How Trudeau’s Budget will further burden Canadian families
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Summary
The price of food is out of control, and it is almost self-inflicted. We have all been to the grocery store, we ve all seen it with our own eyes. And to talk about this, we are joined by John Barlow, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, for the likes of Brock, with new
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content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. We do appreciate you joining us
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here today. As a friendly reminder, if you can't listen to the entire program right this second,
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please download it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify,
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you name it, it is out there. Together we can push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda
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because I guarantee you the content you're about to hear today is not something you're
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generally hearing in the mainstream media. And the content we're about to give you today
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is on food prices. The price of food is out of control. We've all been to the grocery store,
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we've all seen it with our own eyes, and it is almost self-inflicted. And to talk about this,
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we're going to invite John Barlow, the Member of Parliament for Foothills. He's also the Shadow
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Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food, a good friend of the show. He's been on before. Welcome,
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John. Thanks, Timmy, very much for having me. It's a pleasure.
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All right. The price of food is out of control. Farmers are complaining about a whole bunch of
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costs, the carbon tax, fertilizer, etc., etc. It's just one thing after another being hit on these
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farmers that are just trying to provide food for our communities. Yeah, you know, it's honestly,
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it just seems like it's one blow after another. Just when you think you've maybe overcome one
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obstacle, another one hits them from the blind side. And it's when you see these skyrocketing
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prices on their inputs like feed, fuel, and fertilizer, that is having an impact. They
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can't pass that on. They can't take on those increased costs themselves. It's passed on to
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the consumer. And you're seeing a big part of that at the grocery store shelves where, you know,
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food prices have gone up anywhere between 7 and 15 percent.
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So we're calling on fertilizer prices to have a bit of a reprieve. Basically, before the sanctions
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on Russia, those deals that were done before the sanctions were imposed, to let those ships come
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into port, unload, and not feel the full brunt of the sanctions Canada imposed on other goods
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coming from Russia. Yeah, that's right. The Liberals' self-imposed tariff on Russian fertilizer
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has exasperated what was already a cost crisis when it came to fertilizer. In many parts of the country,
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due to supply chain issues and carbon taxes, we saw the price of fertilizer more than double,
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up 200 percent in many areas. So then to put on a 35 percent tariff on that fertilizer coming from
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Russia and Belarus, they're just making that even that much more unaffordable. It is going to
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certainly impact this growing season, but more so next growing season. So what we're asking the
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Liberals to do, we've been asking for many weeks and have yet to get a response, is simply exempt
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that tariff from any fertilizer that was purchased from Russia before March 2nd. Stuff that was paid
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for months, and in some cases almost a year ago, it's on route, it's in transit, so it's not hurting
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Russia in any way. It's already been bought and paid for, but it will help Canadian farmers, at least
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with the affordability issue, to be able to afford those inputs to ensure that they're going to have
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the best yield possible at a time when we're going to need that, and we're going to see potentially a
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global food crisis as a result of what's going on in Russia and Ukraine, but certainly a really
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difficult drought last year. Yeah, absolutely. Farmers are one thing after another sometimes,
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and just to build on what you were saying, the conflict in Ukraine, the destruction that's
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happening on farmlands in that whole region is quite substantial, and I think people are noticing
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high prices now, but there is a very real reality that prices are going to go a lot higher because
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of what's going on in the world today. Yeah, absolutely. Ukraine is the breadbasket of that
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part of the world for much of Europe, Asia, and Africa when it comes to barley, corn, wheat, sunflower oil,
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which isn't as huge a commodity here, but very, very highly sought after in Africa and Asia.
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So we're looking at maybe a loss of a quarter of the globe's wheat, barley, and corn crop. That is
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substantial, especially when you look at the Food and Agriculture Organization predicted we've got
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about 300 million people on the planet that have food security issues. They're expecting that to go
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up by maybe 80 million people as a result of what's going on in Russia and Ukraine when you've lost
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such a big part of our global food supply, and 80% of what we produce here in Canada is exported.
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So when you have that void that has now been created as a result of what's going on with Russia
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and Ukraine, producers here are going to be asked to fill that, and they're going to have that
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responsibility, and they want to carry that burden. But certainly when you have a loss of a 25% of your
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supply, that is going to drive up prices. So when we talk about global food security and, well,
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insecurity, we often talk about this in faraway places, in countries we don't really can't even
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pronounce or we don't know where they are. But we really need to understand that this is going to be
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felt right here at home. Because what's going on in Russia and Ukraine is impacting us here with
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higher food prices, and those prices are going to continue to rise.
