- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa
- Manitoba
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $138,707.52
- Government Page
- Sep/28/22 5:02:26 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise today to present petition e-3940, which has been signed by over 800 Canadians who are calling on the Liberal government to cancel the planned fertilizer reduction policy.
Canadians understand limiting fertilizer would decrease food production and, therefore, further increase the cost of food at a time of record inflation. They also know limiting fertilizer would increase the costs to farmers and hinder economic growth. This also comes at a time when Canadians are using food banks at record rates.
Canadians want their government to stand up for Canadian farmers and cancel the fertilizer reduction plan. I wholeheartedly support them.
105 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/16/22 9:28:02 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I just want to know something. The tariff on fertilizer is disproportionately impacting eastern Canadian farmers, because they have to import. They are the only farmers in Canada who have to import fertilizer. Does my colleague know how much that is costing eastern Canada?
46 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/16/22 9:10:11 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, this is a direct supply chain issue.
It is no secret grain prices have gone up by 100% to 150% in several commodities, increasing farmers' income. That is why the farm receipts are going up. It is simple math. They have not produced any more. There have been severe droughts. About half of my riding was droughted out last year. They did not produce more receipts, but the value of the grain went up by double. That is why the receipts are up.
As for income tariffs and what is going on with fertilizer, not only is the world supply of fertilizer being shorted because of the Russian supply chain, but to add insult to injury to our Canadian farmers, the government has also added a tariff, which is making everything more expensive, and it is just in Canada. It is back to that “Justinflation” type of process that is going on here that we all experience in Canada.
163 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/16/22 9:08:32 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I have always wanted to answer this question for the farmers in eastern Canada.
They are disproportionately being impacted by the fertilizer tariffs. Forty per cent of the fertilizer that comes into eastern Canada, and that is Quebec east, is imported, so they pay the most tariff out of all the farmers across Canada. The fertilizer trade is a global phenomenon. Forty per cent of the nitrogen that comes out of the world's production of fertilizer comes out of Russia or Russian-owned assets.
Putting a 35% tariff on Canadian farmers is fixing nothing. It is actually penalizing Canadian farmers. The Liberal government seems to be very good at that.
113 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jun/16/22 9:03:28 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
I rise today to speak on a very serious and urgent issue. The world is facing a global food crisis.
Earlier this year, I shared a quote in this House from Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor and researcher of food distribution at Dalhousie University. He stated, “We need to be clear on the fact that by fall more than 100 million people will experience either famine or severe hunger.”
Every day we sit on the sidelines the situation continues to get worse. I am glad to see the House has finally taken this matter seriously after Canada’s Conservatives requested today’s debate. However, it is one thing to talk about this crisis and it is another thing to actually tackle it.
Approximately four-fifths of the world’s population lives in a country that is a net importer of food. Canada is one of the few remaining agricultural exporting nations on earth. We are one of the only nations with the potential to feed the world, but in order to do this, we need a political and economic environment that enables us to do so.
The reality is that Canada currently has a Liberal government that is working against Canadian agriculture. How can we produce more food when our own government is punishing farmers for doing so?
We are the only country in the G7 with a tariff on fertilizer. Canadian farmers are literally being financially punished by the carbon tax for producing and transporting food, and now the government is actually trying to discourage the purchase of Canadian ground beef with new labelling regulations. Does this sound like an environment that enables Canada to feed the world? Absolutely not. Instead of focusing on growing more food when the world needs it the most, the government is standing in the way.
As food insecurity continues to escalate because of Russia’s unjustified war on Ukraine, countries are sounding the alarm. According to reports, there are currently 26 countries implementing severe restrictions on food exports. These restrictions cover 15% of the calories traded worldwide. It is no surprise that nearly 50% of the countries depend on Russia or Ukraine for more than 30% of their wheat imports.
This is not a problem that can be solved overnight. Growing food is a seasonal task. This means that the longer we wait, the greater the impact will be in the future.
I have always said that Canada should be an agricultural superpower. We should grow our processing capacity. We should increase our transportation efficiency. We should be a leader in biotechnology. There is no reason why Canada cannot be the world’s most reliable, high-quality supplier of agricultural goods in the world.
The global food crisis will impact some nations more than others. However, no one will escape the pain. Less developed nations will lose access to food and developed nations will pay more to obtain food.
As fertilizer prices continue to reach record highs, farmers are paying the price. The price of food increases when the cost to produce it increases. The most significant increase in production costs is fertilizer. However, industrial fertilizer is one of the only reasons we can feed the world today. Without fertilizer, yields would not be able to keep up with the growing population.
Unfortunately, farmers across the world can no longer afford fertilizer and are now reducing their usage. As a result, food production will continue to decrease.
I hope the government understands that the more it restricts fertilizer, the more it restricts food production. The government needs to wake up to the reality before us.
