This year in Yellowhead, and indeed across the Prairies, we were blessed with bumper crops. We were all out on our combines for hundreds of hours, harvesting our grain and making arrangements to get our product to market. It was very disappointing to discover that many of our Yellowhead farmers were unable to do just that – get their product to market – as our rail system could not handle such a large crop. This is an unacceptable situation in my mind and I am pleased to see that your Government in Ottawa is going to do something about that.
This last week, Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz announced $1.5 million in a partnership with the grain industry to conduct a study to determine what needs to be done to get Canada’s grain harvest to market. It will look closely at the rail transport system and what Canada’s rail companies will have to do to handle future crops of last year’s magnitude. It is imperative that farmers have a reliable way to get their product to market, especially if last year’s 20 million tonne harvest is going to become the norm.
Your government has been the grain farmer’s staunchest ally since being elected in 2006. You have an important role in keeping our economy moving in the right direction and that benefits all Canadians. Our job is to make sure that you can do yours and to that end we delivered on our long-standing commitment to give Western wheat and barley farmers the same freedom to make business decisions that other farmers in Canada have long enjoyed. One of my proudest days as a Member of Parliament was the day I voted in the House of Commons to scrap the Canadian Wheat Board. You deserve the right to choose how to market your own crops.
It is an exciting time for Canadian farmers, because in addition to winning marketing freedom, your Government has been active on the trade file, signing 10 free trade agreements since 2006, one of which is the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union. We are also looking to trade opportunities in other markets in Asia. What all of our trading partners want is energy security and food security – both of which our country, and indeed our own riding, can provide for in spades.
Our increased export markets are good news for our grain farmers who have bumper crops to sell. It would be a shame if the only obstacle to their success is insufficient rail capacity. This is something that we can fix, and indeed we will fix it. The first step was the commission of this study, which will work closely with the two main stakeholders involved – the grain industry and the rail industry. I look forward to seeing the study’s recommendations and moving forward with real action to solve this problem for our country’s hardworking farmers.
