- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Bow River
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $127,198.82
- Government Page
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost of groceries. A University of Saskatchewan study said that Canadian farmers have at least 60% fewer emissions than the average of the world. I attended an irrigation conference this week with hundreds of farmers, such as Rob, who told me it costs him tens of thousands of dollars in the carbon tax to operate his irrigation. There is no rebate, and they all want it gone.
When will the NDP-Liberals give farmers and families a break, pass Bill C-234 and axe the tax?
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- Feb/2/24 12:07:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of the people of Bow River, calling on the government to institute a national farmers' market nutrition coupon program. The number of families who experience food insecurity has increased by more than 12% since 2021-22. In March 2023 alone, nearly two million people visited a food bank.
The government must axe the tax to find solutions, and this is one of them: a national farmers' market nutrition coupon program.
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- Dec/7/23 3:39:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, to my colleague across the way, I will say that I am in a constituency with 70% of the irrigation in the country, so when he talks about very rich people, they are not my constituents.
When I last spoke about this, I had examples of many of the irrigating farmers paying more than $100,000 in carbon taxes a year, and there are thousands of them in my riding because of irrigation. If he questions that, he should come to my riding; I will introduce them to him, and he will see that.
The constituents I represent grow on 4% of the arable land and bring in 28% of the GDP for ag in the province of Alberta. This is costing them because they grow 60 different kinds of products, which translates to expensive food in this country. I know them.
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- Oct/25/23 7:23:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to my colleague, I know he is from Winnipeg, which used to be the grain exchange centre of the world. It is part of the heritage of the Prairies. I am very pragmatic about this. In my riding, which has 70% irrigation, the costs are huge, as is the money paid on the carbon tax, and there is not the recognition of the value irrigation brings to the amount of crops we can produce in this country and the variety.
We grow more potatoes than P.E.I. these days in my riding and we have the only sugar plant left, and we grow sugar beets because of irrigation. Farmers tell me on a regular basis the carbon tax is so hard on them, so we lose from our communities hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to millions and millions. This hurts our communities because those farmers are not able to buy what they could if they did not lose it on the carbon tax. They cannot support our rural communities. They cannot volunteer to donate things they would have donated before.
It is a piece pragmatic for me that those who produce the best and highest quality and variety of foods because of irrigation are paying the highest price for carbon tax. That exemption needs to be understood, and I think it has been recognized there should be more conversations about agriculture.
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Mr. Speaker, we have a new term we could use tonight: “prince of darkness”, or something of darkness. Maybe we can use that new term.
In February 2022, the Conservative member for Huron—Bruce introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-234, which would also exempt natural gas and propane used on farms for essential tasks like drying grain and heating barns. A year later, in March 2023, it passed the House of Commons with full support from the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc, the Green Party and a handful of Liberals. However, the bill is now in the Senate and has been there for some time. Then the Senate amended the bill and took out the exemption for buildings. This was a piece of legislation passed in the House through three readings and through committee, and it went to the Senate.
This is with respect to the exemption for farmers on carbon tax. These are the people who do not get a rebate. We hear all the time that the government is sending a rebate. I have talked to many people at farm operations, because my riding is a rural one, including last weekend at a meeting I had in the small community of Enchant. The farmers do not get a rebate, but they are paying a huge carbon tax. The bill has now been amended. I have the utility bills from one of those people, and for one their buildings, they paid $15,000 in carbon tax. This would have been exempted, but now the bill is sitting in the Senate, amended.
For the bill to get out of there, amended, it has to come back here and go through the process. Is there a likelihood of the bill's being passed before we get to another summer? The bill has been kicking around for two summers. For two summers, farmers across the country, from coast to coast, have been paying carbon tax on propane and natural gas for grain dryers and buildings. The bill was what we needed for our agricultural sector. Now, the Senate has amended it and taken out the exemption for buildings. Like I said, a constituent of mine paid $15,000 for carbon tax. It was not the price of the power and the electricity; it was carbon tax because they are using natural gas.
The bill is going to come back here. The delay costs the agriculture sector because of Prime Minister-appointed senators making the amendment to it. Let us understand that: It was Prime Minister-appointed senators who made this amendment. They knew what they were doing. They knew the delay that they were causing. This is hardship. The carbon tax allows no rebate to these kinds of farmers. They do not get the rebates that the government members constantly talk about. It is a travesty to our agricultural sector that this has happened.
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- Feb/16/23 6:27:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what I was talking about was very specific. I am talking about the electricity used for irrigation. I welcome the MP to come out to my riding so he can see how irrigation works. Farmers are using electricity. The gasoline that ag producers are using has gone up by 53%, and other things have increased significantly too. The pipe they use for irrigation is up 44% if they can get it.
The carbon tax is on electricity, and it is tens of thousands of dollars. We are going to grow our ag security in irrigation. It is very specific.
The member is not listening to what I am talking about. I am not talking about policy. I think we need to fix what will provide food for this country and food security. It will be found in irrigation. Production is eight times better there than on dry land anywhere in this country. That is how we are going to get food security. The Liberals are missing the point of what irrigation can do for this country. They are not getting it.
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- Dec/1/22 6:36:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak in the House tonight and share the time and discussion on this topic with my colleague from Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, who I know works hard on his file and is committed to agriculture, as many people are in this House. I appreciate that he is here this evening for this discussion.
One of the things I have talked about in the House a number of times is the carbon tax and the challenge it presents for a particular part of the ag industry, which has a lot to do with ag production in Canada, but also specifically in the Bow River riding. My question is to do with the topics of exemption, rebate and inflation.
