Wayne Easter

[Paralympic Winter Games, March 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Mark Arendz from Hartsville, P.E.I., who won silver and bronze medals in biathlon at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Mark's competitive spirit and athletic skills are an inspiration to all Canadians. I would also hope we recognize the courage, dedication, hard work, and family support that contributed to Mark's achievements.

I remember vividly the day Mark lost his left arm above the elbow in a farming accident at age seven. Courageously, he used his experience to teach others about farm safety and worked with the War Amps as a junior counsellor.

Pursuing his love for sport and competition—in fact, he and his whole family completed in biathlon events at Brookvale ski park—he achieved the Duke of Edinburgh gold award and over the past four years earned more than 16 medals, including the world championship.

On behalf of the House, we offer our sincerest congratulations to Mark Arendz, a true Canadian inspiration.

[Points of Order, March 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture made a substantive error in his answers. He claimed that the doubling of car movement would be such a wonderful thing. However, the doubling of car movement only gets to the normal movement of rail cars and does nothing to deal with the backlog.

[Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, March 6th, 2014]

It is the same this year.

[Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, March 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member, who was one of the key members going around the country basically saying that if we blow up the Canadian Wheat Board look at all the choices we will have. The Canadian Wheat Board was all about trade, and what do have now? We have a disaster in terms of getting our product to market.

Trade agreements are great and wonderful, but if we do not have a government that is willing to force the transportation infrastructure to move that product to market, it does not make much difference. On the wheat side, we have already lost a market to Japan. We know that a grain company is pulling out of a market in Algeria because farmers have the product but there is no way to get it to the marketplace.

On the Honduran trade agreement, what is the member going to do to assure us that in accompanying the agreement, the government would be willing to act and respond to ensure that the transportation infrastructure is in place to move our product?

[Public Safety, March 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety is about to cancel one of the most successful programs protecting public safety. Why?

The program, Circles of Support and Accountability, is responsible for an 83% reduction in sexual recidivism, and a 73% reduction in all types of violent recidivism. The bottom line for Circles of Support and Accountability is no more victims, and it works.

Why is the minister increasing the risk to public safety by cancelling this valuable program?

[Petitions, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition from a number of petitioners.

The petition is entitled, “The Right to Save Seeds”. The petitions recognize the inherent rights of farmers to save, reuse, select, exchange, and sell seeds.

The petitioners are calling on Parliament to refrain from making any changes to the Seeds Act or to the Plant Breeders' Rights Act through Bill C-18, which would take those rights away.

[Agricultural Growth Act, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the remarks by the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex were interesting, as I would expect coming from a government member supporting this legislation.

I want to ask a question on the changes the bill would make to the feed and fertilizer components. I have enjoyed sitting on the agriculture committee with the member, but I want to ask if there would be any protection for producers with proposed changes to the fertilizer act. The member and I have both sat on that committee, so we know that potash companies and fertilizer companies have joined together around the world in the past and have basically managed supply, or actually shortened supply, to increase the price of fertilizer to the farm community. I am wondering if there is any protection in the bill for producers, not just fertilizer companies. Is there any cost protection in the bill that would protect farmers from excessive pricing by potash and fertilizer companies as they get together around the world and shorten supply, to the disadvantage of producers?

[Agricultural Growth Act, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right.

There are very serious concerns, especially as the bill relates to plant breeders' rights. As I said, the minister's answer on farmers' privilege did not instill a lot of confidence in me. He said that farmers' privilege can be enhanced as we move forward. If that is the case, it can also be lessened.

There are some organizations and groups out there that are very concerned. I think it is significant, when we are looking at definition, that it is entitled in the bill as “farmers' privilege”. Why is it not called “farmers' right”?

Farmers have the privilege to save seed they have grown maybe for a little while, maybe under certain conditions. Farmers are the producers of food. Over time we have seen global corporations taking more and more control of the very essence of growing a crop, the seed itself.

I am not saying they have not done a good job in many respects. They have increased production. They have increased protection against disease and all those things. However, is there a balance? Is there too much power in the corporate sector and not enough in the farm sector?

I think we have to look at the difference between farmers' privilege and farmers' right.

[Agricultural Growth Act, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, what we have consistently seen from the government is a reduction over time in a number of ways of its support for the agriculture community. The government talks a good line.

I mentioned the disaster that the government created by killing the Canadian Wheat Board. I know the minister says that we still have the Canadian Wheat Board and that the farmers can still go to it. They can but the government took all the authority and power of the Canadian Wheat Board away. That is why there is really no one to represent producers and challenge the grain companies and railways on the movement of farmers' product.

I hear members applauding on the other side, but I do not know how they can do that when they know about the disaster in western Canada right now because the logistics previously coordinated by the Canadian Wheat Board are no longer there. That is why there is a disaster with the movement of grain in western Canada.

The government cut AgriStability by 50%. So that safety net is no longer there to the same extent it was under the previous government.

The government cut AgriInvest as well. Farmers not able, in the good times, to invest as much money. The contribution from the government under AgriInvest is not there to the extent it was under the previous government.

Last, in terms of research and development on public plant breeding, the government has cut back so far that researchers with years of knowledge are leaving the country. They are going to Australia and the United States. They were educated, trained, and gained experienced in Canada, and now they are working for countries that compete against us, all because of the government.

[Agricultural Growth Act, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and I certainly agree on how important agriculture and its spinoff industries, from farmers through the processing industry to the transportation industry, are to the Canadian economy. Agriculture is a huge contributor to jobs and the economy in this country and a huge contributor to GDP.

I have always maintained, and I am a former farm leader, that agriculture is a producer of wealth. In the agricultural community, farmers take something and grow it and produce it and create wealth. Part of the problem for primary producers is that it is often awfully hard for them to retain that wealth in their own operations, but they do a lot of good work and add to the economy of the country as a whole.

It is one of the reasons why we have to recognize that in the global community we cannot be the odd person out. If the United States and Europe are supporting their agricultural industry more than we are, by not doing something similar in our own country, we are not creating a level playing field for our producers.

All things have to tie together. We need the infrastructure, transportation, and shipping to get our products to market in an efficient and competitive way. The government could do much more than it is doing currently in that particular area.