Liberal government doubles down against Canada’s farmers.
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Summary
In this episode of The Blueprints, we are joined by our Agriculture and Food Critic, John Barlow, to talk about the devastating impact of a proposed plan by the Liberal government to reduce the amount of fertilizer used in Canada's agriculture sector by 30%.
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 schmale member of parliament for halliburton fourth likes brock with new content
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today's topic is something that's kind of been on my mind since we first talked about it a few weeks
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ago with our agriculture and agri-food critic john barlow the member of parliament for foothills in
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alberta and it is this idea that the liberals are floating that they want to reduce fertilizer use
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in canada by 30 percent which would absolutely devastate our agriculture industry so to talk
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a bit more about this because this is extremely important and again it's probably a message you're
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not hearing about in the mainstream media at this exact moment so i'm bringing on a good friend of
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the show warren steinley member of parliament for regina louvan in the beautiful province of
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saskatchewan thanks for coming on board absolutely jamie happy to be here and happy to talk about an
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issue that's going to be very important now and into the future because it's going to really
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revolve around food security for canadians and for the world so thank you very much for having me on
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well it looks like the liberals conversation on this is changing a bit so at first they were talking
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about setting up consultations with farmers and interest groups all across the country to talk
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about how they can reduce the fertilizer use in canada by 30 percent which would again absolutely
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devastate food production in this country but again now they're getting a bit of pushback it seems now
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they're saying well maybe it was voluntary after all i don't know about you warren in your area i know in
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my area farmers like everybody else they don't use too much of their product because if they do they're
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going to lose money they use exactly what is needed at the exact time and moment exactly jamie and
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you're bang on we were actually fortunate enough to have john barlow out in regina saskatchewan here
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a couple weeks ago and myself andrew sheeran him had a meeting with around 40 agriculture stakeholders
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that represented different groups across saskatchewan and that's what they said the message
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was farmers don't want to use more inputs than they can so it affects their bottom line and also
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they're great stewards of the land so they're making sure the technology is so good right now
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i had an opportunity to go to a yara incubator test site during ag and motion up by saskatoon and they
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have such technology now where they've mapped all the fields they have a machine that you can put to
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13 leaves 30 leaves on it tells you the exact amount of fertilizer they should use at the exact time to the
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decimal spot so i think people in ottawa that are making these policies up as they go don't realize the
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technology is being used in agriculture in western canada and saskatchewan at this moment and how
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well they're doing in ensuring that they use as least amount of fertilizer as possible for the fields
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that they're producing that's actually a very good point warren and i'm glad you brought that up
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technology especially in agriculture and the food industry is moving so fast it most farmers are always
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using the best technology the best information they can have as quickly as they can get it this is
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this is a sector that that thrives on innovation and i think sometimes it's overlooked yes in so many
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of these agribusinesses farmers have these big farms they have agrologists and professionals that
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come out and help them decide what they should produce in what year what field they need to put
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a different crop in so these professional agrologists are making sure that these farm the farmers are being
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great stewards of the land that which they have always been and one thing that they don't realize is
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if you reduce the amount of fertilizer yields will go down that is an absolute and every producer will
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tell you that if they want to reduce the use of fertilizer that means it's going to affect every
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canadian this is not an urban versus rural issue not an east versus west issue if you eat food in
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canada this bad policy by this liberal government is going to affect you and food prices are going to
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continue to rise and it's going to hurt the most vulnerable once again it's just bad public policy put
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forth by a government and an agriculture minister that doesn't understand agriculture in western
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canada well from the article from the cbc posted august 5th it's got a picture of you and john
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barlow and andrew sheer on the on the article so as you just mentioned farm industry groups and it's
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right here in this article cbc farm industry groups say there's no simple or viable way to reduce
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nitrous oxide emissions without reducing the use of fertilizers which will again lower crop yields
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and of course we export a lot we feed a good chunk of the world with our export we could probably be
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doing more but if the government is going to go through with this which now they're saying it's
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voluntary two seconds ago it was coming on uh you know they're thinking about it for 2030 um we could be
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doing a lot more in helping uh reduce poverty we're reducing uh food insecurity in in places
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around the world that are struggling with that well that's exactly right jamie and we saw the same thing
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that was done to our energy sector right now we could be doing more to help out countries like germany
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and make sure they don't need russian gas and they're doing the same thing in agriculture that
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they're trying to lower what we can do in canada which canadian agriculture is produced 70 more
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environmentally friendly than most other countries around the world so what we could be doing now
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is ensuring that people are getting sustainably made food and food products shipping them to
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countries that need them and helping feed the world's hungry people so i think that's something
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that needs to be put in perspective is we need to have a government roadblocks in front of our
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industries and start helping them so that we can be a leader in the world when it comes to food security
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and energy security because we see bad policy after bad policy affect some of our most
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productive sectors and that's something that needs to stop and look what's happening happening in the