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A lot of people will talk about, well, as you mentioned, Canada has the ability to produce and
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provide a lot of the food that the world needs. But at the end of the day, the more the government
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puts on in terms of rules, regulation, taxes, red tape, the list goes on,
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the less competitive our agriculture sector becomes. But not only that, the higher
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it costs to produce that good. And that is something that I think gets overlooked sometimes,
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is the fact that we are self-inflicting, as I said at the beginning, self-inflicting these wounds
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that make our product almost very, well, it does make it uncompetitive in some markets,
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but the ability to attract more younger farmers into the field, to kind of get a new generation
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going, it sometimes hurts us when we start doing stuff like this.
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Yeah, there's no question. And this is almost like the building of the perfect storm,
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where bad liberal policy has made it very unattractive to get into Canadian agriculture.
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When you talk about carbon taxes, supply chain issues, a labour crisis, all of these things are
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having an impact. And when you're a farmer, you understand there's a lot of things that are
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outside of your control. The weather, commodity prices, things like that. But you do look at the
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government to give you some sort of predictability and sustainability on certain things. A competitive
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tax and regulatory regime, a dependable infrastructure and transportation program,
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the ability to export my products around the world. Well, I can tick all of those off and say the
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Liberals are failing on all of those things. So when farmers are looking for some sort of
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support from the federal government side, it's just not there. And then we are seeing with a bill
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that we passed in Parliament last year, Bill C208, which was brought forward by our colleague Larry
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Maguire, which changed the tax structure to ensure that there'd be easier in that succession planning to
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pass that farm on to the next generation. Well, for the first time in our Canadian history,
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a Liberal government is ignoring the will of Parliament and has not implemented that legislation
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yet. And we're, you know, more than almost two years into that being passed. You know,
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that's unacceptable. So everything that we're, you know, Canadian agriculture right now should be
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booming as you see the opportunities that are out there. Commodity prices are high.
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Opportunities in global markets are there. But the Liberal government is doing everything they can to
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hold that back by having punitive taxes and punitive regulatory regime and legislation that is causing
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more harm than good. And the carbon tax, it went up yet again in April. More cost on the farmer trying
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to grow the or dry the grain and just do their jobs and provide food for us. It's just unbelievable how
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we are making our domestic food supply more expensive and why it's so unnecessary that we're doing it.
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Well, the carbon tax is a perfect example. There's a couple of things there. So the first year the
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carbon tax came in, even though the Liberals promised it would never go over $50 a tonne,
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well now we're well on our way to $170 a tonne. In the first year of the carbon tax, the average
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Canadian farmer paid about $14,000 in carbon taxes. Punitive, you know, harmful, but you can probably get
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around it. Last year it was $45,000 the second year. Well now they increased it again on April 1st when
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we have a supply chain crisis and a global food insecurity crisis. They've upped it 25%. So now
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your average farmer is going to be paying somewhere between $70,000 and $80,000. That is your average
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farmer. I've got large producers in my riding that showed me bills that are tens of thousands of dollars
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a month when they have large poultry operations or cattle operations where they're having to heap barns or dry
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grain. As you said, we are taxing our farmers out of business. It's nonsensical. As we said, we are
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asking them leading up to April 1st, like if any time you're going to put the carbon tax on hold and
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not increase it, now is the time. But because their activists bent with no sense of reasoning of
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ramifications of these decisions, they went ahead and increased it. And it's, our Canadian farmers are
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feeling that hit because they can't, they can't absorb that tax. And as a result, again, they're
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passing it on to consumers. And with everything else going on in the world, yet another reason why
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we're seeing inflation and grocery prices go through the roof. Yeah, we're seeing price inflation
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and currency inflation hitting at the exact same time. And it's, it's hurting those just struggling
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to get by, especially those on the margins. So we have all the red tape, the regulations, taxes,
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and all that. Jamie, the worst thing about the carbon tax, as the parliamentary budget officer
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said in his report, it doesn't reduce emissions, it increases inflation. So everything that they
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say this should be, and they said it's also, the Liberals have said it's revenue neutral. Well,
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we know that's not true. The parliamentary budget officer said that. The Liberals' own emissions
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program they put out proves it. They're only going to give farmers back about $1.70 for every
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thousand dollars of eligible expenses. Well, that's a far cry from revenue neutral. So everything
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the Liberals profess this carbon tax to do, reduce emissions, revenue neutral, is not true. And we
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know it not to be true. And yet they plow ahead with it. Well, I think they had a prime example
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in British Columbia, because the provincial government had a carbon tax long before the
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federal one, and emissions rose every single year. It never actually did what it was supposed to do.
