The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Standing up for Canadian farmers

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.

00:00:07.340 The cost of living keeps going up, deficits keep going up,

00:00:11.120 and he has to raise taxes to pay for his out-of-control spending.

00:00:15.880 Talk is cheap, except when this finance minister does it.

00:00:19.220 It's very expensive.

00:00:21.980 It's the fact that he punished two strong women for doing the right thing 0.99

00:00:26.500 while he moved hell and high water to protect his buddies at SNC-Lavalin

00:00:31.580 from facing a day in court.

00:00:36.900 Hello and welcome to The Blueprints, Canada's Conservative Podcast

00:00:40.240 and your source for clear, concise, Conservative conversation.

00:00:43.580 I'm your host, Jamie Schmell, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corp.

00:00:46.340 with the likes of Brock, bringing you what you need to know from Ottawa.

00:00:49.220 Joining me today is John Barlow, the Labour critic.

00:00:52.200 He's from Foothills, Alberta.

00:00:53.540 And Randy Hoback, he's the Member of Parliament for Prince Albert,

00:00:57.120 and he's also the Deputy Trade Critic.

00:00:59.440 So thank you, gentlemen, for joining us here today.

00:01:01.320 Thanks, Jamie.

00:01:02.360 Our topic today is canola.

00:01:04.140 Of course, that is a developing story,

00:01:06.120 and about, well, I guess six weeks now, going on almost two months,

00:01:09.540 we learned that China was going to ban the import of Canadian canola.

00:01:13.460 Maybe, John, we'll start with you.

00:01:14.860 Maybe you can give us a quick recap on what happened in that situation,

00:01:19.320 and we can take it from there.

00:01:20.340 Well, it's, you know, about six weeks ago or so, Jamie,

00:01:23.900 we had news from sources in China that China was banning the importation of canola seed

00:01:31.700 from first was one of our largest exporters, Richardson's,

00:01:36.720 and then a second one a few days later, Viterra.

00:01:40.100 And the impact of this cannot be understated for our producers.

00:01:43.460 China takes 40% of our canola that's produced here in Canada.

00:01:49.640 You know, the timing with this as our producers were getting ready to start the seeding season,

00:01:54.740 a lot of them had already purchased their seed and their inputs and fertilizer,

00:01:59.020 so it was really difficult for them to make any adjustments.

00:02:02.520 They planned these strategies, you know, months, years in advance.

00:02:06.320 As you're going through crop rotation,

00:02:07.540 you're looking at the futures and where your best opportunities are.

00:02:12.340 Canola is a cash crop.

00:02:13.700 It's the one crop that they make money on,

00:02:15.820 so it's integral to their operations.

00:02:18.840 And, you know, this is 45,000 canola producers across Canada.

00:02:23.560 250,000 jobs are directly related to the canola industry.

00:02:27.640 This is a $27 billion industry in Canada.

00:02:30.760 So to lose our number one market at this time of year is extremely painful for our producers.

00:02:39.560 And this is just yet another market we have lost.

00:02:42.920 We lost our Indian market to peas and pulses,

00:02:47.780 durum wheat to Italy and Vietnam,

00:02:50.920 and barley to Saudi Arabia.

00:02:53.240 You know, it's our Canadian agriculture industry

00:02:55.560 that's paying the price for liberal failure after failure after failure

00:02:59.780 when it comes to their foreign affairs policies

00:03:03.180 and eroding trust with some of our most important trading partners.

00:03:06.940 Well, I think you touched on, I'll get to Randy in just one second,

00:03:08.880 I think you touched on how important agriculture is to our economy.

00:03:13.040 You mentioned out West, even in my riding,

00:03:15.440 agriculture is number one for economic activity.

00:03:18.180 So it basically touches all parts of the country.

00:03:22.500 Yeah, there's no question about that.

00:03:23.880 I know this has been focused as a Western Canadian issue,

00:03:28.020 but there are crush plants across Canada.

00:03:30.960 There are, you know, ripple and reciprocal industries across the country

00:03:36.640 who rely on not only canola, but the agriculture sector.

00:03:40.020 And when canola is struggling and our farmers are struggling,

00:03:43.480 that impacts every other commodity.

00:03:45.920 We've seen that the price of canola dropped more than 10%

00:03:48.920 since this export ban was put in place.

00:03:51.840 And it has brought the price of other commodities down with it.

00:03:55.720 It's just dragging everything down.

00:03:57.160 So the number that we've heard from our stakeholders in the industry

00:04:00.940 is this has cost Canadian farmers close to a billion dollars already

00:04:05.780 when you see the drop in the price of canola.