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netherlands they the government is purposely trying to shut down 30 000 farms in in the netherlands and
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this is this is a country that produces a way above their weight in terms of agriculture outputs
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it is staggering to me that the government purposely would want to shut down their food production
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would would shut down the ability for trade economic opportunity jobs innovation wealth technology
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all to meet these arbitrary goals meanwhile where will those countries that are receiving that food
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replace that with what other country is able to ramp up their exports that fast in order to to meet
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the the the products that's being taken off the market by the government of the netherlands and and we
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don't want to see the same thing happen here well the answer to help to help feed the world is canada
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could ramp up their production of food products but unfortunately this government is going down a
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similar path another thing being done in the netherlands is they're taking arable land out of farm
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production and that's an actual goal of the government when food security is something that's been talked
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about around the world why on earth would any government look at taking arable land out of food
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production when it's something that is being seen as more important each and every year from people
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around the world and the fear is in canada right now is if you aren't going to meet some of these
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subjective emission targets then you may not be able to take part in some of the brm programs
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business risk management programs that the governments are offering and that's a fear we heard loud and clear
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from some of the stakeholders in regina that we met with that day is if this is going to be
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voluntary does that mean that if we don't make and have a plan then we can't take part in some of the
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business risk management programs that are offered to the government and that's a real concern out here
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in western canada and it's something that needs to be taken seriously another thing that people don't
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realize is there's been some studies done by industry groups and these fertilizer reduction targets set
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by this government could take out 48 billion dollars worth of profit in the agriculture sector in our
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country and that's 40 billion with a b and that's something that people are scared about and when
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the economy is looking like it's heading in a downturn taking that much money out of our economy at a time
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where we need to be growing our economy so people can be making paychecks is something that is very
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worrisome to the agriculture stakeholders we spoke to i'm glad you brought this up too because this is
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the issue i have sometimes with with government grants especially with this liberal government and how they
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have their agenda it's not necessarily the best widget maker that gets the grant to to innovate
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and and come up with the new great thing it's usually the group that's connected to government
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or has you know the right lobbyists the right lawyers or they have predetermined innovation right
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the government will determine well we want the widget to look like this well if we got the grant we're
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going to have to make the widget like this is it the best way to make it i don't know is it is it more
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cost efficient who knows but it is a barrier competition it hurts the free market it hurts
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innovation it hurts technology you still probably get some innovation i think every country whether
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they're communist or socialist does have innovation but you don't have the rapid innovation you have
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if you reduce barriers lower taxes allow people to develop what the market wants to see and and in
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our agriculture sector they are using the best technology they want to continue to do that
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reduce their emissions at the same time and they're already doing it in so many other cases there are
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examples all over this country of farmers trying to reduce their their their footprint and i think
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we're doing a heck of a job but they get absolutely no credit from this government yeah that's another
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thing and jamie is any of the innovations that happened before 2018 which is once again another random
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date that they picked won't count towards emission reduction targets so any innovation has to happen
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after 2018 which anyone that's been involved in the farm sector knows how far we've come in the last 15
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years on on innovation and technology and it was just another subjective date picked by this government
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that said no any innovation that happens and you're going to get credit for your emission reductions
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has to happen after 2018 which is something that is very troublesome for the farm industry right now
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and we talked about that at that stakeholder meeting also and it was another another subjective date that
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the government picked for some reason but just to get back to talking about innovation and the government
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sometimes just needs to get out of the way when i was on the agriculture committee i spoke with one of the
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senior bureaucrats in ottawa he talked about how the government needs to foster innovation in the
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agriculture sector so i asked him i said what government program uh bring forward zero tillage
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none it was a private sector that came up with innovation and technology and and drills so he could
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do zero till what innovation was it that brought forward crop rotation none it was people realizing that
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the fields needed time to rest in different crops put in different nutrients rotational grazing for
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producers another thing there wasn't like forest government program that made people rotational graze their
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cattle they used to realize it was better for the land and they came to these new innovative ideas on their
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own so i just said it doesn't have to be a government program to initiate innovation in the agriculture sector
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they're doing fine on their own sometimes the government just should get it all the way and leave our
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agriculture producers alone that's you couldn't have said it better like the government picks winners and
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losers it doesn't innovate it produces regulations and rules that oftentimes stifle or slow down
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innovation in certain sectors and they create barriers to competition government is not an innovator
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the private sector is the innovator the free market will provide and when we talk about energy i think
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as conservatives we're talking about a plus b the the left always talks about b minus a right they they
