Martin Shields

[Carbon Pricing, October 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, to my colleague, I know he is from Winnipeg, which used to be the grain exchange centre of the world. It is part of the heritage of the Prairies. I am very pragmatic about this. In my riding, which has 70% irrigation, the costs are huge, as is the money paid on the carbon tax, and there is not the recognition of the value irrigation brings to the amount of crops we can produce in this country and the variety.

We grow more potatoes than P.E.I. these days in my riding and we have the only sugar plant left, and we grow sugar beets because of irrigation. Farmers tell me on a regular basis the carbon tax is so hard on them, so we lose from our communities hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to millions and millions. This hurts our communities because those farmers are not able to buy what they could if they did not lose it on the carbon tax. They cannot support our rural communities. They cannot volunteer to donate things they would have donated before.

It is a piece pragmatic for me that those who produce the best and highest quality and variety of foods because of irrigation are paying the highest price for carbon tax. That exemption needs to be understood, and I think it has been recognized there should be more conversations about agriculture.

[Carbon Pricing, October 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, we have a new term we could use tonight: “prince of darkness”, or something of darkness. Maybe we can use that new term.

In February 2022, the Conservative member for Huron—Bruce introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-234, which would also exempt natural gas and propane used on farms for essential tasks like drying grain and heating barns. A year later, in March 2023, it passed the House of Commons with full support from the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc, the Green Party and a handful of Liberals. However, the bill is now in the Senate and has been there for some time. Then the Senate amended the bill and took out the exemption for buildings. This was a piece of legislation passed in the House through three readings and through committee, and it went to the Senate.

This is with respect to the exemption for farmers on carbon tax. These are the people who do not get a rebate. We hear all the time that the government is sending a rebate. I have talked to many people at farm operations, because my riding is a rural one, including last weekend at a meeting I had in the small community of Enchant. The farmers do not get a rebate, but they are paying a huge carbon tax. The bill has now been amended. I have the utility bills from one of those people, and for one their buildings, they paid $15,000 in carbon tax. This would have been exempted, but now the bill is sitting in the Senate, amended.

For the bill to get out of there, amended, it has to come back here and go through the process. Is there a likelihood of the bill's being passed before we get to another summer? The bill has been kicking around for two summers. For two summers, farmers across the country, from coast to coast, have been paying carbon tax on propane and natural gas for grain dryers and buildings. The bill was what we needed for our agricultural sector. Now, the Senate has amended it and taken out the exemption for buildings. Like I said, a constituent of mine paid $15,000 for carbon tax. It was not the price of the power and the electricity; it was carbon tax because they are using natural gas.

The bill is going to come back here. The delay costs the agriculture sector because of Prime Minister-appointed senators making the amendment to it. Let us understand that: It was Prime Minister-appointed senators who made this amendment. They knew what they were doing. They knew the delay that they were causing. This is hardship. The carbon tax allows no rebate to these kinds of farmers. They do not get the rebates that the government members constantly talk about. It is a travesty to our agricultural sector that this has happened.

[Carbon Pricing, September 29th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Alberta farmers and families are paying more tax than ever. When we tax Stamp Seeds, which grows food; Reimer Trucking, which ships food; Drost Farms, which processes food; and Sunterra Market, which sells food, we are taxing everyone who buys food. The Prime Minister is just not worth it.

Alberta farmers need to keep feeding the world. Will the Prime Minister axe his carbon tax?

[Carbon Pricing, September 26th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I can get the farmers' bills on the actual cost of the carbon tax. I am talking about electricity. I am talking about the electricity generated that it costs for food. I am talking about the actual impact of the carbon tax on our ag producers. It is a fact.

About 7% of the generated Alberta grid is produced by solar and wind. We have more solar and wind than any other province in Canada. However, when it is -30°C in January, there is no solar power. In the summer when the wind was not blowing, there was no power for wind turbines because they were not moving.