Let me be frank. The world desperately needs more food. Canada can either sit by as the world starves, or step up and feed the world. The choice is ours.
656 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for the great work she does in her riding.
Fertilizer is the game-changer for modern-day agriculture. If we did not have nitrogen fertilizer, we would not be feeding the people we are right now on the landscape. If the Canadian government, especially the Liberal government, decides to take that tool away from us, it will have detrimental impacts on not only this year's crop, but also future crops to come.
82 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-19, the budget implementation act. I will be honest. I found the title of this year's budget quite misleading. The NDP-Liberal government titled this year's budget, “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable”. If the government really wanted to grow our economy and make life more affordable, it would have looked at Canadian agriculture. Unfortunately, when I looked for Canadian agriculture in the budget, I noticed that not one page was fully dedicated to agri-food or agriculture. The blatant lack of priority for Canadian agriculture would be concerning in any budget, but even more concerning in budget 2022.
We are in a food crisis. There is a global food shortage, and the Canadian government is nowhere to be found. I am going to quote Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor and researcher of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, who has been sounding the alarm on this crisis. He stated, “We need to be clear on the fact that by fall more than 100 million people will experience either famine or severe hunger.” Let us let that statistic sink in: By fall, more than 100 million people will experience either famine or extreme hunger.
Corn and wheat make up 30% of the calories consumed on earth, yet the region responsible for 25% of these exports is at war. That means that the poorer countries will lose access to their food supply and developed countries will pay higher prices to secure their food. Where in the budget was there anything to ramp up the production of export capacity of these commodities? I sure did not find it.
When I read the budget implementation act, I saw things like new taxes on luxury goods and vaping products. These are the types of things that the government has prioritized over Canadian agriculture. This reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: one of the best-known theories in human motivation. This hierarchy is modelled in the shape of a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the need for self-actualization. Beneath that are the need for esteem, the need for love and belonging and the need for safety. At the bottom of the pyramid are the foundational psychological needs, including food, for example. Society does not care about the higher levels of needs if the foundational needs are not met. At a time when the world is in a food crisis, the NDP-Liberal government is more focused on some higher ideological need than on the foundational need of food security.
I am shocked that the government is not focused on replacing the global reduction in food from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Not only could Canada feed the world, but we could also create wealth and jobs for our rural communities. We are one of the few remaining agriculture-exporting nations on earth. I believe we have a role to play in feeding the world. However, when I read the budget, I do not see any priority given to this by the current government.
The government has the mentality that western Canada should be limited to simply producing, harvesting and exporting raw commodities. This means that even if Canadians produced a record crop, we would still have to rely on other countries to process our commodities. This is the wrong mentality. We can do so much more. The government should create the right business environment so industry can create more value in Canadian agriculture products. When we turn our raw commodities into high-quality products such as canola oil, flour and starch products, we not only grow our economy but we also meet the demands of the world.
It was the current government that commissioned the Barton Report. In that report, agriculture was identified as a sector where Canada has the potential for substantial growth and export improvement. The report mentioned global population growth, a rising protein demand in Asia and the need for trusted markets. Canada could and should meet these new global demands, if only the government would let it.
Production and processing capacity is not the only bottleneck in the agriculture value food chain. We must also improve the resilience and reliability of our transportation system. There is no mention of investing in transportation to export our agri-food products faster and more efficiently. I think all members of the House would agree with the notion that our country is too reliant on a few transportation systems.
We saw this last year when the flooding in B.C. completely landlocked our ability to export product. Imagine the drastic consequences of not being able to feed the world because we could not get our agri-food products to tidewater.
I am noticing a consistent theme with this Liberal government. It is more focused on the farming of the past than on the farming of the future. The Liberals try to be visionaries in many areas, but never in agriculture. The lack of thinking is limiting our nation's potential and starving the world. If the Liberals want to grow our economy, I can tell members how: It is through agriculture.
Not only does the budget fail to prioritize increased food production, but it also fails to address the restrictions and regulations that are preventing Canada from becoming an agriculture superpower. We know that this government's carbon tax is restricting our ag industry's competitiveness and driving up the cost of food from the day it is planted until the day it is consumed.
APAS reported that the government's carbon tax would add an additional $12.50 of input costs per acre on wheat by 2030. At the same time, when the world is desperate for wheat, it is absurd that this government is actually making it more expensive to produce such an essential commodity.
The government also appears to be drafting regulations that would restrict fertilizer usage for Canadian farmers in the name of the climate agenda. Any plan to meet fertilizer emissions reductions should not be at the cost of production. Is the government aware that there is a global fertilizer shortage? The less fertilizer that is available, the less food we can grow.
MNP reported that reducing Canadian fertilizer use to achieve 30% emissions reduction would result in yield losses. Corn, for example, would see losses of over 67 bushels per acre per year, which is about 40%.