00:04:08.200 Absolutely.

00:04:08.640 And the spinoff jobs that go along with that.

00:04:10.220 Maybe I'll just quickly go to Randy

00:04:12.780 and talk about what the Conservatives did. 0.61

00:04:15.400 Because we came out as a team, led by our leader Andrew Scheer,

00:04:18.740 with a plan on how to deal with this situation.

00:04:21.540 And the Liberals dragged and dragged their feet on this.

00:04:23.880 Maybe you can explain.

00:04:24.680 Sure.

00:04:25.100 And, you know, actually we've been very active since March 11th

00:04:27.680 when we were first received notice that JRI was shut out of the marketplace.

00:04:31.720 You know, basically working through the committees trying to, you know,

00:04:34.260 get the game plan from this Liberal government,

00:04:36.400 at least that they're acknowledging that there's a problem

00:04:38.140 or that there's a solution or at least a path forward.

00:04:40.720 And they blocked us every single time.

00:04:42.460 In fact, we've tried to have nine emergency debates in the House.

00:04:45.080 They blocked every one of those.

00:04:46.600 Yesterday we tried to do an opposition day on it.

00:04:48.960 They actually shortened the day on us,

00:04:50.560 so we only had one and a half, what, two and a half speakers on there.

00:04:53.520 You know, there's lots of people we want to talk about.

00:04:55.100 But, you know, Andrew came out Monday with a very simple plan.

00:04:57.540 You know, basically let's talk about the cash advance program.

00:05:00.160 Let's increase the limits.

00:05:01.240 Let's make sure farmers have access to the cash flow 0.98

00:05:02.960 they need to get the crop in while we're in this disruption. 0.74

00:05:05.700 But that was only one part.

00:05:07.180 And we've seen the Liberals announce part of that yesterday.

00:05:09.240 They didn't even go the full length.

00:05:10.580 It's what we asked for.

00:05:11.840 But you need to do the other two aspects too.

00:05:13.600 You need to regain the market access.

00:05:15.220 Because you cannot ask farmers to take on more debt

00:05:18.780 without giving them a market to sell their canola into.

00:05:21.460 And this is basically what we have right now.

00:05:23.560 And, of course, we've got to tell the Chinese that we're serious. 1.00

00:05:25.840 So the simplest thing you can do and the easiest thing you can do

00:05:27.940 is take them to the WTO.

00:05:29.900 You know, the reality is let's go to the WTO.

00:05:31.500 Let's launch a complaint. 0.56

00:05:32.680 That's what it's there for.

00:05:34.000 So the Chinese look at it and say,

00:05:35.380 okay, these guys are serious.

00:05:37.120 They actually will take action if something happens.

00:05:40.000 You know, we've seen in the other markets that have shut down,

00:05:42.160 whether it's Durham in Italy or pulses into India,

00:05:46.840 this government's response has been nothing, just silence.

00:05:49.800 They just say, well, I guess you lost that market now too.

00:05:51.900 And, you know, like John said,

00:05:53.860 farmers are paying for liberal mistakes, and that's not right.

00:05:57.220 And farmers are going to continue to pay for liberal mistakes.

00:05:59.700 And now we're starting to see pork and the pork sector,

00:06:02.140 what's going on there today.

00:06:04.300 You know, farmers are very nervous.

00:06:05.640 This is their livelihood.

00:06:06.900 Lots of stress out there.

00:06:08.160 You know, it's not just spring planting right now,

00:06:10.720 but all these financial issues are hitting them all at once,

00:06:13.760 or market issues are hitting them all at once,

00:06:15.220 and they have to deal with them.

00:06:16.180 And it's very frustrating for them.

00:06:17.920 Do you think this speaks to the larger picture

00:06:19.780 about how Justin Trudeau views his job more as a figurehead

00:06:24.700 and ceremonial and actually focusing on,

00:06:27.040 or even laying in bed at night and wondering, you know,

00:06:29.440 how many people are going to lose jobs because of this situation

00:06:32.100 compared to this situation?

00:06:33.340 It doesn't seem that he's actually focused on any of this.

00:06:36.120 Well, again, if you look at his facial expressions,

00:06:38.160 there's no empathy, there's no concern.

00:06:39.980 It's just kind of, well, it is what it is.

00:06:42.100 You know, that's what's so frustrating when you sit in the House of Commons,

00:06:44.360 you look across at this guy, you ask him a question,

00:06:46.740 he doesn't answer the question.

00:06:48.040 And then he kind of shrugs at you and gives you that smirk,

00:06:50.300 like, who are you?