Canadian farmers, as my colleague would know, are among the most efficient, if not the most efficient, in the world. Ag emissions from Canadian ag producers are 70% lower than the average. At times the public does not understand or realize how efficient the ag sector is, but another important aspect is that Canada is the fifth-largest exporter of ag food in the world. Often ag producers feel like they are vilified. They should be applauded, but they feel vilified in our country.
In the Bow River riding, where the majority of irrigation is in Alberta and 4% of the land produces almost 20% of the Alberta ag GDP, the title of our ag minister is Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation. That is how important irrigation is in Alberta and in the Bow River riding, where the majority of irrigation is.
I am going back to the topic of exemption. To run irrigation, we use electricity. Ag producers use electricity. That powers irrigation. Electricity is not one of the exemptions under this government. The government often refers to the exemptions for fuels like natural gas, but electricity is not an exemption. It is very expensive.
The government will also talk about rebates. The rebate is about 1%, or a penny on the dollar, and these days pennies are not even legal tender. That is not much, so I have seen bills from my ag and irrigation producers of $7,000 per month for the carbon tax. I have seen irrigation carbon tax electric bills of $40,000. Those are huge, and although the government says the rebate is 80%, or eight dollars on $10, it is 1% for our ag producers. That is why they feel vilified.
Inflation has seen a 110% increase. The cost of farm fuel has doubled. Combines can cost $1 million. If we add all the carbon tax on ag producers, they are feeling like they are vilified in their own industry and that the government is leaving them behind. The ag producers will be an industry that cannot produce food security within our own country. Ag producers are price-takers. They have nowhere else to put these costs, and when we talk about taxation, it is brutal.
Electricity is not exempt.
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- Nov/4/22 12:03:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, farmers in my riding are paying hundreds, if not millions, of dollars in carbon tax. The Western Irrigation District’s year-over-year costs for fuel alone jumped by 53%. This fuel runs irrigation that delivers water to crops so that families can get Canadian-grown food on their tables. The rebates the government always talks about do not even come to one-tenth of 1% of the costs, and that is if the farms qualify.
Why will the Liberals not give Canadian farmers some relief and cancel their plans to triple taxes on gas, groceries and home heating?
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- Sep/27/22 3:03:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the average Canadian family now spends more of its income on taxes than it does on the necessities of food and shelter combined. Farmers in Bow River are paying millions in carbon taxes annually just to power their irrigation systems. Their hard-earned dollars are being syphoned off by the NDP-Liberal government rather than being reinvested in local economies, local infrastructure and local goods. Will the government end its planned tax increases on gas, home heating and groceries so farmers can get back to feeding the world and so Canadians can afford nutritious food?
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- Apr/29/22 11:15:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is spring time, and today I am talking about high rollers, but not the ones who go to Vegas. I am talking about the hard-working farmers who risk it all by buying the seed, equipment and tools they need to put food on Canadian tables.
They hope there is enough moisture in the earth, and enough rain coming down from the heavens, to germinate those seeds. They hope that the sun shines bright, and that the wind, grasshoppers and hail do not destroy their precious crop. As the season goes from spring to summer to fall, farmers pray for a harvest moon. All of this is while maintaining their heavy machinery, created from humanity's unparalleled innovation.
Canadian farmers do not get a break. They cannot go on vacation, as their work is never finished. They cannot just turn off the screen and be done. Our farmers sell to markets that ebb and flow, but there are constant hungry mouths to feed. Canadian farmers do a damn good job of it, and only to do it over again next year. I say, “yes”, to Canadian farmers.
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Madam Speaker, it is great to be here tonight. The initial question I asked had to do with an agricultural issue, and I would like to continue along that theme.
The president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association recently stated, “Absolutely we are unfairly targeted because we are a primary producer have no way of dealing with the carbon tax.... It is a pure cost to us, and there isn’t really a way for us to become more efficient.”
That is the problem our agriculture producers face. It is not only the carbon tax, but also the carbon tax that is applied to truckers, to rail and to the moorage of the ships parked in the harbour waiting to be loaded. All of those taxes are downloaded back to the primary producer, the farmer, the agricultural producer, who has no way to recover against those costs.
Recently, there was a 25% increase in the carbon tax. That is a huge add-on to our agricultural producers. To get specific, in my riding, where we have huge irrigation districts, this is a cost that affects that irrigation. It is millions of dollars if we look at all of the irrigation districts, but particularly for the four largest ones in my riding, it is a significant cost. This is money that leaves the communities and the producers and is not returned in a rebate. That is the percentage that is not returned, the millions of dollars paid to provide that irrigation.
As well, 4% of the arable land in Alberta produces 29% of the agricultural production of the GDP in Alberta, which is huge, but their increased costs are also huge.
We have the most significantly efficient high-producing agricultural producers in Canada, but what they do not get credit for is the 384 billion tonnes of carbon they store in the soil. They use practices that keep improving the storage of carbon, but they get no credit for it.
A private member's bill from a member in our caucus, Bill C-234, is moving forward on exempting farm fuels from the carbon tax. That would be the first step.
Then we get to the issue of fertilizer. Agricultural producers work very hard on the four Rs: right source, right rain, right time and right place. They are getting incredibly efficient at it. The fertilizer industry contributes $23 billion annually to Canada's economy. That is 76,000 jobs. Now the government is talking about reducing the use of fertilizer by 30%, without a benchmark. Farmers do not want to buy fertilizer that is not needed. It is very expensive and harder to get.
Agriculture employs 2.1 million people and generates $139 billion of Canada's GDP. By continuing to go after those things that increase production, which we are going to need in this world, Canadian farmers, who are the most efficient, the best equipped and the best at it, will not be supported by this, which is a challenge for the agricultural producers in our country.
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