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So it just becomes then a tax grab, a money grab, that governments could then spend on whatever they
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feel the priority of the day is. So on top of all of that, we have groups, and I tweeted it out,
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and we talked about this beforehand, talking about how we reduce the global meat supply by 75% in order
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to meet climate change targets. This is, as I tweeted out my tweet, what do you think is going to happen
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to the global price of meat if you cut 75% out of the market? And of course, this is just a study.
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They're talking about it almost like testing the waters. But meat will only be then available for
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the elite and the well-off of society, while the rest of us almost starve. It is absolutely
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nonsensical when we have a fantastic agriculture community that is doing everything right. Good
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stewards of the land. They're trying to be environmentally progressive as much as they
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can, and they're doing a fantastic job, but get no credit for it. 100%. It's like the proposed truck
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tax, right? Yes. So only elites will be able to eat beef and drive a truck.
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So I'm not sure what that's going to do for rural Canadians. It's going to be pretty tough for us to
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manage. But you're right. And the worst thing about that report is that it is not based on fact.
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Our native grasslands, especially in Western Canada, are the most endangered biodiversity
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in the world, more so than the Amazon rainforest, more so than the coral reef in the Amazon. And if you
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do not have those animals grazing that grassland, it will be destroyed. It is protecting that biodiversity,
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that ecosystem, you know, hundreds of thousands of species at risk. It's very important to our
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wetlands to ensure that those grasslands are healthy and protected. If you don't have the animals on there
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maintaining that grassland, it will be lost to weeds and infestation, or it'll be cultivated into,
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you know, crops, or developed as residential development. And then you lose it forever.
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And once it's gone, it's gone. It's irreplaceable. So that's the other one. But the other thing is,
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the Liberals have had a food additive that reduces methane from cattle by 80%. It's been approved by the
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United States. It's been approved by the European Union. It's been five years, and CFIA hasn't approved
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it in Canada to be used. So there's a, there's a solution right there for you, that we don't have to worry
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about impacting cattle prices or endangering, you know, a very delicate ecosystem in Canada.
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Just to prove the 3NOP food additive for cattle feed, and you've reduced methane by 80%. But again,
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they can't get it their own way in making things more complicated than it needs to be.
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Well, it's almost as if they try to make your life, if you're, if you're not making someone's life miserable,
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you're not being a good liberal. That's right. Is that not what it seems like?
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Yeah, miserable and unaffordable. That seems to be the strategy.
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But then they just want you to rest on, on the fact that government will then provide for you
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at some point. But they forget the government needs to get the money from somewhere.
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Right. You know, they can only tax borrow or print so much before there are impacts.
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They want to wrap you in a very expensive government safety blanket. And unfortunately,
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you know, we need, as you know, your podcast does a great job of doing is inform
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Canadians on that there are consequences to these types of decisions. And it may sound
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good when they make that media announcement. But when you dig down deep into the actual
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nitty gritty, it shows you that it's, it's devastating.
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Well, we talked about this before, but you're from Alberta. So you're very familiar with this,
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but also the fact that fuel prices are rising, you know, diesel, I know there's tax
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benefits for on farm and off farm, but diesel prices are going out of control right now.
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And we have the ability in this country where we have some of the world's largest deposits here,
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but we have restricted over the last decade or so, the industry's ability to get those
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products to market outside the United States. And this is again, another self-inflicted wound where
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the world is just clamoring for another supply other than Russia. Canada has it. We just can't get
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Well, that's another one of those, those issues where, you know, farmers are feeling that,
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especially people in rural Canada that, you know, you don't have a choice. You know,
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I need diesel to, to run my operation. And it's not just farmers, but any small business owner,
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whether you're a welder or a carpenter, you know, you've, you've got your truck. And again,
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that, that truck tax comes in there. But my, my farmers and my ranchers, as, as you would know,
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Jamie, as well, you know, they, they can't put their cattle on the subway to get it to market.