00:06:51.980 Reality is, like John said, there's some, what,

00:06:54.020 45,000 producers in Canada that are really sitting there saying,

00:06:57.620 I need an answer.

00:06:58.200 I need to know what to do.

00:06:59.580 And I need some assurances that this government will have our backs.

00:07:03.200 There's no assurances that they have our back,

00:07:04.960 and there's lots of platitudes.

00:07:06.860 You know, their latest announcement yesterday was that they're going to do

00:07:09.280 a trade delegation to Japan and South Korea.

00:07:12.080 Well, we've been asking them to do a delegation to China.

00:07:15.200 That's where the problem is, not Japan and South Korea.

00:07:17.240 That's right.

00:07:17.340 And they don't have an ambassador.

00:07:19.700 Exactly.

00:07:20.280 And that's, you know...

00:07:22.180 And we know what a disaster John McCallum was, the former ambassador.

00:07:24.740 And it comes back to, okay, how are you going to resolve this problem?

00:07:27.760 First of all, we don't have an ambassador.

00:07:29.800 Second of all, they haven't even called the Chinese ambassador here in Ottawa.

00:07:32.780 Why haven't you called them to the office and said,

00:07:34.120 hey, what's the path forward to fix this?

00:07:35.740 They haven't even done that.

00:07:37.520 The ag minister and the trade minister and the minister of foreign affairs

00:07:40.300 refused to go there.

00:07:41.960 And, you know, we're waiting for an invite letter to come from China.

00:07:45.460 We've been waiting, what, two and a half weeks,

00:07:46.840 almost three weeks, for even officials to go over there to inspect the sample.

00:07:50.120 So this whole handling has been bungled right from day one.

00:07:54.000 And it goes back to what you initially said, Jamie,

00:07:56.580 about how the Liberals are approaching this.

00:07:59.520 And it just goes to every, you know, solution that Liberals have to a problem

00:08:03.360 is when there's a problem there, just to throw a bunch of money at it

00:08:06.040 and hopefully it resolves itself without showing some intestinal fortitude

00:08:09.640 to make the hard decisions.

00:08:11.580 You know, the announcement with the expansion to the advanced payment program,

00:08:15.660 you know, I've had, you know, two or three farmers yesterday after that announcement

00:08:20.620 was made, one in Fort McLeod and another one today in Nanton,

00:08:23.760 has said, you know, I don't need to be taking on more debt.

00:08:26.340 Right, exactly.

00:08:26.660 I need to have a market to sell my product.

00:08:28.760 So unless they come out with all of these things that addresses this problem,

00:08:33.100 just giving the farmers more access to, you know, loans that they have to pay back.

00:08:39.240 But how are they going to pay this back if they can't sell the canola after harvest next year

00:08:43.080 when they're already sitting with their bins full of the canola that they harvested last year

00:08:47.080 that they can't sell?

00:08:49.480 I think we really have to highlight the fact this is a loan.

00:08:52.040 Yes, that's right.

00:08:52.940 This is not a payment like they did to Bombardier or to other companies.

00:08:56.100 They have to pay that back.

00:08:56.500 This is actually a loan where they actually have to take it out and pay it back.

00:09:00.380 And they have to, you know, all the consequences that come with a loan.

00:09:03.560 So if you don't have market access, if you can't sell that product in the fall,

00:09:07.340 how do you pay it back?

00:09:08.360 And that clock keeps ticking.

00:09:09.820 You have to pay it back.

00:09:10.900 And there are things that they could be doing.

00:09:12.440 And, you know, to be giving $250 million to the Asia Infrastructure Bank,

00:09:16.580 what kind of message does that send to China when you are decimating our agriculture sector? 0.98

00:09:21.560 And as Randy said, there are other commodities that there's some anxiety out there

00:09:25.200 that are also have a target on their back, whether that's pork or peas.

00:09:29.680 You know, we just don't know what's next.

00:09:31.420 But the Liberal government refuses to take any definitive action.

00:09:35.200 And action number one would be to withdraw our support of the Asia Infrastructure Bank.

00:09:39.880 And that's $250 million, but it would send a very clear message to China that we mean business.

00:09:45.240 Well, it also goes to the effect that our relationships,

00:09:47.880 we're actually spending money through that infrastructure bank to build pipelines.

00:09:52.540 Yeah.

00:09:53.180 To build pipelines.

00:09:54.060 We can't build one here in Canada. 0.96

00:09:55.820 Is that not just ridiculous? 0.85

00:09:57.740 You know, this sounds like some comedy series that you'd see on TV, really. 0.95

00:10:01.400 When you start looking at all the things that this government's done,

00:10:04.220 you can't write the script and say how ironic or how hypocritical that script would be.

