Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see my colleague from Nova Scotia on this tonight. I appreciate his ability to respond to some good questions.
Small business is what I am talking about. The hon. member would understand this first issue. It is March, and spring is coming. We have tractors out. The planting season is already beginning in southern Alberta, but we are short some very skilled agricultural workers. These are not the temporary foreign workers whom he may have seen coming into the Annapolis Valley. These are Mexican and Mennonite people who have status in Canada, but are stranded in Mexico. We need to find a way to support our small businesses in the ag sector with these highly skilled people who, while back in Mexico, are working on their properties there. They have properties, extensive homes and places that they need to leave to come here, but they are stranded in Mexico. In southern Alberta, we probably have 100 families who need to return to Canada to be in our ag sector. This is a critical piece to our ag sector, as it is in many parts. These are not temporary foreign workers, like the member might be familiar with in the Annapolis Valley.
Another small business sector with a huge issue is the travel agencies. The travel agencies are small, independent businesses. When the airline industry was shut down about a year ago, they had their commissions withdrawn and clawed back by the major airlines. Not only can they not get an income, but they have also lost the commission income they had from the year before. Do they qualify for programs? No. That is another small business sector in our communities that is suffering greatly because of the clawback from the airlines. The bailouts that the government talks about do not help those small business people in our communities.
Another one in our ag sector is irrigation. The irrigation industry is huge in part of my riding where people farm only 8% of the arable land, but produce 20% of the agriculture GDP in Alberta. With the $30 in carbon tax in one irrigation district out of the 13, and five in my riding, it has been calculated very precisely that they pay a million dollars in carbon tax. That is just in that one irrigation area, and there are 13. With the clean fuel standard carbon tax being increased by 500% now, can my colleagues imagine the tens of millions of dollars that will be leaving those small business operations in my riding?
There will be those operations that cannot spend the money in their communities. They cannot buy machinery parts. They are not going to shop at the stores. The ripple effect into the volunteer part of the community is huge. These small businesses need power for irrigation. There is no rebate or exemption for that power; none. These are small businesses whose impact is huge in my riding. They need the support, and yet the government with that 500% increase is taking the money out of the riding with no rebates and no exemptions. This is huge for these small businesses in the Bow River riding.