00:00:54.420We need to, I think, have a whole new approach on this.
00:00:58.100I think that's granted based on the fact that we're opposing pretty much everything the government's doing.
00:01:03.040But now the government is saying, well, we're going to shut down a bunch of research centers that look into how we can grow food in certain conditions and a whole bunch of other things.
00:01:15.520Yeah, it's just a completely backwards approach to it.
00:01:18.180And you touched on that and I'll mention, you know, we've got the Indian Head Station being closed down, the Scott Research Station in my riding being shut down.
00:01:24.940There's cuts at the Swift Current Re-Station, which is my hometown, where I live.
00:01:28.600And other stations across the country are being impacted by this as well.
00:01:31.980And the way that they're set up, there's different soil types, different soil zones there.
00:01:36.260Even just within Saskatchewan, there's many different soil types, and that's why they're spread out across the province.
00:01:40.520So that way we can learn how certain crops, certain varieties are going to react, so that way you can grow the crops that are needed to be able to feed the world.
00:01:47.600Yeah, so it's unbelievable that the government has decided on the research sector
00:01:53.640when they say we need to ensure that our farmers are getting maximum potential,
00:02:22.640The proof of concept for what's kind of called the zero-till or low-till farming practice that is used widely across the prairies and starting to be used in other regions of the world, that was started in Saskatchewan.
00:02:34.680And it was Saskatchewan farmers were the first ones to take it up.
00:02:38.880But it was the research stations in Saskatchewan that were the proof of concept for it.
00:02:43.620So that's valuable research that was done.
00:02:46.380And it has made a huge impact on farmers in Canada and are starting to be around the world.
00:02:51.240It's been 30, 40 years of practice already in Saskatchewan.
00:02:55.640And again, we've seen the benefits of that for a very long time now.
00:02:58.980And the rest of the world is now just slowly starting to catch on.
00:03:01.540So that's just one of many great innovations that have happened at these research stations.
00:03:06.100A few of our colleagues were out in the East Coast, drawing attention to the closure of a facility out there.
00:03:21.220We're at Nappet Experimental Farm in Cumberland, Nova Scotia.
00:03:24.920And over the last few days, we've been talking to farmers and producers from right across Atlantic Canada.
00:03:29.740And they've been telling us how devastating the closure of this facility will be to food production and farming right across Atlantic Canada.
00:03:37.180And this is important not just to farmers and producers in Nova Scotia, but also in all regions of Atlantic Canada, including Newfoundland, Labrador, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
00:03:48.820The station has been here for 137 years for a reason, for its soil, for its climate.
00:03:56.120This cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
00:04:02.720So that research facility in Nova Scotia, 137 years of existence. It survived a whole lot of things, except this Liberal government.
00:04:12.600Yeah, which is just crazy. They talked in the video very well about what it's doing, what it means for that particular region.
00:04:19.500Can't be duplicated elsewhere, and that's why the specific locations of these sites are so important.
00:04:24.620When you're able to do agriculture, when you have a smaller land base like they have out in Atlantic Canada, it just shows the real value that is happening there.
00:04:32.720And to the farmers and producers out there and the ranchers who have been doing a tremendous job,
00:04:36.800this is a direct shot at them when you see a station like that one in Nappan affected by this.
00:04:51.000And I have yet again another petition from residents in and around the Indian Head area in southern Saskatchewan
00:04:57.880who are urging the government to reverse its terrible decision to shut down the Indian Head Agricultural Research Farm.
00:05:05.220This farm has over 100 years worth of data from soil conditions to moisture levels to all kinds of factors that affect the growing season.
00:05:17.040And this centre has produced untold hundreds of millions of dollars of economic benefit, not just to the agricultural sector in Saskatchewan, but all across Canada with the valuable research that it has produced and the innovations that it has led to.
00:05:31.800And the Liberals don't seem to care. Aren't they anti-science? It seems pretty clear to me.
00:05:36.880Absolutely. Anti-science, once again. And that's, again, another one of these great research stations strategically located.
00:05:42.700It's no mistake that they have a research station at Indian Head, just where it's located,
00:05:47.860the soil type, how much rain it gets, how much sunshine it happens there.
00:05:51.460It's strategically located so that way they can get a consistent result there with the
00:05:56.120science and with the research that they are trying to do.
00:05:58.620And that's one of the ones that the Liberals put on the chopping block, which is completely
00:06:11.800but they've gone through a lot of challenges in the last few years right rules and regulations
00:06:17.900being piled on processing capacity being stretched in certain parts of the the country Ontario
00:06:24.180especially we've seen price fluctuations weather issues like they've gone through a lot and and
00:06:30.500and the government really isn't doing anything to say hey you know what why don't we look at some
00:06:35.620duplicate regulations and rules that that make it expensive or how about we take off uh the the the
00:06:41.480carbon tax for you to give you some relief on your fuel to maybe lower the cost of doing business,
00:06:46.260or maybe your inputs, right? Your fertilizer has gone through the roof. Maybe there's a few things
00:06:51.040we can do here to help you out and maybe help you earn a living, but they haven't done really
00:06:55.600anything. They've done absolutely nothing. That's exactly right. And there is lots of regulations
00:07:00.720that they could have chose to remove, like the industrial carbon tax being one. Our colleague
00:07:04.740from Alberta, David Bexley, has a great private members bill that's going to be designed to try
00:07:08.460to make it easier to get new product into Canada. And with input costs at such a sky-high price as
00:07:16.340they are now, they've never been higher. And in Saskatchewan, for example, some parts of my
00:07:20.200area that I represent, we've had drought for pushing 10 years in some areas. It's been a
00:07:25.340tough goal of it, but yet we're still growing crops and producing food for the world. And that
00:07:29.880just shows the resilience that's come from being able to have reliable data and research that has
00:07:35.060happened at these research stations, and that's gone into being able to produce drought-resistant
00:07:39.120varieties that have been able to be a difference maker for farmers. We've seen over the years
00:07:44.780younger farmers coming onto the trade, absolutely, but we've seen a lot of kind of older, seasoned
00:07:53.800farmers, as you like to say it. Most of them don't ever retire. They still putter around, and they
00:07:58.740still have a few cattle, or they grow crops here and there, but they seem to always be involved,
00:08:03.400But especially in my area, there's been a number of farms that have not seen the younger generation come on.