00:10:08.400 We've seen this over and over and over again when this prime minister travels abroad.

00:10:12.700 In fact, one of the farmers in my writing said, take away his passport.

00:10:16.140 So he can't do any more damage.

00:10:17.460 Because whenever he travels abroad, the amount of damage he does is phenomenal.

00:10:20.580 And we've seen that in India.

00:10:21.920 That would have been a really good opportunity to solve that crisis with India as far as the tariffs on their pulses.

00:10:27.820 And what did he do?

00:10:28.500 He embarrassed Canada on the international stage.

00:10:31.140 And then a couple weeks later, he goes to a TPP signing ceremony where he's the only leader who decides not to show up at the signing ceremony.

00:10:37.740 And it's not like there was bad weather or anything else.

00:10:39.560 He was in the room next door.

00:10:40.480 He just refused to show up.

00:10:41.720 Well, let's remind people who he was meeting with.

00:10:44.040 Well, the leaders of Japan, the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, all our TPP partners.

00:10:48.640 That's right.

00:10:49.140 These are all our friends and allies who all of a sudden are sitting there saying, what the heck?

00:10:54.260 You know, we worked really hard to get this agreement.

00:10:56.720 Canada pushed really hard.

00:10:57.520 And now, you know, the trade minister, Champagne at the time, says everything's ready to go.

00:11:02.000 And then all of a sudden, the prime minister refuses to sign it.

00:11:04.140 You just can't write that script.

00:11:06.000 Didn't he have a meeting with someone from Facebook at the time that he chose?

00:11:09.300 I think they made all sorts of different excuses.

00:11:11.140 But here you have the leader of Japan.

00:11:13.400 And hopefully he addressed him by the right name, not the leader of Japan from China.

00:11:17.060 It'd be tough to say, Randy, that we can include President Obby of Japan as a friend now after how he's been treated by our prime minister,

00:11:26.860 whether it was at the TPP meeting or last week when he met here in Ottawa.

00:11:33.000 It's pretty embarrassing.

00:11:34.400 Absolutely.

00:11:35.220 Well, I think that, you know, we're seeing that with agriculture.

00:11:39.340 We're seeing it with our oil and gas sector.

00:11:41.040 I'm from Ontario, but you guys from out west, when you tell people back home, and I'm sure they're paying attention to this, it just must shake their heads.

00:11:50.180 You know, Jamie and, you know, John and I did a little bit of a video on this yesterday.

00:11:54.280 One of the concerns I have is there's lots of stress in the agriculture sector right now.

00:11:57.260 Farmers are facing a lot of pressures that they didn't bring on themselves.

00:12:00.540 This has been brought on by this government, and it's an activity.

00:12:03.160 And I'm really concerned about the mental health of farmers out there right now.

00:12:05.980 I'm very concerned that a lot of people are at their limits, and I want to ensure that they seek help if they feel that they're, you know,

00:12:13.500 they just can't go forward or they're frustrated and, you know, there's help out there.

00:12:18.420 This isn't the old ag community of 1970s.

00:12:20.700 This is now and present where it's okay to talk to people about your problems.

00:12:25.100 It's okay to reach out and get the support you need if you need that mental support or that health support.

00:12:30.660 And I'm also asking people to look out for their neighbors.

00:12:34.060 You know, this is stressful.

00:12:35.220 Like, one farmer told me his 1,000 acres of canola, he lost a buck a bushel, so there's $50,000 of old crop.

00:12:42.440 Now, he's also going to seed another 1,000 acres, and he doesn't know what the value of that new crop is going to be.

00:12:48.060 It might be, he might have lost $200,000 of the value of, you know, $2 a bushel, 50 bushels an acre on 1,000 acres.

00:12:55.040 So it adds up very quickly.

00:12:56.380 So, you know, he's got the bankers still looking for his payments.

00:13:00.020 He's got the seed companies and the fertilizer companies and everybody else down the line wanting to be paid.

00:13:04.180 And all this federal government's done for him is give him another loan that he has to pay back also.

00:13:09.800 And a farm operation is just like any other business, right?

00:13:13.080 It operates basically on two sets of papers, expenditures and income.

00:13:16.740 And you can't be spending more than you're taking in for too long.

00:13:20.260 Which also segues into how Justin Trudeau is running the country.

00:13:23.480 Yeah, and farmers are very resilient.

00:13:26.160 They know that there's things that are out of their control.

00:13:28.780 Commodity prices, weather.