We need food security. That is economic security and that is important. I am standing up for our ag producers—

[Carbon Pricing, September 26th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, it is good to see you back and good to see my colleague on the opposite side. We have had many conversations over the years, and I appreciate the opportunity to have that discussion again tonight.

One of the things that happened in this particular summer was a tour. There were ag journalists from all over the world at a conference in Alberta. One of the options they had was to tour around to different places. One of the tours was in my riding, looking at irrigation and ag producers. It was a privilege to be invited along with this busload of journalists from around the world, and I was sitting beside one from Montreal, one from Iowa in the U.S. corn belt, and another one from Brazil. We talked about agriculture. Of course, because I am from the government, the journalists asked me about the policies of how it works.

I could not resist asking about carbon tax. The journalist from Montreal suggested that they did not have a carbon tax because they have cap and trade. I asked, “What about the second carbon tax, the clean fuel standard?” He said, “Oh, we do not have that in Quebec.” I said that he might want to check on that. The journalist from the U.S. said, “carbon tax?” She was not familiar with it in their country. I said, “When we stop at producers' places, why not ask them about the carbon tax?”

We are not talking about the diesel. We are not talking about rebates, because these ag producers do not get a rebate. These people are not the rebate people. We are talking about the power for electricity on pumps for irrigation. Seventy per cent of the irrigation in the country is in my riding. That is 4% of the arable land in Alberta producing over 20% of the ag GDP.

When we stopped, The U.S. journalist asked a farmer whether they pay carbon tax. The farmer said, “I have bills I can show you. I have paid $100,000 in carbon tax alone.” Afterwards, the journalists were surprised. The one from Iowa said they did not know how we compete in the world market. They are happy in the U.S. because we cannot compete with them because they do not have that carbon tax. The one from Montreal said that they do not have a carbon tax either. I said, “Check on it. You have the clean fuel standard, and that is in your ag sector.” The one from Brazil said, “I do not know how you are going to compete on the international market.”

That is the challenge with our irrigation: the carbon tax on the electricity. I am not talking about diesel. These guys do not get rebates. Seventy per cent of irrigation is in my riding, and the farmers are paying huge carbon tax on the electricity. This is a challenge to stay competitive. This is a challenge to stay in the ag business as producers, and it is going to triple. The ag producers do not understand how they can stay in the business.

We are talking about innovative agricultural producers. We are talking about carbon sequestration in their crops. We are talking about the way they are developing their crops with zero tillage. A lot of the activities they are doing are world-leading, but the carbon tax is killing our food security because these ag producers cannot sustain this level of tax on the electricity it takes for their irrigation pumps to work. It is problematic for food security in this country.

[Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, September 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from South Surrey—White Rock represents a riding that has a very diverse base, and I would imagine that she has an understanding as to why this bill is very limiting on what it could do for housing in her riding.

I wonder if the member could respond to the types of housing that are needed and not addressed in this piece of legislation.

[Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, September 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I know my colleague from Calgary has experience in the construction industry and the building industry. He worked from the ground level up in this industry when he came to this country. I think he would understand what it takes to build in this country.

From the member's own background, could you relate to us how you know that this needs to happen because of your past experience in the construction industry?

[Criminal Code, September 18th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, it has been asked of the Conservative Party a number of times today if we support this, yet when we had a motion to move this piece of legislation along very quickly, the NDP-Liberal coalition opposed it. I would like to know why.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, September 18th, 2023]

With regard to documents sent between the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Canadian Heritage, including the minister's office, about Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts: what are the details of all such documents, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) sender, (iii) recipients, (iv) type of document, (v) title, (vi) subject matter, (vii) summary of contents?

[Online News Act, June 20th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, in my riding there are 13 weekly newspapers. The NDP voted against a number of them receiving it because one person is the proprietor, owner and reporter. The NDP voted against our amendment to support small local media in my riding.

I think the MP from Saskatchewan would probably respond, as it is similar in her riding, but the NDP voted against that.