00:08:09.260And I think a lot of the issues is not only do you have to be a jack of all trades to be able to fix and know the soil and weather and all this stuff, everything.
00:08:19.260But you also, you know, don't want to work two, three, four jobs to make ends meet, right?
00:08:25.040Agriculture has to be able to provide a living for those doing it.
00:08:29.000I think that's an easy thing I think we all agree on or should anyway.
00:08:32.700way yeah absolutely and this is where the research is being able to give the farmers the tools that
00:08:38.580they need so that way it's a lot easier for them to know and understand that okay this variety is
00:08:43.460going to work here this variety is going to work there or maybe this one's not going to work here
00:08:46.880because the research and the science has already been done on it so that way they know they have
00:08:51.220that confidence that when they're going to try to grow a crop that work has already been done and
00:08:55.060they know what they're going to get out of it and how it's going to work for them and that that's so
00:08:58.840important especially for the next generation coming in or trying to get into farming uh that's
00:09:04.060the last thing that they got to be worrying about is you know are the crops i'm going to try to grow
00:09:08.000are they actually going to work right you know farming is already the biggest gamble that you
00:09:11.960can make on a given year you're putting into the hands of mother nature to see how that's going to
00:09:16.500work out if you're going to get the rain and the sunshine at the right time that you need
00:09:19.720and so the last thing you need to need to be worried about is is the crop variety that i'm
00:09:23.840going to be trying to grow is it going to work or is it not going to work and uh you know shutting
00:09:27.940these centers down is just a terrible decision by this Liberal government. In my neck of the woods
00:09:32.460in Ontario, we have the Alto high-speed rail project that brings a high-speed trader, maybe,
00:09:38.440who knows, from Quebec City all the way to Toronto. But it rips through farmland all the way through,
00:09:45.140and it cuts some farm properties in half, right, with no ability to get the other side. This has a
00:09:51.480has a very big potential, very real potential of disrupting the lives of farmers and potentially
00:09:58.340shutting down a lot of operations because of it. Yeah, that's going to be a massive detriment to
00:10:04.340the farmers in your area for sure. And it's a public safety issue as well too. When you're
00:10:07.880trying to move the big machinery that people use on farms, right? Whether visibility might be
00:10:13.840limited when you're trying to get out onto the highway or when you're trying to cross that train
00:10:17.180track, you're slowing traffic down, it creates traffic issues. And yeah, this just seems like
00:10:21.600another boondoggle for the government coming its way with this new proposed Alto line. This is
00:10:25.900going to be, and you're taking valuable farmland out of production, right? You got to look at that
00:10:31.020as well too. This is some of the most valuable farmland we have in Canada. What you can produce
00:10:34.720off of that is quite substantive and they're just going to take it out for what? To send people down
00:10:39.020the train line when there's already options for people to get through those corridors. So yeah.
00:10:44.460Yeah, exactly. Especially when we're talking about the price of groceries, right? One way to lower the price, not only have competition within the grocery field itself, we have a couple, you know, what, three big, big owners having their tentacles in every other store we have.
00:11:01.540We could lower the price of the inputs.
00:11:03.320You mentioned the industrial carbon tax.
00:11:05.160We could offer more processing capacity.
00:11:07.860We could allow the farmers to do what they do best.
00:11:10.080But there just seem to be everywhere they look, they're hampered by rules, regulations, red tape,
00:11:14.960that they spend a lot of time just going through paperwork and actually doing what it is we need while we grow our population.
00:11:23.940Yeah. And how are we going to grow the next batch of food that is needed, right?
00:11:28.280there's a chance to grow more food, I think, in this country, right? I look at in Saskatchewan,
00:11:33.220for example, we got this great resource, the Lake Diefenbaker Dam. It's there, it was built to be
00:11:39.820used for irrigation, and it's not being utilized at all. We have double the irrigating capacity of
00:11:45.100Alberta, and yet they far outproduce us because they're utilizing it, and we're not. But with
00:11:50.500this approach from the Liberal government, it's going to be harder and harder and harder to be
00:11:53.640able to get that next company started or to get that next product scalable and into the market.
00:11:59.380And we need to be able to grow more food and more valuable crops in Canada. And, you know,
00:12:04.900these kind of moves, shutting research stations down, cutting funding, that's not going to help
00:12:08.960out. I remember when the carbon tax was first brought in, and even though we fought tooth and
00:12:14.000nail against it, and we're told the world's going to burn unless we have it, greenhouses in Ontario,
00:12:19.720right? The Chatham-Kent area. Tons of greenhouses. You've already driven through there. Very boring
00:12:24.700drive. Beautiful, but very boring. But they have greenhouses as far as the eye can see. They were
00:12:29.720actually at risk of closing down because they couldn't make their bottom line with the carbon
00:12:35.960tax. They had to be exempt from the carbon tax. But it just goes to show that the food production
00:12:41.600is so important and we need to make it easier for them to grow and get their products to market