Mr. Speaker, I would like to share my time with the hon. member for Malpeque.
Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this important debate. We all know that drought is a natural phenomenon and unfortunately impossible to predict. With the help of the government, however, farmers are able to fight against Mother Nature.
As my hon. colleagues have said, the federal government is using a variety of means to try to lessen the effects of the drought, in the short and the long term. These range from direct financial assistance to farmers to the development of a new strategic framework for agriculture, in order to help Canadian farmers cope with the challenges they are up against.
For example, last August my hon. colleague, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, announced that $10 million would be made available to farmers this year out of the $60 million committed to the National Water Supply Expansion Program. This measure will help lessen the risk of future water shortages due to drought and improve economic stability and prospects in Canada's agricultural regions. It is of course impossible to predict drought but, through research, farmers can be helped to compensate for its effects.
Some Prairie regions would no longer be workable today if it were not for research and science. In fact, it can be said that, without the considerable presence of federal research laboratories in the west, the face of Canada today would be entirely different.
Without this indispensable federal aid, western agriculture would not have thrived in those extremely difficult conditions, and would not have become the important economic force it is today. For example, federal government researchers have been helping farmers in the Palliser triangle to cope with drought for nearly a century.
The government set up an experimental station at Lethbridge in 1906, and others soon followed, including Swift Current, where researchers developed drought-resistant crops suitable for the arid southern prairies. This research continues to this day at Swift Current at the Semi-Arid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre.
Last year, $300,000 was also committed to the water shortage situation in Nova Scotia. This project was administered by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. The bulk of the funding will go to finance studies of catchbasins in the areas of Nova Scotia affected by drought and to better quantify and describe underground water resources in that province.
The Canadian agriculture sector is one that relies on innovation. Not only do the latest scientific advances help alleviate the impact of drought, but they also expand the range of Canadian made products, all the way from food with unique health benefits, to crops providing the pharmaceutical industry with chemical substances, biofuels, and other products.
In short, science and research are essential to the growth and sustainability of Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector.
Rapid progress in fields like biology and chemistry, combined with the impact of information and telecommunication technologies, have resulted in a revolution in what is today called the bio-economy.
These scientific advances are producing a number of significant results: first, a shift from the consumption of non renewable resources towards renewable resources; second, environmental cleanup; third, improvement of food safety systems; fourth, an increase in farm income through the diversification of agricultural production.
This is why the federal and provincial governments have made science and technology a priority in the agricultural policy framework, the new national action plan to ensure that Canada is the world leader in terms of food quality and safety, environmental sustainability and innovation.
All levels of government across the country are striving to create a climate that fosters innovation so that consumers worldwide can have access to the products that best meet their needs.
The agricultural policy framework incorporates science and innovation in business risk management, food safety, food quality, the environment and agricultural renewal.
It takes science out of isolation and incorporates it strategically into the agriculture and agri-food sector in order to meet in an innovative manner the demands of consumers who want safe, high quality food produced in an environmentally friendly manner.
As far as drought is concerned, the Government of Canada is using science, research and technology to develop a more comprehensive approach that is better integrated and better coordinated so as to alleviate the impacts of drought through improved preparation, monitoring and forecasting, and risk management.
For example, researchers at the Saskatoon Research Centre, assisted by the Saskatoon Wheat Pool, recently developed a new variety of canola that will soon be certified. This new variety, called Brassica juncea, can grow in parts of the Prairies too dry for existing varieties.
In addition to this new variety of drought-resistant canola, the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current is developing cultivars and strains of hard red spring wheat, durum wheat and Canada Prairie spring wheat, which are suited for the dry southern Prairies.
Canadian farmers will also be pleased to hear that researchers in Lethbridge are examining various climate change scenarios with a view to forecasting droughts more accurately, which would give farmers time to prepare.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is also a leader in research on plant genomics.
Basically, genomics enables researchers to identify the genes responsible for major crop characteristics such as drought, cold and freeze tolerance, disease and insect resistance and seed quality, and to determine the gene sequence.
As we learned last Monday in the throne speech, the Government of Canada plans to build on past accomplishments to strengthen the science sector by integrating activities carried out in the various departments and disciplines and concentrating on what Canadians see as priorities.
The government is advocating a horizontal approach to research in all agencies, whether governmental or not.
Innovation requires a system of relations, partnerships that link the different levels of government, universities and the public and private sectors.
Obviously, science and research will continue to focus on more traditional areas, such as agricultural productivity, and livestock and crops that are better suited to our climate and better able to resist pests and disease, as well as increasing yields and reducing production costs thanks to improved agricultural practices.
As I already stated, research being carried out at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is also looking into drought-resistant crops and initiatives to mitigate the effects of drought.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is spending $5 million annually on research to improve land use and soil conservation. This work includes developing new crop irrigation technologies.
Among the methods being developed to offset water shortages are the following: automated micro-irrigation systems, which allow automatic irrigation based on plant needs; water-needs forecasting as crops develop over their life cycle so that farmers can accurately plan their water or irrigation needs; the use of mulch to reduce water loss through evaporation; and work on soil conservation and direct seeding to reduce erosion and conserve water.
To close, the challenge before us is to ensure that new scientific breakthroughs benefit all Canadians, particularly Canadian farmers.