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You know, I, I don't have public transit in my riding. It's 25,000 square kilometers. It doesn't
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exist. Um, my, my grain growers can't haul their grain to the terminal in a Tesla. Like,
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those things just physically don't exist. They rely on those diesel prices. And again,
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that's just passed on, on to the end consumer. And what makes it frustrating, as you mentioned,
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is now we have all these pundits around the world, especially here in Canada, the mainstream media
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saying, oh, you know, why, why have we not looked at energy as, as a geopolitical tool and,
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and been sure that the, the worst dictators in the world aren't holding other countries by
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captive. And I'm like, are you insane? What do you think we've been talking about for a decade?
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Ever since I've been here, that's all we talked about.
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That's all we talked about. And you're right. Agriculture and energy are, are two critical
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things that Canada has that we should be flexing our muscles with and using as geopolitical tools
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and influencers around the world. But it's the two things that the liberals have the most disdain
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for and are doing everything they possibly can to shut us down by, by listening to activists and,
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and listening to, um, those lobbyists that don't have the best, uh, the best of what Canada can offer
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at heart. And, uh, it is very frustrating when you, you know, you and I, and, and certainly our
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conservative colleagues and Canadians across the country understand the potential that we have
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and the role we can play. Um, but we are being held back by a government who doesn't feel that
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we should have that role, uh, around the world. And that's, that's really unfortunate.
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We just have to look to free market principles. If you're talking about energy, agriculture,
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anything like that. Uh, we only have a few minutes left. We do have to wrap up. I just want to quickly,
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uh, just end on a bit of an energy tone here. Uh, Keystone XL, of course, Joe Biden was sworn as
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prime minister. First thing he did was cancel that, not a peep from the prime minister on this.
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Then when the price of fuel starts to skyrocket, who does Joe Biden turn to for help? OPEC.
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And they shot him down. And then he just said, well, now we have to start drilling in, in,
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in, uh, the United States again, even though there's a moratorium on, on drilling on federal
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lands. It's just unbelievable that Canada is just left off these, these conversations.
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Yeah. The, the hypocrisy of, of these left leading provincial and federal governments is,
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it's frustrating. The other example I would have is, is Premier Horgan in BC, uh,
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who's doing everything he possibly can to shut down Trans Mountain, made sure that Northern
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Gateway didn't go ahead. Well, when gas prices hit, uh, big highs this fall, he gave every BC
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resident a subsidy to cover their gas. It's like, well, isn't this exactly what you wanted to make
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gas unaffordable that BC people of British Columbia can't drive their vehicles. So it's amazing how your
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politics change once things start, you know, the, the poop hits the fan, so to speak. So the hypocrisy of
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these people and, and the first, you know, again, Canadian energy is developed under the most,
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the highest environmental and human rights standards in the world. And we are shutting
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down our industry. That means we're relying on Putin. We're relying on Venezuela. We're relying on Saudi
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Arabia. Instead of using conflict-free, ethically developed oil and gas right here from Canada,
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it does not make any sense. And I hope Canadians start to realize just how important energy and
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agriculture security is here, but also around the world. And it's unfortunate it takes a conflict in
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another part of the world to start, uh, getting people to, to realize that the government has
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screwed up on two important fronts here really badly. Very much so. We're pretty much out of time.
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As you know, you always get the last word. So I'll give you some time to, to give your final thoughts
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and then we'll wrap up. Yeah. Thanks again for having me, Jamie. And I really, uh, my message here
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today is, is Canadians need to, to understand how important these two industries are to our country,
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not only our economy, but, but certainly, uh, the, the rural communities across the country. But now,
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I'm hoping Canadians see just how critical they are to our position around the world that Canada
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isn't the problem. Canada offers a solution when it comes to energy and agriculture.
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John Barlow, member of parliament for Foothills, also the shadow minister for agriculture and agri-food.
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We do appreciate him coming by today and sharing his thoughts. And of course, if you like those
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thoughts, I know I did, please like, comment, subscribe, share this program. Together, we can push back
00:18:45.040
against that ever moving liberal agenda. As I mentioned earlier, if you didn't get a chance to watch or listen
00:18:50.160
to the entire program, please download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play,
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Spotify, tell your friends about it. This is content you're probably not getting in the mainstream
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media. New content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern time. We do appreciate you joining us.
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And remember, low taxes, less governments, more freedom. That's the Blueprint.