Steven Bonk

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to turn my time over to Mr. Epp.

Thank you very much for being here. I'm just going to start my questioning with strychnine because, as we know, there's a huge problem with the gopher—or Richardson's ground squirrel—population in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The population has exploded since strychnine was banned by the Liberal government. I'm just wondering if you could tell the committee how much damage has been done, in dollar [more]

Do you know if there have been preliminary talks with the provinces?

Okay. According to the government's communications department, the CBC, it's $800 million of damage since the ban was put on. There's a real concern in Saskatchewan and Alberta that this could trigger payments through AgriStability and AgriRecovery if states of emergency are declared. This is something that's really of concern to farmers in our area, so we're hoping that the government will put [more]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague's 10-minute speech outlined a lot of information. It was a very dense speech when it comes to practical information regarding this bill. I was wondering if he could give us a synopsis, a really quick and brief overview, of why this bill is so horrible, why it is constricting the rights of Canadians and how he thinks we could stop that.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague for that excellent speech and for reminding us all that free speech is something we need to protect. Members on this side of the House do not believe it is a political talking point. These are deeply, truly held beliefs on this side of the House. Could my colleague explain, in very simple terms for those who are watching this today, why the [more]

Mr. Speaker, through this debate we have come to understand very clearly that we do not need more hate speech law. We already have mechanisms in place in Canada that protect us from hate speech. This is just a redundant matter that the Liberals keep bringing up over and over again. We do not need it. Whenever we say something the Liberals do not agree with, they go to their playbook and say we [more]

I'm free. I'm willing to go longer.

One thing I'd like to point out is that this is imminent. The research will be lost this year on these existing research farms. It's very well within this committee's purview to have a few more meetings on this very important topic because we're talking about programs that are five, six and 10 years in the making, and all of that research will be lost. I think it would be prudent of us to hear [more]

I want to highlight some of the great innovation that's come out of the Indian Head research centre. minister Thetold us that it costs about $3.8 million a year to keep that centre going. Look at what's come out of that centre and the good work that Guy Lafond and Jim Halford did when it comes to zero tillage in particular. I've had the good fortune of travelling all over the world promoting [more]

Thank you. I'd like to make a comment to Minister Sigurdson. I want to thank him for his advocacy when it comes to strychnine, which Mr. Bexte brought up earlier, and for working with Saskatchewan. I know Minister Marit and Mr. Harrison previous to him are also very much on board with this, as well as the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and many other producer groups. Thank [more]