- 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 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 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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