Where is the investment in creating a more competitive fertilizer industry? Where is the focus on exporting Canadian fertilizer? I did not see that in the budget.
I also learned last week that Health Canada has yet to release its regulations on gene editing. This innovative plant science technology is an important tool in helping Canadian farmers be more productive and efficient. Plant science innovations have been responsible for a 50% increase in crop productivity over the past century. Without these innovations, prices would be 45% higher, on average, for many food staples.
The government should create an investment environment that fuels plant science research and development. There is no reason why Canada cannot have the fastest and most responsible regulatory process in the world. Where was this investment in the budget? I did not see it.
The world is facing a food crisis. Food is becoming unaffordable for millions of people and, for some, food is becoming unavailable. Millions will starve if Canada does not step up to the plate. Instead of focusing on fulfilling the basic needs of society, this government continues to focus on a political agenda. This government's disregard for the food crisis before us is deeply disturbing.
Not one page in the budget is focused on agriculture and agri-food. That should concern every single member of the House. It is time to focus on the future of farming. It is time to make Canada an agricultural superpower, and it is time for Canada to feed the world when the world needs us most.
1346 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/10/22 6:56:04 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, this is part of the problem. For the agriculture industry, while the member has come a long way in acknowledging what good farmers do, there are still a lot of words that are very unclear. There is still really no clear answer. Producers are the ones who know best what to do on their land and for the crops, how they are testing and how they know what is going on with the soil.
Farmers are, as the member has acknowledged, part of the solution. They want to be part of the solution and, by the way, they are in one of the few industries where they can actually be part of the solution and offer that to government. What the government does, and has done for years, instead of working with the stewards of the land, is ignore them. We have seen this over and over again. It will talk a good game about how it is going to help them, but it does not listen or work with them.
I will ask for a clarification again. Will the government—
184 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/10/22 6:48:44 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, farmers are worried, and rightfully so. I have been trying to get some certainty out of the government for Canadian farmers. I have asked the Minister of Agriculture in question period. I have asked the Department of Agriculture in committee. I have asked the Department of the Environment, and I have asked the industry. No one, and I repeat no one, has been able to confirm whether the Liberal government has ruled out limiting the amount of fertilizer that Canadians could use to grow their crops.
I am going to explain how fertilizer restriction would impact Canadian agriculture, and why this issue is so important. In Canada, grain and oilseed farmers only have approximately 120 days to seed, grow and harvest their crops. That is right, 120 days. It is absolutely critical that Canadian farmers have the modern-day tools and resources available to ensure that they can produce the maximum amount of food in the most efficient way they can in 120 days.
Canada has so much opportunity in agriculture as an exporting nation. Our nation produces enough food not only to feed ourselves but to feed the world. Canada exports 70% of our soybeans, 75% of our wheat, 90% of our canola and 95% of our pulses. By 2050, the world population is estimated to grow by two billion people, and agriculture production will need to increase significantly to meet that demand.
As an exporting nation, I believe we have an immense opportunity to leverage this competitive advantage in agri-food to grow our economy and to create Canadian jobs. We can reach this potential while also playing an important role in addressing global food insecurity, which I believe is our obligation.
How can we seize this opportunity if the government is limiting the agriculture industry? How can we maximize food production if the government would not allow us to maximize crop yields? Experts have already stated that reducing fertilizer emissions by 30% would be unachievable without reducing crop production. I am a farmer. As a farmer, I understand the fundamental law of nature that when nutrients are taken out of the soil, they have to be put back in. For example, a farmer applies a nutrient like nitrogen into the soil and the plant uses that nitrogen to grow and produce food. That nitrogen is removed from the soil when the farmer harvests the crop, because these nutrients were used to produce food. If the farmer does not apply the nutrient again, the soil is left with less nutrient and, therefore, less production potential.
When crops grow, so does Canada. We should be proud of this, not ashamed. I hope the government understands, when the amount of food a farmer can produce decreases, so does their pay cheques. I hope the government also understands that when pay cheques of Canadian farmers decrease, so do the pay cheques of rural towns and communities. Agricultural policy has always been rooted in the shared belief of maximizing outputs and minimizing inputs.
I seriously wonder if the government believes in the same philosophy. If it does not, it should be honest and tell Canadian farm families because their livelihoods do rely on this.
Could the government tell the House and all Canadian farmers if it has ruled out limiting the amount of fertilizer that Canadian farmers could apply to their crops?
562 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Dec/10/21 12:02:53 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, the Liberals plan to limit the amount of fertilizer that farmers can use. Any plan to reduce emissions must not reduce maximum crop potential. Canadian farmers are among the most efficient users of fertilizers in the world, but instead of working with them the current government is threatening the future of our agriculture industry. The bigger the crop, the bigger the paycheque.
Does the agriculture minister know how much her cap on fertilizers will cost farm families and rural communities?
82 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
