybe it was the knife. Maybe it was the grinding that made it. I do not know what the science was, but a couple of people have mentioned analogies to me. They said we might have a whole log that had no warning label on it, yet if we cut it up into a two-by-four, it might get a warning label. Maybe it is the saw. What about a potato? If it was whole and baked it could have no warning label, but if we turned it into mashed potatoes, it might get a warning label. Maybe it is the utensils.
The science must have changed, because the Liberals reversed it. We did not know what the science was before, but the science changed, so they reversed it. They did not tell us what the reversing science was.
Let us go into a bit more about health in the ag sector, because it is huge in the sense that it directly affects ag. Is there a lot of stress in the ag sector? There absolutely is. Have members seen the suicide rate in the ag sector? They should check it out.
In my riding we have irrigation, and a lot of irrigation. Four per cent of the land produces almost 20% of the Alberta ag GDP. Electricity is used to produce irrigation. Electricity is not a fuel, so there is not an exemption for fuel. As a business expense, it is very small: less than part of 1%. It is an inflation carbon tax. The carbon tax takes literally millions away from my ag producers. Does this cause stress and is it a health problem? Absolutely.
Now, the Liberals want to triple the carbon tax. It is not going to be returned; it is gone. That means there is a ripple effect on the machinery producers and the communities. Wherever they buy, there is less money there.
Stress is there in the ag sector. The warning label on beef was just one of the stresses, but the tripling of the carbon tax and the cost of irrigation, which is huge in my riding, is another problem for health in my ag producers.
The minister announced a 30% fertilizer reduction by 2030. Where was the science? Where was the baseline? Where was the consultation with the ag organizations, with the wheat organizations or with the fertilizer or ag producers? Why is the minister not talking about it being voluntary now? Does this create stress and a health issue in the ag sector? Absolutely it does, because there were no consultations and no credit was given to incredible, world-leading Canadian ag producers whose work is science-based, capturing carbon, reducing fertilizer use and using other practices that are world leading.
There is no science behind this 30% reduction of emissions. These are world-leading ag producers who are doing it. They will continue to do it. The government's goal, which it now calls voluntary even though it was not, was to reduce ag production by $20 billion a year. Canadian food security would go down if it did this, and export production would go down.
Where is the science, and what about the stress on their mental health of tripling the carbon tax on the ag producers, especially in the irrigation sector in my riding?
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- Jun/20/22 3:01:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents are aghast and angry that Health Canada chose to attack healthy, nutritious protein- and iron-rich food products such as ground beef and pork with a warning label. An added labelling cost to the industry will be passed down to consumers, but Health Canada does not seem to care about increased costs. Health Canada should be concerned with keeping Canadians healthy, not adding to their grocery bills.
Will the minister ensure that Health Canada drops this damaging, expensive, unnecessary, ideologically driven warning label?
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- Jun/9/22 3:04:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the utterly nonsensical proposal for front-of-package labelling on ground beef and pork is another attack on our agriculture industry. Canada would be the first country to do this, despite already exempting other single-ingredient whole food products like dairy. Bureaucratic red tape is once again standing in the way of Canadian agri-food production.
Can the Minister of Health justify this to Canadians, or is Health Canada intent on killing off the Canadian agri-food industry?
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