Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Leader, British Columbia’s world-famous wine industry has been hurt by the pandemic, supply chain issues and increased costs brought on by record inflation. As of April 1, the federal alcohol excise tax will automatically increase by 6.3%.

Last fall, Miles Prodan, the CEO of Wine Growers British Columbia, stated:

. . . we don’t see an opportunity for that excise escalator to decrease ever. It’ll just keep adding and adding and adding. So we think we should be exempt.

Leader, what is your response to growers in the Okanagan Valley and all across British Columbia who are concerned by what this upcoming tax increase will mean to their bottom line?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): My question is for the government leader in the Senate.

On this Agriculture Day in Canada, it concerns a matter of importance for many of our farmers. It’s been almost a year since the Trudeau government imposed a 35% tariff on fertilizer imports from Russia, including fertilizer that had been ordered long before Vladimir Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine began. This tariff has punished Canadian farmers, as about $34 million has been collected by the Trudeau government.

Leader, in December, the Atlantic Grains Council, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, the Grain Farmers of Ontario, the Grain Growers of Quebec and the Ontario Bean Growers jointly asked that this money be refunded to the farmers who paid it. What is the Trudeau government’s response to this request?