I brought forward this motion on Monday, Mr. Chair, and it was the following:
That the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food condemn the message in the calendar produced by the Kerrobert Credit Union and ask Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to investigate how this calendar was funded and if any other Credit Unions are using a similar template for their calendars.
I was very concerned because this calendar, on one page, gave the advice to eat a meatless meal once a week in order to help the environment. I felt that this was both misleading and based on false or oversimplified information. This sidebar includes a glaring error by stating that it takes 2,200 litres of water just to make a quarter pound of hamburger. This figure is a misreporting of a discredited U.S. figure of 2,200 gallons claimed by an unqualified author over 15 years ago. The correct Canadian figure at this time is 15 litres of water or 3.3 Canadian gallons. And it's certainly less today given the advancements in animal husbandry methods and technology.
Now since that time, I have gone forward and I have talked to credit unions in Saskatchewan. This Credit Union Central of Canada sends out calendars every year to credit unions in Canada, and the credit unions can pick which calendar they want.
There were some credit unions that picked this calendar, not realizing that it was in there. I was very concerned a couple of weeks ago when we heard from witnesses who came to testify that they worked with credit unions or with cooperatives, and I wanted to make sure the Government of Canada wasn't paying for this false information that went out.
I talked to the credit union manager. Immediately when they discovered this, they pulled the calendars from their credit union. That made me feel very much better, but I have grave concerns that this was done. I think we should be supporting our meat producers in this country and agriculture right across this country, because they are the true environmentalists.
I understand Mr. Lauzon has an amendment to this motion.