- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa
- Manitoba
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $138,707.52
- Government Page
- Jun/16/22 10:19:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, when it comes to food production, what should be addressed first, global carbon emissions or global water quality and quantity, to increase food production in the world?
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- Jun/16/22 9:28:02 p.m.
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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?
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- Jun/16/22 9:11:41 p.m.
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Madam Chair, ironically, no. On the fuel source, what are they going to reduce? It is the only option they really have at this point. There is no other choice. We have no choice to make.
We need energy to grow food. It does not matter where it comes from. We need diesel fuel and it comes from natural gas and it comes from fossil fuels. There is no other choice right now. Manitoba tried to eliminate the use of coal for heating homes and stuff like that, and it did not work. It just came back that we needed to heat our homes at the end of the day.
This is a made-in-Canada problem. The government can fix it, if it really decides to and starts working with farmers. I think that is the most important thing it could start doing right now.
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- Jun/16/22 9:10:11 p.m.
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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.
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- Jun/16/22 9:08:32 p.m.
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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.
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- Jun/16/22 9:03:28 p.m.
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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.
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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.
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Madam Speaker, the main concern is the total lack of focus or even mention of this in the budget. That should be very concerning for us. We are in a very pivotal time in our country and in the world. Countries are at war, and 25% of our food supply is in jeopardy. The government is doing absolutely nothing, and I find that just terrible.
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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.
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- Jan/31/22 4:42:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as this is the first time I am rising in the House since being elected, I want to thank the constituents of Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa for once again placing their trust in me to be their voice in Parliament. I give special thanks to my campaign team for running a successful operation in a riding geographically larger than the entire province of Nova Scotia and with over 200 rural communities. I would also like to thank my family, and in particular my wife Leigh for her unwavering support.
I have been asked by many constituents what the purpose of a throne speech is. I tell them that the throne speech is supposed to be a guiding document that will pave the way for the priorities of the government in the upcoming parliamentary session. In other words, it is the plan. It is supposed to be a clear strategy of how the government will improve the lives of Canadians and will improve this nation.
Once Canadians understand what a throne speech is supposed to be, they may ask themselves: Does this plan help me? Does it empower me to make a living and provide for my children? They may ask themselves if the throne speech will enable their parents to live out their golden years as planned or if the plan will unite the country. However, if they had read this throne speech, they would be asking themselves where that plan was.
If the Prime Minister spoke to Canadians across the country today and asked whether life was getting better for them, he would hear the majority say that life was not getting easier. In a recent poll by Angus Reid, 57% of Canadians described feeding their family as “difficult”, and only 8% of Canadians expected to be better off financially at this time next year. It is clear that life is not getting easier under the Liberal government, and life is certainly not getting easier for rural Canadians.
Life may be getting easier for some. For example, life may be getting easier if one is a well-connected Liberal insider or a friend of the Prime Minister. Of course, with this pandemic, we have seen government kickbacks to insiders and billions of dollars more paid to consultants, but the people I represent are not these people. I represent hard-working, everyday Canadians who are slow to anger and do not ask for much. They are Canadians who believe in hard work, Canadians who want to give back to their community and support one another, and Canadians who believe in personal responsibility. I read the throne speech, and I did not see a plan for them.
What is the plan for seniors? Many of the people I represent are seniors. They have worked hard their entire lives to help build the country that we know today, but seniors in this country feel left behind, and I understand why. As a matter of fact, the word “seniors” was only mentioned once in the entire throne speech. Our aging population is only growing and many seniors depend on fixed incomes to get by, but when the costs of everyday essentials such as home heating, groceries and gas are rising at record rates, fixed incomes are stretched to their limits. A senior wrote to me the other day. He stated, “Food prices are out of my pay grade”. How can we as a country allow food to reach prices that are unaffordable? Who are we, as a nation, if we neglect the hard-working individuals who contributed so much to make the nation what it is today?
Despite promising not to, this Liberal government will make life even more unaffordable for our seniors by raising the carbon tax again. In a few months, the Liberals will increase the carbon tax for the third time during this pandemic. The prices of propane and natural gas will continue to rise and, as a result, energy poverty will continue to make heating one's home even more unaffordable. If the fixed incomes that our seniors depend on do not grow quickly enough to keep up with inflation, the value of their paycheques becomes worth less and less. It was just last year when our members of the House supported our seniors by voting to increase the old age security benefit. Guess what? The Liberals voted against it.
I ask the House what the government's plan is for our seniors, because I do not see one. The narrative given in the throne speech was far different from the reality of what is happening across the nation. We hear language from the government all the time, whether it is “sunny ways” or “we have your back”. However, rarely do we ever see those words turn into action. Words do not solve the problems of Canadians: action does.
I found it interesting that in the throne speech the following statement was made:
As we move forward on the economy of the future, no worker or region will be left behind.
That is right, that is laughable. I will read that statement again because many Canadians will find it very surprising: “no worker or region will be left behind.” I encourage the Prime Minister to ask western Canada if it has been left behind, and to ask the Prairies if they feel they were left behind. I would encourage him to ask all rural Canadians if they have been left behind. I can assure him that they do feel left behind, and they have felt this way for far too long.
How can the government say that no worker will be left behind when so many workers have felt neglected since the government took office? For the last six years, there has not been a plan for the Canadian energy worker, there has not been a plan for the Canadian farmer, there has not been a plan for the Canadian fisherman and there has not been a plan for the small business owner. If there has not been a plan for the last six years for the regions and workers who I believe are the engine of our country, why should they believe that a plan exists now?
Canadians were also looking for a plan to get our country back on track. They were looking for details on when life would return to normal. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has normalized lockdowns as the solution to our problems. The Ottawa-knows-best approach can no longer be the path forward. We need to re-evaluate what is working and what is not.
Just last week, two of my constituents travelled to the U.S. They are both triple vaccinated and both received negative PCR tests before returning to Canada. However, they were still required to take an at-home test and mail it to the city to get another set of results. As many rural Canadians know, not all courier services operate in rural areas of this country, so as instructed the couple drove to the closest shipping location to their farm to send away their tests. Hours later, to their surprise, an individual from the testing company Ottawa is funding to administer the program showed up to pick up their tests. The designated driver drove over five hours from Winnipeg to pick up tests that were supposed to be sent by mail, and drove back another five hours without the tests. This couple is waiting longer than ever to confirm that they can go back to living their lives normally, despite following all the rules and instructions. Canadians are frustrated, and rightfully so.
In conclusion, I think it has become clear that there is no plan. This throne speech does not address the inflation that has fuelled the affordability crisis sweeping across our nation. It does not have a plan to support our seniors who are struggling to make a living on their fixed incomes. This throne speech also has no evidence that the government is going to take rural Canada seriously, and it certainly does not put forth any details of how it is going to make life better for everyday Canadians.
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