00:13:30.640 Yep.

00:13:30.900 But there are a few things, a couple of things specifically, that they expect the government to be able to make predictable for them.

00:13:37.760 That's transportation of their commodity and access to markets. 0.98

00:13:41.020 And this liberal government has failed them miserably on both.

00:13:44.180 Whether it's the grain backlog last year, which this could certainly lead to again this fall.

00:13:50.300 And, you know, they have cost us just about every market imaginable.

00:13:56.380 And that's adding to that anxiety and that stress within the agriculture sector, which is too bad.

00:14:01.380 We understand that the potential growth in this industry is second to none in our country.

00:14:06.780 And, you know, maybe energy is the other one.

00:14:08.560 But the two that we really rely on in Western Canada, energy and agriculture,

00:14:12.260 are the two that the liberals have just decimated over their three and a half years.

00:14:16.080 Yeah, you know, I guess to be cynical, if we wanted to solve the transportation problem,

00:14:19.320 just remove all your export markets, then you don't have to worry about putting the grain on rail and getting it to market or to port.

00:14:23.980 So and that's almost seemed to be like the liberal philosophy in a lot of sectors where it's oil and gas sector or the environment.

00:14:29.640 You know, instead of having a progressive program out there, they just shut things down or tax it.

00:14:34.700 One or the other.

00:14:35.260 There's been nothing progressive in this government at all when you look at the last three years.

00:14:38.460 So it's frustrating.

00:14:40.080 And, you know, we're going to go into spring seeding here.

00:14:42.660 We're going to plant a good crop.

00:14:43.700 We're going to get a good crop because our farmers grow the best quality product in the world.

00:14:47.700 No question about it.

00:14:48.920 And because of no fault of their own, they could be carrying over a lot of inventories that have value.

00:14:54.740 But because you can't get them to market or you can't sell them into your export market,

00:14:59.300 they're sitting there being devalued below what they're actually worth.

00:15:02.780 So they're very frustrated.

00:15:04.720 No question about it.

00:15:05.880 And while China plays hardball, we just learned the fate of some Canadian nationals who were sentenced to death.

00:15:12.280 Seems to be another retaliation to Canada.

00:15:16.140 And I think we've heard it in the news that we've never been so alone.

00:15:21.940 It's kind of scary.

00:15:23.280 The world for farmers is getting smaller and smaller, especially the world that we can sell products into.

00:15:28.480 You know, I just was talking to some beef guys, and I'm going to confirm this here,

00:15:32.180 but it sounds like even embryos and semen that we normally sell out of Canada into some of these markets, including China, have been cut off.

00:15:38.520 And one of the big companies here in Canada that does that has actually shipped their bulls into the U.S.

00:15:43.320 And it's fulfilling the same market, but only now out of the U.S. instead of out of Canada.

00:15:47.020 Again, it doesn't make sense, but that's what they have to do in order to react to lack of activity or the bungling of this relationship with all these countries that this level of government has done.

00:15:57.300 Thank you.

00:15:57.660 Any last shots there, Mr. Barlow?

00:15:59.120 No, just the fact that this has been going on for, you know, almost two months, still no resolution now or certainly in the foreseeable future.

00:16:08.560 And that just continues to show, A, the inaction or the inability or unwillingness of the Liberal government to take strong action, show a backbone,

00:16:18.500 like show Canadian agriculture that you are fighting for them and no more platitudes, no more just throwing money at things.

00:16:24.800 They want a resolution and they want somebody to stand up and fight for them, not just sit on their hands.

00:16:30.460 They want certainty, not another government program.

00:16:32.460 Yeah, for sure.

00:16:33.180 So thank you, gentlemen.

00:16:34.100 You betcha.

00:16:34.660 And, you know, again, they just want to know that we have their back or fight for them, and we will.

00:16:37.980 And Andrew presented a program on Monday, very simple, that if they followed it would at least lead in the right direction.

00:16:43.600 The reality is they're not listening to anybody and they don't understand the situation.

00:16:47.280 Thus, I don't see it being fixed until October.

00:16:49.060 Well, thank you very much, Randy Hoback, Member of Parliament for Prince Albert and also Deputy Critic for Trade.

00:16:55.480 John Barlow, Member of Parliament for Foothills and our Critic for Labour.

00:16:59.340 Thank you, gentlemen, for taking time and joining us today.

00:17:01.800 This is The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.

00:17:04.740 And remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom.

00:17:08.140 That's The Blueprint.

00:17:14.840 Thank you for listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.

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The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - June 13, 2019

Standing up for Canadian farmers

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