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they want to get rid of our our fossil fuel industry and only rely on wind turbines and solar panels well
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that's not going to produce the energy we need nor is it going to produce the energy that the world needs to get
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off russian oil for example or oil from venezuela it doesn't matter there are bad actors we need to
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displace those bad actors we do that by producing abundance abundance equals peace shortage equals strife
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that's very well said jamie and i think that's something that this government doesn't understand
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and the reason why is there they're all a touch they're all a touch with the actual builders and
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producers of what we do well they they have a certain group of people that they listen to and
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they say and and speak their uh wokeism back to them and they they hear from them exactly what they
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want to hear but when they come out to saskatchewan i think they're surprised and don't understand why
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we have some big issues with the policy direction this government's going especially in the agro
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don't understand that there are good great agro businesses that are innovating each and every day to
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make sure that they're doing better to sustain their environment and i think that's something
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that this government needs to really take a step back and start listening to other people than what
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they what they want to hear they get they just hear a parrot speaking back to them and this government
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really needs to get out of the ottawa bubble and talk to some real people but i don't think that's
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what they want to do jamie i think they just want to stay in the ottawa bubble and do the ottawa's
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knows best approach you can see it with some of the legislation they did with the the green
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framework they didn't talk to the people and we we talked earlier about the consultation process
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well this government put this policy in place before they consulted anyone they did it backwards
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as always they put a policy in place and then they went out and said hey what do you guys think about
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this well if the policy is already in place and you've made your decision everyone knows you're just
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doing fake consultation right now to try and make yourselves feel better and try and make your
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friends in the media be able to say oh no they did talk to to producers well they did a six
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and they made the policy before they even talked to the people that was going to affect
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and we also hear lots over and over again that the the left cares about the poor and i think every
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party cares about the poor we want to ensure that people are able to lift themselves out of poverty
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and find opportunity and and and live the canadian dream if this goes forward who do you think
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this policy is going to hurt more it's going to be those on the lower end of the income scale if
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you skyrocket prices of groceries are already through the roof if you make that go higher
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what do you think is going to happen energy is already through the roof the tank of gas
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is incredible right now and now you're going to say well in in eight more years we're thinking about
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reducing the farmers in canada their ability to to use fertilizer and have them reduce which mean
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less crops which will mean less food output what do you think is going to happen to the existing food
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supply it's going to go out of control hurting those that probably well definitely uh need the
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protection the most which is the availability of food in abundance yeah it's going to hurt the most
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vulnerable jamie 100 healthier foods are going to be cost more money and the people that live in
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uh rosedale where minister freedom live freedom won't find a difference if they have to pay an
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extra four dollars for a loaf of bread but the single mother that is trying to support two kids
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on a lower paying job that's who's going to affect they're going to be able to have most vulnerable
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people are not going to be able to afford the food they need to have a healthy lifestyle it's the
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same as the carbon tax when heating bills go up it doesn't affect people that drive hundred thousand
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cars it affects people that take the bus to work and i think that's something that this government
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is completely ill touch with the average hard-working canadian and how hard it is under this government
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to get the job done and make ends meet i think that's something very important is i've talked to
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many people in saskatchewan over the summer jamie and not one person said they're in a better situation
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financially than they were five years ago there's very few canadians that are better off after this
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government's been in power for seven years and the policies that they're bringing forward are just
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making it harder and harder for families to make ends meet and something that needs to be
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stopped and they need to listen to what canadians are going through and actually have some
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empathy for canadians and right now they're just stubbornly going down this path of
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ideology towards climate extremism and i think we need to really take a step back and see how
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this is affecting the day-to-day lives of canadians well one way to to help us get off fossil fuels and
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reduce our our domain our need for them is technology innovation how do you do that use the free market
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reduce taxes lower the government implications into your life and allow people to do what they
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do best which is innovate warren i have so many more questions for you but unfortunately we are
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running out of time as you know the the guests always get the last word so with that i open the
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floor to you yeah i just want to repeat this isn't an issue when it comes to fertilizer reduction of
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urban versus rural this is an issue that's going to affect each and every canadian as goes to the
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grocery store to buy food so what we need to do is get out there and tell our story tell our very
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good story about how we are producing food that is environmentally friendly and we can feed the world
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and we need to make sure that our friends in urban canada know that western canadians are doing a
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great job environmentally we're great stewards of the land and we just want to make sure that we can
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get the job done and have government get out of our way i love it warren steinley member of parliament
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regina lou van we do appreciate his time a good friend of the show appreciate you coming on again
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if you like what you've heard you like what you watch please comment subscribe share this program i
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